<html> <head> <style></style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'>  Unsurprisingly, Xayk talked the whole way.  Maybe it was just the fact that he finally had company after all these years of solitude.  Or maybe it was simply because he was insufferably insane.  Not that any of them could decide not to suffer it, or at least they wouldn’t live much longer if they refused to do so.  So, they dealt with Xayk’s ramblings about many things, like paper masks, wax, court fratricide, goat testicles and the like.  Zyn was getting so sick of (and from) the conversation that he almost didn’t notice that the dragon had led them to a place he was more familiar with than he would have liked.   Lum caught it too, and shot Zyn a look chock full of apprehension and concern.  Pols, apparently knowing his friend well, edged in trying to ignore Xayk’s ramblings.  “What’s wrong?”  Trying to keep his fear down, Lum pointed at the cave entrance they were now approaching.  “This is that cave.”  “What!?” Pols shrieked.  “Oh yes, this is the cave...” Xayk suddenly intoned in a dark, ominous voice.  Then, unnaturally his voice resumed its light, chipper quality as he smiled balefully.  “Let’s go inside!”  Zyn considered the possibility that the dragon was once again royally screwing with them, only this time with a slightly more fatal punch line.  Lum apparently thought along the same line.  “Uh, how about you tell us what’s inside first?”  Xayk’s entire body came screeching to a halt, and instinctively Zyn tensed, waiting for the dragon to snap back around madly and cut the impudent sailor in two.  Instead, they were rewarded with an ever so childish ingenuousness.  “But that would make the surprise not a surprise.  That would make it… a Not Surprise!” he gasped in horror, and for the life of him Zyn honestly couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not.  “We can’t have Not Surprises!  That’d be not fun!”  Lum gulped, bewildered and confused, unsure of what to do, and then the dragon was belly on the ground, begging, “Please?  Pretty please with chocolate and cream on top?” he pleaded like a lost puppy.  Zyn never imagined that it was possible for a dragon, a massive fire breathing reptile more from myth than reality, to look so abominably pitiful.  “[i]Pleeeeeeeeease?[/i]” he asked with trembling lips and wide eyes that seemed to hold back a torrent of tears that could burst forth at any moment.   Lum, for his part, stood there like a mute idiot, mouth hanging open in a perfect position to catch flies, which it did in fact.  Startled, the sailor smacked at his mouth and spit, but paid no more attention to the offending insect.   Xayk, however, took Lum’s silence (or used it so) to mean he acquiesced.  “Yay!  Oh thank you, thank you!!” he exclaimed, and jumped forward to capture the sailor in an overwhelming embrace.  The sight of the massive dragon hugging tiny Lum so enthusiastically was one that would have made Zyn laugh, were it not of course for the fact that Xayk was just freaking creepy.  Stepping back and letting Lum stagger to remain on his feet catching his breath, Xayk grinned wildly.  “Ok then, now we get to go exploring!”  Without further preamble their draconic host proceeded into the mouth of the cave and disappeared into its dark maw.  The six men stared mutely at the cave and each other before a call rang out, “Hey you silly cast-aways, we don’t have all day!”  Zyn sighed and was the first to step forward to follow Xayk, and slowly the others followed.  “Hey, how are we supposed to see anything down there?” Lum suddenly asked.  “It was pitch black when me and Zyn went down there.”  Zyn grimaced; it had been pitch black in more ways than one.  Xayk’s antics or no (and how did any of them know that all of it hadn’t been the dragon’s fooling around in the first place), the feeling that he had been hit by in this cave the first time had been one of overwhelming darkness and foreboding.  Come to think of it, the previous night on the plateau Xayk hadn’t exactly been roses and sunshine either.  It had been different, but it sure felt dark and even somewhat evil.  If Xayk could produce such feelings once, couldn’t he have done it earlier too?  And, thinking more on it he had been somewhat quiet the previous night when that snake had crawled up onto his leg.  Even during the jeering and joking of all the others, the dragon had been calm but intensely curious the whole time, and had been equally silent but intense when they had awakened in the morning only to spring into his happy-go-lucky “self;” as if they could tell just what Xayk’s true self even was.  Suddenly the dark cave was filled with a warm orange glow from its depths.  “All better, see?”  A loud chuckle followed, “Get it, [i]see[/i]?  Heheha!”  