Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 4)

“Not yet!” Tasia said. “But Mr. Tomhas said he’s gonna teach me how! And Ky said she was gonna teach Mama and Papa so we’re all gonna learn soon!”

Tadaaki and Aashi both wanted to die from embarrassment. Ky was stuck half way between sympathy for them and shock still at Zander knowing the king. It was enough to make her stop her pacing though, and she now stood along the wall.

"That's wonderful!" Harold smiled at her, though he seemed a bit put off by the fact that her parents had never been taught. "I'm sure Lord Loquitur and Ky will be excellent teachers. What are you going to read once you've mastered it?"

“Um…um… Ky!” She whispered but was very bad at it and went sprinting across the room to her and slapped her legs with her hands. “What did you say they were called?”

“Books.”

“Books!” Tasia yelled, turning back around. “They’ve got stories in them.”

"What sorts of stories do you like to hear?" Harold took a seat as a servant entered with a tray of snacks and tea.

“All kinds!” Tasia ran towards him.

Aashi intercepted, not even wanting to know what Tasia had in mind. She scooped her up and plopped her on her lap.

“Did you know my mama and papa used to be kids?” Tasia asked, still very clearly new to that idea. “Because they did. And they tell me stories about when they were little and about what their mamas and papas used to be like and I don’t really know what kind of stories are in books but I like those ones too!”

Zander smiled. He liked her tenacity.

“Have you ever read a book?” Tasia asked Harold. “I think Mr. Tomhas has one here. He said he talks to his kids about it. I bet you could ask him to read it.”

"I've read many books," Harold told her, chuckling. "So has Lord Loquitur--more than one, certainly. But you know who's read the most books? Over a thousand? Lord Ash. His library is the biggest in the Realm!"

“A thousand?” Her eyes went wide. She held up ten fingers, looking at them, before she settled on nine instead. “Is that this many?”

“It’s a lot more than that,” Tadaaki chuckled.

Tasia lifted her tenth finger. “This many.”

“You know how many pieces of wood Papa has in his shop?”

“Yeah!”

“It’s more than that.”

Her eyes went even wider and she turned back to Harold. “That’s a lot of stories!”

"This whole Realm is filled with books!" Harold spread his arms wide. "Libraries in every Keep, including a grand library in the palace. Though in my opinion the architecture is the only thing that makes it grand; Lord Ash has a far larger collection. You'll be able to read all that one day!"

Tasia bounced happily in Aashi’s lap, grinning broadly.

“Whoa! Are there stories about frogs? I like frogs. One time I was in my yard playing by the creek and there was a frog that was this big!” Tasia gestured far larger than her head. Then hesitated and chose a more reasonable estimate, but still two or three times larger than even a bull frog. “This big. And it went ribbet! and then it went swimming through the water like this.” She demonstrated, elbowing Aashi several times in the process. “And that’s because they like the water and they practice a lot a lot so they’re really good swimmers.”

Tadaaki’s daughter was explaining frogs to the king. He bit back a sigh. At least it was better than insulting him.

“And they eat bugs and bugs are bad because they eat our food and so we need a lot of frogs around so that we can have enough food.” Tasia brushed her hair out of her face, very animated. “And so if there are stories about frogs then I could read them to the frogs when I find them in the yard and then it’ll make them happy because it’s about them.”

"Would you believe," Harold said conspiratorially, "that I've never seen a real live frog before?"

“What!” Tasia’s eyes went wide in horror and she slapped both her hands down on Aashi’s lap hard enough it kind of actually stung. “You never seen a frog? But-but-“ she turned a scandalized gaze on Tadaaki. “He’s never seen a frog!”

“I heard him,” Tadaaki said with a laugh, amused at her outrage.

“I shoulda brought one in my pocket!” she announced, craning her head to awkwardly look up at Aashi. “This is why you shoulda let me keep that one I found as a pet. Everyone should have a frog to watch.”

"It's far too cold up here for frogs," Harold explained. "And I'm never in a warm climate long enough to appreciate the wildlife. I've seen drawings and paintings of them, but that's all."

“Then you gotta come to our house!” Tasia announced. “But they don’t come out every single day so you gotta be patient but that’s okay because you can read so you can just read us stories about frogs so then you’ll like it a lot a lot once you actually see one. We’re gonna go home eventually and you can just come back with us so we can show you where we live and I can show you the frogs.”

“The king is too busy to come look for frogs in our yard, dear,” Aashi said gently.

“No one is ever to busy for a frog,” she scoffed. She looked at Harold. “Right? You’re not too busy for a frog. You can just make a rule that you’re not allowed to be busy until after you see a frog.”

"I'm afraid it's not as easy as all that," he sighed. "I am very, very busy." Here he cast a glance at Tomhas, who gave him a small frown. "But I promise one day I'll come see a frog in the South, and I'll let you know what I think of it."

Tasia thought for a moment, then nodded. “Okay! Deal!”

Ky was still standing next to the bookshelf by the wall, now not quite sure whether she should sit down or resume pacing or just stay standing here. They all felt so wrong all at the same time. But she admired Tasia’s complete lack of inhibition at ordering around a king. Wild.