His smock and leggings may, at one time, have
been tan or light brown but hard work, the elements and wear had
turned them the dark brown color of the damp newly plowed earth.The
dark color, added to the darkness pervading the room, rendered
him almost invisible as he sat on a backless stool and thrust his
long legs towards the welcome warmth of the fire. Old Prontoeli,
the owner of the village general store was spinning another of
his yarns and the soft drone of his voice, combined with the
warmth of the fire, was more than enough to cause his eyelids to
droop.
“Arrrgh,” he muttered, “The old
fool is off on The New School again.” Folding his arms
across his belly, he allowed his head to nod forward. Morpheus’
latest model erotic dream was rudely interrupted as he heard his
name enter the monolog.
“So what say you, Metius?” The
shopkeeper questioned him.
“Ehhh? What?” he stammered, sitting
up. “Sorry ‘Toeli, I must have dozed off for a moment.”
“I said, would you be free to haul the
load when it arrives?” Prontoeli repeated the question.
“Load?” Metius, asked, still a little
brain fuzzy from his nap.
“Supplies or some such, up to the new
school. Haven’t you heard a thing I’ve said?” The
shopkeeper chided. “The lady said she’d pay well for
the delivery.” Prontoeli added with a wink, “And a fine
looking one she was, too. Slender but strong, perhaps a bit on
the well aged side, but a fine catch for someone like you who
never thought any of the village women to be a proper mate for
him.”
Showing a bit more interest in the conversation
now, for whatever reason, Metius questioned, “She’ll
pay well, you say, ‘Toeli? “Hmmm, I’ll have to
think on it. If I’m not too busy in the fields I might just
take you up on it. A few more dinars in the pouch never hurt
anything.”
Early one morning, a few days later, one of the
village boys arrived at Metius’ gate, gasping to catch his
breath. “Prontoeli says, to tell you to hitch up your
biggest wagon and your sturdiest team. The shipment has arrived
and you’re to come haul it up to the new school.”
After much straining and effort the boxes were
loaded on the wagon. “Must be the whole of the school in
them boxes,” Metius muttered, as old ‘Toeli fussed with
the arrangement and covered the load with an oiled skin tarp to
protect it from the rain. Not that it was raining at the moment,
but according to Toeli, “You never know.”
As the stolid oxen plodded along up the road
towards the new school, Metius couldn’t help but muse on
what he’d heard in the past few weeks concerning this new
addition to the area.
It seemed to the village folk that the sudden
appearance of grand buildings, walls, shrines and gardens was
something of a miracle. One day the rolling hills were as they
had always been and the next day, there it all was, nestled in a
picturesque valley. Folk in the village whispered about the
possibilities. Was it intervention by the gods, themselves? Or
were, perhaps, some of those strange women, who seemed to be in
charge of things, witches who performed curious rites of magic to
produce such startling results? “Pawh,” he spit some
small bit of breakfast, that had adhered to his teeth, to the
side of the track. “I never did believe in such nonsense.
Besides, what’s in these boxes and crates is real enough. I
suspect old Prontoeli didn’t get all their supply business
and is spreading rumors to get back at them for giving it to
someone else.
As he continued with his rambling thoughts, the
wagon rolled up to the imposing front gates almost unnoticed by
him. Suddenly, two armed young women, very pretty armed young
women, he noticed, stepped in front of the wagon and stopped his
progress through the gates.
“State you business,” The taller of
the two said, as she gestured towards him with what appeared to
be a well used staff.
“Right,” The second one added, “We
weren’t told to expect a delivery today. So, what are you
doing here?”
“Cool it, LB” The first one directed
at her companion, “He’s kind of cute. What brings you
to Deb U, handsome?”
“Oh sure, Baucis, a week or so of soaking
in the bathhouse and some clean clothes might help. Thanks, but
no thanks, I stick with Omar or maybe Toly, of course there’s
always wb and....”
Not being used to this kind of banter from mere
women or being address in this manner, Metius blushed, although
it was rather difficult to discern under the dirty smear on his
face. “I got a delivery from old Prontoeli, for a lady.”
He fished inside his smock and after some searching around and a
quick scratch at an offending itchy spot, he produced a crumpled
piece of parchment which he thrust at one of the guards.
“This is for Mom?” Baucis said with a
puzzled look on her face.
“What in Hades is she up to now?”finished
Ladybug.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After several minutes of wandering about in the main building Metius found himself in a second floor hallway lined with doors. The one he was currently facing, was numbered 224. He squinted a little trying to decipher the several signs that decorated it. At the top he read:
That was easy enough to figure out. It was the
sign below it that caused him to think twice.
