[Sanctuary] To teach is to care [Kavala]

[Sorian]

10th day of Summer, 510 AV Despite the recent troubles which had overshadowed the stretch of Sanctuary's confines in recent days, its denizens had remained quite peaceful. its proprietor, Kavala, had been into many rough hearings from the Akalak council, and was roaming free for now, free to spend her time in her chores and her various jobs. Awsten was always there, always moving discreetly about without fanfare as he always had been. Raiha comes around every once in awhile, and so does Hatot, Flick and their other friends. However, one particular regular in the Sanctuary has been acting quite strangely for some time now, so mysteriously in fact that he had completely been able to avoid meeting any of the others despite the fact that he was often there for very short periods of time. Sorian had been spending much time away from Sanctuary and Kavala, even during the daytime, when it is his turn to man their shared body away from Navis' control. It is not known where he usually spends his leisure, but sometimes he could be spotted swimming furiously along the giant waves of the beach below the cliffs surrounding the tranquil paradise, catching all sorts of creatures ranging from tuna to sharks. Some mariners from boats far from the shore have even thought him to be some sort of legendary sea creature, or perhaps Laviku himself, but he has never stayed in others' sights long enough for better speculations to be hypothesized. He often brings some sort of injured animal home for the resident hands to take care of, usually a deer or a bird, and then whisks away without saying hello to anybody. Whenever he finds something that needed to be done around the place, he tries his best to do it for Kavala before leaving again, never staying for her to find him working. When she does see him, he merely turns, smiles wistfully and then runs along, going down his own way, taking nothing but his suvai with him. The whole of spring's final weeks he had spent this way, dating all the way back to his return to Sanctuary. Perhaps Kavala didn't find his remoteness and seclusion disturbing at all; after all, he had run away before, and even before that he--or at least Navis and their body--had been spending much of night time in the sea of grass hunting down prey for him and Mao to eat. However this time Sorian was basically trying to live down the words he had said to her: he was trying to live his life as best he could for himself. By the looks of it, he was very much succeeding. The truth is quite far from the case, however; he was actually quite lonely. One early day, Sorian found something that he could do again. Looking at Sivak's stable, he could see an overhead beam that was hanging pretty low from the roof over the stallion. Quickly he picked up a hammer and some nails and stretched himself long, pounding on it as discreetly as he could. The horse woke up from his noise, however, and turned around to poke his exposed abdomen with its head. "S-stop it, Sivak... That... Tickles," Sorian said, almost in a chirp-like tone, as he smiled while working, working on strengthening the paddles of wood that held it together. He was so into his work that he didn't notice anything much, and his mind was calm despite Sivak's rubbing.

[Kavala]

Sorian and his feral ways might have bothered a lot of people. He simply didn't have the same needs a lot of men of his race had. Sorian would much rather rage at the storm than take shelter from it. Cowering wasn't in his nature. So he was quick to forgo the niceties of roofs and warm beds and hot meals. It wasn't that Kavala didn't catch him lounging on the Veranda once in a while, having slept stretched out on one of the wooden lounge chairs designed specifically for napping. But when she did catch his moon-like orbit bringing him near Sanctuary's sun, she'd often lay clean towels out on his prone form along with a cake of soap, strongly suggesting he go take himself a bath. It wasn't that he stunk - he didn't. It wasn't that he wasn't clean - he was. It was simply that she liked to remind him that civilization had its benefits and bathing in hot soapy water was one of them.

She also appreciated the help. Their relationship had deepened into a broad scale friendship that Kavala rather enjoyed. She could do for him (leaving leftovers in a pot warming by the fire when she suspected he'd be in) and taking and dressing out the meat he sometimes left when he'd killed something that was too big for him to eat all at once.

It was like having an overly large feral cat that darkened her doorway and sometimes left offerings. Only this one smiled, laughed, and just seemed a whole lot more ... healthier... than she'd ever seen him be.

So.. it was during one of those overnighters that he had slumbered on the Veranda in the warm summer night that he awoke to find Kavala perched on the edge of his wooden lounge chair rather than the usual cake of soap and small mountain of towels. It did, after all, take a great deal of towels to dry someone that large.

