One Tail at a Time

Beyond her Years

The days are pasing me by and I haven't even made a dent in these manuscripts, though the good news is,  I still have a few weeks to go before the babys delivery day, though Yunru did say she could come early.  Still, there is so much to read and seeing as Mo Yuan isn't allowing me to do anything but rest now that I am in the last stage of pregnancy, I take to reading his manuscripts every chance I get, and what I am learning, is just how affected he had been with my arrival and how much effort had gone into finding my family.

My memories of that time are vague, and I really can't recall the smaller details that he felt necessary to write down, but I am very grateful that he did, because with each passing chapter, those memories that I do have, are being brought vividly to life again and in a very large way, in that I am falling in love with my own husband all over again.

For several minutes, I listen most carefully to a little girl teaching me to speak Fox tongue which as I have mentioned before, is exceptionally difficult for a none fox to teach, and I am in awe of the sprite who has learned to converse with her, in a tongue that is just as foreign and difficult to him as it is for me.  And even more astounding, is the childs patience which I can see she is digging deep to maintain for my benefit.  

And that is one of the things that I am becoming highly impressed with.  She might be very young and fiesty at the best of times, but understanding my need to learn her language so I can find her people quicker, she is purposely taking her time and slowing down the lesson until I manage to get out my first words which are Si Ge.  I have also learned, that Si Ge is Zhen Zhen so possibly the name of her brother.  

And it is here that I learn her name along with the sprites which also stuns me.  They seem to be genuinely honest in their attempts to introduce themselves, in that I have a strong suspicion that the fox dialect for their names is actually their real names, so if anything, I am now wondering if they really are spies or sent here to cause mischief, because they wouldn't give me their names if it were so.

Only the way she is now using her brothers name to split words up into their syllables in order to make it easier for me to hear the entire word is ingenious.  It is a teaching method I have never heard of in my life, that for a while, I sit here stunned at the sheer brilliance of it.  For one so young to even grasp the concept of teaching this method is astounding to say the least, but to also understand how syllables work while also being able to teach tone and expression along with the word itself, suggests that this little girl is far from a mere kit.  She is from a highly educated family, one I perhaps know and now that I have learned she has more than one tail, it has narrowed down the tribes she could belong to significantly.

And as I sit here learning all manner of words that range from 'jump, run walk and skip...' I am quitely determining to whom she might belong.  Immediately I delete all the eastern realms, because the nearest of their tribes is thousands of miles of away.  I also remove the western tribes, because those are the ones I have visited and having heard no mention of a missing fox child from the realms I have visited, I have to assume that she is not from the west, because those tribes all trade with each other.  

That leaves the south and the north.  The northern borders, are not too far away from Kunlun Mountain and there are definitely several fox tribes living there.  While the south is a concern, because the foxes in that part of the world border the Demon Lands, which is where the sprite is definitely from.  The only thing that has me moving away from the south and towards the north is this childs exceptional mind.

She is highly intelligent for a little kit, which has me wondering if she might be from one of the Royal families whose children are taught in the Northern Temples which are highly regarded for their acacdemic achievements.  Though being a girl, one wouldn't think so, unless she was a Princess from a family that saw the benefits of teaching a female offspring and no doubt to increase her marriage prospects in the future.