The young ogress
.oOo.
At the Sign of the Drunken Goose…
The black oak door opens with a roar from an icy wind burst, which invades the great hall with swirling flakes up to the central pillar. A heavily harnessed dwarf closes the ancient porch, hits his boots and snorts joyfully. Dissatisfied with his entry, that has not captured all eyes, he adds more, groaning while putting his sac down and beating his flanks with energy. He advances to the fire in order to ostensibly make the ice cubes of his beard drip on the floor, and then hail the assembly with a refrigerated air:
-« Even in the Iron Mountains, my distant cousins' lands across Mirkwood, we have never seen such a winter! »
Flattering the local jingoistic spirit usually turns out wise and profitable. There is always an old timer to agree with you or a presumptuous youngster to outbid. As a matter of fact, a granny exclaims behind her spectacles:
-« Oh well that is nothing but sparrow fluff! Had you seen the Long Winter - four shivery and windy months, our sheep destroyed and dread famine... I were a wee girl, in fifty eight...1 »
And here is our peddler palavering with locals, orating with ease and listening to the elders with a deferential air.
By the way, do you remember this dilettante? In Thalion he is known as Bonim the dwarf. It's probably not his real name, but I'm not sure Master Gigolet or Finran the innkeeper themselves, know much longer. Bonim trades luxury goods on the Greenway, in the Shire and beyond.
In fact he arrived this afternoon, but he thought the scene of the storm survivor, played before a full house, would help attract attention and sell his trinkets. The inn's regulars are no fools, but they enjoy the company of the prankster and his exotic stories.
Late in the evening, the dwarf opens his wonders chest and exhibited weird ivory figurines. So here are the unsold goods of the moment! But wealthy amateurs, Borim usually circumvents, show a little wary: they represent women with strange but captivating looks, elongated eyes, exuberant hair and canines too long for harmless wood fairies...
Then our dwarf, who understands dream is the luxury of thought2, begins an improvisation of his...
.oOo.
Somewhere in the far east, a long time ago, at the ogre's castle...
- "Try not to devour your to-be son-in-law, for once!"
The woman darted a serious look of dark velvet in the tawny eyes of her husband, offering him the cup of departure. The ogre grabbed the goblet from the white hands lined with lace, and emptied its thick wine with a single sip. Responding with a somewhat forced grin to her indulgent smile, the ogre wiped his stained mustache with the back of his richly furred tunic.
-"My dear, sublime among the beautiful, do not lengthen my remorse! The last one fainted before the end of my argument - my indulgence forgave his rudeness, I swear, he still has the use of all his bones! As to the former, he emptied his stirrups and fled faster than his horse – which I definitely ate!
- How reasonable you were - a frugal and worthy dinner! But for today, make sure to praise especially the beauty, education and dowry of your daughters!
- Sweet Cailin, gentlemen listen to me… only armed with thoughtfulness... if not worse! Our misfortunes and weaknesses swell excessively in the imagination of men, disguising our lives under unspeakable curses! Good fortune when I am not stoned at!", Sighed the ogre, shaking his red mane.
Seeing his wife's imploring look, he added quickly, with a guilty air of a cute baby-bear:
- "But I do crunch the rogue only if he disrespects any of my darlings!"
The majestic woman huddled modestly against the powerful leather and silk plastron:
- "You are the best of fathers and husbands!
- I shall consider myself such, when my daughters are married! As for the glory of our nuptials, it all comes back to you, my love, rest for my tormented soul and better part of myself! Embrace our daughters and salute your noble son on my behalf!"
The ogre kissed the clasped hands of his beloved, girded his hat with a green plume and leapt over the porch. Rolling down the wooded slope of a giant's boot step, he quickly disappeared behind a dark shoulder of the mountain.
.oOo.
-"Mother, Leana lost her mesh again!
- Darna, you rather take care of your tapestry! You embroidered three legs to your suitor!
- This is not true! That is his sword!
- Oh yeah? Hanging there, he'll end up crippled! The suitor will no longer be suitable for much... "
Under the mocking giggles of the company, the youngest and her sister confronted, red with anger, the former brandishing her knitting needles, the latter drawing a sharp tongue. The eldest, interposing bravely amid belligerents, tried to reason with them:
Chiadha - "How could a young man court you, if you behave like harpies?
Darna - It is clear that you will be served first, Chiadha!
Chiadha – That is irrelevant... Father will find a husband for each of us. He promised that for the love of our mother!
