"Margie! Anjali! J.L.!"

Morgaine and Lisa rushed full force at the Comfy Cottage front door, Morgaine leading the way...or at least attempting to.

"Um, Morgaine, the doorway works better when the door is opened." Lisa smiled at her flustered friend.

"Oh, yeah. Makes sense." Morgaine shook her head.

The two entered the Cottage, and headed straight for the kitchen. Remembering the door this time, Morgaine raced in, Lisa right behind her.

Margie and Anjali, who were busy putting away groceries, turned to greet them.

"Hi guys," said Margie. "Something wrong?"

Lisa spoke up. "No, something kewl! We found something that might have to do with the war."

As Lisa explained what happened to Margie, Anjali, half- listening to what was said, greeted her dueling companion Morgaine. Morgaine began to help her fill the cookie jar.

"Hey, Anjali."

"Yeah?"

Morgaine placed a smaller cookie on the palm of her hand. "Snatch the cookie from my hand."

"Huh? Wrong show, Morgaine."

"When you can snatch the cookie from my hand, you will be ready to leave this cottage."

Anjali wondered whether or not she should encourage her friend's weirdness, but made a try for it anyway, and triumphantly held up the cookie. She popped it into her mouth.

Morgaine pouted. "I was not ready."

Margie spoke up. "So where's Kyer? I wanna see this thing."

Morgaine's pout turned into a puzzled frown. "Good question. She was right behind us."

A cry came from the living room. "Aaack! That was totally uncalled for!"

Exchanging confused looks, Margie and Lisa bolted out of the kitchen. Morgaine followed, beckoning to Anjali.

"Trouble in the temple. C'mon, let's go where the action is!"

It was next to the couch, as it turns out. Her faction- mates found Kyer standing there, trying to wipe her eye and shake her finger at Mr. Spitz with one hand.

"Bad llama! You do that again, I'm gonna feed you to Morgaine's Space Chickens!"

"What happened, Kyer?"

The Arizonan spoke while glancing disapprovingly at her puppet. Morgaine stifled a giggle - the look reminded her of that "disappointed parent" glare LaCroix gave Nick in "Father's Day".

"Well, I was just telling Mr. Spitz as we came in - no Mr. Spitz, they asked *me* what happened! - so anyway, I was telling him how he should have stayed quiet so we - yes, *we* - wouldn't have to baby-sit a thingy that very well could be fiendish. I suggested we give it to someone else, and of course he refused, being the stubborn mammal that he is. So I asked if I could just *look* at the thing, and as soon as I touch it, BAM! He goes nuts and squirts me in the eye with garlic juice!" Mr. Spitz showed no sign of remorse.

"Sounds like your puppet has gotten rather attached to the thing, Kyer."

At the sound of J.L.'s voice, everyone turned. Their resident technology expert, who had apparently been listening, waved.

Lisa smiled at the sight of their rarely-seen CotK. "Wow, she emerges."

J.L. strolled over to Kyer and looked at the strange charm on the llama's new necklace. "Hmmm."

"It won't...um...*explode*, will it?" Kyer asked J.L. worriedly as she supported the spaniel-sized puppet.

"I'm allergic to close-and-up-personal like explosions--- so is Mr. Spitz."

J.L. reached out to examine it more closely. Mr. Spitz via Kyer's arm violently jerked away.

"Mr. Spitz! That was rude!" Kyer gave J.L. an apologetic look. "Sorry about that...but he's gotten really attached to the thing. Thinks it makes him look like a 'Star Trek' character or something. You're getting really weird on me, Mr. Spitz."

"It's okay, Kyer." J.L. looked at the "thingy" a moment longer and stepped back. "Morgaine, do you remember any 'Star Trek' episodes like this?"

The red-haired teen thought for a moment. "Well, it doesn't look like a Tribble. But then there was that one episode of 'The Next Generation' where this fiendish game thingy made everyone go totally nuts. And it seemed so harmless at first..."

"Um, Morgaine?" Margie gestured to Kyer, whose eyes were widening at the thought.

"Oh, sorry." Morgaine smiled sheepishly. "Mr. Spitz likes me, maybe I could..." She reached for the small cube, and Kyer's puppet-arm promptly dove under the coffee table, dragging the rest of her along.

After a moment, Kyer crawled out. "Sorry, Morgaine. Mr. Spitz seems to have claimed it, and he REALLY doesn't want anyone else to touch it. He's never acted like this before."

Lisa leaned over and spoke softly to Margie. "I'm worried. Kyer's not joking around - she's shy around people she doesn't know that well. She wouldn't have yanked away from J.L. like that. I bet it has something to do with that thingy...Mr. Spitz is acting really weird."

Margie nodded thoughtfully. She thought Mr. Spitz's behavior was odd also, and a bit disturbing. She was re- reading 'The Lord of the Rings' for the fifth time, and this reminded her of...but no, she shook her head. That was a different fantasy from this one, she reminded herself. Still, if Mr. Spitz started talking to that thing, and calling it 'My Precious', Margie was *really* going to be worried.

As if reading her mind, Morgaine broke the sudden silence. "Kyer, do you think it would upset 'Gollum' here if J.L. used those computer thingies to try and find out about this thing?"

Kyer conferred with Mr. Spitz before she answered. "Nope, long as you don't try and take it."

J.L. nodded and headed for the basement. Margie and Lisa returned to the kitchen, and Kyer spoke to Mr. Spitz in a hushed tone before following J.L. Anjali smiled at Morgaine. "You'd better not try that snatching game with Mr. Spitz. That garlic stuff must really hurt."

Morgaine gestured to her glasses. "Least I got goggles. So, you think that thingy really has something to do with the why we're all here?"

"I think it's pretty likely. Like you said, someone must have left it for us on purpose. I wonder what we have to do with it?"

Morgaine smiled weakly. "Do you know of any fiery mountains in Toronto?"

THE END...FOR NOW...

(Note: 'Star Trek' and 'The Lord of the Rings' are the products of two great minds - Gene Roddenberry and J.R.R. Tolkien - both of whom Morgaine considers to be right up there with the Parriott. No infringement intended.)