#elsewhere

They all appear in a crowd in the gardens of Earth RUnes.

Earl goes 'Whew"

"Everything ok, Sir?" a bit curiously; he's heard about the Oathing of course.

Minerva looks curious "Why would you want to flee your family?"

"me? flee my.. ah, well. ah.. The Oath is done, and it was for the most part a small lovely event.... it was small, perfect, happy, and free of outside influence" A cough "And some families hate that"

Betty snerks "You chickened out"

Earl sighs "Yes. Yes I did"

"Sorry to hear there's friction, Sir." Adam shifts the bag on his shoulder.

"More like.. too much family 'help' " he says "But thanks"

"And, thank you for the help getting back." Adam says, as he usually does.

"You're welcome, Adam." he says "That hat warm enough for iowa winter?"

"Yes, Sir; at least for as much as I'm in it. Try to stay indoors."

"Okay. I'll leave you all.." his phone is ringing to the tune of 'my darling clementine '

Adam starts to edge away; leave the man to his family.

The other wilders break too and Alanza and Zane walk with Adam. Though Zane will likely head back to RV by trod

Adam asks about that. ".... or hang out here?"

"I'm cool with hanging out. School ended a bit early today anyway"

"I guess I should work on memorizing this thing." he indicates the poem "You can probably find somehting more interesting to do here, though. If you want."

"Okay, you invite me to hang out, then you tell me I can find something more interesting to do ?" Zane says "Adam.. did I offend you?"

"No! Dude.... " he sighs "No. Look, let me chuck this in my room and we'll hang out."

"Alanza? You in?"

"Sure" she nods "You two would be lost without me"

"S'what eshu are for, right?" Adam leads the way to his room. "You guys want to dump your stuff here?"

And they do

Thanks to the staff, his room at the hold has fresh linens and been cleaned up

Adam opens the door and slings the bags in, shutting it without looking. "Ok, so what do you want to do?"

"Clearly we should create poems so we have someone to fight later" Alanza says

"Clearly?" Adam is skeptical "I'm not much good with that stuff, you know that."

"I was joking" she says "Zane? Got ideas?"

"Wizards always have ideas" He says "We are tired of cold . We want warm. And we want to wild. Thus.. I have the best solution."

And so it was, that each of them soon got on fuzzy socks over bear feet, even the guy with hooves... the contest? To see who could slide the farthest down the longest halls of the hold

music playing in the background is encouraged

Adam feels a little silly at first but.... heck, this is fun. What the hell? He backs up and tears at it and is soon sliding like a pro! A prop what? NEVERMIND!!

"WOOOOT... how far did I go?" Alanza says as she slid down one long hallway

"Adam had you beat by about 4 inches" Zane says

"Don't sweat it, Alanza, size isn't everything."

She snorts a laugh and gives hi ma light shove...

"And now he's ahead of you by eight inches when you pushed him" Zane nods

"That does NOT count"

"Yeah, should be under your own power. Go on, Zane, you try."

Zane has the speed, so gets an edge, managing to tie Adam's score. Adam has had more physical training and that's why that edge wasnt' enough

"Fine, but I Look better doing it" Alanza declares as they slip to another hallway

"-THAT- is true."

"No argument here" Zane admires

"Ladies first." Adam offers.

And she build up her speed, and shoots forward

Adam watches, not without admiration.

Zane also admires. Alanza definitely has that athletic frame that's still very feminine in all the right places and the lads get to appreciate it

Determined to better her last scoree, ALanza put a lot of ooomph into it...

And she bowls poor Veronika over just as the Rusalka steps out