Tao sat on the driver's seat of the cart, reins in one hand, and 
stared absent-mindedly off into the distance.  She realised she should 
really be watching over Simon, and making sure he kept on going in the 
same direction, but she'd realised soon she didn't have to worry that 
much.  Simon, for all his mean-spiritedness, at least knew to keep to 
the road, and there were no crossroads or corners to confuse him for 
miles.  So she sat, and stared at the distant Nuthernphorrd mountains, 
and thought.

Just a short week ago she'd thought of herself as a mostly normal 
girl.  True, a girl who'd grown up in an orphanage and with a 
distortion effect on magic, but normal apart from that.  But now she 
was a 'Spellbreaker' of legend, with a demon mother and an angel 
father, and none of the other three seemed to think too much of it.

She thought back to her mother.  The purple skinned demon had seemed 
very nice and being with her had felt... strangely right.  Tao looked 
back at Wajissabequahze - he was another nice demon.  And Zeke had 
turned out to be a bad angel.  The world was becoming more complicated 
by the day.

But hopefully things would make more sense soon.  They were on an 
Adventure to the Latverian Islands, and the last thing her mother had 
said was that there were answers there.

The reins jerked in her hands and Simon started braying madly.  She 
pulled her attention back to the present to see Simon sprawled out on 
the ground, rope around his front legs and trailing off to the side.  
Her eyes followed the rope and saw a large man holding the other end 
of it, a large sword hanging from his belt and an eyepatch over one 
eye in the image of the classic thug or bandit.  Surrounding them were 
another twenty-nine men, similarly dressed, and all of them had sharp 
weapons pointing at the cart.

"Damn," muttered Iryien.

"Can't do that," said Waj. "My magic's been sealed, remember?  Without 
it I can't even cast a lighting spell, let alone damn someone."

"Not that," sighed Treisel.  "Look at their insignia."

Tao looked closer at the thugs' clothing.  True enough, each one had 
an insignia on his shirt - it was an ugly affair, being a brown blob 
inside a circle drawn in the exactly wrong shade of pink.  She didn't 
have to think very hard to realise where she'd seen it before, it had 
only been a couple of days ago, back in Feaw.  "The Toffeea," she 
said.

"Yes," said the thugs' leader, grinning nastily.  "You made fools of 
us back in Feaw, and we'll never forgive you for it."  He flourished 
his sword.  "Men, ATTACK!"


-----------------------------------------------
  To Hell and Back

  Chapter 15:  Lobsters, Vengeful Angels, and
               other Hazards of Travel

  Begun by Steven Scougall
  This chapter also by Steven Scougall
-----------------------------------------------


In response to the thugs' attack, Treisel started chanting the words 
to an attack spell, and Waj produced his pitchfork and stood guard in 
front of his Summoner.  Iryien drew her sword and stood guard over 
Tao.  And as for Tao, she moved far enough away from Treisel to make 
sure her distortion effect didn't get in the way of his spellcasting.

Several of the thugs charged at the group, and were quickly dispatched 
by Waj and Iryien.  Then Treisel thrust his hands to the sky, shouting 
"Lightning!"  Several bolts of electric power lanced down from the sky 
and up from the ground, into and around and through the group of 
thugs.  A nasty smell of burned flesh filled the air, along with the 
screams of the wounded men.

Tao hated this... she hated the violence.  Judging from his 
expression, Treisel didn't like it much either - but what could they 
do?  These men had no compunction about killing them.

For the part of the thug's leader, he stared in amazement - there were 
almost none of his men that were still alive and conscious.  Only a 
few that were fit to fight on remained.

Treisel collapsed to his hands and knees, panting heavily.

"Trei!" shouted Tao, and was kneeling beside him in a second.

Treisel looked up at her and grinned weakly.  "That... took a bit more 
than I thought it would.  But it got most of them."

"There are still some left," Iryien said nervously, looking at the 
thugs.

"Go get 'em then," Treisel said.

"You're in no condition to cast any more magic and Tao can't fight," 
said Iryien.  "We're staying here with you."

