Daisy in the Fringe

Dear Diary,

If there’s one thing I’ve learned ever since I joined up with the slave caravan, it’s how little I know about the world and people and even myself. Some of that learning has been just dandy. I seen the world from space and got exotic gifts from people from far away lands and even met a goddess and learned I been specially blessed by a god. But I also seen a ton of cruelty and killing and ways of people being ugly to each other like I never imagined. And then there’s the other stuff: things that ain’t exactly beautiful or ugly, but just ways of people being like I never knew they could.

We was back at the temple complex, and the Eyes of Horus had cleared out all them frogheads from the underground tunnels. The sun was down and we’d finished dinner and I got to feeling I’d like to get clean.

Hank said we should wait until morning, but I didn’t want to wash in the daylight, not with all them soldiers around who might try to follow us and sneak a peak while I was bathing in the creek. Ever since I met Phoebus, I ain’t really put much trust in a soldier’s honor where a girl is concerned. So I got Dusty to come join me, and soon Erato and Dorothy and Asakisan the healer-girl decided to come too.

We got down to the creek and the water was a little cold, but we all shucked off our clothes and was getting all soaped up nice. Then Erato started in on Dusty, saying that she had put some kinda note in her bag, and Dusty should stop persecuting her.

Dusty seemed real shocked that Erato would think she was persecuting her. And it didn’t make no sense to me neither. Slipping a note in someone’s bag to cause trouble sounded like something Dusty would do, but she wouldn’t mean no harm by it. Dusty’d just do it for the laughs and the chance to cause a bit of mischief. I mean, Dusty likes playing jokes on people, but she ain’t got a truly mean bone in her body. That’s just her way of having fun, and of getting other folks to have fun too – Dusty always says that even jokey attention is better than no attention at all.

Well, Dusty and Erato got to arguing about it. Erato said she realized Dusty didn’t think nothing of her at all, that she was only a slave to all of us. Dusty was shocked by that too. Erato weren’t no slave, she said. Erato could leave any time she wanted. But Erato seemed to have it in her head that she owed us for her rescue, and had to be our slave until she paid the debt, and besides she didn’t have the money to get back to her home anyway. But that was just nonsense – somebody might have said something about her owing us a reward, but they was just joking. And Dusty said she’d give Erato the money to buy her way home, if that’s what she wanted.

I thought that was just like Dusty. She’s real generous, though she likes to pretend she don’t care. She’ll help out someone in need any old time, especially if it keeps that person from complaining, cause Dusty hates hearing people whining more than anything. I reckon that’s half her trouble with Momma, who’s always talking about her aches and pains while Dusty rolls her eyes.

Around this time, I figured that it would be good if everyone just calmed down a little. Now Dusty and me, we been talking about making Erato our new project and giving her a make-over and stuff. We figured that she’d be just about the toughest case we ever faced, but if she looked prettier, and maybe dressed up in something a little more colorful than them black robes and that pointy hat, we could help her be popular, and it’s all about popular. So I started brushing out her hair, and got out my sheers and started giving her a haircut, something that would look cute and maybe cover up that big forehead a little.

Well, that seemed to work, cause things were calming down. But now Dorothy and Asakisan started asking Erato questions about whether she’d ever copulated (which seems to be a fancy word for doing it).  Dorothy said where she’s from, guys and girls copulate just about any time of day or night just like monkeys without being married or nothing. That seemed awfully strange to the rest of us, and Erato said she’d never done it at all. Asakisan then asked if she wanted to do it, and Erato just started mumbling and getting all tense, so I started rubbing her shoulders a bit to try to calm her down like I used to do with Momma. That worked, and I could feel the tension just flowing out of her muscles when Asakisan asked her if she liked men, or maybe women, or even animals. And she sounded right calm when she said she liked women.

