Day 18, Cookies: New story involving Lin baking cookies for ... wait, this news just in ... there might be a little more of Inked related content. But it can stand alone because mostly cookies.

All the good things belong to MonolithSoft.

Commander Vandham was stress-eating his way through a tray of Lin's cookies. It was hypnotic, how one delectable treat followed the next, past his walrus mustache, through the gauntlet of blocks of massive teeth, then disappeared with a grim swallow. Lin's cookies were acknowledged as the best in NLA but he didn't seem to be enjoying them, merely feeding them into a furnace of controlled fury.

Tatsu, Lin's boon companion and fellow teenager, was not pleased. He had tried to snatch a brownie from an earlier tray and had failed, in part because he wasn't sure the Commander wouldn't chew on the tips of Tatsu's wingarm. He tried another tactic to rescue some snacks. "Commander Tanktop should talk about problems. Words solve things better than teeth." The young alien peered through his glasses to see what the effect would be.

"Words?" snorted Vandham. "Words?! Words haven't gotten me jack, er, not much." A sigh like thunder rolled out of his body, but at least he stopped vacuuming up the cookies.

Lin chimed in from the kitchen, juggling a hot tray of pumpkin cookies. "I don't always agree with the Tater, but stopped clocks and all that. Wanna share your worries, Commander?"

Vandham slid a glance at Elma, who had been watching all of this with a single raised eyebrow that said more than both teenagers combined. "Okay, okay, you got me. I'm being stonewalled by a combination of the Ma-non, Tatsu's people, and human civilians. All three are aliens, as far as I'm concerned. I have a soldier with inexplicable stasis amnesia and the only clues I have are being met with silence."

"Surely the soldier's teammates have suggestions," Elma said, sipping her tea.

"Yeah, they're no help. Mostly glad for the change. The soldier isn't really well liked. But d-, er, darn it, I can't let soldiers get hurt without consequences."

"Nopon not hurt humans," protested Tatsu. "Caravans swear pact of eternal friendship."

"Not valid after 90 days," muttered Vandham, which earned a reproving glance from Elma. He picked up a cookie and examined it. "I'll be fair. One Nopon did give me a little something, but it makes no sense."

"Human not grasp Nopon wisdom. It happen," grieved Tatsu.

"Nopon nonsense, more likely," teased Lin.

"Tatsu, what do you know about Nopon curses?" the big man asked suddenly.

"Curses? Like swears? Because Tatsu ready to provide."

"No, you do not! Elma!" complained Lin, "I told you that I wasn't the one teaching him bad words."

"Wasn't me either," Vandham said defensively.

Elma did not address these obvious fibs. "I think the Commander meant things like evil spells and magic. Am I correct?"

"I cannot believe that I'm going to say this, but yes," he rumbled back. "The Nopon mentioned painting something on a potomus, but that's all she gave me before praising the Archsage or something like that. I'm not sure if she let something slip or if she's a religious kook. Or she might have been trying to distract me."

Tatsu had wrapped his wingarms around his belly and was rocking slightly. A squeaky moan escaped his wibbly lips. Lin looked over with concern. "What's up? You got a stomach ache from too many cookies?"

"Tatsu remember very scary story," he groaned.

"Yippee! Story time!" said Lin, plopping down next to him on the sofa and waving a tray of fragrant cookies under his nose to revive him. "Lay it on us, potato boy."

a/n: I think this will only be two parts. Three, tops.

Next up: More cookies and Nopon horror story.