OOC here! :: Word Count → 725
Sophie had been thrilled when she'd been woken up that morning by none other than Leon, with the promise of some quality time together hanging between them. She'd gladly sneaked away from the tightly-curled ball of Boothe that had been sleeping at her back, and padded out with her oldest brother to the wagon and the scary beast who pulled it. Not so scary now, she supposed; Hamza had really grown on her, after being with them for nearly a month, and she was finding it harder and harder to jump around him whenever he bellowed or snorted. Hamza himself seemed rather used to small children, as whenever Boothe tried to bother him--since Sophie didn't dare--the bison didn't stamp his feet or get especially frightful, but merely bent his head low and snorted right in the puppy's face. After the first few times, in which the gust of air had sent Boothe tumbling head-over-heels, the boy had learned to leave well enough alone.
For all that, Sophie found she rather liked Hamza. Especially when Leon let her ride on his wide back, where she could see everything and stay perfectly safe at the same time. With everyone avoiding the large animal like it was dangerous, Sophie had to admit she rather liked this visit better than the others, where she'd had to scramble over people's feet and worry about getting stepped on. The strange man who'd given them the beast, and helped to heal her brother, had yet to come and reclaim him, and at this point Sophie wasn't sure if he would; she hadn't understood a lot of what he said back then, after all, and now that she and Leon--and Boothe and Trigger, she supposed, as well--had grown so attached to him, she didn't want to give him up.
Settling more comfortably on his back, with her white-tipped feather hanging down the side of her face and her bracelet wrapped around her left forepaw. She'd considered wearing her new pelt as well, but in the end she'd decided against it, because it was a warm enough day, and she also had to clean it from all of her other adventures before she took it out again. It had gotten awfully dirty, since she hadn't cleaned it every night like she was supposed to--well, not very well, at least, not every single night. But she looked rather pretty, if she said so herself, and she did. Trigger had said so, too, so she knew she did.
As Hamza suddenly dropped beneath her feet, Sophie let out a little howling cry, but the fall was short, and she'd barely slipped; Hamza was indeed very careful with her. With a little puff of breath, she glanced at her brother and smiled sheepishly, her ears pressing back against her head. At his suggestion, however, she perked up, and nodded eagerly. "Yeah, yeah! He was a good boy!" She yipped, and wobbled a bit on Hamza's back as he took his treats, making little whimpering sounds until she finally just waddled down to a less active part of the bison's back, sitting instead beside his hips, rather than his shoulders.
At Leon's question, Sophie flattened her ears again, staring at him with wide eyes. For a moment she thought she was in trouble, because "talking" was never a good thing, but as he continued she realized he just wanted to know what had been going on with her lately. She looked up at the sky thoughtfully, wondering what the last thing she'd talked to him about was. She remembered their discussion after her encounter with Mordecai and the frozen elves, but nothing after that...it had really been a long time since she'd had any one-on-one time with her brother.
"Well, um...I've been hangin' around here a lot..." She said, and as he asked her if there was anything she wanted him to teach her, she brightened considerably and nodded. "Oh, yeah! I wanna learn how to paint, and do the carving thing with wood, and how to hunt like Mister Light, and make clothes like Trigger does! And I want to know..." She paused, wondering if there was anything else, and then shrugged and gave a meek smile. "I want to know everything you know."
Sophie speaks