And then below that one in large letters,
He cautiously raised his hand to knock, but as
he touched the door it swung open just as a loud string of
expletives from the desk area caused a small furry dog to cover
her ears with her front paws. The source of the rather creative
curse was busy at the moment punishing the wall by throwing
several inanimate objects at it. Metius had heard cursing before,
of course, but this took the art to a whole new level of
creativity. “#*%# @*~%s can’t make up their minds....How’s
a poor old &^@& supposed to deal with this?”
Turning, she spotted him in the doorway. “Yes? Can’t
your read? Knock before entering! Oh never mind, what do you
want?”
Metius, by now ready to run for the nearest
exit, waved the crumpled parchment at her and finally stammered,“Delivery
for Ms.Topaz.”
“Can’t anyone get the name right? It’s
such a simple name.” Grabbing the parchment from him she
scanned it quickly and, with a sigh of relief said,“It’s
about time! You’ve stored it in the prearranged place?”
One look at his face said clearly he had no notion as to what she
was talking about. “The old barn, man. You’re supposed
to put it all in the old barn. We can’t have these students
getting wind of things too early.” Still, no response.
“Oh come on, I’ll show you.” She took his arm,
making a mental note to wash her hands as soon as possible, and
led him out of the building still mumbling to herself. As they
walked along Metius though he caught the phrase, “You’d
better be right about this Athena.”
Several trusted CAs were rounded up along the
way to help with the unloading. After that was finished, the
bewildered teamster was paid for his work and the door was
securely locked.
Later that night, loud hammering and other
construction noises were heard. But, this being Deb U, no one
thought it all that strange and so no one went to investigate.Had
they bothered to look they might have seen Bt standing in front
of the old barn holding a carefully folding sheet of lavender
paper. Had they listened closely they would have heard her saying
quietly. “Okay, Athena. This had better work.”
“Of course it will work. Trust me!”
“I hate it when they say that!” Bt
muttered as she slowly separated the corners of the paper and
opened it flat. In lovely scarlet crayon was a drawing of an
imposing building complete with a tasteful sign over the door
reading Debaucherette University Abnormal Psychology Department.Looking
up from the drawing Bt saw the actual building in front of her in
the place where the old barn had stood. “Whew, it did work!
It sure is a good thing you told me to keep it folded and not
look at it til now, Athena. Athena? Why do they always disappear
when there’s real work to be done? Someone’s going to
have to uncrate the rest of that equipment.”
The next morning an official looking notice was attached to all the bulletin boards on campus.
Make your appointments early to avoid the rush!
See Bluetopaz, in her new office, room #2, in the new APDbuilding
for further details!
By late that afternoon the following student
and faculty list had been assembled:
01. warrior-bard
02. Aeaea
03. Keleos
04. Shoshana
05. Dream Traveler
06. Blackstar
07. Rabbit
08. *Tori*
09. Mania
10. Castalia
11. TyrusHeart
12. Jackie
13. Nydiva
14. Ladybug
15. OmarSnake
16. Paladin
17. Calee
18. Cleya
19. LdyPegasus
Any more volunteers? Last chance before the fun
begins, sign-up deadline, Sat. Feb.6.
Muahahahahaha!
Bt
Early the following morning, the bleary-eyed
students began to show up at the new wing. They were met at the
front door by Jackie and Keleos. Each was handed a one piece
garment identical to those worn by the two C.A.s and directed to
a changing room with instructions to put on the garment and place
all their clothing, personal items and weapons in a box labeled
with their name. They were then to lock the box with the key
provided and hang the key on its chain around their necks.
The garments were made of a shiny stretch
material that hugged the body and left very little to the
imagination. Each was a different color and the students emerging
from the changing rooms looked like a shattered rainbow trying to
get itself back together.
They were directed down the hall to the lecture
room. Castalia was stationed at the door and handed each a
clipboard as they filed through the door. Attached to the board
was an instruction sheet and a sealed packet of papers. “Just
take any seat for now and read over the instructions but don’t
open the packet until you are told to.” Cas repeated for
what seemed like the one hundredth time, “Bt will be with
you soon to explain.”
Meanwhile...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Does this make my butt look big?”
Salmoneous, tried to peer over his own shoulder, “I don’t
see why I can’t wear my own clothes.”
“Either everybody wears these things, what
did you call them?” Bt started.
“Bodysuits!” Sal replied, with what
he hoped was a sincere smile, and added, “They’re all
the rage in Athens. The cutting edge of fashion.”
