The airship ride wasn't so bad, although Tock proved to be somewhat less chatty as soon as airsickness sunk in. Unfortunately it also made the room somewhat acrid-smelling for a time.

Eventually though, the airship landed on the outskirts of a section of the Himaat, and from there the three explorers journeyed through blinding sandstorms to their final destination: a crystal spire rising out of the sands like a great thorn in the desert's sandy hide.

The trio had their bags thoroughly inspected by several strange armored figures (some of them bearing the symbol of Rephidim, some of them not) before being allowed to proceed inside the tower and begin their journey.

Matchstick seems rather bored with the whole thing, and relieved to stretch his legs. Tock has gotten full wind back and is madly exploring the inside of the tower.

"… Supposedly, you just touch the window and it sucks you off to another world! Amazing, isn't it?" The raccoon peers into a window in the "two o' clock position" about the room, that momentarily flashes an image of a grayish landscape that dances with misty shadows. "I think this one is Morpheus. Beautiful place."

The black Jupani just rolls his eyes as he goes over the contents of his backpack.

Lochinvar eyes the window with a mix of curiosity and distrust. "Amazing is one word for it," he replies. "But just because something's amazing, doesn't mean it's necessarily safe. And magical things tend to have a habit of being more unsafe and unpredictable than not," adds the Hekoye with more than a hint of cynicism.

"Smart lad. I knew they picked yeh for a reason." Matchstick shoulders his pack and gives the Hekoye a pat on the back. "You all set for the big pull then?"

The raccoon droops a little and shrugs his shoulders. "Well, at least Arcadia is not that dangerous … although I pity the fellow who chooses to map the sun!"

The coyote continues to stare at the portal for a moment, then turns to look at Matchstick. "Yes… even though I have a nagging feeling not to," he says. "However, I'm hedging that the means in this case will justify the ends."

Tock circles the room as though he wanted to pop into every window at least once (even the one that has the burning landscape of the sun beyond it) but finally he forces himself to pause in front of one in the "seven o' clock" position that flashes the image of a brightly colored forest beyond it. "This one is Arcadia, I think."

"You think?" Lochinvar asks. "Can you be a little more sure for all our sakes?"

The Hekoye sighs to himself, thinking, and I still don't think this is a bad idea?

"Well… um… er… " The raccoon wrings his hands together. "All right, I'm sure it's the right way. Arcadia is the planet of life, right? Well, this one has the most living things beyond it."

Matchstick picks up the raccoon's pack. "That's the gateway. Don't worry… It only hurts when you go through it."

Lochinvar glances at the Jupani. "You're joking, right?"

"''Fraid not." The wolf kneels in front of the window and holds a hand out in front of it. "What are you worried about? Exploding or something?"

"Ohhh! Is that what happened to the roof?" Tock points upwards at the roof of the crystal tower, which looks like something got knocked off or blew up. Pieces of crystals in the sands outside also attest to this.

The winged Hekoye glares at Tock, then goes back to glaring at the 'window'. "It's magic we're dealing with here, though," he declares.

The short Technopriest adjusts his glasses. "Actually it's Sifras tech. How much of that is magic is beyond me… although some might call it such."

The glass window brightens at the Jupani's touch. "Are we going or not?"

Lochinvar's head tilts a little, and asks, "'Sifras tech'?"

"You know… The First Ones? The Mythological Ones? The Creators? Whatever it is you call them." The raccoon shrugs. "It's the crystals. They taught us this in school."

Lochinvar hrms, still not entirely convinced, but looking placated for the moment.

The Jupani reaches out and roughly grabs the raccoon's arm. In turn, Tock holds a hand out to the winged coyote. "I guess we're ready to go. Er, I feel sort of odd being in the middle, but as long as you two don't decide to play a game of tug with me… "

The Hekoye hmphs a little. "I certainly won't. So, are we going to go … before I start thinking this is a bad idea again?"

Tock holds his hand out to Lochinvar. "Whenever you're ready."

"It's easier if we all go together. Or so they say." Matchstick keep his grip on the raccoon, his other hand hovering inches from the window.

The coyote takes the raccoon's hand, and takes a deep breath.

