Getting There

The Eights rattled and bumped as we made mini hops over the surface of the meshwork. Travelling long the surface was a different experience, with the constant stream of Ones, Sixes, Sevens and Eights below, each adding their own twist to the Ones that we slipped and slid over. The mesh-to-mesh transfers that were the trickiest part, but even those became routine.

On two occasions, I had to drop the Seven out of the soup and switch into mesh-only mode to avoid a monster that approached closely. Too closely. After the first fright, fearing that I was going to get clipped off the mesh, I decided to practice the drop-and-swap at random times, and when I crossed areas that appeared most inconvenient. It never hurts to be prepared, and it paid off when I encountered the second monster, dead ahead, posing as another meshwork.

Considering that the soup was still flowing in the opposite direction, I was rather pleased with the bumpy travel since I was no longer at the mercy of the unpredictable and highly variable soup. Better slow travel than no travel, especially if it is in the direction you actually want to go.