A Fallen HomeKin

PART XXXIX

"What is this?"

Fralith squinted, chewing on his bottom lip, wriggling himself deeper into the squishy part of the cow-ouch and dragging his right thumb across his palm. "Boo...book!"

BlueShirt smiled, nodding. "That's right! It is a book." He patted the large book in his lap and opened it. "We're going to read some of it, okay?"

'It is a' book? Why so many words before book? Couldn't he just make the sign for objects? Huffing out a breath, he leaned forward, peering at the back squiggles scrawling across the pages. Like the short words of their spoken language, their writing had many breaks and cuts, creating a mass of short squiggles—almost like ants marching in a line, except some ants were longer than others.

This script looked so different from the long, curving words of SecondHomish. It seemed like a waste of a page to have so many spaces. Were each black squiggle a word or a symbol? Or were they little markers for the root word like Rivierian? It could be so many things!

BlueShirt turned the page, thumbing through the book, and stopped near the very end. "Here. You will probably not understand this, but Ruth says reading to you will help you pick up English quicker." He cleared his throat.

"'And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.'"

Cocking his head to the side, he glanced from the book to BlueShirt's face. That was a lot of words in quick succession, most of which he didn't understand, but they felt...right, as if they held more meaning than anyone could know.

It was strange, that feeling; he'd only felt it when someone quoted Jallithcam. Were these words like Jallithcam? Little scraps of phrases brought by the FirstHomers before they became SecondHomers and passed down through generations?

Did this world have FirstHomers? It...didn't seem like it, but he hadn't heard any history yet. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he focused his attention on attempting to translate BlueShirt's words.

"'Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe—'"

A lighting bolt struck him, sending him leaping to his feet. "BEEP!" The Lion! BlueShirt said the Lion's name! And he— understood the word without hearing it before!

"Woah, Zander!" BlueShirt looked up at him, eyebrows stretching for his hairline. "What is it?"

"Lion! Yes Lion!" The Lion was here, too—was real enough to be in a book and be known by BlueShirt! Did the Lion visit BlueShirt, too? Did that mean he knew about the Eternal? His entire chest turned to bright light and he couldn't help but wiggle and let loose a long de-weet de-woo! of joy.

A new expression took place on BlueShirt's face, changing his BodyTalk from just surprised to surprised, alert, and something almost cautiously happy. "Zander...you know about the Lion— the Lion of Judah?"

Knew about. After a quick scramble for translation, he nodded emphatically, extra wiggles rocking his shoulders. Yes! He knew about the Lion! "You...kn-owe Lion?"

BlueShirt smiled warmly, a brightness in his eyes. "Yes, I do indeed."

He bounced on his heels and did a quick spin. BlueShirt knew the Lion! And that meant he had to know about the Eternal, which meant that the Eternal was here! With him!

All the bubbles of joy rushed into his chest and in a burst of energy, he threw his arms around BlueShirt and squeezed him tight. "You kn-owe Lion! Lion very good."