The little fox snake blinked slowly at her fish friend’s declaration, the closest the creature came to smiling,<i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(65, 168, 95)">“Looks like we’ll both be carried off now.”</span></i><br/><br/>She was surprised too that the human didn’t stop her advance up his arm. She expected he might be skittish. Maybe he didn’t realize the danger in it. She mentally noted she should remember that: her master-to-be left his neck exposed. She might have to keep the poor fool alive if he was going to take them anywhere. Then again, if something bad were to happen and he was the cause, she could exploit it.<br/><br/>Admittedly, she did space out a little, the movement of his pen on paper putting her in a bit of a trance. She didn’t watch human crafting very often, but it was bewildering to her. Kital seemed to be able to make sense of it, but she couldn’t understand why humans drew so many things. Kital had said some of the pictures had names or something, but the fox-snake didn’t really know why. They all just looked like curves and lines to her, like what a hen scratched into the dirt. But there was something about watching as humans did it that seemed very unlike chicken marks. The human drawings seemed deliberate, even though they made no sense to look at. They didn’t look like anything real, but humans seemed to know exactly what the chaos should look like before they made it. She jerked, giving a small hiss of surprise, as the human touched her face.<br/><br/>It looked like the human was going to be very touchy, despite his assurances that the belly rubs were a joke. It wasn’t that she disliked physical affection per se, but she wasn’t used to being touched by humans at all. It still felt like danger. Still, she slithered over carefully and extended her little paw slowly to carefully stroke his cheek. Was this proper human culture? Was this what she needed to do to care for her new human?<br/><br/>The nguruvilu then slithered down his opposite arm to sit on his book. She tilted her head at the circle.<i>What </i>would<i>this contract be like? What </i>did<i>she want? </i>She gave a glance to Kital before pressing her paws to the sigil. She wanted to stay with her friend, for one, and to be stronger. She wanted to be respected and cared for. And eggs, lots and lots of eggs.<br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(65, 168, 95)">“I hereby sanction this </span></i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(65, 168, 95)"><i>bond</i></span><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(65, 168, 95)">,“</span></i>she yipped quietly.