Completed [Ahleas Park] Nari and Nature (Jenni)

[Chari]

11th Fall 513AV

It was such a beautiful place, so calm and tranquil. She always enjoyed sitting by the pond, her toes trailing in the water. It was the perfect way to unwind after work. She could just go for a run and then drop down by the water, relax for awhile. It was nice to be this free, to be able to switch form without limitations. The Kelvic didn't even have to worry about people getting offended by her nakedness as the park was large enough that she could move dress and undress in relative privacy. The girl was never shy about nudity but it was easier in the long run to be naked in secrecy.

Chari hummed tunefully to herself, trying to come up with a nice melody. Sometimes when she was alone she liked to make up songs in Nari about home. If she sang in Nari it had to be about Mt.Skyinarta and the Inartans, there was no other subject she could sing about in the language, it wouldn't be right.

"Hmm...where was I..." she murmured. "Ah!

Beneath a mountain fierce and hot,
A fiery people live and die,
A hardy and a stubborn lot,
On eagles they take to the sky...

Five castes, each have their own places..." she sang softly, trailing off as she tried to come up with more words."What rhymes with places? Cases? Faces? Paces? Races? Spaces?" The young woman sighed in frustration. She had no idea how to continue it.

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[Jenni Twilight]

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Jenni sat hunched over a scroll in the Bharani library, finishing up her job for the day. The old piece of paper had been falling apart, and so it had been her job to re-copy it onto another, newer piece of parchment... twice, for good measure. It wasn't a long thing, just a several verse poem in- funnily enough- Nari. There was a little feather doodle at the bottom, but she wasn't even going to try and replicate that... she couldn't draw for the life of her. The final copies were just going to have to do without that little add-on.

Luckily, by now she'd finished the first copy, and was half-way done the second. She wasn't really sure what she was writing half the time, as her knowledge of the Inartan language was scarce at best, but this was at least a decent bit of practice. Honestly, she just copied down the various words, knowing what their spelling was like, but clueless on half the meanings. The rest of her writing went like this:

The wind blew
When the Eagle flapped his wings
And all the Sparrows soared
On the new created drafts

They flied through the air
As graceful as could be
While the People picked up feathers
That the little young birds dropped

The air was full of Birds
And the land was full of People
And all the creatures played
When the Eagle flapped his wings

What she'd been able to figure out from the writing was... it was some kind of story, to be sure, but not a serious one. It had a lot of mentions of birds, people, feathers, and the like.... so it was probably a poem about one of the Inartan's favorite creatures: birds.

Since her job was done, she capped her ink bottle and stored her quill, rolling up the scrolls for re-shelving. The original would be stored in a safer place, to keep it alive as long as possible without being destroyed, while the two newer ones would be returned to the original shelf. The Twilight dealt with all three before taking her leave, knowing that her job today was done... she would still be back after the next rest, however.

She wandered her way down to the Alheas Park, to enjoy the nature and in general relax. She also wanted to practice a bit of morphing, as she usually did in her time off, where she could be alone. The morpher took the dirt path through the park, finding herself in a completely empty area surrounded by... trees. It was a wonderful feeling, especially with all the vivid colors that filled the park. Jenni found herself a bench and took a seat, watching the scene around her for several chimes.

Then she turned her attention to her arm. Focusing on it, she grabbed the Djed that was part of it and pulled, letting it stretch into long, two inch thick hairs. They were thick and soft, just like Crook's, and looked quite odd simply standing up on the top of her arm. In a mood of creativity, she tried to shorten the strands, leaving those in the middle as the tallest, and forcing the others back down the steadily lowering strands. After a few moments of staring at her work, wondering how to make it look more natural, she let go, allowing her skin to snap back to it's usual texture, with much shorter and relatively invisible hairs.

