It's a pleasant day for travel, and Deka's enjoying it - just enough clouds in the sky to cut the early summer heat, a nice breeze, birds singing in the trees, the clop of her draft goat's hooves on the trail, the twittering of her griffon friends as they flit from tree to tree overhead, keeping pace with her cart. She's excited, too: She's on her way to wizard college, but she's decided to check with any wizards she hears of along the way, as well, to see if she can find an apprenticeship, and the people in the last village she passed suggested she try here, at the arboreal mansion she's surely just a few minutes from being able to glimpse through the trees.
Rogeiros nods to her, and goes to ensure that there's a room prepared for her.
And she goes down to take care of things. By the time she's done there's hay in One's nest, for bedding, and in a little pile in the corner waiting for her to rig up some kind of rack for it, with a shallow wooden bowl set next to it with a few more leaf-wrapped griffon treat balls, a bit of shredded jerky, and a couple of expertly-dispatched caterpillars courtesy of Figment's hunting skills.
Phantasm probably has the little creature melted into a puddle by now; she goes to check on them, when she's satisfied that she's done the best she can with the room for tonight.
He is fairly melted yes, but, perhaps, still seeming somewhat perplexed by the entire situation.
"Hey, sweetie-"
"Wuk."
"Yeah, cute. Going to town tomorrow, you coming?"
Phantasm stops his grooming and regards her seriously. "Blackberries?"
She chuckles. "Yeah, blackberries."
"Wuk," he says again, with some finality. "I'll come."
"Okay. Fig's catching... bugs for your friend, if - go help."
"Wrr... later." He rubs his beak on One's fur.
"Mmhmm." That's really not a surprise. "Join you?"
"Scared."
"Huh, okay. His room's - through the kitchen."
"Wuk."
And she goes to see if she can find Rogeiros or her room.
One seems to be paying quite a bit of attention to the conversation, although he's doing it fairly inconspicuously. He does, however, seem confused by it.
Rogeiros is sat on a landing that is open to the outside, reading.
"Your room is just along there," he points when he notices her, barely looking up from his book. "Third door."
Not bad, considering. Hopefully the apprenticeship will work out, or at least she'll be able to get the little creature's situation straightened out. She flops on the bed for a little while and then gets her things settled in the room before dinnertime, when she goes looking for One again.
Retreated to 'his' room now, sniffing around, a little suspiciously, at the additions to it.
It doesn't take him long to realise he's being watched, and he glances around, eyes wide and startled and-
-Oh, yes, that's a tiny flicker of flame that runs along his fur, although it doesn't truly ignite.
She backs out of the door and drops into a less-intimidating squat immediately, swaying slightly as she finds her balance. "Sorry, sweetheart."
That gets a curious head tilt, and a slightly confused blink and then One abruptly goes back to sniffing around the room, as though some invisible switch had been flipped.
She'll hang out for a few minutes, then, if he seems okay with it. She wants to make sure he's figured out the new food before she goes to eat her own meal.
He seems, perhaps, a little unsettled by her presence, but again, he does a good job of hiding it, and after a few minutes, does in fact come to the new food. He darts a look at her, before sniffing at it, and nibbling cautiously at it.
"Good boy," she comments as he takes his first nibble, and then goes off to her room to eat.
She checks again before bedtime to see how much he's eaten, and freshens up the bowl before she heads back to town in the morning.
He's eaten some, but probably nowhere near as much as he should've - although a couple of the treat balls, and one of the catapillars seem to have been eaten.
Well, possibly she just hasn't figured out what he ought to be eating yet. She gets a variety of things in town - a bale of hay and a couple of armfuls of fresh-cut grass, some oats, one each of a few different kinds of fruit and vegetables, and a few different kinds of meat. She stops several times on the way home to cut branches off of different bushes, too, to see if he's interested in the leaves Rogeiros had him on as at least part of his diet.
She checks on him and his food dish first thing when she gets back, bringing a head of lettuce up with her when she does.
He's curled in the nest, and watches her as she comes in. The food bowl is a little emptier again, but still not by much.
He hesitates for a moment, and then creeps forward to sniff at the lettuce leaf. And after a long moment where it very much feels like he's watching for her reaction, he nibbles at the edge of the leaf.
She stays very still, holding it for him, even when Figment flaps down from her shoulder to take a treat ball from the bowl.
He flinches a little when Figment moves, freezing for a moment before going back to eating. He'll finish most of the leaf before retreating.
Not great, but it could be worse and she'll get nowhere by pushing it. She leaves the lettuce by the bowl and goes to get the rest of the things put away.