[Iskierka will, in fact, be running off with her weird prize. It's good nesting material! If not for her, then for Trench's birds come spring; they'll find it once the snow melts, where she leaves it outside.

Illarion sighs as he settles back down to soak, more a sound of contentment than annoyance.]

You are the third Sleeper in two months to have succumbed to corruption and become a beast, [he points out.] I do not fuss as a father afraid his child will go out with her feathers in disarray.