Contemplating Phrases [open]

[Ruby]

... literally. Todmund had moved into the Records Room with a vengeance, neatly usurping the Head Archivist's role at least five times a week. The stuffy old lady pretended to be miffed, but Todmund knew better- he had it from a very reliable source that she was using the extra time to bathe her feet in hot salt water, something she constantly complained about not having the time to do. So he wasn't surprised when she acquiesced more easily every day, not even when a bowl of sliced cress (his favorite treat, excellent for the eyes and brain functions) appeared at his station after a quick bathroom run. He figured he'd be in full control here within a month. After all, the old lady wasn't Harper trained.

The Harper Journeyman looked around, surveying his domain as he munched on cress. His manuscripts, tomes, scrolls and records took up literally every space on every table, open to various pages or held down with innumerable paperweights. Ink splattered his hands, but now he was working with a stylus on a clay tablet, changing and annotating a chronology of tithes from Blossom. He planned to analyze the trends and possibly write up a report on use patterns. Maybe the kitchens would be interested, or the head of the stockrooms. Hopefully no one would need anything in here for several days- none of the pages could be moved, or all his work would be for naught.

[Sheari]

True to her working nature, Emiliah wandered into the Archives to clean it. And just as true to her nature, she was nearly naked, with nothing clothing her than little more than her under garments and maybe a very loose shirt. She had grown very accustomed to the room. It was generally void of other people save for those who simply glanced in her general direction, and more often then not, sniffed at her and went about their way.

But today was different!

She walked into the room, bare feet making no noise as she did so, to see someone at a table. It wasn't the fact that there was someone there that caught her attention, it was the several pages of paper he had out, as well as the bowl. Shrew wiggled on the girl's shoulder, having not already left due to the distraction of the bowl.

Bowls meant food, and if there was something the little fire lizard wouldn't turn down, it was food.

Emi crept closer to the table, leaning over his shoulder, eyes wide and trained on the runes and figures he scribbled on the page. Illiterate, the candidate didn't have the ability to decipher any of it, but it interested her nonetheless. Shrew climbed down the inside of the girl's shirt, popping out onto the table and trying to get at the bowl.

[Ruby]

Luckily for Emiliah, Carenath was napping when she came in. The Archives were very clearly Todmund's territory at this time, and although the teensy, legless bronze had only been with His for a week at most, he knew that, and felt the need to protect them from anyone and everyone. Usually, Todmund would call him off, but on a day like today (with such sensitive material!) he would let the Bronze attempt to remove the eyes of whoever tried to get in. But a napping guard was an ineffective guard, and with his back to the door, Todmund didn't notice the other Candidate right away.

To be fully truthful, he probably wouldn't have noticed her at all. The bowl of cress was pushed to one side, now, mostly forgotten, and he didn't even see the little green fire lizard approach. Carenath, however, did. The human female did not concern him (she was not worthy of His, and therefore neither a liar nor worth his attention), but that cress was his. Using his wings to rear his front half off the ground, he started a hiss- but wait, she was a female too. Green. Therefore, also his. Barely longer than Shrew herself, the Bronze inch-wormed around her, examining her from all sides, then chirped an authoritative greeting. Yes, she was his, and the cress was his, so she could have some... he supposed. Carenath gestured at the bowl with his tail, then flapped his wings twice to raise himself over the edge and dive-bombed the cress to demonstrate this fact.

Now Todmund knew someone was there. Without looking up or making any signal that he was aware of her, he drew a new stack of hides toward himself, and said, "You may watch if you must, but for Faranth's sake, don't touch anything. And don't let your creature touch anything, either." Such a warm welcome. Todmund hated being interrupted.

[Sheari]

WHAT?! Emi jumped back, eyes wide as she watched Todmund. He hadn't moved, had even really raised his voice, she just hadn't been expecting him to speak. She didn't like his words, however. She didn't mind the one's directed at her, but no one was going to call Shrew a creature and then tell her what to do! Emiliah's brows came together and she scowled at him. "Cleaning," she said firmly, grabbing a nearby dust rag.

