Miscommunication [Alia]

[Atoll Northwind]

Alia didn’t answer his question about staying and Atoll didn’t push. He could see a slight star-struck expression on her face. As if the thought of her whole life hadn’t occurred to her until that moment, even though she’d obviously chosen to live in the city. It made him curious as to why she’d left her home, he wanted to ask her more about Wind Reach but it wasn’t his place to pry unless he was willingly to dish out some tales of his own. And that wasn’t what they were there for. So when she continued with the lesson he nodded agreeably. “Cat! Aye! Petchin’ fuballs, always bitin’ me.” Atoll paused, he knew some of his words might be silly but he didn’t use them enough to know them. Yet, Alia had not said a word about it. Even though they’d been at it for awhile. A quick glance at the water and the way the sun was reflecting off it told him they’d been there for at least bell, maybe more because it hadn’t been that way before. “I not use chairs, don’t use the word much, too. Zulphyia ain’t gonna let anyone sit for very long even if I had one.” “Chair, cat, table.” He said all three words, and mentally reminded himself to say them again later for more practice. As it was he flopped back onto the sand. His head scrapping along the tree when he did. “Curse it.” He laughed and rubbed his head, sitting back to lean against it. He turned to address Alia but she seemed to be lost in thought, her face flickering with emotions like fish he couldn’t catch. It halted his tongue until she spoke. It was as if she hadn’t been silently for over a chime. Atoll wondered what she thought about, and he opened his mouth to ask but instead answered. “’Course I do. Bit like ocean or sea, cause that our home.” He said to her, then to himself, “Home.” As he said the word he realized he might have bothered her with his comments about her living here. But he didn’t apologize. Rather, he said it once more to make sure he had everything down that he needed to show her then once more reached for her hands. “Ya go like this. Home, ya gotta say it with me. Home.” Although he was teaching her Atoll couldn’t be sure what his expression was but he knew she would be able to copy it since she could see it. It was a good follow up word after the previous. If they did all their words like that she’d get some of it down eventually. But Atoll knew learning a few words as different than knowing where they go and how to make each word blend into the next. Sail that storm when we get there. He sat back to give her a chance to practice. “Hows ‘bout a break after ya get it?” Atoll asked her when he was done showing her, “Ain’t gonna learn all the words in a day same as ya can’t build a ship in one. And I known ya told me there was a song comin’ too.” The Svefra gave her a little time to practice the word while he stood and watched the waves. When he thought she finished he turned to her with a beam, “We’ll have ya speakin’ like Svefra ‘stead of some land-dweller in small time.” He held out his hand to help pull her to her feet. He didn’t bother to dust off the sand still covering him, it was rare that he wasn’t covered in some sort of sea crust. Between the water and the beach it was hard to get rid of it for more than a chime. Unable to stand doing nothing now that he noticed, Atoll began to walk closer to the water, kicking up some of the Alia’s direction.

[Alia Beaudouin]

”Home.”
It was a beautiful word, even if she was pronouncing it wrong. Letting Atoll take her hand and imitate the movements, Alia tried to memorize them. Hand movement, pronunciation, expression. It wasn’t that hard, was it?
After several more attempts at putting the movements and pronunciations together, Alia came to the conclusion that yes, it was that hard.

It took her another two chimes, but she finally got the movements, expression, and pronunciations together in sync.
”Home.”

It was certainly a nice word, as was ocean. But nice things didn’t come easy, especially in Fratava. She was coming to the conclusion that Fratava was one of the hardest languages to learn ever. A combination of two languages, really. Signs, and sounds. Two senses in one thing, the best of both worlds, right?

Alia laughed as Atoll reacted to the newest words she had taught him. He didn’t seem to take a liking to the idea of a cat, and he said he had no use for chairs. No tables, no chairs, no cats, what exactly was on a Svefra ship?

Repeating the words in her mind and imagining speaking the language she struggled so much with all the time, Alia dug her feet into the sand, thinking. Atoll was busy thinking, so she decided to join him. Maybe one day she would venture out of Riverfall, see the sights. She’d been wanted to figure out where and what Mura was, maybe one day she’d visit there?
Atoll had been right, how could she live in this world without ever wondering what else was out there? Smiling, Alia vowed to herself she would one day visit another city, be it Mura, Lhavit, Alvadas… Anywhere.

