[Flashback] A most unusual birthday. (Louie Wein)

[Alea Davenport]

Spring 66, 511

It was Alea's birthday, and she was running for her life.

Well, not her life, precisely. The children she knew had invented a game. The rules were that, on your birthday, everyone would grab you and dump you into the ocean, while you struggled to escape. It was supposed to be a fun way for everyone to practice wrestling or something, but Alea didn't see the appeal. She considering getting thrown into the ocean as losing, even though the odds were deliberately impossible. She didn't really like losing.

Right now, she was running from a small mob of children, most of whom were her older sister's friends. She was breathing in painful gasps. She couldn't keep running away forever; she needed a place to hide. Then she noticed that she was about to run past the Lyceum. Her sister wasn't a scholar; she'd never look for Alea in here!

Putting on a last burst of speed, she raced to the closest door she could find, yanked it open, dove through and slammed it shut behind her. She leaned against the door panting heavily. A few moments later, she heard a pack of older kids run past. When they were gone, she finally relaxed and looked around the room she'd entered. Then she froze with tension again when she realized there was someone else here.

[Louie Wein]

Having nothing interesting going on for the day except for the birthday of a fifteen year old girl which was completely negligible unless by some chance she was captured and drowned in the ocean as soon as she was thrown in, Louie decided to brush up on languages. No doubt that everyone in Denval spoke in common even with a little unique accent but they had other people coming in. His worst language was Vani from those vantha who lived in Avanthal. Just how could they live in that frozen land. The thought was treated with curiousity when you have only lived in Denval. When they came to Denval for whatever reason, they changed to more suitable clothes so Louie could not really pick much from them except a little bit of their languages.

Louie read out the words as he read them. Unlike the way a real vantha would say them, Louie's words went along very dull and stretched as opposed to the exciting variety. He still could not grasp the concept of why he had to explain with so many words that he was just tall and why he had to use a whole paragraph to say that he just wrote words as a hobby. In common it was so much easier. After saying what he wanted to in Vani, he repeated them in common. "I am Louie. A tall man who writes things which happen in my hometown." It only took him a tenth of the time to say it all. Lovely. Practicing Vani was going to be a long process since he would neither have the patience or interest to keep at it.

Until he heard the slamming on the door, Louie was trying to explain about why a dire polar bear would not fit into his wagon. No wait he didn't say that. What he actually said was that he wanted to to have a bunny down his pants while he was running away from a man? "Petch all this! Its not like I will be speaking this in Denval" unless of course he was talking to a vantha. Just like the girl was frozen with tension, Louie was frozen with shame hoping that no one had just heard his sudden outburst. Worst still understand Vani and translated what he had just said.

[Alea Davenport]

Despite having picked up a few words of Vani, the man's accent was so terrible that she couldn't even tell what language he was speaking, much less what he was saying. She assumed his outburst was directed at her, and she had the strong feeling that she wasn't supposed to be here. Certainly, disturbing older scholarly types for no better reason than to escape other children would not go over well. But she couldn't go back outside either, not with her sister's friends chasing her. She would have to come up with an excuse to be here.

Trying to disguise the fact that she was still breathing heavily and shaking slightly from exertion, she walked up to the man's desk and took a seat across from him. Trying to remember the purpose of this building, she put on her biggest smile and said, "Hello. My name is Alea. I am here to learn things!" She spoke in Denvali, of course. Everyone in Denval spoke Denvali. It was the language she spoke at home and was most comfortable with, despite having learned some Common along with the other children. She leaned back in the chair and waited for the man's response, figuring that as long as she was here, she should make the best of it.

[Louie Wein]

Louie watched in surprise at the entrance of the newcomer. He was not much of a scholarly type who learned for the sake of knowledge and more of a person who seeked knowledge for the sake of wanting to know more. He would start with Denval first before continuing on to the rest of the world. Where could be a better place to learn about than the place he had grown up and learned about his whole life? Even Vani was for this reason since a lot of those vantha's came to the town after discovering it. Alea could even be better at the language compared to Louie for all he knew.

Hearing her question Louie would shut his book asking "so?" Would he really be interested about the reason that she was here? The Lyceum was a place to learn so her intentions would not be too out of the ordinary. Putting away the book and taking another from the stack Alea would know that "as long as you don't disturb my reading I am fine with it." It was another book for vani and if Alea looked at the title she would know it was just another book for children. Even if she did not she will soon enough.

Because Louie was going to read it aloud again. He needed to hear himself of what he was saying so that he may compare it with what he has heard before but as there was another around now he would not say it too loud. It would not be good to be hypocritical about it after how he himself was annoyed when Alea stormed it. And he started again chanting "ice and snow all year around" in vani on a typical characteristic of Avanthal, only to those who knew the language would hear it as something completely different and horrible up to their own interpretation. There was just too many words for Louie to get it all right.

[Alea Davenport]

Don't disturb his reading, huh? Alea could do that. Really she could. The easiest way to not disturb him would be to leave, but... the other children would be after her all day; she really was safest in here. Besides, she'd just told this man that she was here to learn things. If she left now, that would completely blow her cover story!

Swinging her legs under the table, she looked around at the various books on the table. Many seemed to be books about the Vani language. That seemed to be what this man was studying, and it sounded painful. She decided to try to find something else to pretend to learn.

Then a book sticking out from the bottom of the pile caught her eye. She grabbed it to get a better look...

She should have seen it coming. The entire pile toppled over onto the floor. Embarrassed, she rushed to pick up the other books. She closed and stacked them neatly, trying to smooth the ruffled pages of the ones that had fallen open.

