The lock can wait. What the heck is going on outside?
I poke my head out the door just in time to see Heflam rushing towards Dane, who is setting the supplies on fire screaming like a crazed harpy.
“What the…”
Heflam reaches the supplies and starts to bat at them with his frilly cape, and eventually Dane joins him.
It’s too late. The crates had dried up into wonderful tinder during their day in the sun and when combined with the packing chaff inside them… they are practically exploding in flames.
I poke my head back into the tower, “Hey kid… Dane just burned our supplies.”
I look back out just in time to see that Dane’s silky pantaloons are also aflame. He notices a bit too late, howls a different howl and starts to roll around in the sand while removing his fancy green garments.
For the first time, I notice the critters all over the beach… a swarm of them… as far as our meager flames can illuminate. They seem to sense the tender and slightly burned flesh of the Dane, because they are all running in his general direction. Just as I notice this, the once again naked Dane yelps a new brand of howl and leaps to his feet from the sand and starts dancing around yet again, batting violently at his crotch in desperation.
“He’s bad luck” I say to no one in particular as I head towards the stairs. I barely break stride as I push past the kid and open the lock with a quick twist of my whisk tine.
The whiz of the dart going by my ear startles me and thunks into the wall just past Twix.
“I guess we need to be more careful?”
