This one, he didn't know--and that was interesting enough on its own.

"That would be me. Consider yourself my welcome guest; what can I do for you?"

He was sitting atop a bone pile some thirty feet away, legs idly crossed, hooves dangling over its edge. A cup, steaming, was held in one hand, and the crimson pinprick eyes beneath the hood regarded Rain with polite if mild interest.

The Collector stared, for a moment.

The Fae..? Faeries? Let it be said that the Collector knew Fairies. Hell, he had met one, more often than he'd like to admit. This thing was a bug. It was an insect. It was ugly, and hard-shelled and it was disgusting to look upon. It was nothing like a fairy--even the ones with gnashing teeth didn't look like... whatever this monstrosity was.

...So he smiled broadly, and said, "Ahh, yes, I thought you might be one of the faeries. A fine specimen, as well--beauty and cunning, hmm..?" Well, whatever the case, this thing knew him better than he'd thought. He knew that his reputation was out there as a... trader, but a cunning trickster-? My, my, someone had run their mouths. "Please, do tell: who told you of me?" he asked them smoothly. "So long as you can answer that, we might continue our conversation. It is an interesting request, and I do so love things that are interesting. And so I will ask: what are your skills, little one-? And," ah, he could ask it its name, but it had acknowledged that his was not real and that would be impolite; and so he asked, instead: "What name do you go by..?"

Ahhh, one of the deer-creatures, then. The one called Tahi-shei or the one called Aran, most likely. Interesting to note.

With that tidbit filed away for future reference--and perhaps action, though it amused him more than anything else--Algol turned his attention back to this... 'Walks Like Rain.' At first he thought it foolish--how could one 'walk like rain?' Though a brief reconsideration told him that it did rather place its legs in swift and delicate motions, like the falling of raindrops. Perhaps that was what it meant.

"Ahh, a pleasure, Walks-Like-Rain," he crooned to it. "Your skillset is quite the useful one, indeed. And it seems you are more aware than most of the sort of items I keep within my admittedly vast collection. Something to place on your limbs, perhaps enchanted but certainly not cursed... hmm. Tell me, little one," (and it was little, as yet, compared to him) "-how old are you, precisely?"

He steepled clawed hands as he looked down upon the young one: he had a reason for asking, and it was an important question, all things considered.

One cycle--now there was the information that he needed.

He could have simply given it something that wouldn't fit it in a cycle's time, of course, but that would have been dishonest. "You are expected to grow, then. To become larger, you see. Anything I give to you now will be far too small in three cycles' time. So then I ask your preference; would you like a task now, with the reward granted in that time? Or would you like to come back then, and begin as an adult--or, of course, I can grant you a task, give you a reward that I hope will fit you, and perhaps it will or perhaps it will not."

Those were the options, as he saw them--and he was still considering what sort of quest he could even assign this one.

The Collector stared at this one, hands steepling. He wondered, briefly, how one so young had discovered that it was good at essentially assassination. Perhaps... it was useful for one specific task he had in mind.

"You said that you had friends... I wonder if you might be particularly useful for something quite specific I have in mind. Something... very dangerous, but something I have not asked others to aid me with." Because they'd have said 'no.' Because it was madness.

And hilarious.

"I have no one that would require specific assassination at the moment. But I do have a task that requires a great deal of searching, and cunning. A puzzle left to me, to find a specific set of treasures. Tell me: how willing are your friends to aid you? How are they with... riddles, and seeking?" he asked, crimson pinprick eyes glinting as he tilted his head.