"Well, yes indeed I do have something to tell you, and it is rather important. But I was so engaged in hearing you speak that I did not wish to interrupt. I am glad that you have been so vivacious in living. I know that you did not have an easy time of it before now, having no family, aside from a cousin that bullied and abused you. Hearing you speak of all of the good in your life is a balm to me, and it brings me quite a large amount of joy!" I tell him with all sincerity. He smiled back at we, and we embraced one another.

"Oh my! I hope that I do not smell, I have not had the time to bathe in, well much too long." I tell him.

"Oh, don't worry about that. The girls here have helped keep you clean. Wiping you down and changing your clothes, and such things. I hope you aren't upset about that, but we all wanted to do our best to help take care of you." he said, biting his lip, waiting for me to be upset.

"I am filled with nothing but gratitude at their kindness." I tell him. I did not know what I can do to show them my appreciation. Oh! It was something very small, but maybe George will help me cook a personal meal for them.

With that plan in mind, I put the thought of my hygiene out of my head and got to telling him what was really important.

"So." Kay said, taking in everything that I told him. "Zayne made you a full-blooded fox, and you now have poison resistance? And these are phrases that completely make sense and are not absurd at all."

"Yes. That is quite correct!" I tell him, and give him a smile, glad that he was able to follow everything that I had told him.

"Does that mean that you aren't poisoned anymore?" he asks, voice filled with hope.

"Indeed, that is what it means. While I understand that means that we are no longer able to charge Rex with his crime, it does mean that I am able to go back to my courses and continue working towards becoming an adventurer with you." I tell him. He cheered again and we both lapsed into a happy silence.

I looked down at the paper in my hand, the one that showed my change of fortune. "Kay, can you tell me what these other things mean? Talents and traits?"

"Pshh, of course I can!" he says, as though my question were truly foolish. Perhaps it was. Kay had been able to answer all of my questions to this point, it simply would not make sense for that to suddenly change.

"So, it boils down to this. Your talents are unique to you. They are your talents because you are you and for no other reason. These often also grown as you grow and can become much more powerful. They will also develop depending on how you use them. Say someone casts fireball over and over as fast as they can, then it might become fire barrage, or chain lightning, something like that."

"Oh okay. So, it grows as you grow and changes in a way to match your growth and changes. Alright, I think that I can understand that. Thank you for your explanation."

"Yay, Ami is awake and she is thanking me and I am just so happy and this is a great day. Oh, wait, sorry I am still explaining right? Yup, getting ahead of myself. What does that phrase even mean, getting ahead of yourself? How do you even do that? Do you make a mistake trying to go too fast and you topple over and land on your head?"

"Kay?"

"Oops. Okay! Before moving on there is one more important thing to know about talents. And that is, they are truly nonsense. Sure, there are rules of thumb on how they will grow and change but quite often fate respects rules as much as Rex does. Anyway, so traits are race bonuses. They are things everyone in your race excel at."

"Oh, so every fox-kin would have bonuses to stealth and rhythm?"

"Yes and no. There are four or five of them and people end up with anywhere between one to three of them."

"Interesting. So, while you can have the same traits as another of your race, it doesn't mean you will share them with a third?"

"Pretty much? Bah, I am sure that they will cover them more thoroughly in our courses. Speaking of courses, when are you going back?'

"The start of next week, so on Dwarsday."

"Oh yay, we don't have to wait too long then, that's only a few days away!"

"Oh, is it? Kay, what day of the week is it?" I inquire of him, having a strange feeling of disconnect. It is odd fighting for your life for so many days and then waking to try to learn how much time passed and all of the things that I may have missed. Frankly I will be quite pleased if such a thing does not occur again. Strange, I feel as if I am tempting the fates as they say.

"It is Afritday, so you have what's left of today, which with it being evening already there isn't too much time left of today. Does that mean that you and Cat are going to sing and play the piano again tonight, because that was something that we enjoyed until you were forcibly stopped by some vermin that got in here, which is sad because I know that you could usually easily stomp them out of existence.

"Oh right, we should have you look over my notes with the time that you have before singing and playing for the evening, if you are doing that. I tried to make my notes understandable, but when I showed them to Cat he just stared at me as though I were showing him a foreign language or something which is just rude it what it is. Just rude!

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"So did you want to go see those now or where you wanting to ask about your evening plans first? I am okay either way obviously. Oh! And if it isn't obvious, I am super duper happy to have you back to being alive. It was just all the suck when you were all sorts of almost dead. What was that like by the way? Being almost dead that is?"

"Kay! Don't forget that you do have to give the person that you are speaking with time to reply to you. I am not even sure where to jump in with my response as you just poured out a great many words rather quickly." I pause for a moment and try to clearly formulate a reply to Kay's question.

“Perhaps you can respond in a series of winks or hand signs as it quite likely that I will not stop talking. I think I must have been cursed at a young age, or perhaps blessed?” Kay takes advantage of my pause to ramble further down his trails of rabbit.

"Well, let me go check in with Vita and see what the plan for the evening is. I do so want to get my life back to its normal rhythm as quickly and smoothly as we are able to. Don't you think that sounds like a good idea? For my recovery?"

"Oh wow, you are super smart Ami, I didn't even think about that!" Kay exclaims, eyes lighting up in the way that only Kay's do. It was lovely to be able to sit and converse with him in this manner. It somehow feels as though it has been a while although I was asleep during that time. It must have felt much longer for him.

I get up off of my bed and do some simple stretches. It felt lovely to be moving my body. Possibly more lovely than it had ever felt. It felt light and full of an untapped energy reserve. Is this what it will always feel like after a recovery period? Though, becoming an adventurer will probably answer that question rather swiftly. It is too hopeful to believe that I will never be laid up in bed in such a manner again, though gratefully it shall not be from poison again. Recovering from poison has been an awful and painful experience.