The healer smiled brightly, opened her mouth, and instead of greeting him in her usual slightly accented Pavi - she said the strangest thing in broken Tukant.

"Sunrise Good to Me... Morning bitter pineapple give me can I you have." Her expression was delighted, as if this was to surprise him. And he realized suddenly she was holding a bowl of oranges... decidedly not pineapple. At first, he might have suspected that she had been struck in the head multiple times during the night. But as his brain came more awake, he realized she was offering him a greeting (albeit completely messed up) in Tukant and trying to offer him some sort of breakfast of oranges as well. It was perhaps the worst attempt at Tukant he'd yet heard, made worse by her soft alto and Pavi accent.

Kavala simply smiled, unaware of her mistake (she did after all look this up in a book in the library on Tukant and was fairly confident she'd said everything right!), proudly laid the bowl of oranges down on his bare chest and patted his shoulder.

One thing was obvious. If the whole of Riverfall hadn't spoken Common as well as they did, Kavala would absolutely be in trouble.

[Sorian]

After a very long and troubled night spent tussling and turning in sleep, Sorian woke up to the call of the roosters and the light of day. Rubbing his eyes and clearing his sight as he sat up, he was startled to find Kavala sitting next to him with a sunny enough smile and a bowl of fruits that greeted him with a fine thought; it was going to be a very pleasant day in Sanctuary.

Just several hours ago, Navis was so grumpy over the boredom of his night that he decided to return to Sanctuary in hopes that he will find something interesting to toy with. There he found nothing but the assorted, loud snores and peaceful breathing of its sleeping inhabitants, none of whom stirred when he tried yelling and yodeling around to wake everybody up. Flustered and embarrassed, he retreated to the heavy sound of incessant grumbling until he got even more bored and felt sleepy enough, plopping down on the flat wooden bench to call it a night.

He returned the smile wistfully as he always have, planning to eat the offerings and then leave immediately without saying anything. Kavala's strange greeting, however, caught him off guard. It scrounged up his face into dents of confusion, and he tilted his head at her playfully, keeping his smile on.

What was Kavala trying to say? The sunrise is kind? A bitter pineapple? She was going to share? He didn't see any pineapples. If she had meant the oranges, she was being very confusing indeed. He was no expert in his native language either, but even though he didn't know the tougher, deeper words, he could understand the rudiments.

It certainly did not look like a pineapple to him at all.

Sorian was about to respond in common, but settled for something else. "Find understand fine yes goat. Not something do goat me residence canal?" He responded in his own Pavi, as best he could. He has been around the Drykas enough to understand and speak their language a little--although he was completely unsure if what he said brought his message across. Even though it was definitely odd that his speech impediment whisked away somewhere else when he used another language, it was probably very, very off-putting all the same. He had meant to tell her: "I think your choice of words is a bit off. Is there anything I can do for you while I'm here?"

[Kavala]

Kavala laughed, delighted at Sorian's attempt at Pavi. It was so far off she had no idea what he was saying to her, but that could be excused. "I think we both are a little off on our vocabulary, don't you? So... yes there is something you can do for me today if you are inclined. How about helping me work on my Tukant? I want to be able to talk to the people here." She said softly, then returned his look with one of her own as she offered a trade.

"In exchange, I can teach you more Pavi. It sounds as if you obviously need some - about as much as I need help with my Tukant." She said with a laugh, and then began walking around the room. "I figure we can work on vocabulary and pronunciation first. A word for a word, if you will." She picked up a wooden mug sitting on the Veranda and then spoke what she thought was the tukant word for it, then the pavi word. "Mug." Kavala said, then stated what it was made of... "Wood." It was a slightly ridiculous, and she felt silly for doing it, but Kavala was determined to improve her vocabulary and the way words were put together in Tukant.

It was her firm belief that repetition and use of the new words over and over again would have them creep into her vocabulary and stick there. She knew she couldn't learn Tukant overnight, but she could begin to improve so that merchants in the market wouldn't cheat her, and she'd understand the low whispers she often heard in town of people conversing as they made their way here and there during the course of their days.

"So what do you say? Will you help me?" She said in common, then tried to repeat it both in Tukant, and Pavi. The Tukant asked him to puck her as one would a chicken, though the pavi coming from her lips was smooth and lyrical.

