[piosenniel]

Pio spoke with Rose as she sewed the finery for the companions. 'I thank you for your offer, Rose, but I think I may have something that will do to meet the king. Get the others dressed to your heart's content. And tell Mithadan I may be just a little late, but I will come as directly as I can.'

Rose looked askance at the elf. 'If she has a dress, it's probably stuck in her pack, and all wrinkled!', she thought to herself. 'Oh well, I guess when you're an elf, the covering doesn't matter.'

*****************

But covering did matter to Pio. She was going to see the King of this fair land today. From her pack she pulled a dress made by elven hands and shook it out. What wrinkles there were fell out quite naturally. It was of a soft velvet-like material of blues with a shimmer of white that played across it in the light, like sea foam playing on the undulation of the blue water. On her feet, soft slippers of the finest leather in dark blue. She combed her fingers through her dark mass of wanton curls, arranging them as best they would allow. Upon her forehead she placed a fillet of mithril, set with a green stone, the color of the glassy sea.

'Well, that's the best I can do,' she said to no one in particular as she looked in the small mirror in her room.

As a last precaution, she pulled up the skirt of her dress, and attached her knife in its scabbard just below her right knee.

Running up stairs, she checked to make sure the others had all left, then pulled a medium sized soft leather purse from off her shoulder and opened the top.

Stay small and quiet! she whispered, as if to herself. Striding hurriedly, she ascended toward the citadel.

The audience was already in session when the guards admittted her to the room. She stayed near the back, watching and listening intently.

[ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]