"But they'll get away," Tao pointed out.

"Them running away is just as good as us finishing them," said Iryien.

Tao stared.  "I always thought you Adventurer types-"

"-wanted as many kills as possible?" finished Iryien, and sighed.  
"No, that's just a myth-"

"He's casting magic!" shouted Waj.

Tao looked over and saw that one of the thugs had a book open in his 
hand, and was chanting the words to something, but couldn't quite hear 
what they were.

But Waj, even without his magical abilities, had good hearing, and 
could hear.  His eyes widened in horror.  "He's chanting the words for 
Kill!"

Kill?  That was one of the highest level spells in all of Zinnonth.  
Where had the Toffeea found someone skilled enough to cast the spell?

"Tao, stay where you are," said Treisel.  "Everyone else, get down."

Iryien looked at him as if he'd gone mad.  "Do you really think her 
aura will be enough to-"

"He's almost finished," Waj said nervously.

"It's distorted everything else," said Tao, "and if it's the stuff of 
legend then it'll distort *anything*.  Now DOWN!"

The other three dove down around Tao, Iryien looking nervously at her, 
and she almost felt like abandoning this plan and running away.  
But... this was the only way she could help.  She couldn't fight with 
a sword or any other weapon, and she couldn't use magic - all she 
could do was rely on this aura of hers...

It had done more than just distort and warp magic back in Feaw, she 
realised.  It had affected even unmagical objects, like armour.  She'd 
have to learn how to properly control it.  Perhaps she'd able to find 
out how in the Latverian Islands...

"And... you LOSE!" shouted the thugs' leader, and stepped away, 
pointing dramatically at them.

"KILL!" shouted the caster, pointing a hand towards the group of four 
adventurers.

There was an odd tingling sensation - presumably it was the spell 
reacting with her aura.  The air was suddenly filled with ducks, 
desks, frogs, lamps, mice, rocks, and even a llama, all spinning 
around the group.

"WHAT?" shouted the thugs' leader, staring in amazement, and then 
turned, furious, upon the caster.

"It's not my fault!  I cast it perfectly!" shouted the other thug.

All the animals suddenly hurtled back towards the remaining thugs at 
incredible speed, a few of them exploding along the way.  The thugs 
reacted too slowly - the impromptu missiles hit them at incredible 
speed, knocking them over with incredible force.  They didn't get up 
again.

"And Tao's aura saves us again," said Treisel.

"We were lucky," said Tao.  "What if my aura had just turned the path 
of the spell into a spiral?  It would have killed us anyway..."

"No, that's not right," said Waj.  "If I remember one story about the 
Spellbreaker right, it was that magic would never harm her.  That 
sounds as if your aura is looking out for your welfare, and will never 
change magic into something that could kill you."

"Maybe..." mused Tao, "but, I still have to learn how to control this 
thing.  I don't want to just rely on old legends.  I'm hoping that I 
can find out how to control my aura at the Latverian Islands."

"The Islands?" asked Waj, looking at her curiously.  "Why there, of 
all places?"

Tao thought.  It couldn't hurt to tell them what her mother had said.  
"Something I found out in Hell was that there's a clue to my destiny 
in the Islands," she explained.  "So when Epio wanted us to go there, 
I thought, 'why not?'"

"So it wasn't just because Epio had a quest for us," said Iryien.  
"Tao, that's so clever!"

Everybody else blinked.  "Excuse me?" asked Treisel.

"Being able to go on a legitimate paying Adventure to a place you want 
to go to as well... who wouldn't want to do that?"

"I'd rather not get shot at and threatened all the time," said 
Treisel.

                              *   *   *

Vorlack Beizman, long time member and trusted agent of the Toffeea, 
occasional hitman, and kazoo player, got up and dusted off his pants, 
thanking all the gods that he was still alive.  He wasn't sure how he 
was still alive; after all, the last thing he could remember were 
several ducks and frogs and the gore of exploding mice flying at him 
at incredible speed.  He remembered just how hard they'd hit and 
winced.  By rights, he should have been killed or at least seriously 
incapacitated.

