Auspicious Ancestor, Creature
Illus. Zina Saunders

Breathstealer, Creature
Illus. Cliff Nielsen

Acidic Dagger, Artifact
Illus. Stuart Beel

All is quiet at the spring, so I stake the leading pole and leave Chouri to guard the goats. I rustle the curtain in the doorway.

"Wise woman under the monkeytree!" I shout with abandon. "I come far to meet with you!"

Quietly, like a breath or a breeze, a wizened woman parts the curtain. She hides her face from the sun, and steps up to address me.

"I received a vision that you would come, herder of many goats," she whispers.

"Herder of few goats now, mother," I say with reverence. "My name is Jojo, and this has not been such a good day. My goats have been burned, crushed, ravaged by wildcats, and splayed open like holiday snakes. What can I do to shed this curse?"

"It is the something-something," she says, using words I do not know. "This powerful object, it troubles you, Jojo?"

I stand agape. "The Yellow Rock, yes, it troubles me."

"You must show me this something-something--er, this Yellow Rock. You carry it in your water sack?"

"I carry it in my goat, revered mother," I say, showing her my drained gourd. "Can you remove my curse?"

"My wisdom can take it off your hands, Jojo," she says as she cranes her head out of the doorway. "But my eyes see little and my limbs fail me. You must help me to your goats."

"I serve, mother." I place my forearm under her drooping shoulder, and help her toward my grazing herd. "Mother, you say your limbs fail, but your arms are strong and sinewy."

"Oh no, Jojo, the Quiver has my bones. Is it the broken-horned one over there?"

"No, mother, come with me. Wise one, you say your sight fades, but you know one goat from another?"

"Oh no, Jojo, it is but a blur to my telling. This smelly one, then?"

"No, mother, step away. You say you have the wisdom of our ancestors, but you cannot tell a sick goat from a healthy one?"

"Oh no, Jojo, it is--oh, enough of this!" And in a flash, the wise woman throws aside her veil and overcloth, and reveals herself as a black-masked, white-skinned assassin. In a second flash, he is on Three of Six, and has a knife at my goat's throat. Not like my father's bone knife at all, this knife is strange and shiny and dripping with brown water.

"Give me the rock, uncivilized fool, or the goat gets it." The masked person nicks Three of Six, who bleats with fear.

I throw my empty gourd to the ground, and start walking to the assassin's side. "Oh, does this not complete a most horrendous day! I trek my goats from creation to meet a wise woman, bringing upon my herd all manner of chaos, and what do I see? A paste-face oathbreaker holding my goat hostage. How do you think that makes me feel, defiler?"

The masked one stares at me in disbelief. "You think this is random? That this is about you, fool? Listen, goatherd, more transpires here than your dim mind can collect. You meddle in sorceries far beyond your meaningless goats."

He backs against the hut, and I walk further to his side. Chouri barks at him, distracting him until I am almost against the wall of the hut. He looks at me with his neck turned all the way to the right.

I have him. With a goat under his right arm and a knife in his left, he cannot react when I spring to his side, bone knife at his throat.

"Now you listen, goatkiller. I tire of this day, and I tire of you. You let my goat go, and you live another day."

"Jojo, I intend to kill this goat, then kill you, then kill every other goat here until I find the something-something. My master Bwire ordered this, and I follow his commands."

"Maaaaa!" Three of Six screams as the assassin draws his dagger against Three's throat and vanishes. Three of Six disappears too. My bone knife is held against air.

Arggh. Where do I go now?