They Keep It

“No, no, no, that simply won’t do. We need to leave it out to study.”

As the sun began to set, Gary sat down next to his comrades. They spent the next three hours staring at the skull.

Finally, Gary stood up.

“We don’t seem to be making much progress here. I’m going to turn in for the night.”

Gary made his to his tent and contemplated how long this **** induced hallucination was going to last. He pulled out the silver ribbon and tried to get it to become a hoop again. Frustratingly, it stayed a ribbon.

As Gary drifted off to sleep he wondered, what if this wasn’t a figment of his imagination?

He slept well and woke up to a commotion.

“It’s gone! It’s gone! It’s gone!” William cried, flapping his arms and running about the dig site.

Peter simply stood by the table where the skull had been, looking ashen.

In a loud and surprisingly assertive voice, Gary yelled. “Don’t panic!”

“Don’t panic! Don’t panic! The skull is gone! The Princess is going to be so mad!”

“What happens if she’s mad at us?”

“My God man, she’ll stare at us disapprovingly! We have to find it!”

“That sounds…bad. Ok, where was it last?”

“We never moved it. We left it out in the table.”

“Is there anyone who might have taken it?”

Peter has a horrified expression. “The witch! Erin the Grey probably took it!”

“I saw her earlier. She really didn’t look all that dangerous.”

“Be thankful all you did was see her. She’s the most evil witch in all the land! She kidnaps man steals their clothes then rides them like a non-maiden mounting a unicorn!”

“Just how many men has she kidnapped?”

“One for certain. But, you know what they say, for every one reported there are at least a dozen others!”

“I’m not quite…” Gary trailed off, deciding this might not be worth the argument.

“What can we do?” Wailed William.

“Why don’t we just go see if she has it? There are three of us.”

They looked at Gary with shock and awe.

“That…that might work!”

“Do you know where she lives?”

“Yes, we all know so we can stay away from it. Her cabin is about a five minute walk.”

Peter led the way and they soon came up a rustic little cottage with a lovely flower garden.

The big question was, did Erin the Grey have the skull?