"Alright, calm down." I nearly laughed out at the still crying aelenvari whose tail wagged back and forth while I stroked their hair. Her eyes still being glued straight on that mountain in the distance, the one that would never be forgotten by the world.
"No... It's too beautiful to stay calm about..." she barely got out after many failures. It being particularly interesting how she only succeeded once she stopped looking at the mountain. Her face having to be firmly placed against my body before she even started getting words out.
"I mean, sure, it is very impressive with all that magic and stuff, but it's just a mountain." I said while knowing full well I was downplaying the sight immensely. Because, like her, I needed to keep my gaze away from the mountain otherwise I'd be entranced by it.
"Very impressive? My love... My sweet, precious love..."
"Hm?"
"You know how I have told you before about how my kind don't see things the way you do, how we see the world in a more magic-focused context?"
"I do."
"Well, try and remember that before you tell me to stop crying at the beauty of Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra."
"I take it that it is the purest magic you have ever seen?" I asked her to which she nodded happily. Like a bride at her wedding just after or before the kiss that sealed the bond.
"It is... And it annoys me."
"How come it annoys you?"
"Because like with that food you gave me after you came back to life, it has ruined my perception of the world forever! No longer can I guess what the gods might be capable of, no longer can I just guess what the Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra is like. I have seen it and experienced it!"
"So you are worried you will never be able to enjoy anything ever again?"
"No... I am worried this has warped my sense of reality so much that I am going to be nothing but detached from it all."
"Well, just keep your mind on me then? Not that you need the advice for that."
She smiled a little, "And what could you offer me that the taste of that desert could not? What can you display that the Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra cannot do much greater to an impossible to describe degree."
I huffed out some joy-filled air as I tried to think, "Well, I am the one who brought it all into your life. Besides, we were both there together when these joys came about. So I'd understand very well what you were going on about."
Her hands tightened their grip as she slowly looked up at me, "I guess so, I guess so..." she said quietly as her forehead went against the tip of my nose.
"So," I then said after we spent some time in silence, "Want to stay here for a little longer or go somewhere where the other two can find us?"
"Let's build a home and start a family right here..." she said with a grin before laughter came out, she knew full well it wasn't going to work!
"Now you know we can't do that."
"I know, I know... But, let's just keep ourselves here, before Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra for a little longer."
"You don't have to keep saying the full name of the mountain, Rose."
She went back, a clear sensation of offence having gone through her, "Not say the full name? It is the single most important place in the land, it deserves the respect of its full name!"
"I'm just saying, it's a bit of a mouthful, no?" I tried to tell her to show I meant no disrespect, but, it seemed to backfire.
"So? A little bit of effort on the part of everyone in this mountainous land is a fair price for the great gift it gives us!"
"Great gift...?" now I had done it...
"As I told you before! It is the source of all wind magic! Every wind that breezes through the meadows, every gale that tears apart cliffs! They all originate here! Your power comes from that mountain, Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra!"
"I don't know where my power comes from..." I sighed out as she straightened herself out and went through a proverbial step-back to observe the situation.
"Did the witches of your home not teach any of it to you?"
"We don't have witches back home."
"Don't lie to me, your power cannot be cultivated in a witch-less home!"
"I'm not lying! I have told you before, Rose! This power I have was not something I was born with, magic is nearly non-existent in my home! Dammit! I only just found out that the Anvil-Peak was a thing for real before I arrived in that hive..."
"The Anvil-Peak...?" she said in confusion while her tail wagged excitedly.
"Yeah, the mountain where Thurnmourer-"
"I know what it is! I'm... Just surprised to hear you say that you have seen such a sight..."
"She believes I have seen the forge of the Thunder God but she has a hard time framing that my home isn't magical..." I sarcastically mumble to myself while she looks on at me with some awe.
"Can you describe it to me, please, my love?"
"Well, you know, as the name is, its top is shaped like an anvil, it has near endless thunder clouds all around it and it is just a forest of golden lightning bolts. And, at the base, a lake of molten gold that foams with the lightning that drives down into it."
"It is close to your home?"
"I am not sure, it took us at least a few weeks to get there when we initially set out on this journey to find something."
"That is not far..." she mumbled, my mind pondering if she was contextualising what I had just said in more aelenvari-familiar concepts. Large migrations and lots of walking. The opposite of what I knew it to be which was large vehicles and a warehouse of supplies on the move.
"A few weeks travel is hardly close."
"No it is close, but, if you are that close to such a divine spot... Then it is no wonder you are so powerful yet raw with your magic! You have been close to the gods since your birth, my love! Their power seeps off onto you!"
"Debateable..."
"Which makes it make more sense as to why they brought you back... You are the member of some kind of chosen people!?" I had no idea what she was now going on about but I suppose I could not complain. As, after all, I was now experiencing one of the most passionate and loving hugs I had ever gotten. I felt like the treasured stuffed toy to the young child that was called Rose.
"A very vivid imagination you certainly have." was the best I could come up with as I sat there and enjoyed the affection.
"I am only stating likely theory." she retorted back with before she stood up. My own legs bringing me up shortly after so I could follow her as she turned her attention to the city of Thrurstradtur.
