Gabriel had taken his leave once again from the realm. He promised Gillian a new companion to help him get over the loss of his young filly, Ai-Hawa. The boy hadn't spoken much, perhaps he was beginning to realize that the young horse wouldn't be coming back, she wouldn't be in the stable grazing next to his guardian's dappled war horse or in the field letting him sit along her blotched flank as he watched the bugs fly about the field. Whenever the elf left, Gillian was put in Chaco's care seeing as the boy was really quite fond of the winged boy. He didn't seem to have much complaints about anyone, actually. Even Akilah was someone he didn't mind so much. Perhaps the lamb-child because of how very verbal he had been the one time he'd been within range enough to hear him, but even that speculation wasn't grounded on fact.
The boy, being half the size of a normal Sin'Aesis infant, was quite easy to miss, especiall when he was seated among the flowerbed as he was presently. He never sat on them or picked them, just watched them quietly, picking out one color from another, comparing it to the others and finding which colors looked good next to eachother, and which ones looked a bit out of place.
The boy, being half the size of a normal Sin'Aesis infant, was quite easy to miss, especiall when he was seated among the flowerbed as he was presently. He never sat on them or picked them, just watched them quietly, picking out one color from another, comparing it to the others and finding which colors looked good next to eachother, and which ones looked a bit out of place.
At the mansion again. Flitch felt like he was spending a lot more time here, ever since Anvion had acquired the fox demon boy Kuzunohara. Well, at first she was completely occupied with him since he was a baby. But now he had grown, and she spent a lot of time fighting with him and keeping him out of trouble. It just made the house too noisy. He couldn't read, and besides, Kuzu pestered him. A lot. So Flitch had taken refuge at the mansion's library, reading. Anvi was fine with that, so she let him go there as he pleased.
Just as he was passing by a flowerbed, he paused when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye? Huh? Was someone in the flowers? Although he didn't like the brightly-colored objects, he still picked his way through them until he got to... A Sin'? Oooh! Maybe they could play! But the other Sin' was so small... and he had cute little horns.
"Hi!" Flitch greeted, smiling. "Who're you?"
The horned boy looked towards the voice with a jump and a silent cry, he'd been lost in thought again, trying to understand the things that Yuki and Gabriel had tried to explain for him. The logic of death was a bit beyond that of an infant. Smiling a bit, Gillian looked over the other Sin. A blue-haired one- and so much older than him... probibly around Yuki's age.
"..Gillian." He said quietly, and with a tone that was a bit more than could be expected from an infant, "You?"
"..Gillian." He said quietly, and with a tone that was a bit more than could be expected from an infant, "You?"
"I'm Flitch," the blue-haired Sin' responded with a grin. "What'cha doing?"
Squatting down so that he was closer to Gillian, Flitch tilted his head curiously. He was curious as to what Gillian was doing just sitting in the flowerbeds. Was he hiding? "Are you playing hide-and-seek?" If so, Flitch didn't want Gillian to be found because of him, so he ducked his head a little lower so as not attract attention. Just in case. "Or are you doing something else?"
Gillian smiled a bit sheepishly and shook his head. He didn't know how to play that game- or many other 'typical' childplay games for that matter. His guardian, though kind, never really focused on play. He prefired to share with Gillian things like books, gardening, painting, and caring for animals. Typical of elves, or so he had told Gillian. "I am...", he turned his head to the side, well he hadn't been daydreaming, "...thinking I think."
I think..., he questioned himself again- he was thinking in a way, trying to figure something out was thinking. "Gabriel went away again. I'm waiting for... he or Chaco to come. Don't know what next do."
I think..., he questioned himself again- he was thinking in a way, trying to figure something out was thinking. "Gabriel went away again. I'm waiting for... he or Chaco to come. Don't know what next do."
"You think?" Flitch blinked, momentarily confused by the answer. "Well, that sounds like thinking to me," he added with a small nod of confirmation.
"I'm going to the library," he added a few moments after. "Do you wanna come? We can wait in there." After all, Flitch found the library to be a much better place to sit and think besides in the middle of a bunch of flowers. He found them... distracting. And he just didn't really like them in general.
Gillian nodded, he liked books, loved to hear Gabriel read. He'd not learned to read himself but he'd try, sitting for quite a time in front of an open book to imagine what the words might say. Often times this method meant for a more exciting story than the one that had been read to him afterwards. He was shy to ask it, but he didn't want to miss out on anything, "Can.. you read to me?" He smiled, slowly getting himself to his feet. He was clumsy, but thankfully he had a long cow-like tail to help balance him out.
"Read to you...?" Flitch blinked, mildly surprised, but quite pleased at the request. No one had asked him to read to them before, not even Anvion, but Flitch liked to help others out in little ways like this."Sure!" he responded with a wide grin. "I can read to you. What do you want to hear? I know that there's a really good book with good stories in it in the library..."
Gillian thought for a moment, putting a hand to his chin. He had heard all kinds of stories- most of which were from Gabe's realm. "About... a little one." He looked up to the older Sin', smirking sheepishly.He was terribly self-concious about being so small. Even the other babies that were younger than him were twice his size, and in none of the stories did it mention someone small being a hero.
