I had a general idea of where Nacre Springs was, but what the forest was like between here and there was something of an unknown. I planned to live of... the land, and was taking only the barest of trail essentials as well as my mostly rebuilt wizard's tool kit.The Wizard Ethric, my master and Wizard of the Vale, as he had recently reminded me, stepped in at this point and told me I would under no circumstances be allowed to travel alone. Though I wanted to argue the point, his tone, and the. Handcuffs would be placed on the wrists, and then the other three would leave till the Mall opened the following morning, with the shopping bag and the T-shirt.We actually all signed it and agreed to the payoff, and then we decided how the bet would go. It was decided that we would each draw a team; this was the second week of playoffs. The bet was only going to be the score of the game, the team you drew would enter into the pool. Even though there were eight teams, we would draw only four of. Mrs. Jenkins offered to make us some pancakes, but we were happy with toast, oatmeal, a grapefruit and some coffee."So, what are you two doing this morning?" she asked. "More golf?" No golf this morning," Kelli answered. "We're playing this afternoon, but we haven't decided what to do with our morning yet."Our hostess had a few suggestions, but the only decision we came to quickly was that we wanted to get in some tennis at some point today. We'd been here two days now and still hadn't stepped. It was my M16 rifle.”“But you were never with a girl all that time?”“When my buddies and I were on furlough, we would go to bars and have drinks with girls. Some of the guys would disappear and sleep with them. I enjoyed the girls’ company, but wanted nothing to do with that.”“So does that mean you’re still a virgin?”“Gosh, you really ask a lot of questions.”“Well, are you?”“As strange as this may sound, but, yes.”We walked for about a minute without saying anything and then I remembered.