First Lessons (Miora)

[Riley]

Riley was sitting on Taesi's back, waiting for Miora to show up in the small plane area near the forest of the Hinterlands. He had a little surprise for her, she had once asked him for his dagger to deal with some splinters. Well, he had asked Ana to forge a dagger for her and he had used his experience as a mercenary and made several suggestions for the blade. First off it was perfectly balanced, which meant that it was next to perfect for throwing. He had it made the perfect size for her, but it would still be viable for her to use for a few years, and most of all he made sure it was durable. He had even placed a couple of spells on it to make sure it always found it's way back to Miora if it was lost, and she always knew where it was.

Riley sighed, sliding down Taesi's back and landing on his feet, he reached in his tunic and made sure the small wrapped dagger was still safe and where it belonged for the moment. The second surprised he had in mind for Miora was the fact that he was going to teach her how to use the dagger properly. She was small, and he knew how to capitalize on that, make her use her size and speed to her advantage. Riley couldn't help but smile at the comments he knew she was going to come out with on this one. He expected golden comments from her, especially after the recent changes to their tent. The larger three room tent was perfect for the three humans that now occupied it. Taesi couldn't fit any longer, and now occupied a space just on the other side of the tent when they were home.

Taesi stretched out like a cat and yawned wide, before turning to look at Riley with one large eye, she had been growing more and more lately, soon she'd be breathing fire. "Riley, is it really wise to teach her how to use a dagger?" Riley shrugged, turning back to look at her and considering his response carefully before answering. "Well, I think she's smart enough to know when and how to use it. She's had a life neither of us have the ability to understand, she's experienced hardships we haven't had too. She's young, and naive in many ways, but she's smart and thinks in ways we don't. So, I think it will turn out well.. So long as we not only teach her how but why." He placed his left hand on the hilt of the sword at his hip, reflexively checking to see if it was clear in it's scabbard.

Riley turned to face Miora as she walked up offering her a smile, Taesi looking over Riley's shoulder. "Hey there Miora, glad you made it." There were times it felt weird speaking out loud, especially after spending days on end with training with Taesi. Though all the extra time he'd been spending with Ana was helping, and the extra time he was spending with Miora too. He knew she didn't need him to look after her, but he couldn't just leave her be, he would feel guilty. Besides, his little sister had been around her age when he left and was forced to join the mercenaries. He saw a little of her in Miora, though only very little. "I've got something for you, better yet, I'm also going to teach you how to use it." Riley knelt down and pulled out the wrapped dagger from his tunic, holding it out for her.

[Lisenet]

Miora

It took Miora an hour to circle the hilly forests on the island enough to find the tree the plaintive shrieking was coming from. It was one of those scrawny pine trees that grew tall and narrow and with dark green-blue needles. And rough bark and lots of sap. Climbing it didn’t take that long, though the tree swayed a lot near the top. But Miora knew which branches could hold her and which couldn’t, so she didn’t feel she was being unduly careless in climbing up to peek in the ungainly nest coming out of a hole at the top of the tree. When she finally made it up there, she was careful not to accidentally stick her nose too close to the opening in the tree, not wanting something to come rushing out and bite it off.

Whatever was in the nest, there was only one of them. It was a bird, as fat around as a large apple and about just as round, with a walnut-sized head wedged in between what looked like they might amount to wings someday but certainly didn’t look like much now. It took her several minutes to decide if it was a burnt sort of yellow color or just golden brown, and finally decided on the brown. Its feathers had little definition to them yet, being all fluff, but she could see slight barring in all of them where some darker brown was interspersed with the light golden. It had a beak she couldn’t even fit the tip of her finger into, but she was sure the beak was sharp enough to get into her finger. But it looked so hungry. Its half-cracked eyes were a sort of light blue washed in almost-black, like babies’ eyes when they hadn’t yet decided what color they wanted to be. Not for the first time since arriving, she wished she could have grown up in the country so she might have some idea of what the bird was. There were hardly any animals in the city aside from what washed up on the beach and what lived in the sewers. This fluffy thing didn’t look like it would ever live in either, and she was certain she’d never seen its like before.

Miora didn’t want to leave the lonely looking thing up there all by itself, but she figured the mama bird might not come back if she was there, so she shimmied back down the tree and backed off to the farthest place she could stand and watch it, and stood there for a good two hours until she decided, with reluctance, that the mother probably wasn’t coming back. She wondered what had happened to it. She hauled herself back up to the nest and looked back in at the creature. It squinted sourly up at her. Noticing a thick-legged brown spider creeping up the trunk close to her, Miora reached over and grabbed it by one of its long legs. She had always liked spiders. But spiders were everywhere, and she’d never seen one of these birds before, and besides the bigger animal always won in the end anyway. She stuck her hand in prickling opening of the nest and the bird turned its round head and curved yellow-brown beak up toward the squirming spider. Its beak opened wide, and Miora dropped the spider in. The bird looked like it was going to gag on all those flailing legs at first, but then it poked its tongue out and crunched on it once, and swallowed it down with such a familiar jerking motion—she had seen Taesi do the same thing with chunks of her dinner—that Miora giggled. She reached in, about to scoop the bird up and put it in her apron pocket so Riley could tell her what to do to help it—maybe, she wasn’t sure he would let her keep it—when her eyes flicked up and she noticed the bright spot of the sun in the sky, and sighed. She was supposed to have met him in that training field about now. The bird would have to wait.

Several minutes later Miora trotted over to where Riley waited with a swiftly growing-Taesi and came to an abrupt spot. She glanced once over her shoulder at where she knew the tree would be waiting in the hills, and smiled at them both. ”Hi Riley, hi Taesi.” Remembering, when she saw Riley, that his ladylove had finally convinced Miora to let her brush her hair just that morning—it had taken hours—Miora patted the mess of sap and needles that had become of it and wondered if Ana would be mad. She wasn’t particularly worried about that eventuality; people got mad at Miora all the time. She was just curious. She didn’t know the new woman very well yet. And while she didn’t trust men because a lot of them were pushy, she didn’t necessarily trust women either—women were more likely to be sneaky. Miora readily acknowledged that she herself was a testament to that. ”Glad you made it.”

”I didn’t make anything,” she hastily assured him, thinking guiltily that she had been planning to make a nest for the bird out of her bed sheets as soon as she could get the bird out of the tree. She didn’t relish the thought of climbing one-handed, but she was afraid she would squash it if she tucked it into one of her apron pockets.

”I’ve got something for you. Better yet, I’m also going to teach you how to use it.” He bent one of his knees to come closer to her height and tugged something long and angular out of the front of his tunic and balanced it on his hand, waiting for her to take it.

Miora pursed her lips, suspicious. She’d never been just given anything before, and this clearly wasn’t food. Why did Riley insist on continuing to do things that had previously been ‘nevers’ for her? She was going to go soft when they finally decided she had to leave. She’d go back to the baker and ask why he didn’t just hand over the ownership of his shop to her already. He hadn’t tied the strings around it very tightly so she was able to pluck them free and shove the string in one of her apron pockets, and then she unwound the soft fabric from around the hard object and stared down at it with round eyes.

