e and hunting and swordplay.
	He watched the tub fill up with water, then he stopped the water's flow.  Then he let some of it out for good measure, recalling that his body would displace the water and raise the water level.  He didn't want to have to clean up a small pool of water off the bathroom floor.  It steamed lazily in the contained air of the bathroom, raising the temperature of the room, and Tarrin found it to his liking.  He tentatively put a foot in the bath, feeling the strange sensation of hot water soaking into the fur on his toes.  Tarrin didn't like getting his fur wet, but this was a special occasion.  He did need a bath.  He stepped into it then slowly sank down into the water, watching the fetlocks on his ankles floating and drifting in the comfortably hot water, feeling its heat work into him and relax muscles that he didn't realize were tensed.  The bathtub was monstrously oversized, almost large enough for a small human to swim in it, but for Tarrin it was almost perfect.  They'd probably made it so large to amaze the royal guest housed in the room, to overwhelm him with the grandeur of the place.
	Tarrin blinked.  Maybe the bathtub wasn't oversized.  He took the fact that everything was usually too small for him for granted, but he realized right then that the furniture was a little larger than normal, the chairs were a little sturdier than normal, despite being garishly over-decorated, the bed was absolutely huge, even the pedestal upon which the sink rested was very high for a Wikuni-sized person.  The Wikuni were allied to the Vendari that lived on the continent...did they furnish these rooms with an eye on making an oversized Vendari feel comfortable?  If they did that, they would have made all the furniture much larger.  Or maybe they'd reinforced things for a Vendari but still made it usable by smaller beings.  That was a possibility.  After all, they'd only have to make the bed and the bathtub truly large to accommodate a Vendari, since they, like him, were probably used to the undersized furniture they encountered when dealing with the smaller folk.
	Either way, the bathtub was large enough for him, and that was all that mattered.  He laid all the way back until only his head and neck were out of the water, enjoying the sensation of being surrounded by hot water.  Sapphire flapped over and landed on the lip of the tub, sniffing at the water curiously.  She looked at him with those blue-blue eyes, and the question was obvious within them.  What was he doing?  "It's a bath, Sapphire," he told her.  "I'm cleaning up."
	She tilted her head quizzically at him.
	"Nevermind," he said absently, reaching behind him and unbinding his braid.  He combed it out and then washed his hair, rinsing out quite a bit of sea salt and travel dust.  He felt the heavy weight of it, all that hair soaking up the water and tugging at his head, and he paused to remember how Mist looked with short hair.  Then he remembered what Triana said, as well as Kimmie, that a Were-cat could actively control how long they wanted their hair to be.  He'd never really given it much thought up until that point, when he felt the great weight of his hair and he wondered how it would feel to not have it pulling the back of his head down all the time.
	What would it hurt?  If he failed, it would just grow back.  Tarrin rose up and sat on the lip of the tub, then twisted his hair together to gather it up and squeeze the majority of the water out of it.  Then he Conjured two mirrors and hung them in midair with Sorcery so he could see what he was doing.  Once he had the mirrors set where he could see clearly, he used a slight weave of cutting Air to slice the gathered hair in twain, just below the base of the hairline on the back of his head.  He could feel his scalp immediately start to itch, the signal that the hair was about to beging to grow at that astronomical rate that would return it to its former length within moments.  He closed his eyes and willed his hair not to grow, forming an image of himself with a hairstyle something like his father's, with just the small tail of hair at the back of the head, just reaching the shoulders, and the short hair on the sides and in front.  He felt his scalp continue to itch, but he felt no hair growing yet.  He realized that it was still itching because his self-image had always been with the long hair, with the braid, and seeing himself with short hair seemed almost unnatural.  It wasn't how he currently appeared or how he wanted to appear, the Were-flavored body wanted to mold itself into the self-image maintained by the mind.  As a shapeshifter, that self-image was critical for returning to the natural form, so it was branded into his deep subconscious.
