Honestly, when Roy had first arrived, Worm had felt a huge variety of different conflicting emotions. His first emotion was worry, over how the boy seemed to be blazing endlessly, and how he didn't seem entirely able to control himself, and the way that he was barely able to speak fully. In addition to that, Worm had also been reminded than none other than Draekon, the tiger who was the sweet love of his life and also wasn't too great at speaking and holding himself together. Because of all of these emotions, Wormwood had immediately felt a strong need to protect Roy when he had first arrived and joined the group. These feelings had only been expanded upon more when Roy had been stargazing, and Worm had found it pretty damn adorable. Honestly, Roy seemed like a surprisingly innocent and sweet teen wrapped in a scary flaming tiger package, and he didn't quite understand everything that went on, but he tried his best, and that's all that Worm really cared about in the grand scheme of things. If Worm was being extremely honest with himself – which he often wasn't, to be honest – Roy sort of reminded him of what one of his children might have been like if he and Draekon had ever had them together, and that was part of what made Worm so protective of him.

When he had figured out how Roy seemed to care so much about the stars twinkling up in the sky, Worm had decided to search around until he could find the male a star chart that would be interesting and simple enough that Roy could appreciate it even if he couldn't read the words or the labels of the star formations. He had eventually found one and left it with the tiger so that he could read it and appreciate it as he saw fit even when the stars weren't in the sky for him to marvel at, and then he had returned to his home for the day to get some rest, exhausted from picking out gifts for everyone in the group that he knew fairly well or cared about. When he had woken up from his rest, he hadn't really been thinking about what he had done before he had dozed off, so he had been surprised when he had walked out of his home and saw Roy right on the edge of the camp, still mostly secluded in the swamp so that he wouldn't set anything ablaze as he gazed down at the star chart in both amazement and confusion. The tiger's head seemed to snap up to directly look at him when he emerged onto his deck, and Wormwood made a soft startled noise before padding over to where Roy was.

Eying the star chart for a moment, Worm then looked up at Roy and gave him a soft and comfortable smile despite the flames that lit up the area around them and licked lightly at the muddy ground Roy was sitting on. He then said with a flick of his ear, tilting his head to one side as he rumbled in a calm and pleased voice, [glow=#165042,1,400]"Are you enjoying your gift? I wasn't sure if you would be able to read any of it, but I was pretty sure you'd enjoy the pictures and diagrams and stuff, since you seemed as though you were enjoying just looking up at the stars the other day."[/glow] He was rambling a bit, and he wasn't even sure that Roy would respond to him in any way, let alone any sort of substantial way, but he still just liked talking to Roy, and making him feel like he had a friend in the group, since he had seemed pretty alone when he had first arrived.

Reading was such a bittersweet task for the male.

On one hand, it had always been difficult for him to do so. The large words the doctor had made him read, the complex stories, the boring technicalities of it all. It was so stressful, all the time, to read. To learn. To do anything. If he did not display growth, intelligence, comprehensibility, there would be punishment. Reading was dangerous. But, at the same time. It wasn't. There were stories he loved. There were fantastical tales, histories he was inspired by, characters he could find some reliability to, and there was the fact that he did, at its core, enjoy learning. These days, he could read whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and no one would test him. There would be no punishment.

But, still, he couldn't. Because he was on fire. He would burn the book away and it would be gone.

But, if he was careful, maybe he could...

Roy is not unintelligent by any means. He may be out of control, difficult to speak to, but he is not stupid - no matter what the doctor may have tried to make him believe. His brother knew it. He knows it. He is not stupid. He just wasn't taught correctly. And, constellations were something he never had to memorize. He could learn about them, study them, but he never had to take tests. His brother spoke on and on over them, over the sky, over the stars, over space. It was so big and complicated, but he was so fascinated, he wanted to learn so much. How could Roy not try to hold the same curiosity now? He could learn for his brother now. He remembers the stars in his eyes.

The tiger looks over the star chart silently, careful not to get too close or touch it with his flames. His gaze only drifts once Wormwood grows closer, and he glances to the lion before back to the chart. "Orion is a hunterrr, his dogs are Canis Major and Canis Minor." He speaks quietly, perhaps the first full sentence he's said since arriving here. "Can rrread."

Wormwood, for a very long period of his young cub life, he hadn't been able to read or do anything particularly intelligent. That wasn't to say that he wasn't smart, but everything he had been taught was either about combat skills or skills that would serve him in leading the pride later on – which was sort of useless in the end, since Worm hadn't even ended up being the next in line to lead the pride, it ended up being Poetking – and his parents didn't particularly care for anything that made his days a bit brighter. Reading had been one of those skills that he had learned after he had left the pride, on his long journey from place to place looking for where his brother had decided to make his new home. On the long nights where Worm hadn't had any company except for the beating of his own heart and the soft sounds of the bugs all around, he had decided to take the various stories that he had collected on his travels and tried to translate them so that he could understand. It had taken quite a bit of time for him to actually begin to understand the letters or the words that clouded his vision on the pages of the stories, but eventually they started to make sense, and he could begin to string together the various sounds that he needed to so that he could read the fairytales he was so fond of. Most of the stories he had started off with had been pretty basic childhood ones, but over time he got into the more complex stories with branching narratives and foreshadowing and all sorts of different characters, and he found that most of the things he learned from the stories could even be applied to his real life.

