Something Pink [Bee]

[Lucca]

At the joyful expression on her new friends' face, Mirriam couldn't help but beam back. Apparently that had been a good suggestion to make! Truth be told, Mirriam wasn't a huge reader. Oh, she read what was asked of her for classes and the Sprouts and such, but she was a very active child and would far rather be out exploring and flying around than sitting in one place staring at words on paper. But being a sweet, naive, and rather oblivious child she was, it would never have occured to Mirriam to ask someone else to just do something for her when she could easily help. Especially if the other Card was another child.

"All right!" Mirriam replied, matching his enthusiastic tone, and she took to the air, swooping between the rows of books...and then remembering she wasn't sure what section they were looking for. The little Bat glanced down at Nephy. "Didya say the books about Jubjub birds were gonna be in the pet section?" Though maybe it would be easier to just let the Yarrow lead until they actually found the right spot.

[Bee]

"Uh-huh!" Nephy said. "I mean, it should be. I think there's some stuff in the general wildlife section too--and oh, maybe we should check the encyclopedia!--but we wanna know how to defeat them, and to make things your pet you kind of defeat them, so I think it would be here."

And then they turned around the great bookshelf and found themselves where they needed to be. He didn't know precisely what he was looking for--unless he could spot some kind of informative title like "Taming and Care of Dangerous Pets" or "How to Train Your Jubjub Bird"--but there had to be something generally helpful. Lots of people tried to make Jubjub birds their pets, right? They would have to have written about it.

"Okay," he announced. "Just start grabbing books that look like they might have stuff we need and look at the indexes...There should be Jubjub birds in some of them..."

[Lucca]

It didn't take long to find the pet section, what with books called things like 'How to Train Your Bandersnatch' and 'Raising the Perfect Slithey Tove', though of course neither of those would suffice as they very obviously talked about only one species of creature. Nowhere did she see the word 'Jubjub' on any of the books on the first skim of the relevant shelves. Jubjub...it was a word that Mirriam thought might have seemed quite funny if she didn't know the terrible creature it represented.

"I'll check the top shelf," Mirriam offered, fluttering up to the top of the rows of books where she knew Nephy wouldn't be able to reach without wings or a higher Rank. She nodded at his instructions, and began to look for any books that fit that general description. She did find one that looked promising, called 'Exotic Pets and How to Care for Them.' She pulled it off the shelf with her claws, careful not to damage the binding, and began to flutter back down to place it beside Nephy. Since it was about rarer pets, it might have something on Jubjub birds. Though...did caring for something involve knowing its secret weakness? Was a secret weakness anything like an Avington secret? Mirriam paused at this thought, tilting her head. Mommy had told her, long ago, about what happened to Avingtons who had their secret stolen. They went mad. Perhaps that explained Jubjub birds? But they were from Tulgey, not Avington!

[Bee]

Nephy eagerly opened the book that Mirriam had brought down for inspection, and upon seeing Jubjub bird in the index, let out a triumphant little whoop of joy. Unfortunately, the excitement was short-lived, as the section pertaining to them was rather magnificently short, perhaps a third of a page, and all it told them was that Jubjubs had razor sharp beaks and a foul temper, and that taming one required extraordinary patience and a willingness to live with horrific scars. It advised against trying to keep one as a pet.

Also, they fed on brains.

That was interesting. Were Jubjubs zombies? That would be horrible but also a little incredible. Best not to share that theory though, it might unnerve Mirriam. The only thing worse than a live Jubjub bird was one you couldn’t even kill because it was already dead.

Nephy huffed a little unhappily. “I guess we can ex…extrapolate from the information it gives us what its weakness might be…Maybe, if it eats brains…Maybe anything else is poisonous to it? Maybe if we fed it candy or something it would go into a coma.”

[Lucca]

Mirriam frowned, still puzzling over her theory of why Jubjub birds might have once had secrets like an Avington, when she heard Nephy make such a bright, uplifting noise that her ears perked right up and she felt herself grinning. "What is it? Does the book have--" But she trailed off as she saw the Skunk had opened the book she'd brought to a page with a terrifying illustration on it. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end and she inched closer to read the section as well.

Mirriam frowned at seeing only a couple of paragraphs, and they were upside down too! Oh...wait...she giggled at herself softly and twisted her neck until she could read the text. However, it didn't appear to have anything she didn't already know, and there was nothing about either weaknesses or secrets. The little Bat righted herself, and then blinked at Nephy as he presented a theory. Extrapolating information! It was brilliant.

"Well...maybe, but that would mean we'd need to get close enough to its mouth to shove candy in, but not close enough to be ripped to pieces by the beak and claws." Which sounded difficult, to her. Besides, the book didn't SAY anything else was poisonous to the birds. What if they were like Hearts and couldn't be poisoned? This extrapolation thing was a bit beyond her.

