II

Enter Frank, Slave 3 F 23 C

The dim light of the group F guards' cooking fire played over the faces of the five creatures huddled on the floor of the twenty third slave storage pit in that group. Two of them you should already be familiar with. If you are not please go all the way back and read III Experimental Love I do not feel like explaining all the stuff that happened in that book nor do I feel like coming up with a slightly different description. The others were from the Tredidor reagon, the poorest and most underdeveloped reagon in the acnoledged realm. Two of those were females of the terib nymph species. They were each eight feet tall and had a 20 inch gurth, had sky blue skin and silver hair that was long enough to reach there knees when they stood up strait. One's name was Fay, slave 3 F 23 A, and the other one's name was Abied, slave 3 F 23 B. Her skin was covered in rough blisters and scratches from an allergic reaction. They kept to themselves only ever talking to eachother and staying far away from everyone else. At the time they were sleeping, huddled together as far to the one side of the pit as they could get from the others occupying it. The last one left was an umpa lumpa named Frank, slave 3 F 23 E. 'Nuff said. He was sitting on the floor cross legged as best as he could in his rolly polly form. He was drawing figures, symbols and equations of emense complexity in the dust on the 'floor,' if you want to call it that, with a long splinter of wood, which most likely came from a broken sovel, and mumbeling to himself as he worked away. On the opposite side of that sorry hole from Fay and Abied Christopher was sitting with his back against what surved as a sort of wall in a very exhosted posture asleep. Suzanne had her head resting on his lap like it was a pillow. Her eyes opened then closed, opened then closed, opened then closed, opened… She sighed.

"I can not sleep at all no matter how hard I try," she said aloud. Frank glanced up at her from his perplexing work.

"I can not eather. I find it truly amizing any of them can." He said as he jestured to his other pit mates around him. Suzanne sat up and leaned over to examine his work. The longer she looked the more her face twisted up with confusion and frustration.

"What are you doing there? I can not make heads or tails of it no matter which way I look at it," she inquired of him.

"I am calculating the probability of me aquiring freedom from this rechid position." He returned to his mumbling and his scratching of the dirt with his stick.

"It has got to be slim to nothing if any thing," Suzanne said.

"Oh Suzanne," Frank shook his head, "you are so very pessimistic, are not you? It is not all that bad as you make it out to be. People get to freedom from this horrible place everyday."

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "When they die. That or they get transferred somewhere worse."

"Worse?" Frank was doubtful. "What could be worse than here? Besides … remember the spiderwid from across the way, Eh?" She thought for a couple moments.

"The bright red and black striped one?"

"Yeah, that is him."

"What about him then, huh?"

"HE, found a token yesterday. And some three legged gal from down the way found one not to long ago. You should have seen her. She was estatic. Survived seven years you know. I can not think of anyone who deserved one more. Well, besides Abied here that is." Suzanne looked over at Abied then back and Frank.

"They found a token you say? So … a token gets you freedom? Is that it?" The scowel left her face for the first time in many weeks, but it was small and unsure.

"Well," Frank said. "That is not it exactly. There is a bit more to it than that but that is the general jist of the matter."

"What do you mean 'Well, that is not it exactly. There is a bit more to it than that.' I probably do not qualify do I?" The afor mentioned scowl returned from its breef trip to powder its nose and returned with a good friend known as the crossing of the arms.

"No, you misunderstand me. That is not what I mean at all. YOU probably would qualify. You see, what happens is when ever anyone finds a token they are put on oBay for twenty six hours I think the number is these days. Anyway, If the person is not sold by what ever the time is they are sent to work in eather fast food service for the seventh class or they are sent to work as a clerk at a seventh grade retail outlet." Suzanne grunted in disagreement.

"That is not much better you know."

"How can you say that?" He actually looked up at her from his work that time. "It is freedom and that is great in and of itself. Not to mention that I heard that they have beds, and they have doors, and," he shuddered with excitement, "and I heard that they even have ceilings!" He looked at the suffocating black sky over his head in disgust. "Nothing like this crummy place, but I sould not get my hopes up. After all, I do know that all that about the beds and ceilings is all just a great big rumor that people tell to keep each other's spirits up. I bet you everything I have got," he waved his bit of shovel wood at her to emphasize his point even more," (Which is not much. It is just this stick here and the cloths on my person, mind you.) that all they really have up there in the eight class that we do not currently have here anyway is the ceilings bit." With that he returned all of his tired concentration to his strenuous calculations.

"Of course they have all of those things. Even primitives and peasants and the unemployed / homeless people have all of those things. They also have floors and windows as well." Suzanne almost laughed at his antics. Frank looked back up and stared at her his eyes getting wider and wider and wider till they were perfect circles. Suzanne snorted trying to hold back a wild fit of giggleing at his ridiculous appearance.

"What? You are pulling my leg. You have to be pulling my leg. Everyone knows that only the upper class has floors and windows in there buildings, right?"

"No, do not be rediculouse. Slaves are the only ones who do not have those things. Some slaves even have celings even. Well, not here obviously but on other planets they do. Do not they have all those things where you are from?"

"No, we would not have wanted to use them even if we could get a hold of them anyway. The people on my home planet live in the tree tops. What would be the use?"

"Oh, that is very interesting indeed. They must have been rather big trees in that case."

"Oh yes but of course, most of them were about five or six storys tall and three times as far around than this accursed hole."

"Wow, that is simply amazing. That is. We do not have many trees where we, Chris and I that is, come from and even the trees we have do not even get any taller than three strorys and that is the tallest tree on record there."

"Oh my, that is such a shame. I will absolutely have to have you visit me there some day when and if we both get free. You simply have not lived, Suzanne, till you have seen the great golden forest of the Tredidor north."

"Heh, like that will ever happen. I will just have to use my imagination. Why dother getting my hopes up if we are never ever going to get out of here after all?"

"Oh, stop being so pessimistic. YOU are deffinetly getting out of here alive. Chris and you are two of the main charactors. I might not as only a saporting character but Chris and you most deffinatly will. I bet the authors is even talking about how it is all happening when ever nothing is going on here. Which is most of the time."

"What ever you say." She stretched her arms strait up over her head and yawned loud and long. "I feel a bit more tired after talking with you for a time. I think I am going to try to get some sleep again." She (Caitlyn Gilikin: Take it off, baby, take it all off!) returned her head to its original position. "Good night Frand. Opps wow, that was wrong. I mean 'good night Frand,' yeah Frank." She closed her eyes and relaxed her tense mussels.

"Frand heh, sleeping eh? I think I will try to do that too. Good night SUZANNE." He closed his eyes. He would have lied down but ompa lumpas can only kinda acwardly roll off to one side you know.