Attempting a better arrangement of the stretchy
material, Bt replied, “It’s not the edge they’re
cutting into right now. But, as I was saying either everyone
wears them or I’ll never be able to get any of the students
into them. This is the only way to be sure no weapons or other
unauthorized ‘helpers’ get introduced into the
experiments. I still don’t know what we’re going to do
about the biomorphs and the magic users. They could upset the
statistical results enough to nullify the whole experiment.”
“There, there, my dear. I’m sure the
programing will make up for any little deviations.”
“Oh then the other schools who used this
have also had this problem?” Bt said in a relieved voice.
“Other schools?” Sal replied, looking
rather puzzled.
“You’re not telling me no one has
tested this? You said we were a Beta Test School. You’d
better be telling me that means that someone else, like an Alpha
Test School, has used this before us!”
“Not to worry, my dear, I’m sure the
engineering staff at the Uni branch of iChat Inc. has made sure
it is safe before releasing it for use.”
“It had better be! If my doctoral thesis
goes down the tubes because your client’s equipment and
programing are faulty you may find yourself on the wrong end of
my sword!”
“But, but,...”
“Yeah, and the suit makes that look big,
too. Come on we can’t let the natives get restless. Who
knows what they might get into if left alone for too long?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As it turned out, the students had invented a
new wrinkle in their old favorite game, Twister.
By using various body parts along with the
vivid colors of the body suits they had pushed aside the chairs
and managed to end up in a tangle in the middle of the floor. The
CAs in charge called out, “Green arm, red leg, black elbow,”
And everyone scrambled to grab the correct part adorned with the
correct color. Well, almost everyone, there were of course, those
who claimed color blindness and took the opportunity to grab at
most anything that passed within reach.
“Good morning, Students. Getting
acquainted, are we?” Bt shouted to be heard over the giggles
and squeals. “I see you’ve discovered one use for your
new attire. Very creative! Now, has anyone noticed anything else
about the suits?”
“Ooo, ooo,” from Rabbit, waving her
had from somewhere near the bottom of the pile.“They’re
nice and stretchy, great for crawling around on the floor...”
Her voice faded out as she realized that probably wasn’t
what Bt had in mind.
“Nice colors,” from Antares as she
fought to untangle her right leg from the rest of the body parts
strewn around the floor.
“Okay!” Bt. replied, “Are there
any further thoughts on the colors?”
“Well darling’,”
Paladin,replied, “There’s lots of them but there does
seem to be two of each shade. I guess you’ll be tellin’
us why soon enough.”
Bt found herself smiling at the handsome
hunter, “Very good,” she replied and suddenly wished
the rest of the group would disappear, but instead added “Now
suppose you all get yourselves untangled and find the person with
the same color suit as yours.”
After a moment or two of confusion, each had
found the other person dressed in the same color and had taken
seats together.
Aeaea and CherubChild were in a rich deep shade
of purple.
Warrior-bard and *tori* were dressed in light brown;
Castalia and ahnjunae were in magenta .
TyrusHeart and KhanMan looked mysterious in a deep midnight blue.
Jackie and Ladybug had on sexy lavender.
Mania and Blackstar looked good in shiny black.
Nydiva and Cleya wore a deep green.
Paladin and Manto were in sky blue.
Calee and Rabbit looked stunning in azure.
DreamTraveler and Feonix were in deep orange.
Lanfear and Antares wore cherry red.
Keleos and 'shana were in Kelly green.
The chancellors, LdyPegasus and OmarSnake, as well as
ProfessorCathbad were clad in the same silver grey as Bt and
Salmoneous.
“You’ll notice that in almost all
cases,” Bt looked rather pointedly at DT and Feonix, who
wouldn’t have accepted any other arrangement, “These
partnerships are made up of one student Level 6 or above and one
student of a lower level. You will be working together on some of
these projects and in those cases you will be allowed to aid each
other either physically or by giving advice.”
“Now, let’s get started! Find your
clipboard and locate the sealed packet attached.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be continued....
Bt
After several minutes of scrambling about each student had found
the packet with their name on it. Most of them were still more or
less together.
“Please take a seat.”
“I can’t find my partner,”CherubChild
said looking around the room for Aeaea.
“That’s okay, just sit anywhere you
won’t need your partner for this part of the evaluation.”
Bt replied. “Everyone open your packet and remove the first
sheet of paper. On the top write your name and grade level and
below that a column of numbers from 1 to 24.”
A few more minutes passed as this was
accomplished.
