"ARRRGH! IT'S OOZING!"

Suzene laughed at her friend's expense. "Should have asked for boots or
shoes. *Anything* would be better than those sandals!"

"Do you know how hard it is to keep bandages from rubbing off in boots?"
sulked Mummraa, mock-stomping her way through the marshy earth. The pair
were, in fact, skirting the same swamp as Kith and Demonprist, but here, on
the far side, the ground was somewhat firmer and they had not been subject
to tentacle attacks.

"Well you're supposed to have magic powers...do something instead of
bitching about it!" joked Suzene, slapping the female mummy on the rear
with the flat of her machete.

"Hey!" protested Mummraa. "Just 'cuz I'm easy doesn't mean I'm cheap! It's
Pay-per-Slap! Brought to you by the Keebler corporation..."

"The point *being*," emphasized the human woman, beating back some reeds,
"that if you're a female version of Mumm-ra then you should be able to work
*some* kind of spell to keep the sand out of your sandals."

"'Tisn't sand...'tis slime..."

"Squishy stuff...whatever...can't you just transform or something?" sighed
Suzene near exasperation.

"Oh...that," dismissed Mummraa in a bored tone of voice with a wave of her
hand. "Sure...if you want to do it the *easy* way. Ancient Spirits of Evil,
transform this decayed form to Mummraa the everling."

Despite the lack of enthusiam and pyrotechnics, Mummraa's body was
surrounded by a swirling wind which ruffled the ragged ends of her bandages
and wrap as they tore away from her expanding body. When the air calmed,
Mummraa herself was no more. In her place stood a seven foot amazon in
Mumm-ra's warrior's garb. The only differences, besides her gender, were
the long, silver-white hair and criss-crossing of bandages which described
a sort of halter to cover her chest. "Woah, bosoms of doom," snickered
Suzene.

"Yeah, they are pretty good, aren't they?" mused Mummraa in a somewhat
deeper voice, poking at her chest. "I think they're reinforced with steel
or sandbags or something. Bet I could stop bullets with these things. Or
crush heads..."

"Lucky guys!" grinned Suzene lewdly.

"You know, even as an Everliving I can't think of a way to keep the slime
out of my toes," grimaced Mummraa.

"Don't start again!" complained her companion. "Keep your mind on more
important things...like how we're going to get across this river. This is
the narrowest I've seen it, if you don't count marsh as part of the river,
and it's still too wide. But if we don't cross soon we're going to have to
tromp deeper into the swamp...and I don't think I can handle any more jumbo
mosquitoes."

"That, at least, I can take care of," grinned Mummraa, raising her arms in
front of her and spreading her fingers. A firey red electrical charge burst
from her fingertips and swirled around the pair. When it subsided, the air
smelled of ozone and the bodies of a multitude of dead insects tumbled to
the soggy earth around them.

"Better than Raid," commented the other, poking at the accumulated bodies
with the tip of her machete.

"T'anks," grinned Mummraa. "Gimme a shout when you want me to do it again."

"I just wish there was an easier way...d'oh!" cried Suzene, dropping to one
knee to rummage through her pack. "I'm such an idiot! There's *got* to be
something in *here* for keeping bugs away!" She pulled out her body care
kit and started sorting through the bottles of oils and lotions.

"Awww...no more red lightnin'?" sulked the mummy.

"We'll probably need it again," soothed the other, "I just don't want to
chance walking into one of those beams sometime. Ah! Here we go!
Chrysanthemum and geranium oils...a little citrus and we've got a passable
insect repellent..."

Mummraa made no reply, her attention was elsewhere. Curious, Suzene grabbed
the bottles she needed and closed her pack, standing to see what was up.
"Hey, you want to share?" she asked her companion sarcastically. "I'm not
seven feet tall...my line of sight sucks."

"Er...there are two people coming this way," said Mummraa with an uncertain
grin, "and they look like Xena refugees..."

*********************

"You have no idea how *glad* I am to get out of the Forest of Silence,"
sighed Artemis rolling her eyes. "It's hell to have great hunting skills
and have one of your senses entirely blocked. Being chased by Mutants as
soon as you arrive doesn't help much either..."

"Well you DID seem a little uptight," grinned Telly. "Although I thought
that was just Thunderwolf."

"It wasn't just Thunderwolf," replied Artemis worriedly. "Calypso made me
just as uneasy. I don't understand it."

"Too bad..I think we should have followed Bast and TW," said Telly. "I want
to get to the Warrior Maidens' village, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's
worth passing through this marsh. I think I'm allergic to slime," she
sniffed slightly.

