Read Online MA11-12 Myth-ion Improbable Something Myth-Inc by Robert Asprin - Free Book Online

Suddenly I realized just how hot our walk from the cliff had been, and how lucky it was these people wore hats. The sun hadn’t seemed that hot at first, after coming from Vortex #6, but now that we were in the shade, I realized how bad it was.
    We strolled along the wooden sidewalk, trying to look as if we belonged. Of course, in a town that couldn’t have more than a few hundred full-time residents, four newcomers stood out like a bad blister in new shoes.
    “Howdy,” the first man we passed said to us. He tipped his hat and just kept right on moving.
    By the time I tipped my hat back, he was past us.
    A woman in long skirts and a flower-patterned blouse walked past us a few moments later.
    “Howdy,” she said.
    I tipped my hat, as did Aahz.
    She smiled at us, showing some pretty strange-looking teeth.
    After she was past us I glanced down at my neck to make sure the Translator Pendant that Tananda had given me was still there. It was, but it couldn’t be working, because I had no idea what “howdy” meant.
    I glanced at Tananda who just shrugged.
    About a quarter of the way up the street into the town we stopped and leaned against a wooden wall and tried to look as if we were relaxed. No one was bothering us, or even paying us much attention. Across the street, high-energy music was coming out of the door labeled Audry’s. I could see a number of people through the open door sitting at tables. It looked like a bar or restaurant of some sort.
    “Now what?” Glenda asked, studying the man in the street that was picking up horse droppings.
    “We’re going to need information,” Tananda said.
    “And we just can’t come out and ask for it,” I said.
    Everyone agreed.
    “We’re also going to need horses,” Glenda said. “Unless you want to do more walking in this heat.”
    I glanced down the street at the open countryside beyond the limits of the small town. Walking back out into that for any distance would be a very bad idea.
    We all agreed that we didn’t want to do that as well.
    “Well, we need two things,” I said. “Information about the golden cow, and horses to get us to the treasure.”
    “Skeeve and I will try the place across the street,” Glenda said. “You two head for another one farther along.”
    “All right,” Aahz said, surprising me by agreeing to Glenda’s plan. “We meet back in the cabin on Vortex #6 in one hour.”
    I made sure Glenda understood, since she was my ride out of here. Then we stepped into the street, making a wide turn around one of the large piles of horsepoop the guy was collecting.
    He just smiled at us and said, “Howdy.”
    I tipped my hat at him and he seemed satisfied enough to go back to work.
    I was right in all fashions about Audry’s Place. It was clear as we went through the door that it was both a restaurant and a bar. The bar was wooden and long, stretching the entire length of the left wall as we entered. A hatless guy wearing a white apron stood behind the bar, a rag in his hands.
    Three of the tables were occupied with a total of ten patrons, all of them eating what looked to be large plates of vegetables. The music was loud and had a pretty good beat to it. It seemed like it was coming from a piano in the back, only there was no one sitting at the piano.
    Every person in the place glanced up at us as we entered, then went back to eating and talking as if they saw strangers every day and just didn’t care. I considered that a good sign.
    “Howdy, folks,” the guy behind the bar said, wiping a spot off the wood surface in front of him. “What’s your pleasure?”
    I had no idea what the guy meant. I sort of understood the words, but standing in the middle of a bar, I sure didn’t understand why he was asking me about pleasure. Just a little too personal a question for someone I didn’t know
    I glanced at Glenda, who seemed confused for a moment as well. Then she indicated I should follow her lead as she stepped toward the guy.
    Glenda