It is about two weeks since the strange dream that Envoy had about the Dream Realm of Inala and the poodle noble, Lady Bellefeuille. The journey across the wastelands has been alternately boring and exciting, depending upon one's ability to appreciate the small discoveries along the way.

It hasn't been a straight journey – At times, the group has returned to the base camp, and the base camp has moved along. Presently, Envoy is just accompanied by Mage Iona, the Titanian Backhand, the four-armed (and very quiet) lion-Khatta Ari, and the not-nearly-so-quiet Zerda scholar, Jaffi of Madara … and a small band of Hookas.

"HOOOT?" whonks an ivory-colored four-legged, modular-bodied creature to Envoy. They popped up while the group was packing up camp and in the process of moving along.

The Aeolun does her best to whonk and hoot back to the Hookas, but hasn't figured out what the sounds are meant to communicate yet.

There's a sucking noise, then a *PHOOMPH*, followed by a shriek from Jaffi, the Zerda, who turns about in time to see that his tail has been sucked up the bottle-nose of another Hooka, this one skittering about on six legs on a body not unlike a spider's. "Oh! By the Scimitar and Dagger and all the jewels in the Emir's crown, I say! This is the worst of indignities! Unhand – un-NOSE my tail, I say!" He tugs at his tail vigorously.

Envoy grins to the Zerda, and asks, "Do you know what Hookas eat? Perhaps it was trying to vacuum up any parasites you might have in your fur."

Jaffi fusses and hops angrily as he continues the tug-of-war with the Hooka. "Have all the parasites you want, I say, but dear me, not my tail!" Just then, there's a loud pop, and the Zerda's tail comes free, sending him tumbling in the dust, as the Hooka falls back in the other direction, the modular bits of his body falling against each other, and two of the legs popping free, the components bouncing in a jumble on the ground.

Mage Iona blinks in disbelief at the scene … and dutifully pulls out a pad. "First Ones morning … made contact with wandering Hookas," she says as she writes.

Curious, Envoy rushes over to the fallen Hooka, trying to examine the connecting points for the limbs before it reassembles itself.

It looks like, on the Hooka's main body, there is a concave depression where the "hip" of the leg piece would fit, with a depressed node that is sealed off by a three-part "hatch" of sorts, that, even as Envoy glimpses it, is still in the process of snapping shut, allowing her a brief glimpse of something moist and organic just inside. The matching leg piece she holds has a similar piece on it – a convex "hatch" formed by three curved, roughly triangular pieces that appear to be able to flex, less solid than the bulk of the Hooka shell parts.

Although it appears that the joint should be able to fit into the main body of the Hooka, it's evident that something is required to link the two, suggesting that something must extend through the two matching concave and convex hatches.

Envoy picks up the disconnected limb and presses it into place against the body module to see if it will reconnect on its own.

The joint neatly fits into place, and Envoy can feel a slight tremor in the shell as the piece locks into place. The Hooka shuffles around, on four legs for a moment, but then two of his leg-arms snatch up the components of one of the disassembled legs – the one Envoy's not holding any part of – and deftly pop the pieces back together and into the main body, forming one of the missing legs, now putting the Hooka on five. It shuffles around, facing Envoy, turning its head curiously, then leans down toward the remaining pieces of the sixth leg that Envoy partially put back into place.

"Do you think Hookas are animals or vegetables, Iona?" Envoy asks her friend as she watches the Hooka work. "I wonder if the different parts are separate entities… "

Iona shakes her head, watching the Hooka reassemble itself the rest of the way. "I'm not really certain. I wouldn't be quick to assign them to either. They seem to defy most of what we know about other living species. And it's a matter of debate just what defines a single Hooka. After all, they can trade body parts, so far as we can tell, without any adverse effects … aside from disturbing non-Hooka onlookers!"

Jaffi adjusts his spectacles, then pipes up, "I have it on authority that Hookas are indeed distinct individuals, though the center of individuality is shared in the head, as the cognitive center of functions. That said, the core body units of a Hooka are capable of a limited degree of autonomy, near as we can tell, for the sole purpose of locating a detached head and other parts, and reattaching them once more."

