Blue eyes widened with something akin to awe. "You're a healer--without magic? Do you mean like, setting bones and things, or?" Hands dropped again to the earth, searching for a banana that might or might not appear. Oliver seemed thoughtful as he worked, and then glanced up again. "I can do some things like that, but being able to disinfect on top of it's definitely important. Infections are so bad," he lamented, with a shake of his head. "I mean, I'm happy to share anything I know!"

Oliver rocked back on his haunches, for a moment, thinking. "I don't know if you need any of it, but you can tell me? And I'm glad to learn anything you can teach," he added. "I can, uh, close wounds with magic using, like--grass?" Claws lifted, and he began to tick off things, looking deeply in thought--yet focused--as he did so. "I can see sickness or health in someone, and cleanse the bad stuff, and make them stronger; I can take the gross stuff outta water, or make water outta nothing--you need that to clean wounds," he explained. "And I can share wounds with someone. Like, if you were hurt, I could put half of it on myself--and it'd all mostly heal. It sucks but I can do it. My dad taught me," he added, tufted ears flattening back--and the bird-dog looked abruptly sad. "He's dead, now, but he was a Guardian," (whatever that meant) "and he said a Voice taught it to him when the big dragon came. Raheerah."

If it weren't a magical world, this explanation might've come across a bit over the top; as it was, it was perhaps already reaching the boundaries of believability. But Oliver looked to Rain without malice--and without seeing their own--and asked, brandishing a new banana, "Would any of that be something you'd wanna learn?"

@Rain

"Setting bones and things," they confirmed. "The body... is a complicated thing. Bone, muscle, tendon, blood. It's... difficult, hard to learn... but worth using." They resisted the urge to let their mandibles extend in a proper grin. "I could show you sometime, if I had someone to practice on." Or cut open. They eyed his wings again -- they fascinated Rain, a combination of wings and forelegs. Wonderful. They'd love to dissect Oliver... but the little things with stones turned into Oil if they got hurt too badly, and Rain wasn't sure if the effort of luring in a test subject was worth the risk of losing all your observations too soon.

Rain took quiet note of the various things Oliver listed, identifying some of them as being easily within her reach, in theory. "Producing water and moving grass would be useful," they admitted, inclining their head slightly. Maybe Oliver was more useful than she'd initially assumed. If he were smaller, they'd have tried to take him as a pet, but as it were, he was much bigger than they were. Rain was also intrigued by the idea of sharing wounds, but they were wary of admitting that out loud, lest it sound too much like weakness to any potential eavesdroppers.

They hummed lightly. "I have... some magic myself. Magic of infection, of bacteria, of... prokaryotes. Much like my Queen. I am less skilled with it; practice begets power, and I have had less." Perhaps Oliver could help her change that.


@oliver

He listened solemnly to Rain's explanation, and further to their offer, or what he interpreted as one. "Sure," he agreed, amiably. "As long as nobody gets hurt. I mean, I've seen most of that stuff in Lessers, but they were dead already, you know? -For eating," he explained, "before I figured out magic to eat plants, instead. But I'm sure there's more that you could teach me." It sounded almost encouraging, the bird dog offering the canine equivalent of a beaming smile: eyes bright, tufted ears briefly back, lip-corners turned well up.

Then he looked down. "Okay, so--water first," he suggested, and placed both strange forelimbs close together. Hand-like claws hovered before one another, digits held as if enclosing an orb of some kind, like a crystal ball, though of course that space was empty. He glanced more seriously up at Rain. "If you can use anything to sense magic, now would be the time but I'll try to describe what I'm doing?"

Oliver gave a swallow, thinking as he looked back between his claws. "So, there's water all around us. In--us, in the plants, in the air. If you can... kinda sense it, get ahold of it with your magic, you can draw it all together. Into one place," he explained. "So, it's not coming from nowhere--it's coming from all around you. Which--means it's easier to do when there's already a lot of water, like--uhh, fog or rain. And harder to do in real hot, dry places. Like Monoceros, if you know it." Sure, there'd been a river there, but all sorts of plant growth and water use had been hard. Light, at least, had come easy--and ironically, since it was the one thing the cave had the most of.

The magic flickered up, at first, but only a couple drops of dew formed on the hybrid's hands. He glanced up apologetically, with another doglike "smile." "Just--sometimes magic takes awhile to work right. That's how it always is, I guess. Maybe you could help me?" he suggested, friendliness in his tone.

@Rain

"I could show you on food," they said, making an approximation of a shrug. What Oliver probably didn't know was that Rain didn't make the same distinctions between Gembound and Lesser that he did -- there was only faerie and non-faerie. They considered bone moths and things to be like family, but Gembound were just as much prey as a Cave Deer was. They were just more noisy.

They gave him a suspicious look. "Water in the air?" Rain knew that it sometimes fell from the sky, but they weren't sure they believed him. "And in plants?" They knew that plants died without water, but so would they. Was there really water inside her, too? She knew there was blood, at least, which was a liquid in its own right, but... she continued to ponder that.

"How could I help?" Rain asked, somewhat confused. She didn't know much about magic, but she supposed...

Suddenly, Rain looked like an Ivory Deer, albeit the dimensions were a little wonky. Perhaps it would give him some ideas about where her clothes had come from. "I cannot do much magic. This is one of them," they asserted. "My family does it as well." Unfortunately, due to a weak cast, it would only last the round.


@oliver

"Yeah, water's everywhere, really! And help by, uh, learning--it was an invitation, kinda. Since I'm trying to teach you, I figured maybe you could learn! That's REALLY neat," he added, stepping forward to investigate the new illusion. "You look a lot like a... a white deer! Oh! Aren't there ones like that in the--the palace room?" he asked, wide-eyed.

He took a moment to inspect Rain's form, then, before sitting back again. "We can do stuff kinda like that with light magic? I wonder if it's the same. Like, changing light to look like shapes, and things," he tried to explain.

A pause, another attempt to summon up water, ended in failure. Oliver sighed, ear-tufts sagging back. "My own magic's really not cooperating today. Yours is really nice, though," he offered.

After awhile, fidgeting, he had a realization. "I'd better start heading back. You're welcome to join us," he added, with a friendly glance, as he moved to go.

@Rain

Editing into an exit due to inactivity