Thoth stares at his sister incredulously. “Flowers?” He repeats. “Flowers are girly.”
“They’re just a bit more…” Poppy bites her lip in the way she does when she’s trying not to laugh. “Uhh, normal. Or, you know, you could get a card or something.”
“Please,” Thoth scoffs. “I’m a twelve year-old boy. I know what twelve year-old boys like.”
Poppy waits until he’s marched out of the room before bursting into peals of laughter. He can hear her through the door but he ignores her, putting it down to standard sister weirdness. Clutching the precious book to his chest, he runs around to the side of the house where Junebell is grazing absently, leads her over to the mountain block and straps the book firmly onto her saddle. He has one foot in the stirrup and is about to mount when something small, green and fast darts past him and tries to jump up at the pony. The green quadruped is approximately the size of a large kitten, and Thoth has thus far been unable to identify her confidently. His sister had thought she looked like a ‘pocket monster’ and had given him a ‘pocket monster trading card’, which had a picture of a cartoon animal that does, admittedly, look remarkably similar. The trading card had come from Earth and he doesn’t consider a children’s toy a reliable source of information. Thoth pulls the trading card out now, glances between it and the creature, before sighing and pocketing the card again. The quadruped runs excitedly around Junebell’s ankles, who gazes mildly down at her. Junebell is used to the little thing, now - she’s been following Thoth around ever since he capsized his boat off Apeliotes Island.
Knowing that she will only whine as she runs along behind him if he leaves her here, he grabs her by the scruff of her neck and shoves her into his coat pocket, which is quite deep. While he mounts Junebell, the little creature pokes her head out and peers interestedly out at the world, making a happy little ‘brrr’ noise. They canter until Junebell starts to tire and pause so that she can drink from a brook, before finishing the rest of the journey at a brisk walk. The palace guards know Junebell now, so when Thoth dismounts he doesn’t bother to tie her up and leaves her to her own devices. Junebell has always struggled to get along with other horses in Shaman because she doesn’t speak the same language as them, and she prefers to graze in the open rather than get locked up in a stall.
While the creature pokes his leg through the material of his coat with her tail, Thoth makes his way into the castle and through the winding corridors, the book tucked firmly under his arm. He has to stop and ask a guard to clarify exactly which room is the right one. Once the room has been located, he knocks gingerly on the door before opening it a crack and peeking around, checking that Tristan isn’t asleep. When he sees that he isn’t, he opens the door a little wider and slips through.
“Hi,” he says, trying not to look at the bandages on his friend’s chest. “I brought you a book,” he continues brightly, and proudly presents Tristan with a thick book titled, Egyptian Grammar, third edition. “Sir Alan Gardiner,” he adds, evidently under the impression that he has just given Tristan a real treat. “This is the original stuff. Some of the terminology is a little out-dated, of course, but – no! Stop!”
The little creature leaps out of his pocket and onto Tristan’s bed, peering up at him with her huge green eyes. Thoth makes a grab at her but she slips away and runs up the bed, chattering excitedly. At the head of the bed, she grabs the corner of the blankets with her teeth and starts to worry them like a dog. When Thoth grabs at her again, she vanishes underneath them and starts wiggling around, occasionally bumping against Tristan’s side.
“Come back here,” Thoth instructs in English, since he hasn’t been able to identify what language she uses either. She pokes her nose out from under the blankets, makes her happy little ‘brr’ noise again and ducks back under. While she starts wiggling her way back up the bed towards Tristan’s head, Thoth lifts his eyebrows and sighs. “Sorry. I haven’t found an effective way of communicating with her yet.”
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