Mage Iona says, "Actually, I've read that a Hooka's mind is located in its core body, and that the 'head' only houses additional sensory organs – and the mouth, of course."

Envoy ponders this, and asks the Zerda, "Where do the parts come from?"

Jaffi phahs at this, waving it off, looking like he's about to contradict Iona, but then turns to Envoy. "Oh! Well, really, it seems to be an advanced form of cell division. It's hypothesized that the bony exteriors of Hookas are built up by a secretion, and that they're actually born soft and pliable – not that an infant Hooka has ever been captured for study, that is… "

Mage Iona says, "Actually, a scouting party on Arcadia reported finding a 'Mother Hooka'."

Jaffi says, "That's Arcadia. Arcadian Hookas are an entirely different creature altogether. Why, they have obvious eyes, for goodness' sake!"

"Maybe they just have more to look at on Arcadia?" the Aeolun suggests. "In a cold environment like this, heat-sensing pits might be more practical."

Jaffi hmms. "Well, actually, it's interesting you should bring that up. Tests of Hooka sensory functions indicate that – " He is interrupted by a distant thundering sound that sounds at once like a bellow of a great beast … and a Titanian orchestra pit with a deaf conductor.

Envoy gets up from her observation of the Hooka, and turns towards the direction of the sound. "Do you suppose that was a Goliath?"

Mage Iona's ears perk, and she fumbles about in a pack until she produces a spy-scope. "Either that, or something else worth investigating." She peers through it, then cuts herself off with an "Oh!" and hands the scope over to Envoy. "I think this is it!"

Taking the telescope, Envoy peers through it in the direction Iona was looking.

Jaffi seems about to beat circles in the dirt, as he waves his hands about. "Well, what are you waiting for? Ari! Let us be moving forward! Backhand, show us the way! We've got no time to lose!"

Through the scope, Envoy first sees a blur, then, after twisting a knob slightly to adjust for her own eyes, she can see a billowing cloud of dust being knocked up, on a hilltop some distance away. It is a gargantuan beast, easily the size of an airship envelope, and a mass of muscle and ceramic and steel … or, truth be told, a mish-mash of unidentified materials that could be any number of things, except that they most certainly do not look entirely organic. Surrounding the monstrosity is a horde of little creatures, in some ways resembling aspects of itself, though they can't be exactly classified as little copies of it minus the shell. The monster has a beak like a bird, and where eyes might be, it instead looks like a canopy, vaguely reminiscent of some sort of aircraft of the likes not seen on this world. There are odd appendages that jut out, serving no obvious purpose whatsoever other than to make its appearance all the more bizarre and menacing.

Envoy hands the telescope back to Iona. "It is a very impressive creature, and a bit disturbing." She picks up her pack and gets ready to give chase.

Mage Iona raises an eyebrow. "Disturbing? I don't disagree, of course … but so little seems to disturb you, given your many adventures. How so do you mean?"

With the help of Ari, Jaffi scrambles up onto the back of his riding Dromodon, and Backhand has already clambered onto the back of his – holding the reins of the pack animal as well. Mage Iona puts away her spy-scope for the time being, tucking it into a sling rather than burying it in the pack, and heads over to her own mount … while Ari, finished helping with Jaffi, holds the mounts of both Iona and Envoy steady for their use.

Envoy looks to her fellow Earth Mage, and says, "My… kind… don't like the idea of living things being controlled by machines. We don't trust machines."

The Aeolun clambers up onto her mount, and thanks Ari.

Iona gets up as well, nodding solemnly. "I can appreciate that. It does seem rather … unnatural." Ari at last gets on to his own mount, silently nodding in response to the thanks of Envoy and Iona, and the group rides on in pursuit of the Goliath and its entourage of Zakis.

The Dromodons so far seem to be capable of keeping pace with the Goliath and its followers, though not truly to gain on it … though their paths, initially converging, allow them to at least initially close some ground, for a better look at their quarry. The Hookas, however, fall back, only following for a little bit, letting out some increasingly plaintive whonks and honks, then slowing to a halt, letting the explorers move on ahead.

