The llama, the lady, and the Pookah had quietly trotted off behind a series of low ridges, obscured by scrub brush from the rest of the hunters, so they heard distantly hooroor-ing, and haraar-ing, without any particular notable sounds of lions.

Heraklia pulled Studdeley aside, and both of them looked, the whites of their eyes showing, at the left-hand pannier. The Pookah, groaning, climbed out of the right-hand one, trotted about, and rapped sharply on the panier's wickerwork sides:

Excuse me, GeeGee, but will you come out and do our bidding?

Immediately, the panier popped open and JUST like a Jack-in-the-Box, out popped

At this apparition, Studdeley - who'd leapt, shrieking, into Heraklia's arms with the Balrog showed up earlier - simply rolled his eyes up into the back of his head and hit the dirt.

GENIE: OK, the Balrog's already informed me by e-scroll of your requirements, and this is what I've come up with. We would have managed something more elegant if you had booked in advance!

I. For you lot to kill a male lion, under the given circumstances, would be miraculous. Therefore, we use cunning and sly trickery in the true Roman way.

II. If you can't find the lion, the lion must be made to come to you.

III. Use this container of LionLust Atomizer. It will make the Lion think Studdeley is the Demi Moore of all females, and it will pounce on the llama.

IV. When it is distracted by LionLust, you will inject three cc's of this clear liquid into its left hindquarters and the lion will pass out cold.

V. You load the Lion onto the llama, find the King, claim the reward, and answer my invoice within 30 business days before interest rates apply. He put away his scroll and looked smug.

There was a long, thoughtful, pause while the Pookah and Heraklia looked at the unconscious Studdeley. Did they DARE . . . and would Studdeley ever forgive them, to be used as lion lust bait?