Meara - Pff! This would require Father not to eat them!
Fenella - If he eats some, it means they are worthless!
Kennocha – But we could taste some, we too!
Meara - If the next one survives, I shall cope with him! "
The elder sister gave her a suspicious look:
Chiadha - "What do you mean exactly?"
The mother returned to the hearth of the dungeon, where she initiated her daughters to the sewing work, hoping to discipline their somewhat wild nature. Her quiet and soft voice restored calm, if not accord:
- "Now, now... It has been quite a long time nobody ate any suitor..."
The girls' attentions were turned back on cattails, meshes, balls and color chart, but the gentle tranquility, punctuated only by the crackling of logs in the fireplace, did not last long. The youngest grumbled constantly, rebelling against the imposed tasks. For a pleasant change, she had been assigned the loom, the repetitive movements of which turned her hours odious. Her distaff eventually fell on the floor:
- "I've had enough! I need fresh air!
- The first quality of a maiden is devotion, who is the sister of patience and daughter of sacrifice.
- What an unbearable family! So only girls must make efforts and be devoted? "
Shocked, the good mother bridled, preparing a highly moral harangue. But she realized the drawn and serious face of her youngest betrayed quite a determination, overstepping her small rebellions, violent but short-lived, that had been animating their secluded life for some time now. This shook her more.
Fortunately, an event came to distract the attention of the women - the tired step of a heavy horse resounded on the cobblestones of the courtyard. Immediately the dresses massed at the high windows' colorful diamonds:
- « Armac ! Hello ! Can you see me ?
- He's hurt!
- No, that's his venison's blood!
- What's this casket?
- I'll go and see!
- Me too! "
This time, even the worthy mother quickened her pace to join her son, following the crush of abundant red hair girls rushing down the stairs. Naturally the youngest gushed first in her half-brother's arms, defeating Darna with a ruthless conqueror look.
Armac had an attentive smile for each. The young man, despite his long exhausting journey, greeted with the proud bearing of a prince in exile and the courtesy of a loving brother. The medley of her half-sisters took the burdens from him in an instant. The mount was taken to the stable, the weapons relegated to the rack, while many small hands, thin and strong, greedy and rivals, dragged the mysterious casket.
.oOo.
The young man kissed his mother and followed her into the dungeon, carrying on his back a huge boar, with long deadly defenses. He put the monster on a low marble table:
- "That will help your husband channel his appetite!
- Do not judge him too harshly ... He struggles with courage ...
- I know what we owe him, and I help as I can, out of love for you.
- His greatest wish is to find husbands for your sisters. Then perhaps he will find peace...
- I do not know if curses of the gods may be fought, but I know that nothing can be done against a tarnished reputation in the eyes of men.
- Whenever he has tried to remedy this and to help our neighbors, they took this for a confession of weakness and abused the situation... He is very fussy about his honor... So our neighbors are becoming scarce..."
Interrupted by hysterical cries, mother and son went upstairs to arbitrate the quarrels.
The girls were disputing the wonders of the casket.
- "Please, Damsels! Stop squandering my shopping! Each of you will get her due!"
The young man began distributing his gifts:
- "A golden ribbon from far Bozisha-dar for the wisest of my princesses!"
Chiadha bowed in a graceful bow while receiving the offering.
- "A lace of Sampar's immortal flowers for her impatient challenger!"
Darna grabbed the fine work unceremoniously, parrying her bright red hair in the mirror of the great hall.
The distribution continued, filling each girl's expectation in an unexpectedly but carefully adapted way.
When greedy Meara received silver cutlery from the rising sun hills, youngest Leana cast an envious glance at the bottom of the casket. It was her turn and only the big mysterious bag was left! Her half-brother emphatically announced, handing her the bag, which contained wooden cubes:
-« The magical dwarven runes from distant Iron Hills, so that our youngest acquire the letters of a lass to marry! "
Leana lost her enthusiasm all of a sudden. She was so disappointed, a bitter lump formed in her throat. Until then, she would not even have been able to guess what could make her happy. Her beloved elder brother, who had accompanied her childhood with such solicitude, had always guessed how to fulfill her wishes. Once again, he had found out: she wanted to be a grown-up. To be free. But this gift froze her: for the sake of raising her from childhood, he confined her to marriage...