The last thing Lochinvar sees is the Jupani placing his hand against the glass, and then his arm feels like it's being stretched clear across the Himaat. A fraction later and he feels as though he were being pulled through a straw. Coldness surrounds him, followed by flashes of heat, sparks of light and color, and glitters of darkness.

Time seems different. Maybe the whole thing took less than a second; maybe Lochinvar was gone for days. Whichever it is… the instant the sensations feel like they're too much to bear, they abruptly end.

The winged Hekoye finds himself lying on the floor of the crystal chamber again, although the lights in it are dimming. He feels a familiar grip on his hand and hears a strange rustling noise outside.

Lochinvar opens his eyes, and looks up. "Uh… " he starts, and looks around. "We didn't go anywhere?" he asks, noting the interior.

It looks exactly the same. Well … except a roof has apparently appeared out of thin air.

"Ow," Tock mutters.

"Likewise," responds the Jupani.

The coyote starts to pick himself off the ground. "That's an understatement," he notes, then looks up at the roof. "Or maybe we did go … here?"

The twelve crystal doorways all show an amazingly lush landscape outside. A tree with multicolored leaves rustles in the breeze, while a river with sparkling water rushes through just a few yards away from another side of the tower. Either all the windows are projecting an image now, or yes … they did make it.

"It hurts less coming back." Matchstick pulls himself to his feet and grabs Tock by his collar, yanking the poor raccoon up as well before he can mumble a single tone of protest.

Lochinvar doesn't comment on that, but starts looking around the room, pausing to look out of each window. "This is Arcadia, then?"

"Ooomph!" Tock kicks his legs in the air until he's set back on his feet.

The Jupani taps one of his boots against the hard crystal floor. "Just like I remember it. Now all we have to do is get out of here."

"Suits me," the Hekoye replies. "You were here before, so after you."

Matchstick grins and then kicks out with his boot at one of the doorways. It shatters – and then the pieces pull into the wall. Fresh air blows in that smells lightly sweet like fresh flowers.

"We have to hurry through. C'mon." And with that, the wolf grabs his pack and hustles out the opening, grabbing the raccoon and yanking him out as well. Apparently there are certain drawbacks to being so small.

Hoisting his pack onto his shoulder, Lochinvar follows quickly. "Why the hurry?"

A scraping noise follows behind the winged coyote as he steps out of the crystal chamber. The open portal closes a moment after Lochinvar clears it, although he might have lost the tip of his wings had he dawdled a moment longer.

"Glot almost lost his nose that way." Matchstick grins.

Tock winces at the thought and rubs his own nose.

The air here is particularly sweet and almost dizzyingly pure. No pollution, although there's quite a bit of pollen.

Lochinvar yelps a little in surprise at the sudden closing of the 'door'. "Might want to give a bit of warning before you smash that open next time."

"Sorry. There's no way to hold it open from what little experimentation we've done, although none of us felt the urge to hold a hand out in it while it was closing to find out for sure." The Jupani sniffs at the air and sneezes.

Tock seems absolutely mesmerized as he starts fishing out bottles and vials from his pack. "Samples! I must get samples!"

The Hekoye starts walking away from the tower, his nose wrinkling a little as he fights his own urge to sneeze. He pauses, then turns to look back at the tower. "So, what's next?" he asks.

The wolf points at the Technopriest. "Keep him out of trouble."

As if on cue, the raccoon dashes off towards the river on the other side of the tower. "First a water sample, then some tree bark, then some plants… ooooh and I must get the seeds… "

Sighing a little, Lochinvar watches Tock head off. He makes a move to follow, then asks Matchstick, "What will you be doing?"

"Setting up camp." The wolf grins, wagging his tail. "Don't worry, he's nowhere near as hard to corral as Glot was."

The raccoon splashes into the river, heedless of the water soaking his robes as he dunks a bottle into it.

Lochinvar pricks an ear up a little, trying to keep track of Tock – though, from the sounds of it, it's not too difficult. "Okay, I'll keep track of the 'priest. Let's not stray too far from here, though."

"Hey! Let go of my foot!" the raccoon suddenly yelps out.