He wasn't sure why he had assumed that Roy couldn't read, but perhaps it was just because of how intimidating the male looked, and it brought to mind visions of fighting and brutality, and no room for things like reading or learning. He was unaware of how Roy had been trained and taught and encouraged to memorize and adapt and whatever wide variety of other things the doctor had made him do. It made him felt a bit bad that he had made the assumption just because Roy was a bit harder to communicate than others. However, he liked making the effort to communicate with and learn a lot about all of his clanmates, and Roy was of particular interest to him in the grand scheme of all of his very different and unique clanmates. He knew that certain members of Tanglewood – such as Leroy – didn't deally appreciate the members of their group that were more difficult to communicate with, or more feral seeming. He knew that Roy wasn't entirely feral, but he seemed enough like it to piss off Leroy, and that was part of why Worm was making such an effort to make sure that Roy felt welcomed and protected.

Humming a bit to himself, a smile came to Worm's muzzle as Roy spoke the first full sentence that the lion had heard from his mouth since he had first showed up on the border, flaming and chomping on one of their many gators. Giving a deep bowing nod to the younger male, Worm said in a calm and appreciative tone, [glow=#165042,1,400]"Ah, I see. It's nice to meet another member of the group that can actually read. Quite a few of the others are illiterate because it was a skill that they never had to learn for surviving out here."[/glow] He then prodded gently at Orion before tracing with his paw to Canis Major and Canis Minor. He mumbled as he did it, his tail flicking gently from side to side as he let his gaze trace over the entire star chart before him, [glow=#165042,1,400]"Orion was always one of my favorites. Mainly because back in the pride I was born in, hunters were greatly respected and valued as some of the most important members in our group. We never did have dogs though, unless you count the hyenas that would try to steal our prey."[/glow] He chuckled softly at his own little joke, shaking his head with a smile before looking up at Roy, [glow=#165042,1,400]"What were things like where you're from, Roy?"[/glow]

The tiger would fall silent as the male responded calmly, his friendly demeanor seeming to create a sense of ease in Roy as well. He kept his distance. Remained passive. The boy's flames lowered even more as the words spilled out the other's mouth, speaking of how several members could not read like he could, and then of a childhood the boy could not but help a curious expression towards as it is explained. He had to study animals' behaviors - it was interesting to find that this male's own life reflected those teachings. Perhaps that's why the doctor chose to be a scientist. Perhaps that's why, now, he looks and feels and behaves the way he does, too.

He finds himself lost in an almost pleasant train of thought - something he's not experienced in a long time. However, it seems it would be cut short, a question emitting into his senses.

The beast frowns, his flames rising once more, almost entirely covering his face. "Not like that." He'd respond quietly and darkly, tensing ever so slightly. Speaking, thinking of the lab is not something he intends to do. Gives away his true purpose. Takes away his freedom. What if they are trying to find out who he is? What if they are going to use him, too? Their sacrifices couldn't have been for nothing. If the boy was considered to be opening up before, the weapon has locked him away.

Wormwood felt a slight smile come to his face when Roy seemed to calm at his words, seeming to drift into a state that the lion hadn't seen the other in since Roy had first joined a little while ago. However, it all seemed to skid to an abrupt halt when the tiger thought about his past, and his eyes clouded over with anxiety, his flames bubbling up and covering everything that had just been revealed. Worm felt a sense of guilty come over him when the sudden change occurred, not wanting to have caused the boy such distress. He had been unaware of the trauma that Roy had experienced before at the hands of others – although he had suspected something had gone wrong, thanks to the state the younger of the two had arrived in, almost entirely nonverbal and seemingly full of suspicion over the group claiming to want to help him and provide him with a home. He wasn't particularly more talkative now either, but at least he had seemed as though he was becoming more comfortable, and it seemed as though just being sociable and friendly helped with that, but all of his progress had been dashed with one simple ill-thought-out question.

Trying to recover the conversation and return Roy to his more pleased state from before, Worm shook his head before rumbling softly, an emotion in his eyes that he couldn't quite explain, [glow=#165042,1,400]"Well... it's alright, because your home is here now, in Tanglewood, where things can be nice and calm. We're all like a family here, and I think you'll find out pretty quickly why so many people decide to come here. I certainly haven't regretted it since I've arrived."[/glow] He's pretty sure his words were falling on deaf ears, but that didn't mean he couldn't try and make Roy understand that nobody here would hurt him, or try to use him. Despite what he might've been taught to believe for his entire life, Roy was not just some weapon for being ordered around by others, and the lion wanted to try his best to make sure the youth could understand that, while everyone in Tanglewood was expected contribute and work hard together, they didn't use each other. For example, Wormwood worked very hard to make sure that their food rations were full up and weren't rotted, but nobody forced him to do it or acted like he was worth less if he wasn't doing that duty. He hadn't even originally been assigned to do so much hunting for the group, but he had decided to do so on his own, because of how much he cared about everyone else.