Lance Ash: The Grenloam Assignment Part Three: "The Marijuana Millipede"

Only Van Trachner among the group of four people still smoked cannabis, yet the group had retained its informal designation, "The Marijuana Millipede."

"How did we come up with that name?" Easton struggled to recall.

Jaguar Stark, at the wheel of the rented vehicle, provided the answer. "That letter that was anonymously mailed to us after--"

"Oh yeah", each of the others mumbled, none wanting to relive that night long ago.

Perhaps to ease the mood, or to counterpoint the memory, Van lit up a joint.

"Hey, pass that over here," Jaguar begged.

"I thought Van was the only one of us that still smoked," Easton teased.

"Look!" Midden Nux exclaimed, pointing ahead.

It was the famed Grenloam Shoe, sole survivor of who-knows-how-many giant shoes that had fallen from the sky eons before.

"Such a long trek to get here," Easton observed.

"That would make a good story in itself," Van mused in an exhalation of potency.

Jaguar pulled into a parking space. The shoe was a fairly popular tourist attraction. "No time for that now," he said. "We have work to do."

As they approached the mighty relic Easton questioned how they would get any new insights into such a thoroughly explored destination.

"Lance has given me instructions on how and where to enter the shoe through a place no one knows about," Jaguar answered. "We're going to see things nobody else has."

I won't drag out the details of how they found the secret entrance and got inside; suffice to say that they did so and soon found themselves in a passage with many doors.

"Let's try this one," Jaguar suggested.

"You and Van go in that one," Midden countered. "Easton and I will look in here." He had to reassert some of what he felt was a lost authority or protagonistic agency.

Now, what we see here is that various ideas for narratives in different media, not just illustrated books, are to be found in these rooms in the shoe.