Unspeakable

Chapter 78: Pieces

Dan was sitting in the puffskein nest with Poppy, spending the day with her while he had it off from work. Annie had been kind enough to tell him to go on with Poppy, that she would take care of the kids for the day. He hated to give her that responsibility, but she'd insisted on it. Told him he worked too hard.

He really was lucky to have such great siblings.

He watched as Poppy measured another puffskein, the little fuzzy creature wriggling in her grip. They were difficult to hold, and occasionally it slipped out of her grip so she had to catch it again before resuming her work of recording data.

He was currently covered in them, letting the little fuzzy guys climb all over him like they seemed to enjoy doing. He didn't mind, it was a lot like the toddlers.

"So what are you measuring them for?" He asked, catching a puffskein that rolled from one of his shoulders and gently setting it down.

"I'm recording information on population, size, growth patterns and coloring of this group." Poppy explained happily. "It will help with research into different breeding habits of different environments, I have data from other nests around the region on the same thing." She spoke more freely with her work now, knowing Dan didn't mind if she ranted about creatures for a while. He never seemed to get bored of it.

"Interesting. I'm surprised these little guys do so well in a forest with such dangerous creatures." He said, picking a black puffskein up to look at it curiously as it squirmed in his hands.

"They breed prolifically." Poppy chuckled. "so their breeding is built around natural predation."

"Ah, kind of like rabbits." Dan grinned, looking down at the puffskein in his hands. It let loose its long tongue, and he suddenly held it at arms length as the tongue whipped around "except that part! Definitely not rabbit." He laughed.

Poppy smiled and laughed as he dealt with the wobbling tongue of the puffskein in his hands. She walked over and scratched it through its thick fur, and it quickly calmed back down. "Thank you for keeping me company today. I know it's probably pretty boring for you." She said softly, smiling down to Dan.

"Boring? Hardly." He chuckled as another puffskein tried to jump on his head and knocking another one off that was already up there. "Besides, I like spending time with you, it doesn't need to be anything exciting."

Poppy blushed at that, smiling softly. "Well, thank you. Now- I haven't measured this guy." She picked the one off his head which immediately began squirming in her grip.

"How about after this we go to the three broomsticks?" She asked idly, even though it was kind of a big deal.

"The three broomsticks?" Dan asked in confusion.

"Oh! Sorry, it's a pub in Hogsmeade. Very popular with witches and wizards around here. They sell butter beers there. They're very good." Poppy explained.

"Sure, is this kind of a Wizard date thing?" Dan grinned.

"Maybe." Poppy said with a little secretive smile to him.

He chuckled and gave her a warm look that had her blush again, concentrating on her work to distract herself.

"Now that I'm used to the puffskeins you wanted me to meet, can I see other creatures?" Dan asked, picking up one of the puffskeins and making a face at it, laughing when it waggled a tongue back at him.

Poppy giggled at how playful he was with them, smiling warmly. "Sure, we can go see the diricawl next."

"Aren't those the dodo birds?" He said with interest.