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On second thought...
You knelt down to the ground and plucked Florian from your shirt pocket, trying to be gentle as you pulled him by the bud and let him onto the ground.
"Buchanan?" You shushed Steele quiet and turned your attention to your tiny friend. "Florian... I dunno if you know that name yet, but ah've got a task for you."
Shockingly, your tiny friend looked quite attentive. He seemed to straighten somewhat and gave you a sparkly expression. "Mary-- the sheepy one, about yay high--" you found yourself mimicking her height with her hands-- "she ain't with us, right? A-an' I don't know where she is. Please, can you..." ...you thought it over for a minute, then made a little walking motion with your hand. "Can you try t' find her?"
The minute or so it took this tiny guy to process that was one spent with naught but wild speculation invading your thoughts.
A shocking joy overrode them soon after, as Florian seemed to <span class="mu-i">nod</span> and promptly dashed off in... <span class="mu-i">a</span> direction. Towards the outskirts, you figured.
"Well, I'll be. What made you think to do that, Buchanan?" Steele murmured.
"Oh, well, i-it was jus' some basic deduction, ah guess. He's seen her, I've seen her, but I don' know where she is. I don' know much 'bout him, either... maybe he's got some way t' track her that ah don't?"
"...that's some fine logic, boy. I don't think I can argue with that. You've got a good brain on your shoulders. One that's working better than mine is right now."
Steele's hearty chuckle was genuine, so surely what he was saying had to be too. You laughed along with him, if only out of exhaustion.
As Florian disappeared into the blue horizon, your gaze drifted over to the endless fighting over that one silk cast. That single damn cast.
A remnant of the old world, you figured. Silk was still desirable. Rare, expensive, smooth to the touch. Once more of your bug's kind roamed the world... it was hard to imagine now, but you figured that even peasants would be wearing silk clothing by then.
...and with enough neofauna like Florian, maybe they'd be eating well, too.
Your battered heart swelled a bit at the thought. A future where not even the poorest of people had to go hungry thanks to these creatures... it was a real possibility now, wasn't it? You felt you had to do everything in your power to make it so. Spreading the nutberries around like this was just one step towards that.
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