It was a dagger, small enough to fit her hand as no others ever had. It shone like a streaking silver star, and was simple enough in design that she wouldn’t feel she was supposed to look at it instead of use it, but still it was very pretty to look at. She loved the thought of having something with which she could defend herself besides her feet and her fingernails, but….she wouldn’t be able to take this back to Narda with her. Even if she had use for it she could never allow another person to see it, or they would want it too and they would take it from her. The magic-using elves and strange older children and other muttering adults here wouldn’t let her stay forever. And she hadn’t yet decided whether or not she wanted to fight to. She didn’t belong here, really, did she? Everyone else went to lessons or taught them and Miora skirted around on the fringes, avoiding most of the elves in particular, though she avoided most of the adults regardless of race, and spending an awful lot of time alone or wandering. There really wasn’t that much to do here unless she wanted to get eaten by a dragon for accidentally stepping on its tail. At home—in Narda alleyways—at least she’d had a sort of job to do. She could take care of herself there.

Miora took one quick breath—it felt like the muscles in her ribcage were trembling. Finally, although she wanted very much to keep it, she pushed it back into Riley’s hand before she could do the smart thing and change her mind and hold onto it tighter. ”I can’t,” she mumbled, scuffing her toe against the grass. She wound her fingers together behind her back so she wouldn’t be tempted to take it back. She ought to take it back. ”It’s too nice for me.” Too nice for a street-muffin to carry. ”And I can’t take it with me when I have to go back. And it'll look ridiculous poking holes in my apron.” She knew they would make her leave eventually. Everybody always did. Miora wasn’t accustomed to feeling embarrassed because of what she was, but now all of a sudden she did. Nobody was nice to street children but Riley was and it was like he didn’t even understand the way the world worked because nobody was supposed to be nice to street children because everybody knew they would take advantage of you the moment you were. And she wasn’t used to giving things back that she wanted or knew she could use. She was more accustomed to simply taking them without asking. This place was awful; it was teaching her all sorts of bad habits. Miora looked again over her shoulder, avoiding his and Taesi’s watchful eyes, and wished she’d stayed with the fluffy lonely bird in the tree.

Bird she sees: www.shutterstock.com/pic-48111952/stock-photo-eurasian-tawny-owl.html
Adult: schools-wikipedia.org/wp/t/Tawny_Owl.htm

[Riley]

Riley smiled at Miora as she looked at the dagger, he knew she liked it from the way she was examining it. He continued to smile as she tested it's wait and the grip that was perfect for her hand, and would continue to serve her well for years. Of course this smile faltered slightly when she thrust it back in his hands. He pulled a simple sheathe out of his tunic and sheathed the dagger, then pushed it back into her hands. "This tool is perfect for you. I asked Ana to make it for you so I could teach you how to use it properly. No one's going to make you leave Miora, the only way you'll leave is if you want to." He smiled and gently put his hand on her head, his azure eyes radiating nothing but kindness.

Riley refused to accept the dagger back, making her keep it for herself. "Look, I want you to have it, but first, you should also learn how to use it." He reached down and tapped the dagger on the right side of his belt, "I told you I'd look after you, and I meant it Miora. I'm doing this not because you're a kid, or I'm a Rider, but because it looks to me like you've been shown little enough kindness in your life. All I want is to help improve your life, you will do the work so it won't make you weaker, but I can help and guide you." Riley hadn't had any proper guiding and he had been forced to join mercenaries, maybe he could help guide Miora into a better life than he had been given. That and he just so happened to like kids, they always had the best comments about life, especially Miora.

Riley took a few steps back from her and picked a stick up off the ground, he cleaned it off and pulled off the bark. Standing straight he looked down at her and held the stick like he would a dagger, rolling it over his fingers a few times. "There's really two things you need to remember about fighting Miora. One, the first thing to remember is that you shouldn't fight if you can avoid it. Fighting is always a last resort, no more no less. Two, if you do have to fight, make sure you win. Always." Riley then knelt down by Miora again, "Now, if you have to fight, use your size and speed to your advantage. He tapped the crook of her elbow with the stick, "Slice here, and here, He tapped her wrist with the stick, "And your opponent won't be able to hold their weapon anymore."

Riley then handed her the stick, and picked up another one for himself, raising his empty hand and motioning for her to come at him. "The best way to learn is by doing." He stood at ease, holding the stick in a reverse grip. He was more than ready to defend against someone with little training and he wouldn't go easy on her. She wouldn't learn if he went easy on her, aside from that she would feel better about both the dagger and the skills if she worked harder to gain the knowledge. Aside from that, Riley thought this was something that she would truly appreciate, much better than a doll or toy. She didn't seem the type to enjoy that kind of gift, something more practical seemed of use. He crouched down, holding the 'dagger' in front of his body and his other hand covering his chest. "Stand like this, it's easier to strike. Come on." With that, he didn't move, waiting for her to attack.

[Lisenet]

Riley produced a sheath for the small dagger and tucked it back into her hands when she brought them in front of herself to fiddle with, then put his out of reach so she couldn’t shove it into his again. ”No one’s going to make you leave, Miora,” he promised, and she sighed. ”But I don’t belong here, I only came here as an accident.” She thrust the pretty knife back out toward him but he just smiled and ignored it, reaching out to lay a hand on her snarled hair, apparently not minding that it made her look like she lived in the forest and not a tent like a relatively civilized person. Usually she would have shoved anybody else’s hands off of her—she didn’t like being touched anymore—but Riley reached out so often and always nicely and she’d gotten out of the habit. Besides, she felt it would hurt his feelings if she flinched away.

”Look, I want you to have it,” he insisted. ”I’m doing this not because you’re a kid, or I’m a Rider….” Her mouth twitched with the beginnings of a smile. He really seemed to mean what he was saying, or believe he meant it at least—there was little difference. Her hand tightened possessively around the handle. ”You’re not doing it just because I’m cute?” she wanted to know, the burgeoning grin entirely impish. She tugged the dagger an inch out of the leather sheath and examined the sharp reflections sliding back and forth across the blade, as Riley stood and retreated a couple paces and began playing with a stick. As he did, his voice turned more to teaching than persuasion.

”—You shouldn’t fight if you can avoid it.”

Miora’s jaw dropped in disagreement. ”But if someone snatches me and I poke them in the eye they’re less likely to come back than if I convince them with my words to let me go. And I can’t make sure I win—sometimes I’m more likely to get off easy if I just make a run for it.”

He didn’t look like he agreed. He came back to her level and showed her a few targets on her arm. She stared at him again. ”They won’t be able to use their arm either.” She pursed her lips, frowning with a furrowed brow down at the knife in her hand and the places he’d shown her. ”You’ll show me how to just convince people to leave me alone rather than just how to cripple them, right? Life’s hard enough even when all your body parts work right.”

He turned the stick toward her and she, after balancing her pretty dagger on Taesi’s purple foot for safekeeping, accepted it. What was she supposed to do with this? He gestured for her to approach him and she took one leery step forward. ”The best way to learn is by doing.”

”What?” she demanded, indignant. ”You’re not even gonna show me what I’m doing first? All I know is what end to hit them with!”