	Tarrin opened his eyes, and was surprised to see his hair short.  It had grown just a little, to match the image of self he had pictured in his mind, and in that moment he could see his father in him.  His hair looked like his father's hair, almost perfectly, right down to the shaggy, uneven bangs and the shoulder-length tail of hair on the back of his head.  Father kept it because his neck easily sunburned.  His head felt weird, too light, and he looked very funny.  Father's hairstyle didn't suit him.  He willed his hair to grow out just a little more, to where the bangs were even and just over his eyes, and longer on the sides to conceal the smooth skin where human ears would have been.  Those patches of bare skin upset some humans, for some reason, so he was in a habit of keeping them hidden.  It felt quite right to have the bangs there, since he kept short bangs, but it still felt funny in the back.  He looked at himself in the mirrors, and wasn't entirely displeased with the slightly longer hair.  His black-furred ears looked a little strange popping up over the freed hair, since the braid kept his hair more or less flat, and his hair began to try to poof up as it began to dry out.  Like all Were-cats, Tarrin's hair was incredibly thick, so thick that it had a tendency to stand up on the top of his head.
	"What do you think, Sapphire?" he asked absently, turning his head this way and that to look at his hair.  "Is it me?"
	The drake looked at him and gave a noncommital chirp.
	It was certainly less of a burden like that.  Lighter, and it would be easier to wash.  And, if he didn't like it, he could just make it grow back out any time he wanted.  He did make it grow out a little more, not liking how it felt when it moved around free with every turn of his head.  He gathered it up at the back of his head and Conjured a thong to tie it.  It wasn't a braid, it was a tail, and it made him go right back to looking much as he did before he cut off the braid.  He looked at it in the mirror and decided he liked it.  Maybe not as much as having the braid, but he'd try it and see.
	That left a five-span long mass of hair left over.  Tarrin picked it up where he tied it to cut it off, looking at it.  All that hair had been connected to the back of his head not a few moments ago.  He remembered Phandebrass' warning for him not to leave such things laying around, that they could be used against him in magical spells, so he incinerated the mass of hair with a quick weave, reducing it to fine, powdery ash.  He picked up the ash with a weave of Air and deposited it in the sink, then washed it down the drain.
	Feeling clean and relaxed, Tarrin climbed out of the tub and dried off, then dressed in the new clothing he would wear to the feast.  They felt very nice against his skin and fur, and they smelled much better than the old clothes, though they lacked that sea smell that Tarrin did rather like.  Sapphire jumped up onto his shoulder and flipped the new tail of hair with her snout a couple of times as he was lacing the front of the new shirt.  Then she bit it.
	"Sapphire!" Tarrin chided as she clamped onto the tail of hair and pulled at it.  "Do you mind?"
	Obviously, she didn't mind at all.  She kept biting at it, sawing her teeth back and forth, and then he felt his hair come free of its bindings.  Sapphire pulled away, and he looked down and saw that she had the leather thong he'd used between a single clawed forepaw and her maw, pulling at it with a clawed finger as her teeth tried to sever it again.  He forgot that he gave Sapphire leather rawhide to chew on, and she had smelled the leather thong and thought it to be a new chew toy.
	Grumbling, Tarrin Conjured a silk cord and used that to tie his hair.  Sapphire sniffed at it curiously, but this one, she decided, wasn't worth biting.  "If you chew up my new pants, we're going to fight, little girl," he warned as he left the bathroom.
	Tarrin passed the time between getting ready and the knock on the door in tedium.  When it finally did come, Tarirn was both relieved and a little anxious.  Tarrin didn't like strangers, and he was about to go into a huge crowd of them.  Some of them weren't going to be friendly, either.  He decided the best thing to do would be go to the ball, eat, hang around long enough to satisfy Kerri, then quietly leave.
	The servant sent to fetch him was a wolf Wikuni female that looked surprisingly like Audrey, the Were-wolf female that he'd come to meet on the march to Suld.  Almost exactly the same.  She had the same narrow snout and gray-white coloring, wearing a white gown with the Royal Crest emblazoned on the front in red, and her black hair done in a multitude of little curls than hung over her amber eyes.  Audrey was a little taller than this female, which made this female taller than the average Wikuni female, and Audrey was a Were-wolf, who were a very sleek and powerful breed.  This female was slender, but she had the same softness that human females exhibited.  This one probably did not do any real work.  "Um, Master Tarrin?" she asked hesitantly.  He could smell her fear, and that caused his predatory nature to rise up, staring down at the smaller female.
	"Let's go," he said bluntly, stepping out into the hallway and forcing her to back up, eyes widening.
	"Um, are you bringing the drake?"
	"Is it here?  Am I carrying it out into the hall?" he asked.
	"Um, yes, but, um, you may want to leave it in your rooms, sir," she said meekly.
	"If she bites anyone, they obviously deserved it," Tarrin told the little servant with a stare that made her flinch away from him.
	"I, um, yes, Master Tarrin," she acquiesced, then started down the hallway.
