[h1][color=f6989d][i][center]Pebble Cliffside[/center][/i][/color][/h1]
[center][color=f6989d]. . . . . ╰──╮ ╭──╯ . . . . .[/color][/center]

Pebble was eating bugs, and she was surprised at just how delicious they happened to be. Crunchy and gooey. Bitter with a hint of sweetness. It was all there! Wasn’t long before the first bug turned into two, then two turned into more. Pebble was foraging around in the grass like someone who’d lost a precious stone. Travelers walking on by must have been thinking she was a crazy gal. Heck, she was starting to get all panicky that there were no more bugs to be found when a flutter of white grabbed onto her attention. 

The little dwarven munchkin looked up from her hands and knees to see a big ol’ white owl winking both eyes and giving her a hoot. Pebble sat back in the grass on her heels and tipped her head with a pout. She was marginally entertained by its rotating head. The feathery critter flapped its wings all about and looked at her with them big blue eyes, like it knew her or something. But Pebble was sure she ain’t never seen that bird before in all her Rock Bun years. Her doe-eyed, chestnut stare tilted with the owls’ stare, and just for a sand-grain second, Pebble was thinking they were making a deep connection. Then the dumb old hooter ruined their jeweled moment by flapping its big ol’ wings and flying up over her head.  

Pebble flipped her mop of mouse-brown hair aside to follow the owl on up to perch itself on the Somerset sign. The bird cawed like a crazy miner who had breathed in too much sulfur dioxide and it pretty soon got on Pebble’s nerves. She had to get up onto her feet and stand out on the road to give that owl a good stern looking at. Fists on her hips and a big old mouth-twisting scowl. Little babe was just about to start up her oh-so lovely singing when that feathery-assed hooter took on off and perched itself in the first tree down the road to Somerset. Bird kept hollering at her like a crazy prospector announcing the discovery of gold. Pebble had to bite her singing tongue to think about this. 

[color=FEC1AD]“What in the [i]heckers[/i]?”[/color] 

Now, Peb’s wasn’t an ignorant gal. Sure, her pet was a rock named Ed, but she knew all about animals and familiars acting as guides and communicating with peeps. There was a whole lot of stuff going through her mind. This damn hecking bird was causing urgency in her, and she didn’t know why, and she didn’t like that none too much. She had half a mind to keep looking for bugs to eat. Her eyes scanned the ground looking for a rock to peg at the owl. She wanted to sing her little heart out but felt real bad about maybe hurting the stupid bird. And heckers, her thoughts were prospecting that she still needed to be finding her ma and pa. Pebble was all undecided again. Decisions, decisions. She didn’t like it. Freedom was gold ore. 

Exasperated at so, so little, the little dwarf halfling pouted at the owl and shrugged real big. She had given up on making a decision and just started on walking in any old direction. That direction just so happened to be down the road to Somerset. She didn’t feel like singing no more. 

[center][color=f6989d]. . . . . ╰──╮ ╭──╯ . . . . .[/color][/center]