It appears to be Olivia's lot in life to run around a lot. Nothing is ever easy. What first appeared to be a simple trip to Stonebarrow's general store turned out to be much more. Neither of the Briars were handling the trade of wine today. So, Olivia has had to head over to their clan territory. On the good side, the Silverfoot Clan territory isn't as dangerous as visiting the Blacktail lands, or has the likelihood of being ambushed by Gunther in the Wingnut territory. The Kadies out and about cheerfully direct Olivia to the right tree. Cut into the base of the living giant is a large oaken door, carved with primitive but quaint ornamentation depicting various denizens of the treetops.

Olivia takes a few minutes to admire the charming carvings on the door to the house, even running her fingertips lightly over some of the more interesting figures. Then she knocks loudly, calling out, "It's Olivia Weaver, here to see Aiken Silverfoot! Sorry to intrude!" She feels a little odd, announcing her presence like this, especially since all the Kadies in this area have been so relaxed about her being there, but she figures that it's better to be safe than sorry.

About half a minute passes before the front door opens. It isn't Aiken who answers, though, but his wife, Curiel. "Hello Olivia," the light gray Kadie says with a smile, "I don't think I've seen you since the Frog Festival. Do please come in." She steps aside and sweeps her arm in a welcoming gesture.

Olivia gives the Kadie woman a smile before entering. "Hello, Curiel! I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

The household of Aiken Briar and Curiel Solali Silverfoot can best be described in one word: domestic. Everything about the couple's house – built inside the still living innards of a massive mangrove tree – speaks of hominess, relaxation and family. The main entrance at the base of the tree is covered by a large oaken door, carved with primitive but quaint ornamentation depicting various denizens of the treetops. Once inside, the visitor is greeted with a massive spiral staircase that winds upwards through the tree's trunk, going all the way up to the top of the arboreal giant.

The answer to that is the sound of rampaging feet higher up in the home. Curiel wipes her hands off on the apron she's wearing and shakes her head, saying, "Oh, no, of course not. In fact, you're a welcome break from my two children." Her blue eyes twinkle playfully as she adds, "Little did I know Kiona's birth would herald Aiken's second childhood. They're upstairs … playing Jupani invasion I think. Kiona is defending her fort from the great and evil AikenWolf."

A few squeals of laughter erupt from one of the rooms up the stairwell. It's obvious that the Jupani invaders attack with tickles.

Olivia quirks an eyebrow in the direction of all the noise coming from above while the Kadie woman gives her explanation. Then she laughs and replies, "Trust me, I understand! When I was small, my father built me a little treehouse near our own house and he used to scale the rope ladder while I tried to knock him off of it! My treehouse was a castle, you see, and he was the evil king trying to take over my kingdom!"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll build her one when she's older. I just hope our sofa cushions survive until then," Curiel says as she motions for Olivia to follow her upstairs to the family room. "Our pots … excuse me, magical helmets … have survived so far, thankfully."

Along the way up are various doors, leading to the many rooms used by the Silverfoot family, with the first door opening into the den and kitchen. Other doors lead to Aiken and Curiel's bedroom, as well as that of their daughter Kiona. Still more doors – these ones near the treetop exit – lead into the family members' various hoard rooms, which are explicitly off-limits to anyone but very special guests. The den area houses a sofa and several over-stuffed chairs, and instead of a fireplace, a small stone brazier can be found. One must be wary of fires when living inside a tree. Also in the den are various wooden building blocks, dolls, and other toys – sure signs that a toddler has rampaged through the area.

Olivia falls in behind Curiel, grinning. "Good for you. My rope ladder wasn't as lucky – I think we went through five of them before I grew out of having my castle invaded!"

The invasion seems to be well underway in the family den. The fort defenses must have been breached by siege because cushions are scattered all over the room. Curiel and Olivia don't get much time to survey the damage before Aiken goes zipping by. Hot on his heals and growling "Raaaaaa!" is the four-legged fireball of doom, Kiona. Clutched in her teeth is a paper mache 'sword' and resting over her head at a lopsided angle is one of the previously mentioned pots. Apparently Kiona has the invader on the run!

Olivia giggles like a little girl herself as she surveys the 'battlefield.' Then she calls out to the child, "Get him, Knight Kiona! Victory is almost yours!"

"Retreat, men," Aiken yells, doing his best impersonation of a Rephidim accent as he runs halfway up a wall. "Our attack has been thwarted! We weren't no match for Kiona the Firelady! Oh, hello Olivia!" The Kadie pauses, hanging upside down from the wall while giving the Skeek a sheepish grin. "Didn't know we were havin' company today!"

