!WC: 323.
[html]
[/html]Conor's reply startled Claudius for a second. He had expected the Dahlian boy to disagree with him, since he had been advocating showing off his abilities just a moment ago. But now, Conor seemed to agree with Claudius! This perplexed Claudius, but he was glad the other boy wasn't going to argue with him; he was happy he had "won" this debate. Claudius grinned widely, nodding his head quickly as Conor decided to speak up again.
“I read all sorts of stuff,” he replied vaguely. “Like dying. I read about how to dye things in a book. And about plants, stars, the sky...” he trailed off as he stared off in the distance behind Conor. He could see everything from his books around him this very moment. He knew what the trees were called and why humans said they were important (though, some parts of his book were falling apart, it was getting tough to read it all). Tayui was trying to write out the books again, but she had not practised in a while, and her letters were large and clumsy in comparison to the books' perfect ones. “And some I don't understand, too. David Hume, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding,” he declared, pronouncing the words wrong, as he had no idea what they meant. The book confused him a great deal, but one day, he wanted to be able to read it.
When Conor told Claudius why he was so smart, Claudius managed to utter a small, “oh” in reply, but nothing else. He had pulled his ears back and was now looking at Conor with a great deal of worry. “But it made you smart, so he is wrong. Why doesn't he think you're smart? That's mean, who is he? I don't have a dad, but I guess Dawali is kinda my dad. Dawali's the Kalona -- the chief here. Maybe he would be your dad too,” Claudius offered hopefully.