Well shucks, I like women too. I mean, Dusty’s my best friend in the world, and she’s a woman. And I like Buttercup my horse, and she’s an animal and a woman both, if you count a mare as a woman. So I didn’t think nothing of it, but just moved on to Dusty and brushing her hair. And Dusty said something about how Erato wanted to be next in line after Doc, but I didn’t know what she meant about that. I mean, Dusty’s always joking about how all the men is lining up for me, but Erato ain’t no man, so that didn’t make any sense.

Everyone kept talking and I just kept on brushing. (It sure is nice to brush Dusty’s hair that’s all real long and rich now that Artemis had granted her hair wishes. I liked how soft it felt, and it never tangled at all when I brushed it. Though it does take some caring for, and Dusty never does brush it enough, so sometimes I have to help her out just to keep it looking neat.) Before long, Erato came over where I was brushing Dusty’s hair and started rubbing my shoulders. I thought that was awfully nice and only fair, since I’d rubbed her shoulders and all, but then Dusty said something about how sometimes, when people wants to come a courting, they’ll do things like rubbing your shoulders.

Well.

My jaw dropped. I finally figured what they-all was saying. I ain’t never heard of no such thing. I mean, I know that sometimes men will do stuff to each other when there ain’t no woman available, but that’s just men, and they’ll do just about anything they have to when the need is on them. But women? How’s that work? I couldn’t figure it out no way. Is that what Erato meant when she said she liked women?

I just froze, with her rubbing my shoulders there. And I flinched, and I looked back, and I shook my head back and forth real quick like. Erato got a sad look in her eyes and said, “Oh,” and then backed off. And I kept brushing Dusty’s hair, but my mind wasn’t on it none.

After a bit, I moved on to brush Dorothy and Asakisan’s hair, cause I like to be nice to everyone when I’m bathing with my girlfriends. But they just kept talking with Erato and trying to figure out more of what she liked. Dusty said she figured Erato must like girly-girls, which made her more of a manly-girl, cause Erato liked me so much. But Erato, she said no, that weren’t necessarily so, it’s just that I started rubbing her shoulders first, and Erato would be just as happy with Dusty. And then she started rubbing Dusty’s shoulders.

Dusty didn’t much like that at all, and I can’t say I blame her. Dusty just got real cold and said, “I’m not interested in women,” and Erato backed off pretty quick. I thought that was smart of her – I ain’t never seen Dusty get so cold to a person, and I figured Erato was lucky to get away with her hands still attached to her arms.

Things got pretty quiet after that, and Dusty and me looked at each other, and I knew we was both wondering what was going through Erato’s mind what with her liking girls and all of us being naked in the stream there. We might as well have bathed during the day and invited some of them soldiers to join us as go down there with Erato, I reckoned. And I was gonna let Erato wear my extra dress that I had brought down to the stream with me, cause I figured it would do her well to wear something pretty that might look nice on her. But I decided that I wasn’t sure how I felt about her wearing my clothes, so I just put on my nicest dress myself and we all went back to the camp.

I don’t think Erato spoke another word, not as long as I was there, anyways. But as soon as we got back, Dusty just handed her a pile of coins and said that was enough for Erato to get home if she wanted, and she gave money to Dorothy and Asakisan too and said she didn’t want nobody with us who didn’t want to be there. (Asakisan wouldn’t take the coins, because she had her passage home all arranged once she had done teaching Doc.) I can’t think when I seen Dusty so riled – she sure didn’t like hearing that scrollhead talk about being persecuted by her and all, and she seemed downright angry about Erato touching her like that without any permission. She seemed pretty peeved to have Erato thinking that one twin was the same as the other for her purposes too, and I can totally understand that, cause as a twin that kind of thing can really bug you.  All in all, she was about as mad at Erato as I ever seen her at anybody.  And after thinking on it, I could understand why.

After seeing all them underground frogheads, we came back to the surface. Hank found himself a surprise on the way out: someone had put a bucket of water over the door, and he got splashed cause he was in front. Dusty was laughing, but Hank said he expected better tricks from Dusty and so he figured that someone else must have done it. After all them years of living with Dusty’s sense of humor, I can’t say that I agree with Hank.