To her best observation, he just looked amused. Drat him. But he relented and at least showed her a way to stand. She tried it, feeling awkward and foolish. If she stood like that it would be obvious she knew at least a little bit about what she was doing, and that gave whoever she was fighting with a slightly better idea of what they were doing. Being sneaky was the only way to win when you were poor and small or both. Or just a girl. ”Come on,” he prompted, and she heaved a sigh, looking forlornly down at the stick in her hand again. Thank goodness they weren’t starting with actual weapons. ”But I don’t like hitting people anymore. This place is teaching me bad habits.”

But she had been wanting to learn how to help herself a little more, and she’d rather learn with someone she knew than someone she didn’t, so she might as well resign herself to the fact that she was probably going to start accumulating bruises again and enjoy it anyway. Trying to give as little warning as possible because she knew she wasn’t ever going to win but she’d try anyway, she dug her toes into the warm grass and ran at him, making very sure she wouldn’t put her stick-dagger through her eye. Since she was so much shorter than him, she jumped when she wasn’t too far away, reaching for his arm with both hands. If she could drag his arm down she could bite him on the wrist and he might let go of his stick. Having something in her hand hindered her usual ‘style’ of attack, however; she was used to being able to use both hands to grab and poke.

[Riley]

Riley couldn't help but smile at Miora, "Fight only when you need to, if you can void getting into the situation, do it. If you can't then fight if you need to Miora." He then nodded stating that he would gladly teach her how to make other's leave her alone rather than cripple them. When Miora took her fighting stance, his eyes moved over every aspect of the stance she took. Riley deduced that she was more copying him than truly settling in to the stance, but it wasn't bad at all for a beginner. "You shouldn't like hitting anyone at all, what I'm teaching you is to defend yourself." His eyes darted down, her toes dug into the ground, she was getting ready to start moving. This was going to be quite interesting.

She ran at him, jumping when she was getting close, she was aiming for his arm so he couldn't attack or properly defend himself. Smart girl. However, she didn't have the training to keep her chin down to protect her neck, she was probably going to try and bite his wrist... That might actually work to his advantage after all. He positioned himself carefully, his body easily sliding into the stance set to defend himself from just such an attack. And then.. he waited. He didn't move slow, he didn't move fast, he simply acted at the right speed at the right time. He pretended to try to step back and move his arm, but let her catch him. The faint appearance of a smile spread across his lips, he leaned forward very slightly, and brought the stick up just under her chin. Resting it against her throat gently.

"Lesson one Miora, no matter what you have in your hand, the best weapon is always the unexpected." Riley smiled at her, waiting for her to let go of his arm before he knelt down again. "This rule applies not only to fighting but also to life; 'People can be made to believe any lie because they want to believe it, or because they're afraid it might be.' Read what you think they'll do, then act accordingly. Body language tells all in the end Miora, after that it's simply up to your reaction time." With a few simple movements he rotated the stick around in his fingers, holding it in a normal grip now. "Now it's my turn." Riley jumped backward several feet, and took his own stance, waiting for Miora to take her stance before he even considered moving.

Riley took a few steps forward, inching his way to her left, trying to get around her knife hand. He then suddenly moved, throwing his own stick-dagger at Miora's knife hand. The moment it left his hand he moved, making the motion to scoop Miora into his left arm. His right hand coming back up in an attempt at the most terrifying thing ever... to tickle the little girl.

[Lisenet]

Miora hung rather glumly off Riley’s arm as she felt the cool texture of the denuded stick tap at the side of her neck. How disappointing. She hadn’t even gotten to bite him, and she’d been looking forward to the sound he would have made if she had. ”You make me sound like a heathen,” she sighed, referring to how he rebuked her previous ‘enjoyment’ of hitting people. ”It makes more sense before I say it.” She let go and her feet thumped to the ground. Riley came back to her level. She had always liked that he took the time to do that. Not only was constantly craning her neck a physical irritant, but it made her want to kick things too.

”The best weapon is always the unexpected.”

She scowled. ”That’s what I was going for the first time, and look how that turned out.”

He flipped his stick around his fingers in a way that made Miora want to try it too, but she was damned if she would look any more ridiculous in front of him than she suspected she already would at these lessons. ”Now it’s my turn.”

Her eyes went wide again in exaggerated—but no less real—horror. Attacking him had been bad enough. But now she had to stand there and watch him do it to her? He was more than twice as heavy as she was! With great trepidation she slid her feet to reflect the position his were in, switching her stick to her other hand to see if it worked any better on that side. It didn’t feel any luckier on that side, but maybe it just had to warm up a bit.

Riley moved when she wasn’t looking—she’d been busy glancing down at her hand to see if there was any better a way to hold onto her crooked stick than how she already was. By the time she looked up she barely had time to swat his stick aside—forgetting entirely that she was supposed to pretend it was a dagger—and, seeing that he was reaching for her, lost all track of her previous intentions of standing her ground as her years of flighty instincts took over, and she spun and ran.

She only made it a few steps before his arm looped around her waist and caught her in mid-stride. Squirming and kicking—not too hard—back at him with her feet, she shoved against his immovable arm with both hands. Until his other hand, which she had also forgotten about, snuck around and began doing the most unexpected thing she could have imagined. Was he tickling her? Miora hadn’t been tickled since the last time her mother did it, and at first didn’t realize why her skin felt like it had butterflies dancing on it. As soon as she did, she squirmed all the harder. ”Taesi, save me, he’s eating me!” she howled, laughing all the while. She tried to bat his hand away and couldn’t; he moved too quickly and was too strong anyway. ”Stomp on him or lick him or something,” she insisted. What her hands wanted her to do was to catch the one of his that was scrambling over her side. But hadn’t Riley told her to do the unexpected? So she reached up and behind herself instead, grabbing a handful of whatever her hands first touched—hair, ear or nose, and she’d even gotten a man to drop her by getting a fistful of his lower lip once—and yanked on it. ”Young man, drop me this instant or I’ll pee on you, I can’t help it,” she demanded, still thrashing, still giggling as she hadn’t in at least four years. Though she was fairly certain she’d dropped her stick.

[Riley]

Riley was laughing with Miora, his hand darting over her and tickling her lightly, she was yelling for Taesi to help, which caused Riley to laugh more. Taesi chuckled heavily, "He told me he would share when he had his fill.." Of course it was right after Taesi replied when she reached around and grabbed his ear and started pulling on it. "Ow ow ow ow ow!" Despite his complaints he was still laughing as hard as Miora, he wasn't mad, after all she was just doing the unexpected like he had told her. The pain in his ear and the fact that she just stated she was going to pee on him, caused him to kneel down and open his arms, letting her out from his grip.

Riley smiled and laughed with her, gently rubbing his ear which was now bright red from Miora tugging on it. "I told you, the unexpected." He held his finger up in front of her, not touching her at all, his other hand resting on his knee. "No peeing on the man who's caring for you." A smile was still plastered across his lips, clearly he was not upset with her at all over this. The finger that was hovering in front of her face, moved in and tapped her nose lightly before Riley spoke again. "I promise you Miora, as long as you 'want' to stay here, you can stay with me. If anyone ever gives you problems with that Miora, send them to me. I will deal with them."

