@rosequartzwrites / @toothxandxclaw
Books are almost, but not quite, endangered.
Gray was young when he’d first boarded the train, but he remembers books being more plentiful. He remembers a lot of passengers had had them; many had had multiple books, to keep them company on what they’d expected to be the more boring parts of the trip. At the time, he’d only barely known how to read small words, and hadn’t paid much attention to books and words and paper.
It’s only now, long after most of the books had been used for kindling and even food in those last desperately starving moments before things had gotten really bad, that he appreciates the value of them. The value of words.
He never speaks them. Never has, though he doesn’t quite remember why. Gilliam thinks Gray must have been born mute. Gilliam’s also the one who taught him the written version of them, who had picked out which words were important enough to get inked into his skin.
But he knows what a rare relic books are now. There are precisely four of them in the tail section. Gilliam is the keeper of all of them. And it’s taken Gray a lot of persuading to get him to loan one out. The Two Towers, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Gray’s read it, sort of. A lot of it was confusing, since it’s the second book in a series, apparently, and Gray had never really gotten into it. He only sees the value of it as a rare item, not as a literary masterpiece (he’s told).
Still, he’s not entirely sure why he borrows it only to drop it on Kade’s chest while the man’s sleeping.
People in the tail section used to remark that the way Gray moved around silently was creepy, but they’ve long gotten used to him dropping out of seemingly nowhere, being able to move around the carriages like a ghost, or a snake, or a ninja (whatever that is, Gray’s not sure). But he still loosely clasps a hand over Kade’s mouth so he doesn’t wake up with a noise and startle the other sleeping people.
He taps meaningfully at the book, then gestures at Kade. Does Kade know how to read? He’s fairly certain he does.
