CHAPTER 197

"I'm not that fragile," Mike muttered, then yelled in surprise as Bigfoot lifted him into the air and squeezed him tight.

"You sound like a squeaky toy!" Bigfoot declared loudly as Dana and Yuki laughed. He put his lips against Mike's ear and dropped his voice to a whisper. "You ever call me a yeti again and I'll rip your arm off and fist your asshole with it."

"Don't threaten...me with...a good time," Mike gasped in response.

The sasquatch laughed and set him down. He offered Yuki a fist bump and headed toward the trees behind him. "As for how you're getting home, just ask the trees. Looks like you've learned their language without my help." With that, he vanished into the woods without a sound.

Mike contemplated Bigfoot's words with a smile, then looked up at the owl. She hooted her agreement and flapped her wings.

"What are you looking at?" Dana asked as she scanned the trees.

"Just a spirit of the woods," he replied with a grin. Though he was leaving this place behind, he knew it would be in good hands.

The owl flapped her wings and flew back into the woods, disappearing through a tree. Mike took one more swig of water and thought about home. A portal opened to his right, about thirty feet away.

"Looks like we're taking some shortcuts," he said, then looked at the others. "Who's up for a run? Should just be a couple thousand miles."

Yuki groaned and turned back into a fox. Dana ran ahead of Mike, her ponytail bouncing on her shoulders.

"Try to keep up," she hollered as she sprinted ahead.

Beth looked up from the Grimoire in time to see Kisa snap awake dramatically. The catgirl clutched her head and dry heaved over the side of the couch as Lily's tail twitched back and forth. They were sitting in the front room so that they could keep an eye on what was happening outside.

"Well?" she asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"Success." Lily smirked as she stroked Kisa's back. "We made contact with Romeo."

"Finally some good news." She closed the Grimoire and turned to look out the window. Murray was hovering in the air, his mouth stretched wide as the mist swirled around him. He and the others now stood between Death and the house, ensuring that nobody could go to the Grim Reaper's aid. "Any idea how long it will be?"

"No," Kisa groaned. "But he's coming right now."

Sighing, Beth looked back at the grimoire and focused on the spell she had chosen. The words weren't complicated and she felt a rush of energy move through her body as a ball of water formed over the table and then fell. It made quite a mess, but did fill up all of the coffee mugs they had set out to catch the moisture.

Reggie picked one up and slurped greedily, his tail twitching as he did so. When he got toward the end of his mug, Jenny (who was sitting next to him) tipped it up far enough that water ran down his face.

"I don't even care," he declared as water beaded up on his whiskers. He wiped his face off and flicked the water at Jenny.

Smiling, Beth picked up a couple of mugs and drank it down. The house was much warmer without the priestess, so they had that going for them. Summoning water made a mess, but she didn't dare move away from the front windows. The horsemen occasionally wandered, and she wanted to know where they were at all times.

"Any chance you're gonna make snacks later?" asked Kisa as she picked up a mug.

"Spontaneous generation is trickier than expected," Beth replied. "This was just a way to condense the moisture already in the air. If I do it enough times, the spell won't work anymore because of the lack of humidity."

"Think we'll live long enough to run out of water?" Kisa asked. "Once we're back on Earth, I don't see these guys being content to just chill on our front yard."

Beth frowned, then looked back outside. Unless she was mistaken, the swirling mists circling the house had thickened.

"Doubt it," she replied, then turned her attention to Opal. The slime girl was only a foot tall right now, and had crawled under the table to absorb the moisture from the carpet. As Opal sucked the water out with a wide mouth, Beth watched the slime's body expand a little.

The ooze had emerged from her crystalline core a couple of hours ago and had signed some seriously foul language in regards to the priestess. Apparently her consciousness resided inside of the crystalline vial. Whatever spell had latched onto the vessel had caused it to create a little bit of primordial ooze every day. Any type of moisture could be absorbed and used to create more slime, allowing Opal to be far larger than the contents of a magic jar.

This little fact had actually inspired Beth to attempt the spell in the first place. She was already getting dehydration headaches and had seen the bags under her eyes while looking in a mirror.

She looked at the others, then back out the window. The mood was grim, and she didn't like it.

"We're going to need a plan," she declared. "For when Mike arrives, or maybe even before. I have no idea what he's going to do when he gets here, but I want to have something ready in case we need to buy him time or create a distraction. Any ideas?"

"You're not gonna get a lot of opportunities," Lily declared with her arms crossed. "As soon as you step out there, I bet you get blasted. Or stabbed. Or both."

Beth looked down at Opal, who paused to return her gaze.

"Maybe...that's something we can use?" she asked the slime.

Opal gave her a thumbs up, then signed the word for thirsty. Without delay, Beth summoned another sphere of water. The inkling of a plan had formed in her head and she was fairly certain that she and Opal were in agreement.