#rivervale_lodge

And they did!
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Hark! A rabbit appears!

A pooka approaches the lodge!

Kerri, sweeping dust off the door mat, looks up to see the visitor. Anybody she knows?

Oddly, Oak wuffs a hello bark, but not his stranger bark

As the Dance champ of ..was it 2 pennons ago? approaches

"Oh! Hello, Miss Bluebell. I wasn't expecting you. Please, come in!" She gestures her inside.

Bluebell, despite having seen Oak before, is rather cautious around the dog. She curtsies to him rather than petting, and scootches into the building on invitation.

"How lovely your winters are here. Ours are too sunny, one can barely see. How do you fare without the sun?"

"We endure." There's some sincerity there. "The sun does come to visit now and then. What can I offer you for refreshment?"

She tilts her head delicately to one side, and politely requests, "Carrot juice?"

"If you give me a moment, I can manage that for you!" Kerri says with a smile, apparently happy for the unusual request. "Please be comfortable here, or join me in the kitchen if you wish." She goes on into the kitchen, holding the door open if it looks as thought Bluebell will follow.

She does! "The secret inner sanctum."

She stands on her toes, peeking and peering about curiously.

Kerri is happy for the company as she fetches out the juicer from a cabinet. "I don't have many requests for carrot juice. I'll join you in a glass."

"I am afraid I will have to stay here for-ever and ever. I can never return home again."

She says, quite contentedly.

"Oh, surely Miss Marigold would provide if asked." The machine gets loaded up with carrots and WHIRRRRRRRS efficiently.

"Well, also, home is a terrible, terrible place. All sturm and drang, all weeps and woes."

Kerri gives her a look as she pours the glasses. "Hmmm...either all is well, or it's slightly not-well." She passes one of the glasses to her and raises hers in salute.

She raises. "Cheers! Pip Pip, sip sip."

She sips, and her ears practically curl in delight.

"If only folk at home were this sweet and pleasant. It's always, "shut your carrot hole" this and "ferkakta" that, and oh dear, do you have a swear jar?"

"Well, we do, but Connor isn't here to oversee it, so we'll let it slide. So what's the occasion for all this outcry at Silverwolf?"

"When lovers weep battery acid and their emotions are explosive, then it is safer for one to flee. No one flees like a rabbit, you see. It's the pert little tail, after all!"

She turns and gives it a little shake. "Ah, still works."

A blink. "Oh, dear. What's got him upset?"

"Oh, not my lover. He has an easy reset button, but only -I- know where the remote is hidden."

A puzzled look. "Then...some other lover is being...explosive?" Then a blink. "Oh dear...are the baron and baroness fighting?"

"No, see...." She taps at her chin thoughtfully. "The Lord's once-estranged youngest's adopted eldest's masked man."

"He is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a puzzlebox?"

Kerri actually has to shake her head to clear it after that.

A cute pout. She sets her juice aside.

Then... "Wait...puzzle box? Like the one that Wudlig made for Gerd?"

She HOPS cutely. "The very same! He has written the most moving sonnet."

A dubious look. "Has he?"

"Oh, yes, yes. Allow me." She clears her voice, "Mi mi mi mi mi.... red lorry, yellow lorry.." Vocal exercises.

Kerri watches the preparations with interest.

A hand is thrown dramatically into the air! "Oh! Oh woe! For I am but Cyrano, and none would love me! But one! But ONE! And she, yes she, thinks better of it yet, for I am a knave who has foresworn the honest job, to labor henceforth under the banner of tyranny! Woe, forlorn, forever more! Mine own hand has struck me down, from my lady so precious and pure! And yet, were she to hear my lament? A womanly sound, it unmans the strongest warrior! For all know that tears are unto a mother's milk, and I will be henceforth rejected anew for weakness."

"Woe, oh woe.... you harebrained ninny-hammer nitwit!" She shakes her fist at an imaginary person, and then collapses on to the floor, wracked in silent sobs.

An ear lifts and she peeks up at Kerri. "Encore? Brava?"

Well, she applauds, but hesitantly. "I was wondering how things were going between them. Hmm. I should speak with her about this."

Bluebell sits up and claps! "Brava, brava!"

(Pause)