After that, we got looking at the map to find parts of the crater that we ain’t explored yet. We settled on a spaceship that bore the label “aliens.” That sounded pretty exciting, so we got riding in that direction where we found a big metal ship plonked down in the middle of a field.

After a little exploring, we figured a way to get in the ship. It turned out that if you had two people press these panels at the same time, two of the group would zap away. I was one of the first zapped, me and Dorothy the stranger-girl that tried to kick Doc. We found ourselves in a big dark room. I had some matches, so we started moving off to explore a little when Hank and Erato popped in. (The others all started pushing them panels to follow us. I thought that was pretty bold. I mean, what if them panels had just zapped us out of existence? It sure would have been a joke on them if they all went and destroyed themselves just cause Dorothy and me was gone. Kind of reminded me of what Daddy always used to say about having your friends jump off a cliff.)

Before long, everyone was there, even a couple of the horses. (Dusty decided she weren’t going to lose another horse by zapping away from it, so she rode hers through the zapper. A couple others did the same. Which led to a bit of a mess but no real harm.)

We started exploring around, though at first we didn’t find anything all that interesting. But I figured out how to get us into the center space of the ship, where the crew flew her and lived and all. (I was awfully proud of figuring that out when nobody else could.) Dusty and Hank and me went in there and looked around some. Dusty found this here set of benches near a bar and started singing on them. I couldn’t see much use in that, but somehow it woke up the ship. All the lights went on, and then weird voices started talking everywhere, saying mean-sounding things in Dorothy’s language.

The air started smelling funny round about then, and I fell asleep. Next thing I knew, I was back in the big room where we first came in and Doc was waking me up with some of them smelling salts he keeps in his bag. Dusty said Hank and me had fallen asleep, but she had dragged us away, only she saw some of them frogheads that almost attacked her before she got us out .

We all got out of the ship pretty quick after that and started riding away. I got Dusty to get Hank and Mr Dutch to use their radio to call Captain Crispin and tell him all we had seen. Captain Crispin said he’d send down some of them Eye of Horus guys to deal with things and we settled down to wait for them.

While we was waiting, I gave Doc a present. I’d been working on making a blue shirt for him ever since he healed me from when them statue-men speared me. I was so grateful for his healing that I wanted to do something nice for him, though lately I suppose giving him that shirt started meaning something extra. Anyway, I did a real good job making that shirt – it was just about the best thing I ever sewed – and I couldn’t wait any longer to give it to him. He sure did like it, and he said he’d put it on next time he changed

And oh – Dorothy started talking our language, though I don’t know how. She said them frogheads was servants of the old gods and they was going to sacrifice her to them. That made Captain Crispin even more eager to kill them all off, cause them old gods are up to no good. So when the soldiers came down, they killed all them frogheads and we was now all safe.

• I made you a present.
• I started work on it after you healed me when I got speared.
• Have you got any family anywhere?
• My daddy too.
• I sure would like that.
• How long you been traveling?
• You ever miss not having a home? Or do you have a home?
• I kinda miss not having more stuff than I can carry.
• I got more guns than dresses – that’s just strange.
• Would you like to go for a walk?

Dear Diary,

Between all the fighting and frogheads, I did get a chance to talk some with Doc. Well, he talked and I wrote notes to him. (Sorry, dear diary, that I ripped pages from you. But I did want to let Doc know some things, and I really didn’t want to have to depend on Dusty giving her spin to what I had to say, so I had no choice but to take some of your sheets. I’ll find a way to make it up, I promise.)

The more I know about him, the nicer Doc seems to get. He says healing people is about his favorite thing to do in the world. That seems awful nice to me – I can’t hardly think of anything so good as making sick and hurt people feel better. It really is a special gift.

He seems to think the world of me too. He says I’m pretty and nice and smart, and I sure did like hearing him talk that way. I tried to tell him he was wrong about me being smart – Dusty is the smart one, and I tried to set him straight on that. But he insisted that he likes my smarts better than Dusty’s, and I just couldn’t argue him out of it, so I gave up trying.

