#bergen_county

"Les, you ain't afraid of dogs, right?"

"Nope. Why?" He looks up.

"Not even big mean ones?"

"This about those big fae hounds at the lodge?" He says "I can take em, but I thought you LIKED em?"

"Nah, more like a regular dog, exceptin' it AIN'T a regular dog because it's got these slaverin' jaws just dripping with saliva and drool and mean-ness AND it's the size of a camel."

He arches a brow at that, "Okay, this one may take a time to translate. You piss off a werewolf or something?"

"Oh, I heard we got werewolves! Think they know the flying wolves?"

"But hey, didja know there's a scrapyard out Curry Road?"

"Huh, okay." He accepts this, "And there's a junkyard dog there, and you want something from it?" Les scratches his chin. He loves his sis (The little snot) but somedays it's easier to translate than others "ALso.." He adds, "IT has a dragon, of course."

"....I didn't know about the dragon."

"But you're scarier than a dragon, aintcha?"

"Nine times outta ten," He says, "I would totally eat Puff."

"Sooo..." She twists her fingers together. "Betcha there's cool stuff there you would like?"

"Maybe... maybe at least good snacks?"

"And if you wanted to go to the junkyard, I could be a real good lookout."

A LONG look, "is this about you trying to find a bike and hope to repair a junker?"

Guilt flashes across her face. "No?"

"You fly, and you want a bike, that's.. that's greedy, sis. That's a demand for excess," He tuts d ramaticly, "Good thing for you I'm a redcap and approve of the 'I want more' philosphy. Okay." He gets up, "Lead me on to this place. We'll see if we luck out."

Her feathers flatten when he calls her greedy, but when the tide turns she lets out a joyous whistle.

And, oh, that's an ambush hug. Perhaps Les has a koala pooka for a sister.

"ACK, my coolness, leaving my body! Gah!" he hugs her back anyway. "Okay okay, you really want this if you're willing to do that after I had my garlic chips."

Good lord, he DID have Garlic chips.

She sniffs and gags theatrically. "Oh, you planned in advance. Smell-o-flage."

"Breathe it in," He grins, but as the hug ends he's clearly ready to follow her.

She laughs, merry mood restored. "Maybe there will be TWO bikes."

"Sure, I could use a bite," he grabs his jacket.

"If I'm half nocker, and you're half nocker, between the two of us we got a whole nocker, and nockers can fix anything."

A dirty joke comes to mind but he doesn't dare voice it, for one thing, Mom would kill him. Instead he says "Can't argue with the logic. Let's go before I get bored and change my mind."

"Yuh-huh. Course, we're also a whole burglar maybe but not really and Dad didn't steal so much as borrow and the Baron really overreacted anyways..." Skipping along beside her brother.

"Heck, it was cleaner when Dad returned it than it was when he borrowed it. Some people are ungrateful," There maybe parts of the story of that incident not being mentioned as they make their way down the streets.

"'Xactly!"

"You think Kerri'd be touchy?"

"If we took her cast iron skillet? I hear she might explode." He doesn't say how he knows this.

"Well, you remember when I borrowed Mom's favorite allen wrench."

"I thought she was going to build a dungeon for you after that" He recalls, "That was a LONG time out."

"Yeeeaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrssssssss."

"The fact you hobbled out and stroked your 'beard' was a nice touch," he confides.

She preens.

They approach the Junkyard. It does indeed have a 'Beware of Dog' sign on it.

Amity's steps drag just a bit, eyes wide as she looks for the dog.

Les braces for this killer canine

She'd scoped out the place on the wing - but pigeons cannot carry scrap metal. And in girl form, while bigger than a bird, she is not bigger than the yard's guardian.

Apparently, their footsteps were heard, because now there's barking. Not one dog, but two!

Doberman and a Rotweiler duo, "Cool dogs." He admires.

But he moves forward, suddenly grinding his own teeth, and the danger he projects is chilling.

The dogs come in to bark and threaten then... make eye contact with him. "Shaddup, or I'll feed 'fix' you both again."

And the dogs 'shadup'

Amity lurks behind Les, peering around his side.

"Ma's not nearly so attached to her bolt cutters as her wrenches, right?"

"I could have just bit it, but sure."