Olivia waves to Aiken as she says, "Don't worry about it, this visit was planned at the last minute, anyway! I can wait until you're finished."

Perhaps it was a bad plan to stop on that wall. The brave and noble Kiona scrabbles to a stop at the base of the wall. She takes the 'sword' from her mouth and eyes the head of her upside-down father. Sticking out her tongue as if in serious concentration, the little girl starts hopping up and down and taking swipes at his head!

Curiel just sighs and shakes her head. "You just can't help but try to fill her head with thoughts of fame and adventure, can you, dear?" the Kadie teases her husband as she goes and tries to reassemble one of the sofas for their guest. "She's going to be as bad, or worse, than you were before I tamed you!"

Chuckling, Aiken backs up the wall a bit, just out of range of his attacker's stubby reach. "I think th' invasion's been called off due to smart little generals givin' a counter-attack." With that, the squirrel leaps from the wall, and pounces on his diminutive attacker, sweeping her up into the curl of his tail. "Hey now, no reason she couldn't be a general! Although, just the same, I'd rather she not! They tend t' get bruised a lot." Dusting off his paws, he smiles to Olivia. "So, what brings ya all th' way out to the Silverfoot lands?"

"Yeeee!" goes the little general when she disappears into Aiken's tail. The only bits of Kiona now visible are her feet sticking out of one side and one of her arms, the one with the 'sword' sticking out of the other. It waves around in a futile gesture.

Olivia stands with her hands clasped behind her back, whiskers twitching in amusement as she watches Aiken play with his daughter. "I came to ask if you had any more of those great colored bottles that I could have. You know, like the ones you brought with you to the Frog Festival? I'm not sure what you'd want in return for them, but perhaps we could think of something?"

"Well, she already has perfected leadership, I never see her cleaning up after the invasions," Curiel chides, but with quite a bit of amusement, at least. "Olivia, never listen to anyone who tells you that you are in control of your children; it's quite the opposite."

Pulling Kiona closer with his tail, Aiken whips the youngster around to his front and tosses her up into his arms. "Th' bottles? Oh sure, we have plenty of 'em. Mostly we keep 'em in the distillery, but I can take ya down there if you'd like." The Kadie takes a seat on the sofa, and offers one of the chairs to Olivia. "Mind if I ask whatcha need 'em for? Don't suppose you want full ones now, do ya?" He winks to the mouse.

Even in Aiken's arms, the fiery bundle never seems to quit moving. Her sword now dropped and forgotten, she's making half-hearted grabs for his cheeks and ears. "Bottle, bottle, bottle, slosh!" she declares.

"Do you want me to take Kiona, dear?" Curiel asks as she finishes her thirty second fluff and stuff cleaning. "She can 'help' me make dinner. Which reminds me, you should finally order those cabinet latches from the Wingnuts for the kitchen. Kiona has been getting into them more and more lately and I'm worried she might hurt herself."

Olivia takes the offered seat with a smile. "Oh no, I really just want the bottles themselves, not what's in them… uh, no disrespect meant, of course," she adds quickly. "Believe it or not, I intend to make some jewelry for the gypsy dance troupe out of them! Rather than using real jewels, which I don't have anyway, I can use bits of colored glass. Of course," she muses distractedly, eyeing Curiel after she makes her request, "I'll need to visit the Wingnuts, too… perhaps Zahnrad can make a little stone tumbler for me. I'll need one for this project."

Holding his daughter upside down by her feet, Aiken offers the youngster to his wife. "I'll talk to 'em, but I tell ya them latches won't do no good. She'll figure 'em out like she does everything else – like when she got into your hoard room!" Turning to Olivia, Aiken gives a small laugh. "Well, fancy that! Our old bottles bein' used to depict royalty!" He taps his chin. "I tell ya what, how about you skip me as th' middle man, and I take ya to my source? Curiel's cousin Birch makes all a our bottles – he's th' clan glassblower. Could probably set you right up with whatever ya need."

"Wheee!" goes Kiona as she swings by her feet. She latches onto her mother's arm, then scurries right up and perches atop Curiel's head. "Only because you encourage her to explore everything," she teases Aiken and wags a finger at him. "Bad as an otter, you are," she says with a grin, "Silas is still rubbing off on you." She reaches up to playfully ruffle her daughter's headfur. "Ma, ma, ma, ma," says Kiona.

Olivia nods at Aiken's suggestion. "All right, that sounds great! This way, I can see what colors he's capable of producing and work from there."

Kiona finally seems to notice Olivia. The little Kadie pauses for all of three seconds (perhaps a record), then points at her and yells, "FLOWER LADY!"

