Ashan 23rd, 703
The weather was pleasantly calm, a trial that didn't fall into either hot or cold. It was a quiet, normal trial just like any other. And just like on any other trial Aqihlih was expected to learn, she was starting to get annoyed. "Come on dear, this is easy," the woman said. Her voice was supposed to be encouraging, but the fact she said it in Common made it all the more distressing to Aqihlih. Aqihlih mumbled something under her breath, the look on her face nothing less of sour and hateful. She hated Common. It was such a hard, stupid language. A growl bubbled up in the back of her throat before releasing itself as a distressed screech.
"This is stupid!" She snapped in Rakahi. The words flowed from her mouth naturally, flowering into familiar phrases. Even at such a young age, she was set in stone on speaking the native tongue of the race her mother pretended to be. She was 5, every day she was getting closer to 6, and learning anything besides Rakahi was starting to become more and more of an issue. Learning Common was just making speaking Rakahi harder, as she was starting to mix up words from the two rather frequently. More often than not it would a Rakahi word trying to turn into Common. "It makes no sense! Why use their words when ours are so much better? They sound prettier and are easier to say," the girl sulked. Her expression was bitter and sullen.
Her mother sighed, fixing her with a firm but sympathetic expression before switching back to their native tongue for the ensuing conversation. "Oh, my dear. There are plenty of reasons to learn other languages! What if you need to tell someone something really important, but neither of you speaks the same language?" The woman said, kneeling down to her daughter's height. The woman was always a tree compared to the young child, and Aqihlih was already pretty tall for children her age. This question managed to catch Aqihlih's attention. Her eyes turned upwards to meet her mother's and she fell into silence, awaiting an answer. "You need to learn Common because it's exactly that, common! It's one of the languages that you could travel the entire world and find someone who could speak it. And in places which have odd languages that you don't know, you'd be able to find a translator. But if you just speak Rakahi all the time, it's going to make things a lot harder. Look at papa!" The woman said pointing out the most obvious example. Aqihlih's father wasn't well-versed in Rakahi so often her father and mother would speak in common when adressing one another. They both knew it well, without fail almost. But when it came to Rakahi, sometimes Aqihlih knew more words than her father did and that made it hard to communicate.
"Wouldn't you love to be able to speak with papa better?" The woman asked, hitting Aqihlih's exact train of thought. The child paused for a moment, casting her eyes downwards and trying to hide her face behind her hair. The deep brown, almost black locks did well to hid her expression, but she felt as though her mother was looking right through her. There was a decision to make and she knew that only one choice was valid.
"Herra muh derr," the child tried the words once more. They felt less strange on her tongue, but she still couldn't form them properly. Her mother however nearly squealed in delight upon hearing the words.
"Yes, yes, exactly! You're so very, very close. Just repeat after me. Hello my dear," the woman said. She was careful to try and enunciate each word.
"Herro myu derrr," the child repeated back. She was getting closer but her brow still furrowed with confusion. The woman thought for a moment as she regarded her daughter.
"Ah! I get what the problem is. You're rolling your r's too much and moving your tongue wrong during the my, you're giving it an uh sound. Try not to roll and r's and place your tongue flatter against the bottom of your mouth. The tip is what's coming up and giving it the uh sound," Aqihlih's mother explained.
The child nodded, her brows furrowing with complete concentration. "Hello... my... dear," she finally got out. The words came out slowly and seemed to have the shakiness of something that needed forced, but the words came out none the less. Aqihlih's mother had a look of total and absolute joy on her face. Aqihlih felt a smile starting to slip onto her own face
"Did I do good!? Did I do good?" The girl asked, bouncing up and down slightly as her smile seemed to grow broader and broader.
"Yes, you did perfectly. If you keep this up you'll be fluent in no time at all! You're such a good, smart girl," the woman said as she wrapped her daughter in a tight hug, her expression practically glowing. "Now then, I'm going to teach you something hard. You don't have to actually say anything, just listen and try to understand. In Rakahi we have to, too, and two. They all mean different things and sound different," the woman said.
મશ, મશશ, and મ૧શ? What was so special about that?
"However, in Common, they're all pronounced the exact same. To, too, and two," Aqihlih's mother continued to go on to the shocked and dismayed expression of Aqihlih. "These are called Homonyms and they're going to be one of the hardest things you have to learn at the earlier levels."
"That makes no sense. Why not just make new words?" Aqihlih asked.
"I don't know," her mother simply replied. "Sometimes language doesn't make sense at all. Silly rules combined with senseless logic leads to unforeseen and sometimes confusing outcomes. The point I'm trying to make is for you to be aware of homonyms in future lessons," her mother explained.
"But how will I know if something is a homonym or not?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
"You'll just have to know the definitions of all three versions. Allow me to go back to the to, too, and two example. To means, I want to do something. Too means, let me come too. Finally, two means, I have two pieces of candy," her mother continued to explain "Let's play a game. If you can tell me which version of the words I'm using, I'll give you a reward," her mother said. She thought for a moment before she began to speak. "Sometimes that happened to you too?" She said.
