"The herbsh then healer. Sthadly, speed isth of the esthence. Even a little boostht in my recuperation isth better than none."

The healer pulled out a leather pouch, and gave it to Pitcarn.

"Drink these with tea, my Lord," he said. "They'll help."

Pitcarn gestured for the healer to put on hot water, and removed some of the herbs from the pouch, placing them in the bottom of the same vessel he had lately drunk wine from. He didn't bother with a teapot or straining the leaves at all. Once the water was boiled, he waited a little until it was cool, and motioned the healer to find the Stave, and bid him return, once he had finished sending his messengers.

Soon, after Pitcarn had finished the tea, the Stave returned.

"Lord, it is done," he said.

The food god sat back, and regarded the Stave.

"My thanks, lord Stave. It seems as though events are transpiring slower than I had anticipated. I am not needed to depart from here as fast as I thought. I will take some leave here, for a day or two, if you would be willing to share your house with a divine?" It wasn't a question.

I will rest and recuperate, just as the healer suggested, and while I do, I might talk to my people.

Pitcarn stays in the villiage of Gach for two days, speaking with his people and asking about their lives, their greivances, their joys.

Mostly he listens, and watches, to allow his jaw to heal, and especially revels when he visits a nearby farm and the farmer tells him of the growth of his plants. As the farmer expertly extrats food from the soil, Pitcarn begins to recover his spirit, not just from his physical ailment, and he becomes more boisterous and his laughter is stronger the whole time.

After two full days, Pitcarn decides to leave, and on the dawn of the third day, he says simply to The Stave that he is travelling east, to Jant. He doesn't say why, but he suspects that The Stave knows it has something to do with the M'naar, and the Sacred Lands.

In two days of rest, with very little worry him, the God of Food's jaw had fully healed. Soon, however, it was time to go; the road to Jant was a fairly long one.

"Will you be taking the official roads?" asked the Stave. "Or will you be cutting through the hills? The short-cut might shave a day or so off the trek, but it is more dangerous.. are you sure you would not care for an escort?"

"I will stick to the mains paths, no fear. If you can arrange an escort at such short notice, I will happily take with me up 5 or 6 warriors. I am happy with fewer, but I do not wish to be accompanied by many."

"I have five soldiers already prepared," said the Stave. "They wish to return from their patrol back to their village of Jant, so it is indeed fortuitous that there is where you wish to travel. Nevertheless, they will protect you, though they are simple fighting folk and not accustomed to the higher company you would provide."

"Hahahaha. Higher company. Lord Stave, you do so well by me. No, they will accompany me and I will be gald of them. I am a simple warrior myself, I just have many other things that I must have my attention on at the same time. This often means that the simple warrior me must take a step back from time to time.

"I thankyou graciously for your hositality Lord Stave, and for the warriors who accompany me. You village will do well, be sure of it."

Pitcarn set off down the road, with the warriors in tow, and his laughter boomed back over the villiage, as he walked towards Jant.

The soldiers were a rowdy collection of ragtag fighters, but they were all respectful in Pitcarn's presence. They smoked tobacco and drank what liquor they had, but only when they figured their God wasn't looking. But Pitcarn saw that they were good men. Kind men.. the type of man that Bilbligh would have to start producing on a mass scale.

There is a feeling of unease, however, within Pitcarn's heart. They are hiding something - or one of them is. But what.. ?

They'd been traveling for a day when night fell.

"Better make came, m'Lord," said one of the soldiers. "Where would you like to stop?"

Pitcarn looks around for a likely spot.

"Well," he said, looking at a small, shallow slope off the path a few metres. "I don't know about you, but I do enjoy sleeping under the stars. I may sleep just there:" gesturing to the nominated spot.

"You are more than welcome to camp as near or as far from there as you see fit. Whatever your preference is for setting up your camp. Since we are on the road, and to home for some of us," he beamed at the troops. "we shall stay awake a little into the night, as our journey should not be too taxing, and I do wish to hear some of your experiences of your tour of duty.

"And no, I will not have any of you giving up anything of yours just for my convenience. I can provide for myself, and thus you do not need to provide for me."

He allowed the soldiers to set up their camp as they wished, and he wandered off a little way, hunting for some small game with a borrowed sling from one of the soldiers and some pebbles from off the path.

Soon Pitcarn has caught enough of the white rabbits to feed his company and himself. As he does so, he stumbled across a small stream. He could hear the sounds of his men setting up camp behind him. They would start the fire, set up the canvasses and blankets, and generally clear the space. He knew they had no qualms about sleeping in his presence.

Pitcarn smiled as he walked back to the camp, but inwardly he was in turmoil. He had to report to Perigo very quickly, yet he was accompanied by these men. Highly tempted to take them with him, but they had already seen action, and was he right to send them into a fight again, when they were on their way home?

Pitcarn knew that his godly prerogative over his realm allowed him to do whatever he pleased, but it was so fragile. What if one of the men came back mad. What if one of them was forged by the experience. he didn't know if the gamble was worthwhile.

Walking back amongst the men, her began a fire, and cooked the rabbits, both spit roasted and in a stew. The soldiers would eat well.

As they all sat to eat, Pitcarn lookeda t them all and tried to engage them in trivial conversation, to try and draw out the man with the secret, and to see if they could cope with the extra hardships that an additional battle, or series of battles might take on them.

Four of the men seemed to be friends. They gave the fifth man a wide berth - he had cunning, intelligent eyes, and spoke like a warrior. Nevertheless, there was something odd about this man. He did not openly speak about his experiences. There was less muscle about him than the others.

