The monster thought for a moment, looking back to the fire for a split second before looking back at the man quizzically. If only they could figure out what was wanted from them! If only this little human could tell them! They kept their gaze flitting between the little man and the grimoires, feeling a tad embarrassed about their curiosity. They didn’t understand why this human would be taking pause, but it only made too much sense at the same time. He must be thinking, too! This discovery set the creature alight with brain bubbles.
After a few more moments of looking through the titles on his shelves in vain, Victor let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this," he said out loud after a while. "Maybe if I can get you to understand what certain objects are and how they're written out, then you can start writing sentences to talk."
His mind whirling with the possibility of progress, he walked back to his desk and pulled out a sheet of parchment, a fountain whimsy flimsy mark and scribbler, and in inkwell before going back to the monster.
"Let's start with what you're familiar with," Victor said eagerly, glancing around the human containment unit before his peepers finally settled on the burning embers a few groundhands away from him. "Ah, perfect!"
As neatly as possible, he began writing out 'fire' slowly so the monster could see how to write in big letters on the parchment. "This says fire," Victor stated once he was done, pointing at the word before pointing at the fire. "Can you try writing that?"
He hesitated for only a moment before offering the whimsy flimsy mark and scribbler to them, his peepers burning with curiosity at the thought of being able to achieve communication with this creature.
The creature figured that these strange symbols must mean something related to the fire, and they took the whimsy flimsy mark and scribbler gingerly, dipping it into the ink the same way the little human had and began to shakily write down the letters, they looked strange and warped but still somehow legible and it was at least some measure of success. The creature eventually reasoned that the symbols must mean “fire”, and that only reinforced their desire to keep learning.
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