"Okay." And she starts on the first book. It's fairly straightforward, covering shelter and food and safety precautions and so on. (Daisy skips the section on reproduction - "we only have one and he's a boy, we don't need to worry about this part.") It does recommend that quail be kept in pairs or larger groups.

Rhoda looks a little concerned at that. "Will he. Be okay on his own? Or will he be lonely?" (She's realising now that she was lonely before, in a way she'd never been able to identify before.)

"He'll probably be fine," she squeezes her shoulder. "Lots of books give that advice, to be safe, and lots of animals don't really need it. Dusk will be able to tell if he does, and then we can get him a friend."

"Good," she says quietly, resting her head on Daisy's shoulder, waiting for her to continue.

She continues.

It's not a long book, but she's taking it slowly, stopping to let Rhoda see the pictures and to make sure she understands any parts that seem unintuitive.

Rhoda's an attentive listener, and does seem to mostly follow - although the less intuitive bits do need some explaining given her lack of any prior experience with any animal, never mind a bird.

But it's been a long day, and eventually, she drifts off against Daisy's shoulder (not into a deep sleep, but dozing lightly).

Daisy puts the book down, and waits a few minutes before easing her onto the bed.

She stirs somewhat, and makes a quiet sound that is not quite a protest, but she doesn't actually wake up fully.

Aww.

She tucks her in - gently, gently - and goes looking for Dusk.

You did really well with her while I was gone.

Yeah. She gets more credit than I do, though.

Mmhmm. Do you still want to build her a house?

Maybe just add on to this one - she's still worrying a lot about taking up our time, I don't want her to feel exiled.

That makes sense. Do you have a design in mind?

Most of one. Put it over there, give her her own suite? Like this - she sketches out a rough blueprint, and they spend a while tweaking it, adding features here and there.

Eventually, Dusk gets tired too, and takes a blanket and pillow from the pile of new bedding and retires to the roof.

Eventually, Rhoda wakes up. It takes her a moment to realise she isn't on the mattress under the table. When she realises she's in Pradnakt's bed, and that she's been asleep for some time, she scrambles out - she shouldn't have taken Pradnakt's bed. (She's not quite awake enough to remember that Pradnakt could easily have moved her if she wanted to.)

She fumbles with the door handle, but eventually gives up and just slumps down beside the bed curling her knees up to her chest.

After a few seconds, sleepily: Hey, it's all right.

m'sorry, she's not sure if the apology is for taking Pradnakt's bed or for waking her up (although she is calmer having been told that it's all right).

Don't worry about it.Go back t'bed if you want. She's filtering less than usual; she's cozy and sleepy and does mean 'go back to the bed', and she's not upset at all.

She looks at the bed, it was cozy. Thank you. She creeps back into the bed and snuggles under the blanket. She'll at the very least doze through the rest of the night.

When she wakes again, it's to the smell of frying steak and potatoes.

She stays curled up for a little while (it's really cozy, okay?) before persuading herself to slip out from under the blanket and make her way into the main room.

Dusk isn't down yet; it's just Daisy in the kitchen. "Good morning."

"G'morning," she responds, smiling. "Um. Sorry I fell asleep on you?"

"It's fine. I know the hours we're asking you to keep are a little strange." She moves a portion of steak and eggs onto a plate and offers it to her.

She shrugs slightly as she takes the plate. "I...think they're a bit more regular than what I'm used to?" she admits. "It. Was hard to track time on ship. But. I'm pretty sure I didn't keep anything regular? Slept when I got a chance?"