“In your packet,” Bt continued,“Are
24 drawings, remove them one at a time look at the drawing for a
few seconds and then write a brief description of what you see
and go on to the next. Please remember, there are no wrong
answers, just write what you see.”
As the students pulled out the first paper,
giggles and whispers echoed around the room.
“Oooo, it’s Ares sideburns,”Calee,
said in a stage whisper heard by everybody.
“No,” Mania replied, with a maniacal
giggle, “It’s Caeser’s battle flag. I'd know that
any where.”
“Wrong!” KhanMan bellowed, not even
bothering to keep his voice down, “It’s‘Dite’s
Nitie,” and turning to the other hunters, continued, “Well,
am I righty?”
“There, are not wrong answers!” Bt
shouted to be heard over the numerous arguments breaking out.“You’ve
had more than enough time on the first one, turn it over and look
at the second one.”
More mumbling and giggling from the students
but at least the overt shouting of possible answers had stopped.Bt
motioned to the two Chancellors, Professor Cathbad and Salmoneous
to join her in the far corner of the room.
“We’ve got a little problem here,”
Bt began. “I’d hoped that at least one more chancellor
would show up so that we could have six monitors for the next
phase of the evaluation. Athena notified me that she can’t
be here either so we five will have to cover the six monitor
positions. Since Sal and I are more familiar with the equipment,
between us we’ll cover the sixth station.”
Salmoneous, who really hadn’t expected to
be working started to protest, but fell silent under the same
withering stare that had silenced several generations of unruly
children. “Chancellor LdyPegasus, Chancellor OmarSnake and
Professor Cathbad you will be at the entrance to each of the
three mazes. It will be your task to keep each of the four teams
assigned to your maze from killing each other while they wait
their turn to enter. Please be sure they enter in the order they
are called. The mazes have been tailored for each pair and it
wouldn’t do to have the wrong people in the wrong maze.”
By the time the monitor’s conference was
concluded it was obvious that most of the students were also
finished with the first phase of the evaluation. Paper gliders
made of folded drawings were sailing about the room and several
knots of debs has resumed the “Twister” game.
Bt brought “The Stare” out one more
time and added in a loud voice, “All right, your attention,
please,” Which, after a bit of physical separating of the
more determined Twister players, restored some order to the room.“At
the far end of the room you will see three doors, as your names
are called you will form three lines in front of the three doors,
in the order that you are called. LdyPegasus, door #1, OmarSnake,
door #2, Professor Cathbad, door #3. The chancellors and the
professor will be keeping order at each of the doors. Not that
this has any bering on it, but do remember promotions are about
to be given out. You_really_should be making a good impression on
the chancellors and the professor.” *BG*
“Now for you students,” Bt begin
again, after the hisses and catcalls had died down, “Door #1;
Tori* and warrior-bard, Manto and Paladin, Aeaea and
CheerubChild, and Nydiva and Cleya.”
“Door #2; TyrusHeart and KhanMan,
DreamTraveler and Feonix, Castalia and Ahnjunae, and Calee and
Rabbit.”
“Door #3; “Mania and Blaskstar,
Keleos and Shoshana, Jackie and Ladybug, and Lanfear and Antares.”
“Please be patient while we make a few
last minute technical adjustments,” Bt concluded as she and
Sal disappeared through another door carrying a large stack of
papers and booklets all titled ‘User’s Manual’.”
This had better work, Sal, or we’ll both be in very hot
water. The Chancellors don’t like it when it looks like they
are wrong!”
“Trust me,” Sal crooned as the door
closed behind them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be continued
Bt
The door led to a ladder which led to a catwalk
above the mazes. Bt dropped the manuals on a counter under a bank
of impressive looking dials, gages and screens. “Okay Sal,
is everything ready? Let’s get it done!”
“The power source! You did arrange for
that?” He replied, somewhat out of breath after the
strenuous climb up the ladder balancing the stack of papers.
“Oh yea, I almost forgot.” Bt turned
and looking about said, “Hi, Maurice! Have you got your crew
together?”
“We’s ready, Freddie!” The rat
replied, with a toothy grin. “Now let’s see them
contract papers. Not that wes don’t trust ya, but if wes don’t
look out for ourselves nobody ain’t gonna.”
“Okay, here you go. As you requested, each
rat runs ten minutes and then gets a fifteen minute break before
running again. Refreshments consisting of cheese, crackers,
peanut butter and lemonade are available for all and you call the
shots as to the order that the rats run.”
“Da chunky kind?” The rat questioned.
“Grade AA Chunky,” Bt replied.“Oh,
I forgot to mention there’s also a big bowl of M& M’s
as a bonus.”
