A/N: To those who asked, I had absolutely no intention of giving Numair a surprise birthday party—that would be too nice of me

A/N: To those who asked, I had absolutely no intention of giving Numair a surprise birthday party—that would be too nice of me! DarkWolf, why does everything have to turn out OK? Lady Carlee and Lady of the Wolves, Good idea! I'm going with it!

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"Mud," Numair grumbled, shaking his soggy hair out of his eyes. "Why must there always be mud?"

He had been on the road for three hours, and the downpour hadn't eased in the slightest. He and Spots has been on muddy city roads, muddy country roads, muddy forest roads, and they were now on a muddy coastal road. Above the trees, Numair could just see the tip of his tower. He was nearly home.

The dark sky was suddenly filled with lightening, and seconds later an earth-shaking crash of thunder sounded. Spots, frightened by the noise, reared. Numair managed to hang on as his horse bucked beneath him, until one final lurch sent him sprawling off the horse's back onto the muddy road. Spots, still terrified by the storm, ran off toward the tower, leaving Numair behind.

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He had to stop every step to pull his foot out of the mud, and it was an hour before he had completed the ten-minute ride to his tower on foot. His housekeeper, Ilta, came bustling over, chiding him in Scanran for being out in the storm without a cloak.

"It wasn't my plan for the day," Numair said irritably. "The king needs me to finish a highly advanced simulacrum for him, before tomorrow, and I need the notes that I keep here."

"Humph," humphed Ilta. "Sending you running around in the rain, he'll make you catch your death of cold."

Numair wanted to protest her statement, but what came out instead was a loud sneeze. The housekeeper banged a kettle down on the stove decisively, as if that proved her point. She rummaged around in a closet and thrust a wool blanket into his hands.

"Go!" she demanded, pointing into the library with her other hand on her hip. "Stoke up that fire and sit there!" Numair obeyed, blowing his nose on the way out.

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A/N: Short, I know, but I'm not done. And if you thought THAT was how I used your ideas, you're wrong. Reviews, anyone?