Actually, come to think of it, there should have at least been some 
bruising.  But he couldn't feel any pain at all.  Strange...

He saw the trees moving, the leaves dancing madly, and realised that 
he wasn't feeling the wind at all.

His brain caught up with his body's insistent signals and he looked 
down, and saw himself.  Or rather, bits of himself.  The living 
missiles had hit with enough force to go right through him in places, 
his head was definitely further from his torso than life generally 
allowed, and he wasn't entirely sure if the blob underneath his feet 
was a duck's kidney or his own.  Between his head and... whatever he 
currently was, there was a flickering line.

He swallowed nervously.  He hadn't survived after all.  The fact that 
something had survived and was still around to see his mortal remains 
didn't really help.

The ground became slightly grey and there was an off-key musical 
twang.  Vorlack looked up and saw a skeleton clad in voluminous black 
robes, a scythe held in one hand, and his throat - or perhaps the 
memory of his throat, he wasn't too sure and didn't really care at the 
moment - went dry.  The figure of Death...

"VORLACK BEIZMAN," it said, its voice filling his entire world.  "YOUR 
TIME HAS COME."

Vorlack was nothing if not thorough and complete - it had been how 
he'd survived in the world of the Toffeea for so long, and Death's 
statement sounded just a bit odd.  "Didn't it come a few minutes ago, 
when that duck hit me beak first?" he asked, curious.

The figure looked skywards for a moment, cupping a skeletal hand 
underneath its jawbone.  In that small yet very human gesture, most of 
the dull terror Vorlack was feeling dissipated.  "WELL, I SUPPOSE SO," 
it said at last, then shrugged.  "BUT *THEY* KEEP ON TELLING ME I HAVE 
TO BE MORE FEARSOME, AND 'YOUR TIME HAS COME' IN LEADEN TONES USUALLY 
WORKS."

Despite the fact that Death spoke in all capitals, Vorlack could 
somehow hear the capital T of the word 'They'.  "They?" he asked.

"THEY," said Death, nodding his skull.

Vorlack shrugged - it didn't really matter.  He was dead and what 
happened in the real world didn't concern him anymore.  More worrying 
was what happened next - he'd been a hitman for the Toffeea and a bit 
of a thug in his life, and gods generally frowned upon that sort of 
thing.  "What happens next?" he asked.  "Will I be going to Hell?"

"IT'S REALLY ALL UP TO YOU," said Death.  "I JUST FACILITATE YOUR 
TRANSITION TO WHATEVER COMES NEXT."  The scythe flashed through the 
air, through the line connecting his spirit - if that was what he 
currently was - to his body.  Somehow, Vorlack wasn't as worried about 
that as he might have been.

"I don't know about terrifying," he said, "but you do really well at 
assuaging the newly dead's fears.  Which is probably more important."

The world started to go grey, and Vorlack realised he was going to 
wherever he was due to go next.  But before it all faded away, he saw 
Death face him directly, and a light flare in one eye socket - it must 
be the skeleton's equivalent of a wink, Vorlack thought.  Cheered by 
this, Vorlack went to face his ultimate fate.

                              *   *   *

Death looked at the place where the thug's spirit had been standing, 
with the feeling of another job well done.  But even so, he was not a 
completely happy supernatural being.

True, Death was an animate skeleton and lacked all the biological 
necessities for him to feel any emotions.  However, he had existed for 
a very long time and through observation of the humans and other 
creatures that he served, he had learnt some of the more basic 
emotions.  Satisfaction was one of them, and he was feeling a bit of 
that.  Vorlack had taken the news of his death rather well, and, in 
his final comment, had realised something few dead people had.

Happiness was another of the feelings Death had mastered.  And despite 
the feeling of satisfaction, he wasn't feeling particularly happy.  An 
interesting situation, and one he'd have to analyse later when he had 
time.

