‘I have a question for you,’ said Ozolos publicly.
“Yes?” said their guide.
‘Do your people take offense to being compared with the Dulvani?’
The guide fell quiet for a moment. “...Compared to? No, I should think no offense would be taken there. But if you presume overmuch about us because of them, then yes, you may create some awkward conversations. Why do you ask this of me, by the way?”
‘Curiosity.’
“No other reason?”
‘History, as well.’
“What do you mean by that?”
Unfortunately, however, this proved to be yet another of those instances wherein Ozolos decided not to respond, leaving only an uncomfortable silence behind.
Enough so, in fact, that the guide’s head turned one hundred and eighty degrees around in order to look at the two of them, his wooden neck making a crackling noise all the while. He didn’t stop walking forward, either.
Not knowing what else to do, Gema just gave a flat smile and then returned to examining the walls and windows.
Play dumb. Just play dumb. Dumb and innocent. Her tried and tested tools.
It seemed to work well enough. The guide gave up and turned back around, making it a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
She’d gotten used to that a while ago. This was not her first encounter with the Methusel.
They were a fascinating people but not exactly the easiest to read. Or learn about at all, for that matter. She’d never even heard of them three years ago, and in the time since then, she hadn’t been able to discover much about them or their history.
They all seemed to be quite stoic and soft-spoken. They were still human-shaped overall, but their bodies were noticeably more malleable. She wasn’t yet sure if they had any flesh beneath the ‘bark’ that covered them entirely or if they were actually wooden all the way through; but she did know that said bark could grow and change at will. And quite quickly, too.
At the moment, their guide’s bark was a smooth, pale white with an occasional black knot in it, but when she first saw him, it had been a deep brown color full of ridges.
She’d asked Ozolos about them numerous times, because she suspected he knew plenty, but thus far, he’d yet to elaborate. Thankfully, one of the other reapers within the CID, name of Valess, had been able to illuminate a few things for her.
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