From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: Song of Sixpence - Part Seven
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 00:03:04 GMT

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>Danger Mouse wanders out to the field where Liralen's Birthday celebrations
>are going on. He looks around in disbelief at the vast array of things that
>other patrons have brought into being for the occasion.
>
>"Good grief, you'd think it was autumn or something!" he exclaims, with a
>broad smile on his face. "All this harvest stuff and so forth. Not what
>I'd associate with early October at all.

"Mmmm..." says Liralen to DM's description of early spring in his land.
"Thank you for the glimpse, DM."  She thinks for a while and then says
slowly, "Never thought of that, before, but I rather *like* knowing that
my birthday is around when both sides of the world change enough to
notice... here from summer to fall, and there from winter to spring."

>"Hey there, boy!" DM ruffles the top of the dog's shaggy head fom his now
>horizontal position beneath four paws. "Ha! Stop, that tickles!"

Liralen giggles at Fezzik playing with such a large mouse.

>Fezzik stops licking DM's face and bounces away to play with some more
>folks. Liralen, who has extracted herself temporarily from the attentions
>of the other patrons, steps over and gives DM an apologetic look as she
>helps him to his feet.
>
>"You been giving him tickling lessons, Liralen?"
>
>At her innocent expression, DM smiles and grabs her in a huge bear-hug.
>"Happy Birthday!

"OOOffffF!" she says, and then hugs him back.  "Thank you for the wonderful
birthday present."


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Jason and Pegasus' amazing salmon roast has Liralen watching in delight.
She's only ever caught silver salmon, and they're only 10-20 pounds a
piece.  The Chinook are ever awesome.  She enjoys Jason's skill and the
sheer scale of the preparation.  For a while, she helps with the raking of
the coals, enjoying the fire's heat.

>As dinner is cooking, Thyra seeks out Phee. She has a treat for the little
>girl. She approaches her in her feline/human form, wearing a formal black
>velvet dress with matching black opera gloves. 

Phee looks up with wide eyes at the feline-woman.

>When she finds Phee, she
>entertains her with sleight of hand magic tricks. She causes several coins to
>appear and vanish. She does a routine with cups and balls, where the small cork
>balls seem to pass through the metal cups. She makes several balls of sponge
>travel from her hands to those of the little girl. And finally, she does a
>trick with a baloon, where she passes a 14 inch long needle and three feet of
>heavy thread right -through- the inflated baloon, -without- bursting it, then
>pops the baloon with the same needle.

Phee giggles and claps at the end of the tricks, and jumps with the popping
of the balloon.

>While Jason is preparing the salmon, Pegasus is busy in Mike's kitchen. There
>is a clatter of pans and the whirrrr of an electric mixer. About an hour later,
>she backs out of the kitchen, preceded by the heavenly smell of chocolate. She
>has a three-foot across silver tray, loaded with fresh-baked brownies!
>
>"These are my Intensely Chocolate Brownies, and they are made with a bit of
>raspberry syrup. It really brings out the flavor. Try some!"

"Thanks for the recipe." says Liralen, "I'm going to have to try that,
sometime soon." 

She hugs the cooks when they're not quite so busy and thanks each of them
for their efforts.

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When the Mandelbear, the Flowercat and their children arrive, Liralen
greets them all with a hug and a smile.  "Wow!!  Glad all of you could make
it!!"

Fezzik, the moment that Katy gets a hand on him starts getting an amazingly
proud look on his face, as the little girl starts playing with him.  He
happily does everything that Katy tells him to, sitting, lying down,
shaking hands, and generally follows her around the picnic area.  It's
quite a sight to watch a little girl wandering around with a dog about
three times her weight following after her...

>A grumpy soprano voice from the guitar case says, "Are you going to
>get me out of this thing or not?  You weren't planning to sing Happy
>Birthday to Liralen without me, were you?"  The Mandelbear sits Emmy
>down on the grass (within reach of some dried leaves which she
>immediately starts playing with), pulls out Snuggles, and starts
>tuning up...

"Oh good!" says Liralen and sits down to listen...

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>
>  <<Hang on,>> he says, <<I'm not really the right persona to be here now 
>for this.  Just a minute...>> and suddenly there is Rhodri standing there, 
>beard neatly trimmed for once, straining to hold the basket up.
>
>  "Phew, I'd forgotten how heavy this is," he says, putting the basket 
>down near the other goodies.  "I was getting a headache talking about 
>myself in the third person.  Besides, I wanted to do this 'in person'."
>
>  He goes up to Liralen, and offers her a hug.  "Happy Birthday, Lady.  
>It's good to have you with us again."

Liralen happily hugs him back.  "It's nice, Sir, to be back...  And what is
making that *amazing* aroma?"

>  Apres-hug, and smiling fit to bust, Rhodri returns to the basket.  "Didi 
>said to bring along some seasonal food, so I brought along what I'm 
>intending to do with the fruit and vegetables that my mother just gave 
>me.  So this," he says, heaving a large foil wrapped object out of the 
>basket, "is stuffed marrow -- er, squash, I think.  It's still warm, and 
>it's good stuff.  I don't normally like marrow much, but this is something 
>else!  And here are two apple pies.  The one on the left is the full-blown 
>thing with cinnamon and raisons, the one on the right is just plain apple 
>with as little extra sugar as I could get away with.  For those with 
>allergies or diabetic problems."

"Wow!!" says Liralen, and carefully unpeels the marrow a little.  She
scoops some out onto her plate and tastes a little.  "Mmmmm..." she says,
her eyes closing as she tastes it thoroughly.  "There *is* a difference, at
least here, in home grown and store bought squashes, the texture, usually,
sometimes the sweet/butteryness of it..."  She grins at the pies.  "I guess
I wanted to say this about the Martyr's pie, too, but here in America, I
can't *FIND* the shortcake crusts I had when I was over in the U.K. and our
pies are usually half the thickness of the ones over there...  These look
scrumptious..."

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Liralen Li  - with borders still from the Sprite's handy work...
li@inigo.Data-IO.com
Newsgroups: alt.callahans