They were crying again. She heard their tears, their threats. Snakes? No, not snakes. Snakes ate their young. They knew better than to be ungrateful. Rats were, but you came to expect that from a rat. posers to the man. No, only orcs or orphans or orckillers cried. Maybe both. Maybe throth. Addiction was a bad, bad thing. Epiphany!: they wanted her dead. Vex cringed. Tossed. Turned. The tears were gone. This was bad. BAD! They were coming! The red itch! The green plague! The crimson hordes! For revenge, for mullets, for gold, for cabbages… here they came… here they were! … Coming to enjoy the route… coming to enjoy victory over her stinking corpse-

Vex awoke in a sudden, spasmodic jerk. Vomit, bile, a combination of raw eggs, rotten seafood as well as other, even less appetizing aromas chowed on her taste buds making her retch. Dry heaves: nothing in the stomach. Then the pain hit: sunlight, sunlight! The she-devil's vision swam with orange. The pain crested: sweeping her away with the power of some holy avenger or some great itch-

"Holy freakin' carrot." Someone said. Vex giggled. The people next to her giggled as well. Were they there, these people? No matter. It made perfect sense. Carrot. Of course it made sense. Hahaha. Holy. Hahaha. Carrots. Hahahahahahaa…

A voice, a faraway voice groaned. "This is seventeen times less-." But then it was gone, hidden within the mists of time. Or space? Whatever, Vex wasn't going to listen to it. She wasn't going to take that kind of abuse from some idiotic, effeminate chicken. It was probably viciously contemplating an existence without her. planning to peck out an eye. Yeah, she had the thing's bloody address. It couldn't run from her. She'd stew it then-

Then Vex moved. Backwards. Curled into a safe corner of this nice forest. The chicken was red. The red surprised her. So did the teeth. Vex shrunk away. It was trying to trick her! It wasn't a chicken! It was a rabbit! Heck, maybe even a rabbit of an Enchanter. Enchanters had good press most of the time but the ones she knew- well, they were really screwy people. Rabbits in Heck? Hounds had nothing on em'. Scariest creatures to grace the multiverse. Scariest after Father Time anyways. Or Uncle Tim, of course. Tim was the creator of the rabbits of Heck, the second shiftiest dude after Father Time. Maybe he was the big FT. Tim the enchating, Tim the mighty, Tim the Time...

No, it was a rabbit. Maybe even one of Tim's. A presence of pure Heck. It was the eyes, the stupid, freakin' eyes. White rabbits, red eyes. Freakin' albinos. They wanted to take over Arda. It was gesturing to her now, trying to trick her. Yeah, she had its address. She knew about rabbits, about how they tried to appear cute but were secretly laughing. Especially when stealing the crops. Just like this poser. Sniping away at everyone else who was trying to conquer Arda.

All in the name of Tim the Enchanter. “I'm onto ya Timmy!” Vex shouted. Someone tried to shut her up but she refused their kind regards. Bite. Something gave. Flesh, thumbs, sore hands, broken pennies. “I'm onto ya! You're going to go dooooown! Y'know how your cheekens went after the stoopid party-poopers once... then never did that again? That was me! That was my doing!” A monster grabbed her head. Or was it a cow? Or the anthropological personification of a hole? Anyway, it made her fall, made her forehead kissed the ground, made her come to terms with a new understanding: her stomach was not empty any more.

“Shut the freakin' Heck up! Some of us are trying to get to the next world!” Vex agreed. The next world. Enlightenment. The hole of no return. It was a hole though. A pit. A dark, dank cave. Dig, dig, dig... dig... then ye reach it. Then what? Then ye start with the extreme stuff. Not just poppy extract, nor watermelon seeds. Tough stuff. The dirt that was shoveled out when digging. Reality. Vex opened her eyes. It wasn't quite time yet. Not yet. Soon, but not yet.