Blazing Through Time: Suzie, Navah, and Chef Glover's Pacific Northwest Adventure

"No, no," Suzie said. "You've got the pick-axes in your other hands."

"I have?" asked Navah. "Oh, I guess I have."

The two women stood in a vast pit, surrounded by wooden sticks covered with little green hats. The ground was covered with coins and mushrooms and flowers. At one end of the pit, a large lava-monster was jumping up and down, trying to break through the rock on top of him.

"Did you see where I put my sword?" Navah asked.

"That way," Suzie said, pointing at a trail that led away from the pit. "You dropped it when you were fighting the Goombas."

"I did?" Navah asked. "How'd I do?"

"It was kind of hard to tell," Suzie said, "but it looked like you were doing okay."

Navah smiled, then frowned. "Wait a minute," she said, turning back toward the pit. "The lava monster! Where's my sword? He's getting away!" She bolted down the trail toward her weapon. Suzie sighed, then followed her friend, who had stopped in front of her sword and was now staring at it as if it were alive and had just insulted her mother.

"I can't leave it here," Navah said quietly. She bent over to pick up the sword, which had a blade about eight inches long with a curved tip. Its handle was made of wood; its guard was an upturned saucer-like piece of metal whose edge sat flush with the blade itself. A short horizontal bar of metal extended from each side of the guard; these pieces were rounded off so they lay flat against the sword's side and provided protection for the hand that held them there. The sword was adorned with jewels: a blue jewel on each side of its guard; two red jewels near its hilt; two green diamonds on either side of its pommel; one purple diamond on its upper edge; and another green diamond on its lower edge. The entire thing looked like it belonged in a museum rather than being wielded by someone who fought monsters for a living.

"So what are we going to do?" Suzie asked after several seconds passed without any further movement from Navah other than deep breathing.

"We go back," Navah finally said after another few moments' silence. "We leave this place behind."