The disappointment girl hiccupped. Her announced fate unfolded before her misted eyes as a road lined with impassable cliffs: ogre's daughter, she would quit her present subservience for that of a lordling. The baronet, in exchange for a substantial dowry and the obedient sacrifice of her whole life as a woman, would erase, by his name, the infamous Ogre's lineage. No doubt it would take Leana to quell the wild nature of this line, not to succumb to the temptation to revive the most reviled crimes, and even her thirst for freedom.
She roared her despair, shaking her red mane - all she wanted was some riding, free as her brother. Instead, he subjected her by heinous gifts. Leana ran away crying.
.oOo.
The ogre and his wife took counsel. Their youngest girl was causing them a lot of worry. The ogre was struggling every day to regain some of the humanity, his destiny denied him. He was enraged that his offspring, the immaculate part of himself, would feel threatened by boredom and succumb to her hated instincts.
After a heated debate, the ogre went out by a terrible stormy night, donning his high boots and girding his large hood.
When he returned, he hung in the upper room of the dungeon, a large iron cage.
.oOo.
In the morning, he gathered the family and revealed his decision: a band of petty-dwarves was hiding at the bottom of the cage, trying to evade the curiosity of the household.
- "For moons, these wandering dwarves have been transgressing the boundaries of my property, and digging my mines without any grant. Today they meet their fate for violating my right and my authority!
- Oh, how small they are!
- Look! This one has a forked beard!
- Will you listen to your father?
- Hum, hum! I therefore assign them a penance: to distract my youngest and beloved daughter! Here are your new toys, my darling! "
The youngest girl raised an astonished gaze to her gigantic father, calculating his motivations - were these palliative husbands in miniature? - while her sisters were grumbling in unison :
- What? We too want to be distracted!
- Just for her? Could I not taste some?
- They are not for eating!", Roared the ogre with a violence that belied the encouraging humanity of his remarks. He corrected soon with more moderation:
- "Well, if they behave! Besides, there is a golden rule: Only one can exit the cage at a time! It is forbidden to play with several companions! It would be wrong! This will prevent them from thinking to escape. Moreover, it also will prevent you from getting tired too soon... "
Leana never imagined being offered a living being before her sisters – even less an entire cage! Her embarrassment prevented her from immediately imagining all the distractions she could draw from them. But her sisters seemed to have definite ideas on this matter, and did not fail to expose them with some bitterness or obvious jealousy.
So the youngest girl warmly thanked her father, not for the gift's appropriateness, but for the heady feeling of power that monopoly gave her. She suspend the cage in her bedroom and her father solemnly gave her its key...
.oOo.
All morning Leana tried her new toys, forcing them to take roles that the petty-dwarves found particularly degrading. For lunch, she made up a meal and played the dinette: she chaired a royal table, while the guests – from their cage - took turns to praise her great intelligence, cunning and brilliance of her personality, and told her distracting tales. Attracted by her -sometimes outraged- laughter, the sisters made frequent visits, but the jealous were turned away whatever their reason.
By early afternoon, Leana enlisted the most grumpy of her toys for feats of strength and skill. As the rascal was reluctant, he received a slap that sent him knock on the mantelpiece. When the girl realized the toy did not move any more, she began to cry with vexation. This racket added to the protests of the dwarves, who shouted in their cage.
Attracted by the noise, Chiadha and Darna burst on the scene:
- "Will you quiet down? The whole castle is napping!
- Waaaa! He won't walk any more...!
- I'm afraid it shan't work so well now! "
Indeed, the bearded puppet was lying on the ground, a big bump on his head. His short leg had an unlikely and awkward angle.
- "Now there! The day hasn't gone, you've already broken your toy! Are you not ashamed? These toys are fragile!", Exclaimed her scandalized elder.
The dwarves redoubled their protests. With a sly look, Darna carelessly added :
- "Father will be furious! Your punishment will be terrible... "
She let the young girl frighten for a moment, under the disapproving eye of her elder. Then she opened the door of salvation:
- "You should start by repairing it...
- How do I do that?
- It is rather complicated and very long... but I could help you... if it were my own toy of course..."
The youngest girl gazed a dark and crafty look on her calculating and dishonest sister. But cunning had submitted guilt, which capitulated quickly:
- "You may have it as well, anyway it is broken..."
Darna revived the banged up dwarf, straightened his leg and immobilized it despite his screams. Finally she gave him a drop of mead she had pilfered. She got him back into the cage, where his companions took care of him in a deep accusing silence. An old dwarf glared the young ogresses with contempt, a flickering flame of hatred in the depths of his dark eyes.
