[piosenniel]

Pio went looking to find Ancalimon. She had several things she needed to ask of him, and a few questions answered. Search high and low as she did,though, she could find him nowhere. She was down in the hold, thinking to find him there, when she ran into the two hobbrim children, Coral and Shell. They smiled prettily at her, and held their hands behind their backs.

Their smiles were disarming, and Pio smiled back at them. 'What are you two young ladies doing down here?' she asked, tousling Coral's hair, and all the while trying to see what they had hidden behind them. 'Nothing Pio!' they chimed in chorus, their brown eyes looking at her with innocence and a certain spark of impish delight.

The Elf crouched down on their level, and looked at them quite seriously. 'Now tell me true, you two. What are you doing down here?'

Coral looked at Shell, who shrugged her shoulders, and said 'Practicing, Pio!'

Pio shook her head. This was like trying to undo a very tangled knot. She arched her eyebrows at the two and asked once again. 'Practicing what?' 'What Ms. Birdie taught us, Pio.' cried Shell. 'This!' said Coral holding out her hand.

Pio gasped in surprise, and then laughed and hugged the two girls. 'No need to find Ancalimon now.' she thought to herself. 'Did you do this yourself?' 'Oh, yes, and we have some more!' Coral's smile turned to a scowl as Shell slapped her for telling their secret.

'Can you show me what you have?' The girls led her to a small area hidden behind some piled up crates. Pio clapped her hands in delight! 'And you say you made these. Can you show me how?'

Once she told them what she meant to do, she found them willing teachers, though quite exacting taskmasters for certain critical steps in the process. But when they were done, they patted her on the back, and said. 'Nice work!'

She then had them gather the materials she needed - a number of empty clay jars with narrow necks, some of medium size and some smaller. Grease, tar, pitch, a little sulphur, some resin, and lampoil were placed in that order in the jars. The jars were sealed with wax, and one of the girl's small incendiary devices secured to the neck of the bottle with a wrapping of string. By the time they were finished, they had ten of the larger devices, and twenty smaller, handsized ones.

When they had put away all their extra materials, she kissed them each on their cheek, and thanked them. 'This will be a great help to us when we go into the caverns.' she told them. 'You have done your part well!'

Then she threw an old blanket over the work table, and went back up to the deck.

[ October 27, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]