Back to Where It All Started

The group watches as Lirassa leads Zeton to her cute, little car and then drives off in a hail of shrieking tires, once again only just missing the doors of the gate as it opens.

There is a chorus of sighs among the group, and then Ham says, "Now what?"

Mon'Fargret looks at Widjgleeby thoughtfully, stroking his mustache, and then he says, "I think Widjgleeby just might fit in the back of the van. It'll be tight, though."

Widjgleeby snorts irritably and goes on looking out the window.

"The problem is where to put everyone else," Mon'Fargret goes on. "The van is for hauling stuff. It only has one bench seat plus two in the front. We can put four, maybe five of us plus the driver in there."

"There are exactly seven of us here in addition to Widjgleeby," points out Nekshi. "There is also a matter of anatomy. Assuming your vehicle was designed with Yangae and/or Hergoth in mind, Granite Spear would require at least half of the bench seat. As for the other half..." She lifts her gaze to Ham's tall, stocky frame. Then she reaches over and pats Dabid's paunch.

Dabid immediately swats her hand away and brushes his belly off as if it were soiled.

"You must see the problem here," adds Nekshi, cradling her assaulted limb. "Assuming no one is left behind or forced to rely on podiatric transportation..."

"'Podiatric'?" snaps Dabid indignantly. "That's not a word!"

"There is other car," rumbles Widjgleeby.

Nekshi's bushy eyebrows almost merge. "I beg to differ! The Yangae language does in fact allow for the use of classic Sarkish terms with proper declension! For example..."

"She's right, purple," says Mey'Luskar quickly.

"What?" rails Dabid. "Tell me, scarlet, would any civilized Yangae ever say, 'podiatric transportation'?"

"There is other car," repeats Widjgleeby.

"No," replies Mey'Luskar, "but if they had a proper education they'd understand what it meant."

Dabid makes a very interesting (and very caustic-sounding) noise.

"What did you say, Widjgleeby?" asks Bina very deliberately.

Widjgleeby points with four of her hands. "Other car!"

"Now that is improper Yangae," says Mey'Luskar.

Widjgleeby uses one of her remaining hands to make a very unfriendly Yangae gesture.

"Actually, that is also an inaccurate assessment," retorts Nekshi. "In the standard dialect of the Labor and Soil Tender castes it is both common and acceptable to make statements lacking one or more standard grammar cases."

Widjgleeby's remaining hand echoes the gesture.

"Widjgleeby," says Mey'Luskar, "I think you want to say, 'There is another car.'"

Widjgleeby says, "There is another car," in Her-Galad. Then she belches.

"This is important!" says Bina. Then she looks at Mon'Fargret.

"Yes," he says, "I do have another car. It's a little Tuzero."

"Oh, how cute!" coos Mey'Luskar. "Why don't you let me drive it? I'll carry Bina and...one more? Maybe purple, here? You can drive the van with the others!"