#bergen_county

"Dude."

She opens and reads aloud.

"Hey, I've never been to California."

“Me either.. “ He checks the envelope for bus tickets or anything else that may be included.

Directions on trods

He studies the directions. “Good, that means we can save some of the cash funds in case it’s needed later.”

“And my phone has VenMo, so if we need more cash, we can always hit up Vali.” He snickers.

"Sounds good. Hey, maybe we can take thanksgiving leftovers?"

“From last Thanksgiving?” He grins gimmicky.

*Gummily

"Well, like, I eat them first, and you get them when they go stinky?"

"Figure we can head out Friday morning, I think... yeah, here, we go to Firnost there's a trod to Jude's..."

“Friday?” He looks a little surprised, but agreeable. “Yeah, Firnost connects a lot of trods. Handy place. Maybe I’ll check out the library there on the way back.”

"Saturday?"

"I mean, I'd like to go soon."

“No, Friday works for me. I just thought you had stuff going on.”

"What..." A beat. "Ohhh..."

Sigh.

"Connor really wants to go."

"'He's your squire. He's important to you. ...do YOU want to go? They have all those horses there. And in a big muckety-muck party you could probably avoid the host."

"I don't like him." Huff.

"But Connor would be upset if I skipped out. So. Saturday, I guess?"

"Yeah! Or whenever works for you. Farm school and online school is kinda cool that way. Either way it's easy to get away with not showing up." A bit of a grin. "And I -do- owe you one. I ran off on a quest, now you get to run off. THEN we're even, and we go on our REAL quest."

Grunt, nod.

"This'll be cool. I will make it through Baron Jerkface's party. Some of the other people there are cool."

"Maybe another baron will get stabbed or thrown off a cliff at your party, too!"

A cheerful grin, which is rather gruesome.

"Well... he could be worse, which is the most frustrating part!"

"He's decent to everyone BUT Connor." HUFF.

"He's Ailil. If he's being nice to you, it's because he wants something. Not that that's inherently bad, you just gotta know to watch out for it."

"Maybe the kid just doesn't have anything he wants."

"Maybe."

A shrug. "I've never met him, so you'd know better than me." He sighs. "Do you think Anne Marie will buy it if I tell her that Professor Gardner is sending us on a field trip? That's not really false."

"tell her it's a quest, and you're going with me. It should be fine."

"She'll worry." He grumbles, but then gives Dagmar a small smile. "But less so if you're along."

"Exactly!"

"Want to walk me home? I can tell you about what happened in Dry Tears on the way. You can be my litmus test. If anything freaks you out too much, I'll leave that bit out when telling Ann Marie."

"Fair. Cover your ears."

Covered!

"MOM, I'M WALKING SYMON HOME."

"Make sure you bring the scooper with you" Tove jokes

Twobit barks as if joining in

"Bring Twobit if you want. Not like she's a real dog."

"Just thinks she is. C'mon girl."

And she bounces after eager to go

And to Dagmar he tells... everything. Even if it means they have to take a few extra blocks or stop and hang out at a park to cover the details.

The secrets of the sluagh meeting aren't revealed, except that after a kith discussion, it was decided he would be best to go.

But the rest, he shares. The part where he makes a gamble and it pays off poorly. Yes, when he said he was tossed into a sack and kicked around, he meant it literally. It's almost funny - now at least.

How he was dragged out for exhibition by the Balor, and chained. And that Nadeen held the chain... and then released him, which gave him the chance to distract the Balor and give Sparrow the edge in the combat.

"I knew that Sparrow - I mean, the Baroness Derenwydd, I guess it is now - was going to be there. At least, that was the plan. But I had no clue Nadeen would be." A side glance to Dagmar, leaving his suspicions and suppositions unsaid for now. He has no proof, and she DID let him go.

"We both tried to claim it. And when Sparrow refused us both...I almost tried to steal the chain. I thought about it real hard." He admits to her. "I thought that I had failed, and would be going back empty handed to face my cousins, knowing that this monstrous treasure was left out there. It was Siv that pointed out that I might be able to just ask for it."

Dag listens, a crease growing between her eyebrows.

"The feeling of when that chain was on me - it... seriously, I think it was the worst thing I've ever felt. It was like my own self had turned against me. I couldn't leave it there. Even trusting Sparrow. What if someone else had bought, stolen, or bargained it away?"