Taesi nodded from her perch nearby, lowering her head down to eye level. "Yes, and I will help him." Taesi then narrowed her thoughts, speaking solely to Miora now. "Riley will do whatever he needs to care for you Miora, if there's ever anything you want him to do for you, just ask him." The violet dragon simply ended her statement with a single blink of one of her large violet eyes, before allowing Riley to hear the full conversion again. "After all, what kind of man would Riley be if he couldn't care for one girl." Riley rolled his eyes and sat down on the ground, looking at Miora carefully. Miora had the basics of what he was trying to teach her, at this point it was more the way she applied it.

Riley's smile softened slightly, and he thought of something else, something more her style. "Miora what would you like to do? It's up to you, we can continue training, or anything you want." He moved his leg under himself for better balance, waiting for her response about what she wanted to do for the day.

[Lisenet]

”He told me he would share.”

”You two are barbarians!” Miora insisted, trying to kick Riley in the knees because she knew it would hurt. But the way he bent to unleash her onto the grass prevented her from reaching them. As it was, she was able to push off of his thighs and burst out of his arms, sprinting a short, safe distance away before stopping to clutch her stomach and moan, ”It hurts!” She couldn’t remember having ever laughed that hard. She must have, when Mam was alive. But that had been close to half her life ago. Next year her mother would have been gone for as long as Miora had known her, a lonely thought.

Miora picked up her stick, catching her breath, and turned back to the man who had dared to tickle her. ”I didn’t say I’d do it apurpose,” she defended. ”Only that it was likely to happen.”

He was grinning as he held up a finger in front of her. She watched it warily and wrinkled her nose as it bounced once off the end. ”I promise you, Miora, as long as you want to stay here, you can stay with me.”

She sighed very lightly. He kept saying this, he and Taesi both. Didn’t they realize how disconcerting it was? ”What kind of man would Riley be if he couldn’t care for one girl?”

Miora huffed. ”He’d be normal. Why must the two of you always talk sensibly? Most adults don’t and you’re freaking me out because I’m used to thinking about what they should say and the two of you say it without me having to tell you.” And besides, the issue they were pressing wasn’t the one that was on her mind. It was all well and good to be welcome to stay. That was different from being wanted. Still, welcome was better than what she was accustomed to. ”You can’t read my mind, can you?” she demanded, frowning at the thought.

”Miora, what would you like to do?” Well that only reinforced her opinion that he was too smart for his own good, and hers. Miora’s eyes flicked back over to the trees, to where the lonely nest sat with the fluff-bird with the intimidating beak was waiting for her, since its mam wasn’t coming back. She fidgeted, thinking.

Miora didn’t like asking for help. She didn’t like even admitting she might need it. It was unhealthy. And she already knew she could get the bird down without help, but she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to take care of it. What if it only ate the spider because it was starving? What if Miora couldn’t find enough spiders to keep it from starving later? Or what if the spider she’d already given it poisoned it? Miora shrank inside at the thought. She’d just been trying to help.

That decided it. ”Do you know much about birds? I found one. I watched it all day and it’s got no mam. I’ll show you.” She darted off toward the woods. It wasn’t all that far, the tree, but Miora wasn’t in the habit of walking—she didn’t think she’d walked any distance greater than a dozen steps in years. There was just no point. To run messages and to run away she needed to be quick. She wasn’t running too fast for Riley to follow now though, and he had longer legs than hers besides.

In only a couple of minutes they reached the prickly tree. Miora paused just long enough to point to the top. ”It’s up there.” Then, before Riley could give any nonsense about him fetching it instead of her—he weighed too much, he would never reach the top—she leaped for the lowest branch and swiftly clambered out of his reach. The rough bark made for good gripping, and it hadn’t rained recently so it was nice and dry. As soon as she reached the nest and poked her head over the side the fluffball looked at her and screeched, glowering as if its hunger was her fault. Miora glanced down into one of her apron pockets, wondering if it was big enough for the fist-sized bird-creature, and judged that it was.

”Now don’t you bite me,” she said as she reached into the nest. As soon as her hand got close enough its round head darted forward and it grabbed her smallest finger, tugging on it. ”I am not edible!” Miora insisted, grumbling. ”At least Taesi would be the right size to eat me. You’ve got nothing on her, nimrod. Let go!” She lightly shook her hand and wiggled the finger until the bird let it go, then swiftly scooped her hand underneath it—finding big scaly, clawed feet down there—and tucked it safely into her apron. Now she just had to climb down without bumping it.

Several minutes later—it was harder climbing down than up—Miora jumped to the ground in front of Riley, dug the bird out of her apron and held it up for his inspection. ”See? It ate a spider earlier, but spiders don’t go down easy, I know—“ She shuddered at the memory of the last time she’d eaten a spider. ”So I figure it’s got to eat something else too.”

[Riley]

Riley smiled at Miora, listening to her carefully, "Normal is no fun." He then winked at her, "I can read your mind, but I wouldn't do that without your permission. It's just rude to do otherwise." The she asked him about birds, he knew a bit not an over abundant amount, but enough to get by. He knew how to care for them to an extent, but he was sure he could find someone around Vroengard that could help him with the knowledge he lacked. It wouldn't be too long before he knew enough to care for the little bird Miora found, of course he would simply give her that knowledge and make her take care of it herself. She wouldn't learn if he did it for her.

Riley followed her to the tree, and started to cast a spell to move himself up the tree, but stopped first when Taesi landed next to him, then when Miora scrambled up the tree. "She climbs like a squirrel." Riley couldn't help but chuckle, "Yes, yes she does Taesi." He watched as she carefully pulled the small bird out, then as she even more carefully started to climb down the tree. He watched carefully as she climbed, she was careful and good, his eye moved to the pocket of her apron that the bird was in, listening for any squawks or other sounds that would come from the tiny currently flightless bird.

Riley couldn't help but smile when she took the bird out and showed it to him, kneeling down he examined the bird carefully. Now that was one ugly chick. However he did recognize it at once for an owl. He gently poked his finger at it, letting it try to bite his finger and laughing lightly. "Well, it's a baby owl. I can think of a few things that it can eat and be happy. However Miora, I'm to busy to take care of it. So I'll teach you how to care for it, you have to make a nest for it, and find food, and when it's old enough, teach it to fly." His smile softened slightly and he shook his head, he had an idea already.

Riley put his hand on the ground, his palm facing up and closed his eyes. His mind searched through the ground, trying to find what the little bird needed right now. Slowly a single worm worked it's way out of the ground and into the palm of his hand, he held the worm out for Miora to take. "Here, this is soft enough for it to eat for now. I'll teach you how to mix something up something else for it later today." Riley slowly stood straight up again, taking Miora's dagger from Taesi and placing it in one of the pockets on her apron.

