#baronyofthesilverwolf

"Mmph" A thought "If I can find some way, without hurting him, to lure him away, would it be okay with you?"

"Lure him" Baffled, "To what end?"

"To moving out" She says "Honestly, I'm not sure I could, but I wouldn't be surprised if soemone around here had an idea"

"He has no capital. If he moved out, he would be on the street.."

"So he needs employment" She ponders

"Perhaps, but he does not desire any. Mother says he will find his way when it comes to him, and we shouldn't press. She is... forgiving, more so than I would be."

"If he had something to strive towards to make him want more than free room and board in a basement studio..." but, Art Shrugs.

"I have yet to discover what drives him, if anything."

"Honestly, I suppose we could find some with Chicanry to make him want to enlist with the army"

"WAR? " Art looks shocked. "You would send him to the front? Surely, he would perish."

"Ehh..." She shrugs "An honorable death might redeem him, not that all wars are honorable. I think mostly he'd get stationed in SOuth Korea or something"

"They'd send him to the Orient? I admit, it would be a change of pace... though, if he ran into trouble there, would we be able to help him? The Hsien rule over those lands, and they are strange and alien to us. Their dreams take a different path, and their ways are not our own."

A blink "I don't even know what a Hsien is" She admits "But I think the general point is, the armed forces would provide him new shelter and get him out of your hair wherever he was assigned"

"I read a book about them." He admits, "Though much of it was heresay and speculation."

"Huh. go fig. "

"It was really quite fascinating!"

"Worp!" Cheeps Fornax.

A look at Fornax "How about you, little guy. OH, I got something for him"

"Sec" And she races off

onlhy to return with three books

Art perks up!

"What are those??"

"One's a book in braille, a child's book in fact. Where the wild things are. The other is a child's book too, but it.. well" She opens it, it is not just paper and ink, but materials are within, allowing a child to 'feel' various surfaces that are furry, or slick, or scaled "No real animals hurt but I thought it might help Fornax?"

"The last book is scratch and sniff with fruits ando ther smells. "

"I figured Fornax might learn words like 'banana ' if someone read it to him and scratched the banana scented pad? or lemon etc"

"Ohhhhhh. Let's see!" He carefully lifts the draconet out and sets him on a grassy patch. "Fruit?" A little amused, "I suppose we all must start somewhere."

"Well, I think he'd like to have more words than just word" She smiles

"He makes a lot of sounds." Art says, "Though I'm not sure what it means. And he seems happy?"

"Though, I think he's been looking for Thistle."

"Or maybe he misses the Nevers? He always moved his head to follow their sounds."

It is very quiet and calm without the little chimera around.

"YEah, never thought I'd miss those guys. Me Im trying to find a way to train the dogs to sniff out stirges"

"Must be tough, if they fly. It's like, how do you track a bug?"

Fornax moves towards the books once set down, he's still off balance and wobbly, but he beelines towards the scent of paper, the crinkle of the pages. "Blorf!" He chirps, rubbing his snout against the rough patch, then the furry patch on the book of textures.

"More like they know the smell and sound to bark out warnings"

Gwen helps fornax "See, "rough" she lets him touch the rough patch again "Soft" the other furry one

His stunted arms can't easily reach out to touch, but he uses them for balance and rubs the spots with his nose. "Borp. Brorp."

"He seems to like 'B' sounds today." Art observes.

"mmm" She nods "Maybe he IS trying to tell us something. Art, you should keep track of what he's saying and when, maybe he's making his own language?"

"I can do that! I thought it was just sounds." Thoughtful. "Thistle says that the Nevers communicate in English, but it's just too high-pitched and fast for us to hear. Isn't that fascinating? If someone recorded and slowed it down..." He chuckles, "We could hear all sorts of silly nonsense."

"She should totally do that. They might actually have spotted something"

Then a thought "I wonder if CItrine could. She's.. kind of mechanical now"

"I bet they don't like those stingers much at all. But we don't really have any of them around without Thistle. They're afraid of the hawks when she's not here."

"She's the lode stone to them yes" A nod then a look "Art. You said earlier you didn't want to rule? Not even a bit?"

He shrugs a bit. "Can I rule over a library? With histories as my vassals, and fantasy for my subjects, I can call on encyclopedias for my retainers... I get along better with books than most people."

"You should train in scribecraft" She suggests "A court position that I don't think we have filled. Sure you write a lot of letters and have to have good hand writing but at more than one hold they're also the librarians or at least associated"

He considers, "I.... could do that, yes. Right now Julius handles correspondence, but I doubt he'd mind a little less busy work."

As Fornax explores the new books - a SNEEZE at the lemon, then he flares his nostrils and tries to lick the pages...

Art picks up a stick and practices curlicued, stylized lettering in the dust.

Gwen helps Fornax trying again, this time with the scent book, using his claws to scratch, and encouraging him to inhale "Ba-na-na"

Nope, now he's licking it again.

"Banana"