I had nowhere to run. The slimy black thing created...figures from its obsidian ooze that followed me around, blocking my retreat. Charlie made frustrated noises as he flitted about in the trees, helplessly watching it happen.

The monstrous creature in front of me had no eyes to look into, just empty sockets, but I looked that way just to show my lack of fear. "What are you? How did you get like this?"

It answered, in a voice (and breath) like sewage bubbling up in a sink, "I am Xetgupa, though that and all other associated knowledge will soon become irrelevant." The monster smiled, growling out a command: "Come close so that I may feed."

I did not. "You must think I'm an idiot."

The monster raised its goopy claws, beckoning to me like it intended to draw me in with invisible rope.

An expression of dismay crossed the thing's features. "What did you do!"

I shrugged. "Nothing. Why?" Did Ihyokxa do something to the 'implant' this thing put in me? I silently wondered.

My comment infuriated the rotting creature. Without a word, he rushed up and blew mold spores on me like an aerosol spraycan.

Obviously, not great to breathe that stuff in. It got in my nose and mouth, and I felt my airways closing up.

I broke into a coughing fit, collapsing on the ground as I gasped for air.

A shifting mound of slime coursed up along the dirt, shot up my rapidly shrinking passages.

Something shot up into my nose to my brain. I blacked out.

I awoke vomiting pink slime, coughing as my breathing slowly returned to normal. I felt as if I'd just reached the end of a bad flu and saw light at the end of the tunnel.

I righted myself in a pool of pink slime, my enemy Xetgupa sprawled flat on the soil, body slowly crumbling apart like a weird white sculpture, bony witch fingers frozen in the act of reaching for me. Not sure what happened, but he wasn't moving and resembled a skeleton.

As I crept away from my fallen enemy to a safer part of this strange coral forest, I noticed something glittering on the ground next to his crumbling skull. A large golden hoop, shaped like an Aerobie ring Frisbee, but big enough to put your head through.

Tarnished and oddly weathered looking, it measured the same size as the base of Xetgupa's 'coolie hat.' I watched the object for a moment to see if Xetgupa were truly dead or just baiting me into a trap.

If a trap, Xetgupa did a good job of playing dead. Of course, this was also someone who played dead inside a tree for a decade, so I knew I had to be at least a little cautious.

I definitely wanted to show that Frisbee thing to someone. I figured ET or one of his friends would be able to tell me what it was, or what it did. At the very least, I could prove Xetgupa's death, like that broom on the Wizard of Oz.

I cautiously reached for the ring.

The moment I lay hold of it, Xetgupa's skeletal hand grabbed me, and he spoke something incomprehensible in a gurgling voice. I screamed out of reflex.

I expected more to happen, but the bony fingers froze in place around my wrist, and no more fart smelling breaths ushered from his mouth.

Shuddering, I gave Xetgupa's hand a vigorous shake and it broke off at the wrist joint, still dangling from where it grasped me. I transferred the hoop to my other hand, gave the decaying appendage a more violent shake, and the monster (and its claw), made no more attempts to attack me.

Obviously I didn't hang around, despite how the black ooze had somehow been replaced with the pink substance. I didn't like the look of the place. I hurried off in search of a safer location.

The ring vibrated in my hands, the sensation like what you get after holding the handle of a running lawnmower for a long time. I hoped it didn't have any toxic effects like lead poisoning.

Charlie had been lurking in the treetops during this whole exchange, but I didn't blame him. Besides me being a jerk to him, he wasn't a superhero, and hadn't even been immune to large falling moon rocks. Now that the coast was clear, he swooped down and nuzzled me, frowning somewhat at my sliminess.

I furrowed my brow. "You were watching me, right?"

He misunderstood. "I am sorry I not help."

"No, no, I mean, what just happened?"

"You...get sprayed with fungus. You...look sick. Then Xetgupa look sick, he double over, he die." Apparently that's all he knew.

