Episode 2: Already So Far From Home

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The barges glided with steady force across the water. Soon, they could make out the distant shore of the lake, dark just above the waterline.

"Oh, thank the hills!" exclaimed Uther.

Abigail noticed MacGregor waving at her, and waved back. He was shouting something, it looked serious. He pointed toward the back of their barge, and she followed his gestures.

A large plume of smoke was issuing out of the back of the engine behind them, apparently unnoticed by the whistling boatman.

Before Abigail could yell to him, a loud thump issued out of the engine, and the barge pitched forward slightly and lost forward motion, sending everyone reeling. The boatman swore as he snapped at the lever.

"What's that! Why have we stopped?! What's goin' on?" Uther asked, worriedly.

The boatman muttered something apologetically. "What'd he say?" Uther asked Isobel.

"Something about a little trouble, nothing to worry about..."

Uther muttered under his breath. "Easy fer you to say..."

The boatman opened up the box and began rummaging around inside. The other barge had stopped by now, and the quiet was rather sudden. The other boatman called over to him, and they exchanged words so thick that Isobel could only pick out every other word. Something about "broken", "toothwheel" and "again" was about all she understood. It didn't sound good, whatever it was.

Another curse erupted from the boatman as his wrench slipped out of his fingers into the water. He stood up and yelled at the other boatman to throw... Isobel felt her face go flush until she realized he had send "throw a wrench over" and not something else...

The tool fell quickly through the water. It struck the beast on the forehead as it was talking to Ioan, distracting it from its story. The eye swivelled upward, looking for the source of the odd feeling. It stirred, dragging its body out of the mud, and the water grew dimmer and harder to see through.

"What that?" it asked Ioan.

"More friends," Ioan answered. I wonder why they've stopped?

"More?! Friends?!" the beast replied, its excitement growing. "FRIENDS!"

Uh-oh...

"I LIKE FRIENDS!" it roared, and with a great deal of force swam upward through the water. Ioan swam quickly to catch up, and grabbed the beasts head.

"Wait!" he called out to it. The beast was not going to wait.

It burst through the surface of the lake like a rocket, sending water spraying over the barges and waves rippling.

The barges rocked precariously. Uther rolled over backward and nearly over the side, knocking the boatman off. Abigail and Isobel grabbed his arms and held on to him; Uther's eyes were wide, and he held on to their arms so tightly that they winced.

On the other boat, MacGregor had lost his footing and toppled into the water. The other boatman leaned over to grab his hand, but missed.

Rikkard saw the beast and grabbed his blazer. Leveling the gun at its head, his finger steadied on the trigger; he would need to be careful, because it was pretty inaccurate at this range, and the barge was moving...

"No! Wait!" yelled Ioan, first in his natural tongue and then in a tongue the landwalker would understand. "He's.. He's a friend!" The last words were cut off as the beast dove again.

"Will they play?" asked the beast.

Isobel and Abby yanked Uther onto the barge, Rikkard put away his gun, and looked over at the floating boatman. The horses around him were skittish, but in control. They breed good horses down here, he thought admiringly. A little short, maybe, but good tempered.

MacGregor struggled to swim back to the barge as the frantic boatman powered up the engine. The boat quickly pulled out of his grasp.

Ioan felt the beast's exhiliration as it twisted and turned to come back up again. He could see someone's feet above them as they rose, and yelled out to the beast: "Look out!"

"I.. Help!" it started to say, but it burst through the water before it could finish, and it became a high-pitched squeal. The beast had come up underneath MacGregor and send him flying up through the air -- onto the barge. Again, the wash rocked the barges, although Ioan was impressed at how much more gently the beast had been than before.

Again, the beast dove, and again it came up beneath another pair of feet, this time belonging to the swimming boatman. It carefully pushed him up onto the barge, and then dived again.

"Whee! Fun!" it called out happily. It looked back and forth between the two boats, and saw that one of them was speeding on ahead. It corkscrewed around and came near the bottom of the stalled barge.

"What are you doing?" Ioan asked him worriedly.

"Race!" it called back.

When they crested the water behind the barge, Ioan yelled out to those on the barge: "Hold on to something!"

The beast lined it's head up with the back of the barge, gently came up to it, and then began to swim, pushing the barge ahead of it.

"I don' b'liev't!" gasped the startled, soaked boatman.

The beast pushed the barge very quickly, and they quickly caught up to and then passed the other barge. At Ioan's suggestion, it stopped pushing when they got near the shore and let it drift into the docks.

The boatman quickly lashed the barge to the dock, and Uther leapt over him, landing on solid ground. Bending down, he gave the ground a few kisses, and then rolled over in a fit of nervous laughter. A few swigs from his ever-present aleskin calmed his nerves a bit, although he still wouldn't look at the lake.

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