On the third day, Tulip gave them an expert lesson on the latest methods of maquillage. Holly put it simply, “basting the carrots with extra glaze, only we are the carrots.”

Even Tulip had to smile at that. Tulip not only showed them how to apply the liners and blushes, she also explained how even though one particular vendor sold maquillage that it would be a better use of their time to go and get the ingredients themselves.

Which is how Freya and her two friends found themselves hiking up a hill past afternoon tea in search of various herbal ingredients that would hopefully last them their entire season.

“You know, as much as I love this trip with the two of you,” Holly said, “I have to wonder why Tulip sent us out this far. Do you think that she bears some particular animus towards one of us?”

Freya turned back, looking over her shoulder. Holly was ambling down the path trying to allow Abigail the time to catch up. Of the three, Abigail was having the most difficulty with the long hike.

“I just think that if Tulip knows what she is doing, then maybe we should listen to her,” Abigail said. “Although at this point I wish that we’d stopped by Freya's house on our way and tried her idea of riding the chickens.”

“She did give us the rest of the day to find the items on her list,” Freya added. “But I can try and persuade the chickens to give us a ride. I feel like I’m growing on them.”

“I think that Holly and I would take that ride,” Abigail said, panting.

Reaching the top of the hill, Freya spied the grove of trees that was their ultimate goal.

“Well, we’re here now, let’s fan out and search for what Tulip asked us for,” Freya said.

The circle of trees surrounded what looked like a natural garden of interwoven plants. Freya started working on one end of the trees, looking for sap, and a certain yellow adder's tongue that Tulip had requested, among other things.

For half an hour the girls searched. Freya grew more and more frustrated as she only found mushrooms that seemed to be the non edible kind and a small amount of sap. She turned to find Abigail and Holly walking her way both with full packs as well as a basket full of yellow adder's tongue in yellow and brown along with several berries. Tulip had promised that she would use whatever color of berry as a base for her well known lip cream.

“Well that was a bust,” Freya said, nodding at the two of them.

“Miss Freya Uki, we finally find something that you’re not good at and you immediately decide that it’s not for you?” Holly said.

“That wasn’t… I mean,” Freya said, “the point is that we should now have enough to satisfy Tulip and we won’t need to make another trip out here after the lesson is done tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry, see we were going to share with you,” Holly said.

Abigail nodded.

“You were thinking of sending me back here on my own?” Freya said.

“We all need a little bit of help sometimes,” Abigail said. “Even I could use some help carrying this back home.”

Freya frowned.

Abigail stepped up close to her. “I’m serious, getting here was an ordeal for me. You can either help me or leave me to my fate out here and let the Raven do with me as he wills.”

“Oh? Oh!” Freya said, nodding.

Freya grabbed the sack that Abigail was carrying.

“You see, Freya? Strong ladies lift each other up, or at least their maquillage ingredients.”

All three of the girls laughed.

“Well at least we know that these yellow adder’s tongues are the same color of your future suitor,” Holly said to Abigail.

“Oh stop it you.” Abigail blushed so hard that her ears turned red.

The next morning, Freya skipped breakfast and went straight to the chickens, trying to see if she could get one of them to take her on a ride. Freya reached back, trying to remember the connection she had, and for a second she felt something but it was like grabbing a greased up Kayli. The connection eluded her. Moreover, she felt so utterly empty as if she’d not eaten in a week.

Gasping, she felt her ribs with her paws. Had she been not eating because of the lessons, just being so focused on what she was learning?

With a hunger that gnawed at her, she walked back into the house and devoured the only thing on the table, a loaf of bread. Kayli squeaked, watching her inhale the entire loaf, which usually lasted the family at least two days. The bread tasted like the sweetest thing she’d ever eaten. Turning, she grabbed Kayli in a big mouse hug.

She felt Kayli against her ribs, and she felt plump and fluffy.

“You stay cute, Kayli,” Freya said.

Kayli mewed acceptance.

“Let me get some more bread, okay?” Freya said.

Kayli squeaked and followed Freya into the pantry. The two raided it and came out full and covered in sugar.

“This is how breakfast should be,” Freya said.