	Tarrin fell into step behind her, having to go slow.  "What's got you so nervous?" he asked her directly.
	"Um, well, um, we were warned to be polite to you, that you were, um, well, sort of not very nice," she answered honestly.  Tarrin admired that honesty, even if her words did seem rather cowardly.  "They said to always tell you the truth," she added quickly, obviously fearing that she insulted him.   She was visibly trembling, and the fear-smell emanated from her as if she'd doused a bucket of it over herself.  She was terrified of him!  Tarrin wondered why they would send her, when Kerri knew that if the servant she sent showed fear, it would irritate him?
	"Kerri knows me to well," Tarrin chuckled to himself.  "What's your name?"
	"Amber, my Lord," she replied.
	Fitting name, he reasoned, given her eyes.  "Calm down, girl.  I won't hurt you unless I have a reason to.  Do you plan to give me a reason?"
	"No!" she squeaked.
	"Then you have nothing to worry about," he told her calmly.  "Why did Kerri send you?"
	"Her Majesty didn't, Master Tarrin.  I was sent by the Master of Servants."
	In other words, the servant that was supposed to come and get him was too afraid after Kerri warned him about Tarrin's peculiarities, so he sent her, someone he could bully into doing it for him.  At least she had the courage to do her duty, even if she was afraid of him.  Tarrin could respect that.  "From now on, if anyone ever has to come and get me or bring anything to me, you're going to do it, Amber," he told her.  "At least you have the courage to face me.  That's more than can be said for some of the spineless cowards Kerri has working for her."
	"Um, yes, Master Tarrin," she said in a slightly quavering voice.  Amber, it seemed, wasn't quite so enthusiastic about her new appointment.
	Amber led him down hallways, up and down stairs, and down more hallways, each more gaudily decorated than the last, until he again stood in the throne room.  It had festive buntings hanging on the walls between the numerous decorations designed to impress the onlooker with the splendor of the Wikuni kingdom, and the grand open space was filled with so many Wikuni that the floor was very crowded.  Almost all of them were very richly dressed in expensive gowns or extravagant doublets, and jewels dripped from them all like water.  Each of them did his or her very best to impress everyone else, and exhibit his grandeur, wealth, and importance.  They talked in groups, large and small, and a veritable army of servants scurried between them holding trays carrying food or drink.  The dais on the far end of the throne room was empty at the moment, and since there were no tables within the hall, the meal would be taken in another chamber.  It had to be a pretty huge one, to hold tables for what looked to be nearly three hundred guests.
	Amber led him through the throng, and each group stopped talking when Tarrin passed them, only to fire up into heated whispers after he went by.  His ears could pick up some of the whispering, which was all wild rumor.  Some said he was Keritanima's lover, some said he was a wild monster from the West she had tamed as another formidable bodyguard, some even said he was some kind of missing link between Wikuni and other races, since he was half animal.  The most annoying rumor, however, was the scornful tone used when they called him a Sorcerer.  Tarrin often forgot that Sorcery was not a very welcome profession outside of Sulasia.  Most other kingdoms feared or hated Sorcerers, blaming them for the Breaking and just about any other misfortune they may have befell in the thousand years since then.
	It wasn't hard to make out Keritanima's group.  Three Vendari and Azakar made them stand out on the floor, near the dais.  Keritanima was there, wearing her Royal robes and crown in a formal sense, and Binter and Sisska stood at each side of her, as they always did.  Azakar stood by Binter, wearing his armor.  Miranda stood beside Sisska, wearing an off-white, nearly cream colored gown that cleverly matched the color of her fur and made it hard to tell where neckline ended and fur-clad cleavage began.  All the others were there, and they were all wearing finery.  Allia wore a white robe, of all things, that did make her look good, since it was belted around her very sleek waist.  Dolanna wore her best gown, a deep blue gown that accented her dark hair, and Phandebrass was wearing a silk robe that didn't have any burn marks or stains on it, as well as that same ridiculous pointed hat of which he was so fond.  For Phandebrass, that was pretty remarkable.  Camara Tal still wore a tripa skirt, but it was new and black, a new color for her, and she wore a breastplate with an eagle etched into its front and a new swordbelt with the magical sword that she had inherited from Faalken on it.  Dar wore a new silk robe that was dark brown, and he looked very comfortable in the social situation.  Dar was from a wealthy family in Arkis, so he was probably used to things like this.  Kimmie was also wearing a gown, altered for her tail, and Tarrin was quite taken by how pretty she looked in it.  It was lavender, a strange color that did go well with her hair but also made her striped orange tabby fur stand out on her paws.  It wasn't quite clashing, but it was close.  Then again, few colors were going to go well with orange and yellow, so Kimmie had chosen a color that went with her hair and put long sleeves on to hide as much of her fur as she could.
