"Well, I meant your orange," Aurelle said patiently. "Do you like what colours you are?" She didn't really understand what 'yellow, but not shiny' was, considering she couldn't remember what yellow nor shiny was like. It went into the other amalgamations of grey that she imagined Hog to be.

She blinked, ears twitching as Hog asked about her gemstone. "Yes! some of it is on my cheeks," she said, tapping the slits of kunzite under her eyes. "I think it's in my face, mostly. I can feel my face tingle when I cast magic, and, ahh--" She leaned down and opened her mouth, putting a finger onto one of her molars. They, too, were pink kunzite. "Some of my teeth are stones, too. I think it's just taken over some of the bone in my face."

A normal, unconcerning thing to say in Origin Caves.

"Would you like to touch?" She offered, likely referring to the slits of kunzite on her cheeks and not the gemstone teeth inside her mouth. In fact, just to make sure Hog didn't try to nose into her mouth, Aurelle tapped her cheeks again. "It's sort of warm. Have you touched another gemstone before?"

@Hog

Hog, without considering that Aurelle would likely have to crawl onto all fours in the middle of a tavern to do so, nods. "Yes, please!"

She found she'd very much like to touch a stone; it wasn't as if she could touch her own.

Then she hummed as she considered if she liked her orange. "I think so, but I think it makes me stand out. It's not very good for hiding." She mused aloud. "My friend took me to Polaris, and it's all blue! So, I don't fit in at all."

"I didn't touch his stone, but it was pretty, like yours but not as pink!" Hog rambled aimlessly. "Does it hurt to eat with your gem teeth? Sometimes when I bite something really hard, it hurts my teeth."

Though, thankfully, that seemed to be the end of her questions as she toddled closer to Aurelle, waiting to touch.

@Aurelle

Aurelle, in fairness, also hadn't realized she'd have to get on all fours. As it was, she was just leaning over with the expectation that Hog could just lift her head and give her a touch. When she didn't, Aurelle quietly focused into her magic. She could sense the microbial life again; though the floor was much cleaner after her earlier efforts. Hog, of course, was still covered in crawling bacterium.

"Oh! You're very little," she said, realizing. She leaned right in to Hog's face to let her give the warm stones on her cheeks a touch.

To her question, Aurelle shook her head. "No, it doesn't hurt. I try not to eat things like, ahh.. seeds and fruit-pits, because you're not supposed to bite them. You're meant to plant them in the ground so that they'll grow." Very wise, of course. "--but, ahh, sometimes fruit skin or little bones get stuck in them and it's very unpleasant."

"Polaris is nice," she said thoughtfully. "Oh, ahh-- what do you eat? I could buy you some food, if you like."

@Hog

Hog had not leaned up to touch Aurelle's cheek, simply because she could not. Hog breeds like hers with reinforced necks could not look up, at least not directly. Yet when Aurelle leaned down even further, she made sure to push her grubby little nose into Aurelle's cheek. She made a little excited grunt when she found it was warm to the touch, just as Aurelle said. She'd pulled away in her excitement, but she leaned back in to give the gem another little touch.

"I'm little so I have to be the cleverest!" Hog announced proudly, apropos to the off comment on her size. "It's so warm! Is mine warm too?" Hog asks, tilting her ear towards Aurelle.

"Ouch! When do they grow? I've just been eating them, but sometimes they're yucky." She rattled off mindlessly before considering what she ate.

"I like most things, but I like grain-things best." She nodded, as if Aurelle could see it.

@Aurelle

"It should be, I think," Aurelle answered. She sat back up and offered a hand out for Hog to deposit her ear into. Her thumb grazed over the pearl and she gave a little nod. "Ahh, it's very smooth. Smoother than mine, I think. It feels nice and warm, too."

To Hog's next question, Aurelle considered with a hum. It wasn't like she could just look and see how things were getting on and how they were growing, but she had a vague idea. "It depends on what it is," she said. "Some things grow very fast, and some things grow very slowly. There's probably some magic to help them! But, ahh, I'm not sure what those would be."

She couldn't cast them, at least.

"Grain-things," Aurelle answered thoughtfully. "Ahh, come with me."

