[piosenniel]

‘I told you I wouldn’t ride one of those ponies!’ came the high, twittering voice of the little jackdaw. Bird had been the last one out the door to the porch, and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Frodo-lad and Buttercup as they held the ponies on the other side of the fence. In a trice she had shed her human form and taken wing.

‘And I said you did not need to, as I recall.’ replied Pio, stopping to wipe off the indelicate gift that accompanied the arrival of the Bird to the crosspiece of her blade’s hilt. ‘Must you do that?’ she grumbled, as the black and white Bird landed now on her wrist, having been displaced as the Elf wiped the white gobbet from the hand that held the sword.

‘Birds do that,’ sniffed the jackdaw, and it seemed as if her little shoulders shrugged. ‘We are not responsible for our bodily functions!’ she humphed, fluffing her feathers and giving them a satisfied shake.

All but Cami stood open mouthed as Pio exchanged a few words with her feathered companion. Ruby shook her head in disbelief. Cook will never believe this, she thought to herself. The children, of course, were delighted – their little faces lighting up with wonder. They had always felt beneath Bird’s gruff exterior lurked a quite marvelous creature, and now they knew it to be true.

‘Fly ahead, if you will Bird, and check out the passage for us. We are bound for the angle of the Greenway and the South Downs – Andrath.’ Pio raised her arm upward and with a nod to her, the jackdaw took wing, flying west. ‘Quickly now!’ urged Pio, leading the small group across the yard to the waiting ponies.

Cami, holding tight to the hand of little Larkspur, was the last one off the porch, following close behind Merimac with Fosco, and Ruby herding Tom and Will before her. Pio had reached the fence, and climbed through the wide spaced posts, and had just turned round to grab the basket of baby things from Gilly and help her through, when something caught her eye.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The rest of the group fleeing from the cottage had halted. Larkspur, slipping her hand from Cami’s grip, had run pell mell back to the porch. ‘My dolly!’ she cried, her little legs pumping hard as she sprinted for the open door with Cami in her wake. And there, just leaping on to the porch from the other side, knife in hand, was a nasty looking figure, a wild look in his eyes.

‘Where you goin’, you little Shire rat?!’ he yelled at her, grabbing her roughly by the arm and shaking her. She twisted in his grip, screaming for help, and kicked at him, landing a few solid whacks to his shins.

‘It’s Shifty!’ cried Gilly, pulling away from Pio’s grip. She ran toward the group to meet the three little boys Ruby had pushed toward her, pulling them toward the fence . . .

[ July 20, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]