Chapter 10

Now we see the plot!

Yes, dear readers and especially reviewers, now is the time where I actually get a lpot in motion. *all gasp* Heyyyyyy, I take offense to that!

Just a note: If there are spelling boo boos, I apoligize. I'm writing on my grandparents' computer and the keyboard is a very difficult one to adapt to. I know it sounds as if I'm just making up excuses, but this is very hard to catch all the mistakes I know I'm making here. Bear with me, guys, I'll be on my usual computer in a couple weeks. I love my grandparents more than you, so tough it out! I won't have access to the internet as of tomorrow as I'll be in the Adirondacks and you'll have to live without me! *Maniac laughter* Muahahaha! I'm cutting you off! *Meek grin* Just kidding. I'm trying as hard as I everly can.

Just keep in mind, as I am, that the alleged title for book 4 has something to do with Koboi, or at least the name. :-D Enjoy this chater!

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Opal Koboi was a very mad pixie. Not to say mad as in insane mad, but more like angered. Or at least to her mind, which was not to be relied on in the best of times, or at least lately.

"Why, why, why!" She shreiked, hurling herself at the wall with a rather loud noise best described as "Splat." Peeling the now squashed sandwich off her filthy dress, best described as burlap, she spat in disgust. "It's not fair, it's really not fair!" She sobbed loudy, then looked to her left and right. Then she raised her eyes to the ceiling and wailed.

"Cudgeon!" She moaned. "Why have you forsaken me here?" She flung herself on the bed, momentarily forgetting that Cudgeon had been killed by her.

She sat blt upright. "I hate him! I hate him I hate him I haaaaate hiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmm!" She pummeled her pillow harshly, apparently under the delusion that it was her late partner in crime. If it had been, the shapeless heavy lump of former Acting Commander would now be a pile of ripped and shreded burlap and stiff stuffing.

She let out a long, wordless shriek and plowed herself into the small chair provided for prisoners to write letters to home. Home from Howler's Peak. How a mother must feel when she read that return address.

But Opal wasn't thinking of her mother now. She was thinking of her father. She filled up with remorse and fell out crying. "Daddy! Daddy, help me! I'm so sorry, Daddy! Daddyyyyyyy! Daddy, help me! Save me, Daddy, I love yoooouuuuuuu!"

She snapped upright again, thinking of all the times he had scolded her and took back all she had just said. Why was she crying over Daddy? She didn't need him. This would never do.

She stood up and walked calmly over to the cell's bathroom to wash her face in the sink. Her sanity remained until she turned on the faucet. Then she remembered how her mother used to wash her in the sink, and she tried desparately to turn off the water through. But her tearsgot in the way, and she gradually realized that she was twisting the wrong way. The water had stopped flowing, though.

She kept twisting the handle the same way. This was sooo fun! Turney, turney, turney! Wheeee- huh?

The handle had come off. And where it had been, there was a red button. Which sparked her curiousity. She couldn't resist. She pushed it. As she fell through the trapdoor the button had opened, she couldn't help wondering how that little contraption had gotten there.

Had she had a sane enough mind, she would have remembered that her henchman R'hal had made it for her. He was a foreign cellkeeper who was not at all above a bribe, and when she was in one of her sane moments she had bargained with him.

He had agreed to chew a tunnel from a trapdoor that he also made from her design, to the surface of Disneyland Paris. R'hal was one very smart dwarf, though, and even though he couldn't design the trapdoor (Koboi had when she could think later) he could strike a bargain like no other, and the deal was made that in exchange for his tunnelling services, she would take him along with her, and once she was back in business, pay him well.

But, unfortunately for him, Koboi was in no mood for remembering promises. Especially when they had been made in a semi-conscious mind. Even if she could have remembered her promise, she would not have remembered who it was to. Probably.

She crawled along the tunnel, wallowing in the muck and glorying in it at turns. She had no idea of what was going on above her, or what would, at any rate, in forty five minutes to and hour. And if she had known, she wouldn't have liked it.

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Again, a nice lengthened chapter for you!

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"Prisoner 19b67949g12c6-" Cellkeeper Byrd burst into the lounge and took a deep breath. "-496y123547hfg8t76ry-"

"Get on with it!" Cellmaster Gurns barked at the young officer. "We know the ID number is too ling, just get on with it and give us the name!"

"Very well, Billy," Byrd responded, miffed that he was being cut off. It had taken him months to memorize all the prisoners' ID's, and the Cellmaster had interrupted him half way. The impudence. "Opal Koboi has escaped!"

Gurns let the use of his first name "Billy" slide as he bolted upright. "What! Impossible!"

"Check the tapes, sir, but I just went down to bring the food to her and there was no one there!"

"Did you check the bathroom?"

"Not a sign of her."

"Ceilings?" The last time they had thought she had run away, it turned out she was pretending to be Spiderman and had managed to work herself up to the ceiling, and had clung there for days. It hadn't been until about a week later, when they had brought a new prisoner in, that she was found. Apparently she had dropped down on the new occupant while he slept, and had to be dragged forcibly off him. How do you explain to a goblin that the pint-sizd pixie hanging off his arm by the teeth didn't mean it?

"Nope. Not a trace."

Cellmaster Gurns swore. This was not supposed to happen on his shift!

The rest of the cellkeepers gathered 'round the two. The suggestion was soon made that they should indeed go veiw the tapes. Off they went to the video room, only to find R'hal finish typing something and stand up.

"Problem, gentlemen?"

Gurns responded sharply, in his usual gangsta tones. "Yeah, actually, there is. Koboi's escaped. We wanna veiw the pictures. So move aside."

"Yessir."

The cellkeepers clustred around the screen as Gurns pulled up the tape. They watched as the prisoner stood up from the bed, walked over to the door, opened it, and walked away.

"She knew it was unlocked?" Asked one cellkeeper.

"But how'd she open it? The room is rubber!" exclaimed another.

"Either way, she's out," stated a third.

"That can not be excellent." #1 remarked.

"Hardly fabulous," #2 chimed in.

"Barely wonderful," #3 agreed.

"And while certainly remarkable-" #1 began,

"It definately-" #2 added,

"Could not be-" #3 contributed,

"GOOD." They all ended in unison.

Gurns looked at the triplets in reluctant awe. "Bravo, boys. As you were."

The boys beamed at the thought of appreciation.

R'hal rolled his eyes at the others, and turned to his own inward thoughts. Why did she leave when she did? How could she had forgotten?

One thing was certain, though. He wasn't about to leave it alone. He stalked out the door under the pretense that he was ill and needed to go home.

Then he went to the now empty cell. He knew he would not be sen on the footage of the room, he had the cameras rigged now. And the bathroom, out of respect of the one feminine resident, had no camera.

He pulled off the handle to the cold water on the sink. Pressing the button, he muttered,

"Opal Koboi, I believe you owe me something."

And with that, he disappeared down the tunnel.

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Wow! 4 whole pages! Yikes! Well, you all deserve it. Now you do your job and review review review!