[flashback] wait and hope. (poison)

[Dor]

"You're not a very curious man, are you?" It was a strange question to join the series of them emptying her mouth throughout their encounter. A sleek Charodai was dropped into the remaining crate with experimental fingers and she observed the sea dwelling creature's interactions with the other animated creations for a long minute. At length, she settled to lid atop them all, hiding them or shielding them, and hefted the crate into her arms with a comical rock back on back heels. The red bird chirped, wings a flutter for balance, on her shoulder. "Or were you?" She went on, waiting for him to lead the way. Dor may not have been a follow by birth, but she was by instruction since. "You have to know a lot about all sorts of everything to make these, don't you? Else they wouldn't turn out right and nobody would ever buy them. Did you use up all your curiosity? Or do you just put it all in one place?" While shadowing the animator's heels through the market, she considered what to name the bird. She had never named a thing in her life and she did not know where to begin now that it had been suggested. Duvalyon was not the sort to name things, though she assumed he had named her. Of course, Dor was not exactly the most creative name in the universe, especially not when compared to lovely, song fresh names of the Symenestra.

[Poison]

„Curious?“ the animator asked and smiled a little. „Sometimes I am, but it’s impossible to find out what my creations do at night. I can’t make myself small enough to fit into a box with them, and I find staying up all night to watch them hard. You are free to try and solve the mystery though, if Master Hellebore lets you.“ He lifted the boxes he had just filled, wondering if the animated little toys ever got motion sickness (all the questions that Dor had asked had obviously affected him). Did motion sickness require you to have internal organs?

„I have studied anatomy“, he answered Dor’s next questions. „It’s impossible to make a good miniature if you don’t have some basic knowledge of the way the body works.“ Had he used up all his curiosity? He furrowed his brow and pondered that question for a while. It was an odd question. He didn’t think he had ever been asked such a question before. „I’m not sure“, he murmurred. „I think I used up some of my curiosity, but there is still a bit left. Do you think it’s possible to get the curiosity I used up back?“

He looked at her as if bothered him that some of his curiosity might be gone forever.

The animator’s house wasn’t anything special. It looked just like the rest of the houses in Kalinor, a coccoon-like structure that hang from the ceiling. The animator paused in front of the door and produced a key from a pocket. Behind the door Dor could see a narrow stair that led down. There were no windows, but there were enough lamps that the Kelvic could see her surroundings clearly.

„Do you need help with the crate?“ he asked. He wasn’t sure if a Kelvic could climb as well as a Symenestra, especially when she was in human form. „I don’t want you to fall and hurt yourself.“

It was then that Dor could hear a sound from the other end of the stairs, and a child’s voice asked, „Father, are you home?“