#bergen_county

"So maybe Siv's chilled out a little since all the texts."

"I hope so."

As they approach the Lake, they might see Siv on the dock

"Oh..." Dag slows a touch and indicates the dock with a point of her chin.

"Speak of the devil," Sylvi says. "We should talk with her...." a suggestion, but she lets Dagmar take the lead.

She appears to be staring at the water, sitting Indian style

"I mean, if nothing else, at least we'll find out what's going on."

"Yeah."

Siv can surelyhear the clop of hooves and the jangle of tack... but then Spark whinnies a greeting! FLAP FLAP FLAP.

Sylvi chuckles. "Well, there it is...." And then she calls out, "Hey, Siv!" and waves.

Siv turns and waves back. Her usual smile is not there, but she waves and rises "How's the riding?"

"Good. We have snacks. Wanna join our picnic?"

"Sure" Siv says almost cautiously, and approaches them

"Tove and Hearth snacks," Sylvi sings with a tempting lilt.

THAT does get a smile and a chuckle "Well, can't say no to that"

Sylvi dismounts and goes to give Siv a hug.

Siv returns it, "Good to see you again"

Dagmar tethers the horses where they can reach browse and water.

"You too. Come on, let's see what Dagmar has in her pack."

"No problem... by the way... just cause I'm a bit nit picky and defensive about it.. you Do know SOME is a qualifier that automatically prevents brush painting?" She smiles though "And yes, nit picky"

Cold fried chicken. Ham and cheese hand pies. Apples and baby carrots (hmmm, perhaps not all the snakcs are for the girls) and a bag of cherries. Three kinds of cookies! A thermos os lemonade.

"Well...yeah," Sylvi replies as they settle down.

"Geez, Dagmar...this is a FEAST!" she says, pleased.

The satilor sniffs "oh that's good... thanks, Dagmar. How's CJ?"

She pours out lemonade for all of them.

"Now that he can walk, it's all he wants to do. We had to re-baby-proff the house. Toddler proof?"

"Flo's kid is kind of like that. I mean, he's older than CJ, but we have to make sure that stuff is out of reach of grabby-hands."

"Ha" she looks wistful "If I ever have kids, I hope he or she likes water, or we're gonna have nothing to talk about" She sips her lemonade, "mmm thanks again." and takes a bit of fried chicken

Sylvi helps herself to one of the hand pies. She takes a bite, then sighs with contentment.

"Nothing like Mom-food, right?"

The chicken has a kick - Tove's, clearly.

"So true."

She takes another bite, and then a sip of lemonade, and then leans back to just enjoy the water and the birds and the leafy shade.

Siv munches quietly "I know what you both want to ask, and I'm not sure I am allowed to answer"

"Can you answer how you're doing?"

"Better..." Siv admits "I may have cried in the arms and Jonas and Piper last night...good lord they should get hazzard pay for the crap I bring down on them. " A blush "I may have also ate more ice cream than is reasonable"

Spark has discovered that he can snort bubbles at the very edge of the lake with his nose, much like he does in his trough. Much to the dismay of a frog that ribbits and hops out of disturbance range.

"Unreasonable ice cream is sometimes necessary."

A giggle at Spark. She points him out to the others.

"So...okay...the question was whether we thought the Mountain had let us down in some way, right?"

Sylvi looks at Spark and shakes her head with amusement. "Doofus."

Stormwake shakes his head, but nuzzles his son anyway

"YUP, more or less, that if he 'failed' any of you" Siv frowns

"Did somebody say that? Or did he think that? Troll-brain might be doing the thing."

"Like... Duty and Protection and... Troll, right? So, like, sometimes I'm pretty sure I've failed or let people down just because... like... you know?"

"I think the later," Siv frowns "And I've already said too much, but he was doing the 'this is a problem because assumption' and I was like 'why do you assume, what specific facts do you have?' and of course he'd rather rip off his beard than answer the fucking question with actual concrete events"

Sylvi says, "Well, yeah...but he's you're dad, too, so that makes it even more frustrating for you."

Siv sighs "I'm very sorry to have sprung that on you, but I was getting NO answers from him, he kept being nebulous, then claiming he had answered, while still evading... and after a while... it felt like... well.. he was set"

A nod to Sylvi "I feel like he doesn't trust me, but it was worse for mom"

"Well, something happened then. I don't think it's about trust. It's probably shame. I trust Jaymes and Tove like crazy, but... like.. dunno, it's hard, sometimes."