As the night wore on, Pitcarn tried to talk more to the fifth man, allowing the other four to enjoy each other's companionship on the road home.

Attempting to engage to man in conversation, the God asked what the man was returning to, what awaited him at his home. He was interested to know why the man was a pariah, but did not want to be too direct. Whatever the gap, this man was highly interesting to Pitcarn

"My home, Lord? There are many things.. I will miss the food, perhaps, the most. There was a very certain taste about the village.. the product of the spice farming to the north, I believe. It ran through everything. Some men said that the spice allowed a man his madness, to see things others could not. I do not know. I am a simple warrior. It made things tasty, though."

He smiled thinly, fingered the area around his neck. There was nothing there. An eccentricity.

"And the people. Lamb. A flock of sheep.. or so the priest-folk, bless them, are telling us. So they say. Still, lovely creatures. Spicers have a .. delight about them. It's mysterious. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I'm not sure i know of this spice my friend. I may have to investigate it. Especially if it has the properties you describe. "

Picarn wasn't sure about the substance, but if it could be exported... maybe.

"Are the other men here your companions in the villiage? "

"No, not at all," said the man. "They.. come from a different village. A different life."

"Ahh. I seem to understand, just a little now.

"Tell me, how desperate are you to return home? I am needed on business elsewhere, sadly, but I would absolutely welcome company as I travel, as you can see from the very fact that I have you and these other fine fellows with me. If you would like, if you are prepared to be away from your villiage and from the spce there for just a little while longer, would you care to accompany me?

"Would you be willing to follow your lord into a wider Universe? to see things that one might never expect?"

"I am not desperate, my Lord," smiled the warrior. "I will happily follow you to wherever you might go. I am no stranger to secret knowledge, my Lord, and welcome it in whatever form it might come."

"Well, Soldier, if you truely are willing to delay your enjoyment of the spices of your home, I feel that it would be enjoyable to have company as I travel beyond this realm. It will be dangerous, and I'm not entirely sure of the nature of what I seek to accomplish, so it may be very brief or quite extended. If you'll excuse me, I'll inform the others of my departure, and insist they return home."

Pitcarn goes to the other soldiers, and tells them that he will have to leave them, almost immediately. He asks them to return to their homes and that when he returns, they are guarunteed to have a role in Pitcarn's next action in Bilbligh. Once done, he returns to the other soldier.

"Shall we depart? We are headed for an island, probably a fairly dark one, and a long way from here. We shall be there shortly."

Pitcarn opens a portal for the warrior, and allows him to step through before stepping through afterwards himself.

"Oh, by the way... Have you a name by which I might call you?"

((Posting in Perigo))

"I am ready to depart, Lord. You might call me Jasper," he said, walking with his Lord, and suddenly, there -

- was a shimmering of light - the cries of a dead force - a thousand bloody worms - the hands of a killer - sunny, tropical vacations - eyes -

And they were in the Isles of Perigo.

Returning to Bilbligh, Pitcarn and Jasper appear only a few hours walk from Jasper's villiage. Annoyance and worry are on Pitcarn's face, as well as a tiredness.
In another place, he curses the Pirate God for his idiocy, but here he seems calm, as he consiously smothes the lines from his expression. He straightens his shoulders and stands up straight, once again taking on the posture that once gained him the monker 'Friar'.
Pitcarn turns to his Ackee, and addresses him.

"Well, Jasper. What did you make of that?"

"If you'll forgive me, Lord," said Jasper. "It was a waste of time. I am not.. entirely sure what occurred, but I know that it was unsatisfactory. Why did you not smite the man down?"

"Pay attention, my privileged child. It will result in a longer life for you and yours.

"Desafon is a god, just as I am, and my equal. yet while you may strike another Ackee of your own village down in anger, you might hesitate if he was of the next village over: Your personal brawl could become the blood feud of two neighboring centers of population. The situation is similar with the Lord of Duels and I. He has his village, I have mine, and we must work together if we are to survive when the great serpents slither from the forests and assail our walls. The situation was far more complex than what I have told you, yet that is the essential core of the problem.

"The reason I ventured there was in an attempt to clear the spoor and toxic slime of the serpent from his home, but he rejected me, and the help my village was willing to offer him. As much as I would have liked to strike him down, it would have achieved nothing.

"Go now to your village. I want you to take a message on my behalf. Two priests of your village are to make their way to my temple, with all haste, for an internship of an indefinite period of time. For obvious reasons, they should not be the leaders of your village.

"After you have done that, runners are to be sent to all other villages, including the same instructions I have given to you. Every village is to send two priests, and only two priests, to my temple. Their stay at my temple may be for life.

"If your village is hesitant to send the runners, you are to make the journey.

"Finally, Jasper, you asked for my forgiveness. You do not entirely have it, yet you may earn it in time. You have interested me. If you wish to continue in my direct service, once you have completed the task I have just set before you, you too may join me at my temple, for a different sort of internment.

"I am leaving now. I hope to see you, or at least your villages priests, within three weeks time."

Pitcarn began walking towards his temple, taking as long as he needed to get there. He made sure, on his route, to detour at least once at another village. There, he repeated the orders he gave to Jasper, and also took a small boy of about 6 under his wing, promising him a feast of epic proportions. From this village to his temple, accompanied by the priests of that village and the child, Pitcarn walked the final leg of his journey to his home within his home.