Act 30.

"Again if I may be so bold," said Margaret, "Why don’t you just take care of the problem directly?"

"For the same reason you are allowed to choose which path to follow in life, you also have to take care of most of your problems. Almost all of the time you bring the problems down on yourselves and so you should fix them yourselves." said the Earth Mother.

"But," said Her Sister, "you can ask for help. My people asked for help and I decided I would talk to you. To let you know of your origins and see if you would help out."

The Black Mother seemed to blush.

"Besides, I wanted to see you. You turned out more beautiful than I expected."

The Earth Mother ran her fingers through Her Sister’s hair, brushing it out of her face.

"You did a wonderful job, dear sister."

"We do not have have to help?" asked Mikako.

"No," said the Black Mother. "I leave that decision up to you. Though if I know you as well as I think I do, I am sure you will probably say yes."

The three of them huddled together against the stone wall of the cave speaking in low voices.

Linda thought it rather silly to do so, since there were two Goddesses sitting nearby and they could probably hear every word they were saying no matter how low they pitched their voices. But they did it just the same out of habit, really.

"I say we just go home," said Margaret.

"I am reluctant to just leave," said Mikako. "I do not like leaving people in danger."

"But we don’t know how dangerous it is and what we are going to get into if we decide to help," said Margaret. "It makes me nervous and so I say we ere on the side of safety."

"But isn’t it our duty as knights and champions to help anyone?" asked Linda. "No matter wether they are our people or not?"

She caught the smile of approval the Queen gave her.

"She is right," said Mikako. "Our honour does not allow us to turn our backs on those who need us."

Margaret looked as if she was about to say something but then she realised that the other two women were right.

"Alright," she said with a sigh. "I know I am going to regret this, but I am with you, whatever the decision."

Linda smiled at her friend.

"Thank you," she said.

The four women turned back to the two Goddesses, one of whom was smiling while the other still had a slightly sour look on her face.

"I and my friends will help your people," Mikako told the Black Mother.

The Black Mother smiled.

"I am glad," she said.

"And she has such wonderful friends," gushed the Earth Mother, which brought a rolling of the eyes from her sister. "I am proud of all of you."

"If I may dear sister," said the Black Mother with impatience in her voice. "As much as you are finding this tender moment to be absolutely wonderful, we do need to send them on their way quickly and I would like to prepare Mikako for what’s to come."

The Earth Mother made a mocking frown face but said nothing.

The Black mother mumbled something that sounded like "Younger sisters..." to Mikako but she was not sure.

The Black Mother looked Mikako directly in the eyes, and held open her arms.

"Come here little one," she said.

Mikako hesitated for a split second but remembered that if the Black Mother had wanted to harm her, she would have done it by now. The eyes of the Goddess’s showed affection towards Mikako not hatred. Mikako stood straight and tall and walked up to the Goddess on her throne.

One hand, nearly the size of Mikako’s midsection cupped her around her back. The other placed itself over Mikako’s chest.

"Now," said the Goddess, "Open yourself to me."

Mikako closed her eyes and opened her mind and soul as she always did in the Tsuchi Ken ritual.

A warmth she had never felt flooded into her body. It was so intense she heard herself suck in the air as one who is drowning does. Her body felt overwhelmed by all the power that was rushing through it and she was sure she would pass out. Her muscles cried out at what was happening. As if from afar, She heard herself groaning and felt herself twitch. Almost as quickly as it had started the warmth stopped. She slumped forward in the grip of the Goddess and found herself panting for air. Linda and Margaret were by her side and took her by the arms when the Goddess let go. She leaned on the two warriors and looked up at the Black Mother.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I have given you the energy you have been lacking all this time," said the Black Mother.

"Because I was not praying to you during the ritual," said Mikako.

"Correct," said the Earth Mother. "If you change the ritual to invoke my sister you will find your powers growing properly."

"Though not as intense as that was," said the Black Mother. "I just had to give you a lot in a very small amount of time, so that you will be ready for your task. From now on, the ritual will be less intense."

"Good," said Mikako. "I am not sure I could take another session like that."

Her legs felt a little more solid now, so she let go of Margaret and Linda. She felt a little unsteady but was sure she would be ok.

"Thank you," she said to the Black Mother.

"You are welcome," said the Goddess.

A sniffle escaped the Earth Goddess who wiped a little tear away. This elicited an exasperated sigh from her sister.

"Very well," said the Black Mother. "If you are ready, I will send you all to where you need to go. Good luck."

The four women stood in a circle together and the Black mother waved her hand. Next thing they knew they were in another part of the caves and in front of them was a group of the Sythern. Linda called them the mole men as they had oddly shaped skulls and eyes that reminded her of some moles she had seen in a zoo. The Sythern did not seem surprised by the sudden arrival of surface folk, as they were known to the Sythern.

"See," said the one in front to the three others around him. "I told you the Great One would send help."

"But surface folk?" asked one of the others.

"We do not question the ways of the Great One," said the first one in a menacing tone.

The others lowered their heads.

The leader turned to Linda’s group and said,

"We welcome the saviours our Goddess has seen fit to send to answer our prayers."

"What exactly is your problem?" asked Linda.

"We are menaced by a horrible creature, who continually attacks us and our families," he said.

"Just one?" asked Linda a little surprised.

"It’s a big one," offered the leader.

Just then a cry was heard.

"It attacks again," said the leader.

He turned to walk away gesturing to everyone else to follow. They emerged on a ledge overlooking an extremely large cavern in which an entire village had been erected. There were people running around in panic and Linda looked around to see what was making them panic.

Then she saw it.

Just before coming to this world, Linda had had a chance to see the film based on the first book of The Lord of the Ring trilogy. In it she really liked the huge Balrog creature.

This thing made the Balrog look like a 98 pound weakling. And they were going to have to do something about it.

The leader turned to Linda.

"Told you it was a big one."