As Atoll repeated his common words, Alia repeated her Fratava words, making sure to include both the hand symbols and the expressions. It was all a lot to remember, but luckily Alia had no trouble repeating them, which was surprising. ”Ocean. Home. They’re very pretty words for very pretty things, aren’t they?”

Atoll didn’t reply immediately, instead he mentioned a break, and a song. That reminded her, right when they had met, Alia had promised him a song on her mandolin. Right when he had sung that awful song that Alia had enjoyed so much. It made her smile just thinking about it. Language barrier or not, Atoll was a funny man.

”You’re right, I do owe you a song. Would you like to suggest one, or should I choose one on my own?”

She didn’t wait for an answer, immediately reaching for her mandolin and crossing her legs into a more comfortable position. Hopefully, the heat and sand hadn’t damaged the sound. Alia strummed a few chords to make sure, and low and behold, it was out of tune. Heat and humidity, also known as the atmosphere on a beach, did horrible things to an instrument’s tune.

As she plucked the strings, trying to get them back to an at least decent sound, Alia tried to make small talk. Unfortunately, she wasn’t good at that.
”So… Can you tell me more about Svefra? They… You guys seem really interesting.” Plucking louder to disguise her failed attempt at conversation, Alia tried to continue. Why was she so awkward, even with a friend?
”You keep on saying how the sea is your home, are you all… Sailors? I mean, I understand if you’d like to talk about something else… But how about I ask you a question, you ask me one?”

She had noticed earlier that Atoll had seemed interested in her silence, and, with humour, she guessed he would pay a lot more than a penny for her thoughts. This was a way for not only Alia to learn more about Atoll, but vice versa as well. She was learning the Svefra’s language, why not learn about the Svefra? Finally finishing her tuning, Alia smiled at Atoll.

”So, what first? Song, or questions?”

[Atoll Northwind]

Atoll thought about that for a moment. He had an inkling now to what Alia was thinking now. He'd asked her questions about her home, which was probably the cause for her prolonged silences. So he spoke carefully, “Pretty words, aye. But they’re pretty cause they mean somethin’. I don’t feel nothin’ pretty ‘bout cats.” He laughed, thinking of the nasty little furry things. He was glad the blasted things didn’t like the water. Then he thought back to his own song and shook his head. His songs weren’t something that translated as nicely as he’d thought. Plus he wanted to her Alia sing. But the Svefra didn’t need to wait, Alia was sitting and plucking at her strings, listening for things he couldn’t hear. He wondered how hard it would be to play but knew that was something he would never be interested in playing himself. Atoll shrugged, and sank down into the wet patches of sand. It was a little ways away from Alia and without the shade the sun bared down on him relentlessly. He tossed off his shirt, dunked it in the water then wrapped it around his head. It dripped down warm but the air cooled it satisfyingly. “Wadda ya wanna know...exactly?” Atoll queried, then smiled at her as she continued, “Ya got it. We’re sailors or pirates or thieves or shipbuilders. All the Svefra got a…spot. But we all sail, can’t be a Svefra unless ya do.” He didn’t mind bragging about the Svefra. After all, who wouldn’t be interested in them. Atoll couldn’t help but sit up straighter, eager to explain to the land-dweller why being a land-dweller would never be as good as being part of the sea. But before he could even begin another idea popped in his head. He chuckled to himself then countered her question with his own. “Question for a question but we can do both. We gotta sing the answers, think ya can handle it, lass?” The idea of the game entertained him and he finally answered her original question. The voice of the Svefra was just as bad as before. Toneless but excited and off key from anything that could be considered singing. The voice itself was something of sand scratching against a stone, rough and obviously not carrying very high. Just loud. “Svefra live in the sea. We fish, we pillage, we party! Laviku is our father, and our eyes bluest than any land-dwellers, ‘course yours are pretty too,” he stumbled over his own not-melody, “and we never need the land. Sea is all we need. Build a ship and run the seas our Lia’s run us! Beside us we’ve got our…” Abruptly he stopped in his song. There wasn’t a word in Common that could explain the Tavan properly. Friend wasn’t strong enough, neither was family. They were more than just family, a Tavan became a part of the Svefra. Thinking of his own great whale, Atoll felt something burn in his gut. The feeling of loss he’d had briefly wasn’t something that was so simple. Carefully he thought through the jumble of words he knew until one came to what he wanted to convey. It still wasn’t enough but it would do. He started again, cheerful as ever even as he glanced back to the seas. “Beside us we’ve got our soul.” “Now you, Alia. What’s Wind Reach? Ya can use your mandolin to make it better than mine.” He teased with a smile.

