Three-thirty.

"Yo, dude... what are we here for again?"

A human boy – about seventeen by the looks of him – stared at his Blue Kacheek mate exasperatedly.

"We're here," he said through gritted teeth, "to mix a concoction for Mumbo."

"Oh, right," the Kacheek nodded. "Thanks, dude."

Jhuidah, having summoned the Cocos and guarding her hut and waiting in a panicked sort of way, noticed the boy and his Kacheek opening a sack of ingredients.

Strolling over quickly, she hissed, "what are you doing here?"

The boy affectionately labelled 'dude' by the Kacheek smiled charmingly. "I'm gravely sorry, dear woman," he said, catching the faerie off-guard and kissing her hand. "Is insomnia a common condition on this planet?"

"Quite common," Jhuidah replied as stiffly as she could manage. "You must go now."

"Ah," the dude smiled again and waggled a finger at the considerably shorter Island Faerie. "This will only take a moment, my dear... oh, I'm sorry. What is your name?"

"Jhuidah," Jhuidah replied.

"What a charming name! Don't you think it's a charming name, Bob?" The Kacheek nodded adamantly. "My name's Steve – and I like your name considerably." Pausing for effect, he went on, "in fact, I have decided I shall name my first daughter after you. If you don't mind, of course."

"Won't you have to ask your partner?" Jhuidah asked. "Though I'm flattered, of course."

"Flattered? You must have thousands of men deciding to name their daughters after you every day."

"Not really, no."

"Oh. What a shame," Steve sighed. "It's ridiculous the way males refuse to express their emotions, isn't it? Quite immature."

Jhuidah smiled at the utterly charming young man. "I quite agree. Now – and I very much apologise – I have other things to attend to. Please step away from the pot."

"But... but..." Steve began to protest. "It won't take long, I swear. And you are such a charming woman!"

Jhuidah sighed in defeat. "All right," she agreed reluctantly. "You clear off the moment you're done, though, okay?"

Steve nodded. "I wouldn't dream of anything else, Jhuidah," he agreed.

Jhuidah smiled and strolled away briskly back to the hut, where Jess and Blanche were still waiting to be taken to the Temple of Pango.

"Hey, Bob," Steve hissed as soon as Jhuidah was out of earshot. "Did you see what Jhuidah had in her hut?"

Bob stood up proudly. "Yes," he replied. "A human girl and a Faerie Uni."

"Well done, Bob!" Steve hissed sarcastically. "You've mastered the gift of sight! Now, here's a real challenge for you: why are they there?"

"Ummm..." Bob thought hard. "I give up."

"See, you haven't quite mastered thinking yet, have you?" Steve sighed impatiently. "They're sacrifices."

"Sacrifices...?"

"Jeez, you're not at the top of your game today, are you? Look, maybe they can help us."

"How?" Bob asked.

"If they want to sacrifice those two to Pango, naturally they'll be immensely relieved when two knights in shining armour come to save them, won't they?"

Bob considered this statement. "Where are you going to get the knights?"

Jess opened her eyes to find that her arms were roughly tied under a large, uncomfortable rock, and that she couldn't, no matter what subtle approach she tried, get off it.

Jhuidah had been nervously expecting the girl to wake for some time, but the knock on the head had obviously given the drug an added edge: it was now nearly dawn. Not that you could see that from the underground Temple of Pango.

"You wake," she said in as dispassionate a voice as she could wrangle – and she hated herself for it.

"Jhuidah!" Jess exclaimed. "Can you get me off this rock? And while you're at it, could you remove the bracelet from my right wrist? I can't and I think it'll keep transporting me to places..." Jess halted as she realised that Jhuidah was holding a knife by her side. "Why are you holding a knife?"

Jhuidah swallowed. Curse that confounded Pango. "You are evil," she explained.

"Evil?" Jess demanded. "I'm not evil, silly – and even if I was, how would you know? It's not like you have a large evil detector... or even a small evil detector, I imagine that would do the job quite nicely, too."

Jhuidah nodded at the circle of Cocos which surrounded them instead of replying to the furious girl. To Jess, it looked only like they were dancing crazily – particularly two that looked like they were trying to do star jumps at the same time – but to Jhuidah, attuned to Pango's mind, she heard the ancient Song of Death. She raised the knife high above Jess, agonising about what she was going to do.

"Oh, God," Jess muttered, not endearing her to the Cocos – the ten genuine ones of which were even more convinced of the girl's evilness because she would die with blasphemy on her lips.

It was at that point one of the star jumping Cocos cracked his outer shell to reveal a human being. (The other star jumping Coco fell over and started rolling around helplessly.) The ten remaining Cocos, unperturbed, continued their telepathic chant, while Jhuidah's dilemma prevented her from noticing that her victim was being dragged away by someone who had been masquerading as a star jumping Coco seconds before.

