Titans of Chaos

"Bleh," commented Colin. Then he said to Quentin, "Gimme the magic ring back, Big Q. I feel theneed to disappear."

"Vanity can experiment with her green stone and discover what her capacities are. I can take upknitting or bird-watching or something. So wave bye-bye to the lights of the big city, people; weare going to go somewhere where there is nothing but sand, sand-fleas, sandpipers, andsand-crabs."

A moment of gloom hung over the group.

Vanity brightened up. "What about sandwiches?"

I blinked. Vanity sometimes acts the way she acts. "What witches?"

"I mean, we have to eat, don't we? We have to go ashore to get food! And supplies! And do someshopping! How much money is left?"

"Um... You have the envelope, don't you?" I asked Vanity.

"So I do! So I do! Well... ? It's not going to kill the humans if we just go ashore for a few hours, isit?"

"Well..."

I looked out over the water at the gleaming, brilliant city, the engineering wonder of the GoldenGate Bridge. I thought about hot running water. We had just been in a sea-fight, right? And I hadmissed the chance to shop in Paris, right?

"Well, okay," I said, finding myself beginning to smile, "but only until the noon high tide!"

Quentin said, "Leader, are you sure that this is wise... ?"

"Oh, come on!" I said, pouting. "I haven't even had a chance to spend a single pound-note of thatmoney!"

The Creatures of Prometheus

We smuggled ourselves into the country.

Quentin and I were carried over by Colin first. We were standing in a little spot of greenery calledCorona Heights Park, between Haight-Ashbury and Twin Peaks. Across the grass, I could see alittle museum, austere and white. Across the street (which fell in dizzying straight steps toward thesea), I could see another park, shining with green trees, surrounded by houses and buildings withsharply peaked roofs of black slate, the ones nearer us carved with ornate gables and flutedcolumns. I had been expecting to see everything in California made of white plaster and red tile,Spanish architecture. The buildings near us had a Norwegian extravagance to them.

Across the other way, we had a perfectly breathtaking view of the metropolis; we stood on a tallhill overlooking the buildings, and only the tallest buildings (made blue by the distance) were levelwith us.

The air smelled differently than it did in England. It was warmer. A little bit, not much.

I said to Quentin, "Won't you get in trouble? Sneaking into a country?"

Quentin said, "Any other country, yes. Not this one."