An Unlikely Ally

Chapter 15 - First words

Arty sat just before John on the floor of the lounge room, she was fiddling with the CD player's lid as John spoke. "Right, from what I gather you have an already pretty sound understanding of english, at least in basic recognition, listening and so forth. Lets have a go at trying to say some words? I uh, don't know if it is even possible given your anatomy, or if you have already tried it, but worth a shot."

Arty nodded and looked at John, feeling unsure of what to attempt first, since she only really used her mouth for eating and her vocal cords were only used for her language which consisted of much higher and lower frequencies than what human voices could do. She did however attempt to practise some easier letters. "I can try 'e', it is similar to a shrill I make in normal communication."

She parted her face plates uncertainly and opened her mouth, before letting out a chirp that sounded more like a squeak than of an 'ee'. John chuckled and shook his head, making Arty snort in mild frustration.

"Hey it is alright, it sounded close to what I guess was 'I'." John reassured but Arty sighed and sunk her head down further, since that wasn't the letter, or maybe it was. "Some letters sounded very close to others and some in particular had multiple pronunciations."

"Hey its alright, let me help. I am no teacher but I can at least try to teach you the basics. Let's start from the beginning, does that sound good?" John reassured softly and Arty nodded, raising her head back up to meet John's.

"In the human language english, there is an alphabet which is 26 letters. Letters are what make up words, words in special orders make a sentence. Some words can have different in different contexts, or some words can have very similar meaning. It is going to be easier for you since you don't know how to read or write this stuff, unless you read Braille, but that is a whole other story. For now lets focus on letters" John informed and Arty paused to take this all in.

"Lets start off with the vowels and consonants, vowels are rather easy to pronounce. A, E, I, O, U" John exaggerated the mouth movements as Arty watched. "Try saying the letter A, 'Ay-e' is what it sounds like." John instructed and Arty shifted a bit as she watched his mouth and tongue movements, before trying it herself.

"Aahhh...Ehhh..." Arty said as she was able to mimic the same tone as John, which led to a slightly shocked expression showing on his face. "Woah you sound just like me, um, cool. Um, yeah let's practise that."

"Cah-Te" Arty struggled to mouth but John clapped and beamed. "Yes! Cat! C-A-T" John exclaimed and patted Arty's shoulder in response.

"I am more then a little surprised that you picked this up so quickly, its only been four or so hours and you can say words to a degree." John said with amazement, but Arty did not share that feeling. She felt rather embarrassed and felt as if she was being treated as a youngling, so she displayed her displeasure by attempting a new feat.

She took in a breath and made the exaggerated mouth formations. "Noh-T, Bae-Bie." John gasped and beamed even brighter. "Not baby! Wow- Oh, um, wait. Do you feel as if I am treating you as a baby?" John immediately ducked his head down as she nodded. "I apologise, just never taught anyone english before and it is very uncommon here for people to understand english but not have used their vocal cords in that way before." John said apologetically but Arty placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him, he smiled and looked to appreciate the gesture.

"I..Pac..Tise..." Arty said with uncertainty but John nodded and appeared to of understood, with that Arty opened and closed her jaw a few times and wiggled her tongue around, feeling as if they were cramping.

She heard John exclaim quietly and shiver, turning her gaze to him as she watched him rub his shoulders. "It gets colder in the afternoon, especially as it approaches winter, my clothing is becoming inadequate." John said much to Arty's concern, which he seemed to notice.