> "And Milo saves the day!" Cloud sang...

Milo was still hanging onto the Nidoking when it fell and barely leapt clear
now, panting hard and arising shakily from the sand. *Must've stepped on a
spine after all...*, he thought, feeling suddenly like he was going to wretch.
He wanted to smile and bow at Cloud's compliment, but something struck him as
oddly wrong about it; when his head quit spinning for a moment he figured out
what it was.

"No...it wasn't just me, Cloud," he said. "It was Pinky too...Pinky especially.
If she hadn't kept the 'King so busy in front, I'd never have been able to run
up his back... Bravest thing I ever saw, Pinky, running at that thing when you
weren't sure you would have any help... 'S why I came back..."

His voice trailed off; he wavered in his tracks, then tumbled gently to the
sand, exhausted.

= = =
Marius the Wanderer: Roleplayer, Storyteller and Citizen of Rome