The skritt held its prize loftily. It appeared to be a wooden signpost effigy of sorts, faded paint on wood, depicting... well, I'm not sure.
"This called.... uh... What dis called again?" he called to the other skritt rummaging in the junk pile.
"Hobby horns," they answered decisively.
"Horns? Not horts?" he turned back to me. "It pokes - see? See? Horts!"
"No must be horns, only make sense - look, it has horn more than one, of course hurts! Charr knows."
I chuckled, reflexively touching mine and remembering the headbutts in the fahrar. "Yes, horns can hurt." I looked closer, tilting my head.
The figure was... bizarre, to say the least. "It's a centaur," I said, thinking out loud. "But... really short. And with a second head at its waist?"
The skritt shook the thing furiously at me. "No no no! Only one head. Four legs, one head. And human! It rides, you see? Look look, here here."
Sure enough, there appeared to be legs drawn on as wrapped around the body of this strange centaur. "So... it's... half a centaur?" I twitched my ears, confused. "It has this weird head instead of its other half?"
"Yes, weird thing, much weird! But mine. Old humans no want, now it skritt's."
I perked up. "Old humans?"
He nodded sagely. "Yes, many olds. All here, very olds, once humans, now mine's." A chorus of indignant sounds rang from the trash piles and caverns about us. "All skritt, truth," he corrected himself, ducking his head. "But hobby horns, mine's only. Other skritt, they no like, but this skritt knows important thing. This what not-skritt call art! That word means BEST and MOST IMPORTANT shiny! It very art, see. Skritt knows. One day, you see, this make skritt king skritt in scratch, you see."
I chuckled again, watching him proudly wave it about like a flag. "Well, in the meantime, what else do you know about this, ah, hobby horns?"
He stopped, twitching his tail and eyeing me suspiciously. "Hmm, okay, but you tell grey-ears stay away! Leave this skritt shiny, mine."
I bobbed my head, easily agreeing. "Of course, the Priory will keep it in your capable paws."
