#rivervale_lodge

"Connor!" Jack Flap yells "COOONNOOOORR!"

He moves about his garden looking for the shadowpaw leader

"You better show up, or.. or I'll do a coup!" He checks in the lodge proper "Darn it... it's no fun doing a coup if no one shows. Maybe I'd start my own Shadowhoof group... with Uno and donuts" his licks his lips "You know what? forget the Uno!"

A sigh and he looks forlorn "I don't know what you've been up to today, but we need our leader"

He must save the kid's park..and maybe Connor will know HOW

Connor shows up, trotting out of the woods. He has a scratch on his arm and his clothes and hair are mussed, but looks very pleased with himself.

"Did I hear a Shadowpaw howl?"

"you did! " Jack Flap Jumps up "You jerk, where have you been?" A fuss, then a hug "jerk. We got problems. It's a High Whine alert!"

Blink blink. "I'm always around!" He protests. "That's why we have delegates, Chief Deputy Flapmeister!"

"But this is BIG.. super big! TRAGEDY... you know the old park with the rust chained old swings, and the wobbly see saw, and the stuff that might break ? You know, the GOOD park?"

His head tilts, ears flopping. "I thought your favorite park was the one that you helped grow!" Curious. "Lily likes the abandoned one best."

"Well, YES. " He says sheepishly "I can have more than one favorite" Kid logic "It's in danger. Lily's busy trying to do 'super secret sluagh stuff' " he intones, "They got this company trying to buy it from the city, there are inspectors. They're saying it's dangerous! They're gonna replace it with a convience store... and we already got King's Convenience. Mr. Jaymes is gonna have nearby competition. "

Connor straightens his back. "Lily should have told me! I know she likes convenience stores the best, 'specially the ones with bright lights and fresh snacks. But we're just kids, what can WE do?"

"Did the inspectors come yet?"

"No, but soon..." He says "Otto says we should prank them. I said 'like how' and he howled... then laughed. Otto doesn't have your good ideas"

"What if...." He paces a little, tail wagging. "What if when the 'spectors show up, the park IS good? We hide all the cool stuff, the rusty swings and the wobble-slide and the tire with the rotty bits, and then the buyers look like big dumb stupid heads?"

"Wait, you mean we work hard to clean stuff up, make it great, and they become lying liars what lie... ?" He pauses "I don't know, that sounds a bit what my dad says about hard work and elbow grease being a good solution to a lot of problems. Dare we make my dad... right?"

"Oh, no, that sounds like WORK." He wrinkles up his nose. "Well, maybe we do SOME stuff. But we can't get rid of it all, or Lily would be sad. But we can make it LOOK nice..." He wiggles his fingers. "With some abracashadow-paw."

"HA..." he grins "Yes, we shall work some Presto, some Chango, and such. I can get some dross from my garden to help? Not a lot but some" He offers

"I have some lip gloss, dental floss, I'm the boss, give it a toss." He nods. "We should rally the troops. Lane and Otto and Lilly..."

"Ugh. Layne will wanna spruce it up for reeeeal"

He GRINS. "Isn't that the part of the work you didn't want to do?"

"oh. .OH" His eyes light up then he grins "SOme days you're down right Dogabolical. GOOD idea"

"And LILLY can tell us which parts need to stay haunted. Maybe I can ask Dagmar which bits we need to fix so we don't get tents in us." Nod Nod.

"Dagmar's cool, for an oldie" He nods

"She's cool ALWAYS." Connor says, eyes shining.

"But she's awful busy."

"She's really important and does important things. That's why she need a good squire like you sometimes. You can remind her to also have fun, or help her with some so she can get to fun faster"

"This will be work, won't it?"

"Which part, Dagmar, or the park?"

He considers. "yes?"

"yeah but..." he says "Well, I've seen you make work fun before. "

"And you know what, you got help. With Dagmar too! If you think you need help making her smile. We'll be there. If you want to distract someone so you can visit her during the year? I'll make noise in the garden. Or we'll just let Layne start talking... boy she can do that for awhile. If you need help with anything, you friends" He offers his fist to bump

Connor grins. "It's too bad I can't count on no one." Bump! "I can get Dagmar and meet you by the park? Toot Sweet."

"Can you rally the goof troop?"

"A YUP" He jokes and answers "Even the girls"

And off they go to make it happen

(End Scene)