	"Um, your Majesty, Master Tarrin," Amber said with a deep curtsy.
	Keritanima looked at Tarrin expectantly, but he just stood there until Dar elbowed him in the side.  "You're supposed to bow!" he whispered to the Were-cat under his breath.
	He forgot about that part.  He gave Keritanima a bow, a slight one but still graceful, and she nodded her head in acknowledgement, relief evident on her face.  "Whatever did you do to your hair?" Keritanima asked him curiously.
	"I decided to try it without all the weight," he answered.
	"Well, what do you think so far?" Keritanima asked with a sudden grin.
	"It's weird," he replied, putting a paw to the back of his head.
	"I imagine it would feel that way," Keritanima agreed.  "Did you have to bring that little monster with you?"
	"She protects me from you, Kerri," Tarrin said bluntly.
	Dar had to stifle a laugh, and even Dolanna looked about ready to smile.
	Tarrin glanced at Amber, who was nervously waiting to be dismissed.  "I want you to send this one any time you send for me," Tarrin said, pointing at the servant.
	"You like her, eh?" Keritanima asked.
	"She has more guts than the one you originally sent," he replied.
	"You didn't kill him, did you?" Keritanima asked in concern, a question that made Amber flinch.
	"He never showed up.  He must have pawned it off on her.  She did show up, and she was even honest with me."
	"What's your name, girl?" Keritanima asked her.
	"Amber, your Majesty," she replied with a curtsy so deep she almost fell over.
	"I like sevants with courage, and you're obviously loyal, if you were willing to face him on my orders," she said, grinning at Tarrin.  "Don't let him scare you, girl.  He's all bluster and fanfare, but deep inside he's just a big pussycat."
	Amber's muzzle fur ruffled slightly, and she glanced at Tarrin.
	"If Tarrin wants you, then he's got you," she said grandly.  "You'll serve Tarrin as a page until we leave, and then you'll take up a place on my personal staff.  I think that's suitable reward for standing up to the big bully."
	"Th-Thank you, your Majesty," Amber said, curtsying again.
	"Now go take the rest of the day off," Keritanima ordered.  "You deserve it."
	Amber curtsied about ten times as she backed away from their group, stammering and stuttering, until she was swallowed up by the crowd.
	"She was honest with you how?" Dar asked curiously.
	"She said I wasn't very nice," he replied.
	"That's honest," Dar laughed.
	"I don't understand why she's so nervous.  She's alot braver than most of these sheep."
	"Those sheep have others to stand between themselves and danger," Dolanna said sagely.  "Ones like Amber have nothing but themselves."
	"Well, do you like your rooms, Tarrin?" Keritanima asked.
	"It's too big," he answered.
	"So are mine," Allia agreed.  "I do not know what to do with all that space."
	"Why did you put us in there?" Tarrin asked her.
	"Well, I like my rooms," Dar said defensively.  "I've never had so much space to myself before."
	"I could grow very attached to the baths," Dolanna agreed.
	"I say, you really must send me to your civil engineers," Phandebrass said brightly.  "I am completely amazed by how advanced your water system is.  Well, running water, hot and cold, and even a sewer system!  I've never seen the like!"
	"And what are those stones that I've seen out there?" Dar asked.  "Those huge ones that they've been putting down on the streets?  How do they move them without breaking everything?"
	"Those aren't stones when they start out, Dar," Keritanima grinned.  "It's the newest invention from the Ministry of Science.  It's a mixture of crushed limestone, sand, gravel, and some other ingredients I'm not quite sure about.  They call it concrete."
	"How do they move it?"
	"It starts out as a liquid," she explained patiently.  "They mix all the ingredients together with water, pour it into a mold, then simply wait for it to dry.  When it does, it's as strong as just about any kind of stone."
	"That's almost unbelievable," Camara Tal said calmly.  "Liquid stone?"
	"I've seen them do it," Keritanima told her.  "It looks like gray mud when they start out.  They pour it out onto the street in a mold, smooth it out with flat boards, then just rope off the area and let it dry.  They've been tearing up the streets here in the city, installing a better sewer system underneath them while they've got them ripped up, then covering it with new concrete streets.  It's been going fairly well," she said with a toothy grin.  "They started on the largest and most travelled streets and then they're working their way down.  The city's master engineer wrote me a report saying they'd be done in about four years."
