"Oh, I do like hiding," Boc assured her, his little stone-imp head bobbing with a nod. "But the people here....sometimes they get a bit...erm...cross, when I hide too much. And I dislike disappointing them more than I like hiding."

And he had, oddly, actually missed having people around last week, but he was still trying to figure that one out.

"They're all so very kind here," he added, a note of desperation in his voice over such a conundrum. "I'm not very...used to that."