[Kiara]

"Market day in Esgaroth," cawed the ebony-colored bird "Market day, Market day in Esgaroth."

"Shoo, you fool bird," muttered the woman at the desk near his perch, whose thick hair and snapping eyes reflected the hue of the raven's fine feathers,"Your reminders do me no good, I am not to go to market today, next month, or any month in the near future, it seems, because your master thinks my mind is not worth the dust beneath his warty feet!"

"Dust! Beneath his feet," cackled the bird gleefully. The raven, perched on her left, with the mischievous gleam in his eye, served as a memory-prod for her master. Mr. Dondarrion was a wily accountant in the trading hierarchy of Laketown; she, however, was the most trod-upon "dust" of an assistant to be found in the group, at least it seemed so to her.

"I will not be cawed at, you Jackdaw! Get away from here, you'll ruin my notations!" Her icy expression of disdain spoke of the steely heart within. Opening her mouth for further rebuke of the bird (she was used to venting in this fashion, after all, the bird was a good arguer, though it was only a repetition of her own tongue lashings), she was suddenly interrupted by the nervous tremor of her master's voice:

"Honestly, Rhiannon! I do not have warty feet, first of all, and secondly--how many times do I have to tell you?--the bird does no good to me at all if you have clouded his mind with your complaining! Now please, back to those notations, I need them by the 'morrow!"

[ December 16, 2002: Message edited by: Kiara ]