The declaration of execution from the cold vegetable prince was not very comforting to our friends Mono, Vira, Zanghi, and Pucas, and as Leek spoke to our friends he turned away and left the shrubbery enclosure. Zanghi and Montana debated what to do. Pucas threw up again, and Vira happily lapped it up.

  "Suppose we pick this tremorroid," said Mono. The portly tween looked at a the asymmetrical chayote-headed lady. "I'm quite sure she's ripe, and as soon as she comes to life she will be in charge, and may reward us for freeing her."

  "That’s a pretty good idea! All right!" exclaimed Zanghi, eagerly. "Let's pick her while we have the chance, before Leekhead comes back."

  So together they leaned over the great bushy bush and each of them seized one hand of the new tremorroid.

  "Heave ho!" cried Montana, and as they did so the royal lady leaned toward them. With one more sharp tug from our friends her ankles snapped and her feet stayed in the fertilizer. Zanghi and Mono tumbled to the ground tangled up with the mutilated tremorroid. Spurts of brown goo jetted from the four severed limb ends. Vira covered her eyes with her paws. Pucas threw up again.

  The aristocratic woman sat up, rubbed her black eyes for an instant, and- after a look around the garden- she looked at her jagged leg stumps and threw up all over herself. Then she began screaming.

  Prince Leek returned to the enclosure, followed by a number of veggie-headed Prodeucers. Instantly the new tremorroid turned and faced him and stopped screaming. When Prince Leek saw that she was picked he stood still and began to tremble. The brown goo had stopped streaming from the lady’s stumps and had slowed to a dull trickle.

  "Sir," said the royal lady, with much dignity despite the vomit drying on her chest, "you have wronged me greatly. For I, the crafty and clever Bludd Enoztrillz, have been ready for picking all the past week, but because you were selfish and desired to continue your unlawful rule, you left me to stand silent upon my bushy bush."

  "I did not know that you were ripe," answered the prince, in a low voice.

  "Bull fertilizer! Give me the badge of royalty!" she commanded.

  Slowly he took the shining badge from out of his overall’s center pocket, bent over, and placed it upon in the new tremorroid’s hand. Then all the people bowed low to her, and the farmer prince turned and walked away alone. What became of him afterward our friends never knew, but I can tell you that he got a pretty bad drinking problem and wasted a few months in a self-destructive haze before cleaning up his act and becoming the owner of a successful chain of laundromats. Then he died.

  The people of Prodeuce now picked up the footless tremorroid, formed themselves into a procession, and marched toward the glass city. No one now seemed to pay any attention to the strangers, so Montana and Pucas and Zanghi and Vira let the train pass on and then wandered by themselves into the vegetable gardens and headed towards Crassgass the Gassy Jackass and the half-a-bug carriage. They did not bother to cross the bridges over the brooks, but when they came to a yellow stream they stepped high and walked up in the air to the other side. This was a very interesting experience to them, and Montana said:

  "I wonder why it is that we can walk so easily in the air."

  "Perhaps," answered Zanghi, "it is because we are close to the center of the earth, where the attraction of gravitation is very slight."

  In the gardens they found thrashberries and orange smelons and black durian and vuiket kumquats, and several unknown but delicious fruits, of which they ate heartily. Even Vira got some.

  Then they sat upon the soft ground watching Crassgass the Gassy Jackass, who had eaten almost all the magenta hairgrass, leaving bare fertilizer in its wake. Pucas asked:

  "Where’s the platypuses?"

  "He, or rather they, are in my backpack now," replied Zanghi. The silver-haired humanoid felt carefully in his bag and pulled out his fez. He turned it upside down and the nine hairless, oily platypus foetuses plopped to the brown ground, where they clumsily tumbled and tottered and cavorted around.

  "Oh, what cunning little runts!" cried Montana, scooping up one of the smooth, gammon-colored foetuses and petting it’s slightly moist, slightly sticky hide.

  "Be careful not to squeeze ‘em!" warned Zanghi. “They’ll poop all over you.” Montana put down the squeaking foetus.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Vira sniffed at the platypuses a little too eagerly and Montana had to pick her up.

  "These shiny little critters are our new friends, Vira. Don’t molest them," said Montana, then she murmured, soothingly, to the platypuses, "Don't worry, I'll not let Vi Pie eat you."

  Then she happened to remember that in her backpack were two or three alien feces snack cakes. The tiny pink creatures- whose skin texture was like that of a shark or sperm whale- squealed delightedly at the sight of the cakes and ate them up in a jiffy.

