It was a very tired, very smelly, hungry, dispirited and slightly damp bunch
of FK fans that trailed into the Comfy Cottage in the wee small hours of
Sunday morning.  Lisa looked at the dirty faces and sad eyes and wondered
what they were going to do.

"How about a nice long shower and a late supper?" suggested Kezia.

Lisa blushed and she replied "I knew I was exhausted, but didn't realise I'm
so tired that I'm thinking out loud."

"Naaah,  perish the thought!  More a case of great minds thinking alike."
Kez reassured her.

Relieved, Lisa lead the way upstairs where each of them rapidly - or least,
as rapidly as tired and aching limbs would allow them - stripped off their
soiled clothes and headed for their ensuites to wash the dirt and grime of
the tunnels off of them.

An hour later, showered, changed, and with a quantity of hot soup, bread
rolls, fruit pie and whatever else they could rustle up in a hurry packed
away inside of them, they lingered in the dining room.

"What do we (yawn) do next? (yawn)" asked Jenieve, who was rapidly becoming
convinced that her first war was likely to be her last war at the rate
things were going on.

Andrea yawned hugely herself, and noticing several others doing the same,
and that Nicole had just started to doze off and then jerked awake suddenly
(don't you all just hate it when that happens?), answered with a blunt "Go
to bed and get some sleep.  It's the wee small hours, it's dark outside, let
alone in the tunnels, we're all too tired to think straight."

"Smart move" Lisa replied. "And in the morning over breakfast we can discuss
what to do next."

Wearily, the seven of them headed back up stairs for their beds.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the RP tunnels, on a shelf about two feet off the
floor, a bundle of newspapers and old carrier bags could be seen.  Peeking
out from one end was the small, dirty, tired face of the missing Fractured
Knightie, sound asleep and oblivious to her surroundings...

--------

Monday morning presumably dawned (after all, this was War 11, not 8), but
no-one in the CotK would have been willing to testify to this in court.  It
was nine o'clock before the first of them stirred from her slumbers, and ten
o'clock before they were all gathered back around the dining table, digging
in to a hearty breakfast.

"So," said LaCountess between bites.  "What do we do now?  We've lost our
leader - not the brightest thing we could have done."

Andrea, having played with the Ravens in a previous war, replied with "Oh, I
don't know - most factions lose one or more members at least temporarily in
every war, and it seems to be an unwritten rule that at least one faction
mislays their leader."

"Oh that's just great!" Jenieve shot back as she refilled her cup.  "Why
didn't someone *warn* us that war is hell?"

"I saw plenty of warnings, read up most of the previous War archives, and
then decided it sounded like a lot of fun anyway," Kezia responded.  "Though
I would have appreciated more warning about how physically demanding it is,
and how little sleep I was going to get....  You'd have thought 20 years of
convention attending, and running the Ops room at a half-dozen major UK cons
would have given me a hint, wouldn't you?"

Lisa grinned.  "I don't think *anything* can prepare you for your first war,
Kez.  Question is, no, questions are:  What are we going to do next?  And
how?"

"We need to go back down those tunnels, of course!" Diane replied.

"There's no of course about it," replied La Countess.  "I don't know about
you, but I *ruined* the outfit I wore yesterday, and I am not prepared to
ruin a second outfit down in those dirty tunnels.  And we'll need
torches..."

"Ropes"

"Best take some food and hot drinks with us."

"Hard hats."

"Gloves and boots."

There was a pause as they all thought about what else they would need for
this second trip.

"First aid kit?"  Kez added inquisitively.

"Yes, but where do we get all this stuff from?  Besides, I for one do *not*
fancy getting lost in that maze." replied Diane.

"Maze, maze.... that's ringing bells" Kez said thoughtfully, as she tried to
figure why.  "What do I associate with the word 'maze'?  Hampton Court
Palace?  Uh-huh, that's not it.... Crete... Minoan palaces... Got it!  Who
remembers the legend of the Minotaur?"

Blank, or vaguely blank, faces greeted her question.

"Guess you guys weren't raised on the classic Greek myths, as I was.
Luckily I just chanced to reread some of them recenly.  Theseus defeated the
Minotaur, who was kept in a maze, helped by the king's daughter, who held
one end of a ball of yarn so he wouldn't get lost, while Theseus kept hold
of the other end - no easy feat whilst slaying a vicious monster."

The thumb-nail version of the myth brought it back to mind for several of
them, and the idea of the ball of yarn to keep track of their whereabouts
was immediately obvious - and appealing!

"Nice idea, but for one thing - Ratpackers," Andrea put in, recalling their
almost legendary liking for bits of string and yarn.

"Oh yeah...."

"Indelible marker on the walls of junctions?"

"Walls are too dark.  Lipstick, maybe?"

"Comes off too easily,  'specially if some RatPacker spots it and decides to
rub it off."

"Now why would they do a crazy thing like that?"

"Cause they're RatPackers, perhaps?" came the dry reply.

"How about nail varnish?  Comes in all sorts of bright colours, won't rub
off, and will take some hard work to get it off the walls."  Desiree
offered.

"Great!"  "Hey, that might work."

"We can use the cheap brands to keep the costs down - the budget's pretty
tight," added Lisa practically.

"Budget - we got a budget?" replied Jenieve.

"Yeah, but it's miniscule, so don't plan anything fancy, ladies."

"So... where do we get all this stuff from?" Diane asked for the second
time.

"That's easy," offered Desiree.  "Remember last night, when we finally found
our way out of the tunnels?  We were round the back of a big store - they
claim to sell everything you could want. Besides, that's the nearest opening
to the tunnels that we know about, so we've got to go there anyway."

"Sounds like a plan to me!"  Andrea commented, and ten minutes later, they
were back on the road, heading for the dim depths of the Ratpackers' domain.

And somewhere down there in the depths of the labyrinth, a very hungry Vegan
and her llama glove puppet examined with distaste the mouldy cheese
sandwiches littering the floor....