Sela released the raven slowly, stepping back to give her room.

“You’re strong,” River said, “You’d make a good ranger. Do you want to work with me instead of working on the contract?”

“The contract? I follow the contract. It’s my everything,” Sela said, with a dull glaze over his eyes.

The three had drifted a bit away from the cart as the Brit began filling orders from the line of foxes and birds. Brits wide smile was infectious and Chip couldn’t help but smile as he watched the line grow longer.

“Listen her, baby druid,” Chip said, “I saw him first. If he’s going to be anyone’s ranger, he’s going to be mine.”

River was taken aback as she stepped back from the triangle.

“You’re considering becoming a druid? I… well… you’d have to be tested and go become trained, but,” she turned to Sela, batting her midnight blue eyelashes, “You, Sela… you could be my ranger tomorrow, if I could have someone create the bond. You know that you get stronger and faster, among other things. I thought that otter ladies loved the ones that became rangers?”

Chip pursued his lips as River seemed to size up the guard. It was as he expected, Sela was nothing but a hunk of meat to her.

But he’s also a hunk of meat to me, Chip thought, A handsome rascal of a hunk of meat, so who really is in the wrong here?

“I think that we’ve gotten off track here,” Chip said, trying to right the discourse.

“Right,” Sela snapped into attention as he faced Chip.

River snapped into attention to the left of Sela. Chip began pacing in front of the two.

“I need to win this… We need to win this competition. Are you with me?”

Sela and River exchanged a short glance and then both emphatically nodded. Chip continued marching like a field commander.

“We’re going to need to know about the competition, can you both figure that out? Also we need to know who the judges are and their tastes… River you can take the lead on the judges, Sela… you can make a list of the competition as your job leaves you here in the bazaar most days and you won’t be out of place.”

River snapped a salute.

“I can use my network of informants to find out who the judges are.”

Chip stared at her, mouth agape.

“I mean, it’s not my network, but I can ask my ‘friends’ who ‘know things’.”

“It’s a start,” Chip said, folding his arms together behind his back, “I’ll take your scrip and we’ll do an exchange but you can’t give me a lot at once. The compliance office will be on my arse and you don’t want to deal with the Compliance and Ethical Otter Conduct Office.”

River looked like she was trying to say something without speaking.

“It’s pronounced KEK- like this, See-ee-see,” Sela said, “We’ve all had run ins with them in the past. They ensure that none of the company agents gets out of line, and also they’re in charge of the betting and wagering boards.”