As to why he wasn't happy, it was simple - the Tao Feymu case had 
required him to kill Gunther Mishal.  It was his job to collect the 
souls of those who were already dead and facilitate their final 
journey, like he'd just done with Vorlack.  Actually killing someone, 
whose only fault was to be related to the Tao Feymu case, didn't feel 
right.  But who was he to judge something right or wrong?  He was, 
ultimately, a creation and servant of Them, and what They said to do, 
he was to do.

Of course, he didn't have to always do it completely *right*...

He pulled out the little book that contained all his appointments with 
the newly dead, and checked on the next one.  It was in twenty 
minutes, in the nearby town of Hesgeynford.   There was a location and 
a name, but beyond that there was no clue as to how it would happen.  
As usual.  They had explained that as the essentially quantum nature 
of human life and death.

"ALWAYS BUSY," he said, and a moment later he was gone.  Without his 
presence to scare them away, the circling ravens and vultures landed 
and settled in amongst the grisly remains of the dead thugs and 
animals.

                              *   *   *

The cart was, once more, jerking its painful way along the road to 
wherever they were going next.

"Where are we going, again?" asked Treisel.  "Hez-something?"

"Hesgeynford," said Iryien, her voice weary.  She had already 
explained this, but he hadn't been listening.  What Tao saw in him she 
had no idea.  "It's the closest port town and we can get a ship to the 
Latverian Islands there," she explained again.

"But won't the sea trip be extra long that way?"

"You don't get seasick, do you?" she asked.

Treisel shook his head.  "Well, no-"

She shrugged.  "Doesn't matter, then.  Epio gave us at least twice the 
amount of money to book passage on sea voyage to the Islands, so money 
isn't a problem."

"You certainly know a lot about this," said Waj.

"Hey, I'm an Adventuring student.  This is the sort of thing we have 
to learn about."  She grinned.  "I bet my old tutor Kane would be 
impressed with how I'm doing."

"But," asked Tao, "if no authority figures are here from the 
university, then how will they know what you've done, and how will you 
get credit for this Adventure?"

"Simple," said Iryien.  "Scrying magic, crystal balls, the spell Past 
Sight, or whatever.  I'm sure there's lots of magic that-"  She 
trailed off.  There *were* many magical means that the university 
could use to see what she'd been up to on this Adventure and determine 
how many credit points she should get for it.  The only problem was, 
she'd been nearby Tao most of the time, and Tao distorted all the 
magic around her.  Including, presumably, divination magic.  And 
judging from the way the other three were looking at her, they knew 
this too.

"With Tao's aura, it's not going to work, is it?" she asked, feeling 
very small and silly.

Tao and Treisel shook their heads no.

Iryien looked at the wooden boards of the cart for a few moments, then 
let all her feelings out with a single and eardrum-shatteringly loud 
"DAMN!"

"That was emphasis, right?" asked Waj.

She glared at him.  Wisely, he shut up.

                              *   *   *

Lucifer (known as Luke to his friends) sat in his office, trying to 
reduce the mountain of paperwork sitting on his desk.

Running the infernal regions of the afterlife was a bit more demanding 
than most people thought.  He'd tried just letting the demons do 
whatever they wanted back when the place was still new, and that had 
led to a big disorganised mess.  Shouting at them and telling them 
what to do had worked after a fashion, but there had been so many 
demons that even he, with his incredible demonic powers of 
recollection, had trouble keeping track of it all.  So Hell had been 
forced to modernise.  The place even had its own university, which, in 
the grand traditions of universities everywhere, was always asking for 
more funding.  Not that they really needed the money, seeing as it was 
in Hell and staffed by demons who could do pretty much what they 
wanted, but some traditions stuck fast.  Even, apparently, in Hell.

The diminutive demon that was the lord of all that was Unholy grumbled 
as the next piece of paper in the stack turned out to be yet another 
request for money.  This time it was to research the effects of 
extreme cold on a demon penguin.  Apparently the researcher thought it 
would drastically increase the knowledge base of Hell and improve the 
lot of demonkind everywhere.