Great Eli, the dragon’s insanity was bad enough, but now puns?  Slowly and cautiously, the six men descended into the dark cave, a cave that last time had chased them out with a wave of unfathomable darkness, but was now comfortably illuminated, illuminated better than most buildings in fact.  At first Zyn thought the dragon was using a witchlight or something, but there was no concentrated point of light in sight.  It was almost as if it was just popping out of thin air and illuminated the cavern completely spontaneously.  Fortunately, this light made it far easier to descend into the cave than it had been the first time when he and Lum had been fumbling around in the dark, even though they had only ventured some yards into it before running out.  It was enough for Zyn to see the floor was far from even and was littered with rocks that jutted up randomly; it had been a miracle that the two of them had sprained themselves or at the very least stubbed a toe on the scramble out.   Expecting to see Xayk waiting for them, Zyn was surprised to see just more empty cave.  Apparently the ambient light spell that the dragon had cast was limited in its effect; it probably only worked in proximity to him, but then where had he disappeared to?   Turning around, he bumped into someone.  At first he thought it was Grumiah but looking at him he realized something was amiss.  “What the hell?” Grumiah, who was only now descending into the cave blurted.  There before them, was a complete stranger who hadn’t been there a moment before.  The short haired man simply raised an eyebrow.  Soon they were all standing in shock at the sudden appearance of the stranger, who stood stoically and mutely.   Impatient, apprehensive and altogether agitated, Zyn stared back with ire.  “Who the crap are you?”   “I am a figment of the imagination,” the man said.  “...Huh?”  “A figment,” the man repeated.   “Where did Xayk go?” Grumiah demanded.  “He’s busy with something,” was all that the newcomer said, and without further ado proceeded to venture down further into the cave.  “Shall we not continue?” he asked without turning back.  The six men looked at each other before they realized that the ambient light spell was moving along with the “figment” and rapidly leaving them behind in the cave’s gloomy dark, prompting a speedy pursuit of the strange man.  “This is bull,” Zyn whispered harshly to the others.  “Where did this guy come from?”  “Uh, a figment of our imaginations?” Lum weakly offered.  “Yeah,” Pols snorted, “and now a [i]figment’s[/i] leading us down to Eli-knows-what in this dark cesspit?  Isn’t a figment supposed to be, you know, [i]not really there[/i]?”  “Who says I am?” The Figment asked up ahead, and as he did so seemed to fade.  Not fade as in growing dimmer mind you, fade as in he became noticeably translucent, like a ghost.  “Alright damnit,” Pols hissed, “That’s it.  I’m getting out of here right [i]now[/i].” He turned around to do just that when he suddenly bumped into someone.  As Zyn snapped around, he saw before them another man in his late thirties or so with wild frizzled [i]green[/i] hair.   “Holy great Yahshua!” Lum shouted.  The green haired man shook his head insistently.  “Why do you want to leave?” he asked, “The thing I wanna show you guys is still down here.”  Zyn blinked before coming to his senses.  “Xayk?”  The frizzled green haired man nodded enthusiastically.  “Yup, in the flesh!  Well... sorta.  It gets kind of narrow up ahead you know, I couldn’t exactly fit through normally, I’d get stuck!” he said, making motions with his body imitating him getting stuck.  Zyn grimaced briefly at the idea of the dragon getting stuck in front of them blocking the way... or even worse, [i]behind[/i] them.  He of course remembered that the stories often had something about dragons changing form and whatnot, but he hadn’t quite expected to see it demonstrated so vividly before.  Then again, he had never expected to meet a dragon in the first place, let alone one as colorful as Xayk.  “So are you guys coming or what?” Xayk asked, then pushed his way past the others to follow the Figment.   “So, wait a moment,” Zyn said as they more or less fell in step with Xayk.  “Just what is that [i]thing[/i] that’s supposed to be leading us?” he began, not able at all to put into words the situations they were being put into by their host.  “Well, he is a figment of the imagination” Xayk shrugged.  Zyn couldn’t help but roll his eyes.  “Yeah, but who’s imagination are we talking about?”  Another shrug.  “Dunno, maybe you, maybe Stinky, maybe the Silly Sailor, maybe me, could even be Steve.  He’s evil by the way,” he added offhandedly.  “But... how’d that happen?  How did this ‘figment’ start walking around?  Did you have something to do with it?”  “Hehe, silly little human, you really think I’m that powerful?”  Then suddenly his face hardened like sharp glass.  “Yes, you did, didn’t you now?  You [i]did[/i]!” he spat.  “Um, I...”  “Well I suppose now’s the time to tell you that when I said I was Xayk I was lying.  Or maybe I was lying when I made myself appear as a dragon.  I’m actually an evil cursed frog out to steal all your souls.  Bojaam!” he shouted, throwing his hands up in the air as if proclaiming some kind of curse.  Upon the sudden backpedaling the startled cast aways, he lifted his hands up again.  “Bojaam...,” he said in a whisper before trailing again after the Figment.   “Are... are we going to die?” Parn asked.  “Come on you silly little people, I’ve got to drag you all to your doom at the bottom of this cave!”  “Yeah,” Zyn whispered.  “I get the sort of certain feeling that we’re going to die.”   “So what are we going to do then?” Parn asked, his trembling terror evident.          “I vote for running.” Lum declared.  With that he and Pols were the first to start going backwards and then quietly bolt for the cave entrance, and soon they all were proceeding to get the hell out of that cave.  The cave was nearly pitch black now, but the light coming in from the entrance, even though blocked from their line of sight, was plainly visible against the black behind them and aside from the oddly placed rocks that caused more than a few toe stubbings they faced little in the way of obstacles.          This changed, however, when in front Lum came screeching to a halt, followed quickly by Pols who crashed into his back, followed by Zyn as he careened into their fallen forms and tripped head over heels on top of them, who felt the pile of men shaken by Grumiah crashing full force into them with his hefty well built frame, nearly wrenching Zyn’s left arm from its socket and seeming to impact right where he had greeted sharp coral a few days before.  Lorian managed to screech to a halt before being plowed into by a panicking Parn, reducing the men to a tangled mess of limbs.                The reason for this sudden stop was sitting square in the middle of the entrance; perched upon a crude but perfectly symmetrical cot was coconut with a crudely carved face with a look that could best be described as confused and on the fritz.  Steve the coconut stared blankly at them as they untangled themselves with caution and apprehension, nervous at the coconut’s sudden appearance.          “Nobody move; don’t do anything sudden,” Lorian cautioned.  Steve stared back at them as confused as ever.               Pols looked incredulously at the one armed man.  “It’s just a stupid coconut.”               “Yes, but this is Xayk we’re talking about.  When has anything been ‘just’ since we have met him?”  It took Zyn a moment to remember that they had only been introduced to the dragon... er, whatever, the previous night, though it may as well have been a week for all it felt like.  “It wasn’t here when we entered.”               Pols snorted.  “So that’s his fiendish plan?  Leave a coconut to guard us and keep us from leaving?”               “Um, this is Steve we are talking about,” Parn added.               “It’s a [i]coconut[/i], chubby boy,” Pols retorted in annoyance.  Zyn was surprised that the superstitious sailor was acting so impatient around Steve’s appearance.  Then again, though, his impatience seemed to be the one thing above all which could trump that.               Apparently deciding to test the coconut’s resolve, Lum jumped forward a bit then immediately back.  Steve did nothing in response.  This was followed when he extended his foot to within spitting distance and held it there for a long moment.  The coconut did nothing.               “Are you going sit there and pansy foot all day with that thing are we going to do the smart thing and hightail ourselves out of here?” Pols demanded.               Grumiah snorted, annoyed at Pols’ impatience.  “You wanna go ahead and go past that thing, you’re welcome to.”               The squat sailor shut his mouth for once, but paced back and forth, staring at his intractable nemesis.  Zyn sighed, growing impatient himself, and grabbed a small rock and tossed it at the tropical fruit.  Steve did nothing.               “What in the Pagan Hells are you doing?” Pols demanded.                “You’re the one that wants to get past this thing.”               “But that could have made it... react,” Grumiah said with a grimace, reluctant to even give voice to the ridiculous idea.               “Fine then, then we’d at least know instead of sitting here having a staring contest with it.”               The standoff ensued for what had to be minutes, but each one added an immeasurable amount of tension.  