“I think that his ego may be bruised, but he will eventually come around. It is too bad for him that he lost this battle,” Muk said.

“Why, Lieutenant, you say that with the air of a mouse who is doing a victory lap before the moles have been counted,” Freya said, dipping into the basket.

Muk placed the basket in the center of the large crowd.

"I can only hope for your sake that you are right," Freya said, gesturing to the crowd, “I saw your cousin earlier, how is he faring?"

Freya unfurled the blanket, a weave of the five coalition colors. Muk placed the basket dead center, and he held out a paw for her to sit.

"He is restless, and I feel a certain kinship to that as often I cannot head out with my supply trains as often as I want."

"I can't imagine that, although my father has said often that the creatures he served with were like his second family."

Muk pulled out a large corked purple bottle, examining it with his hands.

"There’s no label but I feel that this is a mead bottle," he said, drawing Freya's attention to a cup he held out, "Shall we toast to the veterans, past present, and future?"

"It seems fitting to do so, but this isn't mead, it is chilled Kapi from our ice house. My Grandpaw is nuts about this stuff, so...try it chilled. He thought it would be helpful to the cause."

Freya accepted a pour of the smooth brown liquid. Muk raised his poured glass to her.

"To all those that made our coalition so that we can experience a peace like this," he said, raising his glass.

“To mice like Captain Bell and Lieutenant Chin-Hwa,” Freya said.

“I know that these are unusual circumstances, and I thank you for doing your part for charity.”

“Why, Lieutenant, you are the one who struck the hard bargain. A lady could think that there’s something behind your intention.”

“Well someone has to fund the chicken riders…”

“And is that someone going to be you?”

Freya sat down her mug and inclined her ears away from him.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“It…er well I do like to support small businesses.”

“Oh.”

“What I mean to say is… Miru I’m terrible at this… I’d like to see what we could do together,” Muks whiskers dropped, went up, drooped, and then returned to neutral.

“Perhaps a convoy lead by chicken riders? They are faster than my paw.”

It had been a while since Freya considered how her chickens could help others and perhaps she was ready to admit that others' ideas could have merit.

“My supply trains could use the riders as a distraction for some of the larger beasts,” Muk said, “Usually, we use the aviary to peel those kinds of incursions away from the supply trains.”

“You’re replacing one bird with a larger one?”

“Well now that you say it that way… I’ll have to think about it. The combat implications… I’ll have to think about it. But Miss Uki, I’m concerned about the dance.”

Freya froze. She hadn’t addressed anything with him, as Tulip had indicated that she would take care of that part.

“What did Tulip tell you?” Freya realized that she was fidgeting in front of him, and hoped that he was oblivious.

“She said that both you and Holly, well she was pretty vague to be quite honest.”

Muk shifted around and Freya wondered about how much he had guessed.

“I supposed you went to spend the rest of the night with the other officers,” She said, “But the truth is that we argued.”

Muk leaned in.

“Was it bad?”

“It was the worst I’ve ever had, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to bridge the gap. I expected her to be here today until the fight and I fear that I’ve done irreparable damage to our relationship.”

The mouse watched her with those damn beautiful eyes. Freya sighed.

“I don’t know if this helps but… my mother once told me that often gentle mice try to fix problems where they should just listen and, well I do a lot of listening. Would Miss Uki like me to listen or try to present a solution?”

“Perchance, Lieutenant, would your solution be to offer her a tub of Ka-pi and some chocolates?”

“It would only be proper for a mouse of your station to send such items in the form of a carrot. I am quite certain that she would have to accept carrot-shaped items of any variety, especially if it came from an old friend.”

Freya held back a grin. The entire time she had known him, he had been a bit more reserved, something that meant she wanted to dig.

“What else did your mother teach you?” She asked.

“Well proper manners for one. And that I must at the very least sit through any plea that comes from the creatures that I serve. Did you have a plea?”

“I…” Freya cupped her mouth. Did she want something? “I would like to hear a bit more about your mother, and then perhaps I can tell you how I plan to get back into the good graces of Miss Holly Bun.”

“Splendid. Well, to start, she is a big fan of carriages, most of all because walking is quite uncomfortable for her. I do my best to arrange her day in such a way that she has to walk the least. When my father passed, I had her room moved to the first floor- she fears stairs mind you- and even worse than stairs, she hates being stared at. You could say that being stared at while she is on stairs, well that scares her.”

Freya held back a giggle and took another bite.