[Alia Beaudouin]

Both?
Atoll had literally answered with why not both?
It made Alia laugh, watching him try once again at singing as he answered her question about the Svefra. He had been right about most common words not being as pretty as Svefra words, but Alia used this as a challenge.

”So, I may know some pretty words…” Alia thought for several ticks, she never found words ‘Pretty’ or ‘Cool’, she just spoke them. She had promised a ‘Pretty’ word, so she would have to figure out what ‘Pretty’ meant. Now that she was actually trying to find them, though, it seemed quite a lot harder than first imagined.

”How about… Waterfall? I know it’s not quite a pretty word, but it’s a word for a pretty thing.

”That’s what Riverfall is built on, waterfalls. When a river, lake, or stream leads off a cliff and the water falls down, that’s a waterfall.”

How could she explain it any better? It would seem as if she didn’t know what it was herself if she spoke further. She realized quickly it was harder to explain than to guess what an explanation meant. Then again, that meant its shouldn’t be too hard for Atoll, right?

Giving Atoll several ticks to think, Alia thought over his game. Sure, it was easy to throw a bunch of words together and call it a song, but it was obvious Atoll expected her to do better. Strumming her mandolin to get an idea of a song, Alia put together some lyrics in her head. It certainly wasn’t her best, then again, it was a song she had created in a matter of ticks. Atoll couldn’t expect too much, could he?

”Wind Reach is the city on the tallest mountain peak. It’s where you’ll find the Inarta, should you seek. I called it home for a short nineteen years, but the path was a rocky one, full of tears. I was different from the others, I didn’t glass-blow, my father was human, and I was attacked by a crow. I fell off an eagle than many could fly, I was a disgrace to my people, the race of the sky. Skyinarta is the mountains’ name, home to the Inarta, that’s where I came…”

Pausing for several seconds, Alia realized she had left her sentence incomplete. Though it ruined both the rhyme and the mood, she corrected herself.
”...From”
It hadn’t been the most cheery of songs, not like most of her melodies, but Atoll had indirectly asked about a sad story, so he got a sad song. Even if he didn’t mean to.

Alia took the song lightly, acting as if it didn't mean much. With it's strange rhymes, the supposed story sounded much less meaningful than it would have if Alia had just explained it. Then again, with less meaning, it dampened the mood less. Thinking back to Atoll's song, Alia thought about what he had said about the Svefra. They seemed like very interesting people, an entire race of pirates, with a special name for themselves. Now that she thought about it, though, the more it seemed to Alia that the Svefra were really just humans that lived on the sea. With their own language, of course.

And a very complicated language at that. An idea came to mind for a word Alia could ask Atoll about later, but for now, she had to ask him a question.
"You said you’ve got your.. Soul? What did you mean by that? You talk about this 'Soul' as if it's a real person... What- or who, are they?"

From Atoll’s face, Alia realized that she must have touched on a hard subject. Had something happened to his.. Soul? It sounded so weird to say it, but that seemed to be what Atoll called it, whatever it was. It… They sounded important to him, so she attempted to soften the subject, leaving the question lingering but giving the pair other things to think about. It seemed Atoll had liked teaching her the Fratava words, so after giving him at least a chime of silence she continued. For all she knew, the subject could have been fine, he had just been thinking of other things when his face had flashed the feeling of loss. Then again, she gave him an option to opt out in case she was right, and this ‘Soul’ wasn’t something he wanted to talk about.

