The Ways of War

Chapter 9

I truly didn't have a choice in whether to follow Mercia or not, her strength and speed making it so that I stumbled to keep up with her as she pulled me farther and farther into the tent. My stumbling feet did little to deter my fascination with my surroundings, my eyes continuing to take in the different experiments that were spread through the room.

There was a severed arm here, an open chest cavity there, and things that weren't meant to see the light of day scattered throughout. Mercia seemed to not notice this, and Lucas had an almost amused look on his face as he took wide steps to keep up with Mercia and my quick pace. I was too busy looking with amazement to pay much attention to where we were going, and many of the other scientists barely looked away from their work as our strange party moved past.

"Now I don't know what lies Lucas has been telling you about our food, but I swear it's not Tsoro." Mercia told me as we pulled to the back of the tent. At that point I was breathing hard from the fast pace and I gladly collapsed into the wooden chair that I was shoved towards.

Since I was relatively stationary for the first time since entering the tent, I took a second to look around, ignoring Lucas as he collapsed next to me and started a conversation with Mercia which consisted of Mercia talking and Lucas making small noises to let her know he was paying attention.

The table my chair was paired with was stainless steel and covered in small cuts, instead of matching legs the table rested on crude wooden hobby horses so that the table was low enough to be reachable from the chairs. The chairs for their part were a similar crude wood and two rested on either side of the table, two facing the room and two facing the almost brown fabric of the tent. One end of the table faced a fire pit which contained only smoldering ashes while the other end faced a large set of cabinets, which Mercia was rifling through.

"Royse," The sound of my name broke me out of my analyzing my surroundings. Turning my eyes to Mercia, I saw her still rifling through the cabinet. "I don't know if you were paying attention, you looked kind of spaced, but Lucas tells me you need to learn to speak Tseeren! Luckily for you I know a couple of people who have picked some stuff up! As soon as I get you settled with some lunch I'll go get them." She chirped as she turned, her hands clutching two plates filled with what looked like slices of ham.

Mercia put the plates down in front of Lucas and I before she raised her eye brows and motioned towards the table. "Go ahead! I'll go get the others while you eat." She told us before she bounded out into the tent.

Glancing towards Lucas I saw him picking up pieces of the meat, using his hands due to the fact that Mercia had neglected to give us utensils. When Lucas noticed me glancing at him he raised an eyebrow. "Hey, food is food, and this food is good. Eat away." He told me.

I laughed at Lucas's comment before I picked up some of the meat and tried a bit. Immediately a sigh of pure ecstasy left me. Not only did it taste better than any of the food at either the school or at the camp, but also better than any food I had ever tasted; except for maybe my mother's pie, nothing was better than my mother's pie. Immediately I was in my own world, eating the delicious food slow enough that I could still savor the flavor but quick enough that I probably was still eating too quickly.

By the time Mercia returned, with two other people in tow behind her, I had eaten probably half of the food that had been laid out before me, and I was glad to take the chance for a break. Eating that quickly was probably a bad idea.

Mercia took one look at my plate and gave a smirk. "I knew you would love it!" She said before she clasped her hands in front of her. "Anyways," She chirped, changing the subject quickly. "These two are Kelly Francs and Nicolai Mathers; they know the most of the Tsoro language out of everyone alive."

Turning my attention the two people who would be teaching me the language of the Tsoro. Kelly was a slender, small girl who barely looked to be over the age of 13. Her platinum blond hair was piled into a large bun on top of her head. Large blue eyes peered out from a pale heart shaped face and pale lips were quick to pull up into a smile. Kelly's handshake was soft, without any force, and her eyes, when they saw the scared state of my hand, widened in shock. However, when Nicolai shook my hand I feared for its safety. With his long crop of strawberry blond hair and deep hazel eyes, Nicolai did not seem to care that my hand had already taken a beating as he squeezed my hand hard enough to grind the bones together.

Once the boy had released my hand with a mischievous smirk the three new comers took a seat. Resuming my meal but at a much slower pace I watched as Lucas acknowledges everybody at the table, languidly eating his food. Once everyone had addressed each other, Kelly leaned forward onto the table and grinned at me. "So you're our new inside woman?" She asked me with a giggle.

My lips twisted into a smile as I nodded. "Yep that's me, and I hear you can speak the language that I need to learn." At my comment Nicolai jumped into the conversation.

"Well, we know more than anyone else, but we don't necessarily know the language. We've never had any one teach it to us, we've caught thing, most of the researchers can curse up, down, and sideways in Tseeren. However, Kelly and I have managed to get a couple other words, mainly learned through hand motions and stuff." Nicolai told me as he leaned back in his chair and shoved a hand through his hair, sending the strands in a million different crazy directions.

Kelly nodded her head in agreement, her bun flopping around and releasing strands that fell to frame her face, making her look younger. "The only reason Nico and I know anything is because a lot of time the two of us get stuck doing the um... interviews." Kelly hesitated on the last word, letting me know that these were probably more on the side of interrogations than actual interviews. "We've managed to learn a lot from the interviews, a lot on their culture as well as their language. Most of the language is a lot of clicks and hisses, any they love the slide out the first and last letter of each word, not that their words have letters."

I nodded, listening intently, and finding myself getting more and more confused by Kelly's description. Nicolai, or Nico as Kelly referred to him, seemed to sense this and leaned forward. "Kel, it'll be easier if she hears it." He said, interrupting Kelly as she tried to keep explaining the language." Nico crossed his arms as he stared at me. "Now remember, we aren't the best at speaking the language so it's going to sound rough, even more so than it does when somebody fluent speaks."

I nodded and shoved the last of my food into my mouth before leaning back. Nico gave another smirk before he started making low gurgle sound deep in his throat that was punctuated with slight hisses and high grunts. Occasionally there would be a rest in the noises which I assumed marked a separation of words.

Despite the eerie sound I couldn't deny that the language sounded beautiful. A quick glance towards Lucas and Mercia let me know that I was the only one who found the beauty, their faces twisted into harsh scowls. Nico eventually trailed off, switching to his regular language with a smirk. "Basically I just said a bunch of nonsense words, but as you can see the language is rough. My voice, and most human voices, is too smooth to handle the rough noises."

I nodded in understanding before I leaned so far across the table that my chest rested on the steel. "So, can you teach me?" I asked.

Nico and Kelly grinned as they glanced at each other. "Of course we can!" Kelly chirped. "When do you want to start?" She asked.

I glanced quickly towards Lucas, who gave me an encouraging smile and a quick nod. Turning back to Kelly and Nico I grinned. "I can start now if y'all can!" With those seven words smiles lit up the faces of everyone around me and I acquired two new teachers.