[Child of the 7th Age]

It was late afternoon in the Locks, and they still hadn't managed to carry out their schemes. Gamba doubted the plan and his own part in it, but had reluctantly agreed.

The girls' idea was to have Gamba push open the cell door to come inside to do his normal cleaning. But, this time, Anee and Daisy would try to escape. Gamba was to race in their direction, and collar them both. Daisy said he'd win the trust of the guards, while she and Anee would definitely have their sentences extended, probably for a lot longer than 5 days.

Finally, just before Gamba was supposed to leave, a good moment presented itself. What happened was a bit different than they'd planned. The first part went perfectly. Gamba managed to get his hands on Anee and haul her back into the communal cell. She promptly earned her additional five days. But Daisy was another matter.

There was no way the boy could know Daisy had trained long hours under Piosenniel in a variety of weapons. So when she grabbed the broom to wield as an impromptu sword, he had no idea what he was facing. In her excitement, Daisy began fighting half in earnest, trying to make the scene look real. Within two moments, she'd knocked Gamba out cold on the floor, and the Men of Numenor were surging after her to push her back into the compound.

She fought as if possessed by a whirlwind, but it was hopeless against two fully-armed guards. She finally ended up tossed into an empty isolation cell, with an additional one-year sentence. Gamba was rudely revived with a pail of water over his head, and ordered to clean out a very large storage closet filled with an assortment of trash hat had not been emptied in several years. He was not allowed to go home or eat dinner until his chore was done.

For almost three hours, Gamba toted and tugged the trash out of that storage area. His thoughts about Daisy were less than charitable. He had a large bump on his forehead, and his head was beginning to ache.

Finally, he'd come to the end of the mess. He took his broom to sweep out the last of the cobwebs. Suddenly he heard a jingle from the floor below. He stopped and stared. A single look told him what it was. There was absolutely no difference between this old mislaid set and the one that was used every morning to unlock the compound and the individual cells. His heart pounded in his chest. With one sure hand, he swept the contents into his broad belt, hoping that no one would notice the strange bulge. Then he mumbled a good night and went racing back towards Phura to see what he thought of his new treasure.

[ October 16, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]