Luke glared at the piece of paper and turned it into a blazing 
fireball, which he promptly tossed out the window.  There was a 
muffled "Ouch!", which he ignored, and he turned back to the 
paperwork.

Being the lord of Hell might have meant lots of paperwork, but it also 
meant he could do whatever he wanted with it and people didn't care 
much.  Though often, when he tried the slash and burn approach to 
dealing with the mountains of paper that appeared on his desk every 
day, the denizens of Hell just sent in new copies of what he 
destroyed.  But at least burning that application to a fiery mess had 
made him feel better.

There was a shift to the air in the office.  Luke paled - without even 
looking up he knew it was one of Them.  Why They were sending one of 
Their number to see him he had no idea, he just knew that it couldn't 
be to inquire how he was doing and what the weather was like down in 
Hell.

Lucifer looked up and saw an indistinct figure - They were always 
indistinct.  It had something to do with them being on a slightly 
higher order of existence than the demons.  Somehow it meant that if 
they didn't want to be seen, they couldn't be.  It was maddening.

"Well?" it asked.

A while passed, during which it became apparent that Their 
representative wasn't going to say anything more than that single 
word.

"Well what?" Luke asked, not bothering with his megaphone – it 
wouldn't have had the desired effect, anyway.  "I don't know why 
you're here.  I don't know things the way you guys do."

He got the impression it was looking haughtily at him.  "That's true, 
you don't.  I keep forgetting.  I speak of the case of the demon 
Wajissabequahze."

"What about him?"

"He was Summoned and stranded in the human world.  The Ancient Compact 
was followed and the Summoner returned him to Hell, and yet he was 
stripped of his very nature, banished, and is back with the Summoner.  
This is flagrant disobedience of the Ancient Compact.  Why has this 
been allowed to happen?  I suggest you think carefully about your 
answer."

"What, so you can read my mind as I work out the answer?" Luke asked.  
"No thanks.  But it's simple enough - Waj was turning students in for 
cheating, diligently doing his own work, not sticking his nose in 
where it wasn't wanted and just went about minding his own business.  
He was, quite frankly, setting a bad example to the younger demons at 
the University.  If he'd occasionally grown something illegal in those 
fields of his we wouldn't have minded but he didn't even do that.  
It's good to see the back of him."

The figure stood there for a moment, not saying anything.  Without 
being able to read its face or body language, Luke grew nervous.  Just 
what was it thinking?  Was it about to blast him into smithereens for 
his presumption?  Admittedly, being blown to smithereens was only a 
minor hindrance and he'd regrow himself without too much trouble, but 
it was still nerve-wracking not being able to see what his guest was 
about to do.

Finally, the figure spoke.  "A decision has been reached.  The actions 
of the demon Wajissabequahze may have not been what you wished for in 
a professor at your university.  There are, however, many demons that 
act similarly in the rest of the region of Hell.  The action taken 
against him should have gone as far as firing him and no further.  We 
are most displeased with the handling of this matter."

There was a flash, a spark of flame and a sudden gust of wind, and 
then the figure was gone.  Luke stared at where it had been, wondered 
what They would do next, and shivered nervously in his seat.

                              *   *   *

"So, Phil, what ARE we going to do next to him?"

"Beats me, Lorraine," said Phil.

How the plane of existence the two members of Them were standing in 
related to Lucifer's office is not something that can be easily 
explained in normal language, and so some bad metaphors will have to 
do.  It was as if they were ghosts standing in Luke's office, and at 
the same time as if they were just outside the windows and looking in.  
It was as if they were in the room on the other side of Hell looking 
into crystal balls; and also as if they were standing right behind 
Luke, and they could reach out and tap him in the shoulder.  But 
however it was, they were standing there and watching Luke in his 
office and could see and hear his every thought.

Lorraine, one of Those that worked behind the scenes of the entire 
universe, or at least this part of it, cocked her head and thought.  
"You know, perhaps not doing anything will work for a while.  You can 
clearly see how agitated he is.  Let him stew like that for a while."

"When nothing happens he'll get complacent," Phil pointed out.