"Do you think it's safe to fly?" Envoy calls to Iona.

Iona looks about. "I … I honestly don't know." She bites her lip. "It might attract the attention of the Goliath. But at least it's not facing this way right now."

Envoy looks at the backside of the Goliath, as best as can be seen through the dust at least, to see if there are any Zakis straggling behind.

Yes, it looks like a good portion of the Goliath's entourage straggles along behind it, some of them wandering around in some state of apparent confusion before they finally catch on and join up with the group once more … or getting distracted by bumping into each other, and occasionally falling behind as they get involved in bouncy ramming matches.

"Maybe we can separate one of the Zakis from the herd?" Envoy calls out. "I don't know if the Goliath is going to stop any time soon."

Jaffi nods approvingly. "A splendid idea! Ah … how do you propose we do that, Mage Envoy?"

"Backhand could get one to charge him, and wrestle it into submission," Envoy suggests, sounding hopeful.

Backhand's ears shoot up. "Ahhhhh?" he whurfs, turning back to regard Envoy.

Iona nods. "Yes, but I'm not certain he could outrun the other Zakis if they respond to him. We're just keeping up with the Goliath on our Dromodons … and the Zakis appear to be able to fall behind and catch up on a regular basis, suggesting that they're capable of moving faster than the Goliath … and, consequently, us."

"If we can't separate any out," Envoy says, "then maybe we should push on to the Graveyard instead. The Xients said the Zakis wait for their Goliath to regenerate there, so they shouldn't be moving around too much."

Iona nods. "Well, we could perhaps try to use some means of startling the Zakis, and making them break up … but that, of course, would carry its own risks."

"They act confused after banging into each other," the Aeolun observes. "Maybe we can get some to ram into a decoy, like a slightly animated boulder. The rest of the group might leave them behind before they notice they aren't attacking another Zaki."

Iona nods. "There are several boulders here and there, and the ground is very uneven, with plenty of hills for rocks to roll down… "

"But can we get any moving before the Zakis have all run out of range?" Envoy asks. "I wish we could get ahead of them somehow, or slow them down."

Iona rubs her head. "I'm trying to think of any Cantrips or Minor Spells that might help in this situation … but there's nothing particularly long range in that category. I should have thought to Hold something useful before we started off. I've just got Gravity held right now." She gestures with her off hand, over which floats a semi-ethereal pebble that turns in place.

"What is your range on that?" Envoy asks. "It might get some boulders going ahead of the pack if you can aim it with your telescope."

"Well," ponders Iona, "actually, my maximum range is about twice the distance between ourselves and the Goliath … but my accuracy is pretty weak with increased range, especially as we're moving."

Envoy says, "I think I could catch up to one of the Zakis if I flew, but I don't know if it would follow me away from the rest."

Iona shakes her head. "Nor do I."

Jaffi shakes his head. "I doubt a Zaki would be interested in challenging a flying opponent… "

"Perhaps we should give up the pursuit then," Envoy suggests, and checks to see how her Dromodon is faring. "We can't catch up, and even if we can separate a Zaki we have no way to trap it. We need to be able to prepare, and we're just getting farther from camp now."

Iona reluctantly nods. "The winds aren't very strong. We could attempt to follow their trail. The only thing that could cover that trail anytime soon … would be another party of Zakis!"

Backhand puts his hand over his eyes. "Okeedokee. They's headin' into that jaggy-lookin' place, anyway!"

Envoy blinks, and calls to Backhand, "What sort of place?"

Backhand points ahead, as the Goliath slowly descends the rim of a large crater valley, its feet disappearing from view, and several of the Zakis bouncing after it. A few jagged rocks stick up over the rim of the crater-valley, for a moment giving the irregular, broken rim the look of the lost jaw of some mind-bogglingly large alien skeleton.

Iona pulls her spy-scope from her sling once more, and adjusts it. "This may be something… Those … I thought those were just rocks. But it looks like … ruins?"