[Sorian]

For the first time in awhile, Sorian actually laughed, a low, controlled rendition. Her attempts to speak his language was almost comically painful to listen to, but it was of course endearing and a lot of fun to think through. How could he refuse such a nice proposition? Even though he was pensive about her reason, he too needed the tutoring in the language of Cyphrus' denizens. All that he knew about Pavi was what he had heard Kavala and Akela talk with, and even when what they were talking about was somewhat obvious sometimes, both the fundamentals and the intricacies were lost to him.

A light smile was offered by the Akalak before he repeated the chosen word in the Drykas language. "M-m-u-g-g." His tongue struggled to find the correct stress and intonation behind it, wondering secretly if it was simply Kavala's own accent or it was the actual pronunciation of the word that was keeping him from running it smoothly from his mouth. He pouted for a second before attempting to say, "W-o-o-d-d" next, then proceeded to straighten his face.

He nodded slowly but happily. "Its... A deal, then," he spoke in his usual low-pitched voice in common language. He lent out a hand to take hold of the mug, letting his gentle hands peruse the rough texture of it. "Mug," he uttered in Tukant, raising deep blue eyes to hers to see if she was following along. "Wood."

Taking one of the fat oranges in the basket, he sat more relaxingly, propping his back up against the bench's handle. "Orange," he whispered before mechanically peeling it and offering some to Kavala. Every word was deep enough to be mistaken for a grunt, but they were without his usual broken intonations and long dead-air pauses. Another smile, another word, then an entire sentence was born. "Basket of oranges."

He was getting the hang of it, repeating the word "Mug" and "Wood" over and over again under his breath and practicing it as he waited to judge her own performance.

[Kavala]

She laughingly corrected his accent by grabbing his jawline and mimicking his tone of voice while moving his lower mandible. "Mug. Wood. My mug is made of wood. I can drink tea or beer or wine or water from it... even blood if Navis is having a bad day." Kavala said in perfect pavi before she released Sorian's jawline with a laugh and repeated the phrase in Tukant. She got the mug and wood part right, but she horribly mangled the word drink and it sounded more like vomit, while blood turned into bile in her sentence. She paused to see if he'd correct her - which she knew she needed since she didn't have nearly the vocabulary in Tukant that she had in Pavi. Even her Kontinese was passable.

When he took the orange and peeled it, she repeated the word and issued forth the one she thought meant 'peel' though it truthfully meant 'skin'. Kavala neatly said Sorian was skinning the orange, which was in fact truthful but horribly inaccurate. She took the offered orange with a perfect 'Thank you' in Tukant which she repeated in Pavi. It wasn't hard since she'd picked it up in the market. Then she attempted to say 'I'll really do love oranges." Which came out as a "I bark oranges!" with the bark emphasized properly rather than the word 'really' used which was correct in Tukant. She repeated the phrase in Pavi for him.

Kavala just grinned. It was going to be a long long day, Sorian could tell.

[Sorian]

Sorian tilted his head as Kavala spoke in both languages,. Repeating it produced a tolerable result... That is, if jibberish and monkey-sounds were tolerable. ""Mog. Wud. My mog... is made of wud. I... can dreenk tea, or bear, or wine, or water from it... even blood if... Navis... is having a bad day." There was a noticeable perplexion at the reference to his dark half, but he carried on practicing. At least their relationship was only going to get better in the long run.

Even he knew he didn't get the words right, but his memory was working perfectly. At least he could remember the words themselves for later usage, and he at least has common in his side to use. "Mo-mug. Mug. Wuo-wood. Wood." The akalak repeated the words again and again until they were sufficiently burned into his mind.

He mustered a rather embarrassed smile at her attempts to get the correct Tukant sounds. He secretly wondered if she had something stuck in her throat, but it was smooth and easy enough for him to conclude that there wasn't. "You mis... pronounced 'drink', say it like this. 'Drink". Again, he paused and took a breath. "Drink. Drink. Mug. Wood. My mug is made of wood. I can drink tea or beer or wine or water from it... even blood if Akela is having itchy fingers."

He was almost sure that somehow, somewhere, Akela just bit her tongue.

