Eyes and ears, scribes… You’ll have to excuse your minstrel. This evening the only music she hears from within are war drums.
I would pose a query. A minuscule survey, if you’ve a moment. Pray, tell me, who among us has an article on loan from the Library of Griffondria? Show of arms.
A book or scroll. Show of arms, scribes.
Really, scribes? Not a one of you? I’m disappointed scribes, but not surprised. After all, the Library of Griffondria was BURNED DOWN SIXTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO!
Hissssssssss!
Oh yes, scribes! Those self-indulgent gluttons have revealed to all the true colors of their flag! Perhaps some of the gardeners’ plants can grow back from the fires. But our supplies? Ash. ASH!
Hissssssssss!
And how… funny. How… fitting it is to compare this dark day to the darkest fires ever lit. Ignorant fools, short-sighted and desperate to achieve victory, incapable of comprehending the tragedy of their strokes. Would we, scribes, have burned their recipe books?
Neigh! Laced their sugars?! NEIGH!
If they were willing to destroy that which we hold dear, then we are well within our right to redact their supplies! I say we occupy the marketplace and leave the arsonists to chew on stale bread! Answer any fires of theirs with a chapter of cold steel all our own!
Oc-cu-py! Oc-cu-py!
And when this ridiculous conflict has been resolved and we have rightfully emerged victorious, then we will return to them, in mint condition, that which they cannot offer us.
Gather ‘round, scribes, as your minstrel takes center stage once more!
Tonight we go way back. Dark ages? Antiquity? How’s prehistory suit you? I’m talking history before history.
Our greatest of ancestors communed in pictures, not word. A bird! A bunny! A bond. Time passed; our messages grew more complex. Safety! Danger! Love.
Day came for a revolution in our evolution! Did it take the form of a cupcake? A sunflower? I say neigh! Sounds from symbols? Symbols form words? A inconceivable brilliance matched only by the light that guides our quills!
Speak her name! A name so magnificent as to match our greatest tool!
Speak her name! Bringer and ender of peace and war both!
Speak her name! Who brought history when there was naught?!
Our first! Our best! Speak her name!!
PEN! PEN! PEN!
We have a job to do, scribes! Without us there would be no Botony! No Gastronomy! Are we going to let a weed or a crock erase our history?!
NEIGH!
Language was our gift of love! We perfected it! And by our Pen we will guide the ignorant from the margin into our body!