I stared. "How did you know how to find me in the first place?"

Charlie made a shrugging gesture. "I follow your scent, see large amounts of kootala following a something. I find the something was you."

I gawked, still not used to having full conversations with him. "Uh...how did you know to come looking for me?"

Charlie purred. "I was missing alien soft warm body. I roll over and find no Elliott. Wonder where he is?"

I sighed. "You at least know how to get back to camp?"

He nodded. "Follow."

Hearing him say that reminded me so much of...his original voice...that a chill ran up my back.

I had wandered a little too far in the wrong direction, making for a long walk. We traveled in silence for awhile.

"Thanks for finding me. I probably would have been wandering around in this place forever."

"Hmmm," Charlie replied.

Then, after a long silence, "I'm...starting to remember things...You...killed me. With a large rock."

I paled, wondered if he'd abandon me...Or worse, that he was an illusion. I mean, this talk was about as expected as Dad showing up. "I'm sorry. It was an accident. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know I had powers like that, let alone how to use them! Besides, your people were trying to hurt us. Sure, it was a test, but it backfired on you. Still, I'm sorry. I didn't want to kill you."

"Hmmm." It sounded like grumbling, even scoffing, perhaps. "I've been thinking about the time you burned me, too. Trying to murder someone...That is not a fair response to an insult."

I felt a chill. He hadn't even spoken in pidgin like he'd done a few seconds ago. What if this was a trick? "Are you really Charlie?"

"Why wouldn't I be? Is it my improved English-Wumpaza speech? As I said, I'm starting to remember things...You are a violent child."

I stopped walking, a sob rising in my chest. "What do you want? I said I'm sorry! If I could take it back I would! It's not going to happen again, can't you see I already feel bad enough about that as it is?"

When he didn't reply, I added, "If you're still holding grudges, you can just go...let me wander off and die somewhere. It's what you want anyway."

Charlie purred. "That is not necessary. I just wanted you to know how much I am forgiving you."

"Why? For blackmail?" The alien looked baffled. "What is that?"

I smiled and shook my head. No way I was giving him that idea! "Nothing. Thank you."

We continued our hike. "Charlie, do you know anything about a Qulpari named Ihyokxa?"

He shook his head. "I have been living on your moon a long time there is much about my home world I am ignorant about."

I smirked, petting him. "Thanks."

I showed him the hoop. "You know what this thing is?"

Charlie made a face like he knew, but only shrugged and gave me an `I dunno' noise. I gave up trying with him.

I couldn't tell how much of it was real, but things around me, the plants, land shrimp, even Charlie, seemed to age very slightly as I walked, and it seemed to correspond with the vibrating gold thing I clutched in my hand. It made me...unsettled.

A few more minutes of traversing the glowing alien landscape, and we once more encountered our tent.

Roy stood out in front, arms crossed indignantly. "We almost sent Colzest off searching for you! Where'd you wander off to this time?"

I frowned. "Your guess is as good as mine."

The skepticism showed clear on his face. "What, you found another tree? Unleashed some more of Darth Vader's deadly goons?"

"Um...no?"

Norenio looked worried for me, but not angry...Relieved I was okay, but Jamie scowled, hands on her hips. Even Vadful, hitched to a post near the tent, looked a bit angry at my disappearance.

Tiffrid the nennop observed us mutely, possibly making silent assessments of the psychology of the situation.

Roy sighed. "You're all wet! You go skinny dipping or something?"

"Something," I muttered.

He grabbed a clump of my hair. "What, were you taking a bath in snot? What is this stuff?"

"Hell if I know!" I showed him the gold Frisbee thing. "Do you have any idea what this thing is?"

Roy didn't have the foggiest. "Probably just a piece of scrap metal. Qulpari don't think too highly of gold and silver."

Then why was Xetgupa wearing it? I wondered. "You know something about a Qulpari named Ihyokxa?"

