#debukefarmhold

A voice from behind and overhead. "Who ya lookin' for?"

She jerks around, her face already settling into a guarded scowl. "Who's askin?!"

"I dunno! Everybody?" There's a girl up in a nearby tree - small, wiry, with stubby gray wings and more feathers in her hair and down her neck. The collar feathers form an iridescent ruff of purple and green.

An impressive HAUWWWK sound as the childling clears her throat and lets a loogey fly to splatter the path beneath the tree. "I've heard what that Everybody guy says, and it's all bullshit."

An eye warily keeping watch around them as she says a SWEAR. But no grownups are around, at least nearby.

The girl giggles at that. "Everybody's all up in the gossip, for sure!"

"I WAS lookin' for a sky snack." She twirls the feather then balances it on one finger as if playing with a dagger. Perhaps she hasn't noticed those stubby wings.

"Ooo. Is it gonna rain crackers?" She cranes her neck to look up at the sky.

"Why, you want parrot for supper?" She also looks upward, but alas, no manna is forthcoming. "I'm not allowed to eat the chickens." Sullen at this.

"Seems unfair. Chickens would eat you if they were dinosaur-sized."

But she brightens up a bit. "Maybe there's eggs no one counted yet!"

A slow whistle. "I wish the WERE dinosaur sized. One time I was promised Dino Nuggets, and lemme tell you, those are a damned LIE!"

She clambers down to sit on a lower branch, feet swinging.

"Lies, lies and calumny!"

She looks over at the scrawny kid now closer, and narrows her eyes thoughtfully. "You ain't a secret sidhe, are ya? I heard that some pretend to be pooka by growing wings and then trick their way into stealing entire holds! Nasty trick that. "

A pause, thinking, then shakes her head. "Nah, you ain't. No sidhe ever had hair as messy as THAT, or such a stupid little nose."

"You ever see an emu? They might be dino-sized. Australia went to war with them once, with winged hussars and templars and cavalry an' everythin', and they still lost!"

"Oh, no, I'm totally a sidhe!"

"Or a she?"

"Sidd-hee is a dumb way to spell sheeeeee."

"What's a winged huwhat? Is that like a pegasus? Or a buffalo? Buffalo grow wings."

Briar pauses, backtracks, looking a bit confused. "Sometimes sidhe turn INTO birds. But only when they're REALLY shitty."

"I dunno what a hussar IS, but they have wings and swords!"

"Maybe they're a bird? That'd make sense, but they could be horse-riding bats..."

The redcap comes to a decision and squares up, hands on her hips. "Even if you ARE a sidhe you can't tell me what to do. Not HERE." A vague gesture around at the farmhold. "They are REAL BIG on that point."

"They're REAL BIG on all points." She stretches a hand over her head to indicate height. "True blue, hope to die."

That she understands, and nods. "Trolls are good to keep around. I only have one of my own, but she's got a BIG SPEAR. I do have two more that belong to me, but they're GRUMPS and less fun. Some of the ones here ain't that bad, they'd back me up in a pinch I bet."

"You got any trolls yet?" Curious.

A grumbly little warble.

"There's maybe a troll or two here, I dunno. They're very tall and I'm not."

"One of them's got a pooka name, though."

"Being tall is overrated. -I- can fit down a badger hole. " Proud of this. And, begrudgingly, "And a troll would bust that branch yer on, and fall right on their big blue keister! HA!"

"Splat!"

A guffah. "What's that about a pooka name? THey don't like when you call 'em names, you gotta be, all .. like... subtly about it."

"But it IS! Her name says she's big an' blue but she's small and orange!"

"Huh?"

"Orange an' blue are compliments, y'know. They just go round all day sayin' 'Oi, I like your tone!"

"Like, uh. Like an..." Scratch. "An orange cat?"

"Did you know that the color orange is named for the fruit and not the fruit for the color? Or maybe it's the opposite, I forget."

"Miz DeBuke, the one who teaches science, says that they all started as lemons but I think that's stupid." She leans in and says, "I'll share THIS trick with you, if you call 'em all Miz or Mister DeBuke you don't have to learn the teachers names!"

"Oh!" She trills, pleased.

"So what do they call you? You ain't no DeBuke."

"Or, uh, what would I... not call you."

"I could be! I think I have at least one blue feather..."

Trying to be clever!

"You can't call me Amity."

"Well then I won't. I mean, I will. I mean, you can call me Briar."

"Hi Briar, I'm Cheri!"

A rough, angry growl. No, not from Briar... but yes, from her, kinda. She rubs at her stomach and gives a sad last glance at the feather before thrusting it upward at Amity "I guess I can't eat you now. I'm not supposed to eat anything with names. Or, I mean, AnyONE. Like, I can eat the cows and pigs and chickens EVENTUALLY and they name those. Just not people. But sometimes PEOPLE is a fuzzy line, and folk get all CRANKY about it." Clearly a long running irritation.

"...What if I knew where there may have been cookies?"

"Are cherries in season?" Drooling, yes, a gross string right off her chin and onto her none-too-clean shirt, "Marigold, that's my boggan, she makes these little hand-pies that have sugar crunchies on top... and if you bite 'em just right they spurt like blood!"

Wait, rewind! "Cookies?"

They're not as good as bloodpies but...