FOUNDLING: THE ARABIC ADVENTURES

BY CHRISTOPHER TOILKIEN

[ part 37 ]

Mavis and her group exited the circular stairway that eventually led to the beach in the center of the upper courtyard. There Sister B awaited her.

"Sister A would appreciate seeing you right away in order that she may bring you up to speed on the situation" Sister B said.

"Why does the world not want me to get back to the semblance of normality that I have acquired in Ropeville?" Mavis wondered. "If I am away much longer, my husband and master will seek another to warm his bed"

Sister A was sitting in her audience chair on the low podium in the keeps main hall. And honored and surprised Mavis when she rose and walked towards her as Mavis crossed the expansive interior of the great hall. Scampering just behind and beside her was the razors thin form of Giggles her current dresser. Silver chains softly chiming as she moved.

"So far we have reports from the Granada police about our two guards being badly beaten by some soccer hooligans after a car accident"

Informed Sister A. "The driver was able to tell us the four girls were last seen running safely off down the smart shop and café lined boulevard running along that side of the river"

" Subsequent investigations turned up street and shop owners who saw

two separate pairs of the girls, safely and rather surprisingly, nonchalantly walking up the hill back towards the Cathedral they had visited that morning"

A very worried Sister A went on.

"But a search of the Cathedral and a talk with its staff, including the old man that took them on the tour came up empty handed. So we have instructed the local police and our people to scour the area between the Cathedral and the river, house by house"

"We appreciate you and your very efficient group wait in readiness here to retrieve them if we track them to their kidnappers" She asked very politely.

"No problem Sister" Mavis replied, bowing low, and walked away to prepare her group for combat.

As Mavis was dressing in her blue-gray unlabelled fatigues and then covering them with the loose one pieces Alice had given her core group of six and herself, Mary the units communication's technician walked in.

"While you were away, a number of "puzzling" events occurred I want to bring to your attention" She said, sitting down on Mavis's futon sleeping pallet.

"We knew these left hand units would be eventually dissolve into out bodies, but not the ear buds as well," She said looking up at her leader.

"Three days after we arrived Shelly was knocked down a flight of stairs when, during a thunderstorm that occurred as the girls were retiring, a loud crack from a near lightning strike spooked the girls on the stairs. She was taken to their infirmary and after sedating her, x-rayed to check for broken bones."

"And, a pensive Mavis inquired.

"Shelly had said she had not felt herself hitting the stairs as the girls bowled her over, but I took it as she being in shock from the accident"

"Go on" Prompted Mavis.

"There were no broken bones, not even any bruises" Mary said quietly.

"That's good then" Mavis went on.

"But the ribs she cracked two months ago when her horse threw her and her broken thumb from jamming it in a door, were completely healed. That was very frightening"

"Are you sure?" Mavis inquired.

"I nearly frightened myself to death two days ago when I started to bleed" Mary went on. I was so hysterical, they had to sedate me before examining me"

"And" Inquired Mavis, walking over and sighting down beside her best friend.

" Last year, they found a growth and I had a DNC. They x-rayed me, and found I was in PERFECT HEALTH" emphasized Mary.

"And is that a surprise" inquired Mavis again.

"There is no sign of I ever having children, even though I have already had three, most unbelievably I am a virgin again" Replied an ash faced Mary, holding up her left hand. "What have these things done to us?"

Mavis sat in silence trying to come up with a believable answer that might calm her fellow warriors.

"Everything so far has just been for your physical benefit. And we were just in too big a rush for me to sit you all down and explain it" She lied to her best friend. "Remember, I asked you not to put them on because I had not filled you in on the ramifications" She said, digger herself deeper.

"Then already wearing this device is why you are still in such good shape?" Mary inquired.

"Yes" Mavis lied; knowing the truth of her Foundling ancestry would sound even more improbable.

"We will have to sit the old group down and explain these things before someone else finds out," Mary said as she stood and started to walk out. "If these devices do all the things I think they do, our lives in Ropeville as we have known them, are over"

" What have I cursed my best friends with, my life of immortality and constant warfare?" A sad face Mavis thought as she donned her equipment.

It was the next evening before Sister A sent for Mavis again. The assault teams had reverted to their group rotation of eight off at the ready, one resting and the last on full alert. Mavis was walking the exterior walls trying to work out what she would say to the original "Old Guard" that formed the first assault team Vicki and Mavis along with another had taught their skills to.

"Mavis, Sister A has requested you meet her in the keep" Mary informed her through the COM link.

"On my way, please meet me there Mary" Mavis replied.

Mavis walked down the long spiral stairs towards the ground floor and heard the sounds of a popular French TV show coming up towards her. She reached the ground floor room and walked past a nearly full room of students sitting in front of a fifty-inch projection TV laughing at the comedian's antics.

"Things certainly have changed, most for the better since I was here" Mavis thought as she walked past.

