02-26-2020, 05:13 PM
You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn?
You sit and stay, I don't obey.
Were he cleverer or more socially adept, he might have noticed the subtle cues signifying her discomfort. Might even have paused to question it, given how amicably they had parted after their last meeting. As it is however, he is neither of those things. And so, much as she had surmised, he remains oblivious to her clear agitation.Instead, his attention is entirely focused on trying to recall exactly what she had looked like at their last meeting and why she seemed different. While his ability to notice and react to stimuli in the immediate present is nearly unparalleled, his memory… well, that’s an entirely different story. Perhaps it is a consequence of one too many knocks to the head as a child, but whatever the case may be, he struggles committing those details to long term memory. On the battlefield, such a thing had been largely irrelevant. Now however, in the face of social expectations, it seems those things matter a great deal.
A concern for another time. Assuming he remembered it, of course.
When she reveals her newly antlered state, his gaze flies up to the pale horns stretching skeletal fingers above her head. “Oh!” he exclaims before offering her a sheepish grin. “Right. Of course. I forget sometimes most of you lack them.”
Closing the distance between them, he stretches his nose forward, sniffing curiously at the new appendages. To his surprise and chagrin, they prove no different smelling than any other set of antlers he’s ever sniffed. Which, as it happens, is a larger number than he’d care to admit.
Her forced cheerfulness goes unnoticed by the peryton as he accepts her friendly small talk at face value. “Oh, well enough, I suppose,” he replies blithely, still focused on the unconscious sway of her antlers as she speaks. “Your world is endlessly fascinating.” He pauses for barely breath before abruptly returning the subject she’d just tried to abandon. “How did you get antlers?”
Voracious