"This could be it then, the Graveyard!" Envoy says, and all thoughts of abandoning the chase vanish from her mind. "This Goliath may be heading there to duel another one!"

Iona's ears flick back in alarm. "Oh my!" She almost drops her spy-scope, but then puts it up again. "I think… " As the group continues to approach, however, it's evident that there is something of note within the crater. There are twisted hulks of unidentified metal, and cracked sections of ceramic, and other materials that look as if they were at least partially molten at some point, and then solidified again, caked in the dust and debris blown along the wastes. There is a similarity between the look of the broken hulks and the jumble of parts that comprise the Goliath. In fact, there are at least a couple of what look like exoskeletons of a sort, of what might be other Goliaths … each one of them uniquely formed, and surrounded by a host of agitated Zakis that bounce up and down as the new party arrives.

The Goliath gradually slows to a halt within the rim of the crater, stumbling a few times. Even as it comes to a stop, dust still rises … but then, it's evident that it's not just dust that was rising in its wake. Gases leak from seams in its shell, and foul liquids weep from massive wounds.

Envoy eyes the effluvia, and warns, "Better keep some distance. That could be toxic, or might change us into a mix of each other… "

Envoy's party slows as well, the Dromodons panting and whining as they get a chance to catch their collective breath after the hasty pursuit. The broken rocks and ruins at the perimeter offer some cover to hide the group from the gaze of the creatures within the crater bowl. As Envoy gets a better look at the ruins, it appears that there is a larger collection of debris in the center … and a more-or-less intact body, almost rivaling the size of the Temple of Rephidim, resembling nothing so much as a vaguely disc-shaped object, jammed irregularly into the ground. In fact, there is a wound in the ground, eroded as it is by time, that suggests that the ruins could have been scraped along the earth, and then came to rest here, perhaps exploding after stopping at this point, and sending debris flying outward, as well as littering pieces along the way.

"That thing looks like it crashed here," Envoy suggests, pointing to the disc. "Jaffi, do you know what Expedition craft looked like?"

The Goliath lets out wheezing noises, its seeping bodily fluids steaming as they escape to the air. The Zakis mill about, uncertainly, though a few wander closely enough to the other camps that they start butting into each other, resulting in a few isolated brawls.

Jaffi remembers himself, and shuts his previously gaping mouth. "I … I … yes … ah … not … not like this, no, I don't think. That is, I don't think anything like this has been catalogued. Do you think that's what it is? Why, to think… "

Mage Iona goes from a look of awe to a broad smile. "We've discovered an Expedition ship? We'll have a spot in the history books, for sure! Well … I suppose you already should have a few spots in there already, Envoy, but … " She breaks into a grin.

Using a bit of imagination and mental reverse engineering, it looks like the craft would resemble what Terrans might think of as a "flying saucer", though it shows no evidence of having a nice, smooth, featureless outer hull, such as would be popularly depicted, and it certainly looks far larger than the sort that would just have enough room for a dome-shaped cockpit on the top, with a little green man's head sticking up in the middle. No, it looks like the core "saucer" shape had all manner of nodules and fixtures on its hull, more or less radially symmetrical, though only in the sort of way that a kaleidoscope image would be – not with any awe-inspiring sense of simple order and simplicity of design.

"We'll have to look closer to confirm it," the Aeolun says, apparently not too caught up in the idea of going down in history at the moment. "It could be something else, this world is old and has probably attracted a lot of visitors."

Envoy goes back to watching the demise of the Goliath they followed, wondering if the huge creature was somehow inflated with the gasses and fluids now leaking out of it.

One might very well suppose that, for it looks as if the organic parts are alternately deflating or melting, releasing oozing liquids and steam, as the mechanical parts settle down. The creature lets out groans and shrieks that sound increasingly unpleasant. It does not appear that this creature is going at all gracefully, and its cries prompt the Zakis to become even more agitated, some of them dropping to the ground and cowering.

Mage Iona gasps, putting down her spy-scope, and pulling out a handkerchief to bring up to her muzzle, covering her mouth. Her body shakes, as she makes a quiet choking noise, then breathes slowly. "Terrible… ," she whispers.

