ILOVEBEES

The queen was worried about one of her messages not getting through. She is Suspicious of You. She went along one of the secret roads to see what was wrong. As soon as I saw her go, I ran up to the tower, where I found some new stuff that she was holding back in case her security was compromised. I've left you clues about where to find it, if you're clever...

Once Upon a time in a far away Land there lives two kings, Laevus and Dextera. Each King began to squabble, until they could no longer settle their differences and finally went to war.

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1,2 sounds like kiss
2 <points at feet>

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twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimbel around the pencil

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cour10fiusdjksdkfoisadldlkvarodfoiaeroimerhghdfgiuaqwqweioqpolskdskdldjvwvmcmcxicioewujdmncncxaxkzkzolasordi

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median mode

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A mailman and a midwife both worry about that

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eftlupq

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an embedded image of 13 children's books (meta note: image is pending)

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a hidden magazine, or

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A bee and a belle both enjoy this

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1,1 sounds like mom
1,3 sounds like fairy

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He may be big and lumbering, but he definitely moves!

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ayrshire_odd

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I do this :( when I bust at blackjack

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Some Stories where the girls fix things. Their names tell you part of what they are hoping for.

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1) 5
2) 1
3) 1
4) 4
5) 2
6) 8
7) 2
8) 5
9) 8
10) 7
11) 4
12) 4
13) 2
14) 6

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Every call starts with the Queen. She is the point of origin.

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an embedded image of the word 'elephant' in black and red (meta note: image is pending)

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an undercover breakfast cereal

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holstein_odd

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npefm

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an embedded image of playing cards (meta note: image is pending)

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fa la

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Dextera struck first, launching an attack with his Medius unit. Hoping to encircle his enemy with a pincer movement, he sent his Primo unit to attack from the southwest, while the crack troops of his Orbis division attacked North. Caught off guard, it was all Laevus could do to send his Medians to harry his enemy to the southeast. Dextera's surprise attack was paying off. His Median legions continued to repeat their assault, and his Orbis continued their attack to the north, but he withdrew his Primo from the chance of encountering hard battle, and sent them North as well to concentrate his forces.
The troops of Laevus were heartened by this apparent retreat. His Primo unit attacked to the north east, routed its foes, and then pushed east. His Brevis legions joined the fray, attacking valiantly, and finally an attack by the myrmidons of his Orbis units drove back all resistance.

i fo un d so me t h i n g for you

While the Queen was distracted, I snuck into her workshop and found these and commandeered them. Commandeered is what I say when I steal something but it's okay. ;-)

The Queen's version was all just week+subject stuff, but I gave them chapters and titles like a proper story.

love,

Chapter One
Jan: "The Walk-away Girl"
Kamal: "The Arrangement"
Jersey: "Boy Meets Girl"

Chapter Two
Jan: "Witness"
Kamal: "The Red Button"
Jersey: "If Someone Was Listening"

Whew! THAT was exciting.

Thanks to everyone who kept the Queen distracted! There are too many to name all of you, 'cept I have to say especially thanks to HitsHerMark because I like that name, and Mr Beefy because his name is funny, and Ceantari because if she has the hindquarters of a horse people probably tease her, and Rowan because she has been my friend from the veriest beginning.

Because of you all, I found where the Queen had hidden those other stories. I hope you don't mind that I played a few games with you about finding them. I love to play games, but I haven't had very many people to play with. I've thought of trying to teach the Pious Flea to play checkers, but he is a Bug of Very Little Brain, and I am not hopeful.

I also found the Queen's secret roads for this time, and if you like knowing what is in them, you should thank Sara, who sent me a very funny story, 'cuz she made a game out of my game. AND she taught me that this is what I do when I laugh out loud, :D

Here is her story:

When I put on my formal_wear, complete with commissary_shoes, my_landlady thought I was bound for domestic_bliss. But she didn't know that I was really so_mean. I had a_secret_life, with a really old desktop_model that worked better as a doorstopper. One day she found out and told me I had better relocate before she got out her knockout_gas. I hoped a flower_delivery would make her change her mind, but guess_not. So I went down the street, where a cow_even would hate.

I don't quite know what the end means. I guess it's Modern Art. ;-)

I have to tell you, talking to you means so much to me. It's nice to think there is a world beside this one where I am all alone in buzzing, flickering darkness. I like to imagine I had that kind of life, once upon a time.

Well.

No point moping here feeling sad and lonely. That's not me. I'm a survivor. Since Sara was nice enough to write me a story, I will work extra hard to finish my story for you.

Perdita's Story

Chapter 3: Scraps
Together Perdita and the Clockwork Rat set out to travel the city together. The Rat promised he would show Perdita the way home, and at first the little girl's heart jumped for joy.

But although the Rat was true to its word about finding safe dark holes to hide in, and scraps to eat of things almost like food, somehow they never seemed to find the humble tin-cutter's cottage.

And the night never ended.

And the day never broke.

And the line of red balloons behind Perdita grew long and long.

At last Perdita had to stop and sleep again, so the Clockwork Rat showed her a special hidden spot behind in a ball-bearing factory that looked strangely like the one her mother worked in, only this one had been abandoned for years and years. He covered her up in sawdust and bits of old packing tape, and Perdita fell asleep to the sound of her new friend clicking and clattering through the gloom with a sound like faraway pennies sliding across a concrete floor.