Aqihlih was thrown for a moment, her mind drawing blanks. "I don't know..." She said, lowering her head.
Her mother smiled gently. "Don't worry little one, I was trying to trick you. I used both to and too, so it wasn't a very fair test. I'll give you your reward for being such a good girl and paying attention to the entire lesson." Reaching into the small pocket that had been sewn into her dress she pulled a small piece of hardened honey which had been wrapped up in parchment. It was one of the home made honey candies that she'd helped her mother to make the other trial. Aqihlih's eyes lit up joyously as she reached out to greedily take the piece of candy. Usually, they were saved for the winter when it was harder to get sweet things or when Aqihlih needed some thing to hold her over until dinner. It was rare a piece was handed to her so freely. Her mother laughed as she hungrily tore the parchment off and shoved the little piece of gold into her mouth. Through a mix of chewing and sucking the small nugget of solidified honey was gone in mere bits of it being given to her. The sweet taste spread all throughout her mouth.
There was a knock at the door. "Oh?" Her mother asked, standing up and moving towards it in one fluid motion. Her dress swished around her as she moved. She was beautiful and elegant and everything that Aqihlih wanted to be. She watched the way her mother moved, carefully trying to memorize it and hopefully replicate it. "Orik!" She said happily. The name caught Aqihlih's attention, and she instantly recognized the name of her father, or at least what she thought was his name. She wasn't yet aware of her species. All she knew was that she had two names, and the first one was supposed to be very secret. She had no clue that applied to her parents as well.
"Hello Valerie," the man said happily, reaching out to hug his wife. He was a little shorter than her, but the odd pair didn't seem to mind. "Laurel my girl, where are you?" The man cried out after greeting his beloved partner. Upon hearing her second name the child stood up and instantly dashed over, throwing herself in the middle of the pair and held her arms up in a silent demand. "There you are dear," he cooed as he picked her up and held her close to his chest. "And what did you and your mother learn today?" He asked as he held the child a little closer.
Aqihlih thought for a moment, trying to remember how the first word she had ever learned in Common felt on her tongue. Once she'd located and remembered that she tried to remember one of the new words she'd perfected during the small impromptu class her mother had held. She retained her silence for a moment longer as she made the motions with her tongue and just her tongue, not saying any of the words out loud so that she could silently practice. She wanted this to be perfect. Finally, she looked up and took a breath. Opening her mouth she let the unfamiliar Common words fall out. "Hello papa!"
The weather was pleasantly calm, a trial that didn't fall into either hot or cold. It was a quiet, normal trial just like any other. And just like on any other trial Aqihlih was expected to learn, she was starting to get annoyed. "Come on dear, this is easy," the woman said. Her voice was supposed to be encouraging, but the fact she said it in Common made it all the more distressing to Aqihlih. Aqihlih mumbled something under her breath, the look on her face nothing less of sour and hateful. She hated Common. It was such a hard, stupid language. A growl bubbled up in the back of her throat before releasing itself as a distressed screech.
"This is stupid!" She snapped in Rakahi. The words flowed from her mouth naturally, flowering into familiar phrases. Even at such a young age, she was set in stone on speaking the native tongue of the race her mother pretended to be. She was 5, every day she was getting closer to 6, and learning anything besides Rakahi was starting to become more and more of an issue. Learning Common was just making speaking Rakahi harder, as she was starting to mix up words from the two rather frequently. More often than not it would a Rakahi word trying to turn into Common. "It makes no sense! Why use their words when ours are so much better? They sound prettier and are easier to say," the girl sulked. Her expression was bitter and sullen.
Her mother sighed, fixing her with a firm but sympathetic expression before switching back to their native tongue for the ensuing conversation. "Oh, my dear. There are plenty of reasons to learn other languages! What if you need to tell someone something really important, but neither of you speaks the same language?" The woman said, kneeling down to her daughter's height. The woman was always a tree compared to the young child, and Aqihlih was already pretty tall for children her age. This question managed to catch Aqihlih's attention. Her eyes turned upwards to meet her mother's and she fell into silence, awaiting an answer. "You need to learn Common because it's exactly that, common! It's one of the languages that you could travel the entire world and find someone who could speak it. And in places which have odd languages that you don't know, you'd be able to find a translator. But if you just speak Rakahi all the time, it's going to make things a lot harder. Look at papa!" The woman said pointing out the most obvious example. Aqihlih's father wasn't well-versed in Rakahi so often her father and mother would speak in common when adressing one another. They both knew it well, without fail almost. But when it came to Rakahi, sometimes Aqihlih knew more words than her father did and that made it hard to communicate.
"Wouldn't you love to be able to speak with papa better?" The woman asked, hitting Aqihlih's exact train of thought. The child paused for a moment, casting her eyes downwards and trying to hide her face behind her hair. The deep brown, almost black locks did well to hid her expression, but she felt as though her mother was looking right through her. There was a decision to make and she knew that only one choice was valid.
