Blackness engulfed Montana Shingles on every side, as the ground crashed and trembled around her. Breathlessly she waited for the fall to end and crush her against jagged scabby rocks or for Sifillis to close in and bury her forever in the dreadful dank depths of its fleshy folds. From within her backpack she could hear a very unhappy puppy-dog-shaped yokai named Vira howling in fear.

  The horrible sensation of falling, the darkness and the terrifying noises proved more than Montana could endure and for a few moments the portly blonde tween passed out.

  When Mono recovered her senses she was still falling, but not so fast. The worst thing was her terror of reaching the bottom of this great crack in the ground, and the natural fear that sudden death was about to overtake her at any moment. Crash after crash echoed far above her head as Sifillis came together where it had split, and skinstones and chunks of dead fleshrock rattled around her.

  How long this state of things continued Montana could not even guess, she was so greatly bewildered. But bye and bye, as she stared ahead into the darkness with a beating heart, the chasm became less black. There was a mysterious light shining, and Mono squinted below her.

  There she saw six great glowing globes suspended in the air. The central and largest orb was white. Around it were arranged, like the five points of a star, the other five brilliant balls; one being yellow colored, one deep purple, one blood red, one cerulean blue and one glittering silver. This splendid group of colored suns sent rays darting in every direction, and as Montana sank steadily downward and came nearer to the lights, the rays began to take on all the delicate tintings of a rainbow, growing more and more distinct every moment until all the space was brilliantly illuminated.

  Swiftly Mono drew near to the colored suns, and passed close beside them. The light was then so bright that it dazzled her eyes, and she covered her face with her hands to escape being blinded. There was no heat from the colored suns, however, and soon she was able to open her eyes again.

  "We’ve got to come to the bottom some time," she said with a deep sigh to Vira, who was still inside the backpack and not feeling very good about it. "We can't keep falling forever."

  Suddenly she saw land below her; and not so very far away, either. But she was floating very, very slowly- so slowly that it could no longer be called a fall- and Montana had ample time to take heart and look about her.

  She saw a landscape with brown mountains and plains, yellow lakes and streams, very like those upon Sifillis's surface. Here and there were buildings that seemed to be made glass that reflected the variegated lights from the six suns.

  Mono seemed to be falling right into the middle of a big city which had many tall glass buildings topped with jagged, sharp-pointed spires. If Montana landed upon one of them she was likely to suffer serious injury.

  Fortunately she landed softly on her feet on the roof of a flat-topped building. She unzipped the backpack and a thankful Vira flopped out and vomited. Then she shook her antennae and began yipping and prancing about on her hind legs like a circus dog, happily to be free from the dark bag.

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  The homes of the city were all made of glass, so clear and transparent that one could look through the walls as easily as though a window. Montana saw, underneath the roof on which she stood, a bathroom, with a shadowy form sitting on the toilet, straining to make a poo.

  The roof they stood upon had a great hole smashed through it, and pieces of glass were lying scattered in every direction. A nearby tower had been broken off short and the fragments lay heaped beside it. Other buildings were cracked in places or had corners chipped off from them; but they must have been very beautiful before these accidents had happened to mar their perfection.

  Suddenly a being appeared through the hole in the roof of the building Mono and Vira were standing on. He was not a very large man, and his orange carrot-shaped head took up two thirds of his body.

  The man had taken a step or two across the glass roof before he noticed the presence of Montana; but then he stopped abruptly. There was no expression of either fear or surprise upon his tranquil face, yet he must have been both astonished and afraid; for after his eyes had rested upon the bejumpsuited girl and antennaed puppy-dog-shaped yokai for a moment he walked rapidly to the furthest edge of the roof, his head turned back over his shoulder to gaze at the strange creatures.

  "Look out!" cried Montana, who noticed that the ugly vegetable man did not look where he was going; "be careful, or you'll fall off!"

  But he paid no attention to her warning. He reached the edge of the tall roof, stepped one foot out into the air, and walked into space as calmly as if he were on firm ground.

  Mono, greatly astonished, rushed to the edge of the roof and watched the man walking rapidly through the air toward the ground. Soon he landed and disappeared through a glass doorway into one of the glass buildings.

  "How strange!" Mono exclaimed, drawing a long breath. Then she turned to find Vira walking in the air a foot or so away from the edge of the roof!

  "Come back, Vi!" she called, in distress, "you'll certainly be killed!"

  The carrot-headed man had returned with another small man, whose head looked like a big green pea, and they were gazing up at Vira. The puppy-dog-shaped yokai stopped walking in the air and squeezed out a turd, which landed with a plop on the pea-head. The two vegetable men ran back inside the glass building.

  Vira walked around in a circle and then let out a huge fart which propelled her back to the roof where Montana caught her and held her tight.

  More big-headed vegetable people began to come out of the glass buildings to look at the Toosh Islander and her pet, and pretty soon quite a crowd had assembled. There were men and women, but no children at all. Their heads were shaped like various vegetables, and their faces did not smile nor did they frown, or show either fear or surprise or curiosity or friendliness. They simply stared at Montana with dead eyes.

  Pretty soon a man joined the group who had a head shaped like an enormous leek. Despite being dressed like a common farmer (with copious amounts of fertilizer stains on his overalls) he seemed to be a person of authority, for the others pressed back to give him room. He was holding a double barreled shotgun which he pointed up at Montana and Vira.

  "You are under arrest," the bespectacled leek-headed farmer said in a monotone voice. Montana and Vira farted slowly at the same time. “Come down with your hands in the air.” Montana and Vira were still farting low and slow, and they farted until Mono’s fart ended with a strangled butt-gulp and Vira’s fart ended with a tiny brown poo popping out of her fuzzy bumhole.