*********************

   It was a normal day in Radat just like every other.
 The town laundry women suddenly disappeared and a
local well-known hustler got humiliated and scammed by
a bunch of mercenaries from the recently built
fortress nearby.  Yes, it was just another boring
normal day in Radat.

   Viki was a little dissappointed when she realized
the world didn't end overnight like it mentally seemed
to have done for her.  Oh well, it was time to move
on.  Forgetting about McDohl, forgetting about wars,
forgetting about everything and just starting anew....
AGAIN.

   Young Master McDohl woke up slowly in his room at
the inn in Radat.  He stretched slightly, before
attempting to open his eyes.  He lay still in bed for
a moment and then got up.  Stretching some more, he
gathered his clothing and smiled.  He was close.

   The salty air of Radat could very well be the lake
air drifting from Toran Lake back home.  If he was
lucky, he could finally catch a ship back to the
republic and Gregminster.

   Poor Gremio would probably be sick with worry by
now.  He was a wonderful person, if a little
overbearing.  And Pahn and Cleo would be good to see
again.

   McDohl wondered what had become of the country
since he left . . . as he left the room and headed for
the staircase.

   Viki was feeling better that morning.  Sure, she
failed to find McDohl again, but she had decided to
stop dwelling on that fact because it got too
depressing.  She sleepily got up. slowly walked to the
mirror, combed her hair a little, then exited her
room.

   McDohl and Viki bumped into each other in the
upstairs hallway of the Radat inn.  Viki stared at him
a few moments before she rubbed her eyes, looked at
McDohl, then backed up surprised.

   "Oh!  Lord McDohl.  Sorry, I was a bit too sleepy
to realize it was you for a moment there.  Um . . . ?
? ? ? ?  Oh!  Good morning.  Good to see you again."

   "Good morning, Viki . . . " McDohl said as he
started down the staircase.

   At this point, the information was slowly passing
down his nervous system, up the brain stem, and into
his information processor.  Seeing as how he was
pretty slow in the morning, and he's hit his head alot
recently, it took a few moments for this to process.

   Basically the image/name/situation slowly
registered with the half-asleep part of McDohl's brain
that handled recognition and recollection.  It grabbed
the memo, booted up the computer, and waited for the
Windows 2000 screen to go away before calling up the
files.

   It passed the information over to the reaction
center, which printed out a copy and slowly made the
connection between the picture of Viki and the group
shot of Viki, Krin, and Juppo that McDohl's been
throwing darts at in his brain for years.

   The reaction center punched a couple of buttons and
this is basically what happened:

   "VIKI?!"

   Young Master McDohl did a double take and spun
around to get a better glimpse.  As a result, he
slipped on the stairs and tumbled down like a bad
slinky, coming to a dusty mess at the bottom.

   " . . . . . ow . . . . . "

   Viki blinked as she saw McDohl tumble down the
stairs.  What was he so surprised at?  Was she missing
something?  After all, it's only been . . . what, a
month since she last saw him?

   It suddenly occurred to her that perhaps she should
check on him to make sure he didn't break any bones or
anything evil like that, so Viki quickly teleported
herself down the stairs.

   Well, she succeeded at that spell, though it ended
up with her teleporting several feet above McDohl
right before she came crashing down on top of him.

   Viki got up, dusted herself off, and stared at
McDohl.

   "Lord McDohl, are you all right?"  She fumbled for
her medicine but found she used it all yesterday.  So,
remembering how Chef Antonio once told her how
well-cooked food had healing properties, she decided
to give McDohl some leftover tempura from Yoshino's
instead.

   "Here you go, Lord McDohl.  I think this might make
you feel better."  Viki held the rotten tempura in
front of McDohl's face hoping he wasn't too hurt to
keep him from being able to eat it.

   McDohl took one look at the bad looking food and
shook his head.  Getting to his feet, Young Master
McDohl took a look at Viki and wondered how she got
here.  Of course, that thought didn't last too long.

   He still remembered one time when she said "Oops!"
and managed to teleport him, Lepant, Alen, Viktor,
Mina, and Lorelai into the middle of the enemy camp by
mistake.  There either had to be some kind of curse on
her rune or she really WAS as dumb as she acted
sometimes.

   "I'm okay, Viki . . . "

   Viki wiped her forehead.  "You are?  Oh, that's
good to hear."

