#rivervale_lodge

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The Rivervale kitchen has all the homey feel one would want from a Lodge kitchen in late autumn. It is warm in color and temperature, and Kerri is setting out fresh pastries on a large platter.

Dagmar ducks into the lodge from outside. She stops by the door to toe off her boots.

She heads for the kitchen - while she's in stocking feet, she's no sluagh.

And there is the warmth and the pastries and Kerri cleaning off the counters. She looks up. "Hello, Dagmar." A smile.

"Hey Kerri..." A shy smile, before she ventures. "Are those for dinner?"

"Well, there might be some that survive the day and make it to dessert, but I doubt it. Wash your hands, then help yourself."

"Thanks." As she crosses to the sink. "You need anything?"

"Well, as long as you have your hands in the sink, if you wouldn't mind washing up those few dishes first, that would be a help."

Grunt of affirmation, and she scrubs.

A bit of easy working silence as Kerri finishes with the counters.

She sets the dishes in the rack to drain dry.

Kerri nods her towards the pastries. "There's blueberry, lemon, apple, and one I made from these odd berries with a prickly husk. They're a bit experimental, but I think they're tasty enough. Sort of like a cross between grapes and roses."

"Ooo, blueberry..." She snags one of those.

Her enthusiasm makes Kerri grin. "Let me know what you think. I've missed you as my taste-tester recently."

A bite and then the face.. "oh-oo-oh hot hot hot"

"Oh, whoops! Sorry, here..." she gets a glass of cool milk and puts it down. "Should have warned you."

A swig.

"Oh, better."

"It's good!" Waving a hand over the bite to cool it before she takes a second one.

"Maybe that's all part of the experience. Sometimes you've just gotta get a mouthful of oooh-hothothot!"

"Maybe!"

"Well, I'm glad it's good." A grin. "So what's new? All's well with the horses?"

"Horses are good. Spark keeps trying to leap over things. Stresses Star out."

"Oh, when Spark figures out his wings, he's going to be an even bigger challenge."

"Oh yeah. Connor suggested - he's a smart kid - he said maybe we could ask the wolves for help."

"Oh! You know...that's not a bad idea at all. They certainly have the experience."

"Right?"

"And you heard about the Pennons Egg?"

A slightly wry expression. "I heard something, I think, but...I was a bit distracted around Pennons. Tell me?"

"So, this shady sluagh was trying to sell a stolen egg to a clurichain. It had a mark on it, a rune thing? To make the baby inside a slave."

"I.. uh.. interrupted the deal. Got the egg to Caer Falken's seer, and she fixed it so it wouldn't have the spell on it anymore. And I asked if I could help get it back where it belonged, yeah?"

"A slave? That's...HORRIBLE." She frowns and listens.

A nod, intent on the story.

"It was a bookwyrm egg, stolen from its nest. And the seer was all "well, it could go to a new library and have a great destiny, or back to its parents and just have a regular life" but, like, those were its parents, and I'm sure they wanted it back.."

"So me and Connor and Siv, we went to get it back to its home. There was a hydra on the trod - it wanted ot eat the egg, but wasn't a bad guy? It's fuzzy. Siv knows that part better."

"Well, the dreaming, it would be."

"But we got it to the big library in New York, with the lions? And we got it there in time, and Connor was a huge help, too... there were these awful bugs that stung me and made my head fuzzy."

"So, anyways, the egg got there in time and hatched at home. It was really nice, doing that."

Kerri shakes her head. "You kids get into the most amazing situations. I'm glad you got it to its home. Home is important."

"Yeah. It is. Like... better to have a home than be 'great,' whatever that means. Maybe that's not very Gwydion, but..."

"I think that can be true, yes. But only if it's a loving, supportive home. Trying to maintain a home in the midst of abuse is foolish."

"For some, the best thing is to stretch wings and move beyond home, and share themselves with the world. When they're ready, of course."

"True."

She stares at her milk, swirling it around. "Sometimes I feel like I'm... behind. Like. Like how Sylvi and Siv are ready to go..."

Kerri pauses in her bits of kitchen work. "Like it's a race?"

"Sometimes."

"Well...I suppose if you want to look at it that way, you are at a disadvantage. At least as far as fae life goes. They were both raised fae. Unless you're talking about being ready to go into the mortal world?"

"Both?"

"Well..." Kerri lowers her voice, "don't tell her I said this, but if you ever ask Sylvi what her post-graduation plans are, you'll discover she's not ready for that at all, yet. Trust me, I've had that conversation with her." A sigh, then a more normal tone. "I don't know if anybody's really ready to go when they're in the middle of high school. But some have to...and that's when they really become ready."