Olivia looks rather taken aback at being suddenly yelled at by the little Kadie, but she recovers quickly and grins at her. "Yes, I'm the flower lady – see, I even wore my hat today," she points out, tapping it with one finger.

Aiken gives his wife a playful eye-roll, then gets up from the sofa. "He's a pretty talented fella, like most'a the Solalis. Mostly does bottles, but I bet he could help ya out. I'll take ya over to meet 'im, although I'm not sure if it's his day off or not."

Kiona spins around and starts down her mother's back. She leaps to the floor once she reaches Curiel's knees and scurries over to one of the crates in the corner. In she dives, and a moment later stuff starts flying this way and that. The little girl's head finally pops up and stuck between her teeth is the flower Olivia gave her at the festival. "Flwogher," she says muffledly.

Curiel can't help but laugh at Kiona for a bit. She finally manages to comment to Olivia, "I think you made a lasting impression on her." Then to Aiken, she says, "I'll look after the tiny terror while you go see Birch. How long do you think you'll be over there so I can make sure dinner isn't done too early or too late?"

"Oh, you still have that!" Olivia says to Kiona. "Do you like it? I could make you one or two more, if you really like playing with them. What do you think?"

"M're flowghers," Kiona says with a rapid succession of nods. The little Kadie then spits the flower upward and catches it just on the tip of her nose where she carefully balances it.

"We'll probably be over there an hour or so – depends on what Birch is up ta," replies Aiken. He laughs at Kiona, then nods to Olivia. "She loves that thing – wears it in her tail all the time. Well, when she doesn't bury it underneath all her toys, that is." The squirrel walks towards the stairwell, and opens up the door. "I think you just started her hoard!"

Olivia looks very impressed at this display of talent. "Well then, if that's what you want, I'll be happy to give you more. I've got plenty lying around as replacements for the ones in my hat, whenever I lose or damage any!" Getting to her feet, she follows Aiken to the door and grins sheepishly. "I hope that's not a bad thing?" she asks with some embarrassment.

Curiel smiles to her husband. "Okay, I'll plan for an hour or so," she says as she goes to collect Kiona and her flower. As she picks up Kiona, she asks Olivia, "Oh, do you babysit or know anyone who does?"

Standing aside, Aiken allows the mouse to go before him. "Not at all! It's a Kadie tradition. Course, she's already started a few other hoards, but maybe this one'll stick."

Olivia laughs in response to this. Then, at Curiel's question, she says, "Oh, do you need a babysitter for Kiona? If so, I'd be happy to do it if I'm free. If not, one of the other apprentices at the Weaver's might be willing. I could always ask around for you."

"Not right now, but in a few weeks we will, if Mr. Aiken Briar remembers why," Curiel says and gives her husband a playful, if pointed, look. "Aiky had better remember why… "

Aiken leans in the doorframe. "Hmm, lessee… something about the dishes? Nah, that ain't it… Wine shipments? Hmmm… " Overdramatically, the squirrel snaps his fingers. "Oh yeah! Somethin' about that time 'a year when we got hitched!"

"Good thing you remembered or I'd give you a dish you wouldn't forget," Curiel says with a playful grin. "Now get going or you won't catch Birch before he closes up shop for the day." From her arms, Kiona waves with her hands, feet, and tail, saying, "Bye, bye, bye, bye."

Olivia waves back to the little Kadie girl and steps through the doorway. "See you later, Kiona! You too, Curiel!"

---

Sitting at the desk is another gray-furred Kadie. Olivia guesses this is probably Birch. He's hunched over the device. He pumps one of the handles several times, then opens a valve. There's a small hissing sound and the unfortunate smell of swamp gas. The smell is quickly extinguished, though, when he waves a candle by the end of one of the tubes. It bursts into life with a fine blue flame. Smiling, the Kadie then sticks a small glass rod into the flame and waits for it to heat up.

Aiken pads into the workshop, leading the way before Olivia. "Heyo, Birch! It's Aiken!" He raps lightly on the workshop's doorframe, peering inside for his cousin-in-law. "You're not closed for th' day, are ya?"

Birch looks up from the glass tube and towards the door. "Hey, Aiken! I see Curiel's letting you out of the house again," he teases. His head tilts and turns a few times, then he asks, "And where's the tiny terror? I rarely see you without Kiona. As for the shop, we're open; I wanted to get one more glass done and in the kiln to temper before calling it a night."

"She's back home helpin' Curiel with dinner. Asides, I get nervous bringin' her over here you know – all the glass and such. Although she loves seein' her cousin Birch." Grinning, the Kadie steps further inside the shop, and motions to Olivia. "I gotcha a new customer here, leastways she might be. She needs some glasswork done."

