He'd been practicing his speaking skills lately. Like, a lot lately. Remembering words that Dip had spoken and sounds that the four-limbs-two-wings and the ungulate had made. Repeating them, discovering their meaning, stringing them together into very basic sentences that, at the very least, had some meaning to them.

He hadn't yet left the bone room - why would he? The pickings were good, with plenty of rats to choose from, and it was small enough that he would run into people to talk to. He found that he liked talking with people, even though he wasn't yet very good at it. Although instinct demanded he be reclusive and lonely, he seemed to gravitate towards company.

But now he was alone again. He mumbled to himself, repeating words to get the feel of them stuck in his head, before he stopped, realizing that he wasn't really sure where he was now. He snorted, his nostrils flaring as he glanced around. He hadn't yet been to this part of Canis. "There?" he called into the emptiness. His eyes raked over something odd, then. Carvings on the walls, markings of some kind. Hadn't Dip said something about this?

Curiously, he stepped over, reaching forward to touch the wall. How strange. For a moment he wanted to cry because this was obviously yet another language he had to learn. Was the language of sounds and noises not enough? Now he would have to learn how to read pictures and paintings and carvings on the walls?!

"WHAT MEAN," he roared at the wall, as if expecting the stone to give him some kind of answers. He looked like he was ready to start smashing the rock in his frustration.

The voice behind him scared the beast enough to have him whipping around with a high-pitched yelp. He talons came up, ready to fight someone off, but the thing that stood before him showed no hostility. He did not catch the slightly mocking tone, but he at least understood the words he had said repeated back to him. He slowly forced himself to relax, but he stood in an almost half-crouched pose, in case something did happen.

Had Dip seen this before? Had she encountered this creature? Was that why she had led him here? He narrowed his eyes, following the claws as the robed creature pointed at the wall. "Captured. Stone," he rumbled thoughtfully. How was one captured in stone? Perhaps like a very large stone egg. Or maybe a hollow wall with a boulder over the entrance. His eyes followed to the second drawing. "Masters?" There was a word he had not heard yet before and sparked something...almost like disdain in his chest. Masters were those that ruled over the masses, those that claimed control and he did not like that thought.

He turned his head back towards the robed creature, glowing eyes merely slits in his face. "What you?" he huffed. "How stone captured?" The effort of speech was, at least, there.

His top hands wrung together while the bottom ones hung limply at his side. He considered this for a moment before nodding, understanding. He had said the words "magic" and "capture" together - they had captured him with magic. That certainly seemed possible - after all, Dip could make the ground shiver and he could bring darkness and light. There were stranger things that could happen for sure.

He flinched and leaned forward as the topaz necklace appeared, grunting loudly. That thing was shiny! It wasn't prey, of course, and it wasn't something that could help him hunt, but it was pretty and he wanted it. "Gifts?" he rumbled. "Want. Want gift." Another guttural huff. "What to trade?"

He glared at the Collector, frustrated that he was refusing. "What?!" he growled. His claws flexed at his side, but the very small part of his brain that was sensible held him back from doing anything rash. The Collector was, after all, right. He had not yet mastered language. He could barely piece together any words at all. He grumbled for a moment, not wanting to admit that he was so far behind, but eventually, with wounded pride, he submitted.

"Accept," he rumbled. "Master language. Come back. Collector give gift." Perhaps he had misunderstood that mastering language wasn't guaranteed to give him something, but at least his primitive mind had figured out that learning language would get him something good, even if it was a step towards getting something good.

So he lumbered off, wondering if there was someone that would be able to teach him. Or perhaps he could find Dip. Or simply learn it himself.

*exit