A Study Session

After leaving Jackal with Misty, Amaryllis returned to the church early in the morning. She had her trusty inkwell pen, extra ink cartridges, and several journals. She didn’t know what to expect, so she was prepared for anything. She entered the church library and picked a desk to set up at. It was a sturdy, solid wood. She was not well acquainted with types of wood, so she could not appreciate it like a woodworker would.

With her journals set up and the desk light turned on, she approached the librarian to gather the books on birds. She was surprised when the librarian pushed a rolling cart to her. It was full of books, and she could imagine that most only had vague stories in them. The greed bun pushed the book cart to the desk and locked the wheels. She pulled her phone and headphones from her bag. She turned the headphones on and started some music so she could focus properly on what she read. 

Sitting down, Ama pulled a book to her and began to read. The words were not the most common in use in the Burrowgatory, but not wholly unfamiliar too to the bookish bun. As she read, she made bullet-point notes. She was not worried about knowing things verbatim, but, with enough notes, she could make sure that the information was conveyed to Jackal with minimal confusion.

Her brow furrowed at the words. Still not unfamiliar, but what they described was unbelievable from what she knew of the world. Creatures of all sizes, covered in feathers, with wings, some of which could fly, coming in all sorts of colors. One really caught her eye, making her wonder if she was only reading fantastical bedtime stories.

“Élégant, lange fethers of richesse azure. The tayl risen captures lēoht, scīnan with manig coloures, alls iff a rein-bowe. Full of pryde, the beeste struts, cocky in its demeanor. This beeste is called ‘peacock.”

She put this in her notes in more modern terms, closing that book shortly after. She pulled another book off the cart and opened it, relieved to see the modern language. She flipped through the pages, jotting down any new information she could glean. This one had a sketch of a feathered creature that was dark as night with a large beak. Below the image were the words ‘corvus corax; raven’.

She began to read through the entry on this “raven”. She was intrigued by the mention of their intelligence, and even more when she read that some could be taught to speak a few words. The fact is these birds… these corvids would actively clean up trash from the areas they deemed as their homes, made Amaryllis laugh softly, quickly quieting herself to avoid any librarian wrath.

The next entry was about a bird quite similar to the raven, the crow, which was just as intelligent and could recognize faces of friends. There were many more entries for the ‘corvidae’ family, each being very intelligent, and most enjoying collecting shiny things.

The publisher wondered briefly what it would be like to own any one of these birds. The nearest to any of the birds she’s read about that she could possibly come in contact with would be a corvat. Maybe she would head over to Masque’s later to examine their imp. It would be best to get as many notes for proper comparison as she possibly could.

She made the decision to go through one more book. This one was filled with sketches of wondrous feathered creatures. She stopped on this beautiful fiery one. A phoenix. It was described to have some form of magic and ethereal way to live. They were mountain dwelling birds, and the art was gorgeous.

She turned the page and was face-first with art of many birds in different formations of flight. The title of the section was “Augury, Prophesying by Avians”. She read a bit into this, but it was not as interesting as anything else she had read. Sighing, she tucked her journals and a few books into her bag to continue her research at Jackal’s, knowing she would have to return tomorrow.