CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Saturn Girl grinned down at Apollo. She watched his face as she pulled a riding crop out of her thigh-high boot and tapped it against her palm.

'I missed WHAT?!'
Affy had just heard of Red Dog's attempted kidnapping, as he had been in the field instructing several red-shirted diggers who were helping to unearth the entrance to the fortress. He threw a vial of phlog against the archway in frustration.

'Zark it all! I miss all the good stuff!'

Affy shook his head and sighed, then went to work on translating the riddle printed on the fortress's entrance. The adventurers would need all the time they could get inside.

Yo took a deep breath, counted to three, and turned the knob.

The door flew open, revealing a woman clad in something very strappy and tight, and a man clad in very little with a dog collar around his neck. The man was handcuffed to the bed. Saturn Girl looked up from what she was doing, whip in hand. Apollo did not look too happy about the intrusion; or maybe he was just in pain, Yo couldn't quite be sure. Saturn Girl grinned at Yo and sighed.

'You'll have to wait your turn. Close the door behind you. And I don't do guns. Go on now.'
She waved a dismissive hand at Yo, who gaped at her for a moment. She then gave him a stern look, so he backed out of the room and closed the door.

Yo rubbed his eyes. He must be going mad. Saturn Girl and Apollo?! But where had they come from?! Perhaps Red Dog had given him a nasty blow to the head that he didn't remember. Come to think of it, if anyone had given him a blow to the head, it would probably have been sea.

Yo decided the best thing to do would be to go and find sea, and let HER deal with her roommate.

sea sat in the field alone, watching the digging from a distance. The weather had been surprisingly lovely and had enticed her outside. She was taking the moment to indulge in a little bit of thinking; an activity she generally regarded as a bad idea, but she did occasionally partake in it. As was habitual for the times she spent some time thinking, she had somehow managed to get herself lost in unfamiliar thought territory, and almost didn't hear her name being called.

'sea? sea!'

sea looked up. Someone was calling her. Her head was fuzzy until she blinked and shook the thoughts out of it.

'sea!'

It was Yo. He came running up to her, and she smiled at him.

'Hey, Yo. What's up?

Her smile was genuine, Yo noticed. He smiled back at her, forgetting why he had come.

'What are you doing out here all alone? Red Dog could still be gunning for you.'

sea closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

'I'm not worried about him. I was just relaxing in the sun... Weather's nice for England, don't you think? I thought I'd spend a little time out here thinking...'

'Uh oh. Thinking? Never a good idea,'
Yo teased. sea laughed.

'I'm inclined to agree. Now, what were you running out here for? Or did you just want to chat?'

'Oh, right! I almost forgot. Saturn Girl is here.'
sea's smile disappeared. Yo continued.

'She's here with Apollo. In the spare room. I don't know how they got in...'
Yo trailed off as sea stood up, brushing the dust from her pants. She muttered something You didn't quite catch.

'What?'
he asked, wondering if sea's anger over the shooting was going to be vented on poor Saturn Girl and Apollo.

'Ah, I said... um. I said, Let's go deal with my roommate. Yeah.'

Yo knew that was a lie, but he had no reason to call her on it. He sighed and wondered if he was going to have to risk another brush with death by preventing sea from killing Saturn Girl. Perhaps Marv and Gw7en would help him; surely sea wouldn't take out 3/4 of her own team.

Would she?

The Quest Collection

sea

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