#rivervale_lodge

And soon enough Sylvi is thundering back downstairs, wearing her emissary sash and carrying a little go-kit backpack. "So you'll write me a note if I miss school, right?" she beams winningly.

"Mmph... if I do that you'll use the second half of the day to chase after you boyfriend... which is stupid, as he's there too. The fotress sent him to help" And Olgar steps out. Apparently he wasn't going to tell his daughter if she wanted to stay home, but since she did it for the right reasons...a proud look, and the info.

"Bye, Sylvi!" Jack Flap waves "Don't get tornado...Oz is dangerous"

"He's... really?! " She almost skips out the door, and waves at the others as she goes. "Bye! Play good music and stuff!"

"Don't worry. Tornados are scary, but sometimes there might be some good in their wake. Like people like Sylvi and Olgar helping out, and other people realizing that they can help too." She reaches for the ukulele, and starts softly strumming 'Somewhere over the rainbow'.

Lydia waves, then actually giggles once Sylvi is gone, "Sylvi is in LOOOOOOOVVE with Colton. WHen he first came around he was all 'I was a leanhaun sidekick and I know all about the world and you don't' and she was like 'well, you're a jerk face' and then he got taught better by Sparrrow, and he was all 'I'm sorry I was a jerk face' and she's like "Ooo muscles ...i forgive you'" Confiding the story

She laughs at the recounted tale. "A leanhaun, eh? Well. I'm glad he got over that. He must be a nice fellow for Sylvi to go all starry-eyed over, right?"

"He's a hero," SHe says "That's how this place works... folks come in as kithain ordinary.. and come out a hero after some time. could take years, but it happens. YOu'll do something heroic now that you're here, Piper..oph wait, you did, you helped save that farm! See.. this place, it gets even satyrs!"

Dagmar finds herself left watching the lodge...without so much as a by your leave

Well, she can be a quiet blue boulder in the background.

"Well, that was really Zane's doing. I was just an instrument for his work. Nah, heroing isn't for me." A grin.

"Then you're gonna be a heroine SOON," Lydia says sagely, "A shero. It'll happen. Everyone who stays in Rivervale becomes a hero of one sort or another in time."

"Ah, heroing is troll stuff." A grin. "I'm happy to provide the background music... HEROIC background music... from somewhere at a safe distance."

"You could sing 'Toss a coin to your Dagmar, oh Valley of Rivers'" Jack says interested in this back up idea

"What?"

"You are a hero, Dame Dagmar," Lydia says "Zane and everyone else says so"

A blink of surprise that Jack knows a song from such an... adult show, but she can't help a bit of a grin. And she strums a chord from Jaskier's tune.

"She put every horse, back on its proper course" Jack sings forgetting he was supposed to swear off music

"A snuggler of critters" Lydia joins in, "Protects them with force?"

Purple

And then Jack sees her face flush "Don't be angry please" he says nervous "I meant it like..good. Heroes are good. I didn't ... i'm sorry"

She shrinks. "Not angry..."

A grin, and she continues with a bit of gossip she had heard.

They came after her horses
To steal them from the vale
They lasso'd the Storm
But she sent them to Heeeeeell...

For she rides on a Star,
Defeating the cruel
A Falcon of the Vale
and a King family jewel!

Lydia claps!

"It's hard not to want to sing about heroes." She nods to Jack. "Not when they deserve it."

Blushing again. "Um."

And she relents, giving Dagmar a break.

"And when a humble Jack,
Came to live along
With Connor the pooka,
Along came this song.

Toss a treat to your singer,
Oh Kerri of Plenty, Oh Kerri of Plenty..."

Setting aside her instrument. "I bet there's something tasty she cooked up if we take a look. Dagmar, do you think she'd mind if we peeked in the kitchen?"

"I don't think she would... there were lots of cookies?"

"Well, I'll never be a hero" Jack says

"You might" Lydia says

"Won't" Jack shakes his head.

"Probably will" Lydia makes a face.

"Won't" He says louder

"WILL" SHe yells

"Ohhhh kay. Cookies."

It's about to turn into a arguement of who can say 'will' and 'won't' louder and last

BROW.

"I know a story about a funny little man who never thought he'd be a hero. In fact, he thought he'd live his life away in a comfortable little hole in the earth, eating six meals a day and never having any adventures."

"Is it a good story?" Jack says

"course it's a good story, Piper knows good stories" Lydia says , then says under her breath "Will"

Jack looks ready to inhale and YELL won't...but he's distracted by the promise of a story.

"You know, it's a pretty good one. They even made movies out of it, and cartoons. And while no one ever has to be a hero, sometimes... being a hero just comes up before you know it. Even if you're just a boring old fellow who wants to hang out with his friends and be a gardener. Though, I don't remember it all that well. I bet someone here has a copy of it."

"Can we get cookies and the story?" Lydia says looking towards Dagmar

Her mood improved, because at last count, she got WILL out without him saying' won't. So.. she wins!

"Hmph."

She goes to get said cookies.

"I think you made Dagmar mad" Jack says to Lydia

"Did not" She looks at him.

"Did too" He whispers

She strums once more, a mellow tune from a scarcely remembered cartoon version of a now popular franchise.

It's so easy not to try;
Let the world go drifting by.
If you never say hello,
You won't have to say goodbye.

It's so easy not to try;
Never stay around to cry.
Move along when troubles come
Like a mindless butterfly.

For what good is it to love
When the loving always ends?
Travel on the road that strays;
Not the one with hills and bends.

It's so easy not to try;
Let the world go drifting by.
If you never say hello,
You won't have to say goodbye.