   Viki smiled, then paused, then sighed.

   "I haven't been doing that well, myself, though.  I
think I'm about to give up searching for you.  I'm
really really tired and it's been such a long time and
I have all these bad people chasing me now for some
wierd reason and I don't think I can wait for you any
longer."

   "Well, it's nice to know people are looking for me.
 I've been spending the good part of two years walking
back home and I'm almost there."

   Young Master McDohl then registered the fact that
Viki was being chased by some people.  It seemed like
EVERYONE McDohl knew was being chased by someone.
Karma, I guess.

   "It's nice to see you again, but I got a boat to
catch for Banner Village.  Where are you headed?"

   Viki blinked again.  She was almost sure that she
was missing something really important at that moment
but she couldn't figure out what it was.  Still, it
was rude to stare at McDohl like that without giving
him an answer to his question.

   "Um . . . . I . . . I really don't know where I'm
going."

   Viki thought to herself.  Now that she failed to
find McDohl, what was she supposed to do, anyway?

   "I . . . I never really had this happen to me.
Usually, after I lose you, I'd accidentally teleport
myself into some random forest path where I'd meet up
with you again."

   Viki suddenly realized what that important thing
she was missing was.

   "I know where I'll go, now!  I'll just keep
teleporting around until I accidentally teleport
myself into a forest and bump into you there!  That
would work out fine, I think."

   Young Master McDohl looked at Viki rather
dumbfoundedly.  Good lord, she's gotten worse.  After
thinking to himself for a moment, he realized that
he'd have to resort to extreme measures for this
situation.

   He waved his hand in front of Viki's face until she
was following along with the motions, then snapped his
fingers.  He hoped to see that dawn of recognition she
usually had when he tried this before.

   At the snap of his fingers, something clicked in
Viki's mind.  McDohl was trying to play a game of
charades for some wierd reason.  Well, normally Viki
wasn't into head pain games, but she didn't want to be
mean to McDohl or anything like that.

   Viki thought to herself.  McDohl waved his hand,
then snapped his fingers.  What could that motion
represent?  Hypnosis?  A fly and the process of
swatting it with a fly swatter?  A drunken man who
really needed to go to the bath house?  An annoyed
McDohl trying to get her to realize that she finally
found him?

   "Oh!  Well, Lord McDohl, if you really need to
know, the bath house is upstairs to the left and the
third door on the right."

   No wait!  If that were the answer, McDohl would
have added in a hiccup motion or something like that!
 

   "Whoa!  I mean . . . . I finally found you, McDohl!
 I'm so glad!  I had almost given up and was so tired
and it's been such a long time and I had all these
mean people chasing me for some reason and I had just
about given up and I bumped into you upstairs then you
fell down the stairs and . . . oh wait.  Um . . . .
Good morning, Lord McDohl!"

   Viki quickly shook McDohl's hand then wondered if
she was supposed to hug him or not.  Figuring it was
better to be safe than sorry, she did.

   The Radat innkeeper, who had been watching all this
time, raised an eyebrow.

   "McDohl?  You mean LORD McDohl?  The leader of the
Toran Republic!?  Great!  That means you can have him
finally pay your bill!"

   Argh!  Viki didn't pay her bill yet?

   Young Master McDohl sighed to himself and payed the
innkeeper for Viki and shook his head.  Not only was
his presence more commonly known here, but he was out
of money again.  Perhaps this is why no one liked the
City-States back in Toran.  It's impossible to hold
onto your money here.

   He started to walk outside, but Viki followed suit.
 This could prove to be a problem.  She attracted a
lot of attention, even when she wasn't doing anything.
 If there was some balance between looks and brains,
she must have invested heavily in Stock A.

   "You found me, I guess.  Now what?"

   "Huh?  Now what?  Why, that's obvious!  I'll . . .
. . um . . . . do stuff . . . . and stuff . . . like
that, you know.  Stuff!"

   Viki stopped following McDohl for a brief moment.
Oh great.  There was another important thing she was
missing now.  What was she talking about before?  Oh
yes!  Some evil people were chasing her.
 
   "Now I know!  You're supposed to protect me from
those billions of evil people surrounding the inn
waiting for me to come out!  Although... that still
doesn't tell what I'M going to do now.  One thing's
for sure, though, we'd better not leave the inn since
it's surrounded by all those mean people and such."