Pulling the bucket and mop with her back to the counter with Bartholomew, Aurelle exchanged her pay for a pair of meals; two plates were handed to her with sandwiches piled high. Soft, toasted brown bread with thick cuts of rabbit, lettuce and salted rabbit inside. Aurelle took it to a table and sat. "Ahh, do you fit on the chairs?" She asked Hog.

If not, she gave Hog her slop on the floor, like God intended for pigs.

@Hog

Hog tilted her ear towards Aurelle as she went to touch the pearl, perhaps not realising it wasn't helpful to move when a blind person was trying to touch something.

"Oh. Magic. I don't know much about the magic. But, I want to know everything! Like, why we have magic! And why we have good thinkers! And why we have good talents!" She announced, apparently very proudly, as she followed after Aurelle.

"Those look nice! They don't look like grain!" Hog said before leaping up to the chair. However, she seemed to have vastly overestimated how far she could jump. Her little hop was not even high enough to bonk her head on the underside of the chair. There was a little pause, then she tried again with the same result.

Eventually, Hog planted herself next to Aurelle's chair instead. There was a pause before Hog remembered her companion couldn't see. "I'm too little..." She muttered.

She awaited her slop on the floor. As God intended.

@Aurelle

"That's alright," Aurelle assured as she set Hog's slop on the floor, like God intended. "They turn grain into this. Ahh, it's called bread." She tapped the sandwich before leaving Hog to consume her meal.

Taking her own sandwich delicately into her hands, Aurelle paused to think. "Well, ahh, I'm not certain why we have magic, but I think it's just a part of us. Like why we have hair, and feet, and skin. Some things just are. I do know that everyone has different magic, though, and use it for different things."

"I can heal, and, ahh, sense some mushrooms. I think I got that from my partner, though," Aurelle continued. "Some people can make fire, or water. Some people can't do magic at all, and some people are very, very good at it. We're all, ahh, different, you know? I suppose we all need different things and different magic to do those things."

The elf shrugged a little, thinking. "And, ahh, thinking and talents are just... experience, really," she offered. "People are good at lots of things by doing them and learning how to do them right. People are good thinkers because they think a lot, and have had a lot of practice at it. Once you have a lot of practice in, ahh, learning and knowing things, I'm sure you'll be very good at them, too!"

Aurelle was cheerful, of course. She took a small, polite bite out of her sandwich and dabbed away the crumbs on her mouth. "Ahh, I certainly don't know everything, but I can share with you some things you'd like to know, I think."

@Hog

Hog announced, perhaps unintentionally proudly in her enthusiasm to share, "I can't use magic!" Then immediately stuck her head into her sandwich slop, making a big loud 'mmmm' of appreciation as she dug in. This food stuff really was good! It crunched! She decided then and there that she liked crunches!

"What do you heal?" Hog asked between her mouthfuls, her words warped by the food in her mouth. "Do you heal cuts and hurts?" She elaborated, before her snout was back on the floor, hoovering up her slop.

"How did you find out you could do it?" Hog continued, apparently Aurelle had re-opened the floodgates to question-central.

She got to eat this nice food and ask questions; this truly was a joyous occasion. She sat on the floor, pleased as punch, crumbs all over her face as she chewed thoughtfully on a leaf of lettuce.

@Aurelle

"Oh, ahh, yes, I heal little cuts and bruises, yes," she said. "I can also make your tummy feel better if it's a little upset, or, ahh, help you stop coughing and sneezing so much if you're a little sick. Oh, ahh-- I've found that there's some plants that can help with that, too. But, ahh... they're a little slower-acting. Magic can be really tiring, though, so sometimes it's good to do it slow-ways."

Aurelle took a thoughtful bite of her sandwich, thinking. "Well, ahh, I'm not too sure, to be honest. Magic is very... strange. Sometimes spells won't work, or, ahh, will backfire. Usually I think about something I'd like to do and I try to do it a few times, and if I can, then I know that's a spell I can use in the future. If I can't, then I suppose it's not something I can do."

She had a little sip of her water. "I'm sure there's, ahh, someone out there who knows much better how it works than I do." For all she knew, there was some kind of visual indicator for what someone could or couldn't do.

@Hog