- "Ow!, How ugly he is! What livid petty eyes!
- Um, but he looks very energetic and determined. I like this big turgid nose of his!
- Oh, we all know you don't love boys for their conversation!
- So you probably have better use of him? I do! You leave it to me, don't you, darling sister?
- What do you mean to do with him?
- He's to be my private mill drudge. Whenever I have the desire, he will light some stars for me! Dwarves are known for their extraordinary endurance... "
The scandalized and conniving clucking of her elder sisters frustrated Leana even more than usual – the young girl felt how, in a visceral and confusing way, these knowing laughters and looks excluded her from adulthood. She conceived a terrible rancor, without realizing that was precisely the state of mind where sneaky Darna meant to lead her.
After tough negotiations, that fostered all her siblings, it was therefore agreed that the new toys would be shared between all the sisters, but the youngest demanded in return that she would be accepted into the "circle of the elders."
So was it done.
.oOo.
Darna, lying on her draped bed, was gazing glittering stars, traveling on the canopy. A small-bearded and vindictive dwarf was running, locked in an endless wheel, animating the Magic Carousel which projected these wonders.
Her little sister, half-sullen, half idle, was swinging her legs off a stool, watching the imprisoned dwarves finishing their meals:
- "What shall we do today?... Do dwarves know anything funny to do?
- Lots of exciting stuff... They are petty and have agile nimble hands... They sneak everywhere..."
Leana threw a suspicious glance at her younger sister, who continued her affectations:
- "Indeed there's something I've always wanted to see... but Father doesn't let us get there..."
Of course, that was enough to arouse the younger sister's interest:
- "What is it?
- Don't tell me you never wanted to see what Father holds hidden in his keep?
- You know we're not allowed...
- Exactly... It must really be terrible or priceless... Anyway that is where he keeps his precious boots!"
In their cage, crestfallen, disillusioned and aggressive, the petty-dwarves were watching, affecting an air of indifference and resignation, entrenched in the shadowed area of their prison. Yet the prospect of their torturer's treasure had inflamed the heart of the most combative. One of the youngest, slender and talkative, showed his face in the light that filtered through the bars:
- "I am called Trarim, burglar by trade, laborer of lonely girls dirty-duties..."
The rebellious and licentious sparkle that animated the petty-dwarf's pupil managed to accord with the disobedient moods and dissident temperament of beautiful Darna. She ran a greedy tongue over her teeth and approached the cage, causing the reflux of the other dwarfs in their prison:
- And what shall I do with you?
- I can find a way to introduce you in the storeroom... "replied the petty-dwarf knowingly.
- "Capering with a burglar? I fear your keychain lacks the right key... "
The dwarf scowled like a jilted lover:
- "Then you'll have to imagine a reward at the measure of the danger..."
Leana protested, feeling that once again, she was not told everything. But the transaction was concluded: Trarim would steal away the key to the storeroom and hand it over to Darna, for a reward that was not uttered before her.
The youngest girl suspecting some cross, she promised herself to be in the game.
.oOo.
Unlikely couple, the two conspirators progressed stealthily in the corridors of the dungeon. Magnificent Darna claimed to parade, dressed with her tail dotted with Sampar's immortal flowers. Trarim followed slavishly, holding the robe'stail as a living cherub.
- "I advise you to fulfill your end of the bargain," growled the petty-dwarf, with a sidelong glance at the bare ankles of the ogress.
- "First show yourself up to it! Then only you should deserve the favor of my appetites! "Retorted the girl with a languorous look.
They stopped before oak double doors, high and wide, from where emanated scary snoring. Darna pretended to grasp the iron.
- "One moment please, interrupted Trarim, leave it to the professional!"
Like a squirrel, the petty-dwarf climbed along the jamb, and poured on the imposing hinges, some oily drops from a flask hanged at his belt. Then the burglar crept into the room, inch by inch. Since his bare feet gave him a perfectly quiet move, he reached the middle of the roughly tiled room with ease.
A whole trunk was finishing burning in a huge chimney. Its red glows allowed barely distinguish the sleepers' shapes, buried under the thick furs of a gigantic bed. But Trarim was never mistaken by the instinct of gold. In an instant he slid to the lady's seat, hoisted on it and began to open her jewelry box.
- "Not that way!", Whispered Darna from the door ajar.
