Thanks, Sandra!

I didn't expect to include the song with the story, when I started out, but whenever I hit a bit of a block, that tune was asking for attention. So it finally dawned on me that there was a reason for that. Once I fit the basic gist of the idea into the melody that was playing in my head, the story came together quite nicely.

Moral of this story: Sometimes, your muses speak in different languages than usual, and you should be prepared to understand them in all of them.