He shook his head. "You're probably better off asking your buddy Vorxora..." He scowled. "Maybe you can see about getting a towel, too. You're going to smear that crap all over the place otherwise."

I didn't see Tolmina. Spike said the orange one thought it would be a good idea to station himself by the landing site, so that if anything happened, he could signal for a pod, or emergency help, and we'd be within close enough range to send a message if we needed something. Additionally, if our enemies came that way, he'd be able to warn us in advance.

"Good plan."

Spike smiled at me as I entered the tent, pleased, I guess, that I wasn't dead and got back in one piece.

My sister, too, looked glad to see me again. It seemed, against everyone's advice, she had kept her protective litter open until I returned, and even tried to hug me before Roy scolded her and ordered her back inside.

Seeing that amount of energy and enthusiasm from her...It made me hopeful. "Is she...doing better?"

Gertie coughed several times, feebly resigning herself to her floating bed.

"I guess not." I squeezed her hand before remembering I was coated in slime.

"She's breathing a little better," said Pete. "But I dunno. Sick people often seem better when they're not."

Spike gave me an alien towel. As thin as a piece of paper, they come in something resembling a notebook, but they're super strong, long enough to wrap around a Qulpari body, and swell up to the size of a hotel bath towel once they absorb liquid. They come with a little portable laminator looking thing you run the dirty ones through, to both extract liquids and remove dirt.

"ET," I asked as I dried off. "Do you know anything about a Qulpari named Ihyokxa?"

His neck got really short when he heard the name. It seemed I had disturbed him. "Ihyokxa is not a Qulpari. It is a thing. Some call it Curdiru, or Ofwevon the ancient. It is described as an intelligence embodied in a liquefied form. Liquid consciousness. I know it only as a legend. They say Curdiru existed since the beginning of time and devours all it comes across. Very few, if any, have seen Ihyokxa and lived to tell the tale."

"I met it. Sovirox's friend Xetgupa...he put something in me...and I guess it killed it."

ET laughed, an uncharacteristically mad barking laugh that indicated he didn't believe me.

"And you have also met Xetgupa." ET's tone seemed skeptical.

Nodding, I told him everything that happened...And showed him the gold Frisbee.

"What is this thing?"

ET extended his neck, stared, then his head jerked back like a turtle reacting to flame in front of its face. "Where did you get that!"

"I think...Xetgupa was wearing it...he...died somehow."

"Ooh!" Jamie cried when she saw the object. "That's pretty! Might make a good necklace!" Then she pulled it over her neck.

"No!" ET shouted. The hoop flew back off, hovering in the air. "This isn't jewelry! This is the Walseru coz Vipsada, the Disk of Time. Some call it the Hoop of Decay. The object can make a thing mature, ferment, produce fruit, rot or die!"

Spike, who had been dozing on his pallet, suddenly opened his eyes. He sat up, frowning in puzzlement at my girlfriend.

"A magic ring that ages things?" Jamie scoffed. "That's silly!"

Was it my imagination, or did she suddenly look more beautiful than before? I caught myself staring at her, with my mouth hanging open, without meaning to, wondering if there hadn't been some truth to this legend.

She stared back, reddening a little. "What?"

I shook my head. "What purpose of that kind of...object be useful for?"

ET gave me a look that implied I was not as smart as he originally thought. "Growing crops, creating alcohols, improving livestock, cultivating medicines from various fungi...possibly withering one's enemy."

Spike furrowed his brow as he listened.

I scratched my head. "If it does what you say, why was Xetgupa wearing it around his head? Surely he didn't want to turn into a rotten mushroom thing!"

"It does not damage the wearer, not at the beginning. They must first use the power of the thing. it seems, in this case, it went to his head."

Jamie paled. "It really wasn't a good necklace anyway. They're supposed to dangle, not stick out like a dog collar."

I regarded the object with discomfort. "Does it...age things just by sitting around? Do we need to bury it or something?"

