>>6169668I never talked about it but something unfortunate
>>6169561While you were busy ruminating how much a bird has to speak like a human for it to be considered anomalous, Kai finds his words. "W-would not the expedition have found their roost? If they come from the North, and the expedition was to and around the North Pole, then they would have found the birds..."
There is a caliber of anger layered underneath Leshy's chipper reply, as if venting several years of confusion and bashing his head against the wall. "<span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">Correct! The birds do not make their migration every year; only once every few decades. If they did make a roost just about anywhere in the Arctic Circle, the expedition would have had all the time to find it. If they fail to do so, then it only follows that they hide someplace else for all that time. As for the findings... well, we'll just have to wait and see.</span></span></span>"
You prop yourself underneath the tree to be firmly beneath its boughs and completely out of the rain. It's comforting, under here. The old oak gives a little chuckle, shaking off the tension of some irrelevant conundrum, and offers you and Kai a glass of juice to be delivered from the garden. You both happily accept. The exotically colored blue fruit juice has a wild taste; mildly tart, mildly sweet, but more than all things else electric. This must be filled with something that will naturally wake people up, a natural energy drink of sorts. It was not quite what you expected when you were offered juice, and it's not your favorite, but this new experience is nice.
There's one last piece of business-
No. This is a personal matter, for a friend. You might have felt something down about her, but it's only nice to ask someone who might have known her for longer. Oh, if Kai wasn't here, you could be so much more clear and forward. "A, uh, <span class="mu-i">little rabbit</span> told me that Katriina hasn't been well recently. I know that she has been keeping some weird company. One of them was, a noita told me, a pet you gave her."
"<span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-s">The Nalkainen.</span></span>"
The words coming out of your mouth crash and smash into each other as they fight their way out. "K-Kai hasn't seen it yet!"
"<span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">I believe Kai has seen plenty,</span></span></span>" Assures the Old Oak. The rain is letting up, and the branches begin to lose a burden upon them. "<span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">More than enough to include him into a conversation of some anomalous prisoner which I had given our colleague for study years ago and thought nothing of. In fact, Mister Jonkheer, I would like for you to stay after Fiona departs so we can talk further.</span></span></span>"
... That resolves the whole "talking around Kai" issue.
