Squirrelly Days - Rammu

017 - Lina

After helping Vivica clean up the common, Lina made her way to the library, hoping to find a good book to read for the rest of the evening. However, when she found Enkoro reading in the corner, she couldn't help but try and get close enough to see what he was reading.

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Enkoro: Do you need assistance with something?

Lina: *hard gulp* N-no Enkoro-mu, I was just trying to see what you were reading.

Enkoro: Please drop the formal address. You'll find that no one here appreciates it. As for the book, it's simply an outer society code translation guide. As much as it shames me to admit, I seem to have forgotten much of it since I had it memorized from when I was a trainee.

Lina: *curious* S-should I be reading it also, as a trainee?

Enkoro: I recommend reading much of this library as a trainee, including this book. While it certainly hasn't come in much use to me, it's better safe than sorry. Furthermore, even with faded memories of it, I was still able to recognize the last part of Vivica's whistle pattern as a chewa time code.

Lina: C-chewa?

Enkoro: Indeed, it would seem Vivica may be one of the few people who can hear their long distance whistle calls that are usually too high pitched for us to hear.

Lina: *worried* What did the message say?

Enkoro: That I am not entirely sure of. Most of what she relayed isn't in this book. However, there is enough of it to validate my suspicions.

Lina: *worried stare*

Enkoro: There's likely nothing to worry about. Mirra has clearly already taken action, and felt as though it was of so little concern that she didn't pass along a message of any sort. That said, don't mistake such action as being acceptable. I will be sure to give her yet another stern lecture on the importance of proper protocol.

Lina: What would the proper protocol have been?

Enkoro: *raised eyebrow* I would have thought that was obvious. She should have told at least Yineh what was going on, so that she could report to me.

Lina: *nervous* U-understood.

Enkoro: Would you mind keeping this between us for now?

Lina: Why?

Enkoro: There's no point in worrying trainees unnecessarily.

Lina: *dumbfounded* Then why tell me in the first place!?

Enkoro: Because you seemed curious about what I was doing.

Lina: *panicked* I-I'm sorry.

Enkoro: You should never be sorry for your curiosity, embrace it, nurture it, and most important of all, never starve it.

Lina: *stunned* Doesn't that contradict the warning in the story about the blackbirds and the water mill?

Enkoro: That story isn't about stunting your curiosity, it's about taking proper caution. To summarize the story, something shiny is caught in the water wheel, and three black birds go to investigate. The first bird rushes in blindly and is drowned, the second bird pokes around the mechanisms and gets caught up in the gears; finally the third bird simply waits until the shiny thing comes loose then takes it to its nest. The third bird was no less curious than the other two, but it didn't allow its curiosity to place it in needless danger.

Lina: I was told the meaning of the story was to curb your curiosity, as anything worth knowing will come to you on its own.

Enkoro: *raised eyebrow* Interesting interpretation... Were you by chance raised in a more superstitious environment?