"Arg alright, alright. You're squashing me!" Arabella tried to keep Lex's face at a distance with her little paws. The crazy Hotti pressed her to his face, sobbing, like a three-year-old, his reclaimed teddy bear. Around them was a huge gathering of onlookers. They had to be a truly apocalyptic sight. She a soiled, peed on, indignantly squealing hamster in a tattered maid's costume, he a sobbing pretty boy on his knees with some green liquid on his face, pressing her against him. In the background, a sword was stuck in a tavern wall. The wall definitely had it behind it. "I'm glad to see you again, too." Arabella patted his cheek with her tiny paws. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Herbert roll his eyes. She couldn't blame him. "Hey fried chicken, ten sunflower seeds if you can talk him into going home." The parrot tilted his head and fixed her," Twenty."   

"Twenty? Do I look like a sunflower spitting seeds?" What a rude fellow! Ten seeds were more than enough. The stupid bird narrowed his eyes, "Do you really want to know what you look like?!" Sneering like a lady, he held her fan, his wing in front of his beak. She was about to give him a snappy reply when Lex dangled her by the paws in front of everyone, and to top it off, scanned her for wounds with a fingertip in front of the onlookers. "Did the evil goblin bite my princess?" His voice was, that of a granny looking into a baby carriage. Okay, thanks, that was enough humiliation! She could see the triumph and gloating in the fowl's eyes even before she opened her mouth, damn bird. "Good twenty kernels, twenty-five if it's quick."