Jaffi, however, seems utterly fascinated with the morbid scene, jotting down notes and scribbling hasty sketches in his notebook. Backhand just watches with his tongue sticking sideways out of his mouth, looking queasy. "Ick," is all he comments. "Don' wanna eat that."

Frowning, Envoy watches. "It doesn't look like a natural life-cycle to me. It seems the Goliaths just get pushed until they're all… used up. But for what purpose? To haul lots of mechanical junk around, then bring it back here?" She doesn't seem to like that idea.

Jaffi frowns at Envoy. "Life comes in all manner of forms! Why, what about the Hookas? We hardly know what to classify them as, yes? Some are reluctant even to acknowledge them as being alive … or at least of the animal variety of life. What is 'natural'? Do we not make our offspring? Do not the gnawtooths build lodges and dams? Yet we hardly think of them as unnatural. Nature is what we find it to be!"

Iona says, "Whether or not it's 'natural', I have to agree with Envoy to a certain degree. There's something very disturbing about this."

"Machines are not part of nature," Envoy points out, looking again at the disc. "And living machines are very, very dangerous. If I could reproduce, I probably would have been considered a very large threat."

Envoy shakes her head as if to clear it. "Perhaps some of those … skeletons … will provide us with answers? The Zakis around them may be confused enough to get past safely."

Iona breaks from musing over a response to Envoy's assertion, then nods. "That sounds likely. I doubt anything we do can compare to the … ah … spectacle there." She quickly turns away, and coughs a few times.

Backhand slaps the flank of his mount. "Woo-HAA! Gonna get Goliath skellyton bits!"

Envoy looks with concern to Iona, then asks everyone, "If you feel ill or out of sorts, be sure to let everyone else know. There's the curse that the Xients mentioned, after all."

Iona says, "Ugh. I know full well why I'm feeling 'out of sorts'. Ahem. Well, let's be going. No telling how long this will … take." She looks toward the other two hulks. "Well, which one? The one that looks … ah … sort of angular? Or the one that looks sort of dome-like? Not that I can make sense of either one."

Shrugging, Envoy suggests, "Whichever one Backhand is likely to get to first. I want to see if there is a Zaki hooked into either of them to become the next Goliath."

Backhand pulls a small hammer out of a sling, then says, "I'll flip for it! Heads, the dome. Handle, the jaggy one." He flips the hammer, and he catches it by the head. "Heads! WOO-HAA!" He gallops down the crater bowl, toward the vaguely dome-shaped hull.

"At least the Zakis will be distracted by him," Envoy giggles, as she gets her mount going at a slower pace. "I wonder if they only react to things that move?"

Iona nods. "Good point! I'd imagine that movement probably attracts their attention more… "

As Backhand gallops down to the dome-shaped hulk, he comes down on the side that puts it between him and the central area – and the spectacle of the dissolving and dying Goliath, which attracts most of the attention of the Zakis for the time being.

A few, however, screech and bounce up and down at the Titanian's approach, and scamper toward him.

"I hope so, since we can't outrun them," Envoy says, as she watches Backhand. "I hope he doesn't hurt them, or get hurt by them."

"Ow!" yelps Backhand as a couple of knobby-looking Zakis bounce up and bump into him and his mount, while another trundles along behind. "STOPPAT!" He swings around with his mallet, and turns his Dromodon off to one side. "STOPPAT!" he shouts again. It looks like he's drawing the few Zakis on this side away, for now, as he rides back off.

Jaffi holds desperately onto his turban, as his Dromodon bounces down the uneven slope of the crater bowl. "Oof!"

Envoy urges her Dromodon to speed up now that the Zakis are distracted.

The Dromodon stumble-rushes its way on down, and then slows to a trot as the ground somewhat levels out, as Envoy rides into the shadow cast by the roundish Goliath hull. Despite its decidedly exoskeletal purpose, the many gaps still manage to give it a strangely skeletal appearance – the sort of thing that might unnerve the easily disturbed.

Jaffi, while he might be easily disturbed from time to time, seems more taken with the prospect of scientific discovery, as he heads closer to the hulk. "My, my … fascinating, simply fascinating!"