   Viki suddenly noticed she and McDohl were outside
the inn.

   "Hmm . . . . this can't be good."  Another quick
look around made her realize that those evil people
weren't around, either.

   "Er . . . . well, Lord McDohl, I guess I'll
teleport us back to Toran or something like that.
Unless you want to go to Banner for some reason.  But
why would you want to go there?"

   "I was going to Banner because I wanted to travel
back to the Toran Republic.  Well . . . I suppose
travelling with you is faster.  But what evil people
are you talking about?"

   "Huh?  What?  Evil people?  Oh!  Just some people
from some secret society that I used to belong to who
want to kidnap me so they can use me in a blood
sacrifice to gain the ability to time travel then take
over the world and do mean things since absolute power
corrupts but corrupt power absoluties."

   Viki smiled.  "But I don't think it's a problem
since you're here now.  Because you can use your Soul
Muncher Rune to munch on their souls or something like
that.  In fact, I think you already scared them all
away or something, because they're not here and I'm
sure they were all out here yesterday."

   Viki looked around the town of Radat.   "Hmm . . .
looks like you scared away all the townspeople too
because they're not outside, right now, either, except
for that guy in the suit standing in the middle of
town staring at us.  So . . . . ah, Lord McDohl, is
there anywhere you need to go before we get back to
Toran?"

   Young Master McDohl looked at Viki for a moment.
What was that all about?!  Shaking it off, he decided
that now was not the time for thinking about it.  If
there really was a secret society out for Viki, it
would be in everyone's best interests if they got out
of there and fast.

   "Nothing really.  Let's go home."

   "No debts to pay off or anything like that?  Okay!
Let's go!"  Viki waved her wand.  "Shazzam!"

   Nothing happened.

   "Huh?"  Viki frantically looked around.  "Did I
screw up?  I usually always teleport SOMEWHERE . . .
unless I somehow managed to teleport us in the exact
same spot that we were standing at moments before we
teleported.  Shazzam!"

   Nothing happened again.  Well, a couple crickets
chirped.

   "Allhakazam?  Abrakadabra?  Zoowakkamoo?"

   Viki tapped her wand, then tapped her blinking
rune.

   "Hmm . . ."

   The lone man in the streets that had been staring
at her and McDohl was noticebly closer now.  Viki
looked up from her wand and found him directly in
front of her.

   "Oh!  Hello!  Could you help me out?  I seem to
have forgotten the spell and I don't have a clue as to
what I'm doing wrong and . . ."

   The man in the suit smiled.  Looking at his grin
made Viki suddenly realize why she needed McDohl in
the first place, even before the rest of the Esde
Majika society decided to start making her life
miserable.

   "Excuse me, lady Viki."  The man bowed.  "I am Sir
Dargrundgelius Perente.  I am here to take you back
home as per your vocal contract.  I mean you no harm,
and if you would please just hear me out before you
make any rash moves and . . . "

   "Look out, McDohl!  That's Grundge!  The guy with
the stupid name that no one likes because if you piss
him off he'll blow your head off!  And he's a lawyer,
too, which solidifies his sheer evilness even further
to an evilness beyond measure!  Or at least that's
what I think Lawyers were about."

   Grundge frowned.

   "McDohl?  As in the wielder of the Soul Eater?  Hmm
. . .  This would be quite a dilema.  Despite the fact
that he had broken his contract with you long ago, it
would appear that I would have no choice but to
unleash the power of the Soul Crusher on him.  I have
been searching twenty years for you, Viki, and for
once I'm not going to let a silly little boy get in my
way."

   Grundge removed a sword from his briefcase (though
how it fit in there in the first place was anyone's
guess) and held it up.  "Soul Crusher sword, give me a
beast!  Destroy all the living, and crush souls!"

   Grundge dissappeared in a flash, and a large flying
squirrel, wider than two stories wide, appeared.  It
wasn't just squirrelzilla, it was squirrelzilla's evil
overweight mother in-law!

   The squirrel roared a squirrelly roar.

   "Crush souls?  What's that supposed to mean?  Oh
well."  Viki stared at the overly fat squirrel then
turned to McDohl.  "Well, Lord McDohl, um . . . kill
it or something."

