#baronyofthesilverwolf

"In very broad strokes, Boggans are craftsmen, Nockers are inventors... think, shoemaker's elves, or Santa's workshop, compared to, mmm, an artificer, like... Daedelus , perhaps."

"DO I SMELL COOKIES?!" A small and bloody personage stomping in the back doorway!

A flicker of yellow, instinctive.

"No shit, yer a Tiny Al!"

"I'mma WHUT?" Briar stops, eyeing the newbie.

Marigold, "Good HEAVENS, Briar...."

"Aww, Mari - it ain't MY blood."

"You're like Al, at the diner! A redcap!"

Briar looks taken aback, and then warily, "What's THAT supposed to mean? I ain't..."

"Into the mud room with you, wash up in the sink." Marigold says, firmly, and Briar glares, then moves into the designated space. Running water splashes, and she shouts back over the noise, "THERE BETTER STILL BE COOKIES LEFT."

"You ain't a redcap?"

She comes back, wet and dripping - somewhat cleaner, except for where the blood and other stains have soaked deep into the leather of her ragged voile.

"I ain't a soft pansy sell-out like SOME jerks that think they still get to call em'self a redcap. I bleed out my own prey PROPER-LIKE." She swaggers over, all four-ish feet of stocky girl, and shoves a cookie in her maw.

"Oh. But do you make burgers?"

"You want I should grind you into patties, smurfette?" Briar shoves another cookie in her mouth. Not really a threat, not yet - more, sizing the Nocker up.

Marigold tsks a bit, and says to Thistle, "I'd ask her to be nice, but I don't think it would help much, I'm afriad. Briar, this is one of our new fledges. Meet Thistle. She's been a helping me out in the kitchen."

"I'm not good eating. Scrawny and sour, trust me."

"Add enough hogfat and even squirrel makes a good sausage." Is that the voice of experience?

"At that point, why bother?"

"Because it's MEAT!" She chortles. "And Meat's the best thing to eat! Not that I have to, I can eat ANYTHING. But... see yer eating cookies. WHy not just, like, mainline some flour n sugar? It can be BETTER."

"I heard that! Like.. what's the weirdest thing you've et?"

"Could you drink bleach? Gasoline? If you drink gas, could you breathe fire?"

Briar glares, suspicious. "Yeah, what of it? Uh. Probably?"

"Oh man, that'd be baller."

"Huh." Squinting. "What's the catch."

Marigold tuts. "The catch, dear Briar, is that you are not fireproof."

"Not if she had a suit!"

"On the inside of her throat? Briar, Thistle, I'm sorry - you may NOT attempt this." The normally sweet Boggan puts her foot DOWN.

"Awwww!" Briar complains loudly!

"Damn. Okay. Woulda been cool."

"Damn straight!"

As Marigold turns to tidy up from cookie making, Briar leans in, the smell of her breath an odd unpleasant mixture of raw meat and caramel.

"Wanna go see what else we can set on fire? There was one time, we got this hedge trimmer that was a flame thrower, but Calanthe fired the landscaper after one day."

"Oh, yeah... I..." A look at Marigold.

She is scrubbing something!

The Boggan didn't say not to set anything ELSE on fire, it is true.

"Is there stuff that needs to be burnt up?" Hopeful.

Briar considers. 'Need' is a very subjective term.

"Blossom?"

"That was a joke." She adds quickly, with a smile. A wide smile with too many teeth. "There's a compost heap, and the dung pile behind the stables, it gets hauled away by the shitman every week but he's not coming until tomorrow."

"Oh, gross."

"Uh.... there's a dead bush that needs to be uprooted?"

"That... yeah?"

"Jules was gonna see if Willy would pull it out with her truck. But it's still there. There are some stumps too, they need to get pulled but Blossom was makin' Roach play tea-party using it as a table. I almost BARFED. And Redcaps NEVER barf!"

"'Cept maybe Al. But he's a p%$$#y." Even Briar lowers her voice a bit, she knows some words she can get away with in Marigold's presence, but that's not one of them. "C'mon, let's fire something up."

"You ever use a lighter with hairspray?"

"Hairspray?" The girl doesn't look like she knows how to work a hair BRUSH."

"Oh yeah, it's on aerosols, so it makes a flamethrower..."

She scratches her head at aerosol, but lights up. "Show me!" A demand.

"Marigold, do we have any aquanet here? I got a lighter."

"Shshhhhhh!" Briar can't believe how DUMB this Nocker is. "Don't ask HER!"

"She doesn't even LIKE fun!"

"She woulda SAID something before, though."

Marigold's head is inside the oven as she cleans crumbs.

"She's a GRUMP. They're all half deaf." Briar clearly doesn't have a very high opinion of the boggan, at least not when she's boasting.

"One foot in the grave, y'know?"

"I don't think that's it. She hears fine. C'mon, let's check the bathroom."