"Ooooh, thanks!  If you end up needing more money than that we'd be happy to buy more stuff from you."  There's a meowful "Iiiiiiian" outside the garage's person-door; he opens it.

Princess stands in the doorway rather than coming all the way in.  "Hi!  Sorry I left so quick, how are you?"

"I'm fine, did you and Cloudpaw get to catch up?"

"A bit!  Also I understand almost all of English now and I think I should get some more fish for that; I worked very hard on it.  I still can't really speak it, though.  Also Cloudpaw is still out back and he should get some too."

"Sure. It's not a problem if your Twolegs see him?"

"Hmmmmmm, I don't know.  They're very good and I don't see what could go wrong but I don't really understand why the Clan cats don't want them to know things.  I think they've seen him around here before but not since they could ask me questions about him; maybe that's different."

"I'll give you two pieces and you can bring him one." Fish!

oh NO now she has to give up half of the treat which is going to have already been in her mouth.  even if it's twice as much treat this is probably the worst thing that has ever happened.

Conveniently Princess is saved from this horrible fate by Cloudpaw walking right up to the door.  "Hey."

"Oh, hello, I thought you were trying to avoid being conspicuous to Twolegs?" He gives Cloudpaw a separate piece of fish.

Cloudpaw looks extremely conflicted about the fish.  ". . . Can't you just tell them I'm someone else's kittypet or something?  If they even ask."

(Ian is politely ignoring the fact that a foreign language conversation is happening in the same space as him by inspecting the motorcycle really thoroughly.)

"I can say something like that, I guess."

"Alright."  He continues to watch the fish for several seconds.

"So, okay, question: what do you think about Clan cats eating Twoleg food."

"Uh, the rule against it doesn't make sense to me particularly but I can see why it's the sort of rule you'd have for cultural reasons?"

"I mean, so - hm.  There's also a rule that 'the Clan eats first'; warriors and apprentices can't eat on hunting patrol; they have to bring back fresh-kill for the kits and elders first.  And for a long time I thought this was really stupid, because why wouldn't you want your hunters to have their strength up?  But eventually I realized that it is actually pretty important, because if there's less prey than normal then the non-hunters would starve and die, instead of the whole Clan going just a little hungry."

And then I got some Twolegs to feed me regularly, and I didn't think it was that big of a deal because I was still hunting a lot and it's not like I was using up the prey by eating first.  But hanging around that far into Twolegplace is what got me stolen, which is a pretty good reason not to do it I guess - but you're not going to steal me . . . . but I don't know if there are more reasons which I just haven't thought of yet."

"That's the reason I'd expect for the rule, getting stolen and just generally getting, hm, less totally committed to Clan life instead of a mixed strategy like barn cats have. You can give the fish to your mom if you want to be on the safe side."

"I . . . actually I think I'll see if anyone back at camp wants it.  Thanks."

"You're welcome." And out he goes to see if he can catch up to the solquinoxes.

They're coming back towards the house presently.

"Hey guys! I'm gonna go back to my RV and see if I can download a star into an unoccupied body!"

" - Oh!"

" . . . Ohhhhhh.  Okay."

"Ian's very clever, isn't he. Do you guys want to come or nah?"

"He really is.  Sure, I'll tag along, assuming there aren't any more-traditional sacrifices involved.  I assume Jackie's gonna sit this one out."