[Lisenet]

Miora scrunched her face up at his supposed identification. "An owl?" Another, more horrifying thought occurred to her. "Am I going to have to sleep during the day and stay up every night?" she asked, aghast. Staying up late and sleeping during daylight hours was not among her many talents. While Riley told her things she already knew but hadn't actually thought about, she went over to Taesi and held the little owl up for the dragon to sniff. The owl took one squinty look at Taesi and screeched, making Miora wince. "That is one godsawful sound, nimrod," she informed the bird. It glared at her. "I know you haven't got the time--you're too busy in your scholar lessons--and besides, if I don't have something else to do around here I'll get bored and make something up and someone will eat me for my creativity."

Riley looked like he'd found a nibbling for the owl to gnaw on so she came back over to him and accepted the worm. Holding it over the owl's sharp beak, she watched as the curling beak opened and she lowered the twisting, knotting worm in. "What does it eat? Is it a girl or a boy? How am I supposed to teach it how to fly without jumping out of trees? I don't expect that will work well. Will you be mad if I use my sheets for the nest even though I promise to clean them? How will it learn to talk to other owls if all it ever hears is me talking?" There were plenty more questions to come, but she didn't know if he knew all he answers or could keep track of them all so she tucked the rest of them under her tongue for safekeeping.

Miora looked down at the featherwad, working her lips back and forth as she thought. It sure was a funny looking thing, all hunched and disproportionate, with a squashed-in face and no proper feathers to speak of, just this stripey fuzz all over, and scaly underneath. Riley dropped her new dagger into one of her apron pockets and the odd new weight was entirely bewildering. It pulled at the strings of her apron the way other things never had, and the handle poked out of the top of the pocket. But that was okay. So long as it didn't fall out.

[Riley]

Riley couldn't help but laugh as she asked him all her questions, he knew she had more and knew she would ask them when he had answered all her current ones. "Well, you can train it to sleep during the night and stay awake during the day. It's young enough to be trained like that still." Taesi chortled deep in her throat and helped Riley remember all her questions, sometimes it was great to have someone connected to his mind nearly constantly. Other times... not so much. "I heard that." Riley suppressed a smile, it hadn't even been a full year yet and he already was completely used to the bond. Though in times like this he wished he could keep a few small things to himself.

"It eats anything it's mother spits up, but I can teach you how to hunt for bugs and other things for now. When it gets a little bigger it will want small animals, mice mostly. Then move up to rabbits. I can't tell if it's a boy or a girl..." Riley closed his eyes and stretched out with his mind, gently brushing over the small birds mind, not delving into it in fear that his probe would damage the creature's still developing mind. "I almost wanna say it's a boy... but I can't tell for sure, it's mind is still young. Almost too young, for me to tell. Still it could be a girl, I'll check again in a few weeks for you. Teaching it to fly will wait, but it will mostly come with instinct, all you'll have to do is throw it up in the air a little and it will learn."

Riley couldn't help but laugh when she mentioned the nest, he wasn't about to let her use the bedding. "Mad? No, but you're not using your bedding as a nest. I've got some old clothes you can use to make a nest, it really only needs one tunic for it. And it will know from instinct, so you won't have to worry." He smiled at the little girl, no matter how much bravado she put forth, or how much sarcasm she put forth, she was still just a little girl after all. He jerked with his head back toward their tent, smiling quickly. "Come on girl, lets get back to the tent. I got us a bigger one now, you get your own room. Well, you have to share with your new friend, nimrod as you call it."

[Lisenet]

”You can train it to sleep during the night,” he suggested, but Miora only frowned down at the featherwad. ”I suppose,” she agreed slowly. Looking back up, she added, ”But that doesn’t seem fair—I’d just have to train it back before I shove it back into the wild and then it’ll be all confused, won’t it?” She scowled. Already, taking care of it was feeling more like a chore than she had ever expected. It was too tiny to be so much of a nuisance! Maybe she should have just left it.

But then Miora’s eyes dimmed. People thought she was too small to be of much trouble, too, or of much worth. At this point she had decided they were one and the same because only troublesome people were noticed and that was all she wanted….when she wasn’t sneaking anyway. But she only snuck because she had to, because people never helped her when she asked politely, they just turned their back on her again and again like she was nothing. Miora’s fingers wrapped up higher around the little thing and tucked it close into her stomach as if she thought someone was going to take it away. If it was hard to save that would prove it was worth saving. Easy things meant someone had given up, and that was something Miora would never do. If anybody told her it was too hard for her and she should give up she’d smack them. Or maybe poke them with her knife from Riley. Whichever seemed more appropriate at the time, probably.

”It eats anything its mother spits up,” Riley said, and Miora’s mouth twisted in another grimace. Bug legs got caught in her teeth like burrs in her hair. Miora had never had to contend with burrs before coming here, and when fighting to wash them out of the hem of her dress some fancy-looking person had come up and told her they were edible, which was not at all the sort of tidbit the girl had expected from such a well-dressed someone. But she tried them and the lady had been right, they were edible. But they went down easier without the prickly outsides on them. That she’d found out later. But oh well. If mashed bugs was what the bird needed, at least Miora wouldn’t have to be the one swallowing them. ”How’m I gonna catch mice and rabbits?” she wanted to know. ”I haven’t seen your rabbits but if they’re on the same track as the snailbeasts I’d rather you get them.” She’d told him she would take care of the featherwad, and she would, but not if he meant facing down tent-sized hairbeasts. Her feet still ached when she thought about the tree she’d crouched in all afternoon waiting for the waggle-eyed snailbeast to go away.

”And how’s it got so many fancy instincts when we don’t?” she wanted to know, digging a bit of tree sap out of one eye. ”Seems like we’re supposed to be the smarter ones, aren’t we?” She scowled when he laughed, not accustomed to people laughing either at or with her, nor seeing much difference at this point, and stroked the fluffwad’s head carefully. Its head didn’t look very sturdily balanced on that skinny, scrunched up neck it had. One beady eye squinted mutinously up at her. ”Don’t complain,” she snapped down at it. ”I’m bigger’n you.”

”I’ve got some old clothes you can use to make a nest—“ Miora’s head snapped up and she gaped at him in astonishment. ”Why would you do a silly thing like that?” she demanded. ”You can sleep in your clothes but you can’t run around in your bed sheets! My way makes better sense.”

He just smiled infuriatingly—sometimes she wondered if he took her seriously, but since he had yet to brush off one of her questions she liked to think that he did—and gestured back toward the plains where all the drab tents were lined up. Miora might have to make some dyes for Riley’s tent. She had trouble finding it sometimes, when Taesi wasn’t there. She sighed dramatically. ”Fine, Man. At least my friend’s smaller than your friend and can’t complain if I kick him off the bed.” She started walking. She hated the slow, stiff pace but didn’t quite want to run with the bird in her hands and the blade banging in her pocket. ”And why’s your ladyfriend got wings? How do you keep from squishing them at night?” She knew of no other way of asking, as she suspected Riley would blush if she said outright that she knew what they sometimes did at nighttime. Miora was well past that point, having grown up with it, but Riley seemed to have different expectations.

She kind of liked the name Nimrod.