ET shook his head. "Everything ages a little with each passing second. That being said, I do not suggest prolonged contact, or using your powers near it."

Spike placed it in a little wooden box for us. I wished it had been lead lined, but nobody had anticipated me coming into possession of such an object to begin with.

ET no longer doubted my story. In fact, he looked grave. "Xetgupa was Sovirox's mate. I doubt he will take this well. This incident may place all of our lives in harm's way.

"As far as Ihyokxa is concerned, if you have truly faced him, I fear this is not the end of it. If you remember a way back to the creature, I would try to forget it."

"Are you awake enough to travel?" Roy asked me as he stooped over and entered the child sized tent. "We burned up a lot of time here waiting for you already. If we're going to do this thing to help your sister, we'd better get on with it."

"I'll manage."

We stowed our tent just as easily as it got set up, and hoofed through the coral forest again.

As stated before, ET charted our course seemingly at random, based on the half remembered stories and crudely sketched maps of Qulpari who claimed to have found what we sought.

This was okay at first, because, here and there, we found actual dirt trails, indications that someone had journeyed that way before, but now we had no such indicators, following nothing but the vague directions and approximate coordinates of old legends. Our progress slowed.

At one point, Roy got so frustrated with ET and the others that he insisted we all go back to the hospital, but ET explained he wasn't lost, they just needed a few moments to decipher the instructions. We continued onward.

Gertie opened her pod. "Petey, your Walkman batteries just died."

The boy blew a raspberry, leaning over the hatch. "I'm sorry. Olxebak made those batteries, they're supposed to be rechargeable, but only if you got the right equipment."

My sister sighed. "Oh well. It was nice (cough cough) music while it lasted. I (cough) heard all the songs."

"Glad you liked it."

"Anyways, I (cough) still got Rocky."

"Rocket."

"Yeah. Thank you." She shut the lid.

I marched up alongside Roy. "So really. How have you been earning money all this time? I know what you told me, but that was still kind of vague."

He shrugged. "It's employment that's a vague. My career is a little...freeform. Sometimes I donate blood to science, or I cook...help Qulpari reach stuff that's above their heads, construction work... Let's just call it 'general labor.'"

"And Norenio...she just gets her money from the restaurant?"

"Just!" he exclaimed. "She's a damn fine cook! Sure, she'd get paid better if she were a librarian, oddly enough, but..."

Norenio beamed at the compliment.

Tiffrid smirked and gave him a thumbs up, but Roy scolded him. "Don't do that. Just smile or something. This nennop thing is embarrassing enough."

The nennop nearly gave a thumbs up again, but instead just smiled.

We passed shiny, leathery plants suggestive of Joshua trees, wincing at their pungent ammonia scent.

Pete kept fashioning a doll out of some fibrous wood like sticks he'd found lying about. He said he might call it `Rooty' or `Sticky' or maybe `Groovy', he didn't know yet.

We walked.

Vadful lumbered under the weight of our supplies, moving slow like a plug horse.

Charlie randomly ate from plants and stuff we walked by.

"You sure that's safe?" I asked.

He only responded with that "Mmm-mmm" noise.

"They never finished my marking," Jamie complained. "I'm still obligated to...Whatever punishment I'm supposed to be getting, aren't I?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I mean, the guy you stole from is technically dead, and he was into a lot of stuff that should be considered illegal, so I don't know how much you can be obligated for something like that. There's a thing in Torah about a guy charged with manslaughter being off the hook if his judge died. It could be the same here. The bracelet belongs to Gertie now anyway..."

She let out a frustrated sigh. "I just hope I don't end up in a...another alien jail."

"I'll take care of it," said Spike. "I have pull with the Orbuva."

