#earthrunes

Home again, home again

Earl looks relieved.

"Well, tis still standing."

"Honestly? It's the most stable place I've beenn in a while" he asks "Alabastar Hollow is ..shakey"

"Well... who knows what will happen with Dornklippe, or how long he has... but... "A frown. "Means matter."

"They do..." A nod

"It's just they're are a lot of angry feelings, nickname in play or no"

She nods. "A lot of fixing to do."

"And it's not like it was peaches and cream before this..."

"No. I hope they learn the right lessons," He gives a squeeze

"Truth. It could do well as a nocker collective, mind."

"Don't spread that around" He says semi seriously

"Well, nockers tend to care about their work first."

"Except when their niece has been in danger" He kisses the top of her head

"Oh, I did not mean to scare them!"

"I think we all get scared when someone we love is hurting or hurt"

"Truth."

The library when they enter, has brand new books! Oh, the ten books requested as amends, but these are leather bound, good editions, each copy worth a great deal

"Oh..."

Velvet has put them up with care

Earl whistles "These must be each worth a great deal"

"Aye, hence the damage to the Hollow's reserves..."

Oh how they glisten. A few are newer than a sluagh might like, but there's no denying the craftsmannship involved in each

Age will come.

Bronte beams and swoops down "“No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Lost Princess of Oz"

She looks SO pleased

"That is true, darling. Did you read any of them yet?" Zara allows Bronte to roost on her shoulders, and scritches the little dragon's eye ridges.

She nods "“Every treasure is guarded by dragons. That's how you can tell it's valuable.”
― Saul Bellow, Herzog""

And presses into the skritches

"I think even the bad or average books she steals lines from if they involve dragons" Earl observes

"Well, can you blame her?"

"A dragon makes a book better."

Bronte preens

"What about a pastel unicorn?" Earl offers, perhaps teasing

"Depends."

"Feh" Bronte says. As if such might be okay if the dragon were allowed to use the Unicorn's horn as a toothpick OR.. better, the Unicorn were put to work moving library carts

"I like The Last Unicorn."

"I bet Molly's your favorite though" Earl smiles as he guesses

"Mmm... favorites are hard to pick."

"yes, part of the fun of pressing for them" he squeezes her hand "A flicker of distress, the tension of loving more than one so well and I watch a biblophile writhe delightfully"

"Oh, mine Tormenter."

A whisper in her ear "So which is it? Molly's with her sharp tongue and still soft heart under the jaded hide she has had to develop to survive? Schemendrick, who wanted naught more than to be a true wizard with a desperation that was palpable? The Unicorn herself, who freed all others only to find a part of her forever trapped mortal? Or poor Lir, a hero who felt loss twice over ? "

Poor Bronte seems to be stunned. A ..FAVORITE? when there is such a buffet?

"Feh!"

Earl teases, "Feh? Feh you say? Does the mighty questor shirk and flinnch from such a choice? Has the witch most wonderful hit her wall?"

"Nay, I shall claim them all. I am a glutton, and will not cast one away."

Bronte gives an adorable roar in agreement

Earl breaks into a soft laugh "outrageous" And kisses Zara

"And that is why you love me."

"with every fiber of my soul"