The dog that waddled through the Library did so with a very awkward pace: legs widely straddling the tile, his tail swishing too hard with every step. This was because he was carrying an enormous book: one far too large for his face or even his body, and he was trying with all his might not to drop or maul it or drag it on the ground.

He was bringing it off toward one of the fireplaces. This one was one he'd... not claimed as his own, no; Bentley welcomed company. But it was his favored reading and sleeping spot. The rug, here--despite the diligent efforts of Palace staff--was constantly kind of ragged with dog hair. A bowl of water--frequently changed--stood off to one side. And a footstool, padded, held not feet but a small, carefully-managed pile of books.

The book he had now was titled ARMOR MASS AS ADAPTED TO VALKHOUND BODIES, and was clearly designed for something far larger than he was. He didn't need to know about this stuff--and indeed most of it would be way beyond him. But similarly to some who might, in another era and in another place, have gotten lost surfing Wikipedia, Ben tended to see a mention of another topic in any given piece of reading material and launch himself on a search for a book about it. Repeat this a few times and he'd go from reading about the basics of gardening to how to systematically grid-search uncharted land, with some confusing winding route in the middle about exotic flowers and seeds.

So how he'd gotten here was unsure, but he looked content as he finally dropped the book before the fire with a thud. He sprawled out on the rug before it, nudged it open, and had a look over the first few pages. His ears were perked, his tail swishing the rug behind him.

After a moment, his voice--reading slowly aloud, helped along by magic--could be heard carrying from the Library into the halls beyond.

"As... it... con-... cerns... the... weight... of. Metals. Of... increasing... size. Increasing... by... cubic... measure-... Measure... ments? by... length..."

He didn't understand any of this, yet. It was totally new information to him! It was great!

@Samael

There was another creature in this place, the grub could hear the voice. He had not a clue what the other was saying, though, but he was intrigued to find out.

He crawled his way closer and closer, the feline ears of the caterpillar tilting to try and catch the sound. The words, however, still made no sense.

Such being the case, the curious little being, who was not much more than an inch long, crept into viewing range.

And he found himself coming to a conclusion around then. "Those words are not your words," He realized aloud, voice surprisingly audible for such a small creature. It explained the unfamiliarity the other had, but not where the words came from.

"How do you have words that are not your own?" The puzzled and fascinated voice of the grub asked. It had taken him time to find his own words, and the idea of grasping others' words without them being there sounded impossibly strenuous.

@Bentley

Bentley was so deep in his reading that he didn't notice the teensy grub approach. The sudden voice, then, had him whip his head around in surprise, ears flinging--but NOBODY IS THERE?! The big dog scrambled clumsily to his feet with a loud, alarmed "WOOF!" and wide eyes, reaching for his magicka for a light because this was--this must be--a ghost like in those stories and maybe it would eat him!

The light he summoned, however--a bright, golden orb--flared over the little inchworm, and he froze, staring down with tongue half-stuck out of his closed mouth and one paw held midair. His eyes, locked downward on the worm, were the only things that moved for a moment.

Then, Bentley blinked, putting the paw down and leaning down to sniff. Slowly, his tail began to wag, excitement thrilling through him as he realized--"A visitor!" One barely-controlled play-bow later, he began to prance with tippy-taps of his forepaws, a safe distance from Samael, as he tried to remember what the new-friend had asked.

"Hi! I'm Bentley. Ben! They're everyone's words! -You can have some, too," he offered, somewhat nonsensically. He then jerked down toward the open pages, nudging at the text without quite touching. "But they're in the book!"

He flopped to his chest, tail now thudding the floor with loud, repeated THUMPS, panting with happiness. "They're markings! On the paper! I learned what they mean! -Mostly! Who are you? You can stay! There's food, I can get you food! A kitchen--there's a kitchen! Would you like to be my friend? We can learn words together!"