Shrew was very curious about Carenath. His lack of appendages save for wings intrigued her and also concerned her a little. Why didn't he have legs?! Either way, the invitation to the cress was not ignored. She climbed up to the rim of the bowl, balancing on her paws carefully, tail out straight, wings half unfurled. She looked up at Todmund and hissed. He wasn't going to tell her what to do! She went were she pleased and if he didn't like it then he could just deal with it!

Emiliah ignored the hiss her fire lizard awarded the other candidate and moved to a nearby shelf. Finding a table not occupied by Todmund's work, she began carefully unloading the folders and scrolls there so she could begin cleaning it. It was just one shelf of many, and it would take a while for the archives to be entirely clean of the dust and occasional cobwebs that liked to accumulate. She might have found some of the information stored interesting, but alas, the girl couldn't read, and so she stacked the stuff the same way it came off so it could go back on in order.

[Ruby]

Well, he hadn't meant to scare her! Now Todmund felt bad. He finished the line he was working on, deliberately marked the spot where he was in the book with the stylus, and swung around on the bench to where Emiliah was now... dismantling the library?! Todmund took a deep breath, because she seemed to be putting everything back in order, mostly. Alright. He could do this.

Todmund was not the most social of guys, but he figured he could give it a try, just this once. He'd scared her, after all. So he breathed in, (trying to clear his nose of the perpetually nasal quality it gave to his voice), and said, "Oh, hello there. I apologize if I startled you, I was simply involved in what I was doing." Good, good. Now he should... ask something about her? "May I help you with something?"

Carenath claimed Shrew, but he did not like her uppityness. He hissed at her while she tried to hiss at Todmund, drowning her out. But then he, too, felt bad. Dipping his head into the bowl, he carefully balanced a piece of cress on his nose and inched over to Shrew, offering it to her. She would forgive him, yes?

[Sheari]

Emiliah turned around, dust rag in hand, to look at Todmund. She was a little nervous, but the nerves were slowly giving way. The people of the Archives were generally harmless and had yet to give her a reason to fear them. She viewed him as just another records keeper, and thought of him as such. With his apology she nodded, understanding being caught up in one's work. "Emi is fine, just cleaning," she replied to his offer. She'd done it a hundred times before, this time would be no different.

"What was he doing?" she asked of Todmund. She'd seen others make similar marks but she'd never been able to understand them. She couldn't even read or write her own name past the first three letters with which she called herself. She knew her name was 'Emiliah', but if she'd seen it written down, she wouldn't recognize it.

Shrew looked to Cerenath with a glare. How dare he hiss over her! Her eye whirled a slow, annoyed red but subsided into a pinkish green at the offer of cress. She accepted the little bronze's apology, gently taking the piece before devouring it in an most unladylike fashion. She chomped on it twice before swallowing it down. In a mere moment, it was gone. The green then looked at him to see if he had offered anymore. Seeing that he hadn't, she began digging in the bowl to find her own piece. She'd never had cress before, and she found now, that she liked it.

[Ruby]

Todmund drew his eyebrows together, looking off a little over Emiliah's shoulder. He didn't really like looking people in the eye, but he knew people liked to see his face when they were talking to him, usually. Back to the present, though: the girl had said that 'Emi was just cleaning'. Todmund hadn't realized there was anyone else in the room, and looked around for the so-named Emi. No luck, though; no one else seemed to be here. Maybe she was talking about herself? Todmund's shoulders lifted in a tiny shrug. If he needed her attention, he'd try Emi, but that was unlikely. If Todmund had his way, she'd finish her cleaning and go somewhere else.

Taking the stylus back in hand, Todmund had started skimming again when Emiliah asked her question. Brows furrowed (and eyes still on his book), Todmund made a connection. This girl did not understand tense at all. However, this did not translate in the Candidate's mind to an inability to read, so explained the whole deal. "Oh, it's very simple. Very poor tithe records have been kept, and the information is scattered across many documents. I am simply compiling it all into a useful series of charts and graphs." Right, Todmund. Very simple.

Yes, good Green. She would be his, after all. Chomping down another piece of the green stuff, Carenath inched over to Shrew and nuzzled her slightly before plunging deeper into the bowl. Having no legs certainly didn't stop him from stuffing his face.