”Uhm… I mean, if you’d like to do something else now, we could learn another word… I’m sure I could find a prettier common word for you. Also, there’s been a word I’ve wanted to learn, so if you’d like to go back to that, it’s fine with me…”

She stumbled over her words again, desperately trying not to offend her new friend in any way. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at this.

”You can choose, I mean, I don’t really mind. Anyways, it’s your turn for a question, and an answer, if you want to continue.”

[Atoll Northwind]

Atoll laughed but nodded, “A waterfall city it is. Closest to home I get. It’s pretty…” He grinned slyly in the red-heads direction, “Not as pretty as ya lass.” Truthfully he didn’t mind the city. Water or no it would never be as pretty as the sea was to him but it wasn’t terrible. He’d known a Svefra or five who barely touched the sea, content in their swamps and rivers. Atoll couldn’t understand but he guessed they found the words pretty. Letting any other reply die on his tongue, he listened avidly to her song. It was more fluid than his, complete with the mandolin but less than the melody was the almost awkward way it came out. Light and airy in tune and lyrics, there was a mismatch between what she sang about and how she sang it. Considering they were sharing Atoll didn’t think much of prying this time but he waited without interruption until she stopped. But there was a pause after the song that held him back again. He worked over Common words and ways to ask it without ending the conversation on a sour note. From what she explained in her story it was better she left and there was no need for her to explain well. He’ seen pods fall to ruin if differing ideas couldn’t mesh under the Lia. As it was Atoll needn’t worry about his questions as it seemed Alia had some of her own. For a few chimes he said nothing, his gaze turning to the sea. But then purposefully turned to the Inarta woman with a slight frown. It was not directed at her but at the idea of trying to explain and at the thought of Littoral. Which brought on an onslaught of feelings that made his eyes tingle and his throat burn like he’d swallowed a lump of hot coals. It took a another chime or two to be able to speak without just cursing colorfully in Fratava. “Is fine, lass. Not a human, our sea soul.” Atoll began slowly, this time without song. His back straight as a mast, and almost hurt to sit so. “They are animals of the sea. We…pair?” The Svefra stopped but realized that was as good as a way as any to describe the connection. He wasn’t sure what he thought of explaining to a land-dweller who understood so little but she tried, which was more than some. It made it easier to show her what he meant. Atoll touched his heart and repeated. “Aye, pair. All Svefra. They always by. Some Svefra have many, some pass but Litty—mine—he is only one…can’t be without him. Need him to be here or I’m not…full.” He gave Alia a little grin near the end and broke into tuneless song again, “Sometimes fight but ain’t nothin’ bad. Like fightin’ me.” Having explained some of it someone, even without telling them the whole story of Litty lifted some of the burden. He didn’t want to talk about his Tavan being sick, couldn’t talk about it properly just yet but if Alia could understand even some of the importance the sharing was more than Atoll had expected or even known he needed. “Ya gonna explain…Inarta? Aye, that one. If ya want, ya don’t gotta say about the other…stuff.” Atoll was just extending the curtsey of choice that she’d given him. He’d heard of Mt. Skyinarta. Pods who had palivar’s would journey out farther for goods and spoke of other cities that tickled his memory. He dreamed of doing the same some day. Taking some of his pod, his own family out around the whole of Mizahar where they could run even with Laviku in even his farthest reaches. It was enough to send a spark of energy through his system, spurring the urge to do it now.

[Alia Beaudouin]

It seemed as if Atoll had lost something. That was the way his face read, though he happily shared about what it seemed he had lost, Litty, was that it? A sea creature, Atoll had called it. The more he spoke about his other half, the more Alia began to suspect it was a lot like something else she had recently learned about. Kelvic bonding. Then again, maybe Litty was a Kelvic. Alia didn’t pry, as it seemed Atoll didn’t want to talk about it.

She liked how he phrased the idea of his pairing, a sea soul, he had called it. It really did seem that Alia’s guess of how Svefra were just human pirates was wrong. They had a special bond to the sea, and those that live in it. It was quite interesting, though with Atoll’s reaction, Alia didn’t press him for more information. Instead, she just dug her toes deeper into the cool sand and let silence overtake the pair for several ticks before Atoll continued, talking about fighting. About how sometimes, fighting wasn’t worth it.