  "Now let us go back to the city," suggested Zanghi. "That is, if Crassgass has had enough of the grass."

  The jackass lifted his head with a sigh.

  "I’ll never get enough grass," said he while farting dryly, "but I'm ready to go, now, at any time you wish." He farted again, dryly.

  So, after Zanghi had put the platypuses back into his fez and his fez back into backpack, he, Montana, and Pucas climbed into the seat of the half-a-bug and Crassgass started dragging them back to the town.

  "Where shall we stay?" asked Mono.

  "I think I shall take possession of the hall of Che Cavalo," replied Zanghi; "for Prince Leek said in the presence of his subjects that he would keep me until they picked another thaumaturge, and the new tremorroid won't know but that we belong there."

  They agreed to this plan, and when they reached the great square Crassgass drew the half-a-bug into the big door of the domed hall, where Zanghi untethered the steed-class yokai from the half-a-bug.

  "It doesn't look very homelike," said Montana, gazing around at the bare room. "But it's a place to stay, anyhow."

  "What’re the holes?" inquired Pucas, pointing to some openings that appeared near the top of the dome.

  "They look like doorways," said Montana; "only there are no stairs to get to them."

  "You forget that stairs are unnecessary," observed Zanghi. "Let us walk up, and see where the holes lead to."

  With this he began walking in the air toward the high openings, and Mono, Vira, and Pucas followed him. It was the same sort of climb one experiences when walking up a hill, and they were nearly out of breath when they came to the row of openings, which they perceived to be doorways leading into halls in the upper part of the building. Following these halls they discovered many small rooms opening from them, and some were furnished with glass benches, tables and chairs. But there were no beds at all.

  "I wonder if these vegetables never sleep," said the girl.

  "Why, there seems to be no night at all in this country," Zanghi replied. "Those colored suns are exactly in the same place they were when we came, and if there is no sunset there can be no night."

  "Very true," agreed Montana. "But it is a long time since I have had any sleep, and I'm tired. So I think I shall lie down upon one of these benches and take a nap." Montana curled up on a hard bench and Vira jumped up to snuggle against her.

  "Me too," said Pucas, and in spite of the hardness of the glass bench the puppet-class yokai had soon entered the land of Nod. Zanghi stayed awake for a while doing yoga, then dozed off on the glass floor.

  When Zanghi awoke the six colored suns were shining down upon Prodeuce Province just as they had done ever since his arrival. The very attractive silver-haired humanoid, having had a good sleep, felt rested and refreshed. He did had a series of invigorating stretches and then through the glass partition of the room he saw Pucas sitting up on his bench and yawning. Zanghi noticed with a start that Pucas’s face was completely featureless save one wide unsmiling mouth. Then the felt boy picked up his glasses from beside him and slid them onto his face, and the silver-haired humanoid saw the boy’s eyes- animated black dots on a white background- were thaumaturgically a part of the spectacles. Zanghi went to his new friend.

  "Pucas," said he, "In my trailer are some things I would like to keep with me. I wish you would go and work your way under Mr. Banguu’s corpse and fetch my bag of roachberries; my auxilery mojo bag- the red velvet one with the black skull pattern; the two flashlights; the bronze flask; and the black and yellow can of oil. There is nothing else that I care about. Its just stock."

  So the puppet boy went willingly upon the errand, and by the time he had returned Montana and Vira were awake. Zanghi put the items Pucas had brought into his black velvet backpack. Then the friends held a counsel to decide what they should do next, but could think of no way to better their condition.

  "I wanted to get to Schmegma City to star in a movie," said the Toosh island tween. "And I wouldn’t mind seeing Tremorroid Titiana again... but now that I say it out loud I realize I just want to see my mom again."

  Just then they heard Crassgass the Gassy Jackass calling, and going to the doorway leading to the dome they found Bludd Enoztrillz rolling towards them in a wheelchair. The new chayote-headed ruler of the province was surrounded by a throng of her instantly loyal subjects.

  So they went down to greet the green, veiny vegetable lady, who said to them:

  "I have been discussing you meat beasts with my advisors, and we have concluded that you do not belong in the Province of Prodeuce and must not remain here and must go away."

  "How can we go away?" asked Montana.

  "Oh, you cannot go away, of course; so you must be fed," declared the fresh tremorroid of the Province of Prodeuce, coldly. "Fed to the hairy hole."

  Mono and Pucas looked at each other in perplexity, and Zanghi sighed. Vira let out a whine and covered both eyes with her little furry paws. Pucas threw up. Crassgass farted dryly. Then Mono farted wetly.