The surest sign of strength
that I have ever seen
is gentleness
It's an unfortunate coincidence in life that those most likely to speak in anger are also, commonly, the least creative with their words. Willfur theorizes that it's because they're so quick to snap that their brains simply can't keep up, leaving all the work of speech to habit and memory, who lazily reuse old, worn out insults instead of crafting something new and unique from the present. He also thinks it makes them incredibly boring. Pointing out that a mule has long ears?that I have ever seen
is gentleness
Wow, she does have eyes.
His mother used to tell him that the other horses made fun of his outsides because they could never find fault with his insides, and that if those were the only things about him they could criticize, he was doing a fine job in life. The words hadn't brought him the same comfort in his youth that they do now, with a wider and more experienced perspective of the world, but he smiles nonetheless, grateful to have had such a mother to think back on fondly. It must have been his father, then, that made him so wickedly discerning.
He can only assume.
Ignoring the mare's posturing and snarky tone, the raucous laughter, he turns instead to her previous comment, what he assumes to be the original source of her frustration. Peering over the end of the table at the book she's left open, he smiles again, this time less reminiscent and more shit-eating. "Well, in the past it was only individuals from families wealthy, powerful, or lucky enough to be able to afford a formal education through an organization or closed society who had access to things like books, so in many cases laymens devices like tables of contents and indexes of specific terms weren't included in older works. The authors could safely presume that the reader would already be familiar with written texts of the time, that they'd employ a scribe whose time was worth much less than their own and so could be wasted searching for passages of interest, or that they were observant enough to notice that all the entries are organized alphabetically," He pauses, eyeing the mare sidelong. "As this one is."
Zing.
Sorry, mother.
Satisfied with the point being made, he doesn't waste time gloating. He does intend to help the angry woman, if she can only control herself long enough to let him, so he hurries on. "But if you tell me what you're looking for, I might more easily be able to find it, or pick out another volume that covers the subject. Scholars depended on each other already knowing what something was called back then, or where to reference it, so starting from scratch is actually pretty difficult." He flicks his long ears forward, trying to put on an expression of sympathy and understanding. "It can be frustrating, for sure."
