||The Legend of Taavi ||

|creatures like me|

            Taavi arrived at the base camp as the adventurers began to wake up. The sun was just rising, still blurry and a bit icy, just waiting for time itself to warm the jungle, and defrosting it as it always did. The flowers to just starting to re-bloom as Taavi entered the camp.

"Good morning!" the hairy human greeted excitedly. She had gotten quite use to that term, 'good morning', especially coming from him, but she still wasn't quite sure what it meant. It gave her the same feeling as a smile does, but she wasn't sure if that's what it was intended for. She also decided she should learn the other humans' names.

Taavi smiled at him in response, a facial expression she had grown quite fond of. She had also begun to sport the same posture as the humans showed; legs and backs straight, shoulders back, and their arms at their sides. It hurt her spine to walk like that, but she knew she just had to get used to it.

James exited his tent yawning, looking well-rested with sleep still in his eyes. "Good morning," he said meaningfully, approaching her openly. Though he had just woken up, his eyes twinkled.

Taavi wished she knew what 'good morning' meant. She had a feeling it was a greeting, because they said it only when she showed up. But the sounds were so long, and too complicated for her to catch onto.

"Goo..." Taavi began, eying James questionably.

"Good morning," James sounded out.

Taavi tried again, but kept getting stuck, becoming increasingly frustrated with every attempt.

James smiled reassuringly. Then he cleared his throat and said, "Hi."

Taavi blinked. Surely that couldn't be the whole word. It was too short and ended strangely. But despite her doubts, Taavi repeated his words.

"Hi," she said clearly, and gave a little laugh.

"Hi!" James said again with more enthusiasm. Taavi gave a little hop and clapped her hands, her common response to repeating a word correctly.

Suddenly, James reached towards her with an outstretched hand, his thumb grazing over her cheek and coming back brown and oily. The boy's lips turned up at he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.

"Dirty," he explained to her.

She recognized the word and wiped her own cheek, examining the sediment that had been caked onto her skin. Perhaps she was due for another groom.

"Bath?" he asked.

That was a word James had been trying to teach her. Words themselves were incredibly simple to say, but Taavi always got stuck behind the meaning behind them. He had shown her photographs – another item that she had yet to wipe her head around – of people in vats of water, but the girl didn't understand what they were trying to accomplish in there. The tub was too small to fit a proper swim, so what else could they be trying to do?

But Taavi was curious, so she nodded eagerly. "Bath," she said, which earned her a smile from her friend.

Dr. Porter and James spent the morning working together to come up with a plan on how to bathe her without exposing her, and exploiting her privacy. Porter had the ingenious plan to use one of James's bathing suits for Taavi. She eyed it timidly as James approached her with the article of clothing. She still wasn't use to the idea of clothes other than the animal skins she wore to cover her chest and pelvis. The feeling of soft fabric was something she certainly had to get used to.