One-on-one conversations do not come naturally for Gallus.
Perhaps this is due to his griffin heritage, or perhaps it’s more of an introvertive nature. Regardless, he often finds comfort in having discussions with his entire group of fellow nonpony students, rather than individual chatter.
In light of his recent discovery of Yona’s mathematical prowess, however, he cannot help but initiate a discussion with the young yak, once back in the main foyer of his and his fellow students’ quarters. Thus, he and Yona have a talk, each seated near a table, while most of the others had already retired for the evening to their own rooms; Ocellus remains the exception, reading a tome to herself as the two chat.
“So what Ocellus read?”
“She mentioned something about a professor Stallyan,” Gallus replies, “and that’s a logic book written by him that Headmare Twilight owns. She said she read parts of it when the two of them took the balloon to parts relatively unknown for that friendship quest they were called for.”
Yona turns towards Ocellus and utters a ‘hmm’ in response, the changeling remaining focused on the book.
“So,” Gallus continues, “yaks are good at math, huh?”
“Yaks best at everything,” Yona proudly responds, “including math. Many yaks renowned for math ability.”
“Well I’m not one to brag,” he starts, phased slightly by Yona’s chuckle, “but griffins are also well-known for their abilities in the ways of mathematics.”
“That really true?”
“Well … it’s not like griffins are known for friendship.” Both he and Yona have a laugh at the comment.
“Anyway, I have a simple challenge for you,” Gallus continues. “I’m thinking of a three-digit number, and I want to see how long it takes for you to guess the number.”
“There nine hundred numbers like that,” Yona states. “Yona don’t want just guess numbers randomly.”
“Let me finish,” Gallus calmly replies as he pulls a bag of gemstones towards them. “You can ask a series of yes-or-no questions to narrow down the possibilities. Smolder was nice enough to let me borrow her snack bag; to keep track of your response, I’m going to use red rubies and green emeralds to signify the answers to your questions. I want to see if you can figure out my number in 5 or fewer gems. So … I hope I haven’t confused you with all that.”
“Yona not confused,” the yak insists. “You have number in mind?”
“I do … so ask away.”
Ocellus keeps an ear towards their conversation as she continues to read from her book. Yona, meanwhile, begins asking questions:
“Is number perfect square? Like, number times itself?”
“I’m well aware what a perfect square is,” Gallus states as he selects a gemstone from the bag and places it on the table.
“OK … is number perfect cube? Griffin know what perfect cube is, right?” she devilishly asks.
Gallus sighs and grins. “Yes, Yona, I know what a perfect cube is, too.” He selects another gem from the bag and places it on the table.
Yona ponders for a minute. “Does number have same first and last digit?”
“Huh … interesting question,” Gallus admits as he chooses a third gem from the bag and sets it alongside the others.
“Oooo … Yona close now. Iiiiiiis … number greater than 200?”
Gallus takes a fourth gem from the bag and adds it to the collection on the table.
“YONA KNOW NUMBER!”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Gallus says with a quiet undertone. “Not so loud, you’ll disturb the others.”
“Oh … sorry. Sorry, Ocellus,” Yona calls out across the room.
“Not a problem,” Ocellus replies, keeping one ear open to their conversation as she continues perusing her text.
Gallus studies the four gems he had placed on the table. “You realize you can’t know the number yet, right? There’s still two possibilities.”
“That wrong,” Yona insists. “Griffin wrong. Proof that yaks better at math.”
“You’re right about a lot of things, but not this,” Gallus counters … before a thought occurs to him. “Yona, you realize that green means yes, right?”
“What???”
“I’ve been using the green gems as ‘yes’ responses, and the red gems as ‘no’ responses.”
“That make no sense. In yak culture, red always symbol for start of journey or task. Red always mean yes … so green must mean no.”
Gallus slaps his head. “Well that explains everything … you took all my ‘no’ answers as ‘yes’ and my ‘yes’ answers as ‘no’. That’s why you think there’s only one solution.”
“Well that not sporting of griffin!” Yona grouses.
“Look, why don’t we just start over. And I’ll give you a starting hint: my number is greater than 600.”
Ocellus promptly blurts out a number, causing the two to turn to her in surprise.
...
“What that for?” Yona asks.
“Oops … sorry, force of habit,” Ocellus sheepishly admits. “I guess I couldn’t help but listen to your conversation. I thought it an interesting challenge.”
Gallus stammers for a response: “But … you didn’t even see any of the gems I placed … you didn’t hear any responses … how in Tartarus could you know the number I was thinking of???”
“Well … you said it was greater than 600. That was all I needed to know.”
Gallus shakes his head. “You’ll have to do better than that.”