private Far from home. 1x1 with Illiad Easle

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle

The dragoness continued studying for some time, but eventually tiredness took over thanks to the hefty meal she had gotten. She closed the book and put it next to Ætheron's stuff since she had no way to carry it herself. 

If Ætheron was still awake, she would then speak to him, still gesturing with the words a bit to help herself to remember "Dragons, Hurt, I." "I, Come, Here" "You, No, Hurt, I" "Friend?" 

If not, she would take rest herself and say it when they woke up. 

Edited July 20, 2020 by Catpone Cerberus

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron wasn't quite asleep when the dragoness closed her book for the night, but he certainly looked like he was, so it was likely the dragoness would approach as if to talk to him, then decide to save it for the morning.

Having started resting earlier it was likely that he would be the first one awake, and would be eating some of his non meat foodstuffs and looking over his map when the dragoness awoke and asked her question. He was quite impressed that she had managed to string it together, especially using a concept like friend, though it didn't surprise him that a pony book would teach the word early. He gave her a simple smile and nodded, "Friend." His expression shifted as he fully parsed the first half of what she said, "Dragons hurt you? Why?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
The dragoness slept a bit better than the last night, though she was still sleeping 'one-eye-open' so to speak, but that wasn't something that would change any time soon. She woke up and stretched a bit, it was still annoying to have leg stuck in one position, but luckily she would be getting rid of that problem today, she nodded a greeting to Ætheron and would say her thing right after before she forgot it. 

She seemed to understand Ætheron's counter question, and thought for a second how to respond, since even knowing lot more words, it took some moments for her to figure out the right ones to use "I, Small." "There...You, no, hurt, dragon, Dragon, hurt, you." she knew this wasn't the best way to explain it, but she hadn't learned enough to word it better "I, small, No, hurt, big, dragons." "Big, dragons, hurt, I." she hit the air weakly when she talked about her size, trying to indicate weakness, and when she said the last part about big dragons, she took a stick or something similar that happened to be nearby and crushed it. It was a bit challenging to try to explain the cruel and hostile lands she came from using words  foals learned. "There, no, friends." 

She hadn't necessarily fully understood the concept of friend, as for her it currently was just someone who didn't wish to harm her, but there of course wasn't really a way to tell for now since her and Ætheron's relationship could be considered friendship.

 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Catpone Cerberus

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron was able to gather the gist of what the dragoness was trying to say, at least he thought he did. He understood that the dragons were an apex predator, they hunted, but were not hunted themselves, except apparently by others of their kind, likely in a sort of dominance gesture. The dragoness, being small, had apparently failed a test of dominance and been forced out. It was similar, he mused, to the less noble centaur herds forcing out the weak and disabled among them.

He nodded in understanding once the dragoness had finished speaking, "I am sad to hear your story. I am happy to help you," he smiled, "Here is full of friends, I wont let big dragons hurt you here."

He set the map between them so she could see, pointing to a spot in the forest "we are here," he pointed to a spot labelled Ponyville, "We were here" then he pointed to a city on the opposite side of the forest labelled Fillydelphia, "I go here." He would look back to the dragoness, "Do you want to go with me?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
The dragoness thought through what Ætheron had first said before nodding, she still didn't fully understand everything he had said, but it was lot easier to guess when you knew more words, though she would need to hear the words used more times before she would use them herself.

She thought again when Ætheron spoke about his plans, studying the map for a second before pointing at a spot near Fillydelphia "I....and?...you go here." she then pointed at the city "Here..." she sounded unsure "...friends?" she had read the word 'and' from the book, but she wasn't sure if she had understood the use of it right since it had been used with two words she hadn't yet figured out the meaning of. 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Inwardly, Ætheron was elated that the dragoness wanted to join him, though he also tempered his enthusiasm with the doubt that she fully understood his question. At her question of whether there were friends in Fillydelphia he thought for a moment before nodding, "Friends there for you and I."

He started loading his pack back up onto his barrel, "You learn words fast, it is..." he decided 'impressive' was still beyond her grasp, "...good surprise." He nodded with a smile, though he paused, "You know names? Have name? Want name?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
The dragoness again made mental notes on words Ætheron used, comparing them to words she saw in the book that didn't get them meaning of, and going through in her head the possible meanings based on the words she did know and the tone of what Ætheron said. For her response, she just nodded to everything but the last questions.