Jess let herself be carried away by the teenager, disturbed that her Faerie Uni was not in the room.

It was then Jess heard Jhuidah's shriek of panic as, the Cocos' song having ended, she found herself only chipping the stone.

Jess continued to be carried, all the way to an even deeper underground lair, where the teenager finally set her down.

"Are you all right?" he asked concernedly. Jess nodded.

"I'm Steve," the teenager went on. "What's your name?"

"Jess," Jess replied. "Have you seen a Faerie Uni anywhere? She's blue... has pink wings, white mane, roughly two feet, two inches tall... answers to the name Blanche..."

"Don't fret," Steve smiled patronisingly – though he didn't quite realise it. "The Cocos are methodical. They won't let Jhuidah sacrifice Blanche until they've sacrificed you."

"So... Blanche is safe?"

"Oh, from being sacrificed. She could still starve."

"I'm so glad I asked that question."

"So, let's see," Steve said, trying to make conversation. "You've got a charming bracelet there."

Jess glanced at the silver thing. "I hate it."

"Then why do you wear it?"

"I can't get it off," Jess replied. "I've asked everyone. Fyora, Jhudora, Illusen, Taelia..."

"Has it ever occurred to you to ask a god?" Steve asked. Jess laughed before realising he was serious.

"No, I'm atheist," was Jess's reply.

"Aren't you a little too young to make decisions like that?"

Jess stared at him. "Well, I don't know who's better equipped at making the decision for me."

"What, you mean apart from a god?"

"I can't speak to God," Jess argued. "How's he meant to decide if we can't have a reasonable conversation? I'd just feel ridiculous."

"I didn't say God. I said a god."

"Well, that's hardly better, is it?" was Jess's heated reply. "Who is this god of yours then?"

"That wouldn't do any good now, would it?" Steve teased. "Come with me." Jess refused to get up. "Come on. Who saved your life?"

"As I recall," Jess replied, "I've saved my own life several times. And saving my life doesn't mean you can just drag me wherever, you know. I have commitments!"

"Oh yeah? You were wandering around Mystery Island at three in the morning! Do you even know what the date is?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "Easy. August the twenty-seventh."

Steve laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. It's the twentieth!"

"The twentieth?" Jess asked. "That can't be..." She glared at the bracelet as if it was its fault – which it was, in a way. "You said you wouldn't time travel me!"

Steve was unsure what to make of this remark, and decided to pass a few seconds of time glancing around to see exactly where in the room Bob was. Only he wasn't in the room at all.

"Where is he?" he muttered, forgetting about Jess nearly completely.

"Who?" Jess asked, having not forgotten about herself.

Steve looked at the girl. "A friend," he answered non-committally.

"What's their name?" Jess pressed.

"That's not important," Steve dismissed Jess's question. "Look, I have a plan. You stay here and wait, I'll go out to look for my friend and your pet. How does that sound?"

"Terrible," Jess declared adamantly. "Why do I have to be left here? Sexism? Ageism? Blue-eyes-ism?"

"You're just a girl," Steve told Jess irritably.

"Well, that narrows it down!" Jess fumed. "So it's not blue-eyes-ism! Big whoop!"

"How old are you?" Steve asked. "And keep your voice down."

Jess glared at the teenager. "So it was ageism."

"You're only a kid!" Steve exclaimed, surprisingly quietly for an exclamation.

Jess was incensed. "What does age mean?" she asked angrily – and loudly. "Isn't it just a number? Isn't it?"

"Of course not! They have legal ages for lots of things. Driving, drinking, voting..."

Jess rolled her eyes. "None of them apply here! No cars, no alcohol – well, barely any – and I certainly can't recall the last time there was an election!" She paused and took a deep breath. "Besides which, if you're as old as you look, you can't drive, drink or vote, either."

"I can drive," Steve said obstinately.

"Not where I'm from," Jess retorted.

Steve stomped a foot on the ground in frustration. "You don't understand," he protested. "It's dangerous. Not only are you a kid, Pango Pango wants you as a sacrifice!"

"No, he doesn't," Jess replied, "he wants an evil person as a sacrifice."

"Do you think that matters to him?" Steve demanded. "He wants blood. Who or what doesn't matter."

"Then I should be very worried for my Uni," Jess smiled, her wave of anger suddenly having given way to laughter. Since laughing wasn't exactly smart in these situations, she settled for grinning stupidly. Especially stupidly considering what she'd just said.

"Every minute you sit there arguing with me, the more danger your precious Uni is in," Steve announced solemnly. "If you'd just give in, this whole situation would be resolved a great deal faster."

Jess sighed in defeat. "Fine," she agreed, sounding very, very resigned and not at all happy with the deal. "You go. I'll wait."

"Good," Steve remarked, smiling and turning towards the door before disappearing through it.

"Wait my foot," Jess told herself defiantly before leaving the hot room herself.