Setting the stack back on the table, she took a closer look at the book that had caused all the trouble. It had a picture on the front of a huge creature with a sort-of human-looking face with a lot of wrinkles and really big nostrils. She sounded out the title, which was in Common. "Ja-mou-ra." She held the book out to the man across from her and asked, "What's this one about?"

[Louie Wein]

It takes a lot of concentration to get something new and...repetitive because after a while even the mistakes start to sound right just as an excuse to get out of the time consuming practice. Louie was continuing with the next few lengthy sentences on Avanthal cuisine which the menu included things which did not sound "delicious and fresh" as he repeated over and over again between Common and Vani. He was just about to move over to the next bit when something really had happened. Louie should have known better than to ignore a bored youth based on his own experiences at the Academy but he was really caught off guard that he would encounter something like this in the Lyceum.

As long as the Vani words were, the sound of toppling books was even louder and it ended with Louie slamming his book quite annoyed as he looked at the girl and told her angrily in Vani "what are you up to!" which should be able to give her an idea just how much he did not like her interruption even if she did not know the language itself. Once he was done, Louie realized that he might have gotten some words wrong and flipped through the pages again to see if he can find the right terms but the girl interrupted again by putting a book in front of him.

Louie had read a little bit if that before and answered "it is about monkeys who are as smart as you and me." Well Louie actually since no one would actually take a book straight from the bottom of a stack. Actually... "they are smarter than you and me, capable of taking over the world with their bestial strength and great intelligence. What's more is, these books belong to one. I sure would hate it if he came back and found out. You better run away fast!" It was a poor lie but Louie could not be bothered with the details as long as he could be left in peace with his reading again.

[Alea Davenport]

At Louie's warning, Alea, dropped the book and stood up, poised to run, straining her senses to detect an angry monster on approach. It wasn't that she believed his tale about them taking over the world, but the threat of an angry adult was real enough. Unfortunately, she remembered that the mob of children was also roaming around outside, which made this the only potentially safe place for the rest of the day.

After thinking quickly for a few moments, Alea managed to find a solution. She sat back down calmly and said, "If he comes, I'll just hide." Bored almost immediately, she decided to see how likely his story really was. "If they're so smart that they can take over the world, why haven't they done it yet? And how did they get so smart?"

[Louie Wein]

This girl seemed like a very smart person deciding to take her chances with the non-existent jamoura in the Lyceum but very much real in the world. "The reason that they have not taken over the world is because it is not in their nature. Also if you do not know it yet the whole world is not like Denval, there are places which are really bad. If you were as smart as them do you want to waste your time fighting for a spoiled banana when there are so many others that you can eat on you?" The first part Louie knew only because he read that book that the girl was talking about among some others about the jamoura. The second part was more of a guess because from what he read about the rest of the world, Louie himself would prefer to live in the Denval he loved without needing to go out and expose himself to any dangers. It was true that citizens of Denval were taught to defend themselves and their home but it was no reason to go out looking for troubles on his own.

As for how did they get so smart "I don't know." Louie had not gotten that far with learning about the jamoura yet but the pride of being a teacher in him would not allow this girl to know that there are things that he did not know about. "It is the same as us. You don't ask about how we got so smart" because its a subject which humans would prefer not to know to give that illusion of superiority. Gesturing to the shelves at the side Louie gave an invitation that "you are welcome to try and find out for yourself if there is anything about it in these books. I'd recommend that one over there if you want to learn about humanoid physiology" or in less technical terms for the benefit of the youth "how did these monkeys become something more than animals even if they look the same."

"If you get stuck on anything, then I might just help you but until then I will be continuing with my book" and he hoped that he can finish it without any interruptions. He randomly flipped to another page and read out aloud in vani throughout whatever the girl wanted to do. Yes, the language was actually that long and Louie's poor grasp in it did not make it any better. It was quite bad that it is impossible to even put what he said in common so hopefully the girl was more interested in the jamoura than whatever it was that Louie was trying to say.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea tried to read the book, she really did. But it was just so boring. She couldn't get past the first paragraph without her mind drifting off to something else. Then, when she returned to the book, she would have to start over. Finally, she slammed the book shut with a sigh. There had to be SOMEthing more interesting in here. What was the guy so engrossed in?

With no sense of decorum or manners, Alea jumped up and ran around the table, peering over his shoulder to try to see what was occupying his attention so well. It took her a few moments to recognize the characters on the page as Vani. She knew a little of their alphabet, so she tried copying what the man was doing, reading aloud from the book. Her accent was atrocious, she pronounced and some of the words incorrectly, but she still kept trying. It was more interesting than reading dusty old history books anyway.

[Louie Wein]

The girl was no different than the rest of the students that Louie might find himself teaching in the academy. The sighing alerted Louie that he might have given her a rather hard subject but without averting his eyes from his book he told her accidentally in Vani quite harshly to "go on" before repeating it again in common when he realized his mistake. Being forced to concentrate on two different things is rather hard and to try and get the girl to read on her own he commented that "with that attitude you are not going to be able to learn much" and with her peeking over his shoulder he soon found out that he would not be able to learn either especially with her equally bad command in the language.

Louie shut the book for a few moments to pay attention to what the girl would answer when he asked if "you know the language of Avanthal too?" Now why would she do that? For Louie the answer was simple since he might sometimes need to interview the newcomers from that city. Looking across the table he saw the tome that lost the girl attention knowing that he himself unless he needed to would never touch it either. With a sigh he offered that "if you are not going to be halfbaked in the language then we can learn it together but if you are going to give up and start distracting me again you can leave now." Either way worked for Louie. He would get someone to get feedback from or he would get some much needed peace and quiet for himself.