#elsewhere

Connor lays slain on the scavenger hunt. Only one could retrieve the items. Only one.

So, Lily betrayed him with a snare, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and went off to win

“NoooOOOoooOOoooooooooo.... aww, shucks.”

"What did I tell you about girls?" Jackflap comes out, and starts to help with the snare "And sluagh girls? "

“They’re not to be trusted.” He echoes. “But Myrtle Anne is a girl, isn’t she?”

"Yeah, but she's mom age. When they get that age, they're bored toying with us.. so it's okay"

“Oh.” He nods, but looks unsure. “What about Dame Dagmar? It’s my job to trust her.”

"Oh. Okay. Yeah. Okay maybe it's not all GIRLS... but I'm just saying they do sneaky stuff that confuses everything"

“It was boring when Lily was away though. I missed her.”

“she says we have to cut up worms in science, but sher’ll do mine for me. That’s friendship. And she only dropped one worm in my hair.”

“half a worm, but it grew back into a whole one.”

“Not WHILE in my hair.”

Then a whisper "Connor, are you free yet?" Lily comes up "I won, thanks to you" And she gives him a hug "Please, come to the award ceremony. it wont' mean anything withotu my favorite victim"

The hug is cold and clammy, yet warm, sort of soggy, yet sweet. And he feels like a knight in a story.. which story he's not sure. Maybe Good Knight Moon

“I don’t know. What if you’d forgotten about me and I’d spent my whole like in a snare and then Died and you never came back?” A little sore still. Oh, but that hug helped a lot.

"I would never let you die...alone" She assures

The snare undone. Jackflap rolls his eyes and ponders saying something.

Lily shoots the satyr a death glare when Connor can't see. And Jack decides not to say nuthin!

Finally his tail wags. “Let’s go get your prize. You did have to work extra hard, both to find the stuff and to set up the trap. That’s Engine... engine unity.”

"Thank you. a good trap IS hard to do sometimes" She pulls him along

Jack rolls his eyes and follows along Maybe I'll be gay when I'm older? Sounds a LOT simpler

And off they go

(End Scene)