He burst into being holding the hoop and looking into the goddess-green eyes of his female leader, Arlene. Having just been reborn in the ancient past his first thoughts were not of taking notes as Aristotle expounded on some subject that had not survived the ages, but of taking this beauty of the distant future into ecstasy with him. She returned his look blankly, and then her every sense seemed to come alive as her eyes darted this way and that, looking into the moonlit night for a clue to some great secret.

She has a keen and active mind, like a man seeking the truth behind the accepted rule.

You are smitten fool!

True, she is beautiful and I desire her. But this yearning is born of admiration. She is not as fertilely well-shaped as Selene, yet I long for her, not her shapely attendant. Born of admiration is this attraction.

She is wanton fool, and keeps the bed of Prester Charles and The Barbarian.

And I do not care, wanting only to be close to her as I do.

Arlene was commanding him in a whisper to follow her. And he would follow her anywhere. She then told Selene to bring up the rear, and they headed off through nearly knee high grass that rustled in the wind against the bare backs of their legs. The early summer breeze was coming in from the east, off the Aegean, at their back. They stalked silently as they might toward the distant candle flickering in the night.

Might it be a sentry standing above the Athenian battle monument, or a devotee to some forgotten deity offering up sacrifice?

The moon is high and full and right for witchcraft.

Awaken your mind you sober sot!

Yes, it is the fifth day of the second dekad of the month, whether the last month of the year or the first I know not.

Alexander may already be dead by two days!

That would still leave time. Make no alarm until you determine if this is the moon Skirophorion [June] or Hekatombion [July].

He felt the same as he had before the transit. He was not ill as he had been on first accompanying Prester Charles out of the 16th Century. There was a numb sensation in his limbs, as if he had slept for too long sitting. Otherwise there were no ill effects.

I wonder am I a Lazarus reborn to the past, a ghost taken form among those yet to become ghosts.

Sebastian wondered about these questions that he was unable to answer as they walked furtively in the warm breezy night toward the flickering candle. A person of Arlene’s time might not be certain at such a distance as to the nature of this light in the night. But Sebastian, a scholar who hailed from a candlelit world, knew even from a league or more, at what he looked.

They walked for over an hour, ever so slowly, Arlene continually stopping to take her bearings by the stars and the moon. Sebastian himself, raised as a member of a cloistered medieval community, had no such skills, though he had been instructed in rudimentary astronomy by Frère Bartholomew. He dearly though, wished to help. He had immersed himself in the study of the Olympic and Athenian calendar. He would also, henceforth communicate and endeavor to think in terms of the stade, the ancient Hellenic measure of distance, approximately 125 paces, making 8 stades to the Roman mile. They were in Attica so he would measure distance in terms of the 120 pace Attic stade.

She is not confident in her navigational skills. You must keep track of the passage of time and distance for her. This will provide some measure of aid.

They eventually, after another half an hour of travel, reached what had appeared to be a slight ridgeline, but was rather a slightly raised footpath, as opposed to the rutted track he would have expected. This footpath obviously took them directly past the flickering candle. Arlene paused, considered their situation for a moment, and then called a hushed conference. The three huddled together with Arlene’s arms over both of their shoulders. Her breath tasted so very sweet as she whispered, “I think that is a farmhouse up ahead. There will be dogs so I don’t want to pass it and raise some kind of alarm. Should we make camp here, or should we approach these people in the night?”

Selene whispered, “I don’t want to cause an incident.”

This is your first opportunity to be of use to the woman you so desire.

“Arlene, we are unarmed and the both of you are beautiful. Simple people will want to help us in hopes of reward. If we come at dawn we will be suspected of seeking something, and be treated rudely and required to pay for the simplest of favors. If we come meekly in the night and I offer to compensate the farmer for his hospitality we shall be perceived as a blessing, particularly at this time of year. We are either arriving just before the end of the old year or just after the beginning of the new. Furthermore, the new day in ancient Hellas is reckoned as beginning at sundown. This reflects the industry of the early rising farmer and the fishermen.”

Arlene and Selene looked to each other, nodded affirmative and separated. Arlene then said, “Oh my, we forgot to bring a light source.”

Yes, Frere Sebastian to the rescue!

Sebastian cleared his throat, “Lady, I have packed a number of candles and I possess one of your time’s wonderful lighters. I understand that this object is not to be used before the eyes of the ancients. But I shall use it now to light a candle, so that the farmer shall not be startled, and might greet us.”

Arlene smiled nervously. “Thank you so much Sebastian,” and then squeezed his arm with her moist hand.

I shall be her lover on some other moonlit night.

Sebastian lit the poorly made candle with the handy lighter and placed the waxy candle in a socket that he had removed from a candelabra and had placed in his satchel for just such an occasion. They then formed a small orderly procession, Arlene, dressed in elegant purple robes, holding the candle before her girlish breasts, Sebastian following with his copy of the Iliad slung to one side in its case and his satchel to the other and three blank silver coins in hand, and Selene following like some shepherd’s wench of a daughter in her pants and tunic with her heavy staff in hand.

And so we precede fit even to greet the Christ Child in his manger.