“Honestly,” I said to her, “I’m not sure.”
“Why is that no surprise?” Aahz said, his eyes rolling in disgust.
“Aahz said something about taking the magik out of the map,” I said, going on, explaining to her what had happened while ignoring Aahz, “So I gave it a try. I tapped into its energy like I would a force line and just let it flow through me and into the ground. That’s all I did. Honest.”
Tanda looked as if she understood, but was saying nothing.
“The vortex dimensions are known to be powerful places for magik,” Glenda said. “That’s why no one lives here very long.”
“So while we’re here,” Aahz said, glaring at me, “be careful!”
I pointed at the map. “What? Didn’t I help?”
“I think you did,” Tanda said. “Glenda, do you know this Kowtow dimension? Or do we have to go back to the Shifter to get there?”
Aahz moaned at the mention of the Shifter.
“I’ve been there a number of times,” Glenda said. “Never thought of it as a place with a great treasure, though.”
“Are there cattle there?” Aahz asked.
“More than you could ever imagine,” Glenda said.
“So our next adventure,” I said, smiling at Glenda, “is finding a single cow in a proverbial haystack of cows.”
A puzzled frown came over her face, telling me clearly she had no idea what I had just said, and since I had no idea what a cow looked like, I didn’t want to try to explain a haystack of them to her.
“What our young friend there was trying to say,” Tanda added, “is that if there are a lot of cows, how are we going to find the one that gives golden milk?”