Yuxuan (REMASTERED)

Chapter Eighteen

I named him Claws. The tiger. This kitty had a bad habit of scratching, clawing into my skirts, and ripping things apart. I don't know how many times I apologized to Feng and Bei for his troubling behavior. Feng weaved things together with Shu, and if I wasn't around, Claws would destroy their work.

I wasn't even sure if Feng could understand my apology.

Yuxuan didn't seem to mind the tiger's behavior. Mostly because the tiger was very well-behaved around him. Occasionally, Claws would bite and chew on his loincloth, but Yuxuan often rewarded him, which I so greatly despised.

How do you train a cat? Especially a wild one? Whatever Yuxuan was doing seemed to be working.

"If you keep on feeding him meat every time he destroys something he'll only think it's good to continue misbehaving." I walked over to Yuxuan, who was sitting on the mat of animal skin with one of my books in his hands.

He was very focused on that book in particular. Every time, he kept rereading the page that summarized the African elephants. I couldn't figure out why.

I plopped on my spot on the mat next to him and bit off a chunk of my mango. "Yuxuan?"

"Yes?" He raised his head and finally looked at me.

"Did you hear what I said? About Claws? You can't keep rewarding him. He tore a hole into Feng's blanket." I murmured. "I don't even know if you can understand what I'm saying." I slumped forward.

"I... understand." Yuxuan pressed his lips against my cheek.

"Do you?"

"Yes. Claws' is bad. Alex...is not... happy."

"Huh, well what do y'know. You did understand." My lips curled. It had only been 3 weeks? This man was getting better every day. He was very intelligent. I was amazed.

At the same time, I realized time was running out fast for me to return home. I had to figure out a way to get to Hansel. Until then, I decided to ask Yuxuan about his interest in the elephant page.

"Why do you keep reading this same picture?" He did the same thing every day after our lessons. His fingers would trail down the lines of the sketch. I wondered what intrigued him about the creatures.

"Elephants..." Yuxuan began.

"What about them?"

"Here. Elephants... here."

"What?" What did he mean by that? "The elephants are here?"

Yuxuan nodded and my jaw dropped. That couldn't be. Hansel said we weren't in Thailand. In his discovery, I've only heard of the breed of elephants we searched for to be in Thailand.

If there was a possibility of the elephants being here too, then we hit the jackpot. "Could you take me to them?"

Yuxuan gently placed my notebook aside and wrapped his arms around me. His warmth made me feel all fuzzy inside.

"No,"

"No?" I frowned.

"Stars..." Yuxuan raised his head and looked out of the opening of the hut. He was trying to tell me it was too late to go out and travel. Perhaps in the morning, he would take me.

"Yuxuan,"

"Yes,"

"Your language... Could you teach me?"

"Language?"

"I speak English. English is the language you are learning." I pointed to the notebook. "What is your language?"