"That's when you drop in and say something like 'WE'RE STILL WATCHING 
YOU, YOU KNOW.'  He'll piss his pants in terror."

"He doesn't wear pants and he doesn't have the same waste disposal 
systems humans do, you know.  Pissing his pants is therefore a logical 
impossibility."

"Good lord, Phil, it's just an expression.  Stop taking everything so 
damn literally."

                              *   *   *

The rest of the journey to Hesgeynford passed without much incident.  
A small tree dragon interrupted them that night, but it was more 
confused than anything else, and Waj fed it palm leaves until it went 
away.

"Where'd you get the palm leaves?" Tao had asked, mystified.

"Oh, my dear old grandma always says to carry palm leaves just in case 
I had to pacify a tree dragon someday," Waj had said in response.  "I 
thought she was a little crazy, myself, but I guess she was right 
after all."

"You've been carrying palm leaves with you *all* this time?" asked 
Treisel.

"Of course not," said the demon.  "But I saw some on our way into this 
forest, and thought they might come in handy."

The other three shook their heads in amazement, and they carried on.  
But nothing else happened to them on the rest of the way to the port 
town of Hesgeynford.  The Toffeea were wisely staying away from the 
group for the time being, and the mere presence of a large red-skinned 
demon was usually enough to frighten any predators, either wild or 
human (and sometimes both), away from the group.

A few miles distant from the gates into the town, Treisel pulled on 
the reins and brought Simon to an indignant halt.

"Why are we stopping?" asked Iryien.

"At almost every place we've stopped at, including Hell, there's been 
trouble of some sort," he said.  "A lot of the time, it's because of 
something we clearly should have known first, and I'm getting a little 
sick of it.  Now, I just want to know if there's anything we should be 
expecting in Hesgeynford.  Iryien, you're our adventuring expert, is 
there anything that could happen?"

The Adventurer student looked embarrassed.  "Well... I know *of* the 
place, a bit.  But really only where it is and how handy it is for 
other places.  Because that's all I've heard about it, I can say that 
it's probably a small town with no distinguishing features, but that's 
only a guess."

"Great," said Treisel.  "We're going in blind.  Again."

"I had a friend who came from there," Tao timidly supplied.

"Yeah?" asked Iryien.  "Did she say much about the place?"

"That it was very boring.  Oh, and to beware the lobster."

"Beware the lobster?" Iryien repeated.

"That's what she said," said Tao.

                              *   *   *

Ezekiel slipped back behind the tree and considered his options.

So they were heading on to Hesgeynford.  It made a certain sort of 
sense for them to do so, as it *was* the closest port town and they 
could easily catch a ship to the Islands from there.  But he thought 
they would have at least been better informed about the Lobster.  But, 
apparently not.

Keeping the Feymu girl alive and capturing her was his highest 
priority.  Exactly what happened after that he wasn't sure - Luke 
would happily give him half of Hell, or at least a quarter.  Not that 
Zeke wanted a quarter of Hell, but he could then perhaps sell it to 
Ferdinguhszze, who had always had an eye on toppling Luke.  On the 
other hand, 'He' was offering the ultimate power in the universe, just 
as long as 'He' got his hands on the girl.

But first he had to nab the girl.  And her being in Hesgeynford was 
going to be irritating - he'd have to actually enter the godforsaken 
place again, and keep her away from the Lobster.  Once he had her, he 
could decide where his ultimate loyalties lay.

                              *   *   *

Rahve Lisken, Dr. Pavel Bulman, and student sorceress Genni Poshkin 
rode out of Feaw.  And Rahve was, as usual, chewing gum.

Feaw had been enlightening.  It had quickly become apparent that a 
huge fight had broken out between the local Toffeea and some strangers 
from out of town.  Asking the right people the right questions in the 
right way had quickly revealed that the strangers had been none other 
than Tao Feymu, Treisel Arrayarli, Iryien Hearnsley Maglashka, and the 
demon Wajissabequahze, and that they were heading to the Latverian 
Islands - an incredible stroke of luck. 