   "Eep!"

   Thus came the legend of the fastest man on two
legs.  The man in the green bandanna.  The man . . .
running from the gigantic squirrel.

   "YAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!"

   The chase was on!  It was McDohl in the lead,
followed by big ugly squirrel.  It's McDohl by a good
foot in a half, with big ugly squirrel closing fast.
What a race, folks!

   McDohl raced faster and faster.  But as he raced he
noticed a large rock in the road up ahead.  With
extreme effort, he scooped up the rock as he was
running without slowing down!  And the crowd cheered.
 

   This was his only chance.  Twirling his arm like a
baseball pitcher, he . . . . wrapped his writ around
the rock and lobbed it through the window of Shu's
mansion.  There was the crash of breaking glass with a
a loud "OW!", followed by the thump of a body hitting
the floor.  And again, the crowd cheered!

   Up ahead was the sluice gate controls, which
controlled the amount of water going from the big lake
to the river.  Taking out his staff, McDohl whacked
the gate controls as he passed it, irritating the
worker.  As the gigantic water gates started to close,
McDohl jumped over the side of the bridge and into the
water.  The monster squirrel followed him with a roar.

   Then, there was silence.  Many of the sailors stood
far away from the bridge, afraid of what was going on.
 The silence continued and one of the bravest ones
went to check on what happened.

   He was there just in time to help a soaking McDohl
up onto dry land.  Everyone cheered and ran to the
bridge.  It appeared that McDohl swam through the
sluice gate as it was closing and the squirrel
followed, only to get crushed by the shutting gates.

   McDohl walked back over to Viki and the others,
growled, grabbed Viki by the arm, and dragged her off.

   Viki cheered along with the rest of the crowd as
McDohl dragged her along.

   "Wow, McDohl.  That was OW! great!  You sure showed
that OW! furry thing . . . but ah . . . Ow ow ow ow,
do you have to hold me by the arm that hard?  It's
starting to hurt."

   "Sorry," he said and let her go.  "Can we please go
now?"

   Viki rubbed her arm.

  "Oh yea.  I guess we should.  I'll see if the spell
works with a quick test now.  Shazzam!"

   McDohl dissappeared then came crashing down in
front of Viki three seconds later.  Viki looked at her
blinking rune.

   "Hmm . . . I guess Grundge put up some sort of
magic barrier to block my blinking magic.  Oh well, it
seems to be working now.  Let's go!  Allhakazam!"

   In a flash, McDohl and Viki dissappeared.

******************

   Granmeyer refilled his glass with Jowstweiser and
gulped it down in one gulp, again.  Several empty
bottles of Jowstweiser were lying around his office.
Granmeyer put his head down on the table.

   "Oh why?  How could I have let him get away?  Every
single guard in South Window, and I couldn't even
catch a young boy.  And once he gets back to Toran,
he'll tell everyone and Toran may very well decide to
get their revenge.  And right when war with Highland
has started, too.  I should have trusted Freed and
told him.  He might have stopped McDohl!  I should
have asked Richmond to stop him . . . "

   Viki and McDohl appeared inside Granmeyer's office.
 Granmeyer stared at them as Viki looked around.

   "Huh?  What?  This isn't Gregminster!  OH!  Lord
Granmeyer!"

   Viki walked up to Granmeyer and handed him a
letter.

   "I need to thank you for helping me find McDohl.
After you sent me to Radat to wait for him, he
appeared!  Isn't that nice?"

   Granmeyer read the letter, which was basically a
letter of thanks to Richmond.  He then slowly glared
at McDohl.

   "Aww . . . crap."

*******************

   Minutes later, Young Master McDohl sat in a South
Window cell, holding his head in his hands.  He
bemoaned his fate and sat pretty much still.

   "This can't be my life.  What am I?  Cursed?"

   And for the slightest of moments, he could have
sworn the Soul Eater rippled a tiny bit of laughter.

   Viki walked up to the cell and looked inside.

   "McDohl, you don't look so good.  Is everything all
right?  I have to admit this is a rather smelly dirty
place for a guest room.  Do we really have time to
have dinner with Lord Granmeyer or should I just
continue trying to teleport us to Gregminster?"

   McDohl spend the next few minutes trying to
strangle Viki through the bars of his cell.

   That's friends for you.