I Have No Excuse

Untitled Part 25

It was another average day, but one filled with new ideas and goals. Prowl was sprawled across mine and Blaster's laps as we worked on pulling out the useless scales. There wasn't many. There never really was, but Prowl seemed determined to ignore them yet and if the old scales were left then new ones couldn't grow in their place. The dying scales were harder to pick out on Prowl due to his coloration. It was much easier on the others as the color would fade, but on a mostly white mer they were practically invisible. So we would just run our hands over his scales and search blindly for scales that moved more or were softer than the others. Then we gave a soft tug and if it started to give with ease we would pull it out to reveal a new scale just starting under it. During this process we would talk and the most we got out of Prowl was a twitch of one of his ear fins.

If anyone else tried to groom him he would move away. If they persisted he would flee to his nest. If they kept up after that, which was rare, but had to happen if we weren't there for an extended period of time due to other duties, then he would deal with it. He made sure they knew he wasn't happy about it though with half growls and glaring ahead. Any dying scales left for too long would eventually start to rot and cause illness and infection. It took a while for that to even begin to happen, but it was best not to even give something like that the slightest chance to happen.

"So I was thinking that maybe we could try and teach Prowl to read or write or something. I mean maybe he can't form words or maybe he can, but I think having some way to communicate would be nice." I looked over at my friend who was diligently working on our mer.

"That will take quite a bit of time. Are you sure you're up to a task like that?" Blaster responded with a slight smirk.

"I have patience. Besides Prowl is a quick learner. He picked up puzzles easily enough. Ya have already started reading to him. Maybe ya could start letting him look at the pages or something. Get him some kids books to look at with ya or something."

"I guess that might work, but language is harder to learn than something like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Lets write the alphabet down and try from there. I mean there's only so many letters so having him know that might help with writing words."

"See? This is why I keep ya around. Ya got some great ideas in there." I tapped his head and he smacked my hand away with an eyeroll.

"Shut it."

I smacked him back and we had a bit of a back of forth thing for a second. That was when Prowl looked back at us and growled warningly.

"He started it." I pointed at Blaster.

"I did not. Don't go pushing this all on me."

"Ya hit me first."

"You insulted me."

"Oh ya big baby. I was just teasing ya and ya know it."

"Bite me."

Prowl hissed before laying his head back down. We sat there for a moment.

"I can't tell if he's mad." I leaned over to speak softly to Blaster.

"Try talking to him or something."

"I dare ya to poke him."

"What? No. You do it. You found him first so he's Your responsibility."

"Oh wow. I thought we were in this together Best Friend."

"Says the one who wanted me to deal with something You started."

"Fine, fine. Ya ok, Prowls? You're not mad at us or anything, right?" I let my fingers graze over his wing fin.

He made a soft noise. It was slightly irritated, but he made no move to deter me from touching him.

"I think we're ok." I slowly eased back into searching for dying scales and Blaster followed suit.

"Just saying it was your fault."

"Oh whatever. So how about little flashcards or something?"

"If we get some items and write out their names that might work. Starting with things that are familiar like coral or fish breeds would work best. If we start trying to teach him things that he has never seen before that would do more harm than good. As far as we know he thinks I'm just holding the book for no reason and talking nonsense just because I can."

"Ya bring up a good point. Lets run this by the Ratch man later. I think Prowl's had enough of our nonsense today."

"You mean Your nonsense. I'm just along for the ride as usual. Brought against my will to suffer." Blaster put in dramatically complete with a pose and a regal tone of voice.

"Ya like my nonsense and ya know it."

4444444444444444 The Fours Have Started To Take Over!444444444444444444

It was a go. So Blaster and I had spent one night at home working on flashcards and talking over how we were going to do this. Then of course we would need Cliff to gather plants and tell us what they were or at least me. Then we could go from there. Maybe we could even teach him to write.

It might take longer than we thought as Prowl was going to be under some serious stress soon. They wanted to try and put them into the merger tank and see how it would go. They doubted that the Magis Accuratius would try and hurt him with how they were acting. Prowl was at more of a risk for violence and even that was a slim chance. The preparations were coming along rather nicely. I just hoped Prowl would be ok. Aid reassured me that if Prowl was put under too much stress for too long or if he started to act out then they would pull him out.