Bentley managed to rein himself in, pausing with a broad smile on his face and his tongue lolling, eyes almost wild with joy. But he had to be nice, he remembered--some Gembounds might find his energy a little overwhelming--he had to give the New-Friend time to speak!

@Samael

The woof startled him, and his fur fluffed up defensively, an instinct he did not know he had coming to light.

Speaking of light- There was now a bright orb above him! His fur unfluffed, as he felt the familiar awe at the world with the obvious magic in sight.

Unease soothed mostly, the caterpillar let himself be sniffed, sniffing right back. He was careful not to get to close, not wanting to paralyze the other on accident by accidental contact with his fur.

Excitement was clear on the other now, and he wondered if perhaps he had not been visible to the other. He knew he was very small.

Initially, the words spoken were indeed somewhat nonsensical, especially as a revelation dawned upon the caterpillar. There were word-names! Not just sound-names!

"I am... Samael," His response was somewhat slow, taking a bit after Bentley finished speaking, but it took a moment for the right word-name to come to him. "Greetings, Bentley!" He cheerily added.

"There are markings on paper that are words in a book? And one has to learn to understand these words?" He repeated, wanting to make sure his comprehension was correct. He felt a growing excitement at the notion of more ways for words to exist. "How do the markings get there?" He wondered.

He pondered over the question of friendship. "You can be my friend if you get along with my..." Samael paused, not sure of the word. The word friend seemed to little to express the depth of his affection for his oftentimes companion.

"...She is a croon on the air and a heartbeat that beats in sync with my own," Samael decides.

To elaborate further he adds, "She is... very important to me. She's not here right now. I don't know her word-name yet, but she is very very tall and has two pairs of wings."

"If you are okay with those terms, I would very much like to learn words with you."

@Bentley

Bentley listened, ears pricked high. He puzzled over these 'terms' for a long moment.

Nobody that Bentley had ever met had been deemed, in his mind, an enemy or even hard to "get along with." He was genuinely baffled by the concept that someone could be... not-friend. He probably should have asked about this; a more intelligent Gembound might have wondered if something were wrong with this "croon in the air," or even what, exactly, that meant.

Bentley, however, marked it off in his mind as "unimportant." He'd be friends with anyone, so yes! That was fine by him. "Okay!" he answered amiably, and squinted as he tried to commit that description--tall with two pairs of wings--to memory.

His chin briefly rested on his paws, tail still swishing, then came back up again to answer the other questions a moment later. "You write them! Well--somebody writes them," he amended. "I used chalk! On a board! But they use ink, I think. Dye. On this stuff. Paper," and he slapped a heavy paw directly onto the book's page. Worriedly, he at once removed it, sniffing over the pages to ensure he hadn't damaged it (he hadn't), then looked back to Samael. "But yes! The markings are sounds! Um. Can you wait here? Are you hungry???" he asked, the question somehow lingering on the air.

"I can bring back food! And something to show how writing works!" Sometimes, he kept a bit of chalk and board here, for taking notes--or a few scraps of paper and a bit of charcoal from the fire--but right now, the fire was burning and he was all out.

@Samael

Samael gave a pleased purr at the agreement. He had gained a friend, and so much knowledge! If he was someone else, he might have been overwhelmed. But he was Samael, and he loved the world and all the knowledge to be gained within it.

"What kind of words do these others write?" He wonders. "And... Someone wrote all of these books?" There was an awe-some amount of books to behold, now that he understood they held papers all full of words.

"I can wait," He agreeably stated, the caterpillar's feline tail flicking with curiosity.

"Food would be nice, but you don't have to! But... I would like see how writing works, please," The grub regarded Bentley, hope in his eyes.

@Bentley

"Okay! Wait here! And yes! Different 'authors.' That means different Gembounds or not-Gembounds-but-other-people (but I don't know what that means!) wrote them!" This was all blurted in a tangle of thoughts; and then Bentley was just... gone.

He bounded from the room in a couple leaps, leaving Samael with the sound of crackling, cozy fire and the rapidly-fading scratching patter of dog claws on marble.