"Oh come on! It's not that bad!"

"Easy for you! You're an Avatar! I bet your body just processes the fluff
from these reeds! Assuming you breathe at all..."

"I'm an Avatar, not the undead. You just have to learn to enjoy it...like
Lepraa," smiled the Avatar, jerking a thumb at her familiar who was happily
stalking frogs.

"Bleah...frog's legs."

"Tastes like chicken!"

Telly wrinkled her nose. "I just wish I'd paid more attention to the map
before setting out...we might have been able to pick out a narrow stretch
of river to try and cross," sighed Telly. "I have no idea how to get to the
other side...I don't have the skill to make a reed boat..."

"Well, can't we call the map up now?" shrugged Artemis, issuing a vocal
command to her computer. A large floating screen poppped up before the two
females, focussing on their current location and zooming out until the
Greek Avatar told it to stop. The image presented the surrounding landscape
for a five mile radius around the pair.

"I don't see the village," sneezed Telly, batting away a fluff-topped reed.
You might have to zoom out more. Unless this map can simply display a
cursor pointing us toward the Warrior Maidens."

At the warrior's words, a bright green arrow superimposed itself over the
existing contours of the map, indicating a position more or less east of
where they now stood. "Way to go, girl!" cried Artemis joyfully. "Now we're
getting somewhere!" Her mood became grim as she analyzed the map.
"Unfortunately the river doesn't get narrower anytime soon."

"No," agreed Telly, "but look here! Doesn't that look like a small island
in the middle? Computer," she ordered, taking the Star Trek-approved
commander's stance, "zoom in on this island."

Touching the screen in the approximate location of the tiny stretch of
land, Telly toggled the image until they had a clear picture of what lay
ahead. "See," she grinned, "the river is *very* narrow on either side of
this island. If we can't cross the river itself, we should be able to cross
to the island and then to the other side. It might even be close enough to
swim!"

"Thank you Captain Exposition," grinned Artemis as Telly playfully punched
her arm. "Lets head out that way then and see how far it is to this island
of yours."

"An attitude like that's the reason you'll never get laid," snorted the
warrior, pushing her way through the reeds in the general direction of the
river.

"I'm an Avatar of Artemis...I'm not *supposed* to get laid!" called
Artemis, dismissing the map window before following her companion. "And
next time, don't forget to close the window...were you raised in a barn?"

"Hardy har..." came the muffled reply. "Damned reeds."

It was some time before Telly and Artemis emerged on the bank of the river
proper. The marsh had merged with a tributary, forcing them to backtrack
and go around the soupy landscape, the plague of mosquitoes more welcome
than the prospect of alligators or - worse - leeches.

"Not that I haven't had my share of boyfriends," Telly had said.

Now they were contemplating the narrow strip of river which separated them
from the sliver of land at its centre. Further and deeper than they had
expected with a swift current, it was unsuitable for swimming. Instead they
stood and observed. At least for now.

It was during this period of intense study and not admitting that she had
absolutely no idea what to do next that Artemis thought she heard a noise.
Signally to Telly to listen carefully, she cocked her head Northward. Soon
Telly nodded that she'd heard it too.

"There's no point in trying to hide," whispered Artemis, leaning in toward
her companion, "and I, for one, don't want to. I say we approach them...but
carefully."

Telly agreed. "Doesn't sound like more than two...but we should keep our
weapons at the ready. No sense in making ourselves sitting ducks."

"My kind of thinking," nodded Artemis. Lepraa had long stopped playing and
stood at attention thought she did not seem overly agitated. "Lepraa
doesn't seem to be bothered by them, but an ounce of prevention and all
that. We should have one hand-to-hand weapon ready and one distance."

"I've got a bow and a spear," mused Telly. "I can use a spear close-up, but
it's really a lot better at a distance. I can disguise it as a walking
staff though...catch them by surprise..."

"I've got a bow and a long knife," replied Artemis. "How about I take the
knife and you can use whichever your most comfortable with?"

"Sounds good...for appearances, I'll use the spear."

"Great," whispered Artemis with a conspiratory smile. She drew her knife
and displayed it, shielding it from the glinting sun. Then she held it down
along the length of her leg. "Show's on. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," replied Telly, leaning on her weapon as they
nonchalantly walked toward the approaching strangers.

*********************

"Hey! Over here!" called Mummraa waving to the approaching figures.

"Are you sure they're friendly?" snorted Suzene, raising an eyebrow.

"If they're not, I'll fry 'em!"

"No wonder we're travelling alone," grinned the human.