Stopping her mount before reaching the hull, Envoy climbs down and goes to look through one of the gaps in the structure.

It's fairly dark inside, but, just like her brief glimpse into the "node" of a Hooka, she's able to pick up the faint hint of something organic inside.

A bit of shifting around for a better look, though – and she's able to make out what looks like slightly moving organic material inside. There are a few lumps here and there, and what looks like tendons or tendrils extending to different parts of the shell.

Envoy presses an ear against the hull to see if she can hear any vibrations or mechanical sounds, in case the hull is itself active in some way.

There are slight vibrations … and sounds of breathing from within. Possibly even the rhythm of a heartbeat.

Jaffi slips off of his Dromodon, almost tumbling in his haste to do so, and fumbles through his pack to produce a lantern, which he lights, then brings over to hold next to Envoy. He sucks in a long breath as he takes in the sight within.

Smiling, the Exile actually relaxes a bit at only detecting living activity so far. "Maybe it really is just a shell that the Goliath takes advantage of after all. I wonder where it gets the energy for such growth though."

It looks like there is a huddle of larger versions of some of the Zakis inside – Zakis that match the few types that comprised the "entourage" hanging around the dome-like hulk. It looks as if a few of the Zakis had taken up residence inside the hull, then started to grow … and merge together. The head of only one is distinctly visible. The others seem to be oddly distorted … as if the heads of the others hadn't grown with the rest of their bodies, and are slowly passing away as vestigial growths.

There is evidence of at least one mouth, and there are bits of organic material strewn about the chamber formed by the hull. There are also puddles of sludge … and the marks of Zaki-prints tracing through the mess, ending in piles of fungus and plants deposited near the mouth of the growing fused creature.

Envoy goes inside to get a closer look, now that the lantern is available. "Barabbas speculated that the Zakis were parts of a larger organism. I wonder if there is a relation to Hookas here?"

The "tendrils" stretching from the organic core to the shell in fact don't look to be organic in themselves at all … but rather some sort of cable-like structures that pierce the Zaki bodies.

"I suppose that could be possible," Iona ventures, evidently struggling with her reaction to the bizarre sight before her. "I can see some faint similarities. And they do all come from the Roams."

Jaffi marches on in, carefully side-stepping puddles of goop, as he makes his way to a pile of organic matter, and leans over, inspecting the fungi and plant offerings. "Hmm. The diet of a growing Goliath," he murmurs, then dutifully takes notes.

"Maybe those are umbilical feeds, to provide more food for growth," Envoy speculates, trying to find one of the cable-like structures close enough to touch. "I don't imagine the fungus alone can be enough, unless it takes decades to grow a Goliath."

Outside, there is an almost thunderclap-like bellow that turns into a pained shriek, that in turn dissolves into a jumble of hisses and gurgles, followed by what would seem to be relative silence, except for the frenzied cries of the Zakis outside, and the sounds of much scampering and clawing and ramming.

Iona twitches at the noises, then says, "It could very well be … though that would beg the question of where the shell is getting its supplies of nourishment from. Perhaps somehow this large structure in the center of the crater has something to do with it? Perhaps it … radiates some sort of energy that the shells can process? But that wouldn't generate organic matter… "

"We'll need to inspect that new hulk as soon as it seems safe," Envoy notes after the death-gurgle. "There might be some sort of structure that the Zakis aggregate around. I can see where Barabbas got his bio-merging technique from though, since the Zakis must be using it to combine like this."

Jaffi snaps his fingers. "Perhaps there is more to this crater than we can see. We should study the relative positions of the hulks and the debris … Perhaps there are umbilicals running from the ship that we haven't discovered yet. Why, it seems that some of the debris was arranged in such a way that it could be possible… " He rambles on and on, along this line of thought.

Iona peers out of one of the holes. "Ah … Mage Envoy, I do believe that 'the show is over'. The Zakis … they're headed this way!"

"There could be sulfur springs or other resources below this crater," the Exile suggests, then blinks at Iona's announcement. "Do they look like they're going to come inside?"