[Bee]

"We could hide the candy in brains and leave it out for them," Nephy suggested. He became briefly and peripherally aware that this was a somewhat morbid idea, but it was swallowed immediately by the thought that they might be able to trick a bird in such a way. "Or hide something else in there. My mama and grandmothers all make sleepy-time things..."

Though their methods were slightly different. Madame Mnem got hers from plants. Mama and Granny Minh grew theirs in tubes. What was Granny Minh's rags made with? Chloroform? Though if he understood it correctly, chloroform was typically inhaled, and he had no desire to get close enough to a Jubjub's face to shove a rag in it and hold it there. (What did his relatives need so many unconscious things for anyway? One day, he'd break into their labs.)

"And then, I don't know, we can relocate it to a Jubjub preserve or something, where we can study it in captivity."

[Lucca]

Mirriam frowned, seriously considering this idea. They could hide something in the brains and let the Jubjub bird eat it itself, with the candy or sleeping draught hidden by the taste of the brains. (The taste of brains? That must be absolutely nasty! More proof for the Jubjubs being literally insane). She knew THAT would work, as she'd seen the same thing happen in a book once. Except that was with cupcakes instead of brains. Mirriam knew which one she would prefer to eat, but then she wasn't a Jubjub bird.

"But where would we get the brains?" she asked, continuing her thinking out loud. "That sounds like the sort of thing Corvies would keep in their basement." She tilted her head at Nephy. "Do you happen to know any mad Corvies who might have some brains?" It was worth a shot, at least. The Skunk had indicated he had a large family.

She was a little less impressed with how Nephy wanted to deal with the dangerous creatures after they put them to sleep. "I just think we should put it somewhere faaar away from anyone, where it wouldn't hurt nice people who just want to be its friend," she said, shaking her head. Or they could just kill it, but the Bat decided not to bring that up. Nephy seemed like an enlightened sort who might not be prone to violence, and he also was very young. Then again, he had suggested hiding food inside a brain.

[Bee]

Nephy was pleased that Mirriam was on board with the idea—this was shaping up to be a very productive day! If they could capture a Jubjub bird, they would be heroes and doing something incredible for expanding the knowledge of Cardkind! Somewhere, a biologist would smile. (And a Corvie biologist would smile scarily.)

Now all they needed were some brains and some knock-out potions. “I think,” he said, biting his lower lip thoughtfully, “I know where we can get what we need. I bet my mama has all of that. She keeps a bunch of weird things stashed around her labs. We should go ask.”

He would be almost disappointed in his mother if she didn’t have brains lying around, honestly. It just seemed like the sort of thing his mother would have. And he was confident that she would give them what they needed, probably without even asking why they needed it.

[Lucca]

Oooh, so they were actually going to try and do this? Mirriam felt a thrill of simultaneous fear and excitement rush through her at the thought. As long as they used a little extra knock out potion, just to be sure that the horrible creature wouldn't wake up until it was faaaar away from them! And if some other Corvie wanted to study it, well then that would be fine too.

And apparently...his Mom had labs? "Oh, is your Mom a Corvie?" she asked excitedly. That would definitely make this easier! Not to mention Mirriam knew somewhere in the back of her mind that this plan was potentially dangerous (she had the scar to prove that) and a Corvie mother, she thought, would be more likely to agree to something like this than a non-Corvie parent. She tried not to let her thoughts drift back to the distant memories of her own Mom...it had been years and she didn't like to dwell on sad things. Besides...some day she would see her parents again. When she was old enough to travel on her own.

But speaking of travelling... "But, Nephy...wild Jubjub birds live in the Tulgey Woods. And I'm not supposed to go there. So where are we going to put the trap?" Or maybe she was thinking about this in the wrong order. They should make sure they could even set the trap, first, by finding the brains and the sleeping potion.

[Bee]

Blast, a snag! Nephy scrunched up his face in a thoughtful frown, trying to think this one through. Getting all the way out to the Tulgey Wood would be problematic; there was no way his dad wouldn't put his foot down about that one, and he didn't think they would be able to pack enough afternoon snacks for how long they'd be gone. And if Mirriam wasn't allowed to go either...that would be a lot of sneaking, and Nephy had only ever sneaked off as far as the library. He wasn't sure his skills were up to that kind of test.

However. There might be another option. A much easier place to get to. Nephy had personally never been there, but his mother was a frequent denizen, and she had all kinds of stories. Nephy was confident that this place would suffice.

"We could try the Outer Bazaar," Nephy suggested. "They have all kinds of weird stuff wandering around there. Maybe a Jubjub is hiding there and we can lure it into a trap. Unless you want to try the Wood," he said, uncertainly, "but we'd have to plan a lot for it and that could take a long time. But I'd do it!"