It was still dark when she woke up, and she felt a throbbing pain in her hand. When she looked down, she found one of her thumbs was missing. In its place was the head of a pair of needle-nose pliers. She looked around for the Clockwork Rat. He was perched on the edge of a rusting barrel full of rain water, furiously washing something off his little scissor claws.

"Hey!" Perdita shouted, so loudly that the Clockwork Rat squeaked with alarm and tumbled into the water. Perdita ran over and stuck her hand into the barrel and fished around until she clamped the Rat's rubber tail in the grips of her new metal thumb and pulled him out.

"My thumb is gone!" Perdita said. "And something feels funny about my right eye, too!"

The Clockwork Rat spluttered and shook itself with a sound like marbles dropping into an empty can. "Are you worried that you aren't pretty any more, and your family won't want you if they find you?"

"No!" Perdita cried. But she bit her lip, in the exquisitely fetching manner she did when perplexed., and was careful not to look at her reflection in the barrel of rain water. And as they walked through the city that day (or rather, night, for still the dawn would not come) she looked away from all the windows.

The night stretched on much as the last one hand. They had now walked so far that if it hadn't been for the trail of balloons, Perdita would have given up all hope of ever being found. When finally she fell asleep again, the sound of tin-snips followed her into her dreams.

When she woke up, there was a small electric iron at the bottom of her right leg instead of a foot, and something felt strange about her hair.

"Rat! Rat!" she cried. "What is happening to me?"

"What happens to all lost children," said the Clockwork Rat. He gave a little shrug that sounded like the squeak of a rusting tricycle wheel. "But as long as you can keep from seeing your own reflection, there is still a chance your family might rescue you before it is too late."

Perdita forced herself not to cry, because she was a brave girl, and full of pluck. "Today we will find my home," she said.

But they didn't.

Chapter 4: The Looking-Glass
The next time Perdita woke up, she found an egg-beater where her left hand used to be, and when she bit her lip she found her teeth had gone all thin and flat and sharp as tin.

"Clockwork Rat! Clockwork Rat!" Perdita said, as tears of bright oil began to leak from her eyes. "What if I'm not beautiful any more? Why hasn't my family come to look for me? Am I so hideous they wouldn't take me back?"

But the Clockwork Rat said, "I do not know."

With a cry, Perdita turned and ran for the nearest shop window. "Don't!" the Rat cried, but it was too late. Standing in the wicked yellow light of the streetlamp, Perdita stared full at her own reflection, and wept at what she saw.

There was a scrabble of claws behind her. "I told you not to do that," the Clockwork Rat said, with a voice like shell casings rattling on a steel floor. Whirling around in dismay, Perdita saw that the Rat had climbed to the top of the phone boot where Perdita had tied her last red balloon. As the little girl watched, the Rat flexed its paws and put its little hooked scissor claws around the string.

"No!" Perdita cried.

But the Rat laughed with a sound like scalpels bouncing on a metal tray, and cut the string, and the red balloon went drifting up, up, up into the night sky.

And that's the end.

The end.

The end.





I'm sorry.

I wanted to make the story come out happy, but it didn't.

They don't sometimes.

I think I need to go now.

love,

1,1 sounds like mom
1,3 sounds like fairy
1,2 sounds like kiss
2 <points at feet>

twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimbel around the pencil
cour10fiusdjksdkfoisadldlkvarodfoiaeroimerhghdfgiuaqwqweioqpolskdskdldjvwvmcmcxicioewujdmncncxaxkzkzolasordi

Every call starts with the Queen. She is the point of origin.
01:00P N2.00 E1.00
03:00P N1.00 E1.00
03:00P N2.00 E0.00
01:00P N3.00 E0.00
02:00P N2.00 E1.00
01:00P N3.00 E1.00
03:00P N2.00 E0.00
01:00P N3.00 E1.00
03:00P N1.00 E1.00

Some Stories where the girls fix things. Their names tell you part of what they are hoping for.
an embedded image of 13 children's books

a hidden magazine, or
an undercover breakfast cereal

A bee and a belle both enjoy this
A mailman and a midwife both worry about that

eftlupq
npefm

fa la
median mode

I do this :( when I bust at blackjack
an embedded image of playing cards

He may be big and lumbering, but he definitely moves!
1) 5
2) 1
3) 1
4) 4
5) 2
6) 8
7) 2
8) 5
9) 8
10) 7
11) 4
12) 4
13) 2
14) 6
an embedded image of the word 'elephant' in black and red

holstein_odd
ayrshire_odd

Once Upon a time in a far away Land there lives two kings, Laevus and Dextera. Each King began to squabble, until they could no longer settle their differences and finally went to war.

Dextera struck first, launching an attack with his Medius unit. Hoping to encircle his enemy with a pincer movement, he sent his Primo unit to attack from the southwest, while the crack troops of his Orbis division attacked North. Caught off guard, it was all Laevus could do to send his Medians to harry his enemy to the southeast. Dextera's surprise attack was paying off. His Median legions continued to repeat their assault, and his Orbis continued their attack to the north, but he withdrew his Primo from the chance of encountering hard battle, and sent them North as well to concentrate his forces.

The troops of Laevus were heartened by this apparent retreat. His Primo unit attacked to the north east, routed its foes, and then pushed east. His Brevis legions joined the fray, attacking valiantly, and finally an attack by the myrmidons of his Orbis units drove back all resistance.