Giana quickly, neatly stacked her freshly-copied pamphlets. Someone had actually agreed to talk with her, and she wasn't letting this go badly.
Remember your main points, she thought to herself. Hingles are actually unhealthy for you to eat, they help keep the city clean by scavenging, they make wonderful pets, and...well, they're clocking CUTE.
That's enough, right? She sighed and brushed off her skirt.
Where was Calli, anyway?

Calli was feeling restless that morning, with a mild urge to climb something in the near future. She knew she was a little late for meeting Giana, so she'd started running to get there faster. She caught sight of Giana ahead.

"Hi Giana!" She called, her hingle perched on her shoulder. "I'm ready to hand out pamphlets!"

She was quite excited.

Today was turning out to be a good day. The sun was shining, the festival was still in full swing, and Annie was still very muchly loving the dress she'd traded a few days earlier.

She'd spent a little bit of what money she had on some Hingle onna Stick. Those Onna Stick carts must be some sort o' chain, she thought. Annie had frequented the one back in Vienda quite often. It was inexpensive and very filling.

The reporter was admiring another wick's purple streaked hair and was wondering if she should do the same to her own dark tresses when she inadvertedly bumped into another wick, this one with green streaks in her hair and a handful of papers in her hand which, of course, went flying.

"Whoops! Sorry 'bout that! Here, lemme help ye pick these up."

Giana turned around, hearing a clatter of running feet on the ground behind her. Calli was there, little baby hingle almost flying off her shoulder.

"Oh, good. Just...be careful, okay? I ended up finding a spot right next to the clocking Onna Stick cart." She pointed at the offending vehicle, shrouded in dust and looking ominously evil. She hated that thing with a passion. Sure, it served amazing fried veggies too, but that was no reason to also sell hingle.
She hoped no one would throw her by walking by with some relative of her dear Jeff Onna Stick.
She placated the aforementioned hingle, who was sitting in a small cloth purse on her hip, with a small bit of the cake she had in her pocket. Never hurt to keep a bit of something sweet in there, after all.

"Hey, thanks! I need those. Doing a bit of a a demonstration here in a mo'."

Calli nodded almost violently, quite glad to be a part of a greater cause. The Crow in her was fond of new experiences and her wick spirit liked to be a part of things.

"Oes, I will!" She said, just as Giana was knocked into by a brown-haired wick in a red dress.



Calli bent over to help pick the fallen pamphlets up, her little hingle still clinging admirably to her shoulder. She was very fond of her, she seemed to have a quiet resilience that Calli thought was very benny.

"We sure are!" She said, rising with her hands full of pieces of paper, she handed one to Annie. "We're trying to get people to not eat hingle."

She pointed to the small hingle on her shoulder.

"Like Conana the Barbarian, here." Conana chirped, possibly in response, and wiggled her whiskers.

"Demonstration?" Annie looked down at the pamphlet in her hand. "Oh. OH." She deftly stuck the remnants of the tasty stick'd meal into her mouth; there was more there than what she thought.

"D'ye fink ennybuddy's gwan t'b'able t'read *gulp* these? Most o' the folk here ain't been allowed to read nearbouts to all their lives." She nodded to the Onna Stick cart. "Not t'mention the pricetag fer it's quite a bit cheaper'n just about anythin' else. If'n ye ain't got nothin', ye can still get somethin' Onna Stick most o' the time."

Annie tickled the hingle on the blonde wick's shoulder. Sticks or no sticks, she'd always liked hingles.

"That's why there are lots of pictures. And I talk it. Or yell, mostly. I wish it wasn't so cheap, you know? The potatoes aren't bad, though. Mmmm."

Annie looked at the green streaked witch incredulously. "Not so cheap?! Some o' us can't afford nothin' more fer a meal. If'n it weren't so cheap, half o' the folk here'd go hungry most o' the time."

"I know, I know. I've gone without a bit myself, but I just can't bring myself to eat these little guys, no matter how well-priced. I'm a fair-weather vegetarian, sadly, but I get by all right. A little chicken once in a while if I need it."
She sighed and scratched Jeff through his pouch.
"So, what brings you to the festival? What's your name? Don't worry, I won't try to convert you if you're not willing."

"Haha! No 'fairweather' fer me! I'm right partial to a bit o' meat most o' the time. It's just a matter o' affordability. Heh."

"S'all right, ye wouldn't be able to 'convert' me even if'n ye tried. I'm much too hard t' convince." The wick stuck out her hand. "Name's Annie November, hailin' from Vienda. I came fer the experience an' all I got was this dress." She looked down at the deep red. "An' I'm thinkin' I rather like red."

Annie cocked her head to the side. "What about you two? Where ye from, an' all that?"

Calli looked just a little disappointed when Annie said she'd be impossible to convince.

"Um, how about if I said vegetables are cheaper? You don't have to put as much effort into raising a carrot as a hingle!" She said, proud of herself for drawing such a connection though it wasn't always true that meat cost more.

