" I smiled." I smiled. "Thank you, Oenone. I can never repay you for your first simple 'Yes.'" She scowled. "You will find a way. Where is your vessel?" "Outside these caves. Come on." I gave the drone the medical bag, and we followed it out, picking our way through the rocky passageway. Emerging into the sunlight, I blinked, looking back and making sure that Oenone was still following me. As I surfaced, blinking yet again, I spotted the Destiny a few hundred meters away and began swimming for it. She followed. The drone was already clambering up the ladder when I got there, and Oenone followed close behind. "This is your vessel?" she asked suspiciously. "This is my ship, yes." "It does not look much like a ship." She bobbed in the water, looking healthier by the second. Maybe it was the sunlight. "It is, trust me. Come on." I made my way up the ladder. At the top, however, a pair of feet grabbed my attention. I looked up along the legs attached to those feet, and finally took in the sight of a large, powerful-seeming woman standing over me. "Come up, little godling. We have something to discuss." I blinked. "Excuse me?" "Come here first." "I think you'd better do what she says, Ken," Fawn's voice came from an external speaker. "She's got me pretty frozen." Concerned for the kind of power that could 'freeze' Fawn, I made my way up to the roof of the Destiny, as the woman made room for me. As Oenone reached the top of the ladder, "Reah!" "Oenone," the woman now identified as "Reah" acknowledged. "Are you well?" "I am, Great Mother." At least five centimeters taller than I, this woman with dark and curly hair, her arms crossed in front of her, a long blue tunic flowing out behind her even without wind radiated such a sense of power that I felt myself compelled to admit that maybe, just maybe, I was dealing with an honest 'god' of some sort. |