Today, I sat at the foot of the old, worn, wood bridge with a small group of ferrets and a special guest named, Kirby the Kitty. The heather was in full bloom, baby's breath swaying in the breeze, and the thistle ivy draped across the bridge railings. "Meow?" "No, not yet," I said. "Meow?" "No, shhh, I told you not yet," I replied "Yowl yowl?" A little annoyed I said, "Soon! Okay?!" "Sigh.... yoowl." I just peered at the kitty and smacked my paw on my forehead and was grateful that these visits didn't occur often. During the wait, I had to deeply bury any feelings of wanting to bronco bust the kitty. In our company was Freckles, Jersey, Ragamuffin, Snickers, and Smudge. I'm guessing that they were used to Kirby as they never even took notice of his pestering. Finally, a glow appeared from the other end of the bridge. Gosh this one was long coming. The figure emerging from the glow was mysterious looking and had quite a perky walk. The ferret almost looked as if they were wearing a dark hooded shroud. The ferrets around me picked up their heads with whiskers a twitchin'. Okay, so why wasn't Kitty now bothering us? Because Kirby the Kitty was busy swatting a moth that fluttered by. Cats. I rolled my eyes and looked back towards the approaching figure. Glistening in the sun now, was Frolic! The ferrets started to dook at her site and this grabbed Kirby's attention. "Yowl, yowl, yowl, yowl ..." "OKay, I think she heard you the first time," I interrupted. I walked over to greet the pretty, minky, Frolic -- the dark beauty -- and introduced myself. But she seemed quite familiar with the bridge, me, and the fact that everyone was here to greet her. So her adjustment was nothing! Everyone bombarded her with greetings, sniffs, and dooking. And that Kirby Kitty started up yowling again. I called everyone off of her. Freckles rolled her eyes and said, "Like SHE needs protection." Smudge said, "Yeah, like she is so frail," snickering away. Frolic retorted, "I'm Princess Minky! My mommy TOLD me so! You all hush." And they all bit their tongues and turned away so she didn't see them cracking smiles. To stop anything from progressing, I took Frolic aside and asked her what she wanted to see first. She asked if there was any silver-smithing going on. I was like, "Huh?" Frolic said she missed the smell of silver, and the twinkle of it. The other ferrets danced about excitedly, and Snickers said, "Silver! Melting silver and crafting it." Well, there were no humoon silversmiths about, but Freckles told me that all the ferrets had been confiscating bits of silver and hiding them burrows where they stay. So they took Frolic and I to go see it. Kirby followed behind us. I had to hold a finger up to a wild-eyed ferret watching Kirby walk by. "Aght! No! No kitty today for you". Bad ole ferrets. No telling what that little one was going to do. We came to an old hollowed out log. And it was filled with tiny bits of shinny silver. Oh Frolic was so happy. She said she needed it to remind her of home. I asked the ferrets where they got that silver. "Off the tails of comets of course!" Said Jersey. Now that's industrious! "Okay, so it's not exactly sterling silver. But it's close! Close enough," said Ragamuffin. "Meow?" Asked Kirby. I replied, "Yeah, you're right it is cool stuff." But that wasn't their only stash. I caught a glimpse of an occasional glimmer here and there all through that valley. Lol. As I was leaving the party, I looked back on them dancing in the fields. I squinted my eyes, as something really incredible happened. Their tiny wings and halo's seemed to take on a very slight silver twinkle to them. I smiled hugely to myself and trotted off to the soup bowl. Sandee [Posted in FML issue 4756]