"Well do *you* have a better idea?" Mummraa replied, hands on hips, as the
two leather-clad women approached somewhat cautiously. "Look!" the female
mummy cried happily. "Shrimp! Lets make cocktails!"

"Easy for you to say...you're what? Seven feet tall?" humphed Suzene,
measuring up the new arrivals. Her height fell neatly between that of the
warriors, placing them both between five and five and a half feet. Mummraa
towered above them all doing her best to loom menecingly. Sadly, her
over-the-top facial expressions only succeeded in making her look like the
half-wit villain in a Warner Bros cartoon.

"Right," said Artemis with uncertainty. She relaxed somewhat, but held onto
her weapon nonetheless. "Unless Mumm-rana's had a severe overhaul, I'm
guessing you're both players."

"Yep! Mummraa and Suzene!" grinned the mummy, clapping her friend on the
back. Suzene sputtered and coughed from the force of the blow and elbowed
her companion in the midsection.

"Hey! You're the 'Hair' writer!" exclaimed Telly. Then she paused. "Your
name's familiar, but I can't say that I recognize you," she addressed
Suzene.

"I've been pretty quiet on the Thundercat front. Mostly I just played in
the TCRPG and wrote a Tcat fanfic involving my wolfen characters. Guess I
just have too many interests," shrugged Suzene. "Mostly I'm here because I
enjoyed Lady Bast's writing and wanted to see what she'd do with the game."

"Lies! All lies! You're here to see Bengali!" crowed Mummraa.

"I hope Elves eat your socks!" snorted the woman.

"Too late," grinned the mummy.

"My name's Artemis," explained the Avatar, trying to get back on familiar
ground. Elves were fine in essense, but not while she was getting eaten
alive by mutant mosquitoes. "This is Telly."

Telly raised her spear in greeting. "I'm a Warrior Maiden," she informed them.

"Artemis...Artemis...You wouldn't happen to be an Avatar, would you?" asked
Suzene thoughtfully.

"As a matter of fact, yes," said the other with mild surprise. She hadn't
known that others were aware of the Avatar option. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious...Demonprist is around here somewhere," Suzene explained.
"She's an Avatar too."

"Demonprist?" said the Greek with some surprise. "I thought she was a
Mumm-ra follower! What sort of Avatar is she?"

"A nasty Egyptian one," smiled Mummraa. "Nasty is the best kind."

"Does she have a familiar?"

"Familiar?" asked Suzene.

"Yes, an animal companion...like Lepraa," pressed Artemis.

"What animal companion?" snorted Mummraa before her friend could continue.
"I don't see...WAUGH!"

At the sound of her name, Lepraa came barrelling out of the reeds, a
perfect camouflage for her mottled coat, and rammed the potential enemy in
the chest, knocking Mummraa flat on her back. Sensing no distress from her
mistress, Lepraa assumed that the bandaged woman was not an actual threat,
but remained on her quarry's chest, calmly licking her paws.

"Oh," wheezed the mummy. "That animal companion..."

"Actually, Demon just turns into a snake," shrugged Suzene.

"A metamorph...that's something new," grinned Telly.

"No more unusual than your average werewolf..."

"Well, either way, it doesn't make much of a difference," shrugged the
Warrior Maiden. "Demonprist isn't here now. We were heading for the Treetop
Kingdom...I think it's in the same direction as the Tower of Omens."

"If you mean 'across the river', you'd be right," sighed Suzene. "So close
to my tiger...and yet so far."

"Help!" gasped Mummraa.

"Lepraa, down girl!" grinned Artemis. "I think the mighty Mummraa has
learned her lesson...no more calling us shrimp!"

"Mollusks!" shrieked the mummy with laughter. Telly, Artemis, and Suzene
all looked at her and sighed.

"I don't know how the two of you are making out, but we haven't found a
section of river narrow enough to cross," said Suzene conversationally.

"Neither have we," admitted Artemis, pointing toward the landmass in the
river's centre, "but Telly pointed out that island on the map and we
thought there might be a way to cross the river in two parts.

"I was just thinking the same thing," replied Suzene, "but we haven't
really had time to discuss the possibilities. I don't have the skill to
make a raft and the current's too strong for swimming..."

"Well sitting around will get us nowwhere," declared Telly. "Two of us are
warriors with wilderness survival skills..."

"I have some plant and hunting skills," admitted Suzene.

"And Mummraa has some magic," finished Telly with satisfaction. "If we take
inventory of what we have and put our heads together, I'm sure we can come
up with *something*."

"All games have puzzles...I guess we just found one," sighed Artemis,
finding as dry a patch of land as she could hope for and emptying her pack.

*********************