Every few seconds one of them would turn look back over their shoulders, looking for any signs of a certain green haired individual or anything odd or sinister.  They had to be running out of time; how much longer could they honestly expect to have before Xayk discovered that they had left?               “Alright,” Pols declared hotly, “I’ve had it up to hear with the dragon’s wacko antics.  Let’s just go right past this thing.”  In response to the squat sailor’s declaration, there were more than a few nods of agreement.  Noticeably lacking, however, were the announcements of anyone volunteering.  Scowling, Pols shock his head.  “Zyn, you go first.”               “Me?” Zyn asked incredulously, “It’s your idea, you go.”               “You’re the one who decided to chuck some rocks in the cursed thing’s face!” Pols retorted.               “That’s one thing; getting up [i]into[/i] its face is something else entirely,” Zyn said.  “You do it!”               “I ain’t touching that!”               “Fine, fine,” Lum said, waving his hands down trying to calm Zyn and Pols down.  “It doesn’t have to revolve around just you two.  There can be another way.”  He smiled placatingly at them both, trying to keep some semblance of civility to the group.  “Grumiah, you go first.”               Lum was rewarded for his attempted group conciliation with a hard stare from the grizzled quartermaster and sharp expletive to go and commit an indecent act with his mother.                Sighing, Lorian stepped between the quarreling cast aways.  “Alright children,” he said with the slightest audible twinge of ire.  “Since we can’t just pick someone, [i]or volunteer[/i],” he added sharply, “we can just determine-“               “Hey,” Zyn interrupted, “You could always volunteer yourself, you old goat.”               “We can just determine,” Lorian repeated, unflappingly ignoring Zyn, “who’ll go with a quick match of Rock, Paper, Shears.  So, let’s do this quick so we can get out of here like we should have done five minutes ago.”               “Fine,” Grumiah assented. “But if Pols cheats again he automatically gets picked,” referring of course to the match they had held on the raft days before.               “I did not cheat!”               “Shut up midget!” Lum and Grumiah said simultaneously.               Grumbling and griping like an old woman, Pols grudgingly joined the circle for the game as the others followed suit, the first round of which ended ever helpfully with all six of them choosing Rock.  Ever mindful that at any moment Xayk could come roaring back up the cave in pursuit, they started again, ending with Parn choosing Rock and all five of the others choosing paper.  Marveling at how quick that had gone, they all looked to a now hyper-nervous Parn who’s eyes shot back from them to Steve, and back and forth several times.  Beads of sweat began to race down his forehead, and Zyn swore he was going to pass out.  Instead, Parn shouted in stress and suddenly bolted around and ran, [i]back into the cave[/i].  The five men were too stupefied to stop him as he ran back into the darkness, back towards their draconic captor.                “Well, this is just swell,” Zyn muttered, glancing a look back at Steve as he watchfully (or not) barred their exit from the cave.  In that moment he considered just bolting past and knocking over the coconut right then and there, but its stupid, crude faze just stared back confused, and he could feel the others were just as nervous about it, even Pols.               “You know,” Lorian finally said, “This is really rather ill thought.  How far could we really get on this island without Xayk catching us?”               “Um, yeah, yeah, I suppose he could just do that anytime,” Lum heartily agreed.               “He [i]can[/i] fly and all,” Grumiah added.                “And use all that magic and stuff,” Pols joined in.               After a moment of awkward silence and Steve’s continued glaring, Zyn took a step back to the cave.  “Well, there’s no really reason for us to stick around doddering then is there?” he said as he quickly but quietly retreated back into the cave, immediately followed by the other four, leaving Steve to keep his watch on the cave’s entrance.               Avoiding the obstacles on the rock strewn floor of the cave, they tried to get by without the ambient light they had had on their way down, and stumbled frequently as a result.  On one occasion Zyn crashed into Pols and they nearly tore each others’ heads off, but both seemed to sense a need for quiet and not attracting attention to themselves in the vain, futile, ridiculous hope that somehow Xayk had not noticed their departure.               