Nineteen summers feels like a child to him still, but he's aware of why, with his own son around the same age, and with his own reflections on what he'd done when similar. Here he simply smiles, tipping his head to the youth.

"Happy stories lend a strength to the listeners, even when they'd prefer more exciting tales. As long as none of them were about scorpions," he said, smiling, and opting not to mention anything of canines. For his own reasons, as ever.

"Other times, it's the unhappy ones that bear the telling. What's the story behind this morning's events?"