#rivervale_lodge

"Hello, Connor."

"Ohhhh. Oh! My friend! I have a thing I wanted to show you! " He pats his pockets, then looks thoughtful. "It was just here. I'll go find it." And he darts off again.

"..."

Siv looks curious

"Well. I may know what it is..."

"Zara, did you have another reason besides visiting me to be here?" A brow

"Well - as said, I was seeking Connor. But I am very happy to see you."

"And I would not be here at all if Earl were still delicate."

"You did you did" She remembers then says "LEt me know if I can help Earl... he may seem atypical for a troll, but he IS a troll and he'll act like he's just dandy when he isn't or go right back to flicker flashing everywhere or trying to paint for 12 hours straight"

"Feh. He would not take the trods home."

"Nay, he insisted on flicker-flashing. I know there is not a direct trod to Earth Runes, but to and from Firnost is swift..."

"I'm a show off but even I think a bit of the Silver wouldnae kill him" A shake of her head "It's nice when they try to impress us, but sometimes they don't realize we're the ones who have to see to their mending when they push themselves. Daft gits."

"Aye!"

"I'm starting to think Sparrow has the right idea" She says "But then, without men who would shoo out the spide.. oh right, sluagh"

"Not shoo! Befriend!"

"You know, I learned primal primarily to speak to spiders... some sluagh have the gift naturally, but, alas..."

"oh but you see by night. I have to use an eye patch for that. So you have gifts too"

Huff, puff, Connor jogs back. This time his sneakers are sloshing, and after trying unsucessfully to wipe the soaked things on the mat, he kicks the off and pads in on damp socks. "Hiiii. Can I have a hug? I'm only slightly dirty." He says in his "sluagh appropriate" voice.

"Sluagh do not mind a little dirt. It adds character." She opens her arms.

He beams and gives her a hug, carefully! Though she is still bigger - or at least, taller - than him, he hugs like one who learned from Trolls to be careful lest you squish too hard.

"Thou hast grown!" She measures his height by holding a hand near his head. "Must be that troll-water.."

"I'd say I missed you a billion, but I can't count that high, I don't have enough fingers and toes. No one here ever gives me books to read. " A sheepish glance to Siv, and he explains, "Well, they do, but yours were always better, they smelled like old stores and dusty places and sometimes had writing in the front that says that it belonged to someone else first. My friend, she brings me the best books, and sometimes there's a dog in it."

She smiles.

"I thought troll-water was coffee. They don't want me drinking coffee." Thoughtful. "Maybe because then I'd be too tall to boss around. I hate when people tell me what to do." A goofy smile.

Siv says "it's true" agreeing

"Still.. no books? How terrible! A shanda!"

"Hardly any." A terribly, terribly mournful look.

"Only one shelf. And I read 'em alls already."

"Mostly we carve on stone tablets. Nordic runes"

"Mayhaps I can address that lack..."

"Those are harder to put under my pillow when I want to read before bed."

"But they keep your back straight" Siv adds

"Oh, but, I found a thing." He says, excitement creeping into his voice as he lightly tugs Zara's sleeve. (The AUDACITY!)

"Aye?"

"So, I was watching my cereal-cartoons, I'm allowed to watch for one bowl of cereal, or eat cereal until the one show is over - that way it's fair, right? And Jack was out talking to his flowers, so it was just me, and then I saw her." A nod. "At first, I thought it was a people. But... you ever put on someone else's glasses and look through and your eyes go kinda weird, and also the lights are out and only there's a candle or a nightlight?"

He tries to cross his eyes to demonstrate, but only succeeds in making an odd face...

"..aye?"

"And then the show goes, WHO'S THAT POKEMON, and I thought, I know how to catch something weird! And I took a poke ball... ish... ball? And I tossed it, only not HARD because you don't THROW things at people OR animals, that's mean..." He mimes a gentle lob, like rolling something across the floor. "And I hippity-hopped at it to go into the ball. And it was HARD, though. Not like when I pop myself to the roof, or even trying to bring the frisbee off the roof down to me, but I thought, if Ash can do it, I can be Connor Ketchum and catch'em too? And POP it went in!"

Zara's eyes widen.

He takes this as appreciation of his story - so rare does anyone want to listen to the whole thing!

"Only, it, it wasn't an it, it was maybe a she, not a SIDHE, but like a her-person. And she looked mad, but I didn't know how to let her out without breaking it. So I thought, what do I do when I'm fussy and want to feel better? So we went and climbed up a tree and showed my favorite bird nest, and I only dropped her a little and the bush caught it with no cracks. Then we played in my favorite mud puddles. And then I wanted to see if she would float and if she floated if the snow flakes should still float upside down, so we rafted down the little stream that goes over near the lake, and saw the bullfrogs in the pond..."

Oh, oh. What a day of being carted about, shaken too and fro, dropped, caught, submerged and bobbled.

"And then I came back for a snack, but you were here, and then I remembered I left it by the stables because it's fun to jump down from the hayloft and land on the bales, only you have to use the ones that are gonna get broken up anyways for horse chow. And I brung it! To show you!"

"...aye.."

"Ah... Connor? Heard you aught of Peter Pan?"

"Everyone knows Peter Pan." He nods solemnly. "I'm one of his lost boys that never grows older."

"Aye. So - you remember when he.. ah... lost his shadow?"

"Miss Wendy had to staple it back on!" He nods! "He made a fuss, I never made such a noise even when I needed band-aids and stingy spray..."

"aye..."

"Did you want to see?"

"Well, Connor.. ah... I believe I know what you caught."

"I would like to see, yes."