Ten Thousand Lightening Bugs

He seemed cautious, and she wouldn’t push him, he would answer or not as he saw fit. In the meantime, she offered him a warm smile, more than willing to consider this stranger a friend in a heartbeat. “Dwarvish? I’ve never heard of your language before, nor the idea of living underground. What brought you so far from home?” she asked then. Grief, everything must be strange for him up here, no wonder he seemed so shy.

He tried to mimic what she had shown him, and she gave him an encouraging nod and another warm smile. “Yeah, like that’ she agreed. He still looked a little awkward with it, but he was getting the hang of it.

She liked his idea of twisting his entire body to turn the bag instead of just his head, and she had to laugh. He seemed like such a sweetly, silly goof in that moment. Winter swooped down then, and Shaye opened her bag so he could deposit his catch in there, before shuffling and twisting it again. She grabbed some more of her own, ushering them into the bag. It still wasn’t the easiest method, but it was the best she could come up with on short notice.