He held my hand a bit, and that was nice though his hand was a little cold. Dusty said she figured he was nervous, but I can’t see any reason why a doctor like him would be nervous around me. But that was right after the stranger girl tried to kick him, so maybe he was still a little worried about that.

So I do like Doc, I really do. But, well, things seem to be going awful fast all of a sudden. Hank’s asking Doc if he can be best man, and Dusty is talking about getting me some special cloth for my wedding dress. Even Doc is talking about all the things we’re gonna do together, and he means once we’re hitched. He says he’ll teach me healing, and maybe I can be his nurse and we can get a ship and I can fly us to towns that need a healer before we someday settle down where we’ll have a pretty house and he can have a nice little practice. And that all sounds awfully nice, but, well, I just ain’t sure. I mean, I only found out yesterday that he wanted to court me, and everyone’s talking like we’re already engaged! And he says we’ve had two dates now, but he’s counting our walk around the camp yesterday as the first date and our sitting a little away from everyone and talking as our second. I don’t know much about courting, but those don’t seem like proper dates to me. I always figured a date would have candlelight or a show or dancing or stuff, or at least a walk alone through a pretty garden. And we ain’t had none of those things yet. (I really can’t wait to get back to town!)

But maybe Doc’s just been thinking about it longer. Dusty had a long talk with the Nihonese healing girl that had spent all that time with Doc, and she says that the healer girl says Doc only ever talked about me. He’s been thinking about courting me since before the Minerva. He was even upset about me dating Posca and Phoebus – not that I really cared any for either of them! So maybe he just knows better what he wants, being older and all.

I sure do wish I knew what I want! I mean, I sure do like what Doc has to say. That sounds like an awfully good life, helping Doc help people. I’d like being his nurse, and if we could get a ship for me to fly us around in, well, that would be awfully fine. And Doc says he wants children too, and I sure do want babies of my own someday.

But I had just about figured that I’d spend a while getting to see more of this big old universe before settling down, and maybe I wouldn’t settle down at all. And now here comes Doc, and he’s about all I ever used to dream of. Only I don’t know what I’m dreaming of now.

PS. Dusty says that the healer-girl says Jugotaisama was really sweet on me too, and might even want to marry me. And that maybe Jugotaisama would have to kill Doc if he figured that’s what it would take to win my hand.

What is it with all them guys fighting over me! First there’s Phoebus beating on Posca, and now this! I don’t want them guys hurting themselves over me!

(Though I suppose it is kinda flattering in a way.)

PPS. Doc says he’d like to meet Momma, and maybe he could help with some of her ailments. I sure would like that. I’m missing Momma something awful, and I sure would like to have her tell me what I should do. I mean, Dusty tries to help, but she ain’t got no more experience than me. I need a mother’s advice, and I sure do hope we get a chance to go home for a visit before heading off to Nihon.  It would be awfully nice to spend a little time in one place, and to not have to fit everything I own in one backpack.  These days I got more guns than dresses – that just don’t seem right!

Dear Diary,

We’re still here in this danged crater. I don’t want to complain, because we’ve seen some pretty interesting things, but I’m getting a hankering to head back to town, to sleep in a bed, eat a meal that wasn’t cooked over a campfire, and have a regular bath.

Which ain’t to say that things have been boring out here. Anything but! But I’m just getting tired of being in the rough. I want to go someplace where Doc and me can have a nice sitdown without a bunch of smelly guys all around, and maybe figure out a few things.

I still ain’t all that sure what I think of Doc and his courting me. But something happened that makes me think maybe I care about him more than I know.

We decided to check out this bunch of temples and stuff that we saw on our map of the crater. But when we rode down there, we found pieces of bodies strewn all about. When we looked them over, we realized they was them slavers that we saw, the ones with the wrecked boatmobile, and they’d got cut up and burned something awful. One got half his body singed right off – there weren’t no blood or nothing!