Kayli made a sound that was somewhere between a squeal and a whisper. Freya picked up her little cousin and brought her to the chair closest to the window and began to read a story. The two read quietly until Freya's mother forced Freya to head to her lessons, promising to meet her after the next day's lessons. Then she hurried out—bound for the court.

That afternoon, the girls finally got their pots of cream mixed, their sap was combined into an elixir and they sat in front of two large mirrors for more than an hour going over their faces.

“First, the eyeliner, to accentuate the natural eye, drawing the male gaze up from your dress,” Tulip had told them. They had practiced its application several times before Freya had all but given up.

“In a pinch you can have your family help,” Tulip has suggested more than once, but Freya was determined.

It wasn’t until she had poked herself in the eye three times that Tulip had gently suggested that she have someone else do that part for her. Freya had relented only to find that Abigail was excellent at applying her eyeliner as well as applying it on others.

“I didn’t have any sisters, so I made all of the female servants be my makeup practice,” Abigail said. “After a while, I got good enough that a few of them asked for it specially and I was always happy to oblige.”

Tulip walked around Freya, inspecting Abigail’s work.

“If I may be so bold, Miss Uki,” Tulip said. “You may want to play to her strengths here.”

“I will take that under advisement, should Miss Smith allow me to call upon her on the day of the ball, otherwise I will have to see how well my mother can do my makeup,” Freya said.

“Trying to go it alone, huh?” Holly said, looking into her mirror. The Holly blinking back at her was flawless. Holly didn’t have any issues with the blush, but she was between two different lip colors. Currently, she sported a blue lip over a purple one.

“I’m about as alone as a single purple lip is on a rabbit,” Freya said, grinning sheepishly.

Holly had two pots of lip stain in front of her; neither was blue or purple.

“I just think that purple could be my color, is all,” Holly replied, applying a green upper lip.

“I could probably do the blush and lip color on my own,” Freya said.

Holly, Abigail and Tulip all just stared at her.

“Yeah no, Freya,” Abigail said, “I’ll be in charge of your makeup for the ball.”

“What!” Holly said. “I wanted to make her my masterpiece.”

“Well I have the experience!”

Grabbing the pots of cream in front of her, Holly turned. “And I have the maquillage! Raven takes Dragon!”

The girls giggled, and Abigail turned back to Freya. “Seriously, Freya I’ll do it if she won’t.”

On the final day, Freya met with her mother inside Yellowrock to purchase a dress. Her mother helped her find a contemporary dress of mole design at her preferred modiste. The Moles loved dresses that felt and moved gracefully rather than ornate ball gowns that mice or rabbits wore. Seeing her daughter in the dark black dress with brown trim, her mother failed to hold back tears.

“It’s just right, Freya,” she said.

Freya agreed, holding back her own tears at seeing her mother so happy. She hoped the moment would last, but suspected that mother might put her foot in her mouth in due time.

“I’ll be back tomorrow to pick this up, then?” her mother asked the fox behind the counter.

“My lady, we should be done by the end of the work day,” he said, gathering the measurements and examining the dress. “It is our pleasure to serve you, as always.”

“Thank you Marcel,” she said.

They were only a few minutes out of the shop when they stopped to get some pastries for home. Freya always loved a good apple pie, and her mother was fond of a good blueberry galette, so they both got individual servings and sat down out front of the shop. The serving rabbit brought out cups of tea as they watched the crowds of creatures walking by.

“Thank you for getting me the dress. I’ll repay you someday, mother, I swear,” Freya said.

“Freya, you don’t have to go swearing a blood pact on my account. Why this is one of the happiest days that I’ve had in a while. I hope that you get to experience what it is like to shop for dresses with one of your daughters at least once,” her mother sighed.

“Yes. I love this dress and I think”—Freya leaned in to speak conspiratorially—“that it would look good with a cape.”

Her mother grinned back at her, beaming. “That is something that I probably would have said at your age. Now I hope that you can put this ‘raising chickens’ business behind yourself and find a suitable match…”

Her mother dropped into her age-old argument that she had made time after time about how she needed to marry and settle down and how Freya didn’t want to become one of those mice that was a lady hermit, living alone and out in the wilderness—no matter how awesome THAT sounded to Freya. Freya, for her part, agreed to take the season seriously, again.

But in the back of her mind, Freya was thinking about how the druid had inadvertently made her business a lot easier.