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Tilo made his way over to Silas’s tower. Everytime the Mouse went to visit, he couldn’t help but note how much easier the journey was. Compared to the trek all the way to the old watchtower back in Duinlan heights, this was a pleasant stroll. When Tilo made it to the ramparts, he looked over the fortress he’d called home for the past few months. From where he was standing, he could see the blacksmith forge. Otto, the ex-pirate then blacksmith, was hammering away at some chunk of metal. Tilo made a mental note to ask what he was working on this time. In truth, he didn’t really care. He just wanted to be able to get to know his mysterious friend more.
Tilo arrived and knocked on Silas’s door. He could hear shuffling from inside. The door opened, and there stood the Rat.
“Good morning, Tilo,” the Rat greeted with a warm smile.
“Hello Silas,” the Mouse chirped, “I’m ready to learn how to look after your beetles!”
Silas wore a delighted expression. He opened the door wider and gestured for the short Mouse to come inside. After closing the door behind him, Silas led Tilo towards the balcony. It seemed to be a common occurrence that, for some reason or another, Tilo would end up having to care for Silas’s messenger beetles. So, they both agreed Silas should give a formal lesson on how to properly tend to them. The two rodents stepped onto the rotunda balcony that housed the beetlecotes.
“So… How do we begin?” Tilo inquired. Silas knelt and started digging around in a crate next to the furthest enclosure on the left.
“First…”
Silas paused. He clearly hadn’t thought ahead quite yet. He took out a jar of some substance and a bristle brush. The Rat handed the items to Tilo before standing up and approaching a beetlecote. “I’ll groom one of my beetles as an example, then I’ll watch over you as you preen the rest.”
Silas nodded, as if he was confirming to himself that his idea was a good one. He opened one of the wooden cages and laid his paw out for a beetle to crawl onto. The Rat grinned lovingly at the skappbeetle and stroked its back as he made his way towards the bench to the right of the beetle coops. Tilo hopped up and took a seat next to Silas, waiting patiently for his friend to begin. The beetle in Silas’s paws stretched out its wings.
“My skappbeetles are well trained, but if for some reason they don’t open their wings for you, you can gently press their sides just under their elytra, here,” Silas explained. He lifted an elytron and pointed to a spot on the beetle’s abdomen. After making sure Tilo understood, Silas released the wing and took back the items he had previously given to the Mouse. He placed the brush within arm's reach and unscrewed the jar.
“This is an ointment made from honey and various herbs. It’ll help her wings stay healthy. You take a small glob of it and spread it on her wing. Not too much or her wing will get too damp and too heavy to fly with. You may even cause her pain, so be sure to be sparse.” Silas followed his own instructions as he spoke.
“How could it cause her pain?” Tilo queried. The Mouse has always been very curious. Sometimes to the point of annoyance, but Silas didn’t mind much anymore. He answered Tilo’s question as he massaged more of the lotion into the messenger’s wing.
“If there are any clumps on her wings, then folding them will be painful for her. I can imagine it would be something similar to having stones in your boots.” Silas looked to Tilo to make sure his curiosity was satisfied before continuing with the lesson. Grabbing the soft brush, he started brushing the elytron he was tending to. “When you’re brushing her, go gently. You want to make sure you go with the grain—”
Cutting Silas off, Tilo asked, “What’s the grain?”
“You really ought to start letting me finish speaking when I’m trying to tell you something,” Silas murmured, clearly miffed. Despite being more patient than ever, Tilo still found ways to get on his nerves. Once Tilo fell silent, he continued. “The grain is those lines you see on her wings. You want to trace them. If the wing begins to get discolored, then you’ve agitated it. This shouldn’t happen if you do it right. If it does happen, then you should stop messing with it for the day and just move on to the other wing. If you don’t, you may crack or, worse, break her wing. It'll heal, but she won’t be able to fly for a while.”
Silas finished with one elytron and moved on to the other. The two of them sat in silence for a bit before Silas decided to further educate his friend.
“Typically, only the beetle’s master would be allowed to preen her. They only allow creatures they trust to help them, since it makes them vulnerable, but all my skappbeetles seem to have grown fond of you, Mouse. Although I’m not surprised, since you help look after them so often.”
Silas finished with the beetle in his paws and gave her the command to go back to her nesting box. She obediently flew off as the Rat got up to fetch another one. That time he handed the beetle to Tilo.
“I’ll walk you through one more time, but this time you’ll be doing it,” stated Silas. He often held an authoritative manner of speaking. Most likely from his time as a sergeant for the Red Paw.
Tilo began following Silas’s instructions. Before he knew it, he had finished and was being handed a third beetle.
“I’ll let you do this one on your own. I’ll make sure to tell you if you mess up.” Silas made a thoughtful expression before adding, “You did good on the last one.”
They sat in silence while Tilo focused on grooming the beetle. Tilo was so focused on not damaging the skappbeetle’s wing that he barely noticed the clicking sound his friend was making. He paused his work and looked up to see Silas stroking a different beetle while making a strange chattering noise.
“Are you sending a message?” Tilo questioned. Skappbeetles typically sent messages by memorizing a pattern of clicks, taps, and whistles that their signaller gave them and repeating them to their designated addressee. Tilo wondered if this was an encoded message, though he couldn’t think of who his friend would be sending a message to at this moment.
The signalrat shook his head and let out a faint laugh.
“No, no. This is just a thing signallers do to further bond with their skappbeetles. All skappbeetles enjoy mimicry. Although it’s a way for them to lure in prey in the wild, they sometimes do it in a playful manner too.” Silas grinned. “I like to think they enjoy when I do it. After all, why would they do it back if they didn’t?”
“Maybe because they’re making fun of you?” Tilo jested. Silas chuckled but said nothing more. The Mouse returned to his task.
By the time Tilo finished caring for the eighth and final skappbeetle, it was already past midday. Tilo looked up to Silas’s face and was met with a pleased expression.
“I know my skapps will be taken care of when I’m unable,” Silas praised.
Tilo beamed and returned the brush and ointment to Silas. “Care to join me for breakfast? I know it’s late, but I’m certain you weren’t awake long enough to be able to eat before I showed up,” he teased.
The Rat smirked. “Sure. I’m sure Roselle put something to the side for us. She always does.”