Rolling her shoulders, she looked around, before something caught her ear again. Someone... singing. In... Nari? It was either that odd language or some strange bird singing. After a few moments of listening to the verse, she caught a hint of several emotions, life and death, a mountain at the beginning... some kind of placement on that mountain too, but she couldn't remember if the word was above or beneath, and eagles somethingorother sky. Deciding that she would at least figure out what this poem meant, if she hadn't her last, she followed the noise, meeting a red-head humming to herself.

"Are you singing in Nari?" she asked, hoping she didn't startle the woman. As a small explanation, she added "I speak a little, so I recognize the language. What were you talking about? There was something about... above... beneath... a mountain, hot... people live and die... stubborn... and eagles and sky... I only figured out a bit of it. Mind explaining?" she shrugged her shoulders, glad for the extra Nari knowledge she would be reaping today.

Common - Nari/Crook - NPC - Writing - Reading

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[Chari]

The lyrics weren't coming to the Kelvic as easily as she'd like. She pouted a little because writing the song was so hard. Maybe if it didn't rhyme then she could write it but then the rhyming sounded better. It was quite the dilemma. Before she could have another crack at it, a young woman appeared beside her, questioning the meaning of her song.

Chari jumped a little at the sudden intrusion, cursing her weak human hearing, and gazed up at the woman with wide eyes. She hadn't realised that there'd been anyone within earshot and she found herself blushing a little at the sudden attention. She wasn't normally shy about singing but she felt stupid for being caught singing a terrible song. She wouldn't have minded someone hearing it when it was finished but...

"Yeah, I was singing in Nari. It has a nice musical quality, don't you think?" she replied, watching the girl with interest. "I was just making up a song, there isn't that much to it really. I was just singing about Mt. Skyinarta and her people. It's nice to come across someone who can speak the language even if it's only a little bit. It reminds me of home."

Chari missed her home. She loved Lhavit but it wasn't the same. So few people could speak her native language and so she had no one she could really talk to in the city. She'd heard that it was a class taught to youths but she had no idea how to tell who'd taken the class and who hadn't. Maybe she could convince this girl to sit and talk to her. Smiling brightly at the prospect, she patted the ground beside her invitingly.

"Why don't you sit down and we can talk about it? It'll do you good to speak the language if you're a little rusty and my Common is good enough that I can explain most words. I'd really love to speak Nari with someone. Please? I won't judge you." Her eyes were pleading, taking on that puppy dog quality that would melt all but the stoniest hearts. "Pretty please?" she trilled in the bird-like language, switching languages with ease.

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[Jenni Twilight]

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Jenni nodded at the comment about the musical quality, understanding completely. "It's a very beautiful language" she admitted honestly, a small smile on her features. She fingered a chain on her bracelet, considering her first days learning the bird-like language. "But very hard to... speak..." she continued, her smile turning into a grin. This woman, however, spoke it like a second language... like a natural. Like she was an Inartan herself. And considering the red hair... it was a possibility.

Her companion's next comment enhanced that thought, when she called Mount Skyinarta 'home'. The meaning she was supplied made sense, when the Twilight pieced all the words together. She took the offered seat gracefully, still fingering the silver around her wrist. The 'please' she was given made her chuckle quietly, though the first word confused her. 'Beautiful' please? Right... pretty please. Language translation was complicated... it would be nice if she could think in both languages without this complication.

"I am not the best at Nari.... but I will try.." she answered in the same language, using the most simple sentences she knew. Actually, these were probably the most complicated she knew before hand without spending several chimes piecing it together. Her tongue felt odd spelling out the birdish words, the trills and clicks sounding nice, even when she was nowhere near as good at her companion.

"Oh..." she muttered, the using the Nari expression. "My name is Jenni Twilight. You are?" Again, one of the simple introductions she'd practically memorized. It would be easier to speak with this woman when they knew each other's names... "Are you Inartan?" she asked, suddenly remembering the question.

Common - Nari/Crook - NPC - Writing - Reading

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[Chari]

Chari smiled, waiting patiently for the language to come back to the woman. She could practically see the gears turning in her head as she tried to force a translation. The Inartan shook her head slightly, knowing that she'd have to tone down any flowery expressions she might use so that they wouldn't be misinterpreted. The woman finally seemed to gain some confidence as the language came back to her and she used expressions that sounded generic and a little unnatural to her ear.

