Here's my translation of Chapter 5 of thw World of Wool, written by WoolLayers. The scenes which are described in this story are pure fantasy and I expressly do not recommend that anything written here is done for real. In the case that anyone would like to do anything written in the 'World of Wool' they do so at their own risk.
The Author
Chapter 5: The Wool-Cellar
"So, dear Nena. You're freezing. That is not good. But we can do something to counteract that. You should have much more beautifully warm memories of me", commented Angie. Again she had developed a totally mischevious expression. Nena was sorry to have said she was cold.. She quickly retorted "Oh, its not so bad. It's already gone."
Our hostess asked us to follow her. We left the wind-cylinder and the drying room and walked and walked to the next-but one room. I noticed that Nena had fear in her bones. She was totally uncommunicative. What on earth did Angie have in mind? Would only Nena be affected or did she want to do something with us both?
We went diagonally across the room and then down a winding staircase. The staircase was very long. Purely from the height we could see, we had already passed at least four storeys when the stairs led into a narrow corridor. It was illuminated only by a dim light. In the walls of the corridor were small, approximately 1.2m high doors. Angie pushed a door open and asked us to crawl inside and to sit down next to each other against the rear wall. We noticed that the floor felt quite strangely soft and gave way with every movement. And the wall which we sat against was totally soft.
With two quick flicks of the wrist by Angie, rings had been firmly wrapped around our necks and our waists. "I'm sorry that I have to act this way with you", said Angie. "But just now I received a call and must go away briefly. Today is Cora and Sheila's day off, so there's nobody here to look after you. Down here you'll be kept safe. Even if the idea comes that you should shout, you're guaranteed that nobody will hear you. Sit quietly and don't fiddle around with the restraints."
Angie clambered out of the hole and bolted the door behind her. We listened as she got further and further away. Thus we sat there and had to give ourselves up to our fate. But at least we were not separated and also not harshly fastened. Nena just raised the thought that Angie wanted to take pictures of us and make a video today, and now it would be a tedious Sunday. We neither knew the time, nor had any idea how long Angie would be away. I took Nenas hand and held it tight.
With the light which fell into the cellar through a grid in the door at least we could learn a little bit more. The walls of the cellar were covered with very long tassles of fluffy mohair. The door and ceiling were also cloaked in the same material. There really was no point in shouting in here, as every sound would be quickly absorbed. We looked forwards to Monday, when we could go back home, because like this we really did not like our situation very much any more.
Nena said to me that it was becoming increasingly cold. And I couldn't say that it was particularly warm down here. On the contrary. It was bitterly cold. We tried to cuddle up to each other as we were, but the rings held us firmly against the wall. I began to feel with my hands for the ring that enclosed my neck. I couldn't find an opening which would indicate that the rings were opened with a key. I looked further. At one spot I found a slight thickening, pressed on it and tried to move it. Suddenly the ring, which had just now firmly enclosed my neck, sprang open. It was a breeze to open the ring on my hips and those on Nenas body.
Nena wriggled over to me and held me tight in her arms. We crawled to the door to try and get out of the cellar. But we had no chance. The door was apparently bolted from the outside. As we were crawling to the door, we had noticed that the floor was strewn with nothing but woollen clothing. As we were becoming ever more cold we decided to have a look and see if there was anything suitable for us there.
Hence we began, like last night, to really thickly mummify ourselves. Nena was somewhat nimbler than me. She had put two pairs of leggings on herself, whilst I was still busy with the first pair. Over and over again we decked layer upon layer on our bodies. It did good, because through the contortions which we had to perform in the tight cellar we became warm again. The more we put on, the more difficult it became.
Finally Nena said now that was enough for her. She could hardly move any more. "Now it can get as cold as it likes. The cold has no chance any more", she laughed. Altogether, over our overalls we had put on two pairs of leggings with accompanying knee-socks, two pullovers and one more hat each.
With all our hard work we never noticed that the clothes on the floor didn't get any less at all. Now as we sat there peacefully again, we also noticed that the floor under us moved back and to. The movement became ever more vilent with time and we were raised ever higher in the air. Finally we couldn't sit up any more and had to lay back.
Nena was overcome with pure panic. I tried to calm her down, which finally I managed to do with lots of kind words. In the meantime we had already sunk quite firmly into the woollens, which continually pushed upwards from under us. Actually it was a very soft and comfortable feeling, if only the room hadn't kept getting smaller and smaller. It became dark. The first pullover had reached the grid on the door. Then the movement in the floor came to an end.
We lay there and hoped that Angie would come soon to free us from this situation. Luckily it did't take long before we heard her coming. We heard how she cursed. Angie did not open the door to our dungeon. She remained standing outside and cursed even more. Suddenly we noticed how the woolen clothing which enfolded us began to subside. She disappeared in exactly the same direction from which she came.
When next to nothing lay on the floor, Angie opened the door. Her voice didn't exactly sound friendly as she asked us to clamber out of the cellar. "Didn't I say that you were to sit quietly? Why did you have to fiddle around with the restraining rings? As you are bound to have noticed, you're predicament has become much worse. That's a simple consequence of the fact that you opened the rings, which enclosed your bodies, without authorisation."
However, when Angie noticed that we had dressed ourselved up nice and warmly, her tone of voice became friendlier. "As I see, you've saved me a little work", she said. Though we didn't quite grasp what she meant by that, we were soon to find out.