The others soon reached the next drop off point: the passage at the well house. "Tara, Murki, and Kip here! Everybody else this way! Kip, see you upstairs in a few minutes!" whispered Vilef. (Here begins the story of the well house women and children.) The elf guard at this passage put his finger to his lips and motioned for them to climb up a set of stairs. These adventurers found a wood panel at the top. Murki slid it to the side slowly and gently. They peeked through the opening and saw many sleeping women and children. All were dressed in thick grey prison gowns. Kip stepped through the opening and in to the room. He bent over the first woman and called her by name very softly: "Mariah, Mariah, it is Kip." She roused slowly: "Kip, kip, is that you??" Some of the other women, who had overheard, awoke too. Kip knew that there would be a great noise of talkative jabbering in seconds: "Women, be silent!!!" hissed Kip. They listened and hushed at once. "Oh Kip, dear Kip," whispered Mariah as she gave Kip a hug, "we thought you were gone forever." "I am here." stated Kip as he shrugged off the hug. He continued in his seriousness: "You must listen. We are leaving this place for one of safety. You must not take anything but the clothes on yourselves and your children. Follow these elves through the escape passages. You must speak not a word. That is an order." The women nodded that they had heard and began to wake the others quietly. Some started down the passage. "I go to get the Senators, WALK as fast as you can!" added Kip as he went through the opening. Tara and Murki went across the floor to the door at the other side of the well house. They each took a side. Both knew they would have to knock out any guards that happened to try to enter... To Chapter 4 Turn 12 Back to Arveta 4 Table of Contents Back to Arveta List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Abram Paradies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com