Snippet #2356702

Andromeda tilted her head. “What do you mean, how do we get the last player across? If I understood Orion correctly, we should put the deer on the boat, and show it the panther on this shore to get it to move away, and show it the flowers to make it come back. I’d guess that ‘showing’ means to put the object on the beach, and ‘hiding’ means to put it in the place where we found it. So the last of us could drop the panther on the beach and that should do it.”

She paused and rubbed her forehead between her eyes, her involuntary gesture when thinking. “Oh, I see what you mean, masks are supposed to be worn. Wait... Someone who wears a mask is an actor, someone who becomes the thing the mask represents. So, if we are the masks, then the masks are us, and since we all want to go to the other side, that would mean both masks want to cross the river. If Corki is right, then things that eat each other should not be alone together. I’ve never seen a panther or flowers row a boat, so the first should be the deer and someone who can row... which puts us right back where we were, except two people will get wet if putting the deer in the canoe is wrong? ... Sorry, I wasted your time, didn’t I?”

Trying to be more practical, she suggested “Maybe there’s something on the other side that can help us figure out what to do after sending the deer.”