But at the doorway to the courtyard saw a male guard being given head by a very young student. The girls mouth barely large enough to encompass the head of his greater than average maleness. His hips moved spasmodically as his sperm discharged into her mouth and Mavis saw her eyes bulge, but still eagerly devoured every drop, licking with her tongue, the bit that squeezed out at the edges of her mouth and down her chin. As the guard withdrew, her tongue caressed his tip to insure she acquired his last drop.

"And some things never should" Mavis smiled at the girls eagerly demonstrated prowess as she walked on.

Mary was standing at the great doors leading into the keep, and walked with her commander and friend inside. Kneeling at the front of sister A's chair was her dresser Giggles. She stood; head bowed as Mavis and Mary approached. Giggles was very surprised when Mavis reached down and drew her chin up to look her in the face. "Do not be submissive with me, Giggles, I am a graduate of this school" Mavis informed the little toothpick of a girl.

"Really?" Answered Giggles. Her face lit up with an infectious grin and a little namesake giggle slipped out. She then said. "Our Mistress wishes you to wait on her up in the private library" And walked away towards the great stairs leading upwards behind the dais.

"This is a great honor Mary, as no one but the sisters are allowed up there," Mavis said to Mary as they climbed the winding stairs behind the chained form of Giggles.

"Why is she chained?" Mary asked.

"She must have disobeyed or annoyed Sister A or one of the guards or teachers" Mavis replied. It is a very low level punishment as the girls assigned to duties for a month are as well" Just then they had to walk around two teams of two girls each. Also nude and wearing similar chains, who were working their way to the top, vigorously cleaning the stairs as they went with small brushes and damp rages.

"These stairs are used by Sister A frequently, and those girls will be in trouble if she spots even a mote of dust" Mavis informed Mary as they ascended.

"That seems cruel," Mary said.

"But it teaches exactness and concentration of the job at hand, similar to that taught by Oriental martial arts Masters and marksmanship instructors" Mavis replied, smiling. She new Mary weekly attended classes in both, as all the Ropeville raised females did.

Then they drew up to steel, door set in the inside curve of the stairwell. Giggles knelt in front on the stairs facing it.

"They are here, she said and they heard great bolts being drawn back. The door, over a foot thick was slowly drawn back, and Mavis leading followed by Mary and Giggles entered, no one was inside opening it.

Inside was indeed a library. Ceiling high shelves full of what appeared to be scrolls, more holding books so large the shelf were at least three inches thick, and even shelves of industrial grade steel holding metal cabinets. Rolling ladders and stairs ran along the front of all the stacks and only the space just inside the doorway held soft leather chairs and reading tables.

Three Sisters besides the Head Mistress were in attendance, and the little leather-clad form of Malibu Barbie knelt before Sister A, head down in submission, as she stood in the center of the room.

Mavis walked up to where Sister A stood, Mary, eyes wide just behind. Giggles scooting around and settling to her knees, head down, in her place just behind and beside Sister A.

"We were just explaining to Malibu Barbie here why using a clay tablet created over four thousand years before she was even thought off as a trivet for her drink was not a good idea" Sister A said.

Malibu Barbie then jumped up and ran out of the room, a smile on

her face, as the door closed by itself behind her.

"She was very much in need of a session with Sister B, and wondering how she would earn one was driving me to distraction". Sister A herself smiled as they walked towards two chairs placed face to face over an ornately carved table holding a crystal pitcher of water and two crystal goblets.

"If Mary is interested, Sister Monette will show her around" Sister A inquired.

"Yes please" Was all Mary could get out, and the leather clad Sister dietary Chef Monette led her away, eagerly showing an unbelieving Mary scrolls from the Alexandria libraries in their thousands.

" I just received a call on my private cell phone system from a graduate, living with her Master in Bahrain" Sister A informed Mavis. Our four students were kidnapped and sold to a young Sheik who apparently has quite a collection of underage females in his compound just outside the capital" The Headmistress said. One of our new first-year students, Nuage, managed to escape and luckily ran into her while disguised as a local hid among the populace in the great marketplace"

" An apparently very resourceful girl, I would very like to meet" Mavis replied. Has she pinpointed the location of the others?"

"No, but as the British Army supplies, under contract, the military forces of the Arab Euphrates, the sheik must keep the age and location of his little girl collection secret. He may have a few locals or more likely imported a few bodyguards, but the rulers limit bodyguards to rifles and pistols. That way the rulers do not have to

worry about a revolution as their military is composed of British mercenaries"

"But we will have to be very careful not to get into a running battle with them as the British have a fully manned armored brigade, Commando's, Harrier jump jets and Vosper patrol boats always on duty" Mavis said.

" A soft chime sounded and Sister A surprised Mavis by reaching into her Wimple and drawing out an ultra modern cell phone.

"That Nuage is a very brave little girl. Her savior has just traced her to the Sheik's compound were she has risked a painful death, by scaling the walls, carrying her PDF turned on. In order to search for her classmates and enable you to pinpoint their location.

Our contact has warned she will be slowly and very painfully tortured to death. For kicking the young Sheik in the balls and escaping"

"Then we must be there on hand to prevent anything happening to her, or the others Head Mistress" Mavis said standing up, and bowing to Sister A.