That got us all nervous, so we crept up over a ridge to where we could see the temple. There was a bunch of buildings, but nearest to us we saw a gang of them Killers that had treed this girl up on a raised stage. We went closer and tried to talk to her, but she couldn’t speak any language that we could speak. And when Erato tried to talk to her in one of them funny scholar tongues, the girl got all upset.

After a bit, Doc figured out a way to talk to her. He drew a bunch of pictures, and she mostly understood what he was trying to get across. It turned out them boatmobile guys was bringing her to sacrifice up there on that stage. (What’s with all the human sacrifices in these parts? First there was the oracle girl that almost got sacrificed, then there was them dead people trying to sacrifice that other dead guy, and now this. This here crater must just about be the center of the human sacrifice universe.) But the killers and something else (we couldn’t figure what) got them guys instead, and now she was just sitting up here on the stage where the killers couldn’t get her too.

Anyway, all that picture-talking was getting kind of boring to me, so I started making lunch for everyone. I was about halfway through making some sandwiches when Doc decided to check to see if the girl was healthy and all. So he tried to take her wrist to check on her pulse. And what do you figure she did, but she tried to kick Doc! Right in his tender bits! It’s a good thing he managed to dodge out of the way – that kick looked like it would of hurt!

Well, that got me uncommonly riled. So I jumped up and got between Doc and her, and got down into a fighting crouch like them Nihonese do. And then Erato started walking towards the foreign girl with her hands out, but the girl didn’t seem to like that none and she threw some little ball that we didn’t even know she had right at Erato. It gave her a good whack and knocked her for a loop! (I don’t know what Erato was thinking, walking up to the girl like that. For someone with a lot of book learning, that Erato ain’t always too smart.)

Anyway, I was really starting to get annoyed now, and Hank was going for his guns, which could only lead to trouble. So I said a little prayer in my head to Artemis to help me out, and danged if she didn’t come through! I suddenly started moving quicker and smoother than I ever moved before, and in a moment I was there next to that stranger girl, and I was putting her in a kinda arm lock that made me think of something that Jugotaisama might do. She tried to break the lock, but I made it pretty clear I was having none of that. After what she tried to do to Doc, I was ready to make her hurt real bad if she tried anything!

Well, things settled down after that. We managed to get it through that girl’s head that Doc wasn’t trying to hurt her, but only trying to see if she was healthy and all. And she had learned that she better not try anything funny, not while I was around.

After that, Doc and I sat around with the girl while everyone else went searching for secret passages. Dusty managed to find one, so some of us went down in it. It led to inside this metal building, and it was full of these weird fellers that was kinda stubby and had frogheads. Dutch and Hank went in and checked out things and came back and said there was a ship in there kind of like the Iron Falcon that we rode in. I got kinda excited about that, but they decided there was too many of them frogheads to try and take the ship. Besides, I reckon it wouldn’t be right for us to go stealing their ship. I mean, just cause they got heads like frogs ain’t no reason to go taking their stuff.

But after we’d gotten away from them frogheads, I got to thinking about how peeved I had got when that girl tried to kick Doc. I ain’t been so riled since them fellers grabbed at Dusty in the saloon way back in Alexandria. I guess that has to mean I got special feelings for Doc. Doesn’t it?

PS. Dusty said it was Doc’s fault, grabbing at that girl like that when she had no idea what he was up to. But everybody knows that when a doctor takes your wrist he’s just checking you out. That Dusty don’t know nothing.

