Feast of the Stag, in Montevale, a few years back: Tirza was doing the feast, and a bunch of us (Jayme, Isabel, Sam, Angus, Brangwayna, me,
Corwyn) were slavering at a table, waiting for the armored turnips. If you haven't had Tirza's armored turnips, then good - more for me!
So the armored turnips finally arrive, and we look like starving wolves on a kill - all of the adults dug in, except for Sam, who didn't know why we were fighting over turnips! So I beat away the other reaching hands, and cut a tiny piece of turnip dripping with cheese and spices, and put it on Sam's plate. "Here, try it!" I said. "You really think we'd act like starving animals if it weren't good?" So we all stopped eating, to see what Sam's reaction would be....
He poked it a few times with a fork (to make sure it's dead, I guess), then speared it, then brought it to his nose, sniffed it...and we all leaned in with anticipation! He sniffed it again, licked it, finally tasted it....chew chew chew, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling.....
Then he reached over and grabbed for the pan of armored turnips, and we moved to block, and the fight was on! (Eventually we gave him more - but it was a close thing!)
Later that night....
Usually Feast of the Stag has a hellacious thunder storm towards evening, right around the time that feast is ending. We call it the "God dumped the bucket" rain, and we usually get stuck in the feast hall till it ends. We know this by now, so we have games, spinning, embroidery, musical instruments, or what have you to while away the time. So we were "stuck" in the feast hall (did I mention it has a tin roof? What?
WHAT?? Yeah, I can't hear me either!) and some brave soul ran out into the weather. The door was just about to close when a drowned rat scurried in!
I swear, it was two eyes and gray curly hair, that's all! It stood in the middle of the room, looking entirely lost. So we grabbed a towel and dried it off, and soon we found the terrier hiding behind the eyeballs - it certainly wasn't hiding behind the gray curls, that's for sure! We knew he was lost - probably was outside doing his business when the skies opened up, and got lost trying to get home, and saw our lights - so we dug into the fridge to get him a bite to eat.
Chicken? Nope. Beef? Nope. Pork?? Nope. He'd sniff each one, then look away.
That's when we found the extra pan of armored turnips, hiding in the back of the fridge!! Ah-ha, after-feast snack is *ours*!! So we heated up a bit of that for ourselves, and a bit slopped over the edge onto the floor...and the rat-cum-terrier snatched it up, gobbled it down, and wagged for more!!
We stared down at it...then at each other. Sheesh, vegetarian terriers, go fig, and he *would* want the armored turnips! So we shrugged, gently heated him a portion, and fed him! And he loved it!
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