He listens intently, eyes watching Pradnakt's hands, his own hands copying signs he doesn't recognise. (Happy? Was that what that feeling was?)

He nods, "Yes, ma'am." Tries fix how he was feeling working with Daisy in his head. "I- now, yes?" (Just to be sure.)

"Mmhmm. It's okay if you can't do it for very long; this kind of thing is harder than it sounds, starting out."

He nods again, and does his best to focus on the feeling. He finds it help to close his eyes, and to move his fingers through the simpler signs. His mind does drift. At first to unease at this - yes, she asked him to, but it's hard to be comfortable. He stops, breathes for a moment, and focuses again on feeling...happy. The next time his attention drifts it's to sitting with Daisy when he was drawing (that was nice).

You're doing nothing, his brain reminds him. And he can't get that thought out of his head. Forgets that he's supposed to breathe. The flames around his hands flare as he twists his fingers together.

"Breathe, Nova. Happy thoughts."

Having Pradnakt's voice to focus on there helps. Reminds him that this is what she's told him to do, what she wants him to do.

It still takes another few minutes to manage an actually deep breath. And a minute after that to recapture the feeling of learning how to sign. But he manages.

"Good," she says, when he does.

That helps as well - he got it right, and she isn't angry he messed up, and that lends itself to happiness as well.

"You're doing well, especially for your first time. You can stop whenever you feel ready."

He doesn't stop immediately, concentrating on the pleased (if confused) feeling her words leave. After a moment, he blinks his eyes open, and looks to Pradnakt - eyes not quite getting past her shoulders.

"That was impressive," she signs along again, and her approval is clear in her tone. "It's important to know how you feel; that's how you know what's right and wrong for you, and it affects and strengthens your fire, too. You'll need to practice feeling all four of the basic emotions - happiness, sadness, fear, and anger - and I know that's going to be hard for you, especially those last two."

He still doesn't seem to know what to do with the compliment. He nods at her words, eyes never leaving her hands. He thinks, briefly, that fear would be easy, he knows how to feel that, he doesn't like it, but it wouldn't be difficult. "I- yes ma'am. I-I'll- do my best." (Even if his best wasn't good enough.)

"Mmhmm. There's no rush - you did much better than I was expecting; I don't think it'll hurt anything for you to wait a bit on the other three, now. You can try them if you want, but I'm not going to ask anything else of you today."

He's still for a moment before nodding. He... isn't going to. Try any of the others. Even if fear sounds like it would be far easier than being happy. He's...unnerved yes, but...he's not entirely sure he actually feels scared right now? And he knows it'll come back, but-

But he doesn't want to think about it. Instead he shifts slightly so his hands are visible, signs: Thank you. The flames around his fingers create a strange, slightly delayed echo of the shapes.

"You're welcome," she signs back.

"We can stay out as long as you'd like - Daisy, I can pick up your chores if you'd like to keep working on the signs, it seems like it might be a good idea to bring the cot out here anyway."

The droid looks to Nova. "We can, if you want."

He wants to, but... "I- It's fine if you. Have something else. You need to do?"

"But he does want to," Pradnakt adds.

"All right then. Be careful not to overwater the squash, please, I haven't fertilized them yet."

"Got it." And she gathers up the trays and heads for home.

He looks between Pradnakt's retreating form and Daisy in complete confusion, with no idea what to make of that.

"- did she explain that she can tell what you're feeling?"

...Oh. "I- she. Hadn't." But some of the other things now made more sense - it couldn't be good to- He didn't like the fear, or the panic, he couldn't imagine it was nice to feel. But he doesn't know how to stop being that.

...That wasn't even the main thing that was confusing him. He shakes his head slightly. "I- you- you told-" He can't, really, bring himself to finish that sentence, to ask about Daisy telling Pradnakt what to do. (Nothing bad had happened, he reminds himself, but he still can't quite believe he witnessed it.)

"Mmhmm. She doesn't mind - the garden's mine, she doesn't keep track of what it needs; she trusts me to tell her when there's something like that."

He's never heard of a droid having anything that was 'theirs' before. "Oh," he says quietly. "I-" he tries to figure out what to say, tries to figure out what it is he's feeling to say here. "I'm glad," he settles on eventually. (It's still unnerving that Pradnakt accepts being told what to do.)

"Mmhmm. It's nice, this way. For her, too; she doesn't have to worry about it, she can just leave it to me."