#rivervale_lodge

"Like, the squeezy bottle and colors?"

"Yeah..." He nods "with tthe strawberry stuff that looks like blood if I ask"

"Cool!"

"Actually, that IS pretty bad ass" Lupita admits

"I know, right?" Dirk says his embarrasment turning to pride "I mean.. she hates it, barely wants to look at, but she does it.. sure, she sighs, but .. you know?"

"She's something else, yeah."

"You guys are lucky" Gerd says "And I'm doing fine too." Thought "Later in May I need to go visit my mom and dad's grave sites."

"Doesn't Vali cook?"

"Some... and he's not terrible... but I do a lot of the cooking lately so.. mmph." she shrugs "No, there's a reason we come here to eat." Then she lowers her voice "Tiffany used to be the WORST. She's getting average"

"Maybe he needs to be like Jaymes. Dad'll just stare at the oven, but put him outside and he's all... whoosh."

"Oh he does somethings well.. just saying.. if I want GREAT food I come here" She says

"Fair. Kerri's almost as good as Tove."

The others ALL look at her at that, then exchange looks among themselves.

"Tove's fantastic" Gerd says diplomatically

"She can make a mean bowl of chili" Dirk adds

"Uh-huh."

As if on cue, Vali comes in "Hey I.. oh sorry, thought Kerri would be in here."

"Hey Vali!"

"Hey girls. I was going to ask the Hearth if I could borrow some paprika assuming she had any... but it can wait. " He says "You four doing all right?"

"Yeah, Unc, we're good" Gerd says

"Sure."

"Got to kill bad wolves" Dirk says

Vali's brow goes up.

Lupe gives the redcap a look

"Bad werewolves."

The redcap shrugs "oh yeah WERE wolves"

"You kids okay? I mean, I guess you are.. but damn that's not easy"

That from Vali

"Oh I wasn't there," Gerd says "But Sylvi was"

"Aw, man, it was a hard fight!"

"Okay, I am supposed as a grump I'm supposed to fuss and say you should get help blah blah... but I'm betting you didn't have time to.. and damn, that's impressive. Congratulations"

"Thanks." Dirk says "it was fun"

"No way was there time!"

"Yeah, we got jumped"

"We won!"

"Okay, really impressed. And you had the sense to go out in your armor" Vali nods "Good on you"

"Oh, THAT was Tove..."

Vali grins "Wait.. your mom told you to dress up before you went out? "

"Be nice, Uncle Vali" Gerd says

"Okay okay." he says "but there are jokes and funny here. Mostly I'm glad you did"

"Yeah, it was lucky."

"I don't think it would have turned out so well without it."

"You'd be dead" Dirk says helpful like

"Yeah, probably."

"Hey," Lupe looks at Dirk "You wore armor right?" Glare "I mean, you patrol all the time."

"Yeah.. I got some leathers .. " He says with a shrug.

"LEATHERS?" Lupe says

"yeah" he says "It's badass"

Eyebrow.

"It's nearly nothing..." Lupe says "You could get hurt WORSE.. you were lucky"