"Did you know that we did not meet like usual couples?"

She shook her head, gazing at her friend through her eyelashes and over the cup of tea poised at her lips.

"Well, he was a writer." There was a delicate laugh as the speaker rubbed her long-fingered hands together. "A penniless writer, one of those aspiring types. And I, of course, was - well like you."

Philomel slowly sipped her tea, but still said nothing. No one was really 'like her'. There were whores, there were concubines, and courtesans - and then there was her. But she just politely smiled as the girl continued to gush.

"Well we played it dangerous for a while. I told him he couldn't fall in love with me. You know," she gaffawed. "Others pay me to make them think they're in love, and to have the time of their life. They pay for the experience. But he kept coming back, repeat client and all that and - gosh."

Raising an eyebrow Philomel waited through the pause, just listening. This is what this stranger wanted to do after all. Just talk to the famous (or infamous) Faun of Radasanth, who was rarely seen but when she did caused a ruckus. The woman who had saved the city, the woman who courted princes, the woman who now proudly bore her pregnant belly through the streets.

"Well he was sweet. So I gave him the time of day. Turned out he had lied to me and actually wasn't all that fancy, and I had another suitor - a Duke - but ... Well," she leant back, laughing louder now as they sat in that tiny tea shop. "He took me away. We rode on the back of a mammoth through the streets of Sweedon, we travelled to see the Marharajah of Fallien. And the writer was always here when I returned, seeking me, saying he was in love with me. It's so hard you know. So hard."

At this point Philomel didn't know if the girl was talking of the love and denying it, or the writer and the Duke's ...

She stuck a finger in the air, through the hole of the handle at her tea cup.

"Well. In the end I went for the Duke. Security over love, I guess, but the writer wouldn't leave me be. He followed me, kept saying we were destined to be." She looked away with sorrow. "Poor man. I last saw him crying in the toilet."

Poor man indeed. Perhaps he had managed to get away this time.



Elephant Love Medley
Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor & Jamie Allen
Love is a many splendored thing
Love lifts us up where we belong
All you need is love
Please don't start that again
All you need is love
A girl has got to eat
All you need is love
She'll end up on the street
Uhh
All you need is love
Love is just a game
I was made for loving you baby
You were made for loving me
The only way of loving me baby
Is to pay a lovely fee
Just one night
Give me just one night
There's no way
Cause you can't pay
In the name of love
One night in the name of love
You crazy fool
I won't give in to you
Don't leave me this way
I can't survive without your sweet love
Oh baby don't leave me this way
You think that people would have enough of silly love songs
I look around me and I see it isn't so, oh no
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs
Well what's wrong with that
I like to know
Cause here I go again
Love lifts us up where we belong
Where the eagles fly
On a mountain high
Love makes us act like we are fools
Throw our lives away
For one happy day
We can be heroes
Just for one day
You, you will be mean
No I won't
And I, I'll drink all the time
We should be lovers
We can't do that
We should be lovers
And that's a fact
No nothing would keep us together
We could steal time
Just for one day
We can be heroes
Forever and ever
We can be heroes
Forever and ever
We can be heroes
Just because I, and I will always love you
I only can't help
Loving You
How wonderful life is now
You're in the world