#rivervale_lodge

"Well, GREEN beans aren't food."

Amusement in the troll girl's eyes

"Well, your adventure is an epic worthy of song" She says

"Oh don't say that," Vali declares "he's gonna pester Torin nnow" but he smiles tthen says "Which he totally should do"

"Torin, that's Jack's pop. He sings better'n ANYTHING. Except maybe Dagmom."

"Skalds," A bit of ..envy? "Darkgate doesnn't have skalds. "

"Oh no. Hearth Kerri put a mark on the tap so you know how far to turn it. Then no one gets scalds."

"Silver wolf doesn't have many musicians, Dame Lavender D'Lorean plays the harp...nicely, and Bluebell dances so well... butt we don't have an official troubadour I don't think" Gwen ponders

"No pinching our skalds.." Vali raises a brow

Gwen blushes "Wouldn't think of it" And is SO glad there is no Gwydion here.

"Pinching isn't nice." Connor says solemnly.

Gwen's blush persists just a bit , "as a rule, no"

"If -I- had shiny rock skin, no one could pinch me!" He proclaims. "You must be tough."

A beat, and "Not as tough as my Knight, but pretty tough."

At that, Gwen nods "You were right both times. I am tough, and I've seen your knight at tourney, she is amazingly tough and a bad ass. You're a good squire "

Connor straightens up and his chest puffs out a bit. "It's the Shadowpaw training." He says, as though divulging a secret.

Gwen leans forward and whispers "An elite force of supersecret do gooders; if you're in trouble, look the shadows and see the marking of the paw, and know friends are near?"

Vali hums the A team tune. Which neither of them will get

His eyes WIDEN. "Is there a Shadowpaw branch at Silverwolf?!" A GASP. "Is THAT why they're called Silverwolf?!"

"They would have to keep it secret, because they're the bad guys." He says, then clamps his mouth shut. "I mean... um."

Gwen does frown a bit at that, then she says in a gentle tone "Secret for you: The good guys outtnumber the bad guys there too, but they sometimes have to hide it. " She wants to say more, about how the baron is a good man, but she's realizing that's tricky.

A solemn nod to Gwen. "Sometimes things don't make sense, but that's just because I'm small. Someday I'll be as tall as Dagmar, and then I'll understand."

She looks at Connor, "I would not be surprised. But .... I don't understand everything yet and I'm getting there. Sometimes though, when we can't understand, Love helps"

That makes his tail wag. "I don't understand that at all." The boy nods.

"Oh" she looks at the time "I need to check on the lovebirds. " A blink "After a trip to the bathroom."

"Coffee can be a cruel mistress" Vali suggests

Another blush, a mutter, from Gwen "Worth it" And off she scoots

"What do you think of her, Connor?" Vali asks once the girl's gone

Connor considers this. "She's shiny? And sparkles a bit. But you can only see it in the sun."

"Yeah, I... the sun..." Vali looks a bit dizzy for a second, and knocks over salt on the table and his eyes glaze. Then he mutters and starts to run fingers in the salt

"You made a mess." Connor observes, his expression concerned.

He begins to mutter as he draws clouds... lightning...

A wolf, chained in ice... barbed vines bite into the fur.... "No one hears the howl of pain... " Vali mutters then as Connor watches, the Beaumayn runs fingers throuh the coud patterns... sunbeams? then the chains crack... "the son... the sun... the.."

"Vali? ...Vali??" Connor asks, meekly, and then again louder with some concern. He reaches out and gives his arm a tentative shake!

Vali snnaps out of it, then looks at the salt his eyes runningg over it "Ah.. oh geez"

A solemn nod. "You made a mess."

He pats the arm, peering up at Vali worriedly.

"I think the mess is in Silverwolf" He mutters then smearrs the salt quickly

"I'll help." Connor fetches a dustpan and sweeps up the salt, giving Vali a few glances as he does.

"Do you need... um. Coffee?"

Vali throws a pinch over his left shoulder "I ... Connor... you may want to go... or talk to Dagmar" he leaves it at that. Vision or no vision, It's not my place to put the boy in danger.

"Or stay here, whatever you want" He shrugs "I'll get the mess"

Connor thinks about this for a long moment. "I'm going to go color." He nods to Vali, and trots off to the toybox. Soon he is deep into a pile of construction paper and crayons.

Grays and greens and blacks.. and then yellow. A lot of yellow.

"You do that..." A wince. That one hit like a hammer

And he cleans up

gwen rushes out "Later, got to check on the dogs. Thanks again"

Connor doesn't even wave, so intent on his drawing. By the time Vali's mess is cleaned up... Connor has trotted off. Leaving another mess behind... of course.

Did he need to dump the ENTIRE box of crayons out? Apparently so

Vali sigghs, and puts the crayons up

(End Scene)

Knight and squire head towards the Lodge.