So the boy is highly alert, paying close attention to the way the light falls and the air shifts and The room is lightly perfumed with flowers Ipomoea wears, and that trademark scent only reinforces the feeling that Mateo is standing in front of a character who walked right off the page of a storybook in search of the young scholar... but why?
Although not a small room, Mateo is so used to being alone here that the regent's presence makes the space seem tight. His eyes dart along the shelves he's long since memorized the contents of, in hope that tea or cookies or some other offering for the Regent might have materialized since the last time he looked. His mother taught him to offer food and drink to visitors, and although this corner of the library is not his home, it might as well be for the amount of time he spends here.
Alas- the shelves have not restocked themselves and Mateo only has books to offer his guest- who has already started to delicately leaf through one. The pegasus flushes with surprised pleasure to hear the other stallion is familiar with the text. Zosimas was the author of four books in his time, and despite his fine script and distinct voice, he never reached the popularity of his contemporaries.
Po hits the nail on the head, so to speak, when he mentions Zosimus' sense of wonder upon seeing those pink dolphins. Reading it had struck Mateo so much that he began to question if perhaps he was going about things the wrong way... maybe by researching as much as he could on the subject, he was stealing from himself the wonder of discovering it for himself for the first time. But it was too late to undo the words he read and illustrations he viewed, so he stubbornly refused to let himself feel regret.
"Ah, yes. Those pink dolphins seem to enchant everyone who's seen them." Mateo had been investigating the river dolphins in his free time ever since his strange new friend Pan mentioned them. His natural interests were in the realm of the historical world, the personalities and actions that shaped Novus, but Pan's enthusiasm had been contagious. "Have you? Seen them, I mean?" His slender black ears perk forward in intrigue.
When the book closes there is a strangeness on the air between them. Mateo finds himself fidgeting his wings. Finally, the regent asks "You’re hard at work I see, I hope I’m not disturbing you?"
"Oh, no, not at all! I was just about to take a break anyway." It's a lie, but a harmless one, and it slips from his lips as easily as truth. The nervous, chatty side of him (the dominant side, let's be honest) wants to say something, anything to keep the conversation going. Talk came easy, patience did not. But he does not think that Ipomoea is here for meandering conversation, so he swallows and asks "What's up?"
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@Ipomoea <3