She just didn't understand eating anything with paws.

"My name is Calli, I'm a Red Crow. Your dress is quite pretty, I think you made the right choice to come here." She said, by way of introduction.

"Well, at least it's a nice dress. Very nice dress, in fact." She shook Annie's outstretched hand. "I'm Match...Giana Match. Gi for short."

Annie shrugged. "Mayhaps so, but they don't say 'breedin' like Hingles' fer nothin', and believe you me when I say it takes longer t'grow a carrot."

"It's nice t'meet the both o' ye," Annie said with a smile, and turned to Calli. "Is it right common to introduce yerself by sayin' what tribe ye come from? Maybe that's why I keep gettin' all sort o' funny looks 'round here. All this time I thought I had somethin' stuck in my teeth."

"I wouldn't know; I don't. I'm Eye, if you want to know. But it doesn't really matter that much." She looked at Annie's teeth a little more closely. "And you do, a little. Ent there somethin' green between the two front ones?"

Annie sucked at her teeth a little, attempting to clean them. "Dunno why there would be, I ain't eaten nothin' green all day." Licking her two front teeth, she smiled at Giana and Calli. "Howsabout now, all better?"

The reporter looked back out at the throngs of people filling the streets before turning back to the two wicks. "So I seen the dancin' an' story tellin'. What else is there 'round here t'do? Y'know, what don't take much money, leastwise. Or will allow for trades."

"Dunno; I've been here for a bit and before that, I was doing some portraits. S'what I do, mostly. If you'd like one, I can sketch one up for you. Trades are great."
She looked at the crowd filling around her.
"Calli, could you go hand out pamphlets to those people over there? I'll get the other side."
"And, yup, the green bit's gone."

Calli shrugged unself-consciously.

"My Daoa always said it was polite, so's people know where you're from and can hand over messages if they know anyone else in your tribe. Sometimes you turn out to be in the same tribe an' you have to do things like invite each-other roung for tea." She smiled happily. "I don't quite get all of it but it usually works out well."



Calli nodded to Giana.

"Oes, sure." She looked back over at Annie. "There's plenty of stuff to do for free! It's great, there's lots of dancing and singing going on. I don't know what you can do for trade though. I'm staying with family right now myself, I've been living off what I got saved up since I made it here. Maybe if you talk to one of the tribes they'll let you stay for a while, everyone's really hospitable."

Annie nodded. "Great way t'make contacts, erm, friends I s'pose. Although I ain't a big tea drinker. I can pretend, though."

Annie watched the little blonde wick flit back and forth between passing crowd members, holding out flyers to everybody. "Family, eh? If only," The reporter shrugged and shook her head. "I've never stayed with a tribe afore. I've slept in a coupla carts, woke up cramped every time. Weren't fun, I tell ye. It could be worth the askin, though." She flashed Giana a smile. "Ye know, fer research purposes, of course."

"Research? Huh? And I'd let you stay with me if you needed a spot, but my kint's a little full, um, always. I doubt you want to wake up with a grouchy osta on your head. My family's a little...gone. Always really has been. So they're out too."

Annie shrugged. "S'allright, no big worry. I've been known t'make a night's stay outta volunteerin' t'fold a blanket er two, it ain't nothin' I can't handle."

The reporter's eyes watched the lithe blonde flit around the crowd a bit more before turning back to Giana. "Ye say yer kin have always been gone? That's a shame. It ain't fittin t'have yer family elsewhere at a place like this. Ye start feelin' a little lost an' lonely..."

Annie shook her head quickly, banishing her thoughts. "What am I ramblin' on about, eh? We should be havin' fun, not gettin worried! Hey, I know! I been thinkin' 'bout gettin somethin' done to me hair ever since I got here. What's say ye show me a good spot to get a little color added in, eh? Maybe some blue an' yellow streaks t'counteract this red? I ain't much o' being a wick, even if I am one. Maybe it's time fer a change. Whaddya say?"

"I say that'd look fine! Here, how about..."
Giana pulled out a scrap piece of board from her bag and started to sketch out a rough Annie with chalk.
"How about some blue n' yellow around your face to complement your eyes a bit?" She gestured to the appropriate spots on drawing-Annie's head. She absentmindedly started to sketch Calli into the picture, with her little hingle in her hand.
"Say, Calli, what'd you decide to name the little guy again? Can't remember if you've told me."

Calli had just managed to smile someone into submission and she was feeling pretty good. Then she remembered that the hingle didn't have a name yet and felt bad.

"Oh, clocks, she doesn't have one yet. I haven't thought of a good name..." Calli pursed her lips and looked a little sad. "Ever since Mr Bingles I just haven't had much of a heart for it."

The hingle on her shoulder chose this moment to curl up under her ear. Calli cupped her hand gently and brought the small creature up in front of her face.

"What sort of name would suit you?" She asked, half-rhetorically, as was her wont.