Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
I was beginning to understand what the local population meant when they said some dragons were very dramatic.
Before we’d come to Earth, I would have said he was even-tempered and what humans would call boring.
I would have been wrong.
“Thank you for practicing your English.” It’d only taken him two weeks to give in on that one, so we were making progress. “It has improved greatly.”
Praise was not helping the situation.
Somehow, it seemed to be making him angrier but that expression was fleeting.
“One of us needs to stay at the portal.” He frowned and shrugged as he gestured in the direction of the portal we’d used to come to the world of Earth. “You may deal with understanding their social rituals.”
Social rituals were an important part of getting to know any community, and it was especially important when it came to understanding the dragons and mages who’d been trapped on the Earth side of the portal.
Several hundred years had changed our people in interesting ways.
“I agree that guarding it is important until we establish formal communication, however, we have put up a barrier to prevent aggressive creatures from coming to this area, so I believe it will be safe for a few hours.” That wasn’t going to be enough to get him to go back into town, but it felt necessary to push back against the unreasonable behavior.
“No.” One of the only things Klynn seemed to have learned from the humans was a statement that no was a complete sentence.
It was an unfortunate lesson.
Others had been harder to assimilate but he’d found that one to be frighteningly easy.
“Fine.” Refusing to perform the human mannerism of sighing, I stood from the overturned tree I had been using as a seat and did the shrug movement. “I will go.”
I’ll go.
The human language English was fascinating, but somehow we had not absorbed it correctly.
“Enjoy viewing the mates celebrate their union.” Klynn turned back to the reading device he’d traded gems for. “I will guard the gate and practice reading English.”
For an unknown reason, he preferred the visual language over the verbal one. I was not sure why historical information and what the humans called poetry was so interesting but it was to him. I had always found reading to be necessary but tedious, however, I was starting to have questions about what he was learning.
“I will return with human food later.” I wasn’t sure what would be offered but we’d quickly learned that any and all social events would provide options for food, and if someone performed the act of looking hungry they would be provided with extra.
Our people had integrated with the locals so thoroughly that they had picked up a variety of extensive nonverbal cues.
“Thank you.” His manners had greatly improved after earning his path.
No.
Getting his way.
“You are welcome.” As I left the clearing where we’d made our camp and used a simple transportation spell to take me to the edge of town, I reviewed the conversation and tried to understand where our problems could be fixed.
His intolerance of the locals bordered on unreasonable, however, their actions were confusing. They were happy to see strangers and were highly generous, but they discussed confusing sexual topics and their conversations were difficult to grasp.
What was a Team Binkie?
Why were they insistent that Klynn was a member?
We were told by our experts that absorbing the language of anyone who spoke it as a native would be enough to make sure we understood conversations around us but that was not correct. Incorrect.
That was incorrect.
The older woman we had initially used the language spell with did not have the right vocabulary to make the men at the diner understandable.
Advanced age had not given her the broader vocabulary we were told to expect. It seemed like our peoples in the new world had absorbed many traditionally human characteristics in ways we had not anticipated.
They were…unique.
But unlike Klynn, I found them to be interesting and I was drawn to their curious conversation and strange ways.
Especially their social openness and helpful assumptions.
Even as I walked toward the main entertainment hall to experience the party to celebrate a mating, I was waved at and included in greetings as I walked past strangers. The ones who had been previously introduced were even more pleased to include me in their conversations.
“Look who made it.” An older man from the diner smiled and waved me toward what I knew to be a community social building that was not associated with a traditional business. It held a variety of parties and events and included something called playdates which were confusing. The meaning was not what we had expected from our initial language acquisition.
Klynn had been tasked with researching the topic due to his specialties, but he was adamant their information network had not provided helpful information to deal with the curious locals.