And he did. All of the revelers were asleep, spread out under the brilliant night sky as far as could be seen, but all colour seemed tilted markedly toward the blue end of the spectrum.

"It is exactly the same as before I fell--how can this be my nightworld?" asked Gajandra, but upon looking up where the purple Jutu-dinosaur had been, he saw only the night sky.

Cousin? Cousin Gajhrahr? called out Gajandra. He creeped toward his sleeping cousin, so as not to startle her. But wait! What is that rasping? Sa-noor! The evil Sa-noor had infested the soft palate of Gajhrahr. It was then that he noticed other buzz-rasps coming from surrounding sleepers.

Sa-noor! You cannot hide from me! I am Gajandra, Defeater of the Scatoman and Releaser of the Curse of the Seven Monkeys! I will find you, Evil Annoyer!

The nimble prince pranced about from campfire to campfire, across the huge post-festival napping plane, but nowhere did he see the mischievous spirit.

He sat to rest for a bit, and heard yet another rasp-buzzing coming from behind him. He did not bother to turn, but the rasping became louder and louder, and along with it came a puttering--this batch of noises was definitely approaching him. Sa-Noor? He turned.

It was the Big Blue Boulder beast, with the one tall hair sticking straight up from its shiny forehead. Swoooooosh! It rolled past Gajandra, almost striking him.

You again!

"Suddenly, the world's glass is half-full again," came the cryptic retort.

What do you mean by that!? Are you in league with Jutu? Jutu, is that you?

"0-60? Yes" roared the contraption as it careened past him. On this pass, Gajandra noticed that the beast wore circular shoes of dark leather. "The shoes! I must stub its toes!"

"Repent for the 80s," cried the beast, but this time, as it screeched toward Gajandra, the young demigod rolled toward one of the round shoes and thrust his knife into the dark leather. Again the beast approached, hobbling somewhat this time, and into the left front shoe went Gajandra's knife. Two more passes, and the beast was immobile.

"How can you recall me so early!" it cried, "It's just a stupid battery wiring problem!"

Gajandra ignored the demonly, meaningless words, obviously intended to disorient him, as he approached the wounded beast.

He studied the shiny blue oddity. On closer inspection, Gajandra saw a shiny metal indentation that could have passed for some kind of stylized handle. He grasped at it, and without much effort peeled off a large segment of the beasts' skin. Oddly, no blood fell from the wound, and Gajandra could see clearly into the gaping hole that he had torn.

Peering back at him, all blue of skin, hair tied in a tall tower, nails glaring, and in her standard Bhramaguptivian fire-ball earrings, was none other than. . .

Sa-Noor! Have you been eaten by the Shiny Boulder Monster?

He helped the miffed spirit out of the body of the beast.

"Believe what you will, Foolish Prawn," taunted Sa-Noor as she clutched at the throat of the startled Main Character.

"Unhand me, Sa-Noor, or I'll. . . "

"You'll what! I control your soft palate, Tiny Mouse! You have no say whatsoever as to how loudly I make him talk! See-there!"

And with her fleeting touch of his throat, Gajandra felt the familiar hiccough-snortle, and suddenly, he was awake, back at the festival ground. But fortunately, a mere few feet in front of him, old Jutu was still faithfully droning on . . .

. . . and so the Mailman says, "Don't look at me--I just carry letters!" Say, did I ever tell you about the time I found a way to remove shoes without using my hands? It was a billowy autumn's day, and the village cobblers were occupied with ferreting lottery numbers out of burnt onion skins. . .

The overpowering spell of Jutu's pointless recollections swiftly sent Gajandra back to his duty. He looked up and saw Sa-Noor, cursing and kicking at the shoes of her beast, apparently trying to repair them.

Gajandra girded his loins, at-the-ready to approach Sa-Noor and implore, "Demon! Why do you seek to torment mankind so?"

But before he was able to approach her, he was startled by an eerie tune of "I love you, You love Me" coming from behind and above him. He looked up.

Jutu! Again you have manifest yourself as a stuffed purple dinosaur!."

"Yes, Master," intoned the old man in his sing-songy stuffed-purple-dinosaur voice, "I've appeared to give you moral support."

It is not my morals that need support, dear Jutu--

"Ho-hooo, that's not what I heard!"

"--but rather, my armaments. Can you supply me with weapons with which to destroy the dreaded Sa-Noor?"

"Ho-hoooo, Master, you never seem to learn! He-heeeee, why do you always seek to destroy the evil without and ignore any evil within?"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Gajandra, as the great floating stuffed-purple-dinosaur started drifting westward.

"Hoo-hooooo, Sorry, Master, gotta go--lots of movies to make. Millions of children to influence."

"But Wait! Jutu! That is far too broad a statement to leave me with! Can't you give me something more specific? Even if it is typically cryptic?"

"I love you, you love me," sang the Jutu-dinosaur as he drifted farther away.

"NO!" Gajandra ran and leapt up and grabbed Jutu's tail. "I will not release you until you give me a clue!"

"Eat it, curry-boy, I've got money to make!" sang out Jutu-saur.

"By the heavens, I command you to tell me how to defeat Sanoor, you old fool!" shouted Gajandra.

Jutu replied only the mysterious, potentially disrespectful phrase, "Eat it. EAT IT!" and with a flick of his great tail, he sent Gajandra tumbling.

On regaining his posture, our epic hero saw that Jutu was gone.   [page 2 of 3]

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