Brutoin was beginning to be irritated after another failed attempt to capture one of the birds. He and Yu had arrived at Molil, and then begun searching, only to find that the island was not uninhabited, as it seemed to be by the lack of any boat in the dock. They had been chased and run off the island by a fierce little blond boy. Brutoin had sort of liked the little lad. He had the right kind of ferocity. He was an inconvenience at the moment, but under the right circumstance, he might be fun to mess with.

Maybe it was because of the time in the solar year. Maybe it was the refreshing, late summer weather, but whatever the reason, the island seemed to be inhabited all week round, every week. It was nearly impossible to find empty of people. This was an unwelcome obstacle.

Yet again, Brutoin’s people’s path became unclear. Yet again, Lilah found a way to fill the time until they figured out their next step.

“Look. We have other things that we can be searching for,” Lilah suggested to her companions. To preempt Brutoin’s rebuttal, she continued, “The pixies remain our priority, but why not make progress elsewhere? For now? – There are plenty of people in the city who have things worth redistributing.”

“We’re not petty thieves,” Brutoin shouted at her.

“No. Fine. So… Something else then. Something tangible. Something we can definitely achieve,” Lilah suggested.

Mara agreed with Lilah, even though she felt uncomfortable showing too much support to the other woman. She helped the idea along. “There are more legends, ones which are known to be absolutely true. Like the robe and the gecko.”

“Those aren’t legends,” Tristan corrected. “Those are simply things which exist, which are special enough to have some mystique around them. What will it help to collect them?”

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‘What does it help to have a dog that can sense food allergens?’ Mara thought to herself, but didn’t voice aloud. She preferred this absurd, chaotic lifestyle to the desperate one she’d been living before, so would choose to be a team player. Aloud, she said, “Same thing in the end, isn’t it? Imagine at the next festival, campaign, or rally, if we not only healed people of their illnesses, but also had a fire breathing lizard… and a host of other oddities. It will only give us more legitimacy, more of a following.”

Lilah was beginning to see how much legitimacy and a following would mean to them in the long run. Brutoin had the vision and charisma to lead this thing, to create a movement. But his vision was a fantasy. He would always be searching; it was his personality. He would never be satisfied though, never achieve enough change. Lilah though, would be able to steer this ship into an actual movement. It could really change the world under her guidance. At minimum, it could produce a lot of chaos. All they needed was a vision, which Brutoin was providing quite well, and some continued momentum. She didn’t know where the wave would take them, but she was sure it would be fun to be the one at the top of the wave, reaping the benefits and having the power.

Guiding the discussion forward, she said, “Ok. The gecko. We know it’s real. We can definitely get one, maybe even a few. By the time we have it, we’ll know what to do about the pixies.”

She knew that the geckos they were talking about were just extraordinary lizards. They could live in extraordinarily hot environments. They could walk over burning coals and even put steaming hot items in their mouths. You could put a steaming stone in ones mouth and make it look like it was breathing fire. They were also beautiful little creatures, looking juvenile all their lives. Even though they were certainly not magical, she felt confident that obtaining one was a good next step.

Obtaining the gecko ended up being less difficult than expected. There were whole nests of them. Travel and patience were required, as well as speaking to the locals, but nothing extremely difficult. The most challenging thing would be to house and feed the small company of living creatures that they were collecting.

The gecko mission was a short distraction. After its completion Brutoin and Yu were back on their rounds to Molil. They needed one more little, living creature, the blue bird.