Flitch tilted his head, wracking his brains for something good. "A little one...? Hmm... I know a few. The people in those stories are tiny. They're mostly about girls, though. Or should I read you something about a small boy? They're not terribly small, but small enough for the bullies to make fun of. I don't like those bullies. They're so mean..."
He smirked at the irony of being a small child with bull horns. He really didn't want to hear another story about a girl hero, most of the stories from Gabriel's books had girls in them. "Yes please." He nodded at the last suggestion, "All the heros... a...are big n' strong. None are little."
Flitch grinned. "I know a good one. He's kinda little, and he fights big mean giants. But since he's little, he uses his head to fight, not his muscle. He can trick the giants easy."
"He had horns on his head too?" The term, "used his head" was taken literally in this case, Gillian wasn't much used to expressions yet.
Flitch laughed gently. "No, no. He thinks things out. 'Uses his head' is a way of saying 'thinks things out'. So he doesn't just run in swinging a sword, but plans carefully..."
He nodded, oddly enough he seemed to follow very well for someone his age, "He was smart." He summerized, "And that was better than being big."
Flitch nodded and smiled, happily patting Gillian on the head. "Yeah. I think being smart is better than being big, too. If I were a hero, I'd be a smart one..."
Gillian winced a bit as Flitch patted his head, terribly afraid that he'd hurt himself on those horribly sharp horns of his. Gabriel's arms were covered in scratches from them. As a younger infant, he'd not known better.
Flitch paused, noting Gillian's wince. "Oh, sorry. Do you not like being patted? I'm sorry." He had mistaken Gillian's wince for that of someone who did not like to be touched.
"You didn't cut....hand did you?" He opened an eye to look over to Flitch, hoping to whatever greater power that he hadn't hurt himself, "Be careful.... I'm dangerous."
"Nope! See? I'm fine!" Flitch held up his cut-free hand, showing it off to Gillian so that he wouldn't get afraid or nervous. Ahhh, so Gillian was worried about him getting cut? Made sense. Gillian seemed nice like that.
"And you're not dangerous. You're Gillian. Only bad people can be dangerous. And you're definitely NOT bad."
"I made Gabriel bleed." He said quietly, "I make the pillows rip too, and once I broke a toy in the store bec-......urse.... horn caught the teddy." He sunk a bit, putting his hands on his horns carefully, "I have to be ca....arefully."
"Hmmm... Well, don't we all have to be careful in a way?" Flitch asked. "And what you had were accidents. Everyone has accidents. It's not your fault your horns get in the way... Oh!" He exclaimed. "I know! Maybe we can make something that will stop the horns from scratching things. Like a hat or something!"
He wrinkled his nose a bit, he didn't want to feel restrained in any way- and a hat would look just silly. Gabe had put corks on them but they were embarassing, Yuki had wrapped them in bandages but they were sharp enough to tear them in a few days, "I'll be careful and warn eve...others."
Flitch nodded, deciding not to press the matter any further. "Okay. But remember: You're not dangerous, because you're not bad or mean. You're nice. You just have accidents, like everyone else."
He nodded happily, "Can you ...."explain... he could never prounounce that word, "Do you know about when...things stop moving?"
"When things stop moving?" Not quite understanding what Gillian meant, Flitch frowned slightly. "What do you mean? You mean... dying?"
Gillian slowly nodded, "My...horse...", he looked down a bit, "A wolf came and...she didn't move anymore. Gabe pur her in the ground, Yuki said she'll be a flower now." He shook his head, obviously confused by the logic.
Flitch gave Gillian a sad look. Although he knew only a little about death, he knew it usually wasn't good. "Well... Death is... it's kind of like sleeping. You go to sleep and don't wake up. Never ever."
"...never....", he lookd to the ground, fussing a bit with a petal, "Like...when...I step on a...bug?"
Flitch nodded. " Yeah, in a way. Anvion gets sad when she says someone is dead. But then she says that their spirits are in a happy place, waiting for us. Only we can't get there unless we use rare magic. I don't really understand it myself..."
"Yuki said she'd be a flower." He shrugged slowly, then shook his head, distracting himself from the matter, "Will you tea....learn me to read?"
"Maybe she became a flower to tell us that she's in the happy place." Flitch nodded slowly, happy to get off the uncomfortable topic of death. "Yeah, I can teach you. Reading is fun. And easy."
"I want to be smart." He smiled up to the older boy, "So I can use my head for things that don't hurt."
Flitch laughed. "I wanna be smart, too. Hey! Let's both become the smartest people ever together! Friends do things like that together. And I believe you're my friend."
"Really?" He smiled a bit more, slowly getting to his feet. He was clumsy, but able to walk a bit if he kept his balance long enough, "I want to be smart- but strong too. Chaco says me and...Junkes...tus...u...Junkie are weak, we have sick easy body."
"Yeah," Flitch nodded. "Having friends is good. It makes things more fun. But being strong...?" He tilted his head slightly, trying to figure out how that worked. If he and Junkie had a sick body... "Well, I bet there's something in a book that'll help you get strong. There HAS to be. You can find anything in a book, if you can find the right one."