[Riley]

Riley shrugged when she mentioned training it to sleep during the day again, maybe she was right. "Well, I'll get some scrolls and books and see what else we can learn about owls. I'm sure we'll learn a lot." Of course that's when Miora mentioned the next part about giant rabbits, the thought almost made him laugh. Almost. That was when he thought about it, there were giant snails after all. "The rabbits are normal sized, and I'll teach you how to make food for it. It's not gonna be as hard as it sounds." Riley considered her question about instincts carefully, he knew that humans had instincts just like owls, they were just different. "Well, humans like us do have instincts. They're just a little different. We have the same survival instincts, fight when we're cornered run when we can. Food, shelter, family, we want the best of everything."

Riley chuckled when she mentioned the clothes and the sheet, "Well, that particular tunic has already been replaced so I don't need it anymore. Besides, you use your sheets, I only use that tunic when it's cold and I need to keep warm. So, we'll use that." He stated matter of factly, he wasn't going to let her ruin her sheets when he could provide an alternative. He could also use a few socks and maybe a few other scraps of clothes and cloth for padding. "Well you know, my friend is a dragon. And can't fit in the tent anymore." Of course that's when Miora made her next comment that cause Riley to pause mid step for a second. She didn't know what she was saying did she? He could feel Taesi laughing in her mind, and in his, "She knows Riley. She knows." Riley cast the dragon a glance, which caused her to laugh for real, feeling the ground shake slightly.

Riley cleared his throat and considered it, "Uh, a very bad elf use magic on her to fix something that was wrong with her, and the after effect was her wings. As for sleeping..." Riley's face was doing a magnificent impersonation of a tomato, probably too good of one. "Um.. Well... She, and I, then.. Oh look we're at the tent! You wanna see your new room?" Taesi couldn't stop laughing, she curled up on her spot by the tent, a spot permanently reserved for her, and laughed more. "Very tactful change of subject Riley. I'm sure she didn't notice that at all, no not as smart as she is. I'm sure she'll forget the whole thing." Riley shook his head, stepping inside the tent, "You hear that Taesi? Sounds like a pest..."

Riley went into his and Ana's side of the tent, opening his trunk and pulling out one of his old tunics and an several old rags he had used to polish weapons. Going back to the main room of the tent he sat down at his desk and started molding the tunic into a makeshift nest, glancing up at Miora. "So how do you like having your own room and cot?" He asked, smiling at her as he went back to work on the nest. Their tent was simply three rooms, two bedrooms on either end with a common area in between. Finishing the makeshift nest, he placed the clothes in it for padding. "There, all done. Now your new friend has a place to sleep... So what are you gonna name it?" Taesi picked this time to pipe in her suggestion, "Heh, we could name it after the shade of red Riley turned." Riley shot a look at the side of the tent with Taesi, the side he and Ana slept on, and spoke aloud instead of with his mind. "Watch it you over grown lizard."

[Lisenet]

"Food, shelter, family..." Well, Miora had managed to secure, for the time being, the first two of those things, and at least a semblance of a family. The best she'd get after this would be if someone eventually married her, or they pretended they had. The poor couldn't afford to marry properly, most of the time, so they laid a claim on each other and called it good. But family....Miora wasn't sure she'd ever had that. Could just two people be a family? Of course, she and Mam had been good friends with all the other ladies and the few other children they had. For the most part the brothel ladies were careful not to get an accidental child. Mam had never told her that she was an accident, but Miora had guessed and she didn't mind the likelihood. That was the way life worked. Not all good things had to be asked for. She hadn't asked to be found by someone nice like Riley.

"That particular tunic has already been replaced..."

Miora squinted up at him, then shook her head with a disgruntled sigh. She would wear her blue dress until it didn't cover her any more, regardless of how it looked, and despite the fact that when she arrived Riley had given her a green dress and a small apron to go over it. They didn't fit, but that wasn't important. Her blue dress had never fit either. All that mattered was that it worked and she had it. Throwing away good clothes just because you had new ones was wasteful.

But she wasn't about to tell him that. He hadn't lived piece by piece like she had, or he hadn't in a very long time, she could tell. He wouldn't understand and she was too busy trying to figure out how she was going to take care of Nimrod to risk making him mad by arguing with him. Her usual sass was one thing--it seemed to amuse him--but if she was thrown out it wasn't going to be because she couldn't remember Mam's lessons on holding her tongue. Miora didn't utilize the lessons very often, but for Riley and Taesi--and probably their new friend--she would make an exception.

When Riley quipped about Taesi being his friend, Miora lifted one eyebrow up at him to tell him she knew and he knew that Taesi wasn't the friend she had been talking about. And then he muttered and stammered and saved himself the need to keep doing so by proclaiming for all to hear that they had arrived.

Miora skipped inside after him, saying, "Yes, imagine that happening." Once inside she paused, waiting to see which way Riley went so she knew which way was hers. After bringing herself and the featherwad through the flap into the smaller room, she paused, looking around, and finally sat on the small cot with the bird in her lap.

She'd never had a room of her own before. With Mam she had slept in the bed with her when there were no visitors, and on a tiny cot hidden between the bed and the wall when there were. But never a space of her own. Even if this one had fabric walls it was still supposed to be hers. There was even a little trunk at the end of the cot to put things in. All that was in it now was the dress and apron Riley had given her, and all she had to put in it was the dagger he'd given her too. Setting the bird aside on he sheets, she knelt at the trunk to gently lift the lid and peer inside.

Seeing a place for her to put things she would own made her throat ache so she let the lid drop and put the dagger on the cot, purposefully avoiding the trunk, and went back into the middle room where Riley was in the process of ruining perfectly good clothes. Or setting them up for ruin, at least.

He looked up as she sat in the corner with her bird. "So how do you like having your own room and cot?"

She heaved a breath. "It's strange," she said, because she wasn't about to try to guess at what the ache meant nor was she going to mention it. "Last time I had a spot of my own I was with Mam."

Miora got up when he said the nest was done and walked over to the desk, plopping the bird down inside it. It glared at her. Since the apron was no longer weighted down by the pretty dagger, she took it off--picking at the knots that hadn't been undone in months--and draped it over the nest, thinking the bird would like I because it had been found in a hole. There was a hole at the seam of skirt and bodice of her dress but since it wasn't winter yet she didn't mind. At Taesi's comment she giggled. "I like Nimrod. He doesn't look too bright yet." She looked up at Riley, suddenly inquisitive. "Did I ever tell you my Mam was a brothel-lady?" she asked abruptly. "So I probably know more than you. But isn't it better this way? Now nobody has to explain anything." That was the way she saw it. She'd heard noblewomen talking about having this conversation with their older daughters and only half the time the girl took the information gracefully. Miora had grown up around it all, though, and was already comfortable knowing it. She was comfortable with most things she understood. "Besides there's no name for that shade of red," she told Taesi, watching Riley's face hint toward it again. "And why would a bad elf be trying to fix her?"

[Riley]

Riley watched Miora throw her apron over the little bird, it did seem to calm it down. Then he turned to her and got off of his chair, kneeling down in front of her and smiling. "You're a smart girl, you know why I wasn't going to say much. To answer your question though, we're very careful." He didn't stand straight, he stayed kneeling by her, thinking for a few moments. "And Miora, I just wanted to say that I'm not going to try and replace your ma, I'm not exactly parent material. But I do want to take care of you, in some ways you kinda remind me of my little sister." With that being said, Riley did the only older brother thing he could ever remember doing, he messed up Miora's hair... some more.

