#rivervale_lodge

Thane Tiffany takes a sip of Brekke's usual coffee, "ow. It bit me" Cream and sugar

"Shouldn't bite! That's a BAD." A voice pipes up from... oh, let's say, under the table.

"Heya, Pup" Tiffany says. She had initially been a bit distant from Connor, despite, or perhaps because of their canine natures, but she seems to be mostly over that, "How goes?"

"Lotsa going. Everyone running around here, and there, and everywheres. Dragons, and trods, and holds, oh MY. But I'm still here to hold down the fort."

"Guess that makes you my deputy while I play sheriff," SHe is indeed wearing a cowboy hat at a jaunty angle.

"Can I be Deputy Cowpoke Buddy, Esquire?"

"I promise I won't ACTUALLY poke any cows. Even if we had any. Which we don't... yet."

A snerk "Give Dame Dagmar time, and we'll likely have a heifers up to here. Mmm well, Deputy Cowpoke Buddy Esquire is a lot of words... so I may just call you Deputy, saves Ink for my report."

"You can use my crayons and markers if you like. It helps to make them more colorful. I help with Chief's paperwork sometimes." A shy, somewhat sheepish grin. "She said it was nice but I should use only the ones she says are okay that she's done with. But -I- think it's better to color the ones in the todo pile, because those are the ones that make her forehead go all..." And he attempts to make a worried/concentrating/wrinkled forehead look, screwing up his expression, but mostly just looks silly, as an ear flops over his face and he gets distracted trying to blow it back into place with puffs of breath.

"Well, she's a working breed, you know? They're not happy unless they're doing," Tiffany explains "And she's got to see the lay of the land she's guarding as it is, and not just as she wants it to be otherwise the hottentots will run amok, and boom, mass hysteria, the cats try a coup."

"That doesn't make sense, coops are for chickens!"

"No they're for pigeons, but let's not bring gender studies into this" SHe says "Anyway, some of the chimera are confused by this fox spring. So if you go into the woods you need to be extra special trouble alert"

"Oh, I'm GOOD at trouble." He scoots out from under the table, and bounces excitedly. "I want to go see the foxes!"

A shake of her head, "Kid, they're foxes, you're a hound... did the writings of Disney teach you nothing? It leads to Owl Devas and heartbreak" but she rises perhaps willing to escort him.

"Yeah, but then Disney makes a buncha sequels in the middle, so we can just hang out around there."

He heads for the door, and then pauses, peering back at the Thane. "How many legs should we take?"

"Always two there are according my sockpuppet account, it's cold, your mitts are muffed, you'll be fine." She assures.

"Awwww." He grumbles, and retrieves his shoes and affixes them with some reluctance, and bundles up. "Okay okay now we can go?"

While he was doing that, she was reaching into a desk, looking for something "AHA.. well, hold still, Deputy" She has taken a gold star sticker, and now affixes it to his jacket "Now you're a proper deputy and we can brave the prairie" and off they go to the woods

"Whoop! EXECUTIVE, Gold-Star, Deputy Cowpoke Buddy Esquire!" He grins hugely up at Tiffany. "It's a secret, but I figured it out, the more words you have in your name, the more powerful you are. That's why it takes three pages to write down an introduction to the Chief!"

Tiffany nods "Well, Chieftain Baroness Storm Brekke Longstocking Steinmetz King ap Gwydar IS a mouthful" And she guides the boy out as they go on patrol.

Well, they hike the woods and call it a patrol

"Longstocking? Her socks seem normal to me. Well, for troll socks. They're ALL long." He adds as they head out - looks like he has some literary catching up to do, too!

A smile, and there's a book in his future

(End scene)