Snoring suddenly ceased. Trarim abandoned the chest with a dark look and pointed to his accomplice, gesticulating furiously from behind the chair back, to kindly stop this racket.
But Darna started up again:
- "The belt! The keychain at his belt! The big key!"
This time the ogre began to mumble in his sleep:
- "Mm... Petty whippersnapper! Mm, mm... one single bite! Mm... "
Trarim, angry towards the stupid lass, left his hiding place and looked under the bench -almost a table for him! -where the ogre had left his cloths.
Racked with fear, he searched feverishly and took the key from the chain. The ogre turned heavily in his bed. Was he driven by a dark resentment, or did he afford a simple precaution? Prior to dodge, Trarim placed under the bench, an immortal flower from Sampar, he had retracted in the corridor on the robe's tail of his beautiful accomplice apprentice burglar.
.oOo.
Once the parental door was closed, Darna greeted Trarim with a bright smile. As the dwarf aimed a dark glare at her, she snatched the key out and exclaimed with a mischievous air:
- "What are we waiting for?"
- "What are you waiting for what?", Interrupted a high and offended voice from the shadows down the hall.
Leana stepped forward, preparing to pour a flood of blame on the guilty, without knowing exactly what she reproached them: their conspirators deeds, or not being embarked in the conspiracy...
Darna cut short, eager not to drag on:
- "Very well, since you want to do like grownups, follow us!"
Then she added in a tone half maternal, half malicious:
- "But are you sure to stand what will be revealed to you?"
Darna, Trarim and Leana went down to the depths of the dungeon, up to the prison cells of oblivion. It was very cold there. The burglar felt his hair stand on his head, as if the memory of old crimes, forgotten in the dungeons, had awaken their slumbering consciousness.
In front of the steel door of the paternal keep, Darna hesitated. She composed a magnanimous attitude and liberally allowed her sister to turn the key herself in the forbidden lock.
The three conspirators entered under the vault, holding their breath. Tanned skins of wild beasts hung suspended at meat hooks. When they finally breathed, mist swirls escaped from their mouths unable to utter a sound. The places seemed frozen in anticipation of the master's return.
The ogre's Hunting paraphernalia and outfit lay prominently in a corner. Large boots, recently greased, waited for the next game hunting.
A little further, carcasses were aligned under the arch. A rabbit the size of a boar seemed to expect the cook, impaled on its pin. The younger ogress seemed fascinated by the cold room, her feeling mixing the hunter's enthusiasm for well-hung meat, and a deeper spell, like an appeal to her lineage's honor. Meeting her eyes for a moment, Trarim saw himself grilled with an apple in the mouth and parsley in the ears.
But they came to a second door. Darna and the burglar paused, savoring in a knowing glance, the fever of transgression and the approach of gold. Leana, terrified by the fascination of her elder sister, refused to open it. But Darna snatched the key from her hands, and the girl crying. The accomplices broke into the strong room.
.oOo.
When the burglar came quaking out of the second room, he stumbled and had to curl for a few moments to gather his forces and senses.
Darna came in turn, with the look of the enlightened. Proved to herself, she likened her fate gratefully. Heaving a sigh of contentment in the cold air, she turned to Trarim with a smile of gluttony and fullness. Discovering nice size fangs, she mischievously scolded while shaking her red mane:
- "My tail lacks a flower, you lecherous dwarf!"
The beautiful approached her accomplice... and let's just say Trarim was never to be heard about.
.oOo.
Since Darna sank in mysterious occupations in the basement of the castle, young Leana seemed sad. The household no longer echoed with her revolts. She wandered sometimes for no reason, with an empty look. In her place, Chiadha even had to nourished the dwarves in their cage. Even these prisoners wondered what was wrong.
The dwarf Broruin, in particular, seemed to experience feelings of compassion for little Darna. Chiadha, who was very worried about her little sister, charged the dwarf to console her.
All three spent time together. Broruin displayed treasures of imagination to distract his young mistress, evoking the splendors of distant peoples, the subtleties of the deep south princely courts, or war wonders of the Eastern nomads.
Nothing helped.
Or rather, only Leana remained insensible to the dwarf's scholarship and diplomacy. Chiadha, meanwhile, came to believe that such knowledge would be of great help for her father. To find a husband, you had to know the world and its practices.
But how could she convince her father to appoint such a precious help? The ogre despised dwarves, and these ones particularly...
Light came from Leana herself. To silence the loquacious who was telling her Khuzdul poems, she finally ordered him to find a husband for her sister, like a boring intruder would be asked to find a needle in a haystack.