“Sounds good, babe! Just one more ting,
Percy ‘bout got the life scared out of him yesterday by dem
crazy dogs chasing him around the dungeons, so da boys say, no
animals in da building or wes don’t run no wheres but home.”
“No problem, Lucky, Ahas and their friends
Zanafus and Benny are playing bridge today so they won’t be
around to bother you.”
“Bridge?” Maurice and Co. convulsed
with laughter but finally he, at least, recovered enough to
reply, “Bridge ain’t no proper game for animals!
RatRummy is da only game worth playin.”
“Enough of the small talk,” Sal
replied and hustled the rats towards their waiting fly wheels.“Let’s
get running, rats.”
“Yeah right, like a few laps on da
wheelcouldn’t hurt yous, tubby.” Maurice called over
his shoulder as he bent over to tighten the laces on his track
shoes.
As the first relay of three rats began to run an ominous humming sound filled the loft over the mazes. Bt removed a speaking tube from the bracket on the counter and said, rather more loudly than necessary, “OKAY MONITORS SEND THEFIRST THREE PAIRS OF SUBJECTS .....errrr.... STUDENTS IN.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The three doors opened and each of the three
couples stepped inside. The doors closed automatically with a
thud and a very final click.
“Wow, it’s sure dark in here.”Tori
grabbed wb’s arm and snuggled closer to him. “Hey,
watch that!” wb pulled away, “You’ll ruin my
reputation with mushy stuff like that!”
Slowly a dim light began to filter into the
maze. They were standing in a passageway with floor, walls and
ceiling of stone. The light, such as it was, came from a glowing
fungus that crept up the uneven rock walls. Actually the ceiling
was a sort of primitive one way mirror so that those above could
watch the progress of the subjects.
“Hey, it’s da boss!” Maurice
giggled as he jumped off the fly wheel after his turn.“I’ll
bet he aces ‘dis test!”
“Bet?” Sal inquired. “Just what
did you have in mind?”
“Stop that, you two! Keep your mind on
business!” Bt snapped as she tried to watch all three mazes
at the same time.
~~~~~~~~~~~
KhanMan and TyrusHeart strode into the maze
confidently. “Well, now what?” TH questioned her giant
partner.
“We just mep straight on through and
collect our promotions on the other side!” The rhyming giant
chuckled. “Fe Fi Fum Fotion Da Mepper wants a big promotion!”
“What am I hearing?” TH said,“It
sounds like a child singing.”
The giant, visibly shaken by the sound, said in
a horse whisper, “That’s not a child singing that’s.....that’s.....”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mania and Blackstar stood patiently by the door
in the dark passageway.
“It’s darker than Tartarus inhere,”
Bs stated. “How are we supposed to see where to go?”
“It reminds me of home,” Mania,sighed
wistfully. “Before they threw me out!” She snarled.
“But it’s starting to get lighter now, soon we can see
where to go.” She finished in a neutral voice that left
Blackstar looking at her with a puzzled expression on his face.
A loud roar echoed in the passageway and
Blackstar instinctively stepped between the roar and Mania.“I’ll
check it out.” He said and started down thepassage.
“You’re not leaving me here, alone.”
Mania said and grabbed hold of the back of his suit.“Besides,
that sort of sounds like one of my relatives.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wb and Tori, finally able to see where they were going, took a
few steps forward. “I don’t think I like this!”Tori
exclaimed.
“It’s not that much worse than the
dungeons.” Wb tried to assure her.
“Do they have those in your dungeons?”
A large, very large, ogre had suddenly appeared
in front of them. “Thou shalt not pass forward.” The
ogre bellowed at them.
“Ewww, you could use a case of breath
mints,” Wb quipped and immediately regretted it as the ogre
exhaled and repeated his challenge.
“Thou shalt not pass forward!”
“Good going, wb, now you’ve really
made it mad!” Tori said trying to speak and hold her nose at
the same time. “Now what do we do?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Barney!!” Khanman roared, not even
bothering to rhyme. “Arrgh!!” and he charged down the
passage towards his purple nemesis.
“Wait for me!” TH yelled at him and
did her best to catch up with the enraged giant.
“I love you!” A disembodied purple
head said to her as it rolled by.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Stay back Mania,” Bs cautioned as
they rounded a corner and came face to faces with Cerberus the
three headed guard dog of Hades.
“Cerbie,” Mania crooned.“Don’t
you remember me? I used to bring you all those lovely little
snacks after we’d flayed someone. I wish I had a treat for
you now.” And she looked thoughtfully in Blackstar’s
direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be continued....
Bt
