In the bustling Scholars' Nook library, Theodore "Flea" McNulty and Maz found themselves witness to a most peculiar spectacle. A ferret, seemingly
possessed by the spirit of flight itself
,
zipped through the air with reckless abandon
, leaving rainbow glitter in its wake as it seemed to propel itself with the power of air itself.
Flea, his eyes wide with a mixture of wonder and confusion, turned to Maz.
"I say, my dear compatriot in literary servitude, do your ocular organs perceive the same aeronautical anomaly as mine? For it appears we are in the presence of a mustelid that has forsaken its natural terrestrial inclinations in favor of a more... shall we say, stratospheric lifestyle."
Maz, her brow furrowed, watched as the ferret narrowly missed a towering bookshelf.
"Flea, I swear by the Great Tree, if you don't start speaking normally, I'll give you something to be verbose about. That flying ferret is making a right mess of things!"
The ferret looped around a chandelier, as it shot across the room like a pea from the straw of a child. Flea winched as the velicitouse
creature barely managed to dodge another pile of books on it's way to the Immortals and Celestial Beings section.
"Ah, but Maz," Flea continued, undeterred,
"is it not a marvel of mammalian mutation? A veritable violation of the very laws of nature that bind us mere mortals to the ground? One might even say it's a..."
"If you say 'evolution,' I swear I'll forget all about my meditation exercises," Maz growled, as she considered how to explain that Saiore's favorite ferret had been banned from a library.
The Cadouri, as if sensing the mounting tension, decided at that moment to divebomb the pair. Maz, her brawler's instincts kicking in, prepared to swat the creature out of the air.
"Wait!" Flea cried, his arms flailing in a manner not dissimilar to their airborne adversary.
"Perhaps we could reason with our furry friend? Offer it a selection of our finest tomes on the art of proper ground-dwelling etiquette?"
Maz rolled her eyes.
"Right, because nothing calms a crazed flying rodent like a good book. Got any titles in mind? 'The Grounded Gopher's Heavyweight Guide to Sitting'?"
As the ferret whizzed past once more, Flea's face lit up.
"Actually, I believe I recall a fascinating volume on the migratory behaviour of birds in our Natural Sciences section. If you'd be so kind as to provide me with a boost, I could perhaps..."
His words were cut short as Maz grabbed him by the collar, pulling him down just as the ferret zoomed overhead, trailing a banner of loose papers in its wake.
"How about we focus on catching the little menace before it turns this place into kindling?" The woman suggested, her patience wearing thin.
"I know he said he'd provide us with some writing equipment, but enough is enough."
''Writing equipment'? You underplay this arrangement my dear Maz. He's going to provide us with pens that write by THEMSELVES, Maz. Can you imagine?" The man insisted pleadingly.
The woman looked him squarely in the eyes as she replied.
"Self-writing pens. Just what we need. More flying things to chase after. Look, we have to have some order or this place is going to the dogs. Do YOU want to re-alphabetize the Chronicles of Cassion's Passages through Idalos when he finally fails to evade the loose board on shelf D-14?"
Flea nodded, a bit sheepish.
"Quite right, quite right. Though I must say, this whole affair does bring to mind a rather amusing anecdote about a flying fish I once encountered in a particularly lively dream. You see, it was wearing the most darling pair of spectacles and..."
As Flea rambled on, Maz sighed deeply, wondering if perhaps she should have paid more attention during those meditation lessons after all. The ferret, meanwhile, continued its aerial acrobatics, blissfully unaware of the havoc it was wreaking on both the library and its keepers' sanity.
"Winston...!" She demanded finally before remembering herself for a moment, reluctantly adjusting her tone.
"Mr Miller. I'm going to have to insist you stop flying. This is, as of this trial, a strictly no high speed flight zone." She insisted, without a single ounce of irony.
Winston spun around a look of desperation on his face at the idea that he'd have to just WALK from one shelf to the next as
followed him.
"Uh... Oh... Yus... Af carse..." He began to drift towards the floor, a little deflated.
"Sarry. Yus, me will try tuh keep me feet an de ground far naw." He replied, apologetically with a cheeky little grin.
Flea let out a little sigh.
"Awwww... You made it saaad." He complained as they watched the ferret scamper off towards a table with some foriegn-looking people sitting at it.
"Better sad then slippers." She replied with a sharp smile, much to the mans playful shock.
Meanwhile, the ferret had spotted his companions-to-be, seted and apparently bereft of reading material in this cornucopia of the written word. Smokie was trailing behind him, with a tower of books, selected by the Cadouri, from the library's volumes.
"Yay! Mr Mancline Sir, can me call yuh 'Mannie'? Masta Kasoria Sir, me 'ope yhu don't mind me callin' yuh masta, afta all, nat lang naw an we'll be masta an' student." He said with an excited squeek whether that prospect seemed appealing to the mage or not.
Winston reached the table and floating up and onto the table-top, leaving a little trail of rainbow-coloured glitter and a puff of air as he did. At this range, ti was clear to see he had some kind of armour attached to his hips, thighs and hands.
They were delicately designed and gave off little puffs of air that maneuvered him around until he pressed a button and dropped firmly to the table's surface again.
"Et's soh gud tuh see yuh again... Dis place es AMAZING..." The word 'amazing' was spoken the way a child might grind out the words through the gritted teeth on the night before Zielmas.
"...me simply cannat believe me didn't even know et existed. Saiore es soh cheeky some times, esn't she? Did yuh know yhu cun jost SWAP books far odda books! An my cun jost take cappies." He whipped a pen from his cap and let it loose into the air, channeling just a little ethar into it to activate it.
"Me 'ope yuh don't mind ef me take some notes while we talk. Me just gat tuh write down de books me need." He suddenly looked a little dejected as
the pen began to write all of its own accord. "Dem wud only let me choose 5 books. FIVE?" He said gesturing to the area around them as if such a thing was an impossible choice.
"Me 'ope yuh are all well?" He said to them all, managing to make them all feel both individually valued by what was a collective question. "Yuh don't want any books? Me share dem gat some really gud ones far yuh! Per'aps sometin'... Oh! Me did find dis one..." He said as he gesture for Smokie to hand over a descrete volume to the bodyguard. The title read "Cursing Without Borders: A Globe-Trotter's Guide to Colorful Profanity". If the ferret's body language was to be believed, he was not mocking the mage and hoped quite genuinely that Kas might find it an entertaining read.
"Et's gat an entire chapta an de correct use af... Uhhh..." He glanced at the diplomat, suddenly remembering why they were there. His voice dropped to a bit of a whisper.
"...page thirty seven." He concluded with a sage nod of recommendation.
Finally he addressed the diplomat directly again.
"Es Scalvoris treatin' yuh well?"
