[center][i][b]Marian[/b][/i][/center]

Marian walked into Rumpelstiltskin's little closeted shop just as he was settling comfortably into his favorite chair. The tavern, the brothel, all the rest, were the domain of two very strong-willed (and one of them quite dominant) women, but the shop was his space and he would be damned if anyone would lord over him here. Even people he was putting to work. He looked over at her cooly as he lit a gnarled pipe shaped like a goblin's head with a long hat, and puffed thoughtfully as she set the stinking cage on his store counter.

"It's alive, and well then?" Rumple asked.

"Well, I do think the lil critter could use a bath. And a dunking into a vat of perfume. The whores upstairs smell better." Marian responded with a wrinkled nose. "But yes, it's alive and I',m pretty sure it's not hurt. Bodaway didn't wanna let me come near with it, I had to tie her off and then mount. I think she might be holding it against me, being she tried to throw me for the first hour of the ride home."

The wee man snorted and took a puff off his pipe, letting smoke curl out his wide nostrils slowly. He had sent her to the Everglades and back to hunt down the little beastie for a reagent he had to procure for a private client. The critter was sitting in a damp, black furred ball watching him with beady eyes and growling softly. Rumple sat and looked back at Marian, expectantly. She returned the gaze for a moment, then frowned.

"Aren't I getting paid now??" she asked, somewhat annoyed. He always made them ask for payment. Why pay them if they didn't remember it? And he did love being asked for things...

"We had a deal," he said, and opened a drawer to rummage about for a bit, "And I can't go back on a deal." He took out a small pouch of coin, double checked the contents, and tossed it to her with a jingle. She caught it mid air with a grin.

"Thank ya kindly!" She gave the caged critter one more look as she left. She stopped off in her room to deposit her wet duster, hat, and chaps from her travels, and changed into a fresh blue gingham shirt to wear with her denim pants and boots before heading back to the tavern. When she arrived, she tried not to interrupt Snow and the strange man she was talking to.

"Woody," she said, fishing into her new pouch of payment, "Gimme some of that nicer tequila you got in the locked cabinet."