For the questions, she said the word "Name" few times out loud before pointing at Ætheron asking "Name...Ætheron?"  she remembered him using the word back when he had introduced himself, and because she hadn't heard it used in any other context, she guessed it was related, and since it was the only repeating word this time, she guessed it meant, well, name. She would wait for response to know if she was correct before answering "I no name, there no names." they didn't really have a need for names because there rarely were more than two dragons around who talked with each other, until you count throwing insults at someone as you are trying to kill them talking. "You Name I?"

Edited July 25, 2020 by Catpone Cerberus

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

19 hours ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

"Name...Ætheron?"

Ætheron nodded, indicating that she was correct in her understanding,

19 hours ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

"You Name I?"

He was a bit sad at his new understanding that where the dragoness was from they didn't have names, it indicated they weren't very social nor communicative, a far cry from the noble centaur herds where everyone had a unique name and title, they were social creatures after all. He was surprised and a bit honored by the dragoness' invitation to name her, among his kind a name was of high importance. He hesitantly nodded, "I give you name..." he thought for a moment, what name could he give to inspire such a marvelous creature? After some thought he settled on one: "Ædriga?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
The dragoness was bit curious about Ætheron's reaction and hesitation, as for her names didn't really mean anything special for obvious reasons, but she didn't show that curiosity because she was lot more interested in getting a name, and the anticipation in her eyes probably showed it. "Ædriga?" she repeated, struggling a bit with the pronunciation, but when she said it second time bit slower, it sounded bit more correct, though she probably would need to hear it few more times to pronounce it correctly. She pointed at herself "Ædriga?" "Ædriga"

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron was happy that she, now Ædriga, seemed accepting of her name. He had been worried that she wouldn't like it, or wouldn't be able to say it. He had been conflicted about giving her his herd's sigil, the Æ, as he didn't know if his herd would approve the adoption of a dragon. In the end he decided that, since he was the only member of his herd he had seen in several years, he may as well be the herd leader in this land.

Eventually he would tell Ædriga the significance of her name, but that could wait until she knew more words.

He smiled at her pronunciation, only correcting her pronunciation of Æ (Sounds like eye), she was free to determine the pronunciation of the rest, it was her name after all.

He'd ask her another question, "You like name Ædriga?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
After repeating it few more times, Ædriga would get the handle on the pronunciation, it wasn't exactly like it would be said in common/Equestrian, but accent was to be expected from someone coming from a quite a different language. She again took a second to respond to Ætheron's question as she went through possible translations for 'like', but she would manage to guess what it meant, even if she didn't necessarily get the exact word. 

She would respond with a nod and attempt to smile, though it was pretty clear that she had never smiled before, as it was far from what genuine smile would look like, but the message wouldn't be lost, as her eyes showed she was pleased. For her the idea of having a name was weird but exciting, because though they in general didn't mean anything to her kind, for her it was the first step away from what she ran away from, and thus it gave her hope for better future.

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron's happiness grew, he hoped that this would be the start of something. Nonetheless, they would need to get moving if they were going to get to Fillydelphia on time. "Good, we should go now Ædriga."

He would finish strapping on his pack and putting out their fire before starting back on the faint trail though the woods. He would ensure that Ædriga was following before moving too far ahead.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga would follow Ætheron, but not before removing the wrap from her leg and moving it a bit, she would also do the same for her wing, though she would do this while Ætheron was dealing with his pack and the fire, so it wouldn't take too much time after he was ready to go. They both still hurt a bit, but Ædriga had had lot of injuries in her relatively short life, so she knew how the healing process worked, and thus knew she didn't need support anymore.