• I don’t know – it seemed pretty neat. I sure did like it tho.
• I’ve tried to fly twice. I was good at it!
• Maybe I could be your nurse.
• I used to take care of Momma when she was sick.
• She gets sick a lot, but she’s real friendly.
• She sure would like that. And I sure would be grateful.
• I always wanted to have a family and a nice house to take care of. But now I ain’t so sure – the world is a bigger place than I ever knew.
• Have you always known you’re God-touched?
• I always thought everyone could do what I can do.
• Sometimes I just know how to do things, like fighting or flying ships or stuff.
• I can practice or study. But it takes work.
• Have you always travelled around like this? Do you like to travel?
• I ain’t hardly been anywhere.
• I’m not really that smart. Dusty is the smart one.
• Do you want to have children some day?
• Does it hurt to do your healing?
• It’s a really great talent. I think healing people is about the best thing you could do.
• After Artemis blessed me, I can do more stuff too.
• I can be really agile sometimes when I need to. Lots more than normal.
• The docs on the Minerva said I could, but it would take a long time and lots of money.

Dear Diary,

It’s later now, and I’m feeling a mite calmer. I just read over that last entry and, well, I don’t want to come off as ungrateful or anything.

I mean, Doc’s a nice guy, a real gentleman. And he is doing all he can to do right by me. That’s a real relief, after some of the fellers I’ve dated.

Not only that, but he’s a doctor too. It sure would make Momma happy if I brought home a doctor to be her son-in-law. Wouldn’t she just love introducing him to Mrs Hawkins? And Momma sure would like to have her very own son-in-law tend to her many ailments.

As for me, I’d feel good knowing that my man could take care of me any time I got sick or injured, and could keep our babies safe and healthy. After all, he’s not only a doctor, he’s a god-touched healer too. Even the Minerva ain’t got anyone who can do the things he can do.

So we’ll see what happens. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready to marry him yet. But I ain’t ruling it out neither. After all, that’s what courtings for, right? To help you figure out what you really want, and to see how much you really like each other.

It was just a surprise, is all. But maybe it’s a good surprise.

Dear Diary,

Do you recall when I said that Doc didn’t have eyes for anyone but that girly girl that the Nihonese gave him? Well, it turns out that I was wrong.

Yesterday, when we was all settling down to camp by the lake, Doc comes up to Dusty and me and says that he’s got a real hankering to court me. Well, you could have knocked me over with a laurel leaf! I had no idea that Doc looked on me like that! But Hank said that Doc had once said something to him, and that he knew Doc was sweet on me. It sure would have been nice if someone had seen fit to let me know. I never figured he’d want me as long as he had that Nihonese girl around to tend to his needs!

But there he was, asking who was older, me or Dusty. Dusty said it was her, even though neither of us really know, what with Momma always telling a different story about who came out first. (Once I heard Daddy say that we came out together, rassling each other all the way out, though I can’t figure how he’d know, what with Momma saying that he was down at the saloon while she was laid up.) So Doc said that seeing as Dusty was the elder, he would like her permission to court me.

I tried to tell Dusty to say no, since Doc already had his girly girl and all. But of course she was no use at all – she just said sure, I’d love to have Doc court me. Only what about his girly girl?

Doc says he ain’t done nothing but study with that girl since we left the ship, though I recall how he shared a private room with her a time or two back in town. Then he said he didn’t care a whit about her anyway, cept for what she was teaching him, and to prove it he’d let Hank have her if he wanted. That didn’t seem too gentlemanlike to me, though maybe rules are different with Nihon concubine girly girls, at least when they come as gifts from princes, so I didn’t make too big a deal over it.

Then when Dusty said how happy I would be to be courted by a gentleman like him, Doc just held out an arm to me.  Well, I hardly had any choice at all then, so I took it and went on a date with him in the woods.

We never did go all that deep into the trees, but instead just walked around where we could still see the camp. Doc said he wanted to do things all right and proper, and he liked that I was such a good girl, so all we’d do was just go for a stroll. Other than that, he didn’t say much at all. He seemed to have it in his head that I had some way of mind-talking to Dusty, and he wanted to see if I’d reach out and open my thoughts to him. I tried to get Dusty to tell him that I couldn’t do that, but she just said that mind-talking was a dandy idea, and if I weren’t so stubborn I’d be sure to open up my head up to a handsome fellow like Doc. But even though I couldn’t do any such thing, Doc didn’t seem to care, and though I was awfully nervous, he seemed to enjoy just walking quietly with me under the trees

After a bit, we got back to camp and sat around the fire with everyone. Someone asked Doc why he liked me, and he said that he liked the fact that I couldn’t talk and was so smart. He wanted a wife who’d be quiet while he was thinking, and he figured I’d be just about perfect for him.

