#rivervale_lodge

Jaymes comes back out looking like it is not a holiday, but a funeral

Tove comes out, tray free biting her bottom lip but she smiles politely if seen.

Frank glances over, and trades his coffee pot for a bottle of something amber....

Brekke gives Frank a grateful smile for the coffee.

"I dunno, Symon." Sylvi sighs, then stifles a yawn. "I mean....I really don't know. Maybe that would work."

"Tired already?" He grins slightly. "Eyelids getting heavy?" Reaching out to tug the cart over. "I'll swing by the Barn, I know where it is. Don't wait up, now..."

"I'm not sleepy," she says as stubbornly as Gerd a few minutes earlier, but gives Colton a sheepish smile. "Much."

Gerd's snoring can be heard from a bench

"Hey, that'll be hard to transport there and back...we can help?" Sylvi offers.

Colton says nothing , biding time

Frank pours Jaymes a shot.... then another one. He takes both over to Jaymes. "Here."

"Thanks. I don't know aht I'm doing wrong" Jaymes drinks "SHe's upset, she won't talk about it."

Tove says "Women don't always talk about what they want, Jaymes, even if they should. " A sigh "And that goes double for women to be"

Frank nods and goes back to his coffee pot.

It's probably coming up on about 1 or 1:30 am around now....

He starts to say something, then glances from Colton to Sylvi. "Looking for an excuse to get away from the grumps?"

A sigh from Sylvi. "No, but I'm imagining you lugging that thing over all the roots. Either of us could just, you know, carry it."

Colton says "She's right. "

"Let me tell...well, ask my dad." She gets up and goes to where Olgar is sitting, Kerri now half-asleep on his shoulder.

"Won't Dags be pissed if she comes back out and we all went off to adventure without her? I could just take the quilt..." And he trails off as she steps away, and can no longer hear him. A sigh.

"Dad?" Sylvi asks. "Symon wants to deliver the stuff he brought for Dagmar to the new house, since they're making her upset here....but the direct path is all covered with roots, and he won't be able to get the cart there on his own, so Colton and I want to help him. It won't take long."

"I could do it." He scowls to no one in particular, knowing Sylvi can't hear him.

Olgar rasies brow "What if you fall sleep out there and I'm not able to put on your princess crown on you?"

A smile from Sylvi. "Then I totally win. But I won't fall asleep out there...and even if I do, they'll get me back here, you know they will."

"Take one of the dogs with you" Olgar insists

A big grin. "Thanks, Dad." She hugs him around the neck, then calls, "Edelweiss! C'mon, walk."

Olgar looks to Kerri "Assuming you're good with that, babe."

"Hmm?" A bleary blink, and an attempt to be fully wakeful. "I...uh...sure. If you say it's okay, sure."

"How about the one with the facepaint?" He smirks - at least he could probably take the pooka if it came to a tussle, and nods to Sylvi as she returns with Edelweiss. "I'll scout out ahead with the mutt. You two can do the heavy hauling." He gives Colton a small, knowing smirk - did he wink? Hard to tell behind the hair in his face, but the sluagh is down the path - whistling softly for the pooch to follow up with him.

"Sounds good." Sylvi grins, then picks up the cart and looks to Colton. "You ready?"

"I was born ready" he fights a yawn

A laugh. "I told Dad you'd be sure to get me home...so don't make a liar out of me. You want to carry this first, or should I? Or both?"

"I got it. I'm almost as strong as Dagmar" he says and grabs it and goes

Edewless follows

Meanwhile, back at the tables, Brekke has noticed Jaymes's mood. "May I offer what little advice I have?"

"Please" Jaymes says simply

"No two girls are the same, and Dagmar has certainly had very serious struggles...but I think she will find her way through this. Whatever it is that is upsetting her, she must figure out how to manage it. And I think you have done exactly what you should have. You noticed her distress. You offered your ear. And she knows that you are here when she is ready. For the parent of a girl her age, sometimes that is all that can be done."

"It doesn't feel like enough" Jaymes says "But thank you"

En route to the Barn, Sylvi walks alongside Colton and smiles quietly in the dark. After a bit she says, "I'm kind of surprised Dad said yes."

Tove has gone bacck to playing her guitar.

"Considering you're with me?" Colton says "me too" Sheepish

Brekke sighs with a grin. "It never does. But you have done well."

"I am willing to bet," the Chieftain adds, "that within one day she will be back to excited about moving."

Jaymes nods saying no more.

Closing off, troll style.

"Jaymes...some things are your responsibility, as her father. Her safety...her welfare...her security...her sense of belonging to a family...her education. And there are others. But her happiness?" Brekke shakes her head. "You cannot give her that. You can only give her the foundation built of the others, but she must decide what makes her happy, and find it herself."

Sylvi says, "Makes me wonder if he's tracking me somehow, cantrip-wise. Doubt it, though."

"Your cellphone" Colton says "Probably has a GPS"

Jaymes nods "I... working on making the heart listen to the head, but I know you're right. Thank you, Brekke"

"I mean more like nanny-cam, to see what we're doing," Sylvi says, her turn to be sheepish.