Indy, Loveday and Arrie ran up the gangplank as soon as it was lowered and threw themselves on top of Delphi.
She laughed with joy as the girls smothered her with hugs.
"Alright, alright girls, you're squishing me to death! Hop off me!" she laughed.
"Not until you promise never to do a dumbass thing like that again," said Loveday firmly.
"Not you too! Alton's already torn strips off me," Delphi joked.
"Well good! You deserve it for leaving us," Indy pouted. "You made us all cry!"
"We thought we'd never see you again," cried Arrie, tears springing to her eyes again.
"You don't get off that lightly, girl," laughed Delphi, ruffling the smaller girl's short waves. "I'm back to make sure we beat that insane despot and his thugs once and for all. And I would have come back and haunted you all until you crushed him like a gnat if he'd killed me."
"Don't say those words, Delphi," Arrie knocked superstitiously on the timber deck of the boat.
