#rivervale_lodge

"Second thing we were told about, the first was that Escheat." The woman says

"Okay, good."

Snow is done with her orange, and looks about "Where should I throw the not so tasty bits? "

"I'll take it, Snow" The satyress works still amazed at Chimera

Lily whispers to Connor "How can I make my brother feel better? "

His tail wags uncertainly. "Um. Cookies work for me, but I'm a very simple fellow. But I know I like to feel included... "

A low aside. "That was very polite to ask, Snow. Good job, I'm proud."

Snow beams "Yes! See Friend Dagmar, you teach me much, and I only ask for fruit. How lucky are we?"

Lily nods to Connor "I will include him then." Already her eyes light up with ideas of how to scare her brother so he doesn't feel left out

"Very lucky, yes. I'm glad to have you around, Snow."

He thinks for a moment, then offers to Lily, "He knows an awful lot more about this than you do, since he's been training with Sir Dagmar the Just. You should ask him for help to learn more about who you are."

Mrs. Thomas throws the peels into the trash can

Lily nods "Well, okay. Thank you Connor, you're sweet." And she kisses him on the cheek. She smells a bit like aged celery and autumn leaves

"Ew, cooties." But his tail wags!

"of course," Lily says "My cooties are possibly lethal. Sorry" but she looks proud

"You should meet my friend. She brings me books sometimes, and the best socks. Oh, look- " And he draws back his pants to reveal a pair of handsome warm socks in rich red with a bone pattern on them. "See? I bet she knows books you'd like too." A pause, and he says in what is clearly intended to be a 'spooky' voice, "But you have to watch out, because she's a ghooooost."

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts" She says primly

Snow smiles at the praise from Dagmar and looks at Mrs. Thomas "is she not the nicest giant?"

"She certainly is nice" Mrs Thomas agrees

Purple, shrug.

"She is!" Snow agrees even though she's agreeing with an agreement "The nicest giant, for she shares much fruit and gives good advice and cares. Why once she helped my fur when it got gnatted, it was so icky."

"Um."

"Did she make you take a B-A-T... oh, I can't even spell it! Too horrible!"

"Fruit is wonderful, but the juice of the pinapple can be treacherous if it splashes you" Snow warns the young ones

Long-suffering sigh.

Hands over his mouth to stifle the giggles.

Lily takes notes

MRs. Thomas fights a smile, loses but does say "Well, I think Dagmar is very kind indeed to help a friend like that."

"Be warned, Snow might visit you for oranges now."

"And purples, and yellows too."

"I'll stock up" The satyress says "But I may skip pineapples"

"She likes bananas best, hate to stereotype, but it's true."

"I said that! Them's yellows."

"You did, Connor!"

"Oh, oh. Buy LOTS of bananas. And leave them out until they get all speckly-freckly, and when they're mostly browns and not yellows, Lilly gets some. And I get the rest, because you can make banana bread, and I like banana bread?" His tail wags hopefully.

Dagmar sort of shrugs and turns her hands out in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

"Banana Bread sounds CRUCIAL" The woman says "I'm no master cook, but maybe"

"It's okay, I'm A-plus at eating up practices."

"Connor is very reliable at that. Mrs. Thomas, has lily been to the Lodge yet? Maybe she can come over after school to play?"

"Kerri is a mom, so's the Chief, everybody would watch out for her."

"Well, " A glance "I could use the help. Sylvi and Romana have been great babysitters"

"Yeah, totally. But there's a lot of good hiding places at the lodge - just ask Connor, he's th king of Hide n Seek."

"I would like to play with connor.. I wont' even scare him" Unspoken 'much' Lily says

"Well then, I guess if they don't mind, sure" Mrs. Thomas says

"I could take them now, if they want?"

"Well, sure, and thanks, Dagmar. Should I pay you for babysitting?"

"Um, well, if everyone is sort of watching her, that's not really fair, is it?"

"Well, okay"

"MOM!! I'M HOME!"

"Hey, Adam!"