Seme and Hilarity thought this was some sort of a joke, judging by their reaction to her question. They laughed and guffawed and even went to so far as to slap their knees. Reminded her of hyenas she’d had the misfortune of running into before the whole “TARSID” incident. Diantha could only shake her head. These Egyptian-types were weird.

She wandered over to where Maria was like-wise surrounded by the hot-sand-and-heat-lovers. Poor girl. She looked like she could use some help trying to understand the locals…

OK, so maybe she hadn’t been terribly helpful when it came to deciding what to use to water the dog…er…demi…er…God? Some people had renamed the poor beast, Herkanubis to dispel some of the confusion the whole episode had caused. Anyway…the road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say. And no more so than when Diantha was trying to help. The Professor became the whipping boy and had slinked off muttering something about finding more than just a cure for the dog-god. Said dog-god/demi-goddess was becoming more unsteady on her feet the more she drank. Poor thing - she could never hold her liquor like Di could.

Diantha left the company of Maria, Nitkribit and Cmell to ask Decius what he thought should be done. The man was a smarty-pants know-it-all who usually annoyed the hell out of her. But, his type became useful in situations like these.

Decius had been talking to the locals about girls. Diantha tried hard not to roll her eyes…MEN! But, when Di pulled up, all talk stopped.

“So, Decius. As I see it this is all your fault. You were the one to suggest this tour and you were the one to bring us all to Egypt. So…how are you going to fix this?”

The man actually sputtered. It was quite an amusing sight, really. She so loved to knock the wind out of his sails. Diantha smirked, which had the unfortunate consequence of giving Decius time to fill his lungs with air and deliver the most untoward lecture. It went something like, “Egypt is full of history, blah, blah, blah. And he is not responsible for the acts of demis or professors, blah, blah, blah. Oh and also, Decius the Great never did anything wrong in his life, blah, blah, blah.

About the time he was extolling his greatness, Herkanubis sauntered up. (S)he sniffed the sandal of said “Great One”. “Oh look, she likes you!” Diantha cried and bent to scritch the doggie behind the ear. But, the excitement of meeting a new friend must have been too much for the good old dear. She promptly lifted her leg and piddled on Decius’. “Er…I think I hear Sank calling me.” Diantha said as she backed away. Not only was Decius speechless this time, but he was turning red, then purple in the face. Not a good sign.