Zach's very skilled in observing the people around him from the corner of his eye, without appearing to do anything of the sort. He's never used to look after a child before, but he supposes there's a first time for everything. Getting closer to Sarah can still broadly fall within the parameters of his assignment, after all, and a bit of practice is never a bad thing.

The child has a tremor in her hands when she draws. He might chalk it up to her being nervous, had her face showed anything other than intense concentration at getting the lines right. Of course there is always the chance that it is a genetic thing, but from what Zach could tell those kinds of things are relatively rare in humans. Plus there was the way she flinched and turned her face away every time Zach makes even a small unexpected movement. Humans are fragile things, and prone to accumulating injuries and defects when they get hurt bad enough.

Something dark flashes over his face at those thoughts, but he smooths it over into a guileless smile when the child peeks up at him. He knows the things humans do to each other, and it really shouldn't phase him. But the thought of someone harming a child, and harming her bad enough and often enough to have her come seek out a priest on her own... It's more disquieting than he likes to admit to himself.

His eyes widen slightly in surprise at the questions she's asking. They're quite astute for such a young human, but then again he supposes she needs to try and stay on top of things, if her life is as dangerous as it seems it might be. He feels another thread of unease at that observation, but ignores it. Humans are humans, and they have done horrible things to each other since before her came into existence and will continue to do so until long after he's left this world. It is none of his concern.

"He didn't find me, I kind of found him," he tells the girl, still sketching out the flowers as he does so. "I did some things... bad things that made people mad and they hurt me pretty bad. I had heard in town that he was a good man, that he could be trusted. I didn't really believe it at first, but it felt like there was no other place for me to go..."

He looks at her now, letting the smile on his face go a little brittle at the edges. He doesn't know for certain whether this will reach Kiel, but he's nothing if not thorough.

 "He didn't even as me what happened when he took me in, so I guess he really is a good man. I... think he's great too. It's almost sad that I'm getting better because that means I will have to go soon. But I guess it's for the best, because if he knew what I'm really like he would want me to go away anyway and that would be even worse than leaving by myself."

He lets his his voice crack a little at the last bit, and quickly looks back to his paper while letting his eyes tear up. 

"Um, yeah. But like you said, I'm big and strong and I'll be more careful in the future so I'm going to be all right. And you'll have Kiel all for yourself again."

He throws that last bit in to test the waters on where she stands with him. He thinks she's taken a shine to him, but it seems equally likely that she's only attached to him because he's with Kiel at the moment.