Amazingly, against all odds and as sure a sign as any that Eli had not forgotten them all on this island completely, when they finally crept up behind the green frizzle-haired Xayk he was focused entirely on conveying some story or another and was completely oblivious to their absence (they had run into a huffing and puffing Parn shortly before he had caught up with the dragon himself).                “...I told the stupid monkey that he shouldn’t do it, but by the Great Purple Rocks I don’t think he listened to me.  Then again, he probably didn’t have much of a mind to think with given that he was a monkey and all, but... still!  You can’t take everything for granted.”  The human-form Xayk continued blithely as they fell into step behind him.                “Curses be upon you!” he suddenly screeched and snapped around pointing at them.               Zyn about had a heart attack at that moment, and even his normally unflappable mentor was sent back with a shock, clutching his chest in shock.  “You,” Xayk began accusingly, shaking his finger, “Your skin isn’t purple!  Curses be upon you!  Curses!  Bojaam!”  With that, however, he promptly turned around and continued as if nothing at all had happened.  “But yeah, the monkey was pretty stupid, and he certainly wasn’t going to...”               Catching his breath for a moment, Zyn realized that they were off the hook... at least for the moment, and at least he [i]thought[/i] they were.  Whether Xayk had caught on to their attempted escape he honestly couldn’t tell, but with Steve waiting for them there...  But why then didn’t Xayk punish them?  Did he really know about their absence or had he just had that set up to catch them as he left?  But then he was walking down the cave with them the whole time; how could he have put Steve up there?  And speaking of strange crap, where had the “Figment of the imagination” gone to?  Zyn rubbed his head as it started to physically hurt.  Perhaps it was better not to think with this dragon around.  Yeah, better not to think.               Xayk continued on, filling their ears with crushingly mindless dreck about monkeys that didn’t seem to the understand the concept of magical traps and one bit about a fat Irombi prince that made little to no sense when by chance Zyn looked up to see their way forward had a huge stone door sitting in the way.  Lorian to his left bugged his eyes wide like a startled child for a moment, catching Zyn’s attention.  “That... now that must be quite old,” the old man mused.               “It’s old as dirt,” Xayk affirmed, waltzing right up to the door’s entrance before spinning about on his heel to give them all a disturbingly warm smile.  “Old as a lot of stuff.  Older than me, actually, if you can believe it.”  [i]Somehow I sort of do have a hard time believing that or anything you say[/i], Zyn thought to himself.               The seven of them basted in the silence until Grumiah raised his head.  “So you brought us down here to see... a door?”               “No, no, you silly sailor type person thing,” Xayk giggled as though he were a child talking to a toy, “I brought you down here so we could open it.”               Now that the light had fully settled on them all Zyn got a better look at the door in question.  Fairly old, just as Xayk claimed, it seemed heavily worn and eroded, which seemed odd considering that this was deep down in a cave where wind and rain couldn’t possibly get to.  Then again, they were deep down below the surface, so there was the distinct possibility that this place had flooded in the past.  Suddenly Zyn felt crushed by a sudden feeling of claustrophobia as memories of the storm that brought them here and his near permanent descent into the ocean’s deep abyss.  Taking a few deep breaths of air, not water, helped to relieve this problem, but part of him couldn’t help but dwell on it.                Aside from its worn and smoothed out features, there was little to determine anything at all about the strange door aside from the fact that it was down here at all, which told him quite a lot in and of itself.  If Xayk was in fact telling the truth in that he wasn’t responsible for what they had felt from this cave before...  Zyn suppressed a shudder at what could be behind this door.  And the dragon now seemed to want to [i]open[/i] it.  Maybe he had brought them down here to steal their souls after all...               “You want us to open a door?” Zyn blurted out.  “Couldn’t you do that yourself?”               Zyn braced himself as he half expected another explosive outburst, but was met instead with a sort of sad shaking of Xayk’s head.  “Nope, the door’s mean and doesn’t wanna work that way.  You see these two slightly raised platforms on either side of this door?”  Glancing at where Xayk was pointing, he saw to next to each side of the door a large raised stone tablet of some sorts that didn’t seem to be quite the same as the surrounding material.  “Someone needs to step on each one and deliver some hocus pocus chanting and stuff to make the door open.”               “Chanting,” Grumiah repeated warily.  “That wouldn’t be any... evil kind of chanting, would it?”  The toleration of Parn’s ability as it was by the Follower cast aways was somewhat stretched by their circumstances; the fact that he had been crucial to their survival at several points made them tolerate him without complaint, but there were limits to what they would comfortably allow.  Of course, Xayk didn’t apply to those rules; he was a massive flying magic using reptile and could do whatever he pleased.  It’s not like there was much stopping him.  Still, the thought of any magics that were less palatable than Parn’s limited repertoire set them all on edge, or at least more on edge than they already were.               “Just stupid nonsense words that the people who built this ascribed some meaning to.  ‘Course, we can’t ask them what any of it meant to them personally seeing how they’re dead and all, so yeah, nonsense words,” Xayk said as he gave the door a thorough check.                “Did you say that two people would be required to chant?” Parn asked nervously, knowing that there was only one person here besides Xayk himself who could perform any kind of magic.               “Yup, I say that,” Xayk responded.               The boy faced mage visibly gulped.  It was clear he was apprehensive doing anything more than breathe around the dragon, and now he was being asked to cooperate with him in casting Eli-knew what of a spell.                “Please?” Xayk asked; though he wasn’t going for the abominably pitiful look he had gone for earlier he certainly tried to make himself look pleading and wounded.  Considering his green frizzled hair, the effect was... well, Zyn just didn’t have words for it.               “Um...  Ok?” Parn acquiesced to the dragon’s pressure               “Excellent!  Now then, you’re going to have memorize a bunch of stuff to even get this door to notice us.”               The dragon continued blithering on for some time; it had to be close to an hour if Zyn was keeping track of time at all reasonably, though in this dark cave that was pure guesswork.  Xayk was talking about “entanglement” this and “asymmetrically oriented effects” and other horribly complicated stuff that he didn’t even bother to try and figure out, though Parn seemed to be having an easy enough time.  More than that, he seemed rapturously intrigued and engaged by Xayk as he went on describing whatever it was he had in mind.               While those two carried on their strange magic talk, Zyn and the sailors just stood around and waited, occasionally exchanging a few words before contemplating the silence and the strange door.  Its barren, worn façade betrayed little of what lay behind, but it spoke of secrets forgotten, a dark history buried beneath the earth and waves.  Perhaps it was best that its last remaining face to the world of this place was so blank; there was no way to discover, by accident or intention, what lay beyond.  Except for Xayk, obviously, who for whatever reason was able and willing to breach it.  Why he was doing it, none of them had the courage to ask.  Besides, he’d probably come up with some nonsense answer and make them go along with him no matter how ridiculous it was.  For all intents and purposes, this island was their prison, and he their captor.               “You get all that?” Xayk asked, rubbing his hand across the door as he finished explaining some mechanic behind it.               “Um, yes, yes, I believe I do,” Parn said, even though he was clearly still digesting everything he had heard.               “Good, ‘cause if you didn’t I’d have to disembowel you and eat your spleen with coconut milk.”               Of course, Parn didn’t respond to that, merely the color drained from his face and he nodded placatingly.               “So,” Zyn began, unable to help but notice one thing.  “Where, um, did you get all that information on how this door works?”               “Oh that’s easy,” Xayk replied, “The invisible script on the walls.”               Zyn raised an eyebrow as he glanced at said walls.  “Invisible... script?”               “Well of course!  You can’t see it, so obviously it’s got invisibility spells on it!”               Next to him Parn shifted uncomfortably.  “This is... this is a lot of information.  We are... not going to try this now, by chance?” he ventured anxiously.               “Oh no no, I wouldn’t expect your little mind to catch all of that by heart.  We’re going to be memorizing it.”                “Memorizing what?” Zyn demanded.               “The ritual stuff to make this door open of course!” Xayk explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the universe.  