We stopped briefly for a light breakfast of leftovers, and I got introduced to buvca, a fermented beverage loaded with caffeine. Apparently it makes Abreyas very drunk, but not humans, which explained a few things about Norenio's relationship with Roy, and led to some awkward discussions with the nennop along our march, Norenio accusing Roy of taking unfair advantage. I tried to ignore them and watch the scenery.

An alien turtle with runes along its back scuttled along the dirt. Storks with mudskipper faces and leathery wings stood on one leg, took to the air or landed sections of purple soil, where things like red rocks crawled.

"ET," I said. "You warned me about using my powers with...that hoop. Does that mean I still have some?"

He nodded. "You have the ones that count."

Roy insisted that Gertie stay inside her protective egg and not open the lid. Although unhappy about the arrangement, we (especially Peter) promised to talk to her the whole time, give her an up to the minute play by play of everything happening outside. She did have a communicator in the litter with her. ET, being the super nice guy that he is, even made us a little jealous by having his Qulpari friends make calls to her, calls didn't get to hear.

The only thing that made me uncomfortable: How much the live video made me think of the view from inside a coffin. If I'd been in her position, I probably would have freaked out, thinking about that Alfred Hitchcock show where a woman tried to sneak out of a prison in a pine box and ended up getting buried alive.

We paused, staring as a flock of bronze colored winged creatures flew overhead.

"Where are we now?" my sister asked.

Roy waved around the communicator to give her a panoramic view. "It looks pretty."

I put my hand on the litter. "Gertie, we're going to get you better and out of that thing, if it's the last thing I do."

Our journey came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a large swampy lake populated by weird bamboo-like plants that periodically puffed clouds of gas and spores into the air.

We texted our friends to let them know we were safe.

Roy scowled at the unwelcoming scenery and the dead end. "Okay, Vorxora. We've had our little adventure. Now it's time to get back and give this kid some real medical help."

ET gave him a look that said `You're an idiot', but said nothing, just raised a glowing finger.

Something vaguely conical and translucent shimmered in the air.

Roy gawked. "What the...?"

Spike waddled up next to him, raised his own glowing digit, and the object gained definition: A gold, pointy needle-like spire, like you'd see on the top of a Thai palace or temple.

Gertie's litter came open, and she sat up, raising her own hand.

Roy scowled. "Gertie, I don't think..."

He faltered when she glowed and something like a crumbling minaret materialized out of what appeared to be empty air.

ET gave me an expectant look.

"Seriously?"

His seemed to say `You want this?'

I shrugged, pantomiming, `What do you want from me?'

He just nodded toward my sister. `Well, all right,' I answered nonverbally, raising a spread open palm.

A jolt traveled through me, like I'd just plugged myself into a high tension power line.

I glowed, and more of the structure appeared, a roof covered in needle-like cones, weathered walls of stone blocks, with projecting sculptural details representing various exotic animals.

Jamie's face silently asked me, `Am I supposed to do this too?' Then her expression changed to `If you can do it, I can.'

Indeed she could. Her chest and hand glowed, revealing more of the stone blocks.

Now me, Gertie, Jamie, Spike and Charlie glowed like radioactive, hands raised, drawing this ancient building out of seeming nonexistence.

Without asking permission, ET grabbed Roy's hand, and he arched his back, as if in pain, also glowing.

Norenio nervously put a hand on him, and she too glowed, transferred the power to the nennop via a `handshake' with their tails.

Pete also got into the act.

Even the giant bird, making contact with Tiffrid's body, glowed with an eerie light.

With a loud pop, an old weather cracked edifice solidified completely as a real object. We put our hands down, let go of each other, and stopped glowing, but the structure retained its physical presence before us.

"Did we..." Roy stammered. "Just make that out of thin air?"

I frowned. "I don't think so. I...think it's always been here."

We stared through a vast stone arch into a long spooky looking corridor. Beyond lay a stairwell and darkness as far as the eye could see.

"Where do you think it leads?" Jamie asked.

ET waddled ahead.

"I...think we're going to find out."