Barrow-Downs Birthday Party at the Fields of Cormallen

[piosenniel]

Birdland stands on the edges of the donnybrook, chair raised over her head, wondering just where in the jumble of arms and legs she should strike first. But when she see Belin tampering with the REG, all thoughts of former alliances evaporate from her head.

"Nooooooo!!!" screams Birdie. She charges at Belin, chair raised high...

With a !WHOOSH! of air screaming past her ears, sounding like Birdie yelling 'NOOOO!' C7A opened her eyes to a greyish twilight. It was hard to tell where the REG had pulled them. The gradation from sky to land was non existent in this place, and no sounds livened the heavy air. C7A went quickly to the side of her friend and knelt beside her, jiggling her arm gently. 'Birdie, you can open your eyes now. It wasn't real what you were seeing. It was a weird trip, but it's over now . . . sort of!' C7A recalled her own visions of stepping up to accept a very prestigious award for a paper analysing the moral dilemmas of the main protagonists in the FOTR with a definitive section on one Frodo Baggins.

She looked around, checking for the other companions. pio was up and listening with full attention to any sounds she might pick up in the area. Veritas was hunched over the laptop, trying to get a fix on their position with the MEGPS. Rosie's eyes were fixed in anger on a spot just inches from her face and her hands spasmodically tightened around something at a point just below her gaze. 'Take that you red-headed newbie hater! Now say *welcome to the downs, newbies!' . . . or die!!!!!'

'Where are we?' asked Birdie. 'I don't recognize this place.'

'Well neither does the MEGPS', said Veritas in frustration.

'Oh oh, Toto, we're not in Kansas any more', quipped pio, who had not a serious bone in her body.

Meanwhile, the REG sat benignly in the midst of them, an almost palpable feeling of anticipation and satisfaction exuding from it.