It was then that Xayk declared that said memorization would take several hours to complete and that he’d have to help Parn do so until nightfall.  The upside to this, or so he said, was that the others could do whatever they wanted pretty much.  It took precisely two seconds for them to decide to head topside again, but this prompted a most distressed frown from Parn.  Lorian shrugged his shoulders and said he’d keep him company so the mage wouldn’t have to be all alone with Xayk, who replied that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue as he wasn’t going to rape Parn or anything... probably.  This prompted the flight of Zyn and the sailors even faster.  Of course, after taking the first step they belatedly realized that it was pitch black all the way back up to the mouth of the cave and that it twisted and turned several times.  The green haired Xayk said nothing for a moment, then shouted a curse upon them for not believing in cannibalistic monkeys, and then promptly ignored them.                At this point they were all rudely shocked by the return of the Figment who’s only line was “Follow me then,” and at that moment another ambient light spell lit up the cave and the Figment went on his merry way.  Exchanging apprehensive looks with the sailors, Zyn shrugged and followed on.               “Whatever happened to this guy when we caught up with Xayk earlier?” Lum wondered aloud.  “He just... disappeared by that point.”               “Well, he [i]is[/i] supposed to be a figment of the imagination,” Zyn ventured.               “Yeah,” Pols snorted, “walking ‘figments.’  And this is just what the dragon’s doing.  Can you imagine what could be waiting for us on the other side of that door?  This is insane, blasted insanity, the whole lot of it.  That dragon’s going to kill us all before it’s all said and done.”               Avoiding a rock he nearly tripped over, Lum caught up with the two of them.  “Hey, if we go through that door, at least we’ll be doing something.”               “Yeah, yeah we’ll be doing something,” Pols agreed.  “We’ll be [i]dying[/i], that’s what we’ll be doing.  I saw the look in your eyes when you two came out from this cave the first time, and I tell ya Lum I ain’t never seen you as scarred pissed as you were then.  That was what came up [i]through[/i] the door and [i]through[/i] the cave to hit you just as you were entering.”               “You’d prefer to sit on your ass and let death take ya?” Lum challenged.               “Well I’m sure as hell ain’t going to waltz into that pit the dragon wants to drag us into.  You lookin to die Lum?  Just because you’re [i]bored[/i]?”               Before, Lum could reply, Zyn interrupted.  “What if some of us are?” he interjected.               Naturally, Zyn took great pleasure from the startled look that appeared on the sailor’s face.  Though of course, it disappeared and was replaced with a scowl almost instantly.  “Then you’re stupid, landlubber.  Just plain stupid.  Grumiah, would you go through that door?”               The quartermaster stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment.  “That wouldn’t be my first choice, no.”               “Of course not; it wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice,” Zyn said, leaving unspoken the thought that it might be Xayk’s first choice.  “My first choice would be getting off this island and back home.  But I can’t exactly do that now, can I?  Besides, if Xayk wants to go through and he wants us to go with him, how, exactly, are you going to tell him no?”               This at last silenced the short sailor, though not for lack of trying.  It was evident that he was trying to come up with a comeback but also had to suppress a shudder, probably thinking of the dragon’s hold over all of them.  For once, Zyn had to agree with him on something.               “The answer to that’s simple,” Grumiah answered at long last.  “You aren’t.  None of us are going to do much of anything in telling that dragon what he doesn’t want to hear.”               “Bah,” Pols spat, “the beast’s insane, that’s what he is.  There’s a way to get inside his skull; it’s gotta be all broken up inside there.  There’s gotta be [i]some[/i] way of getting through the crazy that’s around that, we just gotta find it.”               Zyn scoffed at the sailor’s childish logic.  “Well then, you go ahead and try.  I’ll laugh when it all comes to nothing.”  Predictably, Pols glowered at him, looking as though he wanted to pound him into the dirt.  Good, let him get angry, that was exactly what Zyn wanted.  If he got angry enough to try and prove Zyn wrong with regards to the dragon, so much the better. !DSPAM:4af0d6ac222021804284693! </body> </html>