"Herra muh derr," the child tried the words once more. They felt less strange on her tongue, but she still couldn't form them properly. Her mother however nearly squealed in delight upon hearing the words.
"Yes, yes, exactly! You're so very, very close. Just repeat after me. Hello my dear," the woman said. She was careful to try and enunciate each word.
"Herro myu derrr," the child repeated back. She was getting closer but her brow still furrowed with confusion. The woman thought for a moment as she regarded her daughter.
"Ah! I get what the problem is. You're rolling your r's too much and moving your tongue wrong during the my, you're giving it an uh sound. Try not to roll and r's and place your tongue flatter against the bottom of your mouth. The tip is what's coming up and giving it the uh sound," Aqihlih's mother explained.
The child nodded, her brows furrowing with complete concentration. "Hello... my... dear," she finally got out. The words came out slowly and seemed to have the shakiness of something that needed forced, but the words came out none the less. Aqihlih's mother had a look of total and absolute joy on her face. Aqihlih felt a smile starting to slip onto her own face
"Did I do good!? Did I do good?" The girl asked, bouncing up and down slightly as her smile seemed to grow broader and broader.
"Yes, you did perfectly. If you keep this up you'll be fluent in no time at all! You're such a good, smart girl," the woman said as she wrapped her daughter in a tight hug, her expression practically glowing. "Now then, I'm going to teach you something hard. You don't have to actually say anything, just listen and try to understand. In Rakahi we have to, too, and two. They all mean different things and sound different," the woman said.
મશ, મશશ, and મ૧શ? What was so special about that?
"However, in Common, they're all pronounced the exact same. To, too, and two," Aqihlih's mother continued to go on to the shocked and dismayed expression of Aqihlih. "These are called Homonyms and they're going to be one of the hardest things you have to learn at the earlier levels."
"That makes no sense. Why not just make new words?" Aqihlih asked.
"I don't know," her mother simply replied. "Sometimes language doesn't make sense at all. Silly rules combined with senseless logic leads to unforeseen and sometimes confusing outcomes. The point I'm trying to make is for you to be aware of homonyms in future lessons," her mother explained.
"But how will I know if something is a homonym or not?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
"You'll just have to know the definitions of all three versions. Allow me to go back to the to, too, and two example. To means, I want to do something. Too means, let me come too. Finally, two means, I have two pieces of candy," her mother continued to explain "Let's play a game. If you can tell me which version of the words I'm using, I'll give you a reward," her mother said. She thought for a moment before she began to speak. "Sometimes that happened to you too?" She said.
Aqihlih was thrown for a moment, her mind drawing blanks. "I don't know..." She said, lowering her head.
Her mother smiled gently. "Don't worry little one, I was trying to trick you. I used both to and too, so it wasn't a very fair test. I'll give you your reward for being such a good girl and paying attention to the entire lesson." Reaching into the small pocket that had been sewn into her dress she pulled a small piece of hardened honey which had been wrapped up in parchment. It was one of the home made honey candies that she'd helped her mother to make the other trial. Aqihlih's eyes lit up joyously as she reached out to greedily take the piece of candy. Usually, they were saved for the winter when it was harder to get sweet things or when Aqihlih needed some thing to hold her over until dinner. It was rare a piece was handed to her so freely. Her mother laughed as she hungrily tore the parchment off and shoved the little piece of gold into her mouth. Through a mix of chewing and sucking the small nugget of solidified honey was gone in mere bits of it being given to her. The sweet taste spread all throughout her mouth.
There was a knock at the door. "Oh?" Her mother asked, standing up and moving towards it in one fluid motion. Her dress swished around her as she moved. She was beautiful and elegant and everything that Aqihlih wanted to be. She watched the way her mother moved, carefully trying to memorize it and hopefully replicate it. "Orik!" She said happily. The name caught Aqihlih's attention, and she instantly recognized the name of her father, or at least what she thought was his name. She wasn't yet aware of her species. All she knew was that she had two names, and the first one was supposed to be very secret. She had no clue that applied to her parents as well.
"Hello Valerie," the man said happily, reaching out to hug his wife. He was a little shorter than her, but the odd pair didn't seem to mind. "Laurel my girl, where are you?" The man cried out after greeting his beloved partner. Upon hearing her second name the child stood up and instantly dashed over, throwing herself in the middle of the pair and held her arms up in a silent demand. "There you are dear," he cooed as he picked her up and held her close to his chest. "And what did you and your mother learn today?" He asked as he held the child a little closer.
Aqihlih thought for a moment, trying to remember how the first word she had ever learned in Common felt on her tongue. Once she'd located and remembered that she tried to remember one of the new words she'd perfected during the small impromptu class her mother had held. She retained her silence for a moment longer as she made the motions with her tongue and just her tongue, not saying any of the words out loud so that she could silently practice. She wanted this to be perfect. Finally, she looked up and took a breath. Opening her mouth she let the unfamiliar Common words fall out. "Hello papa!"
