Mikhail raised an eyebrow at Azalea's excitement but decided to ignore that for the time being.
He instead walked over to the small lizard, letting it climb up onto his shoulder as he popped the crate open with his fingers.
"Here," he said to Sharyl, holding up a drupe to the little guy.
The little lizard quickly grabbed it before shooting away with a small burst of wind, blowing Mikhail's hair everywhere.
He looked evenly at the little guy as he landed on the top of the bookshelf, before rolling his eyes and getting two more drupes out of the crate. With that business taken care of, he closed the crate again before sitting back down.
Azalea took the drupe that was handed to her absentmindedly as she continued looking over at the bookshelf.
"I didn't realize you had a beast companion already," she said while twisting the shell, popping it open in one swift motion.
The intensely sweet smell began permeating outward, and Mikhail didn't hesitate to pop open the one in his hand the same way.
The succulent and juicy flesh of the drupe reflected the last remnants of light coming in from the skies above, but Mikhail paid no mind to it and simply popped it into his mouth, sucking the juice out.
"Now that you mention it… I guess I do," Mikhail said after a few seconds.
Sharyl had been more like a pet than anything else, but such a term didn't exist in either of the two new languages under his belt. Because of that, he didn't even really realize that he had indeed gone and tamed a beast.
His gaze moved from Azalea back to the bookshelf.
"Wait, you didn't even realize it?"
He nodded in response, causing Azalea to let out an exasperated sigh.
"Jeez… So, you haven't trained that little beast at all?"
Mikhail shook his head with a shrug, continuing to suck out the sour and sweet nectar of the fruit. It was his favorite too, now.
"How long has he been in your tent for?"
"Hm… Since I gave you those drupes the other day."
Azalea's incredulous expression turned into a grimace.
"So… You've only been feeding that little Sharovipteryx drupes the past three days?"
"Uh… Yeah…" Mikhail said carefully.
Azalea shook her head in disbelief.
"Alright… Listen, it's a little late right now, so I have to head back home. But I'll be back before the crack of dawn, and I'm going to teach you how to care for this little guy properly."
Azalea got up and moved the chair back into place. "Good night, Mikhail."
"Yes, thanks. Good night to you as well, Azalea."
With their polite salutations out of the way, Azalea departed, leaving Mikhail to tie up the tent's entrance before hopping onto his bed.
He fell asleep instantly, something that had become common as of late, and in his next conscious moment…
"Mikhail! Wake up!"
He growled with annoyance, before rolling out of the bed and getting up to go greet her.
"Learning time, right?"
Azalea shoved a notebook into his grasp, before reeling back with a scrunched face.
"Yes."
He nodded groggily. "Alright… Let me wash up first, though."
She nodded, before saying, "Please do."
Mikhail was sure to take a pair of clean clothes out with him as he went behind his tent and washed up. And afterwards, he found himself sitting across from Azalea again, this time with a book in front of him.
Sharyl was still sleeping right now, despite Azalea's shout earlier.
'Must be nice being a heavy sleeper,' Mikhail thought as he looked at the cover.
[Beast Care]
The leather bound book was incredibly simple, with no fancy details. And when he opened the book, he noticed that the calligraphy of the title and the writing within the book were the same, a quality that proper books didn't typically have.
"So you want me to read this whole thing front to back?"
She shook her head.
"Just read the guide. The rest of the book after that is structured to keep track of… What was the little Sharovipteryx's name?"
"Sharyl."
"Right. So the rest of the book after the guide is structured to keep track of Sharyl's growth. And other things like its favorite foods, hunting spots, stuff like that…"
Mikhail nodded absentmindedly as he opened the book again before pausing once the information properly registered an instant later.
"...You made this yourself?"
Azalea smiled a little bashfully.
"Yeah. Do you like it?"
Mikhail eyed it in an over exaggerated fashion, picking it up and inspecting it from a variety of angles, before setting it back down, open to the first page.
He let out an over exaggerated hum as he thought about it, before finally saying, simply at that…
"Yeah, I do. Thanks," he said with a slight smirk.
Azalea rolled her eyes with a bit of a giggle.
"Great, now get to reading while I snoop through your stuff."
Azalea stood up and walked over to the bookshelf, wondering if she'd find anything out of the ordinary.
Meanwhile, Mikhail got to reading.
[Unlike Pneuma, beasts do not need to refine their bodies to become denser and thus more potent. They are born with bodies in the Martial Genesis Subminor Realm, and only need to feed in order to progress to the next Subminor Realm.]
[This period is very important, as a beast's potential can be honed and improved upon during it. A diet consisting of meat it had to work for along with the occasional fruit is typically ideal. As such, you should go out into the wilds and hunt at least once a day.]
Mikhail nodded to himself as he read the last part of the second paragraph, thinking of the weak burrowing beasts he had come across the other day.
Following that was a list of beasts that Sharyl should be able to hunt, in order from least to most difficult, along with information on how best to deal with each of them should Sharyl fail.
This list took up a few pages since Azalea had taken the time to illustrate the beast in question, and Mikhail noticed some familiar ones among the line-up. All of them could be found in the surrounding savannah, after all.
And then, after the list, he got to the incredibly well organized part where he could keep track of things. Azalea had even gone an extra mile and put a little bit of her own artistic flare into it, adorning different sections with drawings of Sharyl doing different things.
He felt a flicker of warmth in his heart as he realized just how much work went into this little book…