The Headmaster arrived at the Governor's Office just before lunchtime. He had some business to perform. He filed a renewal of his license for Ravensheart Academy as a site for education in RhyDin, he filed the paperwork to split the Academy's land into two different parcels and paid his taxes. After this work was all done, he politely informed the clerk that he wished to see the Governor if at all possible.

"Oh! Oh, gosh!" The green-eyed blonde who was supposed to be manning the governor's reception while Trista was on vacation skittered into the second-floor antechamber with an armload of files and a green-haired trolli doll. Her name badge read, 'DAISY.'

"O'lleh!" she breezed, going on to explain. "That's 'hello' in the delirious tongue of Barbara's clan. I hope you haven't been waiting long. I needed to pick up some files form accounting because Barry Abalard called seventeen times to tell me they needed to be off of his desk and on mine. Really! Who does that?"

"And then while I was there," continuing as she dropped the files onto the desktop with a loud and papery thunk, "Marnie Popper shouted at me to come into her office because she saw this in the Lost and Found and figured that it must be mine. Though, I have never seen him before," she picked up the troll doll and wagged him back and forth demonstratively, "so I don't know how I could have lost him in the first place."

She squeezed the naked little doll around the middle and his eyes bugged out beneath a shocking plume of verdant hair. "I'm calling him Mister Peepers." Daisy smiled, pure sunshine in the expression before she realized he was still standing there.

"And who are you?"

"I return from the great hunt a victorious conqueror!" Jaster announced as he entered - five feet and nine inches of green-skinned Aurk, dressed in an extremely expensive business suit with his tie askew. "The boar had been pierced by many arrows yet, clearly driven on by dark and angry spirits, would not fall! So to bring honor to my people I faced the mighty beast and slew it with my spear! And it dropped these," he added matter-of-factly, depositing a paper bag of food (labeled Tex-Mex Shack, with a picture of a dragon wearing a sombrero) on Trista's desk.

It was highly doubtful he acquired these from a wild boar, and at least as doubtful he slew one just now. "Oh." He just now realized Daisy was not the only one in the antechamber to the Governor's office, and turned a tusked grin on Briarius and did a polite little bow of greeting. "I am Jaster, of Barbara's clan. Taco?" he offered, with a gesture to the bag.

Jaster was so clever. So witty. So brave. So...Daisy sighed and came back to herself after a moment or two of happy reverie with a slow blink that resolved upon the face of their blue-eyed visitor.

"Raven's heart' I think I know that poem," she stroked the fuzzy green head of Mister Peepers, and composed herself to recite:

"The raven once in snowy plumes was drest, White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast, Fair as the guardian of the Capitol, Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl, His tongue, his prating tongue had changed him quite To sooty blackness from the purest white."

A summer's day condensed in the curve of her smile, and she blinked at them both expectantly for a moment. "Ovid," she said after a beat of silence. "Or, D'ivo, in the miraculous tongue of Barbara's clan. I think he also wrote 'Whip It,' but I might be wrong."

————————————————————————— ————————————————— Poem excerpt from Metamorphoses—Story of Coronis, (Addison's translation) by Ovid

Jaster stood up straight and applauded when Daisy finished reciting the poem. Then he tipped a very odd smile at Briarius: "I'll just give the Governor a buzz."

He shuffled the bag of tacos aside to reach the phone on Trista's desk and held a button. "Governor" G.P.," Grand Poobah, "speaking. Briarius Ravensheart, Headmaster of Ravensheart Academy, is here to see you..." Sharp eyes cut over to the elf, and he considered before adding, "About property, I think. Shall I send him in?" Long slender green fingers (pale on the palm-side) drummed on the desk, striking with the edge of his nails. Paganini's Caprice No. 24. His fingers were just that nimble.

"I took them from a wild boar. We'll save a couple for you," Jaster replied, and let go of the button. He tipped his head to Briarius again, with another tusked grin, and popped open the door into the Governor's office.

Fionna was halfway from her desk to the door when Jaster opened it to admit Briarius. She extended her hand to him in greeting, and motioned with the other one toward a little grouping of chairs near the windows. It was a much pleasanter place for a conversation than her desk.

"It is good to meet you. Please, come in. What can I do for you?"

"I don't mind old habits one bit," she replied with an amused wink, leading him into her office.

Once they got settled, she took some time reviewing the paperwork he presented, asking a few salient questions along the way and paying particular attention to boundaries and terms.

"Everything appears to be in order, but of course, the city's attorneys and auditors will want to look at this before anything final is signed." She closed the cover on the folder and studied him for a moment. "You are quite certain you wish to do this" Do you have any preferences regarding land use?"

She nodded, and patted the folder on her lap. "Well, then, let me get the crew working on looking this over, and I'll send word to you on the status once they have. In the interim, if you change your mind, contact us. Nothing is signed yet, and probably won't be for at least a week."

"We'll probably have a community poll with suggestions for use of the land, so if you would like to be involved on that planning committee to put that together and present it to the public, we would love to have you."

"Fionna, please. And lunch sounds great. I have a feeling the boar-hunters out there are not going to be able to save me a taco without sacrifice," wryly.

"Might I recommend a small Pekalese food stand in the Marketplace I recently came across?"