It was 100 degrees as he sat beneath a willow tree "This trees tear's don't care, they just hang there and refused to fall." Wendolin gibed as he squeezed his grasshopper and once more inhaled the meaning of life, then held it... held it... held it... then it held him.

Wendolin, bleary eyed, roused to the scent of freshly cut daffodils, feeling little, and understanding less. As he shook the glitter off his clothes, he became aware of a subtle whirring noise just beneath the perceptible darkness.

"whir, whir, whir"

"who's there?" Queried Wendolin

"Whir, whir whir"

"Sorceress Azkadellia, I should have known it was you!"

"Whir, whir, whir"

"Yes, sorceress; he was there."

"Whir, whir whir"

"No, I didn't"

"Whir, whir, whir?"

"Because everyone was watching him the whole time, then your vapors overtook me"

"Whir, whir, whir!"

"No Madame Sorceress, I was talking about the drug you created"

"Whir, whir, whir?"

"I believe he still has no idea DG is back"

"Whir, whir, whir, clik clik"

"I'm sorry Sorceress, what?

"Clik clik clik vroooom"

"I'm not sure I understand"

"........."

"hello?" Wendolin searched the darkness for his dark master (after all, wasn't that where she should be?)

"......"

Feeling a little damp, he gained enough realization to recognize the unfortunate side effect of getting high on Azkadellia's vapors, and stood up to run to the bathroom intending to wash off his clothing. "thunk". He fell to the floor; having forgotten he couldn't see anything, he'd stood part way up and smashed the back of his head into the excruciatingly low ceiling. After letting the pretty butterflies escape his visual field, he slowly righted himself and began to creep forward. No luck that way, he felt a very firm wall in front of his rather diminutive personage and right angled himself to be traveling parallel with the cold hard object. Keeping one hand on the smooth slick surface, he traced his way to the corner of the room in a half-crouched position. Upon reaching this pivot point, he thought "screw it, I'm too old for this" and went down to a prone position. He then crawled on his belly (as if there were anything else he could crawl on, on second thought ... let's just keep him on his belly) for the next few feet, and hit a wall. Feeling trapped, and afraid, Wendolin cried out, "Sorceress, where did you go?"

Realizing she had most likely betrayed him and joined forces with the younger sister of the being she inhabited, Wendolin decided to do the only rational thing he could do... sit down, and wait to be rescued. After several hours had been through various stages of lunacy; he had licked both of the walls of his 4 walled cell clean, and there was no longer any of the delicious daffodil scent. With every breath of sweet dank air the vapors were beginning to exit his body, being replaced by the horrible realization of where he was.

The seeker rounded the corner, and found Wendolin in such a dismal state, he could do nothing to watch and wait for the lackey to return to the reality of his miserable existence. While he awaited said return, the seeker noted 3 things in particular about Wendolin. He had been 1. blindfolded. 2. stripped naked, and 3. there used to be a locust of some sort in his hands, now it was a locust with insides out. The seeker strained to put these 3 clues together but could not find any logical explanation for why this cretin was in his current state.

"Seeker!" came the call of Airofday "I have another taker on the Ahamo scheme".

"Not now Anna, can't you see I am at present dealing with a... well a situation"

"Yes seeker, I will find you at a later time"

"Now, Wendolin might I ask what you've been doing?"

"Azkadellia? You look much taller, and less like a woman I'd be striving to win the heart of".

"Damn it Wendolin, I told you never to call me that"

"Seeker?"

"Yes, Seeker... La de dah you're back to your senses yet again! I can't stand the incompetence around here, remind me why I hired you."

"You hired me to keep tabs"

"Shut up, that was rhetorical"

"no it wasn't."

"And what makes you think you would know that? I'm the one stating the question here"

"I have been told I have an excellent sense of humor while on the vapors, and that wasn't funny"

"Not hysterical, rhetorical"

"Whatever that means, can you save me from this prison Seeker?"

"How did you end up in such a miserable state? As if I honestly care to hear your convoluted explanation"

"Well you see, I had been walking down one of the less than reputable streets in central city, boy there sure are a lot of them; sorry but I have no idea which one it actually was. I saw a lot of flashing lights surrounding a promise of infinite wisdom, and well I just couldn't resist."

"Let's start from the beginning shall we? Why the grasshopper"

"I think I thought I saw him cry by the side of the road... because he was lonely"

"so you picked him up, and carried him with you to the flashing lights promising infinite wisdom?"

"No... Yes... slow down, ask me one question at a time"

"You picked him up?"

"yes"

"You carried him with you to the flashing lights that promised infinite wisdom?"

"no, the lights were surrounding the promise of infinite wisdom"

"By Ozma, you really are strung out aren't you... You're worse than usual Wendolin, and that's saying a lot"

"It's not saying as much as I had to take to get to this place"

"okay moving on"

"I want to stay here, I'm naked"

"Exactly what I wanted to move onto"

"My naked body?"

"Gods no!!!" exclaimed the seeker as he caught his foot just before it jumped out to kick the lowlife, "Wendolin, why are you naked?"

"Naked?"

"Yes"

"Naked, naked, naked... I thought they were Azkadellia's body guards" Wendolin paused, a pained look coating his vacant face as the horrible memories came trickling back, "they weren't".

"Please I beg you, don't even attempt to divulge, I will assume the blindfold played into event"

"No, that was Anna's idea"

"Get up Wendolin, I've changed my mind, and really don't care how you ended up here...or why the lonely grasshopper is dead, please tell me some news of Azkadellia."

"She's less amiable to me"

"So you mean she doesn't even let you get to the palace gate, damn it Wendolin; when I hired you as my spy, I didn't want to be fed" The seeker began mimicking Wendolin using his hands, while talking with a scrunched up face, "She's less amiable to me".

"Forgive me Seeker, I'm still a bit high" as Wendolin composed himself, "Zero's planning to move to the frozen palace, because some girl went there"

Despite years of waiting hoping and praying for news of this sort, the Seeker remained unsurprised, and made sure not to seem impressed by Wendolin's information. "That's all you got? How much do I pay you, and that's the sort of meaningless information you pass on to me? For the love of Ozma, I should have you strung up in your current state and paraded around the realm of the unwanted."

"Been there, done that"

"Wendolin, I honestly don't know about you sometimes." The seeker let a lopsided grin escape from his resolved countenance and he flipped the whelp another weeks wage.

"One last thing Seeker, Can you please call Anna by her stage name, it get's confusing when you don't call her Airofdays"

"Wendolin, 3 syllables or 2?"

"What?"

"Nevermind", the Seeker exasperatedly grunted as he turned around to search out Anna, the Airofdays.