#fenixtj

A knock on Eleanor's door

"Hola?"

"Hi" A voice rumbles "My name's Emmit."

"You can come in."

Ellie is on her bed, with a collection of dolls and Ramona.

The troll is old, wearing worn but still thick bluejeans , a simple shirt , one of his eyes seems whiter than the other, and his face has laugh line wrinkles that deeply embedded from a life time of gentle humor. There are signs of past sorrow too. He takes off his hat and has a bag by his side.

She looks up, and up some more.

Noting the clothing, though... there's a subtle tension and wariness that sets in.

He smells a bit of pipesmoke

"May I sit on the floor?" He asks

"Si."

She gathers up the rag doll from Tonto, hugging it close.

He sits down "I have come here on behalf of my Chieftain, and Hearth, to negotiate a truce and make reparations.. "

The bag next to him wobbles and bangs a bit

Something is in there

She watches, quiet. "Si?"

"Si. My name is Emmit, I am a Mountain of the DeBuke farmhold. It has come to our knowledge that a visiting dignitary was wrongfully accused and, even perhaps ill treated. This reflects poorly on our honor, and our Hearth, who takes full responslbity for her bad behavior but did not think you would see her, has come clean about it. " The bag moves again but the man pays it no mind "You were that dignitary, a friend of a young ward of ours. We are ... in debt."

Her eyes flick to the bag then back. "I do not wish to see her. Sidhe are not welcome there, I know better now."

"Ah, yes. You are aware it has been some time since that occurred? Much has changed" he says grimly

"That's nice."

"You see" he continues "Allies asked of us to take in children who were missing school. Teen agers too... childlings and wilders... who could not , because of Covid, have school. or had it only online, needed a place. We agreed, and we agreed to change. It was not easy" he says "You ever try to change a habit? It's like you get a really great pair of socks, and they're warm and cozy and you think they look nice?"

"It's nice. The school. Dama Ash teaches us. She's very smart and nice."

"Socks" he goes on " really comfy favorite ones? You find a pair you love, you never want to take them off" Emmit sighs "But after a time" He sighs "Well, I bet you know what happens to them?"

Shrug.

Definitely a skittering sound in the bag

"I will be more gracious in the future."

"you were quite gracious," he says "The Hearth told me so... and she's usually an honest woman. A bit pig headed at times" A smile, then "Oh where was I? Socks and habits"

"Si."

Ramona sniffs at the bag.

"Socks, you never change them, they start to stink as they get dirtier and dirtier.. they can even make your feet worse rather than protoect them... habits can be like that. We have to change our habits now and then... or they go sour. Agnes was stuck in hard ways.... nothing that happened was your fault. And she admits that. YOU were gracious, she was distrustful. You were polite, she was hateful. She was so stuck in old ways of thinking she didnt even see you. She saw other sidhe from long ago who you had no relation to, nothing to do with. Agnes needed to change her socks."

the bag bumps out a bit at the cat, perhaps startling. The cat smells something ..vaguely reptilian?

"You want me to visit the farm again to make Ariel happy?"

"I would love that" he admits "Because we love Ariel, much like I suspect you do. But not jus that. You were wronged. We shamed ourselves. I would like you to visit to give us another chance so we can remove the shame we brought on ourselves. That's not fair to you, of course, OUR shame is not your problem, it's ours, but we do feel very bad about it" A thought 'As we should. I guess we're a bit like the cowardly lion in the wizard of oz scaring Dorothy. Dorothy did nothing wrong, but the Cowardly Lion was SO afraid of being seen as scared of her, he tried to pounce and show how 'tough' he was. Of course, Dorothy bopped him on the nose if I recall and once they got to talking..well, things got better between them"

"I want to make Ariel happy. I can go and be polite."

"I know my manners." Resigned.

"You're very kind, thank you" he says "But that only solves half the problem from our point of view. We know our manners too, you see? And we did not use them when you visited. We must make amends.. we would like to know how to do that..."

The bag bops

"I don't know."

"Well, I asked Ariel what you like and.. I.."

the bag flops over and some googly eyes peer out

"I don't know what you want me to say."

"What do you want to say?" he says "I don't want you to lie to us. Are you mad? You have a right to be mad at us, and you're allowed. I was not invited here. You are allowing me to negotiate to make amends. If you want an apology, you should say so. If you want to tell me I'm a great mean jerk... or that Agnes was, that's your right. You are allowed to be upset at being treated poorly. You are allowed to stand up for yourself. I just hope to make amends and... oh goodness" He turns as the lizard thing.. oh wow, it's a chimerical chameleon.. but with tiny wings

"Well, she's out, sorry about that"

"I don't know. I don't want to go back."

"And it doesn't feel right to take anything when I still feel bad."

"I don't know how to change how I feel, but I can promise to act better?"

"I didn't mean to upset Ariel."

She hugs the doll tighter, quiet and unhappy.

"You're not the one who needs to act better " Emmit says troubled "Ellie, if I may call you that? Who told you you had to be perfect or that eveything that goes wrong is your fault?"

The little winged Chameleon flutters to the wall and sticks like a gecko.