#debukefarmhold

And the little girl croaks a cry!

"Oh, she was not much of a daughter. Daughters are loving and mannerly and grateful. This is only a toad."

"I love my mom..." Mumbled sticky tongue

"do you?" Echoes off the stone walls... Ashley's voice, screaming and spitting and cruel...

"but.. i like the berris..." whimper

"And now you'll like flies.." Earl says helpfully

"Ooo, crunchy-smunchy wings and hairy legs..." a raspy cackle

Gagging sounds from the girl even as things echo... her yelling at her mom... her demanding...

even a illusion of resentful feline eyes floating

"Cats eat toads if they catch them, right?" Earl asks

"Oh, they do!"

"Now, little beastie, do you want some slugs or maggots for tea?"

"noo... " Crying sobbing. oh how one must harden a heart

"Surely you don't want roaches, little beastie... I suppose if you asked nicely..."

then finally she says a right thing "Please, I just want to go back to my mommy"

and a horrible croak, for she thinks that's what she can't help doing

a deep rush of glamour as the cold terror of the girl's desperation mingles with the inspiration of a budding education..

"....say again?" Does she feel a touch less slimy?

"I want to go back to my mommy, please" SNiffle less of a croak?

"Now that sounded like a little girl, not a frog. If you behave like a little girl and a good daughter, perhaps you shall get to stay one. But if you act beastly, I foresee you will find webs on your fingers and warts on your back!" Even a mortal can feel the press of magic there!

"I don't want to be a beast" the girl assures

"A pity. I will be here, with my slugs and mud tea - ready for a little toadly beast as company."

"ANd your poor mother? Will she be happier with you, or without you?" The horned image asks

"With me... the slugs will love the mud tea, I'll love my mother. I promise" Ashley says

"But... you said please. And so, I cannot deny good manners. My giant, take her to her mother."

"Sunderme, no toad jam for my bread.." the Giant grabs the girl and shoves her into the basket .. there is a flash of glamour and..

gone.. the little girl has been flicker flashed. She will think she has gone into the basket and come out on her porch.

Zara, for her part, does release the fuddle...

And so Ashley finds herself fully human once again.

Zara is popping with glamour... oh she has touched something primal today... teacher, creature, spirit of river and marsh, avenger of mothers tears, cleanser of corrupt and hateful behavior....

Zara reaches for Earl, dragging him down to her height for a deep and passionate kiss. Who needs pomegranates when she is drunk with a child's primal fear?

"Well that went we..." Startled he is silenced with a cold and clammy kiss that never the less has heat under the current

and of course, he returns it...

Earl may or may not have benefitted from the same glamour rush, but he's certainly being rewarded now for the help.

Indeed, she gives him a taste of the glamour, and something else... his ardor rises. ... in past lives he has watched her and wondered... he need watch no more as she drowns him with herself

(Fade to dark delights)

-----------------------

Earl is ...well, naturally happy, and his glamour much restored.

And Zara? Zara is sure that.. Emmit's back. She felt a shift in the wards

Zara kisses the sleeping troll, and slips out from the grotto - looking for her teacher.

She finds him in the cold, on that bench he likes... and smoking his pipe. Normally , he's easy going it, but now he puffs like a chimey.

Zara quietly settles down beside him. One moment he is alone, and the next... there she is.

"mmmph " Sour look out of the side of his good eye

"Mmm."

"I didn't get half as much trouble from troll students I do you" He puffs "And don't think I don't know you were pushing Earl to mouth off to me"

Eyebrow.

"To mouth? No. He stopped me from confronting you."

"mmph, he Flicker flashed me... ME. Mmmph"

"Aye. He did."

"You probably smiled." Je accuse