	"Liquid stone," Tarrin mused.  "That's almost better than magic."
	"How do they think these things up?" Dar asked curiously.
	"I have an entire university full of people who do nothing but think things up," Keritanima told him seriously.  "Wikuna's edge has always been the fact that we're one step ahead of the rest of the world.  We have faster ships, better weapons, and a stronger economy.  Well, the rest of the world is going to catch up to us, so we spend a lot of money researching new ideas.  The steam engine, concrete, cast iron, and something that's caught on over in Sennadar, printing presses and cooking stoves, they're all products of Wikuna's state-funded science department."
	"You told me the Tellurians invented the stoves," Dar accused.
	"They developed the idea, but it was our cast-iron technology that made them cheap to produce," Keritanima replied calmly.  "They were riveting together hand-worked iron plates to make the stoves before we bought the idea from them.  Now we just cast the pieces, assemble them, then sell them.  If there's anyone in the world that gives us a run for our money in technology, it's the Tellurians.  If they were a larger, better funded kingdom, they could probably pass us by.  Tellurians are probably the most creative people I've ever seen.  That's why over half of my Science Department are Tellurians," she admitted with a grin.
	Tarrin recalled that clever little writing pen that had all the ink inside it, the one Miranda was so fond of using.  She had said that it was a Tellurian design.
	"I say, my countrymen are rather bright," Phandebrass said with a mild smile.
	"You're Tellurian?" Camara Tal asked with a scoff.
	"I say, isn't it obvious?" he asked, slightly offended.
	"I certainly hope he's not an example of the race," the Amazon said to Keritanima, jerking her thumb at the mage.
	"Master Phandebrass certainly displays the intelligence of the Tellurian people," Keritanima said with diplomatic aplomb.
	"Too bad it's so warped," Camara Tal grunted, crossing her arms across her ceremonial breastplate.
	A Wikuni stepped into the grand main entrance to the hall and rang a large brass bell.  "Ah, there's dinner," Keritanima said brightly, obviiously heading off another argument between Phandebrass and Camara Tal.  "Shall we eat?"
	"Capital idea," Phandebrass said, adjusting the ridiculous pointed hat he wore.
	They were led to an immense chamber not far from the throne hall, nearly twice as large, and filled with table after table.  There had to be a hundred of them in the hall, all of them circular with six chairs place under them and the silk-covered tables set with the finest gold-chased china from the Far East.  Even the cutlery was made of gold, Tarrin could smell as he and his friends were led to the head table, on a small raised dais at the far end of the room.  They all waited as the Queen was seated, then were allowed to take their own seats.  Keritanima's table was twice the size of all the others, but only had nine places, giving the three extra diners at the Queen's table much more space.  They were all seated except Binter and Sisska, who stood to each side of the Queen's chair defensively.  Tarrin sat at Keritanima's left, and Allia to her right, as Miranda, Phandebrass, Dar, Camara Tal, Dolanna, and Azakar took the remaining seats.  Both Tarrin and Azakar gave the chairs a nervous look, for they didn't look all that sturdy.  They were heavily padded, made of cherrywood, and had designs embroidered on the cushions tacked to the backs.  Tarrin gave Azakar a slightly amused look, as they both hovered there and waited for the other to sit down, to see if the chair broke.  Tarrin weighed less than Azakar, so he decided to try it first, carefully lowering himself down until his full weight was placed on the chair.  It did seem to squeak a bit, but remained whole.
	"You're not that fat, Tarrin," Keritanima chided him.
	"I don't trust furniture made for little people," Tarrin told her absently as Azakar gingerly seated himself in the chair.  It squealed a bit in protest, but accepted his full weight without breaking.
	Dinner was served immediately after the Queen was comfortable, and it was a very large, very long meal.  They served it in courses, one dish at a time, and some of the foods were things that Tarrin had never seen before.  The first course was a thick soup made of small sea creatures that Keritanima called shrimp, with cream and small bits of some kind of fish.  Tarrin didn't like it very well, it was too heavily spiced, but Sapphire seemed to be very partial to it, so he gave the rest to her.  The second course was a weird creature that looked like some kind of mutated scorpion, cherry-red and angry looking.  Keritanima called it a lobster, a sea animal that was abundant in Wikuna's chilly coastal waters, and she showed them how to extract the white meat from the hard shell with small, delicate forks and a tool that looked like a steel version of the pincer that was on the lobster's body.  Tarrin dispensed with the shell-cracker and simply split the thing open with his claws, using the tips like an awl to puncture the shell and cause it to split.  Then it was just a simple matter of digging out the good parts.  The third dish they served was grilled fish steaks, some kind of reddish-meat fish that was actually quite savory.