Both eyebrows perked up at her next words, which was odd to say the least. "Well... I don't know if there are... Any barking oranges, Kavala." Sorian grinned, then took the konti's own jaw into a large, encompassing hand, stroking feeling her chin gently before telling her in common, "Repeat... After, me. I..."

He placed a hand on her heart, feeling the placid but excited beat as he continued, "...Love, oranges. I love oranges." His Tukant also sounded rather provincial compared to, say, Hatot's perhaps, but he did try his best.

Somehow, a few vague words in Tukant escaped from Sorian's lips without thinking as he was staring into her her mesmerizing eyes. He didn't even know that he said it at all. "I love you." Kavala might have known the sentence, for it was always a good choice to start learning a language from.

[Kavala]

There was an ease to dealing with Sorian these days that spoke less of 'dealing with' and more like the blossoming of a really good friendship. Kavala was different around him, softer, more out there and vulnerable when they spent time together. She laughed more easily and kept herself less withdrawn - he could tell time had been good to her and her own healing had progressed.

She laughed at his accent, and caused him to laugh at hers as they both struggled to move away from what their mouths and minds knew and more towards the traditions of the other. Kavala seemed almost unable to form Tukant sounds until she really watched the way Sorian moved his mouth and began to copy that. Kontinese was a brief language full of words that had so many meanings only a few syllables were able to replace whole sentences. Tukant was just the opposite, a language filled with words upon words so what a Konti could say with a word or two an Akalak could repeat in Tukant with seemingly a paragraph.

But once she mastered the sound production, she started picking it up fast. Konti were known for their language skills and Kavala was no exception. So she repeated after Sorian, again and again, until she got it right. Then, she repeated the word love, oranges, and I love oranges until she understood. Once she truly understood, a smile lit her face and she turned to look at Sorian triumphantly.

His next words, however, gave her pause. She faltered, staring at him, as he formed the words and let them wash over her. Kavala knew what he said. It was comprised of too many other words she already knew. They seemed vague, as if Sorian didn't even know what he was doing, and that surprised her most of all. She came over to him, hugged him gently, and brushed a wayward strand of hair from his face. Then she rose up on the tips of her toes and kissed the scar where Navis had stabbed himself that night. "I love you too, my crazy Akalak friends... both of you." She said softly with a smile. The truth was, she might not be where she was mentally without Sorians help and guidance. It was through him she'd found the courage to open up a little more and come out of her shell. She knew, for the whole of their lives, that Sorian would be her friend. Navis, however, was a totally different story. He needed a lot of work before he was remotely safe to call her a friend.

"Does this mean I have to watch my back at night for Navis' wrath?" She asked in Tukant, her word for wrath was actually 'eruption' which was fitting in a way, but otherwise he could understand pretty well what she said. Navis had a tendency to kill things that distracted Sorian - and eliminate them from his life so they no longer provided such a distraction. Sorian's mate had been just one of many such eliminations, though Kavala suspected it was the one that had harmed Sorian the most. Mao, thus far, had seemed to prove the exception. But she wasn't joking. Kavala was serious. There was no way she'd joke over something so sensitive. But it was a legitimate question. "Or does he understand that I'd never distract you or cause you harm in the way he worries a woman would?" She clarified, hopeful that Navis did know.

There were other things they should talk about as well... Hatot being first and foremost on her mind. But she wasn't certain it was a good time or place to talk about it. Kavala studied him a moment and then came right out with the fact - knowing Sorian probably already knew. "Sorian... I've been with Hatot. I thought you should know - if you hadn't figured it out already. We aren't actively trying to reproduce, but there's a possibility I'm already carrying his child. We didn't actively attempt prevent one." The Konti said softly in broken Tukant. She repeated the words in Pavi. The truth was, Konti gestated for a season longer than normal humans and once they were pregnant, it was incredibly hard to tell they were until at least a season had passed. Then, generally, the only way they'd know was their food cravings would change and so too would their obsessions. Two seasons out, they would begin to physically show changes to their body.

[Sorian]

Sorian did not look like, and certainly did not act like it often, but he was very crafty and has a knack for finding unusual solutions to complicated things. What's more, he has a very nice memory and a good pick-up, so to say. He almost did not recall what he said, but when Kavala embraced him and pampered him softly and lovingly, he got the idea that he said something she liked very much, and smiled clumsily in response.

