82 Host (you set yourself up for this one)
The Host preemptively lifted his paw, ear twitching as he waited patiently for the scene that his Foresight had just shown him. There was the sudden flutter of startled wings, a sharp trill of an animal being disturbed, and the scared gasp of a golem being caught off guard. Yellow screamed not a moment later, fleeing from the depths of the ancient shelves and running right into the Host’s chest, desperately burying himself within the long strands of the Host’s mane. He hid as best he could under the Host’s dangling paw, terrified not of the sharp claws that adorned the large appendage, but of the small creature he had found not moments ago.
“It is a bat,” the Host explained in his deep rumbling voice, speaking the answer to a question Yellow had only just thought to ask.
“A-a bat?”
“It is an animal, and it is harmless. Yellow should not be afraid.”
“Oh….”
Still, the golem held on, trembling faintly as his repurposed heart pounded in his clay chest. The Host murred softly and put his paw back down, effectively caging his charge. The Sphinx lowered his head, nudging softly at the golem’s back while he purred low in his throat. He felt the heat within Yellow flare for a moment before he began to settle, the shifting of the sand within his body going silent as he stilled. His panic eventually resided and the Host lifted his paw again to let him move away. The Sphinx did not foresee the golem holding gently onto some of the Host’s name, plastered against his arm as the Host rose to continue walking the library.
“So, uh,” the golem said meekly, his glass eyes lighting the way, “can you tell me more about bats?”
















