#rivervale_lodge

"What?" She's used to dogs. Cats are...different. "Yeah, he's bonking his head into me." She tries scritching behind his ears. "This what you want?"

A contented thrum and he leans into the scritches. Yes, it seems so.

"He does that when he wants love." Dagmar climbs out the window. "Hey."

"Hey." She welcomes Dagmar easily onto the roof. "He's an old flirt."

"He is. Not so bad as Peach. I mean, Peach likes Dirk." Odin kneads his paws against Sylvi's side.

"Yeah...and Dirk likes him back. I'm not gonna try to figure it out...it's probably better that those two are paired up." She smirks while continuing kitty scritches. "He calls Peach 'Scrot' for scrotum. Kinda hard not to see it, now."

"Heh. She IS ugly, poor thing."

"Yeah, well...." A sigh, and she looks to the treeline again. "You heard anything new?"

"Siv and I were talking. The Fur Bogie, like, sounds super dangerous."

"Fir Bholg. Yeah. A lot of the really old stories about the Chieftain, like from before I was born, are about her fighting them. So they're big bads."

She nods. "Thing is, he's only there because of Bug Guy, right?"

"I think so. It's kind of confusing...but it sounds like they worked out some kind of deal...he helps Bug Guy, and Bug Guy gets him trod access. Jerks." She switches to stroking Odin's back, long strokes from ears to tail-tip.

He repositions to better receive the pets, planting himself on Sylvi's lap and arching his back. "MROW."

"Well... yeah, but, see, Bug Guy is just some weird sluagh. He's scrawny."

She smirks at Odin. "You're her cat, y'know." But she obliges with continued petting. "Scrawny, yeah, but...sluagh don't have to be strong. They're sneaky. Well, they can be."

"Right, but if we drew him out, then we could bring him to Brekke for, like... punishment, right?"

Sylvi thinks about that a long, quiet moment. "Maybe. But...between the drawing him out and the bringing him to her, how to we catch him? You just can't keep a sluagh caught. You've seen how Symon moves when he wants to be squirmy."

"What if we drew him out, then knocked him out? Can't squirm away if he's unconscious."

"I don't think that's against the code of Dagda - he hurt us first!"

"Oh, trust me, I get a shot at him, I...." She stops and scowls. "Escheat's gonna be a hard thing to remember."

"He hurt Tove. And Jaymes. Not just Olgar. He's hurt lots of people."

"Yeah. I know. You, too. Well, he keeps trying with you, anyway." She looks at Dagmar. "I wonder what that's all about. I mean, you hit like a train, but it can't be just that."

"It doesn't make sense. I'm not anybody, you know? And I've never even met him, so far as I can tell."

A frown. "You know...in the past, Mom's said stuff about how sluagh all know each other. I think she was exaggerating, but...well...maybe Symon knows somebody who might know Bug Guy? Or might know what he's doing what he's doing?"

"Maybe..."

"See, Siv and I were talking, thinking - if Symon could find him, maybe we could draw him out? Make him think I was alone, and then... BAM."

"Alone? Like, just wandering in the woods alone, and we're all actually hiding nearby, maybe Veiled Eyes?"

"Exactly!"

"I can't do Veiled Eyes, though. I don't know if Siv can. Symon probably can, though...." She's thinking about it. "So...you mean you want to play bait?"

"Yeah? I mean, if I'm the thing he's all obsessed about - what better?"

"That's so dangerous, though."

"But it wouldn't just be me, it'd be you and me and Siv versus one sluagh."

"I mean, that's more than just battle dangerous. If he figures out we're there and finds a way to take us out so you really are alone...."

A snort. "One sluagh and his creepy army of bug chimera."

"Wait...."

An idea might be happening.

"What?"

Odin turns in a circle, and flounces over to claim Dagmar.

A little half-grin, and she says, "Watch me." She snaps her fingers rapidly five times in front of Dagmar's eyes. "Watching?"

"...watching..."

Suddenly Sylvi seems to lose her balance. She slides abruptly down the slope of the roof and out of sight over the edge, too fast for Dagmar to catch.

"Sylvi!" Alarmed, and scrambling to catch her friend.

A hand grabs her arm, and Sylvi's still right there next to her. "I didn't move. It's okay. That's a Fuddle."

"Don't DO that!"

"Right, sorry...but...if we can Fuddle him that you aren't really where you are...like, you're five feet to the left or something...it's a little thing, but it might make him goof up enough to help us get the jump on him."

"I dunno...I'm just spitballing ideas."

"That... that seems smart, okay."

She huffs. "I wish I could do magic."

"Have you tried?"

"A little. Frank says it'll be easier once I'm sained - that I might have some already, but they might not show up on their own."