FFXIV Write 2024

22 - Crunch

It took some time for Husband to learn the Eorzean Alphabet when he arrived in my world. I am not sure why. Upon coming to Earth I found that Eorzean common is very similar to English, except for the letters, which seem to have a one-to-one match. Yet he did not learn Eorzean letters quickly, while I was able to learn E̶a̶r̶t̶h̶  E̶n̶g̶l̶i̶s̶h̶

"name of english letters": "Roman Alphabet"

Roman letters easily. I know he is smart, but perhaps he is not very smart in that particular way.

So he did not do much reading in Eorzea, except for his journal. He did write many notes in English on paper he had to buy...we did not learn before coming to Earth that we could write in the blank pages of our journals with enchanted copper ink. While we still do that for new recipes, we now mostly keep our notes in google docs.

And I did not know, when I first came to Earth, how to read English. When we found the golden circle near our house in the Lavender Beds, Husband declared it would take us to a new world, with new things and new adventures. So I agreed to step into it with him, there was an odd change to the air, and then the house was gone. The Lavender Beds were gone. We found ourselves in some woods.

He was quite pleased by this. "See? A new world! A new place to explore! One that neither of us knows!"

"Do you know where we are, Husband?"

He turned his face to the heavens, spread his arms wide, and with a big smile loudly proclaimed, "I have NO IDEA!"

I looked around. This new world did not seem too different from the one we had just left. Plants were green, the sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the sunlight was mostly yellow.

Husband was still talking. "This is what adventure is all about! We need to explore! There's probably new people, new places, new monsters to fight...there might be new combat classes...Hell, there might even be a new magic system! Why, we might..."

He stopped. I turned to look at him, and saw he was staring at something on the ground, looking much less happy. He bent to pick it up. It looked like a slip of paper, though I now know it was very thin plastic.

He contemplated it seriously. I approached to see. I did not yet know Roman letters, so I did not yet know the large letters on it read "CRUNCH". I have since seen Crunch bars in May's grocery. I asked, "What is it?"

"...A candy wrapper."

"What is a candy wrapper?"

"A wrapper for candy." He turned to a distant roaring sound, tossed the wrapper aside, and headed into the trees.

I caught the wrapper and examined it. It smelled like chocolate. I hurried to catch up with Husband as he stalked away.

We made our way through the trees until they abruptly ended, with a field in front of us, and a long dark strip between the trees and the field that made me think of Garlean outposts. It was grey, with yellow lines running along its length. It seemed to be made of small stones that had been pressed flat. "This is a road?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"What is it made of?"

"Asphalt."

He was not looking at the road. Nor was he looking at the large truck disappearing down the road to the left. Instead he was looking at a green sign with white letters at the side of the road to the right. I did not then know it said, "TULSA 50".

"Do you know where we are, Husband?"

He sighed and sounded oddly weary as he said, "I might have some idea."