Montgomery Scales stood at the cathedral doors and lost his first member. The badger had walked away mid-sentence. Montgomery smoothed his purple lapel and straightened his yellow top hat. He had explained his club three times. A gentlemen's club, he said, where every forest creature met as an equal, under his rules. Members would bow correctly. They would hold forks the proper way. They would speak without snapping. But the badger only blinked and left. Montgomery had no book. He had no chart. His rules lived only in his head, and no head but his own could see them. He pushed inside the purple cathedral and sat on the cold floor. Rules meant nothing spoken into empty air. He needed to show a creature what he meant, not tell it. A sharp voice cut the silence. "You are slouching, and it is criminal." Montgomery turned. A flamingo strode down the aisle on thin pink legs. He wore a purple coat and a puffed white cravat. This was Feathers Pendleton, the etiquette instructor Montgomery had hired weeks ago and nearly forgotten. Feathers stopped and looked down his long beak. "You told me you had students," Feathers said. "I see none. I see one alligator, folded like laundry." "They won't stay," Montgomery said. "I speak, and they leave. I cannot make them understand." A soft clicking came from the shadows. A beetle stepped into the colored light from the tall windows. Her shell shone blue and gold. Jewel Bavarty had been sweeping the entrance for a coin all morning. She had heard everything. "Then stop speaking," Jewel said. "Show them one member. A real one." Montgomery rose. He understood at once. "Would you let us teach you? Fully. The bow, the fork, the calm voice. If you learn it, others can watch you and learn it too." Jewel set down her broom. "I want a chair inside when I'm done. A permanent one." "Agreed," Montgomery said. Feathers clapped his wings. "We begin now. Back straight. Chin level." He circled her. "When you greet a member, you dip the head. Not the whole body. So." He demonstrated a small, exact bow. Jewel copied it. She dipped too far. Feathers corrected her angle with the tip of his beak. She tried again and held it clean. Montgomery watched and, for the first time, saw his rule standing in front of him, alive in a real creature. By dusk Jewel could bow, sit, and greet without one wrong move. Montgomery walked her to the doors. Three squirrels waited outside, curious about the light. Jewel bowed to them, exactly as taught. The squirrels went silent. Then they bowed back. Montgomery's chest filled. His rules were no longer trapped in his skull. They had a living shape now, and it had just won him three watchers. But he had promised Jewel a permanent chair, and the cathedral held nothing but stone floor. He had built a member with no place to seat her.