staving off starvation for a period of time. The authorities, with striking proof of the Ark'''s capabilities, now begin scheming to bring it in their possession. Mune, disgusted with the politics of the situation, assists Tuf in escaping from S'uthlam, despite the fact that this places her in a precarious position. He informs her that he will return to pay off his debt. "Guardians" Tuf finds himself at Namor, an oceanic world where sea monsters are attacking the local population. As always, he offers to assist for a fee. Before diving into creating the creatures needed to battle the monsters, Tuf begins to study the planet in order to determine why the monsters are attacking the people of Namor. However, during this study, the Namorians grow more desperate and impatient, especially as monsters able to walk on land begin to appear. Tuf's hand is forced, and he unleashes a barrage of other creatures to directly counteract the monsters. This strategy, initially successful, soon fails as the monsters gain resistance to these otherworldly creatures. Tuf goes back to work, and manages to find a solution. Through his psionically enhanced cat, he discovers a previously unsuspected sapient species native to Namor: the mudpots. Sessile, aquatic bottom-dwellers (which had hitherto been considered dietary delicacies by the Namorian colonists), they are linked telepathically into a kind of hivemind, controlling the lesser species of life on the planet as skilled bio-engineers. Tuf establishes communications with the mudpots and brokers a peace agreement whereby his human employers agree to cease eating the planet's autochthonous intelligent species. He gives the leaders of Namor psionically enhanced kittens to facilitate their dealings with the mudpots, and departs. "Second Helpings" Tuf returns to S'uthlam to pay the first part of his debt. He is hailed as a hero due to the advancements in the overcrowded world's food production, now known as "Tuf's Flowering". This is also due to Tuf and Mune, a highly inaccurate, overly-dramatized movie about Tuf's first adventure on S'uthlam, the creation of which Mune encouraged to build public support for Tuf's plan (and save her political skin from the fallout of helping Tuf escape with Ark). However, paradoxically, the overpopulation crisis has become even worse due to the S'uthlamese people's over-optimistic response to Tuf's Flowering, increasing their reproduction rates. Tuf works on trying to provide even more-efficient crops and animals. He also insists on delivering a planet-wide