	Tarrin looked around briefly, and saw that most of the nobles were watching him, their expressions slightly unpleasant.  He glanced at them only briefly before going back to his fish steak, feeding a part of it to Sapphire, who seemed to like it as much as he did.
	By then, Allia was looking a little displeased.  "What's wrong?" Tarrin asked.
	"These things, they're all from the sea," she said in Selani.  "They all taste funny, metallic in a way.  I don't like them."
	"Don't worry, sister," Keritanima assured her. "It won't all be seafood."
	"I hope not."
	The fourth dish made Allia much happier.  It was a vegetable dish, bean chutes, mushrooms, large brown things, and strips of some kind of fleshy plant cooked in a rich, tangy sauce and served over a strange grain-like food that Keritanima called rice.  Tarrin had never seen any of the vegetables except the beans and mushrooms before, but he had to admit that they were quite good.  The rice itself was tasteless, but he found that when it was mixed with the sauce, it was very good.  The fifth dish was obviously prepared with Tarrin in mind, for it was beef steaks, not roasted, but grilled over an open flame.  The difference wasn't a very big one, but it made a world of difference in the way that it tasted.  The steaks were served with a potato, something with which Tarrin was more than familiar, one baked instead of boiled.  Tarrin had always found potatos to be bland, but if one heaped enough butter on them, they became almost edible.  Even with his heightened sense of taste, he still found potatos to be rather bland.  But it didn't take as much butter as it did when he was human to make it tolerable.  Tarrin set the bone of his steak, with plenty of meat still on it, on the table in front of Sapphire, setting it on a small saucer that had been part of the set table.  The drake sank her teeth into it happily, and to his surprise, her small, sharp little teeth seemed to have no trouble grinding down the bone as well as the meat.  Just like a raccoon, she used her forepaws to hold the bone down and even used them to hold the bone off the plate as she ate.  He saw that her forepaws had remarkable dexterity, and since her duke claw could serve as an opposable thumb, it gave her alot of gripping power.  Sapphire used her forepaws like hands, and she seemed to be quite adept at it.  That was unusual, since he'd never seen Chopstick or Turnkey do what Sapphire was doing now.  Their forepaws had the same shape, but they'd either never bothered or had never learned how to grip things as she had.
	The last dish was dessert, and it was, quite simply, the most delicious kind of sweet he had ever tasted.  It was some kind of sweetbread or cake served with a hot sweet liquid poured over it, a liquid that was thick, sticky, and tasted both sweet and buttery at the same time.  The sweetbread was good enough by itself, but the topping made it absolutely marvelous.
	"What is this, Kerri?" Dar asked, shoveling a spoonful so large that it almost didn't fit into his mouth.
	"It's called bread pudding," she replied.  "The other nobles think it's scandalous that I like it," she added with a coy smile.  "It's not something nobles eat."
	"Why not?"
	"Because it used to be made of stale bread," she replied.  "It was an old commoner's dessert, thought up so the bread wouldn't go to waste.  My cooks redid the recipe a bit, though.  I have to admit, I think they did a good job."
	"Jesmind would absolutely die over this," Tarrin mused.  "She loves sweets."
	"You'll have to make her some," Keritanima told him.
	"What is this honey-like stuff they pour on top?" Dar asked.
	"Caramel," she replied.  "It's a confection from Sharadar."
	Dolanna nodded.  "It is actually not that hard to make," she added.  "It is just a matter of the right amounts of butter, honey, salt, and spice."
	"Sounds like alot of what the Wikuni use didn't come from Wikuna," Tarrin noted.
	"If we find something good, we borrow it," Keritanima shrugged.
	"I say, an advantage when you're a society of global traders.  There isn't much your people haven't seen," Phandebrass said.
	"Good point there," Miranda agreed.
	Sapphire snapped the last of the bone into a managable mouthful, then crunched it into her mouth and swallowed it.  She eyed Tarrin's dessert hungrily, but he put a paw between her and the plate.  "Don't even think about it," he warned her.
	"At least she has table manners," Keritanima said, looking at the