Envoy runs to peer outside and see if the Dromodons are alright.

The Dromodons look as if they're about to bolt, and Ari has his hands full (all four of them) trying to keep them under control.

Iona stammers, "No telling, but I vote that we don't chance it!"

Jaffi belatedly looks up. "Hmm?"

"I think anyone that wants to leave should do so now, then." Envoy says, but adds, "I'd like to see what they do when they get here though. The… rigging… looks safe enough to hide in, and I can always fly back myself."

Envoy shakes her head, "But they may not clear out again. We should go and try to come back later. The other hulks may have less activity at them."

Zakis start to scamper into view, and Jaffi finally figures out what is going on … and leaps across a puddle of goo, to scamper off back to the Dromodons. "Oh, by the Emir's whiskers!" he exclaims as he runs.

Iona shouts, "BE CAREFUL!" over her shoulder, as she rushes after him.

Bouncing silhouettes of the Zakis can be seen, as they scamper around and partway up the sides of the rounded Goliath hull.

The Aeolun heads outside, but not towards her Dromodon, figuring the large animals will draw the Zakis attentions. She stays near the hull, and prepares her wings to fly if the Zakis take an interest in her. Otherwise, she tries not to move much at all.

Envoy's ploy pays off – The Zakis bounce along, and even extremely close, but fortunately none of them happen to blunder into her – nor do they take any special interest in her, at all. Rather, they bounce after the retreating Dromodons, which take haste with their riders to make it back up the bowl of the crater. At first the Zakis gain … but once the Dromodons reach the rim of the bowl, the Zakis slow down … then bounce back down the bowl, toward the Goliath hull again.

Envoy waits patiently, and watches how the Zakis behave. The head-butting and ramming is probably an attempt to merge together into a Goliath, but something may be missing that keeps it from happening, she thinks.

The Zakis continue to bounce about, colliding with each other. Meanwhile, past the edge of the hull, Envoy can see part of the sagging hull of the recently deceased and liquefying Goliath. The Zakis in its entourage bounce around frantically, likewise ramming into each other with increased fervor. Some of them splash into the steaming liquids, then let out shrill shrieks, staggering back, with obvious burns visible. At the differently-toned shrieks, the Zakis collectively back away from the Goliath, giving it a respectable distance as the liquids slowly melt into the ground or steam away.

Envoy attempts to take a slow step forward, away from the hull. She doesn't like her chances of just walking through the jumble of Zakis without getting hit by one.

It looks like, statistically speaking, it would be very unlikely that she can make it through the crowd on foot without at least one chance collision. But then, standing here, she's likely to get bumped eventually, too.

To demonstrate this fact, a couple of Zakis collide solidly right in front of Envoy, then fall back, collapsing on the ground and wriggling around in an attempt to get back up to their feet.

Finally, Envoy just spreads her wings and leaps up into the air. As always when in a Forbidden Zone, however, she keeps within a few body lengths of the ground.

It seems that, at least for now, no freak storms are about to reach out to snatch Envoy from the air. Some of the Zakis break off from their collisions to turn to look curiously up at Envoy, but that's about the extent of their reactions for now. She can see that the Dromodons are just over the rim – as evidently the others figured out that the Zakis had broken off their pursuit, and returned to see what would become of Envoy. Iona waves both hands from the back of her Dromodon mount.

Envoy waves back to the Jupani mage, and starts flying towards the group to share her speculations.

Some of the Zakis scamper along to follow Envoy's flight … but as it takes them too far from the hull, they give up their pursuit, and tumble back down the crater. Iona calls out, "Thank goodness! That was a close one!" Backhand rubs his side, grumbling. Jaffi just keeps on scribbling notes furiously. Ari, as ever, is expressionless.

"I think there is a symbiotic relationship between the Zakis and those hulls," Envoy says, looking out over the crater-valley. "Something in them may be what activates the Zakis' ability to merge together."

"Let's just hope the trigger isn't something we might be carrying ourselves though, or else we may all need new wardrobes," the Exile adds after turning back to smile at her companions.