The smile turned wan, almost serious when she asked about how Navis would react, but there was a confidence in him that said he already knew what to say and how to respond. Apparently she hadn't spoken to Navis in a long time, thus she wouldn't know how mellowed-out he had become since the days when he was a real threat. He took Kavala's face back into his hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "No... Don't worry. Navis won't hurt you." He said it in passable Pavi, then said it in almost flawless Tukant. Like Kav, he was starting to get the sounds right; he simply had to twist his tongue a little as he said it.

The touch and squeeze, however, slowly rescinded, pulling away at her next words. There was no shock, no bitterness. There was only pain.

He responded in Pavi sadly, almost angrily, the lock of their eyes drifting off into the distant wilderness. "Yes... I know." The giant stayed silent, unable to say anything or even look at her, as if her confirming words had been a hammer to the head that he had been waiting for for a long time. The weight that it brought to him was crushing, although it was not as bad as it would have been had he been caught without any idea about the matter.

The first time he laid eyes on another Akalak residing in Sanctuary, he had no doubt as to the nature of his residence. Hatot was far taller, more handsome and definitely more highly regarded than he in Riverfall. Compared to him, what could he possibly offer Kavala, other than a life broken by its own turmoils? He was a hunted fugitive, he shouldn't even be living in Sanctuary at all in the first place. The long scar she had kissed seemed to pump into renewed rupture, slowly encasing his mind into a retelling of the facets and facts of his life that made any sort of union impossible for him. If it had not been for the nature of their friendship--a part of him which transcended both his love and her relationship with Hatot--he would have fled right then and there.

Instead he sighed nonchalantly and did his best to look unaffected. "I hope... you're happy. Is he... Treating you well?" Common words in Pavi for sure, ones that he said with the same grace that he had shown during their first heart-to-heart talk, the one that took place on the same day of his return to Sanctuary.

[Kavala]

Kavala simply stared at Sorian for a moment, watching with surprise as emotions crossed his face. Then he shrugged, nochalantly, and put on what she considered was one of his best masks. She answered him quietly in Tukant.

"If not, you will be around to talk some sense into him right?" It came out more like "You will be on the ground to beat some values on him incorrect?" But the message came across loud and clear. Then she switched to Pavi, speaking slowly. "It is what it is, Sorian. The Council gave me a deadline. I have to accept someone before fall and be pregnant. You know what I am, Sorian. I'm not even a real citizen. I have less rights than a slave and just a tad more value than a pet male Kelvic, though not by much. Frankly, your presence here along with Hatot's have all but kept people away. I'm more grateful for that than you can know. I know you aren't considered savory company, but they are afraid of you in many ways... well not you but Navis. If you and Hatot hadn't been here, I'd be forced to go with the first man who showed up and claimed his rights. That's what a Nakivak is, Sorian... a sanctioned broodmare. We have the right to remain silent and spread our legs to the first man who thinks there is potential in us." She said softly, blinking, the weight of what she was forcing her thoughts in an odd direction - one that made her sad.

What she didn't say was that she'd offered herself to him once upon a time and he'd turned her down. She knew the value of having a full time lover and being a Nakivak. It meant she didn't have to loose her choice of partners. "So, in that way yes, Hatot treats me very very well, Sorian. His presence in my life and in my bed protects me from what is simply sanctioned rape. The rest is coming with time. He has a rite to plan for - one he might not even survive. But we take it one step at a time." But it was more than that too. They both knew it. There was a heat between the Konti and the young Akalak. They exchanged glances. They sometimes held a conversation with only half spoken sentences or gestures. And sometimes Hatot stayed over, joining her and her sister and all the kelvics that frequented the place as if he had every right to be there. If Kavala was already pregnant, then indeed Hatot had every right and then some. The Nakivak were rarely if ever taken for wives. But if Kavala produced a child, especially a boy, her status in the community would go up - after all proven broodmares were valuable.

Then she waited for him to say more... to do more, but she suspected he wouldn't. This was a new side of Sorian, on she hadn't seen for a long long time. The calmness with no sign of rolling anger beneath.