#debukefarmhold

Buck, however, crosses his arms and holds HIS ground. Stubbornness is not solely for trolls

Earl gives Zara a quick and somewhat chaste kiss before she goes "Let me know if you need me to fetch you anything from Scarsdale or Earthen Runes or what not"

A little smile for her artist, and she slips off to cookery.

Supplies are hard stressed in many areas, and the Hearth apologizes for it "We've been doling out so much to folks near and far in this winter we're a bit short of everything but the essentials"

"Aye, but I see you have stripped some chickens down, and there are yet supplies in the root cellar, and hard-tack is rarely first-touched...."

Zara rather efficiently collects ingredients.

"The chickens are all yours, " She defers politely "I think we have some potatoes too... small ones, but servicable"

"If you want to get fancy" The new Hearth is less a 'force' than Agnes was, and more accomidating of Zara taking charge of a section. But then, Zara IS family

"They key is a strong stock, and very delicate matzoh balls... come, I shall show you." Zara folds Kourtney into the process. She is, after all, family.

"Oh, that's what your mother's note meant" Kourtney says as she gets to watch some of this in action

Zara does find one... well, very anti sluagh thing while she's digging around. Most sluagh would consider it... an abomination

A microwave tea pot combo! Microwaving the tea as a default! Steampunk style

Kourtney sees it as it comes to light "Oh, that's something Mara and a nother nocker friend 'improved' for us"

A shudder and a shake of her head. "They mean well."

"We're thinking of 'regifting it' " Kourtney whispers "So not to insult her while still making a bit of room. Safe to say you want it no where near your mama's home?"

"I am certain it would do for troll tea?"

A smile "The grumps here are not big on this kind of change"

"But the wilders, eh?"

"Mixed feelings... mostly like it because it offends the grumps" She admits with a slight smile. But ...Soon, that 'thing' is put under a towel, and the two get to work as Zara shows how to make Matzaball soup ala Zara

(Fade to instruction)

A la Hannah, and Bubbe Rivkah, and Alte-bubbe Sarah...

(A truth worth noting)

The sluagh boy is a sluagh, and that means in time, he needs space and quiet. So despite the cold, he finds a spot outside on the darkest part of the porch. He stares at the cold and snow even here.

He whispers "It is too cold outside for angels to fly. No, the cold here is made for dreams such as I. Small and shivering, yet proud as I'm quivering. Oh yes, I know the cold. I know the feel of the frozen glass, as warm within, the wealthy wish onward I would pass. Like the snow, I leave a trail. Beyond your walls, your forts of fire, the want of winter prevails. I am the urchin, I am the lost. I am the freezing sign of apathy's cost. So you want to see the dances of snow as it dies? Look at my eyes, look at my eyes"

And the omen goes off. Were he outside the farm, it would not work. The wards here are like nothing he's ever seen. But within?

It works, revealing to him a bit of the nature of this place. Not its secrets but enough to assure him there ARE secrets. And that he is... THEY are.. safe here.

***