Olivia comes forward, smiling and nodding to the glassblower. "Hello, Birch. My name is Olivia Weaver. Aiken tells me that you make all of the colored bottles for his wines. I'm going to need some colored glass for a project I'm working on, so he suggested I come talk to you about that."

"Then you've come to the right place! And not just because Aiken knows I give him a discount when he helps bring in new customers," Birch says with a wink towards Aiken as he waves to Olivia. The Kadie then focuses on his work again. As he starts bending and twisting the glass tube into a flat spiral with a chitin tool, he asks absently, "So, what sort of glassware do you need and what do you have in trade?"

Aiken stage whisper to Olivia, "Nah, he does that cause Old Man Solali makes 'im! Plus, the whole clan gets a part of th' money from wine sales."

Olivia grins swiftly back at Aiken before responding to Birch's questions. She describes for him the ideas she has about making jewelry out of bits of colored glass, plus sewing other glass pieces onto the gypsy dancers' costumes. "As for things I can trade," she finishes up, "I can make just about any sort of clothing that you might need – I'd just have to take your measurements first. If you want to see a sample of my best work so far, ask Amelia Blacktail to show you the green dress I made for her."

Finished with the spiral, the Kadie flips the glass tube over and sticks the other end into the blue flame to heat up. "Oh, I don't know if I need any clothing made right now," he says as he considers the offer. "But, I could use some ribbons and such for decorating the glass baubles that the tourists seem to like. You know, little scarves for the glass frogs, a bow for a glass flower, that sort of thing. I'm sure I can use some of my scrap and broken glass to make some beads and 'gems' easy enough in trade for some simple decorations. Ooop! It's hot enough!" Birch switches back to his work and takes the now glowing red end of the glass rod and sticks it down on a conical shape, the bowl of what is now obviously a newly made wine glass. He lets it cool for a few seconds, then carefully lifts the piece up and sets it on a tray. The tray is then slid into one end of the kiln for annealing.

Birch then steps back and flips the valve on the odd apparatus. The little blue flame vanishes in a puff. As he pulls off his gloves, he declares, "There, last glass for the day. I had to make a replacement set for Erik. apparently his mother was in one of her moods and threw the last set at him." He shakes his head and says with a chuckle, "Poodles."

"Birch's figurines are pretty popular," Aiken adds. "He even makes little Kadies and Akwavis. He once made one of Kiona! She broke off its tail pretty much right away, but he fixed it right up."

Olivia smiles and thinks to herself, This is going to be an easier trade than I thought it would be! Aloud, she says, "I can certainly handle that – I have yards of ribbon and piles of good scrap cloth just sitting around in my room, waiting to be used. This would be as good a use as any for them, I think. Is there a time that you'd like for me to come back and show you some samples of what I have?"

"Oh, anytime during business hours is fine. Sun up to sundown most every day of the week," Birch says as he sits down heavily into a chair. To Aiken he asks, "Has it held together since the last fix? I keep meaning to make figures of you and Curiel to go with it, but … you know how time goes. I'm kept pretty busy with the orders from the Frog and Peach since they seem to have to replace glassware often."

"All right, I'll come back within the next few days," Olivia tells Birch. "I have something already planned for tomorrow, but any day after that I should be able to come back with my samples."

Aiken laughs. "Oh, its fine now. Kiona cried like th' dickens when she broke it, so I think once ya fixed it for her, she was more careful with it from then on. She keeps it in Curiel's china cabinet now. As for me an' Curiel, don't feel ya have to hurry, business comes first." At this, the squirrel pauses, scratching his chin. "Then again, I may hav'ta order that from ya. Anniversary's comin' up, and she'd be thrilled at somethin' like that… "

"All right, Olivia. And if you know of anyone else that needs glasswork made, be sure to send them this way!" Birch tells the Skeek. At the mention of the anniversary, the Kadie shakes his head, noting, "Dang, is it that time already?" He picks up a nearby collection of papers and starts flipping through it. His fingertips rap loudly against one and he comments, "I can postpone this order and work on that instead. Anything particular you want or are ya leaving it up to me to be creative with?"

Aiken beams with pride. "Yup! Three whole years already! Seems like just yesterday, though." The squirrel thinks, tail twitching as the gears grind. "Somethin'… weddingish, I suppose. Heck, you know Curiel – just make something she'd like!" He smiles.

"Well, she already has the thing she wanted most," Birch says with a grin to Aiken, "But I'll see what I can come up with."