L [o/i] ve is a journey

Change of Season | Clouds

The gentle dripping of the rain on top of the roof was constant. The smell of rain filled the air, and the light was blocked out by thick clouds.

The whole area, that just a few weeks before was filled with heat, and nothing but burning, weighing heat, changed into a landscape of a dull twilight state, covered in nothing but sand and clouds. Lunaris sat across the bed, huddled into the blankets. It got quite cold, and the oven provided by the owner of the inn didn't do much to raise the temperature. He wondered, how this deadly heat, that made it necessary to cover every inch of skin to not get burnt in what seemed an instant, went.

„What's up?" fragte Nerivie in Viriyasci, her native language and the language she had been teaching Lunaris for the past three-ish months.

„The rain...how weird." He said, hoping he used the right words, „So very hot and dry when you and I met. Now, so wet and cold." This very basic Viriyasci people used to communicate on a daily life basic was build on a simple sentence structure that only served to bring across an idea. Most ideas were simple, and people just built upon these. It was the same in every language spoken everywhere, anytime: ‚I feel good. U good?' ‚Today, yes. Yesterday, ugh.' or ‚Party tonight, you coming?', Gladly. When?' ‚After work?' ‚Great!'.

„Viriyasci sounds weird." Lunaris muttered, trying to figure out, how to build the sentence, „There so little words to say- is that even right?" He was visibly confused. All he asked, or wanted to know, how can a language be a language, if there are so little words in a structure of a sentence. Will he be understood? Is the context really enough? Why was there so little grammar?

Nerivie smiled gentle: „Don't worry, language exists for one purpose, and all languages serve these: to bring across an idea. Whether that is a feeling, a need, a warning, an advice, a story- just everything. We talk, and I understand. We understood each other before, too, and you just said one word, sometimes more. And before that, you wrote. I will have understand what you have to say, no matter what." She tucked herself into the blanket and tried to keep herself warm.

„Yeah, but...what if..." he tried to come up with an example to express the idea of his anxiety, „What ifI say ‚the seed eats the bird', not ‚the bird eats the seed'?"

„Well, then it's either a really big seed, and maybe of the Dryad kind, or a really small bird." Nerivie chuckled, and saw Lunaris pouting face, „Don't worry! The subject of a sentence is always before the object. This is all you need to care for now! You're doing really great! Later, we can dive into the complexer ways of talking. You don't need to fast track everything." She gleemed at him, and Lunaris felt like he had to grab and hug her.

The intrusive thought washed over him, and he waited until the surge was gone. It didn't go easily- he wanted to talk with her, comfortably, like when he wrote full pages and asked her so much through that.

„How is Viriyas like?" he asked, and expected her giving him the same nostalgic look when she talked about Geven or Yuno. But instead, she froze for a short moment, then smiled: „I don't remember. I was a very young child when I left it." She responded, and then, nothing followed.

Weird.

How can somebody with that much knowledge of a language be so fluent in it, when they would not have spoken it much?

Maybe her parents spoke it with her. Lunaris assumed, and decided not to probe the topic any further.

„I wonder how this area looks when there really is a lake!" Nerivie said, sunken in a thought he couldn't follow.

„Wet, I guess." Lunaris responded, without actually thinking, then realizing what he said. Nerivie started laughing and treied to regain her breath: „See? Bringing an idea across! You already mastered it!"

Lunaris grinned.

Then stopped and listened to the raindrops drumming on the roof. They sounded heavier, and higher in number.

The storm was coming closer.