Knowledge Rotten (Reworking)

[FennWenn]

Fenn hung there a moment with the manuscript tucked under one arm and his wolf still bristling, both their ears twitching towards the echoing drips. His paranoid survivalist side was suggesting they leave, under the eerie impression that moving the statue had made... something happen. More importantly though, the manuscript was weighing on him. He feared that if he didn't read this crumbling paper [i]right now[i], it would break apart later. It was too old to risk taking into the elements, too fragile to risk dropping or bumping, and too precious to leave behind without taking a peek inside.

Catching Daugi’s attention with a tap on the head, he strung together a few specific hand gestures. You, guard? Stay by me.

A disapproving growl escaped from the cage of Daugi’s teeth. She itched at her ears, staring at him in an eerie, distracted way. Fenn bit his lip and gently pleaded again.

Please?

Her disapproving glare lingered a moment before she reluctantly gave in. “Wuff…” The wolf dropped to the floor next to him, keeping her trembling, agitated red glare fixed on the door. It reassured him a bit, hushing his itchy paranoia. Thanks. Fenn smile as he curled up against her bulk and painstakingly untied the cords locking the papers together. Many places between the pages were sealed together or fuzzed over with mold. If he wanted to learn anything useful from this, he had to do it fast, but he had to do it carefully. The damp cover frosted over under his hands and the binding peeled. He turned to the first semi-readable page.

Frost fae share many attributes and beliefs with their forested kin. For instance, all Fae have immense lifespans, far beyond the scope of a human. The average age that faerie beings reach seems to be of seven hundred years, a number comparable to that of elves or dwarves. Fae reach adulthood near their first half-century of life. A frost fae is only considered an adult after they hav…

Waitwaitwait. Fenn blinked down at the writing and reread it. So, that meant he was probably more a teenager by his kind’s standard’s than an adult. So if by the standards of his race, he was technically that young… Damn it. He stuck his tongue out glumly. There went his smug sense of superiority over the adults in his life. The boy sighed, wondering faintly if thirty years old was too early for Fae to drink. Whoops.

Slurghhhshhh… A shudder wracked Fenn, and he placed a hand over his ears, uncertainty rising in him with each gasp of water from downstairs. Holy shit, those drips were distracting; they made his head faintly ache. Better meditate more on his age later, and get back to reading.