"Hi Jenni. I'm Chari and I'm Inartan, yes but...I don't really belong back home. I moved here nearly three years ago because there isn't prejudice here for what I am," she replied, her countenance becoming sad when she thought about the fact that she didn't belong. At least here it was better in Lhavit. "You speak well enough but your phrases are a little too formal. We don't talk like that, not really. "How many years have you been speaking Nari? And how long since you last spoke it?"

The Kelvic was proud that she could switch between the languages, though admittedly she made slip ups sometimes but not too often. Her Common only sounded strange when it came to idioms. She still didn't have a grasp of idiomatic expression. Though she wasn't sure if the girl could do it though.

"Any problems understanding anything?"

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[Jenni Twilight]

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Jenni grinned at the comment on her 'formality', knowing it was perfectly true. They were just pre-thought sentences, with no 'tone' to them. "I..." she began, but hesitated. What was the word for 'know'? She honestly had no idea. Racking her brain for an answer, she finally gave up, switching to her native language to say "I know. Um... what's the verb 'to know'?" She cocked her head with curiosity, hoping to add another word to her dictionary. She'd known the word at one point, but hadn't used it much, so it didn't stick to her brain.

She'd mostly deduced the previous statement, the one about Chari- that was the woman's name- being Inartan, but didn't... was it 'belong'? at home. Something about coming three years, probably the woman's arrival date in Lhavit, and an odd word that sounded important to the structure of the sentence, but which the Twilight had never heard before.

The next question posed to her in Nari caused her to frown as she picked it apart. Years... speaking Nari. She could answer that. And... something about speaking it again. First? Last? It included the word 'long', so probably the last time she spoke it. "I have spoke Nari for...." she frowned, mentally calculating it in her head. "Six years." She hesitated, thinking on the last time she'd spoken the language. Well, there was that time on the first... but it didn't really count. Instead, she mentioned "I read a... book? Story? Short... no music song. I read it in morning" She winced at the terrible way that sentence had turned out, knowing she'd conjugated something wrong at the end, but wasn't sure what. How did she say 'this morning'?

"Umm... I read a poem. And how would you say 'this morning'? I just said 'in morning', which doesn't make any sense..." She gave an apologetic smile. When she moved off the basic sentence structure, things got a little... iffy...

OOCJust as a general note for me and other people, I'm using my general skill level in French as Jenni's Nari level. So... this is probably how I would answer the question XD

Common - Nari/Crook - NPC - Writing - Reading

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[Chari]

Chari tried hard not to wince as the girl butchered parts of her native language. She could understand her okay but when it came to answering...Maybe it was a good thing that she'd suggested they talk. If Jenni had gone to Wind Reach, she either would have been laughed at or her poor translations could have caused a misunderstandings or two. Misunderstandings could cause offence and Inartans liked to settle disputes with knives more often than not. The Kelvic couldn't see the girl faring well if that happened.

She set about answering the girl's questions. "Right the verb is 'to know'. If you want to say I know, you know, he knows, she knows, we know and they know then it's I know, you know, he knows, she knows, we know, they know," she explained, sounding out the words slowly and clearly so that Jenni would catch them. She allowed a few moments for the information to sink in before moving on to corrections.

"First of all, you said 'I have spoke' but I think you meant 'I have spoken'. Um the word for poem is poem. Your last mistake was that you said 'in morning' instead of 'this morning'. Aside from that though, your Nari's pretty good," she assured her, smiling reassuringly. "Any other words you're having trouble remembering?"

