"They're scared! They're scared that, if one day you and your mom move someplace else and they have to find a new person to live in the house, that person will be like, this house is TOO INTERESTING. I won't live here because it's not boring enough. And then they won't have any money for their whittling or whatever it is that they do like."

"That's STUPID!"

"When somebody's scared, a lot of the time it's stupid... to everybody else. But it doesn't make them less scared to tell them that."

"Well I am not telling ANYTHING to him. I am not s'posed to talk to him at ALL."

"That makes sense. But when your mom talks to him, she's got to deal with all his being scared."

"I don't think Mama should talk to him either. He's MEAN."

"Oh, I wish he knew how to be nice. I hope he'll have a lot of chances to learn how. Do you want him to learn to be nice?"

"YES!"

"I think it's easiest for people to learn to be nice when they're not scared. When he's scared that's what he's going to be thinking about all the time, and he'll just be how he always is. If he gets a chance to calm down, maybe he can learn to be nice!"

Sara doesn't really look like she understands where Laia is going with this.

"So I think it would be best if nobody scared him by making his houses interesting."

"But I LIKE the lion. I was going to give it an OWLBEAR FRIEND but then Mama came home and started yelling."

"I think she's scared too. She has to talk to that mean landlord, after all, and he sounds pretty scary."

"He IS."

"It's probably harder to love your mom when she's mad, but I bet you love her a lot anyway."

Sara looks pretty confused about that. "The old priest said love was WEAKNESS but I'm not s'posed to say that anymore."

"The old priests were big nasty liars! Thhbbbt to them." Kids love it when you go thbbbbt.

"THHBBBBBBBBT!"

"Mm-hm. They just wanted to make people be mean and hurt each other! But Shelyn says we should love each other instead, and help each other not be scared, and all learn to be nicer."

"Then why is the landlord STILL BEING MEAN. He should STOP."

"He's still scared, I'd bet you. And maybe you and your mom even working together can't make him not be scared at all, but you can help a little bit."

"HOW."

"When the lion's gone you shouldn't put it back. It'll scare your mom and if the landlord finds out it'll scare him too. But Songbird Gabriel can help you do some more painting! There's classes, and there's so many walls in here that he hasn't gotten to yet! Shelyn doesn't want Her house to be boring and I don't think She has a lion yet or an owlbear."

"I'm gonna paint the BESTEST LION EVER for you! And I'll give it SO MANY FRIENDS. An owlbear and a wolf and a tiger and a GRYPHON."

"Songbird Gabriel will be so happy to have them! And he's got lots of colors too."