It didn't take him all that long to return--and when he did it was waddling again, half-staggering and half-bounding, dragging the little hand-held chalkboard, a stick of chalk, and a red-and-white-striped paper bag that smelled like butter into the room. Bentley set these things down beside the rug.

"We aren't supposed to eat popcorn in here," he informed Samael with a secretive hush. He then promptly upended the bag--grabbing it by the bottom and shaking it--dumping hot, buttered popcorn and three corn dogs (haphazardly mixed in) straight onto the tiled floor beside the rug. "Okay! So here's food! You can eat whatever!" he said, and immediately gobbled up a mouthful of popcorn and an entire corn dog.

It took him only seconds.

Then he was nudging the chalkboard over, flopping back onto his chest. "Okay!" he said again; "Here's how to write! Samael!" (The blurted name was seemingly for no reason.) "Do you still want to learn?" he asked, eyes lit with excitement, but faint worry--as if for some reason the grub might have changed his mind in the last few minutes of Ben's absence.

@Samael

Not-Gembounds-but-other-people? What was a person if not a gembound? How puzzling. Equally intriguing as it was confusing. It seemed that Bentley didn't know what that meant either, even if he seemed to know a lot. Samael pondered this as Bentley was briefly gone. But he had still not come to any conclusion by the time that the other returned.

When the food was emptied onto the floor, Samael claimed a corndog for himself, nibbling away at it before he reached the delicious hotdog inside, at which point he became voracious, somehow purring and chewing simultaneously. He had never tried to eat meat before, but, he found it much more satisfying than the plants which he could currently digest.

"This is tasty! Thank you, Bentley," Samael warmly told the fellow gembound.

He paused his eating as another hunger consumed him, and he turned his attention to the art of writing. "Yes! I would very much like to learn, please," He politely but eagerly agreed.

"Does knowing how to write help one know how to read, then?" The caterpillar voiced a thought aloud. The two did indeed seem to be connected.

@Bentley

Bentley thought about this question. "That is a very good question!" he praised, at last, but he still thought about it. "They are like-... Like..." and he looked around, hoping desperately to find a decent metaphor.

His eyes settled on the opened corn dog. "Like that food! Someone makes it. And someone else eats it! If you make it, you know what goes into it! And if you eat it you can know, too!"

He squinted at Samael. "So Samael starts with... an ssss-sound! And that's probably an S! But also sometimes a C but never mind for now! S!" He leaned down, laying chest-down on the rug, and hauled the chalkboard to settle up between his elbows. He then plucked up the chalk in his teeth--trying not to drool around it too much--and, very studiously, with the wrinkles on his face pronounced, he drew a large and clumsy S.

Then he spat the chalk out, panting and thudding his tail as he looked to the grub--nudging the chalkboard the right way around for Samael to see it. "See??" he asked, eyes bright> "That's an 'S!' So if you see that, you know it makes a sssss sound! Like Samael!" --and, over-excited, Bentley let out a loud "WOOF!" of emphasis.

@Samael

At the praise, Samael purred contently. He was patient as Bentley searched for the correct words. When the canine finally did, the caterpillar's feline ears perked up. A metaphor! He hadn't heard many metaphors before, but Samael knew he liked them.

"So, two different methods to reach the same knowledge," He restated the words as he understood them. "One method where you are the creator, and the other... the consumer?" The grub stated the last word uncertainly. "Because... Even if one does not literally eat books, it sates a hunger of the mind?"

Then his attention was drawn by the written word-sound 'S', and to a lesser extent, the written word-sound 'See', whatever that meant. Soon enough, though, he was entirely focused on Bentley and this 'S'.

He stared in awe at the word-sound written on the board. S like Samael!

This time, when Bentley barked, his fur fluffed up for a briefer moment before he relaxed. Bentley was safe. Loud was not always dangerous.

"Is there a name for these word-sounds?" Samael wondered aloud. It seemed as if there would be, but he knew not what it could be.

@Bentley