Riley smiled and winked at Miora, standing straight. "Well, the elf was a self proclaimed miracle worker... I don't know how much of this is my place to tell you.. Ana was born not able to walk, when the elf fixed her, a side effect was her wings. He did it on purpose." He looked over at his desk again, one of the scrolls that he kept hidden was the scroll that contained the curse placed on Ana. "I've been studying the spell the elf used, trying to find a way to remove the wings but keep her ability to walk." If Miora wanted to know anything else, she was going to have to ask Ana, bare facts was all he was comfortable to reveal right now. It was going to take him a long while to find a decent counter spell, in the meantime he and Ana were happy and together, that was all that mattered.

Riley poked her forehead and sat back in his chair again, "By the way, that shade of red, crimson." He could feel the ground rumble and Taesi started laughing again, looking back her way he stuck his tongue out at her. Not that the dragon could see that, but she could sense it. "Remember Riley, we are going to start flying together soon." Riley rolled his eyes and turned back to the nest with Nimrod in it, leaning close he muttered a few words in the ancient language. "I should be able to communicate with Nimrod, even if it will only be just a little bit. Most animals at least understand the ancient languages meaning if not the words."

[Lisenet]

”We’re very careful,” he assured her, and Miora nodded her satisfaction. It was no good when people got careless on their own, let alone getting careless with each other. Riley was kneeling again, which gave Miora the funny thought that if she was ten years older—more or less; she had no idea how old Riley was—people would think she kept turning him down when he asked for marriage. A very amusing thought.

”And Miora….” She looked up again, interested by the more serious tone of his voice. Most people had nothing serious to say to her, but on occasion he and Taesi did. It was just a string of firsts and phenomena, around those two. ”I know you don’t, you’re a boy. Man,” she corrected, not wanting him to take offense. As for the taking care of….didn’t he see she didn’t need it? All she needed was food and a place to sleep, really, and she had that. She’d just get in the way of his Riderness if he kept trying to do things for her. And then one of his dragon teachers would get mad and stomp on her. Really, it was a wonder it hadn’t happened already. People didn’t notice bugs, why would dragons notice people? ”And I don’t want you to be my new Mam—there’s only one of her. And after grubbing about on the streets for four years do you really think I need someone fancy? Good gracious, if you dropped my food and accidentally sat on it I’d still be better off with you than I was.” Riley was turning out to be either a perfectionist or the type of person who believed, wrongly, that just because she’d often lived with nothing, now that she had a little bit she would want absolutely everything.

Riley just reached out and added a few snarls to Miora’s hair. She knocked his wrist away and stuck her nose in the air, taking her bird’s nest off the edge of the desk and retreating to the edge of the room—a habit, keeping her back to places where people weren’t going to pop out. She left the nest in the corner where it shouldn’t be bumped and returned to the desk to peek over the side of it and see what Riley was working on now. ”How come so many people feel the need to make themselves out as if they’re bigger than they are?” she wanted to know. ”And if the wings don’t hurt her why get rid of them? They must get in the way though. Just in general,” she added, just in case he thought she was thinking about bed-things again.

Riley gave her forehead a poke and she swatted at his hand again, missing this time. "Quit it!" Even though she wasn't strong enough to push him out of his chair, she gave him a shove anyway just because it made her feel better. She’d have to learn to be quicker if he kept reaching out like that. At least she’d gotten out of the habit of trying not to recoil every time he reached out, though. She still did with others, whom she didn’t know so well, but she was confident at least in Riley. And when he defined the hue of red his face turned when she’d mentioned things she was sure most kids didn’t know about until they were ten years older, too, she grinned, glad she’d been pulled out of the boat by someone with a sense of humor. ”I wonder if I can find something to say that would make you purple.” She’d seen people go purple before. It was funny.

Miora skipped away to sit with her nest, out of reach for his poking and snarling, and plopped down in the trampled grass. Once there she produced a bit of thread and a needle she’d ‘procured’ for herself, having stolen out of a tent that seemed to have a lot of both thread and needles and wouldn’t miss what she’d taken. Now that she had the needle, she could finally fix that little hole in the seam over her stomach. Sucking her belly in, she tied a knot in the thread and started at it. ”Why would you need to talk to him?” she wanted to know. ”He’s too small to try to fly the coop.”

[Riley]

Riley shook his head, resisting the urge to poke Miora again. When she pushed him playfully, he dramatically fell out of his chair. "Miora, Riley is not good with words he is good with actions. He just said that he enjoys having you around." Taesi decided to chime in, not knowing that Riley had just been "pushed" out of his chair, or she would have been laughing hard enough to flatten the tent. Riley stood again and nodded his agreement at Taesi's words before brushing himself off and sitting down at his desk again, pulling one of the books he kept sitting there to him.

After a few seconds, he opened the book and moved it so Miora could see into it. "Here I made this for you. I figured you were probably bored sitting around all day, so I thought I'd make this." Riley hadn't been able to sleep lately, so when he was awake in the middle of the night from his nightmares, he worked on this book and other projects. As he flipped through the pages, many of them had one letter and then drawings of what those letters meant, starting with the letter A and a picture of an apple. "I wasn't sure how well you could read, or if you could, and thought you might like to learn... I get it if you don't, but it's something to do while I'm gone and Ana is busy in her forge." Pulling one of the chairs from their dinning table to his desk, he pointed at the first page. "I've got it for every letter, starting with the letter A. I tried to put a picture of a word that starts with each letter, like apple."

Riley shrugged after showing her a few more letters and words, seeming self conscious, "I don't know, I just thought it was something you might find useful." He mumbled out, before slowly standing and getting some of the jerky they had lying around and starting to chew on it so he wouldn't make an idiot of himself. He could feel Taesi's amusement through their link, and other things such as pride and how happy she was that she picked him. All things that Riley had no clue how to deal with. So he dealt with it the only way he new how, he picked up a piece of bread and started eating that with the jerky he already had.

[Lisenet]

Riley flopped out of his chair and thumped into the grass, and Miora rolled her eyes, hands on her hips, and couldn't suppress the amused smile that flitted once across her lips. Not enough people valued ridiculousness just for the sake of ridiculousness. As sparingly as she used it herself--so not to let anyone get accustomed--it was fun to watch people do something other than nope and mutter. And all most of the people around here seemed to do was mope and mutter, or so it seemed to her. If they weren't making their most serious faces at each other as they talked about dragons or histories, they were muttering to themselves or to nothings and nothing was more boring to her than people who refused to change. Or react. The ones who never did anything but lift an imperious eyebrow down at her were the worst. They weren't really listening, they didn't really see, she was just a torn brown leaf scattering briefly against their awareness before they brushed her away and forgot she'd ever been.

How boring.

Miora stuck her nose in the air as he rose. "You're a tart," she told him, more because she liked the sound and wanted to see him pause and roll his eyes than genuinely meaning it. She knew full well that men couldn't be tarts. That was one of the many words reserved for women.

