From: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Nicarra)
Subject: Callahans chronicles:  Nicarra's travels
Reply-To: lalford@fsu1.cc.fsu.edu
Organization: James Cook University
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 15:55:46 GMT

Nicarra suddenly realises that everyone in the Place left for a Halloween
party.  "Drat it all, I do seem to miss a lot of things, I hate it when
my site misses things."

She wanders outside the Place to discover a car, left sitting in the car
park.  The most noticeable thing about the car is the large banner
across the windscreen.  It says, 'drive me'.  Nicarra takes a closer
look, and sees Mike's signature at the bottom of the banner in small
print.  "Curiosier, and curiosier," says Nicarra.

She gets in the car, only to discover that it has one button.  No
steering wheel, no pedals, just one button.  She presses the button.
The car starts up, and begins to move of its own accord.  "This is going
to be the strangest trip," thinks Nicarra.  For the first time in a long
time, she summons Lythe, the green firelizard.  "Where are we going?"

"Ask the car, it is the one driving", replies Nicarra.

They travel northward, through some pretty fall scenery.  The leaves are
yellow, red, bright blue.  Nicarra blinks and looks again.  Yes, some of
the leaves are blue.  And the sky...

"What?" asks Lythe.

"I think the car is taking us for a hell ride.  I don't know where we
are going, but it must be fairly strange if we have to shadow walk to
get there."

"What is shadow walk?"

"Sort of like going-between, but taking a longer and stranger route."

The scenery stays strange, but not too weird.  Trees still look mostly
treeish, though Nicarra doesn't like the florescent yellow bark.  The
animals she can see are small and harmless in appearance, though she
caught a glimpse of something big, hairy and red well away from the
road.  

The road itself was changing.  From pavement, to semi-paved, to a
two-rut track.  Nicarra was just thinking that if the road gets any
smaller, the car won't fit, when she realised that there was no car.
She wasmounted on a horse.  "I do hope you are a bit more cooperative
than my first horse."  The horse merely snorted in reply.

It was only a short while later when the horse stopped.  Just ahead was
this strange-looking place.  Nicarra looked at it, then at the horse.
It impatiently tossed its head, and Nicarra realised that this ride was
going no further.

"Well, all ashore that's going ashore," said Nicarra.  "And try to keep
a bit calmer, you're going to throttle me."

The firelizard on Nicarra's shoulder allowed her tail to relax a tiny
bit.  "I don't like the feeling around here."

"I wish I could tell something about when and where we are.  No road, no
electricity lines, and we did come through some strange territory.  But
things here look fairly normal."  Nicarra looks around.  "But where is
everyone?  Mike surely wouldn't have made a mistake about where I was
supposed to be."

Lythe took off, flying toward the house.  Suddenly she banked sharply
and dove downward.  Nicarra ran toward her firelizard.  The firelizard
was gone, but there was a doorway there.  She opened the door and
realised that it was an old-fashioned root-cellar.  Potatos, carrots,
and turnips were easily identifiable.  But where was Lythe?  And why had
she come here?

...to be continued...
-- 
Ross A. Alford
Department of Zoology                      Internet: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au
James Cook University                      Phone:    +61 77 81 4732
Townsville, Qld 4811 Australia
Newsgroups: alt.callahans