*********
The Marraketh Connection
"...lost"
Author: Maruchan, VRDET
*********

        "Now, Cookie Monster kept on walking.  Eventually, he 
came to a fork in the road."
                --Havin' Fun With Ernie and Bert, "Magic Cookie"

	Since all the rangers were exhausted from their encounter 
with the spongin army, they decided to rest for the remainder of 
the day. Maru volunteered for the first watch, and her companions 
went to rest.
	Maru was almost asleep herself by the time it came to 
wake the next person for their watch. Everything was all surreal 
and hazy, like sitting in math before lunch.
	She fell asleep almost immediately and had a really 
really funky dream, in which nothing really happened, because the 
author had no idea about what to do and had decided to cop out by 
writing a really cheesy excuse.

				***********

	Maru woke up. It was about two o'clock. Yawning, she went 
out to see who was on watch. She noticed Red leaning against a 
rock, sleeping with his datapad on his lap. He looked flushed; 
poor guy was probably hot from sleeping in the sun too long. God 
knew what kind of effect that would have on him. Maru considered 
emptying the contents of her water canteen on his head -- partly 
to cool him off, mostly for fun -- but decided against it. That 
would be bad karma, even if it was Red Paladin.
	Past Red, Brynhild was reading a book. Maru though it best 
not to disturb her, and wandered off to look for her other 
companions.
	Calculus was on watch. Rather, he was sitting on a rock 
near the campsite, fiddling with some sporks. "Hey, what are you 
doing?" Maru asked him.
	Calculus didn't look up. "I'm constructing a 
sporkfoonapult prototype for my JPR-04W penguin deathspork 
mecha." After awhile he added, "because Bryn decided we should 
have that kind of funky stuff."
	"Oh. R&D?"
	"No, just..." He paused -- as if he was trying to 
remember something, Maru thought -- but shrugged. "...Nothing." 
Calculus looked up. "Oh yeah, and we'll be leaving as soon as Red 
gets up. Maru nodded and wandered off back to her tent to wait, 
leaving Calculus with his sporks.
	The rangers resumed walking about an hour later and 
continued down a small path which they were pretty sure would 
lead them to Rhye, although they really had no way of knowing if 
it would. Maru was walking along in a sort of half-consciousness, 
thinking about chili-flavored ramen, when suddenly, in a rather 
dramatic way...
	...they came to a fork in the road.
	*Jarring Chord*
	The rangers wondered what they could possibly do. If they 
went one way, well, then, they couldn't go the other. And that 
would suck.
	Calculus finally spoke. "Okay, it looks as if the 'road' 
splits up. We'll split up. Red. Bryn. You take the right fork. 
Maru, Thes and I will take the left one. I don't want to have to 
explore one only to find that we should have taken the other one. 
Remember, our objective is saving the High Councillor."
	The rangers agreed that would be quite spiffydandy. They 
bid each other good-bye, and continued on their journeys.

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

	The day passed uneventfully as the three rangers walked 
along a road that would lead them to Rhye, or perhaps a nice 
little sub-plot. Eventually, night fell and the rangers set up 
camp. It was decided that Calculus would take the first watch, 
and his two companions went off to rest.

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

	"Maru. Get up."
	"Mrrmm."
	Someone was poking her arm. "Maru. We have to go. Now. 
Calculus was taken last night." It was Theseus.
	Maru sat up and felt around for her glasses. "Huh?"
	Theseus sighed. "I think Calculus was kidnapped by 
spongies last night. When I woke up, he was gone. And I found 
this." He held up a Hell Wyrm doll. He paused. "I don't know why 
they left us alone. Luck maybe, or just blind incompetence on 
their part. Either way I suggest we get moving."
	Maru was by now completely awake. "What do you mean? We 
can't just leave him."
	"Look. I don't know Calc well. But it seems to me he 
wouldn't let himself get captured unless he had some sort of 
contingency plan."
	"You're saying he wanted to be captured?"
	"It's a possibility. But even if they caught him off 
guard, which is unlikely, there's nothing we could do about it."
	"We can't just leave him."
	Theseus sighed, "I agree. But we can't look for him right 
now either. The high councillor has to be our first priority. 
After we rescue her and regroup with the others, then we can save 
Calc." He paused for a moment, "Right now though, we have keep 
moving." He went out, presumably to his tent, and Maru got out of 
bed.

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

	They walked for the rest of the day in a depressive sort 
of silence. The area was mostly flat and non-descript, and Rhye 
was nowhere in sight.
	Maru watched as the sun sank into the horizon, and then 
noticed that there was no longer a road of any sort, and that 
Theseus was walking behind her rather slowly, looking around 
somewhat confusedly. Maru followed his gaze to a few small hills 
in the west.
	Theseus turned his head to look at Maru, and motioned at 
the hills. "Ok. You set up camp. I'm going to go over there to 
see if I can see anything." His voice was somewhat tired and 
raspy.
	Maru raised her eyebrows at him somewhat irritably. "Why 
don't you set up camp and I'll go? Better yet, why don't we both 
go?"
	Theseus smiled. "Sorry. You're right. I shouldn't be 
sticking you with all the work. Let's both go then."
	They started walking up the hill. Maru looked at him 
sidelong. "Are we looking for anything in particular?"
	"I just want to see if I can see some sort of landmark... 
like Rhye ideally. If not that then the mountains. I just want to 
make sure we're traveling in the right direction." With a burst 
of energy, Theseus hopped up the hill ahead of Maru and looked 
out expectantly.
	"Shit."
	Maru climbed up beside him. "What happened?" she asked 
softly. Theseus shook his head. She looked down to a vast expanse 
of nothingness. An area of flatlands stretched on indeterminably 
ahead of them.
	"The road must've been curving," Theseus muttered, and 
sank to the ground.
	"Does this mean--"  Maru knelt down beside him and stared 
out at the dusky sky.
	"Yes. It does. We're lost."

-TBC-

(c) 1998-99 SD Super Dumb Manga/Neo-Tokyo Ni Bakasa Productions