#baronyofthesilverwolf

Barking! Barking and barking from the kennels! Gwen has cared for the dogs long enough to tell the difference between 'play bark' and 'hungry bark' and 'bored bark'. This is an alarm bark! Excited and alert!

Spear grabbed. And out she goes!

She finds Briar in there, standing outside one of the portable travel kennels. Engrossed in what she's doing, she doesn't see Gwen right away.

"I'm watching you, so don't you go trying to escape. If you'd just get in the sack it would be easier." Indeed, she has a burlap sack in one hand, the kind that the bulk dog biscuits come in. "Stop... moving.. and let me GET you!"

A few of the other dogs ring around, and one of them jumps at a corner of the kennel - and the dark thing inside pulls back away from them. A joyful belling from the dogs at this FUN game, and the person inside the kennel claps hands over ears, hunkering back down. Hard to see with Briar and the dogs all in the way.

Gwen lowers her head, twisting at the side with her waist to lower further, trying to get a view between the crowd of cap and canines.

It's a person... a fae person! Small stature, not much bigger than Briar. Glass notices Gwen first, and gives a hound puppy awwooo-oooo hello, bounding over to see Gwen - and when the pup moves, Gwen can see there is a girl in there. Covering her ears as the hound calls.

"Hi in there. I'm Gwen." She says fixing her eyes on the person in there "And...Briar, tell me what's going on?" She keeps her eyes on the prisoner girl though. There are like, legends about leprecahuns vanishing if you look away, ad she knows pooka have trouble changing if you don't look away

No pooka here - actually, she looks a little familiar. Granted, there was a lot going on at Carnival and Gwen was more focused on the Queen (as is right and good!) but wasn't there a pale girl with long dark hair like this who was hanging out with a skinny older man in one of the corners?

Briar BEAMS at Gwen. "Gwen! Great! I wanted to get you or the guards but when I tried to leave, she kept SQUISHING out through the bars!" Sounding personally offended at this. "I caught a SPY."

Gwen winces "Ah..."

She moves to the cage and orders the dogs back, "Shush.." Then says "Hi. I'm Gwen. Who are you?" She asks the girl

Briar looks incredibly proud. "See, Glass's nose helped. She kept FUSSIN and I followed her." To the caged girl, "You're in for it now!"

Glass does look VERY pleased !

Wary dark eyes glare out at Gwen and her mouth moves, but it can't be made out without getting a bit closer.

"Careful." Briar says. "Crawlers are NASTY. I bet she has poison darts or spiders she'll shoot at you with a blow gun. Hey, maybe they wouldn't be able to get through your skin, though? I wasn't afraid." A bit of a boast.

"Okay, you have a right to be proud of Glass' nose" Gwen tells Briar, "But I think we should remember we're trying to be FRIENDLIER to folks not of the hold." She opens the cage "Come out, please, and come with me. "

"You don't have to be friendly to spies." Briar says. "They're enemies. If they weren't enemies, they wouldn't be spying on us."

The girl slinks closer to the open doorway and whispers to Gwen. She appears older than Briar, perhaps, but younger than Gwen. A wilder, but a young one, probably recently togailed. In that odd tween/Wildling state that Gwen was lucky to avoid. "Let me go. The small monster lies. I spied on no one."

"Did you knock on the door, or let folks know you were here?" Gwen says "Because if you didn't someone might easily assume you were spying. Come on in, I'll set you up with a drink or something okay? You can tell me why you're here. Is there trouble in town?" /Gwen looks to Briar "if she is a spy you stopped her from spying and now she's a guest. If she wasn't a spy, then now she's a guest. Or at least a visitor. It's okay, Briar. Go give Glass a treat and I'll handle the boring part, please"

"I do not WISH to go in to your hold." She creeps closer to the doorway. "Let me go. What do you wish from me? Dross? Money? I can find a way to pay you."

Gwen feels a bit insulted "Then why were you here? I'd like the truth please. " She does open the door though "And I'm not keeping you as a prisoner. If you want to go, you can go. But I would ask you at least have the courtesy to explain. I always heard sluagh were big on manners, so please. tell me why you came as I walk you home"

She straightens up (still much smaller than even a young troll) and gives a curtsy. "I am Lizbet Aberdeen. And you are the fledge?" Peering curiously at Gwen.

"I am" Gwen says , "Nice to meet you, Lizbet, though I understand you may not agree given the situation. " The troll says "Now, why did you come to our hold if you don't even want to go into it?"

"To see you." She sniffs a bit. "I wanted to see what was so special about you."

"This is BORING. Can't we interrogate her? I wanted to see what happens if you try to break a finger when someone can squish them. Does it just bend?" Lizbet looks unperturbed by this. "Oh, or since she's a townie - isn't this Reeve work? I can call her." Briar complains.

Now THAT gets a reaction out of Lizbet. She looks terrified. "Do not!" A hand plucks at Gwen's sleeve. "Do not let her, please. I am sorry that I trespassed. Do not call the Baroness."

"About me? I.." but before she can address that , Suddenly Lizbet is in a panic "Hey it's okay it's okay. " Protective urges kick in "Okay, the Baroness isn't in right now anyway. It's fine. Really? Come on" She takes Lizbet's arm gently "What's your beef with our Reeve? Most folks are scared of Dame Calanthe"

"I do not know the Dame. But she is Ailil. The Baroness is Varich. They are raised with a hatred for sluagh that runs deep to their cores. They will as soon as slay a slug as see then on their doorstep. It is KNOWN."

"Well, Baroness Dancingsnow was raised in a Troll lodge with Gwydion over tones. " A pondering "Maybe she isn't as hateful? " A beat "And..what's so special about me? Who said I was special?"