"Ready to head down Kay?" I ask him and see that he is standing there with a large grin on his face.

"It's so nice to see you up and moving around again Ami. I apologize if I am being repetitive, but at the same time I intend to say it a few dozen more times." he says, and I nudge him gently.

I turn around and head out the door and down the stairs. I forget how much our patrons care about us all until a few of them gently place hands on my shoulder or tell me how glad they are to see me up and moving about again. I am moved by their kindness. I thank them all as color comes into my cheeks.

When I make it to the kitchen I look to see if Vita is there, I see George.

"It is really nice to see you awake." he says simply, and gives me a nod, which I believe is George's form of a hug.

"Do you know where Vita is?" I ask him, and he points to a room off of the kitchen. "Thank you." I tell him and flash him a smile. I mentally remind myself that I wanted to speak with him about allowing me to cook something for the staff in appreciation.

I step into the room and glance around. It was where Vita had led us when we first started working here and showed us our uniforms. It doesn't take long for my eyes to land upon her before she is racing over to me and grabbing me in her arms. Once she has a rather tight grip on me, she lifts me up and spins me around.

"Yay, it is so good to see you alive. You have no idea how worried we all were. For shame! You can't have us worrying over you like that again, at least not for a good long time. An adventurer's long time, but still a long time none the less!" she says, pointing at my nose. The only things I can think to do it nod in response. "Very good."

When she puts me back down and onto my feet I take a few steps back, allowing me to look into her face a bit better.

"I am rather quite glad to be up and about as well. Speaking of which I was wanting to inquire about work tonight."

"You want to go back to work tonight?" Vita says, lifting an eyebrow as she looks at me.

"Yes. I want to get back to a normal rhythm of life as soon as I am able to. Also, I am not comfortable to sit around idly while there are things to be done."

"Hmm, I like that answer and attitude, being a workaholic isn’t healthy for you but it sure is for the tavern, yay. Alright then, let's put you back to work. I know the regulars are going to be glad to see you back. Especially after the fiasco of trying to have Kay cover for you. It... Well it isn't his strength. But he does have a rather nice reading voice. Soothing in the evening for the patrons that are hoping to go to bed around that time."

"Yeah, the memory of trying to dance still hurts my face. Then again while I was reading there was one patron that was rather persistent in taking me home and that was also a memory I shall not forget." Kay says and touches his cheek. How did he manage to fall on his face firmly enough to have such a strong reaction.

"Well, if Cat is up to it, I would enjoy playing music with him again. As long as we have no unwanted guests come in to interrupt our performance." I tell her. She lets out a little laugh, but her eyes aren't smiling. It seems that everyone is mad about that incident.

I pause a moment and touch my throat, questioning myself as to how I feel about that incident myself. It does not take long at all until I come to the realization that I am furious about it. A cold anger though. Not a hot one that will lead me to regrettable actions.

"Well, you go spend a little more time with Kay and I will talk to Cat. It isn't time for the late meal."

"You mean dinner?" Kay asks, as though it should be obvious what the meal is.

"Hmm, not quite." Vita says. "It is a late meal that comes after dinner. So, you know, late meal time." Vita says and shrugs her shoulders. "Or early for some I suppose. Haha, since we are a 24/7 establishment things get a bit confusing." she sticks her tongue out a bit playfully.

"Thank you very much Vita." I say to her and me and Kay make our way to his room. I sit on his bed, and he shuffles some things around, seemingly looking for his notes from our courses.

"Sorry that I don't have any for the courses we don't have together. I did search for a spell to duplicate myself so that I would be able to attend both courses, but that magic was just a touch, dash, and entire mountain climb above me." he said to me.

"That's okay. I am rather grateful for any help you are able to offer." I tell him as he hands his notes over to me. I look them over and realize why Cat said that he would help me out. His notes were very... Kay. There was no better description for them. It was mostly doodles with arrows and little captions. I suppose if you know what everything means it is a fun way to review material. But... As I am not Kay it doesn't make complete sense to me.

"Thank you very much Kay." I tell him.

"Oh good, I am glad that you like them. Those are your own copy, I copied them off of my own notes. See, we have matching notes!" he says and cheerfully holds up more papers. The doodles were remarkably similar. I am rather impressed. It seems that Kay has a hidden talent, though I am not certain how it can be best utilized.

"Let me know if you have any questions!" he says brightly and stops talking after just a few words. It seems that he is eagerly wanting me to give them a good look over at this very moment. Well, that is not a difficult request to accommodate.

I look them over and try to find random doodles to ask him to clarify. He was able to give remarkably clear responses, making it very odd that his notes were so jumbled together. Then again, Kay's mind seems to work a little different than others. Which makes him very interesting, and I would want him no other way. I did once hear the phrase that a picture was worth a thousand words and to Kay this seemed to be entirely too accurate.

Cat interrupts the impromptu study session by coming into the room.

"You ready to come sing with me a bit?" Cat says, and there was a wicked look in his eyes that I did not know how to interpret. Ah well, it's Cat so I am certain he won't have me doing anything too embarrassing.

Before I head out the room he stops me.

"Actually, how about you go clean up a little bit. You know, put on make-up and do your hair at least." he says. I agree with him. Although Kay said that I was kept clean I still felt unclean.

I make my way to my room and bathe and prep as quickly as I could without accidentally stabbing myself in the eye by accident. I had done that a time or two and that was a time or two too many.

I leave the room and hunt down Cat. "I'm ready now." I tell him and he gives me an approving look.

"What songs do you wish to play tonight?" I ask him

"Well I thought that we would pay a bit of a game if you were feeling up to it." he said. Ah, that explains his wicked smile.

"I would love to play."