In my last My Time at Sandrock post, Lily had helped solve an issue with the townspeople turning green and in the process had impressed The Richest Man in the Cities!
Now this billionaire was interested in investing in Sandrock and helping the town make a new name for itself, and Lily was the Builder in his pocket to do just that.
Lily had paved the way for the Road to Portia to begin by clearing the route of debris and ruins, and had started work on the tunnel that would pass through a nearby mountain and connect to the next city. All she had to do now was wait for her next objective.
While she was waiting, she decided to catch a few more 'pets' to work for her. Her water tank was running low and the best way of acquiring water, other than paying for it, was to send her critters out on water collection missions.
She could send 10 animals off at a time, and she only had 6... obviously, in order to make use of them effectively, she needed a few more!
After catching some new friends to join her animal slavery ring, a mysterious letter appeared in Lily's mailbox. It was Bronco the Kid. Apparently he had returned after many, many days out in the desert, chasing Logan on his stumpy little legs.
Pen was about to fire Bronco for his incompetence, but then, Bronco yelled out that he had found Logan's hideout!!!!
It was on. Honourary Civil Corps member Lily was armed and ready to go. Pen needed some spaghetti first. But then they all met up and proceeded to follow Bronco to this alleged lair.
Up in the mountains behind Sandrock was an abandoned mine. Apparently Bronco was going to meet a mole here, and the mole would have Logan's location.
Unfortunately, it looked as though the mole had been captured by... RATS. The same rats that had caused the noxious gas to cover Sandrock and turn people green.
They were soon able to rescue the mole though, and he promised he would give them Logan's location -- providing they helped keep the princess safe.
What princess?
Princess Lumi, Rat Princess! The one that Rat Queen had been trying to find in the noxious valley.
The young rat princess happily accepted help from Lily and her Civil Corpsmen, not knowing that they wanted to capture Logan -- her beloved. She was so obsessed with Logan that she had collected all of the Wanted posters in Sandrock and decorated her walls with them.
Keep her safe from what?
The rat queen, of course.
Who soon appeared behind them, ready to fight for her right to reclaim the princess.
Like something out of a Disney film, the Rat Queen wanted to kill the princess who was far more beautiful and fairer than herself so sheeee could be the most beautiful, fairest creature in all the land.
She even had a magic mirror! An ancient AI robot mirror from the old world that was hellbent on helping the queen reclaim her honour.
The magic mirror wasn't much help to the queen though. It ran out of batteries. xD
Lily and Company soon defeated the evil Rat Queen, saved the princess, and... as the mole had promised... they had a promising lead to find Logan's hideout.
All they had to do was... follow Logan's goat mount? The mole told them the goat's favourite food to lure it, and then all they had to do was follow it. Justice smacked his head. Why hadn't he thought of that?
Either way. They had a plan now.
And Lily had a new mine to dig in to gather new resources! :D
Justice and Unsuur also took the magic mirror back to their headquarters. Maybe a working AI could be useful... if they could make it non-evil, anyway.
Although Lily could make the goat food straight away, she chose not to. She wanted to explore this new mine and get these new materials! Logan could wait.
The town's architect had also stopped by and said something about needing a lottttttt of steel frames soon as they begin work on the tunnel. So Lily wanted to dive into another mine and make sure she was prepared with copious amounts of steel.
After a few days of mining resource upon resource, Lily found the mole at her doorstep.
He was asking for help. He wanted to meet with Sandrock's mayor and try to come up with some sort of agreement so that he could better the lives of mole-kind.
The mayor was very amicable to such a thing. The moles dug up all sorts of ancient relics, gemstones, treasures, and considered them worthless -- Sandrock would very much like these things!! And they could compensate the moles very well.
With that out of the way, Lily remembered that she was supposed to roast up some goat-feed to try and lure Logan's goat over so they could follow it to the elusive lair...
Grabbing the food and the two corpsmen, they hurried into the mountains and set out the lure.
It wasn't long until the goat appeared!
They chased after it!!! Hoping to find Logan's Lair...
But Lily flew over the cliff as she tried to follow, then landed smack on the beast's back as it leapt into a hidden cavern.
Justice and Unsuur were certain that Builder Lily had fallen to her death.
Little did they know... she was smack bang in Logan's Lair.
She would have to bring him to justice. Alone.
Until next time! 🌵🌞