OOCThere's so much coding in this and I had to do it twice :/ I accidentally deleted the entire post the first time and had to write it all out all over again

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[Jenni Twilight]

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Jenni mentally noted down all she was told, hoping they stuck in her odd memory. Well... now they would. Thinking about remembering always lodged the event in her brain. It was funny like that. And thinking on that... she remembered a bunch of times she'd used that tactic. Sometimes she felt like her brain had a small team of Pycons running around in it, randomly choosing to file some thoughts and completely dismissing others. The Twilight shook her head, mentally chuckling at her thoughts. Brains were odd... not something she wanted to get into scientifically at the moment. Maybe later, however.

"Ok..." she muttered to herself, still trying to stick to Nari. It would be best if she tried to speak in only the Inartan language for this conversation, and avoid her native one as much as possible. She rubbed her wrist in thought, trying to decide what to attempt to say next. "What is your.... um... j... jo... jov?" She scowled, irritated at not being able to remember the word. "Work" she handed out, a little exasperated, and a small frown on her expression. Work was always interchangeable with job.

"I am a.... a..." she suddenly realized she had no idea what the work for 'Seeker' was. And there was no way she'd figure this out in Nari. Sighing irritably, she switched to Common. "I'm a Seeker. I work at the Bharani Library" she almost got caught up in the sentence, but stopped as soon as she'd started. Nari. Right. No more Common, unless seriously needed. And of course, she'd probably break that promise soon enough.

Common - Nari/Crook - NPC - Writing - Reading

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[Chari]

The Kelvic frowned at the Twilight's attempt at asking a question. She knew what she was trying to get at but she couldn't understand why she didn't just find a way around it. There were easier ways for her to say what she wanted, just like there were different ways to phrase things in Common.

"I'm a server," she replied in Nari before switching to Common. "If you want to ask what somebody's job is you can say 'what's your job' which is 'what's your job' You could also say 'what work do you do' or 'what do you work as' which is 'what work do you do' or 'what do you work as'," she explained. 

The woman frowned when she tried to work out what Jenni's job was in Nari. She had no idea what a Seeker was or what they did so she couldn't accurately translate it into Nari. The Inartans might have a similar occupation but they might call it something different. The word suggested that she searched for something but she worked in the library do she didn't see how that fit. The only occupations that they had in the Enclave back home were librarian and assistant and this didn't seem to fit the bill.

Frowning, Chari asked, "What's a Seeker exactly? We might have a different word for it or we might not have a word for it at all. If we don't have a word then you need more of a description than a title. They might think that Seeker was the same as scout you see." She would have thought it was a scout of some sort herself if Jenni hadn't said she worked in the library.

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[Jenni Twilight]

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Jenni noted down the word for 'job', ignoring most of the other explanation. She understood how to say 'what is your...', she was just missing the noun. However, she paid more attention to the question about what a Seeker was. She'd expected some one who had lived in Lhavit for several years. Still, it was funny to think of them as scouts, or hunters. They were anything but, except those who actually went out and found the artifacts or various interesting pieces of knowledge. Scholars (she was no exception) generally weren't people who went... out... The thought brought a rueful smile to her lips, but she did answer her companion's question.

"Well... we do seek things. But rather than the more physical things, we search for... knowledge. Our patron goddess is Eyris, and anyone who wishes to join the full ranks of Seekers needs to be at least marked by her, and as you gain more and more of her blessings... you move up in ranks. But I'm getting off topic. Our job is to find and protect knowledge, to put it simply. I, for one, am incredibly interested in history. That's mostly why I joined, to learn what happened in the past." Man was it nice to speak normally again, without having to figure out every single word. But on that thought... she was back to speaking Common.

Shaking her head with a chuckle, she tried to force herself back into the birdlike language. She'd gotten a hang of most of the pronunciation by now, it was just her vocabulary... and speed of translation... that was lacking. "And Nari" she stated simply, the clicks and whistles flowing easily off her tongue in the simple two word statement. "Questions... questions..." She hadn't actually understood Chari's occupation, not knowing the word, but didn't feel like asking. Instead, she thought back to why they'd first met. "You like singing?" she asked, a small smile touching her lips. She liked music, no doubt, though she'd rather read a book that sing.

Common - Nari/Crook - NPC - Writing - Reading

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