Or I could go get it myself, she nods. What would we be interrupting them from if we asked them to bring us food, do you know?

No. I don't think most people are too busy though.

Maybe not. It's not the kind of mistake I'd want to make, though. And I have been wondering how you get food without leaving the palace, anyway - show me?

So he tows her towards the kitchens. Where they are delighted to see them both and offer them foods.

And she thanks them and looks around a bit.

Among kobolds, the person in charge of the cooking is about the fourth or fifth most important person in the tribe, you know. And everybody makes a point of staying on their good side.

Lots of people like cooking, he says, and you can eat even if no one cooks, from the trees in the gardens.

Yeah, back home nobody would starve just for upsetting the head cook, either - if that could happen it'd be a job more like being a Speaker, where if you start being mean to people with it you get in big trouble, fast. But they still get to pick what gets made, so if they like you they'll make things you like more often and if they don't, they won't. They can actually be really important for morale - a lot of the time they don't just go by their own opinions of people, but they pay attention to how the whole tribe feels about things and what's going on, so their choices wind up being sort of a softer way of warning people who're being antisocial before they upset the tribe badly enough to have people start doing things to try to make them stop, or of rewarding people who've accomplished things that maybe don't need a whole big deal made of them but are still good enough to get a little recognition.

(It has not escaped the kobold that they're still in the kitchens and the Quendi here can hear her.)

Being able to get just about whatever you want whenever you want it, like we can do in the city, is pretty cool too, but that's how it works at home, and I kind of like it that way.

That seems mean. If someone does something wrong and you're mad, you should tell them. What if they don't notice that the food isn't food they like? What if they think it's a punishment for not deserving to exist instead of a punishment for a thing they did? What if they had a reason? What if being sad makes them do the thing that made everyone be mean to them even more?

Well, most kobolds don't talk, remember, so most of the time they can't tell them that way, and this is a way of telling them without words. If they do it right, it's usually pretty obvious why they're doing it, and it's only for small things - if someone's done something bad enough that people want them to leave, them getting bad food might happen, but it wouldn't be the only thing that happened. If they had a reason, that might matter or it might not - different tribes do things different ways - but in mine it wouldn't; our head cook thought that if someone's reason wasn't good enough for them to put up with people acting upset at them, it wasn't good enough to do the thing that upset people in the first place. She grins nostalgically. And I can't really argue with that, it helped keep me from taking foolish risks, it's probably part of why I'm still alive.

If I couldn't talk I'd die. People not talking is the worst thing for me.

She scoots herself and her lunch a little closer to him and gives him a hug.

It's not so bad for me, but maybe that's just because I'm used to it. What makes it so bad for you?

I don't understand things any other way. So then they all hate me and there's no way at all to understand how or why or what I did wrong. At least with words I have a chance.

Huh.

Well, you understand that I care a lot about you, right? And I haven't said that in words yet. Hug.

I didn't think you cared a lot about me. I don't think that even when people say it.

Oh. Hug.

Well, if I didn't care a lot about you I wouldn't've been so mad at your parent last night, and I probably wouldn't be thinking about going and talking to the Valar, and there would be fewer hugs. So now you know because I said it and because I've done things to show it. More hug.

One way to tell if someone cares about you is if they do hard or scary things for you, especially if they do them without you asking them to. Another way is if they do things they know you'll like - that's not always the reason for that, but if someone doesn't, well, sometimes it's complicated but most of the time it's pretty safe to assume that they don't care very much.

That is a little bit useful. Thank you.

She grins.

I think your parent is one of those complicated times, too. They are actually doing something hard and scary to them by letting me stay, that was pretty obvious this morning.

I know my father cares about me. I just make him sad all the time anyway.

I have no idea why, you seem like a pretty normal kid to me. Are you sure it's because of you?

Me and my mom dying and I'm not normal I'm way less patient and want to do way more things.

Consider, shrug. I guess I don't know enough about Quendi kids to say for sure, but kobold and tigerfolk kids who are the age you look like you are are just the same way.

Oh. Huh. I think Quendi kids are better-behaved than me but I don't know many.

You might be a more impatient than most Quendi kids because you've been stuck inside so much, too. That's more of a guess, but kobolds often spend the whole winter in caves, with only the hunters and guards going out, and by the time spring comes everybody's ready to get out and run around and see new things.

Oh. Maybe. If it'd make me normal I bet my father'd let me go outside all the time.

It'll be good for you even if it doesn't make you more patient, hug, which ought to be enough anyway.