*grins* Writing the slightly-over-the-top formal dialogue was one of the best parts of this. No one says things like "I have walked half the length of the world for him, down roads and across ice and stones until my boots have worn away and my feet are bleeding. I have followed him through fields and forests, through the palaces of princes, and into and out of the tombs of the dead," outside of fairytales or Tolkien these days.

Mockingbird and Clint were actually given the parts they got *because* the crow's sweetheart dies, which is why they were the only two who didn't get a happy ending (maybe a second, female spider will come along and live happily every after with the Hawk, so that he can be paired off in classic fiarytale fashion, too).