Thoth didn't have time to answer Danny before Morveren work up and duly distracted them all. In moods like this, she had a habit of occupying the attention of anyone and everyone in the room - in an endearing sort of way. Thoth had had Morveren for a while now and, while he still didn't understand her fully, he was beginning to appreciate her more. Her playful, kittenish demeanour was a godsend while he was stuck in hospital. Solarius' expression was one he'd take a mental snapshot of and treasure forever, too. The tiger clearly had no idea what had hit him; he stared at her with a combination of surprise, curiosity and apprehension as she leapt all over the place, finally settling on his lower back. Danny was in a fit of giggles by the time Morveren started batting Sol's tail about, which he obligingly wiggled for her, and even Thoth grinned.
"Doctors are under oath not to kill," he pointed out to Danny after a few minutes, not quite getting the non-literal exaggeration. "What's the worst that could happen, really? We might get told off." Thoth was so used to being told off that it no longer had an effect on him. Before the apprentice practitioner could bottle out, he launched into another long, detailed lecture, this time explaining how Danny could get to his lab on the third floor. There were no ponies in there, currently. While he talked, Thoth rooted around under his paperwork in search of his ring of keys, which he always took off when he was in bed because it dug into his leg. He'd detailed how to get to the lab (rather unnecessarily, since Danny had been there before) and was identifying where within it the trainee doctor could find the most recent batch of penicillin when he found the ring tucked beneath a couple of papers with ancient rune markings scribbled all over them.
It was a large, old-fashioned ring, the type which would normally be worn on the belt of a gatekeeper. Thoth had it partially because of his tendency to misplace small things, and partially because he thought it was cool. Four keys - one each for his bedroom, his lab, his animal house, and his sister's cottage - jangled cheerfully off the ring. Thoth carefully selected a medium sized one with a square head and handed it to Danny, letting the rest of the keys fall to the bottom of the ring.
"Here you go," he said as he passed it over, before adding thoughtfully in response to the last question, "I've only seen it referenced in two books so I've had to do the experiments from scratch. That's why it's taking so long. Also, I only have myself as a test subject, and the nurses keep confiscating it every time they see me with it."
Not particularly reassuring, but the ball was rolling now. Thoth gazed across at Danny with clear expectancy, and also a level of open friendliness he hadn't previously shown. From her position on Sol's back, Morv made her little huff-huff noise which meant she was laughing. |