Niphru thanked her as she led him to a spare room that had some dusty furniture in it. After letting him pick out a chair, Amilya dusted it off and set it into a corner for him.
Following this, Niphru looked around the house for a while before finding Dawn’s room and lightly hopping onto her bed, curling up beside her to sleep.
Niphru awoke to excited squealing from Dawn as she woke up and noticed him laying there. He stood up and booped her nose with his own, then hopped off the bed and stretched. Dawn quickly scrambled out of bed then grabbed and hugged him before putting him back down.
“How are you here already? Mom said I could tell you that you could move in today but you’re already here!” exclaimed Dawn, “Oh well, it doesn’t matter that much, you are here, that is what matters!”
“My den got dug up last night by a mutant bear when I was trying to sleep, so I ran back here and asked for help from Amilya. She got Diara and Harold and we went and hunted down the bear, then came back to town and she let me live here. She said I have to learn the rules from her today though,” Niphru replied.
Amilya poked her head in the doorway and smiled at them before speaking, “I see you are both up, I’m making breakfast, it should be ready soon.”
Dawn patted Niphru on the head before rushing off into the other room, leaving him to trail along behind. He found Dawn seated at a table waiting for Amilya, and instead of joining her decided to see what making breakfast was like.
After a wrong room, he found Amilya in the kitchen holding a pan above a glowing stone and stirring the contents with a wooden spoon. Looking more closely, he could see that the stone was leaking small amounts of mana into the atmosphere while it produced heat. As he watched, she took the pan away from the stone before sending a tendril of her own mana into it, causing it to stop leaking mana and begin to cool down.
Amilya turned, spotting Niphru and calling out, “It’ll be done in a moment, please wait with Dawn, I’ll get a small plate for you as well.”
Listening to her, Niphru headed back to the other room and sat down near Dawn. As he waited, he explained his idea about writing to her, “I said before I was trying to find how to write, I think I figured it out, I just need more practice. If I can condense my foxfire small enough, I should be able to burn a tiny bit of paper just a little. If I flicker between burning and extinguishing it shouldn’t catch fire completely, just leave scorch marks.”
Dawn smiled at him and nodded her head, replying, “That sounds like a great idea, hopefully it works like you are thinking. On the plus side, you should have more time to practice now if you aren’t running between the forest and the village every day.”
A moment later, Amilya entered, carrying two bowls and a small plate on a tray, setting both bowls down on the table and bringing the plate to Niphru. On it were several items he didn’t recognize, but which were warm and smelled good. Nothing went against his sense of danger, so he simply sat back and smelled it momentarily before taking a quick bite.
Dawn looked down and smiled at him, asking him, “Do you like the scrambled eggs? There are also some potatoes and bacon in there. I don’t know if you will like the potatoes, but it’s really good mixed together!”
“Foxes should be able to eat just about anything, from what I recall. It has been a while since I was learning about wildlife nearby us though,” Amilya stated.
Niphru continued eating, while having his illusion reply, “Yes, I can eat just about anything. Nuts have to be shelled first through, which sometimes hurts my teeth. This tastes really good though. I can see why humans cook food if this is something so simple!”
They finished their meals before Amilya gathered the dishes and headed back to the kitchen. Dawn reached down and scratched Niphru behind his ears for a while, before Amilya returned.
“Dawn, why don’t you go see your other friends for once while I talk with Niphru? I’m sure they miss spending time with you since you’ve been so focused on Niphru lately,” Amilya said.
“Alright…” Dawn replied, frowning, “I suppose I have been busy with Niphru, after all.”
Following this comment, Dawn got up and headed out the door, while Amilya turned to face Niphru again. What followed was hours of being told the rules of the village, being quizzed on them, having to repeat them, and being corrected.
“This is so boring and repetitive,” he complained, “I can feel myself falling asleep already!”
“Well, think of it as practice for school,” Amilya replied with a grin, “I know you said you wanted to go there, and this is quite similar to how they teach. You got lucky with learning from Dawn, we would all love to learn that quickly and easily.”
Upon hearing this was similar to school, Niphru whined, rethinking his plan to try to go there. But he also really wanted to know more about everything. Maybe he could find a way to avoid it and just keep learning from Dawn. But thinking about it more, wouldn’t that leave his human bored to sleep all alone?
“I’ll try, but this is so boring…” he stated.
“Then you will be glad to hear that was the last of that, you got everything correct this last try. And since you are so tired, you can go to sleep. I’m sure Dawn won’t mind if you use her bed, or you could use the chair in the other room,” Amilya said.
“That reminds me, why do you have so much extra furniture, Amilya? It looked like you had several chairs and a bed in that room,” Niphru questioned.
“It has been several years now, but I used to be married. Unfortunately my husband was caught in a monster attack at the logging camp. He was the one who spotted the beast, but his shout of warning attracted its attention. This was back before we had the current setup with watchtowers and a bunker, so he was pretty close to it, as were several others. We lost six people that day. I’ve never been able to get rid of his belongings, but try not to keep them visible as direct reminders, so I put all his favorite things in his room and kept it closed until now. I think he would like his favorite chair being enjoyed again though,” she replied, traces of tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry for bringing up bad memories, but thank you,” Niphru said, jumping up into her lap and shoving his head under her hand.
Amilya smiled and let out a strangled laugh before petting his head and relaxing a little.