Cog:

Look at it this way: if I don't follow the plan, I can try to do a runner... but, then, if the master does survive, and he has a tendency towards resilience it must be said, if he does survive and I haven't followed his instructions, I'll be in real trouble: he'd give me one of his ranting lectures about duty, and probably report me back to the henchman's union, and then they'd tear my card up and it would be back to cobble scrubbing. No, better to risk being turned into a... a... (how I hate messing with wizards... there are just too many possibilities to worry about with wizards)... frog, stone, cinder, fish...whatever...

Best just to concentrate on burgling the answers and getting out alive in a shape I will still be able to recognise as my own... steady now... easy does it...

I knew I should have knitted foot mufflers for the pelican, why does he have to flap his feet down like that? Hasn't he got any arches?