A chitin tent spike drops from the wolf's hands as the Technopriest's voice echoes around the crystal. "He's in trouble already?"

Breaking into a light sprint, the Hekoye hurries quickly over to find Tock.

The raccoon is standing there in about knee deep water, tenaciously clinging to a small stoppered bottle. He seems to be trying to pull his foot out of the water, but it looks as though it's attached to the bottom of the river. The water is clear and doesn't show any sign of vines or little grabby critters clinging onto the raccoon.

Stopping at the bank of the river, the coyote looks at the river, then at Tock. "I don't see anything? What's got you?" he asks.

"It feels like a vine or… something!" The Technopriest strains his leg and then falls backwards into the stream. "Hey! It's trying to grab the bottle!" Tock pulls his arm out of the waters and holds the jar over his head.

Lochinvar jumps into the water and tries helps the Rath'ani back up to his feet. "I don't see anything down there," he insists.

The moment the words leave the Hekoye's lips, a watery tendril extends from the river and starts to stretch towards the bottle. Meanwhile Lochinvar's strength easily overcomes whatever it is grasping the raccoon's foot and he manages to wrench the Technopriest back upwards.

Trying to take advantage of this break, the coyote starts pulling Tock to the shore.

The watery tendril swipes at the raccoon's arm, but misses and only succeeds in splashing the pair. A moment later and Lochinvar is standing back on shore with a soaking wet raccoon dangling from his arms.

Looking back at the river, Lochinvar comments to the raccoon, "I think you made something in there mad."

Tock shakes himself off. "I didn't know it was possible to upset a river." He pockets the bottle and pulls out an empty one. "Hopefully not everything here will object to having samples taken."

"Maybe," the Hekoye replies. "Maybe not. I think to be on the safe side, you might want to take your samples while someone is watching your back?"

"Of course!" the raccoon heartily agrees. "Perhaps we could try some trees over there? I'm curious as to how a tree could produce leaves of several different colored pigments at once!"

A chortle echoes from around the crystal. It sounds like a laugh from a Jupani Guard who seems thankful that he's the one who's setting up the tent.

Lochinvar tries to stifle a sigh. "Very well."

Tock looks like he's about to bolt for the trees, but instead holds up long enough for the Hekoye to catch up. "So, have you ever done any exploring before?"

"Not any on any formal expeditions, no," Lochinvar replies, "but I've certainly been around enough to pick up a few hints."

The raccoon stoops to pick up a few pebbles from the ground and stuff them into another bottle. "Well you obviously know how to keep Temple employees from being drowned by viscous river monsters!" He grins.

Off in the distance Matchstick makes a grunting noise that sounds a lot like a stifled laugh.

The coyote glances off in the direction of the currently being set-up camp, then looks back at Tock. "I thought that you wanted to get more samples?" he asks.

"Rocks are samples! These are genuine Arcadian stones!" Tock rattles the glass bottle at the Hekoye and then walks over to one of the trees. Unfortunately the lowest branches are still out of his grasp.

Lochinvar looks decidedly unimpressed with the rocks, but follows his "ward" over to the trees.

"Um… would you mind terribly… er… " The raccoon points upwards at one of the branches of the trees.

The branch Tock points out suddenly quivers and lowers itself a bit. It flexes in a way that a tree branch probably shouldn't be able to as it waves over the raccoon's head and then turns to seemingly regard the coyote.

The Hekoye stares back at the branch for a moment, then suggests to Tock, "Somehow, I get the feeling that it might not be a good idea to get a 'sample' from this either."

"Huh? Whatever fo-" The raccoon's voice trails off as he sees the branch move. Almost stumbling over his own feet, he scrabbles backwards.

Something brushes lightly against Lochinvar's wing.

Lochinvar instinctively tucks his wings tight to him, and looks over his shoulder for the source of the touch.

A branch timidly pulls away as it's noticed. It hovers in place about a foot away from the Hekoye's wing, seemingly unsure of what to do next.

The Hekoye turns and tilts his head a little and watches the branch for a moment, before raising his hand up slowly towards the branch, extending a finger. He holds his finger a couple of inches away from the tip of the branch, then slowly moves to touch the branch-tip.

