#anywhere

"So Tove won? This contest I mean?" Lupita asks

"She did! It was a pretty song, but not one I'd heard before. And... AND..."

"I didn't tell you the prize..."

"Prize? YEs. We talking cash? What?" Interested

"Season tickets for baseball. The Mets."

"The Mets? I guess they're okay. At least they're not the yankees"

"But, like, professional baseball! And that's what Jaymes said, too. But, like, won't all the teams come play there?"

"oh sure, visitors... My grandpa? He was like SO pro Dodger, mostly because they pissed off folks in New York"

"Ha! So, Jaymes promised I could get hot dogs from the guys with the trays."

She grins "Yeah? Okay. Now I am jealous, there's some guys that make REALLY good hot dogs working those jobs. It's like a matter of pride for some of them."

"Yeah? I didn't know, that sounds cool."

"Maybe - I don't know, but maybe one game you could go? The Dodgers? I can ask."

"Oh wow.. if we got a chance to see a Dodger's game, that would be SO awesome"

"Shit. How can I possibly pay you back for that?"

"Well, I dunno if it is possible or not yet..."

"So, uh - we figure it out?"

"I guess you're right. Sorry. " A smile "We bone gnawers don't do much for Imbolc unless the Fianna push. We watched the movie though"

"Groundhog Day? Jaymes likes that one. It's funny."

"I know" A smile "Man, I would SO take the ground hog driving at least once"

"You'd be crazy behind the wheel, chica. I can see it now." She mimes driving like something out of GTA.

...with sound effects... "vroooom vrah vrah vrooom eeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Give the ground hog a shut gun, we'd own this town"

"Ha! Totally!"

"Oh there is SO much I want to tell you" She sighs "About the spirit world, and spirits..and totems. It's so awesome and sad all at once"

"Sad?"

"I mean, we have spirits. Chimera. Like, when people dream stuff, believe in things, it becomes real - just real dream-stuff, which humans usually can't see."

"With us it's like the Earth, Gaia, herself is bleeding all around us." SHe sighs "Her pain is incredible"

"...Like the bees? Or climate change and stuff?"

"Is she, like, legit Mother Earth? Have you seen her?"

"Like that, only... well, it's just the start" Then "No, but I've seen her children, like...totems... like your dreams I guess. But they know of her. Some of them have really FUSSY rules"

"Ohhh, that's magic, I think." She nods. "Like how some of us can only lie, or others can't even speak above a whisper, or there's one group that's not allowed to fall in love."

"Magic seems keen on rules."

"That..kind of sucks"

She nods. "Yeah. I have stuff I need to be careful about, or I don't get to be Dagmar anymore..." she stops short, blushing, hand over her mouth.

"Dagmar?" She raises a brow

"You can't let anybody know!"

"That's... my other name. So... so, like, if you had a wolf name?"

"I got more names than I know hwat to do with, I'm Latina with a lot of relations" she says 'But I know what you mean. Like Rails? Rails isn't on his birth certificate. I'll get one too"

"Dagmar? Weird name. It mean anything?"

She nods. "Frank says it means 'Day-Maiden.' It's Norse."

"And, like, me, my soul is from Norway. Like, a viking!" She laughs.

SHe looks over her half african american friend then "Like Idris Elba is Hemdell in the movies? That's fucking awesome"

"Right. So I'm half SUPER white. But Idris is pretty fuckin' awesome."

"I know right? " She nods "ANd i think it's cool this dreaming of yours is like... open and stuff. Lot of the tribes are REALLY stuck on 'purebreed this' and 'my heritage' that"

"Ohhhhh, we have royalty."

"And they're pretty stuck up. But there aren't so many of them around here, and a regular person can get a title. Like - knights, there's a few, but even baronesses and counts and dukes."

"Oh, we got aa ruling tribe... kinda... they're " lowering her voice "really inbred. Makes em loopy"

"Ohhhhhh shee-it."

"Yeah, not that everyone listens to them...Gnawers tend to be more democratic. " A bit proud

"Hell yeah, you won't let nobody tell you what to do."