Taesi spoke up. Miora huffed and scowled in her general direction. "Did I ever say I thought he didn't?" Granted, when Riley likened her to his sister, Miora hadn't actually thought past the words to what they might mean, but she hadn't said anything to suggest otherwise either. Looking between the two of them, she grumbled where she'd sat. "The two of you are going to give me worms, the way you say such solemn things as if I'd told you I was scared of sommat and you was reassuring me. Both of you can quit it. If there's something I've never needed it's reassuring. If yon didn't like me you'd not bother to keep me. I'm small, not slow. And don't go givin' me more somber nonsense about you knowin' better, either!" she scolded. "It's makin' me itch." Miora usually matched her speech to something close to what those she was with spoke with, but in her discomfited vexation she let her street cant slip in. At least she still spoke in a language they'd understand. Most educated types didn't, when she let all her proper words go.

Miora tied off her string and hunched to bite it off. Riley produced a thin book and turned it toward her, so she rose to see what it was. When she got over there and he explained what it was, her eyes opened wide. He'd made her this? He was just giving it to her? But books were for learned folks, like him. Even Taesi had more rights to a book than she did. Riley pulled up another chair, and numbly, she pulled herself up to sit on her knees. First the pretty knife and now an actual book. She'd have to put things in that trunk now. They couldn't all fit on her bed with her. Riley turned a few pages so she could see and she continued staring, enthralled. She pointed to another drawing. "What's this?" Riley had got out a bit of bread so she reached across him and took herself a piece. After years of habit she couldn't help herself; if there was food around, she ate it. Never knew when she'd get the next bit. Usually. Riley didn't generally let her go hungry here.

The fluffwad let out a sharp squawk like two shards of glass ground together and Miora turned to glower in its direction. Stomping over to the nest, she snatched her apron off it and demanded, "What do you want?" The bird stretched up its head and bit her finger. Miora yelped, then leaned down and nibbled at the fluff and skin at the top of its head. The bird dropped. "See how you like it," she muttered, stalking out of the tent. She found a beetle in the grass, crunched it twice in her molars where she couldn't taste it, brought it back and poked it in Nimrod's gaping pink mouth before clambering back up on the chair. "How many are there?" she wanted to know, referring to the mysterious letters.

[Riley]

Riley started laughing when she called him a tart, sticking his tongue out at her for a brief moment. "Oh yeah, well you're a brute." He joked right back at her, knowing that if anyone heard him call her that out of context then their head might explode from sheer confusion. The pair listened to Miora's quite impressive speech, Riley with a smile, and Taesi with an amused rumble escaping her throat. "Well I know better." He added just to annoy her. Riley tried everything he could to suppress the smile he felt forming on his lips, he wasn't positive how well he succeeded.

Riley watched her carefully as she examined the book, pushing it closer to her when she pointed at one of the pictures he drew. "That is a glove, for the letter G." He explained, flipping threw a few more pictures for her. "The first letter of each word makes the sound for that word." He would go into the exact rules much later, but for now all she needed were the basics, anything more might confuse her at the moment. Riley needed to get a new project going now for when his nightmares woke him up in the middle of the night. "You should talk to Ana about them, she could help you relax." The dragon spoke only to Riley, who agreed, but also let her know he didn't want to talk about it.

Riley smiled as Miora asked him about how many letters there were in the alphabet. "Twenty-six, for our language anyway. Be glad I'm not teaching you the ancient language, there are many many more letters. Our language is far simpler." Scratching at his chin for a second, he flipped through the book until he found a page with the picture of a cart on it, "The letter C, then above this apple is the letter A, and finally above this tree is the letter T. Those three letters together spell the word cat." As he spoke, he wrote the letters down on a scrap of paper for Miora to see them. "Now, above this mountain is the letter M, above this icicle is the letter I, above this oar is the letter O, above this river is the letter R, then back to the apple with the letter A. This spells your name, Miora."

Riley smiled at Miora, leaving her to look through the book and look at the paper with her name on it as she pleased. He stayed in his seat for a few moments, watching her as she ate his bread as well. That was his, he had been taught to share, but he liked bread. Instead of having it share completely, he tore the loaf in half, letting her have half of it and leaving him the other half. Riley had been forced to near starvation at several points in his life, he wasn't about to deny someone food, but that didn't mean he didn't want to keep his own food safe from thieves. Like Miora.

[Lisenet]

Miora nearly keeled over with exasperation when he disagreed and stated that he did know better. Taesi grumbled something but Miora still couldn’t interpret dragon-talk well enough to fumble a guess at what that meant. The two of them. They were going to give her something, though probably not worms. The food here seemed fresh enough. Which was nice.

”What about ch and sh?” she asked, paging through the majority of the pictures and not seeing anything that started with those sounds. The pictures were well-drawn; she hadn’t known that was one of Riley’s talents. Granted, now that she thought about it, she didn’t know that much about Riley at all. Not his age, where he was from, where he’d left his family. The only thing she remembered knowing that the tooth he wore was from a shirg wolf, which apparently was huge and not a creature Miora ever wanted to meet. ”How come they’ve got more letters? Have they got the same sounds? Their mouths look the same, they shouldn’t make different ones.” She could understand the birds and the beetles making different noises, with such different-looking mouths, if they even had mouths. But for all their weirdnessess, elves seemed to have the same parts and pieces that humans did, even if they did look a little different. She hadn’t spotted any sign of tails yet, but those could be hidden. Nor had she grabbed an elf and asked to see what their teeth looked like, though. For all she knew they had two tongues to make different noises. What little she’d heard of their language, she wouldn’t be particularly surprised to learn that they did. Only she wondered how they both might fit in there together.

Riley spelled out one word for her, and Miora reached up with one finger to smudge the charcoal, half-expecting that the word would be as solid and immovable as ink, for some reason. But no, it smeared just a little and reassured her that it wasn’t magic, though words in a way were their own sort of magic, weren’t they? They made things and people move without touching them. That was magical. Sort of. ”How do you know that’s how it’s spelled?” she wanted to know, tracing her fingers over the letters of her own name, supposedly. It was small, like her. Would it grow if she did? ”Do the letters only make one sound? I think I’ve heard more than twenty-six sounds before.” Granted, Miora hadn’t counted to twenty-six in quite a while. Chances were she wasn’t doing that quite right either.

Miora tugged off another strip of the bread chunk Riley had let her have, chewing on it thoughtfully as she gingerly poked through the book, wondering ever more questions but not quite knowing how to phrase them yet. Some questions sounded odd when put to sound, for whatever reason. When Nimrod made some screechy moaning sound, she groaned, rolled her eyes, and hopped off the chair. Muttering about ungrateful hellions, she snatched the apron off the nest Riley had made and retied it around her waist. Then she lifted the bird, which was quivering and had its cottony feathers all puffed up, and dropped it down the front of her dress. The apron ties would keep it from falling out and this way it would be warm. ”And no savaging me,” she added, returning to the chair. ”How do I keep it warm at night so I don’t accidentally squish it?” she asked Riley.