#rivervale_lodge

The sound of chatter outside - Connor's voice!

Dag squeezes her eyes shut for a second, taking a deep breath.

"Byeeeeee!" Connor calls to whichever of his friends was seeing him off, and trots into the lodge. He sniffs the air, hoping for cookies, but instead smells... "DAGMAR!" He whoops in excitement and goes looking!

"Heyyy, Short-stack!"

"Oh Captain my Captain!" He announces! He is unlikely to have seen Dead Poet's Society, but he may just like the sound of it.

"Kerri has cheese danishes." Dagmar has one, but it is practically untouched.

"Did you hear? Jack saved an entire ORPHANAGE of seedlings and build a playground for plants! It's now the official unofficial Shadowpaw H-Q!"

"Nice!"

His tail wags, but he's more interested in sharing news first.

"You have been busy?"

"Yeah, I have been..."

"Adventures?"

"Kind of. Preparing for... a kind of mission, I guess."

"A Mission! Tell me all about it. Are we going to the moon? The stars? The deepest ocean? The Ice cream store?"

He hopes it is the ice cream store.

"Oh, I think ice cream can be part of it." She fidgets.

"Hey, you remember..." She fishes an item out from her pocket - it looks like a smallish Yule ornament, with a picture of a dog on one side and a hammer on the other.

"Our Special!" He DOES remember, clearly, "Never seen it before in my life, Occifer."

She holds it out to him. "So, if you ever NEEDED me, you could have me here in a second, right?"

"In half a shake of a little lamb's tail?"

He accepts it, a bit uncertain.

"No matter what, if you need me, you call - okay?"

"What's need? Like, right now, really need some cookies. But I also kinda need the bathroom? And I could USE a nap, but that's no fun..."

Gently. "Need, not want. You can call when you want me, of course, because that's okay too - but this, especially, is for need."

"Connor, you know how I go to school every day when it's not summer?"

"I know! I go to school too. To study the blues." Nodding.

"Yup!"

"But I am about to start at a different school - me, and Symon, and Sylvi, we're all going there to study."

"Lane said you were going away for-ev-er and ev-er and EV-ER. I told her, there's no way. Not MY Dagmar. She always comes back."

"Absolutely. I will always come back."

"But the school is a bit further away, so I won't be home every night." She bites on her lip.

"It's College?" He asks. "Far far away?"

"Like, um. Like..." He tries to think of things far away.

"Like Silverwolf? or like the Flame King?"

"Like Silverwolf. There's a bus or a train, or you could get a ride even..."

"There's no trod, though."

"Closer than Silverwolf..."

"Oh." He considers. He considers for a long time. "But when it is done. THEN you will come back? And... Summer? And.... weekends?"

"Yup! Summer, and weekends I don't have track, and holidays."

"So Christmas and Thanksgiving, too."

"I... I know it's not going to be the same."

He frowns, and then straightens up. "A good squire does his duty, even when his Knight is on away missions. It is a very LONG mission, and I am not a very long dog. That would be Otto. But I have duty, and I will pawtrol. SOMEONE needs to watch over the Tallers and make sure they're paying attention to the things down too low for them to see."

"There's lots of important things to do, but... but if you don't want to, or want a different Knight, I'd understand."

He goes quiet for a moment. "Do you not need a squire any more?"

"You don't need... me?"

"I do."

"I need you to help watch CJ and make Tove smile and keep Jaymes company at the store. I need you to show Brown Dog how to play, and I need you to be a friend to the horses, and I... I really want to still be your knight."

"But maybe... maybe it isn't fair to you, if I am far away?"