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Before he can decide about the REG, Piosennial, Birdland and Cof7A walk over and join Veritas at a table. He takes their strangely nervous order and returns with their refreshments (what is wrong with Cof7A?). Then he sits and pulls out a pen and paper. With a scowl, he begins to write 'Tales from Tol Eressea 5; Whatever happened to that Oliphaunt?' Then he growls and scratches out the title. Writer's block is a horrible thing... The REG is forgotten for now. One thing drives out another as they say.
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'He's busy there, behind the bar. Scribbling some sort of authoritative work, no doubt. Whatever it is, he's very engrossed in it.' observed pio. ''Child, you go left and draw him down to the end of the bar. Engage him in some philologic debate about some obscure reference from the Silmarillion, preferably one with references to myriads of authentic letters from JRRT. Go on now.'
C7A's eyes lit up at the suggestion. Now this was something she could do, something abstract and free from any bloodshed. Advancing to the end of the bar, she cleared her throat and opened her much annotated Sil which she had pulled from her vest pocket. 'Excuse me, Mithadan, but I've just found something exceedingly interesting here and wonder if you could help me clarify a few points!'
The target advanced to required position, pulled out his own dog-eared copy with tiny notes written everywhere in various layers of colored inks, and proceeded to converse heatedly with C7A, who was holding her ground quite admirably, and in fact scoring points here and there.
'Birdie, come with me!' whispered pio. A feint as if going to the door was quickly followed by a turn toward the end of the bar opposite the dueling linguists. The 2 conspirators leapt over the end of the bar with an unusual grace and agility, Birdie drawing her blade in mid leap. Coming quickly behind Mithadan, bent over some of C7A's notations, she held the edge just under his jawline. You could see the blade move in and out slowly against his pulse point.
'What's this? An Administrator caught unawares?!, said Birdie to him. Restraining herself from launching into some Arwen-elven, she held the great spirit hostage while pio searched through his pockets for cell phone, beeper, and any other instruments of long range communication. From his keychain, she plucked a miniature, but working palantir.
Next order of business was to secure the laptop and then free up the REG unit for safekeeping - or perhaps ransom.
'OK! I think that's it!' cried pio, tucking the goods in a large sack she had gotten from Veritas. 'Child, give us the rope and we'll secure the prisoner. Child!! Child?!'
Child was nowhere to be seen from this side of the bar. 'I think she's fainted again.' said Veritas. 'Here, let me get the rope for you.' Handing the rope to pio, Veritas leaned in toward Mithadan with a rueful grin on her face - 'Yeah, I know, I know! I've sealed my fate by throwing in with this lot! But what's a wizard to do when faced with the choice between drinking oneself into oblivion and having a bit of fun with friends!'
pio secured Mithadan, hand and foot with the rope. Veritas got C7A up from the floor and looked expectantly at pio and birdie. 'Now what?'
'See that large barrel over there - the one that comes from Esgaroth. Bring it over here. I think it will do.' said pio.
'Do? Do what?! I don't recall us discussing this part of the plan.' demanded Birdie.
'Well, it's just sort of come to me. A sort of hobbity ending to this abduction. Now let's just get him into the barrel, plug up the holes, and secure the cask lid back on. Mithadan is going for a lovely ride down the Great River, mayhap he'll even make it to the Bay of Belfalas. That should give us plenty of time to figure out what we're going to do with ourselves and his stuff.'
'And just what will happen when he gets to the bay, is he going to float out to sea and hope for a swift wind to the West?', asked Veritas.
'Nah! We've got his cell phone. We'll place a call to my cousin Imrahil. He'll pick him up when he reaches Dol Amroth, near the Elf-havens.' returned pio.
The cask secured and with two other casks bound to it as outriggers, it was loaded into a large wagon brought round from the side of the cave. 'My gosh, he's a heavy one', said C7A pushing her shoulder against the casket as it leveraged into the wagon. 'Perhaps, such is the price of being the keeper of such weighty thoughts and words!', laughed pio, throwing a rope to Birdie and Veritas to help tie down the casks to the wagon.
It was just early evening and the mists were hovering on the banks of the Anduin as they reached a likely spot for launching their vessel. 'You sure he's going to be alright,' asked C7A.
'Of course he is.' reassured pio. 'He's a spirit, he'll float quite well.'
PLOP!!!! the barrels hit the water with a gentle thud, or as gentle as 4 puny ME's could manage. The current quickly caught the unlikely vessel and bore it down the river. Four figures raised their hands and saluted it good-bye and godspeed.
'Come on,' said Birdie. 'We'd better get the heck out of here and figure out how to cover our tracks.'
'Oh, fudge!' exclaimed C7A, patting down her pockets and looking forlorn. 'He's got my annotated copy!!!!!'
[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]