Broruin the petty-dwarf thought for long. He imagined asking to be released in order to go, look and sound good parties. But ogresses would certainly not be fooled by such a crude trick... So he gained some time. He solemnly promised to find a husband and asked at length the eldest ogress about her own taste in husbands.
The girl was confused by the question. Indeed, she had never thought about that!
Leana looked up to the sky and let the amazing couple investigate further.
.oOo.
A few days later, the appalled household discovered Chiadha's departure. A letter placed on the rim of the large fireplace in the dungeon, explained that a husband had showed up and proposed, and that after all her father's efforts for getting her one, she did not feel right to refuse.
The ogre armed himself to catch the pedant who had not even asked his permission. But he no longer found his boots. He rushed on all the roads around, but came back empty-handed.
A few weeks later, the ogre received a missive from the Lord of the petty-dwarves. He behaved in perfect gentle-ogre and sent the envoy back, without a scratch - albeit by foot. Cailinn his lady read the letter and told him that their eldest daughter had run away with Broruin. They had found refuge within the petty-dwarven clan and were married following their rules. The king under the mountain hoped this union would seal the peace between them and allow redeem the hostages that the ogre had not eaten yet.
In his desire to make amends, the ogre wisely sent his son-in-laws to negotiate. The king resented about his subjects too old or infirm, but Arcam negotiated a good ransom, and dwarves were released - well almost all. The king would pay nothing to redeem Trarim the burglar, which suited everybody, since this dubious character, deemed undesirable by his own kin, could not be found in the castle!
Chiadha was presented to her family-in-laws, as a princess pursued by her evil stepmother in the forests' depths, and that her savior had brought her into his home. But the young bride soon discovered that, though petty-dwarves have a highly developed sense of family and clan, gold and jewels were their true love. Yet, revealed at her destiny, she was comforted by carrying her affection over her many children. As the story goes, she yielded to the customs of petty-dwarves - for lack of enough women, brothers often marry the same bride.
.oOo.
The ogre's castle boasted and crowed and feasted conspicuously. They had managed to marry the eldest daughter! In addition, wealth circumventing many horrified and outright refusals, several other marriages were being planned...
Certainly, the second daughter seemed to choose a different path... And the suitors were not all as shining as one might have wished. But, our ogre seemed to be closer to his redemption.
Thus was born the legend that some dwarves had managed to escape from the ogre's castle. This so-called exploit would have been achieved by getting the favor of the house's girls, rendering invaluable intimate services, by their cunning and their proverbial stamina! I leave you to imagine what popular sauciness made with this story ...
.oOo.
Indeed, following the dwarves' capture, the girls of the castle - each in her own way - had wisely abandoned to the destiny written for them. In a sense, the male dwarves had the ogre girls blossom.
Except one. The last, the young Leana, redoubled her anger and revolt. Her dwarf had had no effect on her.
One night she fled the castle. She did not leave any letter. She did not either leave her dwarf, because she felt sorry for she had once crippled him, and his rapacious king had abandoned him.
Leana buckled her father's boots, she had stolen that very evening and forged her unique destiny, refusing both the savagery of her lineage, and marriage enslavement.
The crippled petty-dwarf tried to have her feel guilty, in order to elicit some advantage, but he was promptly left at the gateway to the mountain of his people. Leana explained that she could not, unlike her sisters, let "her destiny be revealed" by any other than herself.
Therefore, the youngest girl was the first of her line, to escape both predestination and the curses of her family.
As for what happened to her afterwards... it is for you to imagine!
.oOo.
At the inn of the drunken goose...
Bonim the dwarf exposes his treasures. His small ivory figurines are pretty slim women with sinuous strands but their cat eyes and their canines give them a somewhat disturbing air in the eyes of Thalion's citizens. These statues depict the many facets of a goddess of the Far East, Princess of huntress hounds and spring renewal.
But now, through the artful eloquence of our street barker, they will be considered as young ogresses figurines, carved into the fangs of their father! The figures now suggest a kind of female ambivalence, combining the virtues of hearth and many forms of appetites!
Bonim the dwarf can now afford raising his prices: the rich and somehow stale bourgeois have much need to dream...
.oOo.
NOTES
1 This is winter TA 2758-2759 (Shire Reckonning 1158-59), sadly famous, when famine stroke Eriador (days of Dearth).
2 Jules Renard