Gone. Gone a little too soon for her to work out how to say thank you. Not for the soup, no, she’d already messed that up, but for the everything else. The chance for some quiet. The fact he was glad she’d not disappeared forever. (That’d gotten a crooked smile out of her.) The camaraderie. Unless...unless she could use this quiet, and work out how to say thank you, and she’d have it ready to go for when he came back! Yes! Good thinking. Good use of time. As she set herself to thinking, she carefully navigated a spoonful to her mouth and-

[i]Didn’t let it go.

It was the secret, last taste. She’d licked the bowl clean. She’d gotten the bits stuck to her nose and whiskers. There wasn’t any left, none left at all, but the spoon [u]tasted[/u] like soup, so, so, there had to be some soup there too, right?

“Eh, what’s this? Do we have a spoon-grubber on our hands? Planning to eat up all our good cutlery?”

The matron of the stew towered over her, wielding the great Ladle of Authority. But Jackdaw was tough! She wouldn’t be cowed into confessing false spoon-grubbery. She shook shook shook her head furiously.

“So you say...” A wide grin split her face. “But I’m not gettin’ my spoon back, am I?”

A shake shake shake of her head, and a happy kick of her paws.

“Ha ha ha! A tough negotiator! Well, what do you say for a trade? A story for a spoon?”

A nod! Many nods! So many nods!

“It’s a deal, Jackie.” She sat herself down with a laugh and a pat to the ground beside her. “Best get comfortable, this is a long one. Told to me by my mother’s mother mother, it was. This was long ago, when the seas could be kind and the moon knew the way of words…”

Jackdaw nestled up close, resting her head against her as she listened. The matron touseled her fur and hugged her without even breaking stride. Soon it would be dark. Soon, she’d have to find her way back to her hidey hole, when no one else could see her go. Soon, she’d have to sleep, to be awake before the dawn, when the carts came in from port and treasure could be found by the loose cobblestones. But for now? For right now. She was warm. She was full. 

She was safe.[/i]

Jackdaw set the bowl down with trembling paws. Clutched the spoon still held tight in her mouth. Screwed her watering eyes shut. And just 

didn’t let it go