I didn’t know what to make of that. I mean, it was nice hearing him call me smart, even though I ain’t, not like a doctor is smart anyway. But I didn’t know what to make of a man who wanted his woman to be quiet and not talk to him all the time. What if I got that operation and was able to talk again? Would Doc not like me any more?

But more than that, all of this made me feel kinda funny. I mean, I never imagined Doc was looking at me like a possible girlfriend. It made me wonder what goes through guys’ heads. Is it like Momma says, they spend all their time thinking about pretty girls in that way? And what about back when he was healing up my wound a couple weeks back, when I got run through by that spear? When he opened up my armor and was feeling my wounds, I figured it was okay, him being a doctor and all. But now I wonder what was going on in his head when he was running his hands over my belly. I didn’t know if I like having my doctor thinking of me that way.

This one’s going to take a mess of thinking. Men sure are strange!

Dear Diary,

There sure are a lot of weird things going on in this crater. No wonder Captain Crispin wanted us to check it out!

We was standing around on the shore of that lake, just getting ready to pitch our tents for the night, when we see a bunch of them flying barrel critters zipping around a couple miles off. That didn’t bother us none, cause we got a truce with Artemis that’ll keep them animals from bugging us. But then we heard a mess of shooting over there, and a big explosion. So we figured we better go check out what was what.

Hank and me snuck through the woods to see what was going on. Turns out there was a bunch of cowboys out there with some slaves. They had a big vehicle, kind of a combination motor wagon and boat, but it had been blown up by the barrels. Their leader was cursing and getting a bunch of slaves to carry off their stuff into the woods.

Once they was gone, we went and checked out their wagon. It looked like they had a cargo full of dirt. We never did figure out just what all that was about. But Hank called out to them and warned them that Artemis didn’t want anyone messing around in her crater, and they better watch out for any animals, especially killers. That didn’t do no good, of course: them men just shot at Hank’s voice. And though he thought about maybe killing them all, he decided to just let them go.

After that, we went back to where the others was waiting by the lake. Hank’s curiosity was eating at him something fierce by now, cause he had spent the day trying to learn things about that sunken boat and about them men and had come up empty all around. He decided to swim out to the boat and have another looksee, and devil take the Leviathan.

Well, Dusty told me to swim out there with him to keep an eye on things, so I shucked down to my skivvies again. (I swear, next time I’m in town, I’m gonna get myself a bathing suit. I’m getting tired of putting on a show for the party’s menfolk every time we run into an underwater mystery.) We swam out, and I found a raft that was attached to the sunken boat. I unhitched it and got it back to the surface. Erato the scroll-head girl and me got on it while Hank dove deep. But pretty soon he came zipping to the surface shouting about zombies.

We all paddled to shore about as fast as we could, and got in our clothes and waited to see what was going to happen. Turns out there was zombies, and they wanted to put on some sort of human sacrifice ritual. Well, zombie sacrifice, anyway, cause their victim was another zombie. After a fair to-do, we put an end to that nonsense by killing them all, if you can call it killing when a zombie’s the one getting shot. I mean, regular human sacrifice is bad enough, but there’s no telling what mischief would come from a sacrifice when the victim is already dead.

After that, we roamed around the crater a bit and found this building that looked like a temple. We went on in and it put on a show with pretty stars and stuff. Erato said she’d seen the like, but nobody else had, and even she said she didn’t recognize any of them stars. Then we slept in a cave, and saw some other buildings, and found a crashed ship, and were followed around by a whole mess of pigs. And we couldn’t make sense of any of it.

Like I said, that there crater is an awfully busy place, and just full of strangeness!