PREVIOUS: 015: Just One More Thing
Mossgrove Estate
As the sun sinks through the trees, the two arrive at the Mossgrove estate. It's even more picturesque from the front, with its well-kept animal pens and dainty Keenblossom shrubs lining the entrance. Lucya reaches over the fence briefly to pet the goats.
LUCYA: "G'day, Ms. Iza... What's that? Maaaah?"
The goat bleats back at her, and she laughs a little.
Jagal is just kind of staring at the scene until the exchange gets his attention. He snorts.
JAGAL: "Wow, they're gonna have to wash out your mouth with soap for that one."
Jagal experimentally holds out a hand to the goat, who wanders over and doesn't take long to start licking his fingers. He pulls away once it starts showing interest in his glove, though.
JAGAL: "Nope, no food for you here, sorry."
Lucya just smiles at him.
LUCYA: "They're sweet things, aren't they? Brajan takes mighty good care a them."
She pets the other goats in turn, checks the chicken coop for eggs, and otherwise conspicuously avoids the house itself for a minute or two. She runs out of excuses pretty quickly though, and looks at the front door with a sigh.
LUCYA: "Auh, it will be hard tae say goodbye all over again... But we can stay fer a couple days, aye?"
JAGAL: "Good for him?"
Jagal tags along for a bit before hanging back by the coop to just watch Lucya flit about. He manages a very brief medical inventory check before she comes to a stop.
JAGAL: "Ha! If it's that hard, just don't leave. Not like you put a time limit on your vow, anyway, yeah?"
Lucya gives him a pained look.
LUCYA: "I cannae do that! I have tae help me friend! A-and I made ye a promise too, aye?"
A hint of pity crosses his face at that response, but it's not worth dwelling on.
JAGAL: (with a chuckle) "Juuust making sure you're serious. Shall we, then?"
Jagal approaches the entrance and does a nice little gesture to go ahead. It would all be very gentlemanly if he'd actually opened the door for her first.
Lucya does her little knock on the door before opening it herself. There's a mildly concerning sequence of yelps and clatters from an adjacent room.
???: "Lucya-- auh goodness that's hot-- lemme just-- auh--"
An enormous woman wearing an apron and a kerchief runs into the entryway.
ADA: "Lucya!!!"
LUCYA: "Ma...!"
Lucya runs forward to hug her mother, who looks like she's on the verge of tears.
ADA: "Auh, thank goodness ye're alright...! B-but where is yer friend? The boys told me..."
A voice comes from just a few paces inside.
JAGAL: “Oh, I’ve been here for like ten minutes.”
Jagal waves, strategically lounging on the nearest couch as if he really has been there this whole time.
ADA: "AUHH!!!"
And there's the family resemblance.
LUCYA: "Auh-- it's alright Ma, he's just pullin' yer leg! This is Jagal..."
It takes Ada a few seconds to calm down enough to locate the source of the voice. She stoops over a bit to talk to the wee man on her sofa.
ADA: "I-I'm sorry, dear, a course ye're welcome here! Me name's Ada, and-- did ye meet me husband, Duncan? Is he holding up alright?"
Jagal laughs about as hard as he did at Lucya tripping and falling in the swamp, but he settles down to a satisfied grin by the time Ada finds him. And he tries not to get too distracted by the general size differential. The heck was in the water around here?
JAGAL: (nods) “Oh, he was pretty adamant he was doing fine. Hasn’t made it back yet, then?”
Jagal frowns back at the door.
ADA: "Nay, I expect he'll be another few hours yet. Auh, tae think a such a thing happening in our dear village..."
ADA: "B-but supper will be ready in just a wee bit! I'm sure ye must be hungry-- Lucya, dear, would ye go fetch the boys? And make sure there's a clean set a bedding fer the guest, if he's ginnae stay, and..."
LUCYA: "Yes, Ma.~"
Lucya interrupts Ada's chatter with another hug, then starts making her way up the stairs. She's not paying particularly close attention to whether Jagal follows or not.
The smell of whatever’s cooking has Jagal’s stomach growling, but he talks over it like it doesn’t even register for him.
JAGAL: “Very unfortunate. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for all of you.”
🎲 Just for fun, we have Jagal roll to see whether he manages to hide the pain in his arm. It's a miss.
Having somehow kept a straight face through that, he watches the little interruption neutrally. Figuring he might as well get an idea of any floor spots here too noisy to step on, he makes to follow Lucya but pushes himself off the couch a little too energetically.
JAGAL: “Gh.”
Jagal gets to his feet fine, but a stab of pain down his arm makes him flinch a little harder than he can cover up. He quickly makes to move along as if nothing happened.
Ada seems to sense the derision in his voice, but doesn't comment on it.
ADA: "Aye, I suppose it's nae uncommon trouble in larger circles... But Mossgrove simply has nae been large enough fer such a trouble until now! E'en when I was yer age, it was only a few families in size--"
ADA: "Auh! Are ye hurt?"
Jagal nods along, then tries not to wince at being Spotted.
JAGAL: "Hm? No."
Too late. Lucya hears them and peeps back down over the stair railing.
LUCYA: "Auh, is it botherin' ye? We really oughtae change those bandages..."
ADA: "Bandages? We??"
LUCYA: "I-it's fine! I'm fine, Ma! I'll just--"
Lucya's footsteps rumble on the second floor as she momentarily tries to escape the consequences of her actions.
ADA: "W-what is she talking about? What happened??"
Jagal glares at Lucya, but he's momentarily satisfied once she accidentally outs herself, too.
JAGAL: "Well..."
Jagal has to struggle briefly between his desires to watch someone freak and to not be fussed over. In the end, he figures he shouldn't reduce the cook to a nervous wreck before his dinner's ready.
JAGAL: "Just a little run-in with some overgrown wildlife."
JAGAL: "Lucya's fine." (rolling his shoulder back slowly) "I got scratched at a bad angle to put the bandages on myself, so she's been helping me out. That's all the 'we' was for. Relax."
ADA: "I-I see... Well, the soup can simmer as long as it needs tae if ye wanna take care a that first-- should I send Aleksy tae fetch some water? A-and I can see what medicine I've got, but..."
Lucya returns meekly, with Brajan and Aleksy following her downstairs like ducklings in a row.
BRAJAN: "Auh! Jagal! H-how did it go?!"
ALEKSY: "Hi."
Thankfully there's enough going on that Jagal doesn't have to worry about overreacting at the mention of soup.
JAGAL: (holding up a hand) "I've got my own medicine, it's fine. Really nothing to make a fuss over."
Jagal somehow shifts his stop-gesture into a motionless wave at the boys as they head down.
JAGAL: "Found some good stuff. There's definitely more going on than the story claims, at least."
LUCYA: "Aye, it's a right pickle-- but, if there's one thing that's fer sure, it's that Togan was set up!"
ADA: "Auh, my...!"
BRAJAN: "I knew it!!"
LUCYA: "Well, Jagal, c'mon back upstairs and I'll get ye situated..."
ADA: (quietly) "Aleksy, do go fetch them some water, would ye--"
ALEKSY: "I got some already."
ALEKSY: "For the snail."
ADA: "ANOTHER one?!"
BRAJAN: "I-It's just one! It's okay!"
Ada mutters to herself about that odd Shrek fellow as she plods back to the kitchen.
JAGAL: (snorts) "Well, I'd hate to deprive the poor snail of any of its water..."
Jagal doesn't seem to genuinely object, at least, though it takes a little self-restraint for him to move farther from the smell of soup.