"More honorable, less foolish. What sort of a man is your friend?"
"My name is Urson," said the giant, stepping up. "I've been the best hand on any ship I've sailed on."
"Urson?" said the woman, musing. "The Bear? I thought bears did not like water. Except polar bears. It makes them mad. I believe there was an old spell, in antiquity, for taming angry bears...."
"Calmly brother bear," Geo began to recite.
"calm the winter sleep.
Fire shall not harm,
water not alarm.
While the current grows,
amber honey flows,
golden salmon leap."
"Hey," said Urson. "I'm not a bear."
"Your name means bear," Geo said. Then to the lady, "You see, I have been well trained."
"I'm afraid I have not," she replied. "Poetry and rituals were a hobby of a year's passing interest when I was younger. But that was all." Now she looked down at the boy whom Urson still held. "You two look alike. Dark eyes, dark hair." She laughed. "Are there other things in common between poets and thieves?"
"Well," complained Urson with a jerk of his chin, "this one here won't spare a few silvers for a drink of good wine to wet his best friend's throat, and that's a sort of thievery, if you ask me."
"I did not ask," said the woman, quietly.
Urson huffed.