#debukefarmhold

"Clay is heavy, not as heavy as concrete, but you better let me handle this" Gwen says

Thistle concedes, as her attempt to heft the now-full container are... less than successful.

Gwen kindly did not smirk or even wince as the nocker, who IS wiry and no wimp, tried

"Cool hair" A teenage troll guy says as he walks by with a wheelbarrow.

"Hey, thanks." In the spirit of the visit, it is bright blue!

He gives a troll smile, which probably looks to non trolls like a softer form of stoic, but then again, Thistle has two thanes and a knight to go by comparison.

Gwen mutters "I think he likes you"

"Huh?"

"That was almost flirting, " She explains "By troll standards. He'd die if I said so too loudly though."

Indeed, wheelbarrow boy is on his way and fortunately out of earshot

Thistle squints.

"Are you sure?"

"He's peeking your way when he thinks you're not looking. Flip your hair or something, but try to make it look natural" Gwen advisies. She's done the hair flip on her boyfriend, it is quite gratifying when it works

"Uh..."

Nervous fidget.

"Hey, shouldn't we check on Art?"

"Oh yeah, we may need to pry him out of their library but by now he should have traced those charts."

"Unless he found new charts..."

A groan "We should go get him ..."

"It's good that he's got a passion. Everybody should care a lot about something."

"You have dogs, yeah?"

"Yeah, that's true" She says "But usually it doesn't make me late that I do"

"Unless there's a new breed to see, or you meet another dog person to talk to, or..."

Gwen's jaw drops open in shock at this accusation. She chooses to rebuttle this with logic and says "Nuh uh"

then honesty compells her to add "Not usually "

Thistle grins, full of shark teeth.

"jerk" but she says it with a fond smile "Fine. We all have our passions. But we still need to pry him out of there"

"Maybe with the promise of a new book elsewhere?"

"Heeeere doggie doggie." She mimes holding out a treat.

A roll of her eyes, but she smirks a bit "It probably would work on him. Yes. But we can't keep offering him free new books to get him moving. We'll run out of space in our library"

"Details, details."

"I mean, if the only way folks could get me moving was with a dog, we'd need a kennel the size of a football field" She looks back "Mind you, not sure how impressed the baron will be with this set up. Little informal, dog wise. Still, the dogs are obedient and well trained and taken care of. Definitely working dogs."

"Well, they're very different from home."

"It's not quite as... grand."

"Well, we only saw part of it. " She says "But yeah, I prefer Silver wolf's vibe as well."

"It just feels like a fairy tale. This is.. I mean, it's fine."

"This is more like Charlotte's web's farm, or Little House on the PRarie meets Waltons. A different kind of tale I guess. I feel.. the land ,and the growth. But it spreads out, it doesn't build up?"

"Ok, I can see that. Not... exactly my kind of place, I don't think."

"Yeah" She nods "I like the hospitality, they're guarded but still generous in their way, but it's.. not very nocker suited. They don't seem to value experimentation? they don't spit on it mind you"

"Yeah, I bet they'd still use, like, plows with oxen."

"I saw a tractor... weird one, looked like it had some kind of race car parts... pipes?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah.. hold on, it was..." She gestures to a field "over there!"

Mara is not here, but to another nocker, her proud work is clearly that of a kith sister! Thistle's niche is different, but there it is, the tractor that doesn't look boring!

The person riding it seems white knuckled and seems scared for his life- but work must be done

"Well, that ain't drek."

"I.. what's the point of the pipes on the side?" Gwen looks baffled

"Air supply. Combustion needs oxygen, so big pipes let it burn more."

"So.. uh. Power."

"Oh, guess that makes sense" She watches as the rider of that tractor seems to be praying as it zooms around but it's getting the job done fast