(Being in) Hot Water Just Makes Everything Better

Vilnius leaned back and closed his eyes. The cauldron was
small, but not too small and the warm water was flowing in such *interesting* ways

Maybe I’ll just sleep here tonight. It’ll be nice, assuming
Scald doesn’t turn me into soup before morning.

But tomorrow

Tomorrow I walk into the Stead with half of my skin boiled
off, a pot of dirt that leaks water, a cedar box that leaks steam and worst of
all I’ve dented the village’s largest cauldron and while it doesn’t leak the
being that now resides in it is likely picky about who and what she’s willing
to share it with.

Are people going to praise me for what I’ve done? Probably
not. I’ll get yelled at. Called a ‘Filthy Shaman’ or worse. Maybe have to pay
for the pot.

Oh. There’ll come a time -- a month or two from now, where
everyone will rejoice at the benefits the Sisters brought and wonder how we
ever got along without them, but by then no one will remember who brought them
here.

So. Tomorrow.  I need to
get everyone over the initial hue and cry of my return and arrange for proper
establishment of my new friends.

What to say to accomplish that?

The truth? Obviously not! They’d never believe the truth and
there are some times when the truth simply won’t do.

No, I need something better than the truth. More believable.
More satisfying. Something that doesn’t turn into an embarrassment for all
parties involved. Most importantly, it needs a great title, maybe something
like

=== Mantis
versus the Steam Spirits ===
No, that won’t do.
It’s got alliteration but no pizzazz. It depersonalizes and it also sounds like
it was all fighting and frankly there wasn’t much. No need for combat when you
are smart. How about?

In the Harem of Lord Steam

Now that’s a story I want to hear just from the title. Maybe
a bit salacious for the younger crowd, though. Perhaps I’ll jot that one down
for the next Corrobary.  It doesn’t help
now though. I need a crowd-pleaser like . . .

###

### **Mantis and the Temple of Lost Gases**

A heroic tale of derring-do with sword fights aplenty, even though
I don’t know how to use a sword. Title sounds silly. Never mind.

###

### **Vilnius gets the Vapors**

Accurate, but hardly Heroic.

**In the** Slave Swamp of the Steam Lords

Hrm. . .
Alliterative. Evocative. Provocative. Sufficiently suggestive without over
salaciousness.

Nah . . .
Maybe as a sequel “In the Harem . . .” but it won’t work for my purposes.

The trouble
is that all these titles leave me with Lord Steam as the principal villain and he
wasn’t really. He also may be useful if we ever . . .

###

## Return to the Petrified Forest

No, that just makes it a sequel to a story everyone would
rather forget. Anyway, I never had to enter the forest itself and it doesn’t
even mention . . .

==The
Lost Daughters of Lord Steam ==

That’s more like it. I remove myself from the title and
emphasize the plight of my charges. Technically,   they
were more abandoned than lost. Well, even more technically they were driven out
for being insufficiently steamy (or in one case scandalously Earthy) than lost.

Ah, the story practically writes itself and even includes
some stray elements of truth. Society! Society is the main villain. A rigid
society that shuns the different. A misguided king that that follows the edicts
of his land (well swamp) rather than guidance of his heart. Romance! Betrayal!
The Sacred Bonds of Sisterhood! Much weeping will ensue.

It’ll be great.