As the plans for the Pink Dawn Prank began to be drawn, Claery was set a very important mission. Cirywen had explained that the Dawn Hall would have guard dogs and that they'd need something to lure them away. This is how Claery came in- she was set to bake delicious muffins to distract the hounds. Claery obviously accepted. She could prove that you can do anything with the power of muffins! (Really, she just wanted an excuse to bake muffins as she hadn't been baking in a while.)
It was the day of the set date for the Prank that Claery decided she'd better get a move on with the them. She hadn't even bought the ingredients yet! So as soon as she woke up that morning (she woke up as early as she could, which wasn't really that early) she started looking through her chest of clothes for some spare money. A few silver coins were in one of her old boots and a few more were hidden in her old dress's pockets. Just enough for fresh ingredients! She picked up her basket, said good-bye to Dee for the day and left the Lowbanks' with Stoic the dog. They passed by the stalls in the Stone Quarter and bought some things from there- flour, sugar, butter, eggs, some bread and cheese to surprise Dee.
"Thank you, have a lovely day!" Claery'd told the merchants.
All of them replied with a smile or a wave, and some even gave Stoic a treat. When the two left the Stone Quarter, Claery looked down at Stoic and stuck her tongue out at him. "Showoff! Nobody gives Claery a treat!" She then took out a biscuit from her satchel and tossed it to Stoic anyway.
And now, for the last ingredient! Flavour!
"What flavour do you suppose I'll get, Stoic?" she said to the dog as they walked alongside each other. "What flavour do you like, Stoic? And what flavour do Yule and Lark like?" She stopped for a moment and stared at Stoic, who looked up at her blankly, as if he was going to suddenly tell her the answer. He didn't. But Claery seemed to get it anyway, because she nodded in confirmation. "Blueberry it is."
She skipped towards the marketplace by the Boar Fountain and started looking at the stalls. Stoic sat down in the shade under the fountain, watching Claery from afar. Claery wasn’t too upset about it (it was a pretty warm day). What she was upset about was the none of the stalls were selling blueberries! After checking everywhere on the market, she went back to Stoic and said, "It's supposed to be harvest season!"
They climbed the hill towards the Pony, though they didn't go inside, and went down to the ovens by the farms. On the way there she passed by the butcher and bought a nice piece of meat for Stoic to eat while she baked. Then when they arrived to the ovens, Claery immediately got engaged in a nice conversation with one of the cooks, who sent her off to the farm and back for blueberries ("Fresh off the farm!" said the nice farmer as she handed Claery a small crate of them, her name was Mareoun) and began to work on the muffins by the time it was noon.
After spending a whole afternoon baking muffins, Claery already had them piled up in her basket as soon as the sun was starting to set. She went back to the Estate to find Birchald and Briannon already there... it was time for them to begin!
Later at night, the small group of people snuck towards the Dawn Hall, and it was time for Claery to use her distraction on the hounds, so Briannon could get to the front door safely. It was when they arrived that Claery realized something very very important.
There were no dogs in sight.
The muffins were completely useless.
