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Now that made him happy; Bereck actually grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkled with the expression. "Well I'm very pleased to hear that," he replied, "and she would be too if she were paying attention." Bereck paused, frowning in concentration for a moment before concluding; "But she'd found some children to play with, so she's isn't." He'd tell her later, it always pleased her to know that people thought she was amazing even though she wasn't elegant and swift like most greens.

"Yes though, that was the plan!" Bereck went on, carefully accepting the jar and his glasses. Donning the latter item he gently displaced the heap of flitt (they hardly stirred as they slide down onto the bed) he placed the pot in his lap. "It's rather too light really," he muttered half to himself, "I'm not sure that we'll be able to make this work... Humm, grab that spare blanket folded up on the end of my bed, that'll do. Candle's not good for that though but a glow should work about as well, there's one on the table there see? Covered in that little basket." Yes, Bereck was in fact accustomed to people following his instructions, and yes he sometimes forgot that ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ were customary during social interaction.

Cheeky girl, but not too cheeky. Bereck took the glow, gave a tiny little smirk and nodded. "Yes, let's find out." With this said he tossed the blanket over their heads-

Tried to.

Bereck gave a choked gasp, dropped the glow and the blanket and hunched over with his arms curled around himself and his eyes squeeze tightly shut. Shouldn't have done that. Hadn't even thought, hadn't considered, so simple a motion. Shouldn't have done that.

The firelizard pile woke up abruptly and started to keen in distress, three pairs of eyes spinning grey and yellow as they pressed against their human’s leg tightly; bad bad bad!

Curled over, trembling, face white, eyes squeezed shut Bereck struggled to keep in control. In reply to Rochelle's questions he managed to gasp; " 'll'be'fine," and then focused on breathing steadily again. After a few moments he dropped a hand down to reassure the flitt pile, opened his eyes again and uncurled slightly. Removing his glasses with a shaking hand he wiped his damp lashes dry with the sleeve of his nightshirt and then put his glasses back on.

After a moment longer to just breathe he lent back against the heap of pillows, looked over at Rochelle and cleared his throat. "Well that wasn't quite what I planned." He sounded a little hoarse but at least he kept his voice steady, he was glad he managed to retain at least that much dignity. He couldn't stand being seen like this, or being like this. He felt Berath's worried persence pressing against his mind but he pushed her away roughly, unfairly he knew but he didn't want her seeing inside his head right now.

Rochelle really was a good girl sometimes. She knew how to cope with sick men he supposed and he was grateful to her for that, for letting him pretend the moment of weakness hadn't happened. She really had been good to him of late, so many little things and some not so little. A firelizard egg, and dignity. He had to think of some way to repay her, especially for the latter when he felt he had so little to cling onto in here.

Bereck cleared his throat. "Yes, just toss the blanket over our heads then and I'll show you. Thank you."

As the blanket darkened the world Bereck suddenly decided he didn't really trust his hands. If something made the pain flare up again he could easily drop it, kill it with his frailty. "Here, hold the eggs up for me." Bereck carefully scooped the small smooth object out of the hot sand and pressed it gently into Rochelle's hand. "Hold it up between your thumb and first two fingers, and I'll hold the glow behind it, understood?"

Bereck did not feel remotely silly for being under a blanket with Rochelle; Science was being done and that was much more important than whether or not you looked like a twit.

"Ah, mmh, true." Very true. He'd been more confident in her than in himself before, but felt rather more relaxed remembering her profession. Now, the glow. Bereck laid his hand on it, and could still feel himself shaking. He knew well enough from her conduct that Rochelle would ignore it but he found it hard to do so himself. He didn't want for her to have to ignore things so he could feel alright about himself.

"Mmh, Aleck?" A distraction, thank shells. Bereck glanced at Rochelle, her features made peculiar by the light shining up on them from the glow still resting in his lap. "He seems interested in my training plans, and all of them like him so far. Thankfully. He brings me food for them and things too."

Really he should get on.

Bereck's fingers closed around the glow and he raised it up behind the egg. The light wavered as he trembled, but still shone through the egg...ish. "Hummm," said Bereck, brows knitting and glasses flashing as he canted his head. "This isn't quite what I expected, it's so faint... you can more or less make out the shape of the foetus," his other hand, also shaking, rose to trace the faintly illuminated shadow-shape briefly, "but it's not like the others.... Perhaps it's the light? Mmh. Give me that one back, I'll put it down, and then you pick up one of the others from the pot, doesn't matter which."

"Hu. Apprentices are trouble enough; last thing I need is a crèche," Bereck replied. Now then. Egg. he curled his fingers around it, focusing on it as intently as though he was performing the most delicate of surgeries. He tremored still, but plated it safely back in its little nest of warm sand.

"Number two... ahhh. Yes." As Bereck shakily raised the glow this time the shape of the firelizard was much plainer to see. "Note the similarities," he said as he fought to keep his weary arm raised. "These two eggs are in fact around the same size, and so is the shape we can make out of the foetus. The shells feel the same under your hand, yes? So... so our observed differences are only observed under light." That hadn't been eloquent at all. Bereck tried to shake himself mentally, and unnoticed by him his hand started to shake more. "So that tells us that... well the light isn't getting through the egg you gave me as well as it is this one. What do you deduce from that?" He knew what he deduced (though the thoughts were dancing around a little just now) but he was interested to hear what Rochelle had to say.

Rochelle always seemed to have very warm hands, or maybe he was just cold. The steadying of his hand was... was..... It was unpleasant, but welcome. That didn't make sense even to him. Still, she was warm and he felt suddenly cold so it was alright really. Anyway, a steady light was best and he didn't seem capable of providing that.

"Yes," he said after some moments, "Thicker shell. That makes it what Benden would call a dud... or a runt. The first egg that is." Shards his arm felt weak. "It's quite possible it's a green with a thick shell but my guess," he didn't think he could keep his arm up much longer, "my guess is an atype. I didn't make too detailed a study of Sanguine's egg, I'm afraid I was too... tired at the time but I think I might have seen the same with her." He felt tired now. Tired, weak and cold. It was hot in Trine, and his fever was pretty well gone by now so why did he feel cold? Just weariness, he supposed.