As they moved, Ædriga started wondering about Ætheron's age, how old was he? How old would he live to be? She herself was around 50, she only kept count on the closest decade, but that was very little considering her lifespan, and in fact, for her species, that was the age of full maturity, so she had basically just turned into an adult. There wasn't any specific reason why she was thinking about Ætheron's age, she was just curious, she knew prey had lot shorter lifespans, so what about centaurs? too bad she couldn't really ask that yet, nor would she probably understand the answer yet either. 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron seemed to pick up an her curiosity, while he didn't comment on it while they were travelling, him looking to collect a few more small game animals to feed to Ædriga later, he would eventually have them stop at a calm stream to rest and drink some water before continuing onward. He stood in the midst of the stream so the cool water could flow past his legs, he would look over at Ædriga, "You have question? Want to know something?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga would rise her head from the water when Ætheron spoke as she had gone to drink some water right away when they had arrived, and after his question she tilted her head, she didn't understand Ætheron's question, she hadn't yet learned the words for 'question' and 'know', so all she got was that she was asked about her willingness to something. If Ætheron  didn't right away seem like he understood that she hadn't understood the question, she would say "I want..." before making a confused noise in place of 'know something' and shrugging. 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron thought for a moment but shrugged before waving off the question in an attempt to convey it wasn't important. Looks like that's beyond her for now, maybe after the next language lesson. He'd wait a bit longer in the stream before turning to continue their journey, "You need to learn more words before we can do that, I don't know how else to ask if you have a question." For emphasis he'd pull out the language books when he said 'learn more words' to try and correlate the word learn with the books.

If their travel wasn't hindered they'd continue until nightfall before setting up camp as before, this time in a cave with a vantage from which they could see the city in the distance over the tree canopy.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga tilted her head to the opposite direction but returned to drinking when it seemed it hadn't been important. When Ætheron spoke again, she still couldn't figure out what exactly he was saying, but him pointing at the book told her that it was most likely related to her learning more words. After she had drank enough, Ædriga was ready to go, she didn't mind the constant moving, quite opposite actually, because being on the move made her feel safer since it lowered the chance that something would hunt them down. 

When they arrived at the spot they were going to set up camp, Ædriga wouldn't be much help until Ætheron addressed her because she had gotten stuck staring at the city in the distance, she may have seen it when she flew to Equestria, but this was the first time she really looked at it, and considering that she had never seen a intact city with lights and such, it caught her attention. 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron was fine setting up the camp by himself, he'd done it plenty of times before. Besides, he was content to let Ædriga enjoy the view of the city as long as she liked.

Once the camp was set up and the small fire started he went to join her, sitting as close as she would allow up to about a foot away, "That is Fillydelphia" he pointed to the city, "Many ponies live there, some griffons too."

He couldn't remember if he had shown her a griffon yet, so he took a patch of the dirt to draw one with a pony to emphasize the difference between the races. Then he drew a pony with bat wings before pausing, then he drew a pony of each type, he'd point to each drawing, "That's a unicorn, that's a pegasus, that's an earth pony, that's a bat pony or thestral, and that is an alicorn." In another group he drew some of the other creatures he'd encountered, "This is a rock dog, a changeling, a deer, a griffon."

He gestured to the pony group, "Those are all ponies," he gestured to the second group, "These are not ponies." he then drew a third group with the animals they had seen like a bird, a rabbit, and a manticore, "And these are animals." He circled the first two groups, "These are friends", he circled the animal group, "These are food." He pointed to the city, "Friends" he pointed to the forest, "Food."

He'd then check if Ædriga understood what he was saying.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga was going to try to repeat the place's name, but after going through it in her head few times she decided that it was better saved for later when her pronunciation was better.

She hadn't been shown Griffon yet, so when it was first drawn, she said "Bird Pony." pointing at it, but this time it wasn't a question, as she knew she would probably learn the real name for it soon, she just wanted to point out it looked like a bird-pony.

Like usually, she repeated the words after Ætheron, and deer was the only one she had a word for in her language, she would then point at the groups in the same order as Ætheron and name each of them "Pony." "No pony." "Animal..." she had to repeat the word 'animal' few times to get it correct, but she seemed to get it. There was a one things she was confused about though, and it wasn't the fact she didn't fully get what was meant by 'food' other than that they apparently lived in the forest.

She pointed at the deer "Deer friend? No?" she made eating motions "There, deer." she made the eating motions again "no friend...deer animal there." 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

11 hours ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

She hadn't been shown Griffon yet, so when it was first drawn, she said "Bird Pony." pointing at it, but this time it wasn't a question, as she knew she would probably learn the real name for it soon, she just wanted to point out it looked like a bird-pony.