"You are here. They have not taken a new fledge in years. All are sent elsewhere, even should they chrysalize within the barony. Even if they do not WISH to travel." A sniff, and she whispers, "Not that there are many. The mortals here do not easily spawn Fae."

"I wonder why tha is" She ponders the last first then says "Well, I'm very lucky. Also? I asked to stay here. I could have gone to Earth Runes or Dark Gate. Instead. I picked here"

"And the Baron was nice to me. He's a good man" She adds As they walk

Briar calls after her as she deals with the excited dogs, "Remember! Watch our for poison! AND I GET CREDIT FOR THE CAPTURE!"

Gwen calls back "I don't think she's rying to poison me" She says "But check the feed for the animals if you would"

"YEAH WHATEVER!"

Back at the kennels, Briar grumbles to the dogs, "Finally catch a spy and Gwen wants to make friends. That's... so damn Gwen ain't it?" A cautious glance around, and once certain that no one else is in the area of the kennels, she rumples Glass's ears and croons in a tone that's almost soft. "Ain't you the smartest little pupper, yeah you are, yeah you ARE. Let's get you some steak."

A look back a the sluagh "Not that i think you would poison the animals but one hears stories about whackjobs harrassing Rivervale"

Lizbet looks affronted. "The only reason I was in your doghouse was that that... beastly Briar hounded me there." A frown, as she replays her pathing in her head. "Did she train them to work that way? Every turn, there was another dog there. I felt like a fox at bay. It was not a NICE feeling." Sluagh like to scare and startle. Apparently being chased and hounded is not to their liking.

"Fae hounds are smarter than normal dogs, and we train them very well. We're NOT trying to train them to track sluagh though. Look, I am not that special. I have stoneish skin but I hear that's not unheard of .. rare, but not THAT Rare. And Lizbet, Right of Haven applies at Silverwolf hold. You have a right to visit safely. But it sounds like you WeRE spying.. on me. " She points out "Because if it weren't for the dogs and briar I wouldn't have known you were there. "

Despite this she seems amiable, nice even

She ducks her head a bit and whispers, "There was no one in the room I looked into. So I did not spy on anyone." Apparently having carefully chosen her words. "But I should not have tried to. ...nor did I go inside. Only once have I, on Carnival. I will not again... unless I am called to answer for this." Wary, uncertain.

"See now that I don't like.. you shouldn't feel like you can't go to the hold." A frown "You might need the glamour and dreamers here are rare. " A brow though "I sill think sneaking into rooms sounds a lot like spying BUT I understand your kith are like..well, it's like how you survive? I guess? And I don't think you'll be called to answer for it. I'll bring it up to the thanes, because Brair is gonna talk anyway, but I won't try to make it sound like your some fiend. That's not nice or fair to you"

"It is well for you to say that we are welcome. It is another to be there, and feel it in the very air-" The young lady gives a sidelong glance over to Gwen. "You really do not sense it." Seemingly a bit incredulous. "Trolls... I suppose that is not what you are for. Any more than I would be on a battlefield." She shakes her head a little.

"Wow, I'm going to try not to find that condescending. Okay, if the Baroness is the reason youre no welcome, why didn't you guys come before all this? I mean, I was here before she was so checking on me would get done. So..what, did someone mistreat a sluagh before the Reeve and Me?"

Lizbet slows, and looks up at Gwen. A thin, chapped bottom lip is gummed at a little anxiously. "No... not that I know of." She adjusts, "And I would know. We would all know, if any of ours were mistreated. I didn't intend an insult to you and yours. It is just hard for me to imagine being deaf to it."

She shakes her head, as they turn onto the path that leads towards the main road. "The new Reeve is Varich, the Dame, I am told dislikes us highly... but either of those could be surmounted. It is... more, Miss Gwen. Even to a sluagh, we who love sorrow and woe..."

Gwen's feature soften, "Look, out of the two of them, the Baroness seems nicer..." SO much nicer "Than the Dame, so I can understand caution with the varich thing on top of that, but the Baron? He's fair, he-" A breath "He upholds the Escheat, and while he prefers animals to people, he treats people fairly if not always warmly. If that makes sense? I feel like I want to show you that , but I'm not going to frog march you there - that's unfair to you. So I guess I'm going to ask, how can I help you feel more like a part of this barony with equal rights to other kithain?"

“A warm welcome from an Ailil lord might be more worrisome.” She comments.

A soft, scarcely audible sigh. “Have you read much Poe, Miss Gwen? My school teachers say it is above my grade level... but my uncle tells me to be polite but not listen to them.”

"If you like it, then your uncle is right. I read the Raven, of course. And a short story uhm.. the Masque of the Red Death"

"Other than that, no not much" She admits

Her voice hard to catch as she recites, the evening breeze threatening to snatch the words from whispering lips.

"The night, tho’ clear, shall frown... and the stars shall look not down
From their high thrones in the heaven, with light like Hope to mortals given.
But their red orbs, without beam, to thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever... which would cling to thee for ever..."

She turns and peers up at Gwen, continuing.

"Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne’er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass."

"Okay, i was creepy before, but with your delivery, really shivers" A nod

"That is a poem that I have been reminded of. 'The Spirits of the Dead'." Still looking at Gwen, dark eyes unblinking. "Some of us... we hear them, you know."

"You guys speak to the dead?" She blinks "Okay... wow. That's neat. Some would say you're blessed to be able to talk to the ancestors"

"It's not just speaking. It's listening. Even if it doesn't touch our ears... When you cannot block it... you cannot stop listening? What are earplugs, to the spirit? Once they know you hear..." A slow blink of her eyes. "It perhaps is a blessing, for you not to hear it."

"Yikes. Okay yeah" She nods "But... why that poem? I mean... you said it was the one you reminded of? Are you.. wait.. have you been talking to Dahlia?" Eyes wide