they say they ride horses!

[Tayui Aston]

330.

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Claudius could see the boy looking at him as he made an assortment of silly faces. What was this boy doing? He kept scrunching up his face for a few moments, but then he would pause, let his face deflate, and then do it all over again. It looked silly, and for a moment, Claudius forgot about his own shyness. He wanted to ask the boy why he was making those faces, but he didn't want to seem stupid. Everyone else he had met were always able to tell when people were happy, sad, angry, or annoyed, but Claudius couldn't figure any of it out. Tayui always knew when he was feeling shy, but he could never tell if Tayui was shy or angry! And he could never tell when Attila was going to do something to him. Thus, Claudius had no idea what the other boy was thinking, and was sufficiently puzzled by the other child's body language. Claudius did not understand any of it.



The other boy looked away for a moment, and Claudius took the chance to glance over his shoulder to check if Tayui was still nearby. He let out a quiet, relieved sigh when he saw her, waiting patiently for him under a tree. She was sitting down at the base of a tree with her legs crossed, resting her back against the pine, rummaging around in a leather bag. Claudius turned his attention back to the wolf in front of him. Uhm, the boy began, pausing for a moment. He continued, I’m Conor, hello,.. uhm, I.. I... and stopped abruptly.



"J-just s-say it. I-I'm C-c-c-claudius, and, I l-live here. Wh... where a-are you f-from?" He tried to pose his question politely, but found the entire concept of asking a question to be quite daunting. He tried to encourage the boy at first, but switched tactics, introducing himself instead. He didn't want Conor to think he was condescending! That would not be nice at all.

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