"Are we really going to go to the Latverian Islands now, sir?" asked 
Genni.  "Because we can probably catch up to them in Hesgeynford."

"Ask the detective," said Dr. Bulman.  "We're just accompanying her."

"You could try to be more involved," said Rahve.

"Involvement works both ways," countered Bulman.

Genni wished she had some more alcohol and a secluded spot in which to 
drink it, but thanks to the watchful eye of Dr. Bulman, she had 
neither.  She was starting to get the headache she always got when she 
listened to the Head of the Emergency Squad and the detective 
squabbling.  "Um..." she started.

"Chancellor Hatstring *did* tell you to come along, you know," said 
Rahve, ignoring her.

"Yes, but he also said certain things about bribery and blackmail."

"Which are never pleasant," Rahve shot back, "but sometimes necessary 
to get the information you need.  If he wants us to find out about 
Miss Feymu, I have to find out want people know about her.  And 
sometimes they don't want to talk.  What do you suggest I do when that 
happens?"

"Um... maybe," said Genni.  "So why are we headed to the Latverian 
Islands then?"

"Because that's where they're going, and it's also where Gunther said 
I'd find answers," said Rahve.

"You don't just want to go to Hesgeynford for a holiday?" asked 
Bulman.

"Why on earth would anyone want to go on a holiday THERE?" asked 
Rahve.  "It's very boring, and they have the Lobster."

Bulman looked impressed - a rare occurrence.  "Ah, so you *have* heard 
of it."

"The what?" asked Genni.

"The Lobster of Hesgeynford," said Bulman.

"What's so bad about a lobster?" asked Genni.

"It's not just any lobster," said Rahve.  "It's *the* Lobster, and is 
*very* dangerous.  You have to watch out for it."

Genni shivered in fear - this Lobster, whatever it was, certainly 
sounded very dangerous and scary.  But something didn't make sense.  
"If this lobster makes Hesgeynford so dangerous, how can the place be 
boring?"

"Because apart from the Lobster, there's nothing else of much note at 
the place.  There are a few beaches, but trust me, the surf's horrible 
and the sunlight is always weak."

"I still don't see how it can be boring," Genni said uncertainly.

"Oh believe me, Miss Poshkin," said Dr. Bulman.  "It is.  It most 
definitely is."

                              *   *   *

The cart jostled down the main road of Hesgeynford to the town square, 
which took about two minutes.

"Odd design," commented Waj.  "The main square is so close to the 
entrance of the town."

"Beware the lobster," intoned a random passerby.

"Excuse me?" asked Treisel, but the passerby had already hurried by.

"It's why the town square is here rather than in the centre of 
Hesgeynford," explained a nearby woman.

"Can someone *please* explain this Lobster to me?" asked Iryien.  
"With the way everyone goes on about it, you'd think it was some 
lobster that has been hideously mutated by random magical fallout into 
a huge monstrosity that comes and pillages this town every few days!"

"Oh no, miss," said the woman.  "It's much worse than that."

She hurried on, leaving the four travellers to look confused.

"What could be worse than that?" wondered Iryien.

                              *   *   *

The brown cloaked figure gazed deep into the scrying crystal and 
chuckled.  They were getting closer.  He looked again at Tao talking 
to her silly friends and smiled at her.  Tao, his daughter, would soon 
arrive at the Islands, and one way or another he would gain use of her 
aura, and the next phase of his plans would proceed, and soon They 
would fall.

He broke into full fledged maniacal laughter.  What could possibly-

He quickly stopped that thought before he finished it.  He didn't 
particularly want to attract the attention of the deity of stuff-ups.  
And asking The Question would surely attract his undivided attention, 
always a bad idea.


(To be continued)


Author's stuff
--------------
Hm.  Not much, I know.  Hopefully I managed to advance some of the 
'behind the scenes' plotlines, but I felt strangely uninspired when 
working out stuff that could be happening to the main group.  I'm 
sorry.  

Thank you for reading.

Steven Scougall
http://www.crosswinds.net/~sscougall/
15th August 2000