Alia couldn’t relate much, as she had only been in one fight during her life; With the one childhood friend she remembered into adulthood. She had gotten into a fight with a girl over who cut her old mandolin strings. The instrument had meant a lot to her back then, it still did today, really. It was all she had really, her mandolin, her acting, and of course, her friends. Alia understood what Atoll was saying, but she had to disagree.
”If you’re fighting, there has to be a reason… Right? Isn’t there a reason for everything?”

She smiled at Atoll’s joke, but the serious part of his comment got her thinking. Even more so when he asked about the Inarta. It struck her as an odd question, asking about a race Alia knew so well, but then again, she had asked him about the Svefra. It was one and the same, wasn’t it?

Alia took a moment to think over what she wanted to share and what she didn’t. She had already explained Wind Reach with a little bit of Inarta explanation, but that didn’t really cover everything. Now that she thought about it, she realized that, without prior knowledge of the race, her song probably hadn’t made sense. She would have to explain that, at very least.

”Well… I’ve already told you about Mount Skyinarta, which is where the Inarta call home, but…” Alia barely caught herself when she realized she had said the Inarta. Sure, it was just a matter of words, but the way it was phrased, as if she didn’t believe herself to be one of them. She had subconsciously differed herself from the regular Inarta, then again, she wasn’t a regular Inarta, was she? With a human father, that made her just about half Inarta. She knew this, didn’t she?

It seemed as if she was redundantly going over old information, like it had any significance to the conversation at hand. She had grown up on mount Skyinarta, birthed to a Inartan mother, didn’t that make her enough of an Inarta to tell a stranger about them? Though her mind itched to think this over more, Alia realized she had stopped talking midsentence, and continued.

”But I didn’t tell you much about culture, right? Well…” How was she going to phrase this? ”It’s a bit like the Svefra, I guess, except with less ocean and more air.” That made sense… Kind of. Shrugging, Alia hoped Atoll would understand.
”They ride giant birds, usually eagles, instead of boats. All Inarta are expected to strive for this goal. Seaman of the sky, kind of.”

Alia wondered if Atoll would find this interesting, or, at very least, if he would understand it. She guessed that he would, though, as she was trying to relate the Inarta to what little she knew about the Svefra, it wasn’t going well.

Struggling for words, Alia tried returning the topic to something she knew better; Her parents.
”...Well, uh, my mother was an Eagle Rider… That’s what they call the ones who ride the birds. It’s why my last name is Beaudouin, it’s an eagle’s name. In all reality, I don’t really have a last name… Inarta don’t take their mothers’ and fathers’ names, they take the name of the bird they fly.”

”...That’s why I don’t have a last name, I mean. I don’t fly a bird…” She was getting really off-topic, jumping from one subject to another, but all she could do now was dig the hole deeper and pray Atoll understood.
”...I really don’t like the eagles, that’s what I meant, earlier, in my song. I fell off an eagle many could fly.” She sung the line with the same tune as her earlier melody, albeit offbeat.
”I had a bit of a… Mishap with a bird. That’s why I never took to eagle riding, really. Like a Svefra that nearly drowns, so they never become a sailor. It doesn’t make much sense, but that’s just how it is. How I am. Really, how the Inarta are.”

”It’s another reason why I came to Riverfall. The majority of the Inarta are glassblowers, eagle riders, archers, even. I can’t really do any of that, so I came here. Where I could be an actor and musician, instead of being forced into a mold I couldn’t fit into.”

Letting her conversation roll off into the silence of the beach, Alia laid back and watched the sun as it began to dip down farther towards the horizon. They had been talking for quite a long time, and though Alia had all the time in the world, she knew she’d better go in the next thirty chimes or so. Before the sun truly set.

Leaning against the tree that had so diligently provided the pair with shade, Alia felt something digging at her palm. A pair of shells lay in the sand, where she had been sitting. They seemed to be sand dollars of some description, with small cracks on each one from where Alia had probably sat on them, but they were still pretty. Handing one to Atoll, Alia smiled.
”Slightly cracked, but still beautiful. A metaphor, if you like.”