"All right."

She carefully deposits a few tiny pellets on Rhoda's palm, and the chick goes to eat them, peeping rhythmically. It does tickle, but only a little.

She giggles quietly, smiling down at her hands. "Thank you," she says again. "He's..." Adorable? Wonderful? She doesn't quite have the words to describe what she means.

"Yeah," she smiles.

"We should get some pictures, to remember when he was this small. But later, I think. After he's had a chance to rest a little."

She nods, and - slightly reluctantly - lowers her hand down into the cage so that he can get off and rest.

He peeps frantically when she takes away the hand covering him, but calms when he's lowered into the cage and hops off her hand to go explore. He finds the food dish first and eats some more, then disappears into the plastic shelter.

She grimaces when he starts peeping, and relaxes again when he calms. She watches him until he disappears into the shelter, smiling slightly again.

She looks sideways at Daisy, bites her lip, and then (giving Daisy plenty of time to pull away if she wants to), moves close enough to hug Daisy.

Daisy completes the hug. "I'm glad you like him."

"I really do," she says, cuddling slightly into Daisy. She thinks for a moment. Thank you, she directs at Pradnakt, because she helped with this as well.

You're welcome. She stops by to hug the both of them.

Rhoda tries to lean into both hugs at once, surprisingly content. (She doesn't feel trapped, she realises, slightly startled, she feels safe.)

Good.

I'm just about done with your things, she adds. Daisy did a good job with them.

She flushes slightly, realising that she had got completely distracted. Um. Did you need any...any help? There's an unspoken apology under her words.

It's fine. You were busy.

Her immediate gut reaction is that she wasn't busy, but she looks at the cage, and thinks. Pradnakt had said her time was her own, and she could choose what to do with it. Which meant that she had been busy? It doesn't sit quite right in her head, feels wrong somehow, but she ignores that feeling, focuses on the sentiment, tries to get it to settle right in her head.

Do you need...want any help now?

You can come look at the stuff, if you want.

She nods, and only sort-of starts to pull away from the hug. (She is not, in fact, trapping anyone so that she would have to move to allow them to move.)

I think I would? It's still intimidating, but there's a tiny part of her that's starting to get excited about this.

All right. She unhugs and steps around to the other side of the table, where various things are piled on the bench - clothes, books, a blanket, and a box of packaged items.

Rhoda half-reluctantly steps back from Daisy to follow, curiosity plainly apparent.

Daisy already told you about the clothes; you can take them into my room to try on, if you want.

She thinks about that for a moment. I can do that after...seeing the other stuff? If you don't mind?

Sure. What do you want to look at first?

...The books?

Okay. She puts the books and the blanket on the table so that there's room for herself and Rhoda on the bench. These two are books of names... this one's the cookbook I mentioned... these two are about keeping quail... this one is all short stories we can read to you... this one is about desert animals... space... the alphabet...

She looks at the books, half-blankly. There's relief at the books about keeping the quail - she would have something to look at if she forgot anything she was told. The short stories definitely catch her attention (even if there's a flicker of concern that she'll be taking their attention off more important things). She half reaches for the one about the alphabet, because that'll help her learn to read by herself. She pulls her hands back, remembering there's other things to look at. Thank you, she says, feeling a little bit like she's stuck on repeat.

It's no problem. She gives her a quick hug. We should be able to make a little time after dinner for reading, most nights.