Ætheron chuckled for a moment before correcting the name, "Griffon no like name bird-pony, but is funny."

12 hours ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

She pointed at the deer "Deer friend? No?" she made eating motions "There, deer." she made the eating motions again "no friend...deer animal there." 

Ætheron had a bit more somber expression, but nodded, "I thought as much given how I met you," he said more to himself than to Ædriga. He thought for a moment then continued, he mimicked her eating motion, "Eat", then pointed to the animal category and the forest "food" another idea struck him, and he got some food from his pack, "food." he hoped she could correlate Food as something one eats.

Regardless, she seemed to get the idea that friends were not for eating, which was the important part of the lesson anyway. He pulled out the language learning books and put them where Ædriga could easily access them before he returned to the fire to cook one of the rabbits to accompany his dinner, leaving another and a pheasant to sate Ædriga for the night if she were hungry. "Fire cook food, make safe for me to eat."

He'd be content to watch and help Ædriga learn until the sun had fully set, at which point he'd get ready to sleep.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga nodded and half-muttered the words 'food' and 'eat' to herself with small gestures that indicated that she seemed to get the idea. She also nodded to the point about cooking food, because though she didn't understand most of the words, she guessed the meaning based on what she knew about Ætheron.

She would start studying the same book she had had earlier, and would again write the alphabet on the ground, she started with the page that had basic questions, as that was something she had noticed was causing trouble for them to communicate with each other, after which she would go to where was the basics of meeting a new friend, and so on and so on.

 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron pondered to himself as he watched Ædriga study, he had never thought of himself as much of a tutor nor a trainer, yet here he was teaching a dragon to speak Common. Further, he had a desire within to teach her other things as well. He found himself thinking how he could teach her stealth, how to lay a trap or wield a sword. How to prepare food and mend wounds. Everything he had learned in his travels had new meaning as he considered how he could show them to her. Perhaps it was those fatherly instincts kicking in.

He sighed happily as he settled in to sleep while Ædriga studied, time would tell how their relationship progressed.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ætheron would find that if the time came, things like stealth and traps were already something Ædriga knew, after all, she came from a place where staying hidden and catching prey were matter of life and death, and even for things like wielding a weapon and taking care of wounds were somewhat familiar to her due to the need of surviving alone, but some details were different, for example, instead of using medical supplies to take care of a broken leg, she would have used branches from trees and vines or something similar.

Ædriga continued with learning for some time after Ætheron went to sleep, but she too would eventually head to rest, but not before eating what was left for her to eat. She still wasn't sure how to feel about Ætheron, sure he was a friend, or non-hostile like she saw it, that much she could tell, but since things like friendship and family were unfamiliar concepts to her, she didn't know how to rationalize and explain the positive feeling she got out of this. 

 

[Illiad Easle 3,127]

@Catpone Cerberus

Provided nothing happened during the night, Ætheron would get up just after sunrise and get busy preparing their stuff for the day's travel, they were only a few hours away from the city, so they'd be at the office by midday.

The thought gave him pause however. Unlike Ponyville, the Fillydelphia office was near the center of the city, which would mean that either Ædriga would need to wait on her own for some time, much longer than in Ponyville, or accompany him through the busy streets. He wasn't confident she had progressed far enough to be comfortable in such a state, and he wondered if he could explain the situation to her adequately.

He would wait for her to get up by looking though her study book to see how far she had gotten, and as such get a sense of the words she was familiar with so he could use them to explain.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,588]

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga got up and stretched, her injuries still hurt a bit but that was to be expected, it took her few seconds again to remember where she was, she was surprised she could sleep as well as she did, though she was still haunted by bad dreams so she didn't necessarily enjoy it.

She filled her lungs with the morning air, she had studied quite a lot last evening, and besides learning more foal-friendly words, she had also figured out the words used in questions, though funnily enough the word 'question' wasn't one of the words she learned. She had also looked at the page with time related things, but it had only made her realize something, she didn't know how Ætheron and other creatures around here counted time, her kind didn't have clocks or calendars, so pictures with those in the book didn't help her at all.

There was one thing she had got out of that page though "Morning." she said, butchering the pronunciation, but at least one could understand what she was trying to say.