On their way to Remony’s house, William tried again and again to catch the inspiration he had let slip. But it remained lost…

Into the ashes and scorned soil, he was scribbling a letter when Lucifer came over to gain his attention. It patiently watched the stick swish around. As he noticed the cub’s interest in the stick, William was reminded of his past self taking lessons from Remony, and it was then that it hit him. “Ah! Lucifer! You should learn how to write too!”.

The sudden outburst from William made Lucifer tense up. It had not expected him to explode into glee like that. “Aru?”, it cried as a means to investigate the matter. The stick was lifted from the ground and swished about and as anticipated, the little dino’s attention was fully on it.

William lifted the corner of his lips and thought: I’ll have no problem attaining Lucifer’s attention like this, but… To learn how to write, it’ll need to learn the meaning of the words first… Hmmm… I kinda thought at first that Lucifer would slowly understand what my body language and words meant by itself. Alas, its self-study hasn’t gone that far… So my direct guidance will be necessary from now on.

William’s gaze studied how hyped Lucifer was over the stick. Thus he decided that the first word it should learn would be: Stick!

“Stick! Stick! Stick”, he called out in many ways, spinning and juggling it around. Lucifer made small jumps and cawed at the toy that would always seem out of its reach. It was almost evil how William wouldn’t let it get it. Whilst this crazy show took place, Thalgar relaxed in the background up against a tree, wondering what the heck they were doing.

“THROWING STICK!”, William screamed then he hurtled it far away, a distance no dog would run. Lucifer’s eyes went from pulsing round to sharp slits and in a flash, it was gone. Sprinting with its life at stack to get that darned stick!

“Ups… Argh… Maybe I shouldn’t have thrown it that far…”, William realized once his mania had subsided. Because he wasn’t the only one affected by the ability of swiftness’ side-effect. Lucifer was too. Thalgar also took notice of his blunder. Reluctantly he trudged over to the girl, saying, “Careful… Lucifer’s life is not eternal either”.

William wanted to huff annoyed at the guy’s face for stating the obvious, but held back, “You’re right… In the moment I forgot all about it”. Slightly smiling, Thalgar commented, “I do not get it. Why are you both losing your minds over a stick?”. “Well… I want to learn Lucifer how to write!”, William proudly explained.

“Write?”, Thalgar muttered. “Yeah, you know: How to scribble down some words?”, William replied, this time with a doubting eyebrow on the rise. Thalgar tried to act uninterested, but his unmoving feet told otherwise. It wasn’t that the man-beast had never heard of the invention of words and paper, they just never had any use to him.

A minute after the stick was thrown, Lucifer came back, slightly ruffled up with muddy paws.

Playing fetch wasn’t something of the norm, so when William came over to shower it with praise, it almost keeled over from happiness. William chuckled at its overly cuddly nature and at how it sought his attention continuously. Wide-eyed Thalgar stared at the dinosaur, shaken by how tame it was with its bonded-parent.

“Never have I seen a fanged beast this affectionate with a human”, he said, both impressed but also slightly disgusted by its display of love.

“Really?”, William uttered as he rubbed the cub’s head, who purred loudly with confidence. Thalgar made a nod before he turned his compliment into a reason for why: “You are both very weird”.

“Pfft!”, William snickered out loud without meaning to. Thinking: Sure, but not compared to you and Boros! You are both 100 times weirder than me and Lucifer!

****

Once the shabby hut was visible, William changed his pace. No longer was his stride filled with determination, instead, it turned wobbly and slow. He took a look down at himself and wondered: How do I look right now? Decent or like a war-victim?...

The brown color of his dress hid the dirt he had racked up along the way, making him appear more presentable. This was an important factor to him as he didn’t want the Bartcove’s to think of him as pitiful nor as a person they needed to worry their pretty little heads over. And that wasn’t the case either when he arrived all scruffy and manly-dressed in Halbal. But at the time he just hadn’t given it much thought before his visit at the tavern...

His dress ruffled and from underneath the hem a cute little head popped out.

“Oh? That’s a good idea Lucifer! You stay underneath there in case they have other visitors”, William told the cub before he petted it. Although the little dinosaur didn’t understand his phrasing the head went back underneath the covers again, leaving behind it only a small purr.

A glance was shot back in the distance, luckily Thalgar wasn’t there. This was due to his sudden urge to hunt… Yet again.

However, William didn’t view this as a bad thing as the man’s presence was not desired in this territory. There was a possibility that border guards would make an uproar at the sight of him and his entourage of dinosaurs weren’t exactly a plus either…

A couple of knucks hit the door and then he waited. And waited… And waited…