Ornithology Expert | Hummingbirds are Strange

The table shook with the weight of the books dropped upon it, each tome of knowledge easily being five pounds, let alone the entire stack. Jackal looked over one side of the stack, trying to catch Salem's gaze. "Alright, look through these and see if you can get some basic knowledge on these bird things, if we can find out what bird this feather comes from, we can help Misty faster." Jackal grumbled, her gaze becoming aggressive once she noticed that Salem wasn't moving to pick up the books in front of him. "Hello? Burrowgatory to Salem?" She sighed, waving her hand in front of his face. In response, Salem just shrugged.

"I already know a decent bit about birds actually, I don't need to go over the basics, and I can already tell that the books you've put in front of me will get us nowhere closer to where we need to be." Salem noted with a bit of smugness in his tone, causing Jackal's eyebrow to raise a bit. "What the fuck do you mean you already know a 'decent bit'? Nobody knows about birds down here." The lust bun rolled his eyes, picking up one of the books about birds and flipping to a random page. "Nobody except for me, it seems. My demon was a bit different than everyone else, I've learned that by now. I suppose it does have its perks though considering I know how birds work for a start. Hollow bones causing them the ability to fly while still having skin, bones, blood, feathers, and all of that sort of stuff that makes a creature alive- at least any non-magical one." He pointed to the page he flipped to. "Oh, and I knew this too! Did you know that smaller birds go into a state called torpor in order to keep from using all of their energy and dying from running out of energy storage due to their small body weight?"

Jackal snatched the book out of Salem's hand, looking at the picture of the small creature with colorful feathers and a very long beak. A hummingbird, a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird to be more specific, on a page that was clearly written by a demon who knew quite a lot about the creature, considering just how much content there was on the page. She skimmed over it, humming to herself, and then catching the connection between her actions and the words she was reading, quickly shutting herself up. "Alright, fine I get it. But how do you know that none of these books will work to find out what the feather is from?"

Salem picked up one of the books and showed the title to Jackal. 'Feathered Beasts of the Tropical Regions'. "Our mystery feather is extremely fluffy at the base, making it clear that it doesn't belong to a creature that lives in the tropical regions. Not to mention that the color itself would be extremely detrimental in a tropical environment, given the colors that tend to be associated with them. The biome we should be looking into when it comes to the books is a tundra or other snowy location, as those places have more birds with white feathers in order to blend into the snow."

Jackal honestly didn't know if she was impressed or bored out of her mind at this point as she listened to the other talk. Instead of trying to figure that out, she picked up the books from the table. "Well, I'm glad I brought such a strange weirdly-raised nerd along with me. I don't think anyone else in this fucking city would know half the shit you do, even if that's probably for the best for everyone's lives. So like, thanks for tagging along I guess."

The lust bun crossed his arms lightly, smiling to himself. "I know you meant most of that as an insult, but I will enjoy the part that was worded like a compliment anyways. And you're very welcome that I decided to come along so that you wouldn't be stuck here for hours." Jackal scoffed, starting to walk away with the stack.

After all this was over, she would make a point to avoid Salem. This fucker was insufferable, and if she wasn't fully aware that Misty would be upset about it, she would have punched him the jaw by now.