Tock watches the whole thing, wide-eyed.

The branch shrinks back for a moment as Lochinvar touches it, but then moves closer, carefully brushing against his finger and then growing slightly more brave and touching the back of his hand as well.

"I-i-is it friendly?" the raccoon asks.

"Seems to be," replies the winged coyote, letting the branch explore his hand.

Several more branches extend from the surrounding trees and also gently poke at Lochinvar. It seems he's gotten the neighbors' attention as well. Still, none of them touch him with anything more rough than a delicate feather touch.

One branch, this one stripped of leaves, pokes at the Hekoye's wings. It curls around a small black feather and tugs at it lightly.

"If anything," the coyote offers, "I'd say that they were curious." He notices the branch tugging at the feather, and taps against it lightly with a finger then waggles it with a 'don't do that' motion.

"Amazing… " Tock whispers.

The branch releases the feather and withdraws into the tree. After a few moments the rest of the branches also return to their spots in the sunlight.

The bare branch appears again, except this time it's holding something. Something about fist sized and purple.

"Indeed," Lochinvar replies, then watches the bare branch.

Carefully the branch unwinds from around its prize and offers it to the Hekoye. It's a fruit of some sort. A big juicy purple one.

The coyote takes the fruit, sniffs at it, and looks over it carefully.

It's fairly firm to the touch, although the skin gives just enough to indicate a juicy inside. It smells sweet like sugarfir candy or some confection you can buy in the Bazaar. The skin has a light dusting of pollen which rubs against Lochinvar's fingers.

Tock rushes up to inspect the prize. "Wow! It gave you a present! It likes you!"

Lochinvar nods. "So it would seem, yes," he replies. "Think it's edible?"

The raccoon sniffs at it, rubs some of the pollen off on his finger and touches it to his tongue and then closes his eyes. "Hmmm… fructose, maybe a little bit of a plum-berry ancestry, and something else that I can't quite place." His eyes pop back open again and his pushes his glasses back up against the bridge of his nose. "It seems safe enough to eat, yes. Should be awfully tasty as well."

"Hey!" A familiar Jupani voice shouts out. "Are you done over there? I need help getting the tent up!"

The Hekoye cautiously takes a bite out of the fruit, keeping one eye on the branch that offered it.

It's somewhat sticky inside, but awfully tasty! It reminds Lochinvar of a bit of pala-fruit he got to sample once from a cargo ship to Safar. Supposedly the fruits were only for royalty… or folks who had money to spend like royalty. But the bunch Lochinvar tried had been sitting in cargo for days. This one tastes fresh, amazingly fresh.

"You're um… going to share, right?" The raccoon looks awfully hopeful.

The branches of the surrounding trees rustle slightly. They sound almost like they're singing.

"It's good," Lochinvar comments to Tock. He looks at the tree, holding up the half eaten fruit in his hand. "I don't suppose you have anymore?" he asks with a slight grin.

The trees rustle again and the bare branch extends, this time clutching two of the fruits. A second branch also appears and touches one of Lochinvar's wings again, tugging lightly at another feather.

Lochinvar taps the branch tugging against the feather until it stops. He then grits his teeth and tugs the feather out of his wing. Fortunately, it's not a primary. "Fair's fair, I suppose," he says, offering the feather to the branch.

The branch delicately curls around the black feather and waves it in the air, as if testing the feeling of it. Meanwhile the branch cradling the two fruits offers them up to the Hekoye.

Accepting the fruits, Lochinvar tosses one of them to Tock. "Here you go. Maybe that will do for your sample instead?"

"OOOOOOH!" The raccoon squeals as he stumbles to catch the purplish fruit. "I do hope they have seeds!"

"I'll let you know when I've finished mine," replies the Hekoye. "Anyhow, I think that Matchstick requires our help now?"

Back near the crystal tower, the sound of a lupine grunt and a twanging tent cord can be heard.

Tock nods his head. "Indeed. Wow. First contact… and with a tree, no less!" He hugs the fruit to his chest and dashes back towards the campsite.

Lochinvar starts to follow the raccoon back to the camp, pausing to glance back briefly at the trees. He takes another bite of his fruit, then continues onwards.