A Messenger from Nephelokokkygia

Lady Mondegreen

Chapter 14: Lady Mondegreen

Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.'

--J. M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy

Grace fished around the hearth until she found the largest fragment of Goldtalon's eggshell. It would not hold more than a spoonful, but most bird beaks were small and thin anyway. Unless the philosopher's sword was the length of a letter-opener, more space than three girls' pockets were needed to carry whatever the other ingredients turned out to be.

Elsewhere under Fort Stone, she brushed aside a stack of combs, needles, and razors, getting to a pile of leather scraps. Grace tried to recall the needlepoint lessons her mother taught her in order to become more "ladylike." With wool, she stitched the scraps into a crude bag. A long strap crossed her shoulder, circling her waist. Without buttons or clasps, the bag-flap was kept closed with bits of rope which also lay around. Her makeshift purse hardly looked beautiful, with clashing shades of tan and brown. It was rather frayed in parts. But, taken as a whole, it should prove sturdy enough to last at least one quest.

Grace smiled. She came outside to show it to the group.

Bennu was whining. "You insisted this wasn't going to be a scavenger hunt!" He narrowed his pearlescent eyes.

Schrodinger narrowed his own. "Well, I wouldn't call searching for obscure magical ingredients to complete a recipe that's the best—and only—chance to end a lethal mycological pestilence that legitimately poses a threat to free will itself a... 'Scavenger hunt.'"

"Depends how you frame the random events of life." Bennu calmed. "You can save the world and have fun at the same time."

"If it is, I'm out," Fox spoke with practiced flatness.

"Somehow, I feel we'll manage without you." Jackanapes got a chorus of snickering from the Murder. Others ignored him.

"If this is to be a...scavenger hunt," Schrodinger wiggled his sandpaper tongue as if meaning to spit out the words, "it shall not be a party. I've little doubt it will prove perilous, and should be approached with caution. Dignified caution."

"The veritable stuff of ballads! Even epics!" exclaimed Diana. "We might all die tragically." Tears were in her eyes, but not from sadness or anger. The look on her sunburnt face was jubilant.

Bennu laughed. "Just so long as we're agreed."

The group drew plans for where to take their voyage in the near future. Some were more invested than others.

"It's...so...hard...to...say...goodbye." Diana choked after every word. She wiped her left nostril on a sweater sleeve already so decorated.

"You seemed so gung-ho just now," Grace pointed out.

"Vinland was a great respite," said Bennu. "But it's come to its natural conclusion, as all things must. Rest assured, Diana of the Moistened Dirge, there'll be plenty more wonderous sights...does anyone else feel cold?"

"We don't have any money," conceded Grace. "I'd hate to steal something." She remembered the myrrh.

"Plunder whatever Viking booty's in Fort Stone!" Fox rubbed her hands together in a manner best suited to a villain with a bushy mustache. "That's not stealing. Technically, it's grave robbing."

"No good," said Jackanapes. "I've checked every room down there. Nothing shiny."

"Yeah, but if you had found anything, that's exactly what you'd say," claimed Rags.