Life is better with a book

She knew Ultyr was still close, he seemed to always be, but his movement caught her ears and she looked up from the book only to look back down with a blush on her cheeks as he placed himself over her. Would he say something about books being useless to a slave? That slaves shouldn't worry about reading? She'd been caught having an excitement over a small thing and she wasn't certain how he would react. She knew how his father would have, a memory flitting in her mind of when she'd had a book ripped from her and a beating for daring to "steal" a book even though another had lent it to her, she suspected on purpose to see her punished. She'd suffered a broken rib that day and hadn't looked at another book since. His words had been harsh that day. According to king Aryn a slave wasted their potential having intelligence beyond what they were told to do.

Guilt played on her face at having been caught with a book and her tail stilled. When his paw touched her cheek she tensed, half expecting anger or a slap from him for daring to do something without permission. His gentleness however brought that tension to relax from her and a sigh of breath to pass her lips. A small wag to her tail returning. Then he was placing the bag on her and tying it's strap around her to shorten it, her eye looking down at the book and it's words again. Her ears pressed toward him though. Then his nose on her ear sent heat to her cheek once more, their position intimate. The stale dusty air was doing nothing she knew to muffle scents.

Then a thump had both their attention. Her eye cutting to the beast. A blink at it. How did a snake manage to become so large? She waited for him to move and once he was moved she closed the book and slid it back into her bag, moving the cartography equipment back into it, it weight the bag down but thankfully Ultyr had tied it so it wouldn't drag and would sit on her side. She was more than aware he wanted her to stay away but she would still watch and make certain he didn't end up needing the help. She moved to a spot on the other end of the shelf and hopped up inside a shelf that was mostly empty, her head leaning out of the shelf and eye on him and the serpent.

"Things I Hear"