#scarsdale

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For Zara, while the trip was wonderful and magical and all, it's good to be home. It's not just that she's all socialized out. She does love a good adventure and she loves horsemen, it's that there are her things that have been unattended. Lord knows what the Sidhe and pooka have done to the library in Earth Runes. And is Bronte okay? she was left with several books and Clem agreed to bring new ones by.

It's not like she had no adventures-- the head in search of his Horseman turned out to be quite a grand treasure hunt of sorts.

1122, too, is (far too) eager to check on Charlotte in the garden, and the dust bunnies have likely multiplied by now...

Oh yes, the House at Scarsdale, her home, remains as wonderful to her as before. Noise of construction in one area, puttering in the kitchen, and the heavy silence of her own sanctum room. Earl, like a gent, is carrying luggage

"Oh, isn't it lovely to be home? Lovely to travel, aye, but only to make the return so sweet..."

Earl smiles "You know me, home is where you are. Mmm Doyle probably wonders if I'm ever returning at this rate, but I covered my part of the rent"

A faint sniff. "Doyle probably hasn't noticed."

"Oh he's not so bad," A smile "Not so good but not so bad. He's a bit shallow though" shake of his head and he puts her things where she directs as they go into her room. Somethings she will handle herself. Propriety.

"Bronte! Darling!"

As the door opens Bronte Beams "Salutations are greetings," said the voice. "When I say 'salutations,' it's just my fancy way of saying hello or good morning.”

And Bronte swoops to the sluagh's bony shoulder and follows her greetings with a lick to one pale ear!

"Oh, good choice Clem... I shall remember. Hello." Scritches for the little dragon.

Bronte leans into the skritch "Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

"Oh she's gonna be chatty for a bit," Earl grins

"She may chatter as she pleases, for it pleases me. I brought thee a book, darling."

Retrieved from her packs - of course - is a copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

"Oh!" Bronte delights "“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero"

Earl smiles at her, and also gives a scratch. It is to Bronte's credit she lets him and THEN flutters to the book that is gifted. Though she clearly wanted to right away, she has learned some manners

An indulgent smile from Zara and she moves over to Earl once more.

"Is it just me, or is she getting a bit more muscular? Not 'swole' but... the definition?" Earl asks

"Less baby fat?"

The little dragon has not gotten much bigger, but under her scales it does look as if her form is indeed less soft. Yes, less baby fat it is.

"She's what... six months?"

"I suppose so..wow. We may have to get ready for her birthday sooner than we thought" he pauses "Uhm, Hatch day?"

"I suppose? Samhain will be a year from getting her egg..."

Bronte, is, of course , now devouring the book- metaphorically. No bookwyrm would tolerate the idea of it doing so literally. "The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. " She whispers to Zara as if sharing a secret then goes back to reading.

A soft chuff. "That should keep her busy, for, oh... half an hour?"

Earl grins and gives Zara a soft squeeze "A happy half an hour to be sure, yes."

"Truth!"

"So, plans now that you are back? Soak in the room? I can fetch tea?"

"Aye and aye. Go visit my Library in a bit..."

"Of course, would you like company? or do you need solitude for that? I know sometimes a sluagh needs her space"

"Mmmm..."

"The right company, that'll do."

A smile, "I suppose I wasn't always underfoot then" He did get caught up in some of the sights, inspireed, but then, he often does. Like Bronte, he has his delights

"I did lose you to your paints..."

A blush "once or twice, but yes, sorry."

"I can think of little more pleasing to watch than thee, at thy work..." She reaches for his hand, twining her fingers with his.

His blue fingers interweave with her pale ones, "Well, you are often the muse for that work. There were a few times I almost... " a smile , "Well, almost wanted to ask thee to dress to pose... but I thought your father might find me a touch presumptive. "

She draws his hand close, nuzzling it. "I love when I may model. Scrawny bag of bones I may be..."

"Say rather svelte? Slender, willowy. Besides, bones are the source of wisdom or they'd not be read so ardently by oracles who cast them about to see their grand patterns. You are thread like, but that only ties to how you are of the stuff of fate itself. Give me a slender lass, so that in her eyes I might read the mysteries of the universe " He bends down to whisper this in her ear, not that she cannot hear the whisper, but so his breath might be felt.

She closes her eyes, luxuriating. "Flatterer."

"Aye, but also a teller of truths." He assures.

"Thou seest through the lens of art and affection."

"Affection that would not be if not for thy earnest charms and compelling mysteries so the lens is of thy crafting as much as mine." A brush of her lips with his.

She pinks, but returns the kiss. "Now I? I am objective. A soothsayer, I must see clearly..."

"Aye, thy graceful hands and starlit eyes... thy deerlike muscles and skin the color of a september sky..."

"You trap be between rudeness if I dispute thee, and immodesty if I do not" He nuzzles "I would make circles of designs upon the parchment of thy..."

and a voice calls up, Hannah "You two okay up there?"