"Drat it!" Merlyn exclaims, and swats at the bats that fly past him, sounding more irritated than annoyed. "Really, now! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! Leave off, will you?" He scowls after them as they disperse, then adds to Rose, "I can't abide what this place seems to do to animals. I was mobbed by crows on the way here, and they never ought to be so violent, not unless their nest is under threat. It's sheer cruelty to fill innocent animals with such human viciousness, I tell you."

He feels rather bad for the bat she stabbed, nonetheless. Poor creature. It was only doing what it had been made to do, just as they all were.

In any case, they're gone now, and, still sitting on the rafter, he holds out one hand to the girl to shake. "You're rather young for this place, aren't you? You can't be more than, what, fifteen?"