"Something the matter?" I asked her as her mannerisms seemed to have just changed without much influence.
"Do you promise me you will bring me to see the Anvil-Peak one day?" her eyes focusing on the top of that large wedge structure that dominated the view we had.
"We will see, Rose, we will see."
"You do not know the way?"
"Yes, I am afraid so." I told her while thinking more so on the fact I had no intention of taking her with me back home. There would be no place for her there, her existence is just too contradictory to the norms of Tobaballe. No life exists which is smarter than a human, no such concept as magic. She could be killed just by the paranoia she would incite!
"Then we can learn the route together!"
I laughed a little to hide my nervousness, "I suppose we can, I suppose we can do that, yes..." I said to her as I also looked away. Not really wanting to look her in the eye when I was thinking of how I was not going to do that... At least, not go through with the final goal of it.
"What about you? Are there any sights you might want to see that I know of? I have been to many places thanks to my travels with my flower."
"I don't really know where you have been."
"I know the selection I would have would not compare to your experiences in the slightest, but, I can show you smaller settled-flowers of the wind-people with great statues and grand designs with explicit magic use... I can even take you to my garden-mount, maybe even inside it if luck permits it."
"I wouldn't mind seeing that last one, that is your home, is it not?"
"My home is with you."
"No, as in, your home-home, the place you are from, where it all started."
She tilted her head, "I think I understand...?"
"Well, regardless, I would be very happy to see it Rose, maybe on a different trip, though? I would not want to be shown somewhere special to you and just ruin it by talking non-stop about the Anvil-Peak or..." a digit of mine waggling off at the great mountain in the distance.
"Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra." she told me.
"That's the one! Honestly, I am surprised you even remember such a long name..."
"It took me some time to get used to, admittedly, I never was one for speaking with words. But, perseverance saw me get it right."
"What language is that, anyway? I can't understand it." I said while rubbing the side of my head. Remembering what I was told following the incident with Vadei stuffing her spit up my ear canals.
"It's from the first tongue, Gods Speak. Sometimes called the Origin Language or the Language of no Magic."
"Gods Speak... It's the language mentioned in the myths of when the Fourteen Moon Gods betrayed the others?"
"Yes, the words derived from the names of all the gods seen by the first men and dragons as the gods and goddesses battled around them."
"I liked those stories, back home we had this large decoration that had an engraving of the Defender God standing watch with his legs positioned against two mountains as a trail of people walk under him."
"They are more than just stories, my love, it is all real and the proof exists even in the most minute places."
"I kind of gathered that after meeting the gods themselves..." I chuckled out to her, a smile coming from her in response.
"Who knows, maybe one day, our children's children will learn the stories of the man who returned from the dead."
"Ain't that something, but, to go back a little, you mentioned that Gods Speak was sometimes called the 'Language of no Magic,' what do you mean by that?"
"The fact it was a language made before Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra came alive when the Lone Lancer as the greatest wind-people who live on Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra call them charged down it on a hand made of emerald light."
"A lone lancer? Never mind, carry on."
She nodded a little, "See, when Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra lit up the world with its beautiful light and strength, it began to change all those who lived in this land. Their words were no longer just concepts derived from the custodian of it. It took on the features of the magic itself."
"Oh... Is that why Einervaene sounds a little, different? Because she is from a land with a different magic source."
"Yes, my love! You understand it well."
"Alright, so elaborate, what does this Windy Gods Speak not share with the regular?" I asked her out of genuine curiosity and the need for an answer. Did that thing Vadei do to me do a little more than just make me able to understand her?
"Ikra mon." Rose said while angling her arm and holding her palm upwards.
"What?"
"Land and people." she then said with no gestures.
"Land and people is what it means?" I ask to which she nods.
"Yes, but what can you tell me about them? What was the main difference you heard?"
"Would you mind repeating the Gods Speak?"
"Ikra mon." she said so again, the gestures repeating as well.
"It sounds, blunter...?"
"Well, what sounds different as I speak right now?"
A claw went to my chin while I thought on it all, "It sounds like... You are almost singing in comparison?"
"That is correct, that would be the influence of Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra's power. It influences your voice with what it makes."
"What about the other languages influenced by magic? Einervaene for example?"
Rose pointed at the city of Thrurstradtur, "You'd be better off asking the people there, I am afraid, my love."
"I suppose that is fair."
"Do you have any other questions then, my love? I will try and answer them as best as I can."
"Actually, can you teach me a little more of that Gods Speak if you can? It'll give us something to do while the light of day is gone."
"I can teach you what I know, if that is what you want." she told me as she came closer once more.
"But, honestly, I have no idea of if it is nighttime or not, this... Purple is not something I am used to." I comment as I look up at the sky once more. My eyes finding it very hard to look away from all the magic that was up there with such paradoxically see-through density.
"The sky is much different up here, isn't it?"
"You can say that again... Down there it is nearly black with only the light of the moons really being visible yet up here it is like a whole new sky..."
Rose giggled, "So, what is it? Looking up at the night sky or me teaching you the first language ever to exist?"
"A bit of both is fine." I say to her as I laid down against a tree. The city of Thrurstradtur directly in my eyesight with all but the mighty mountain being seeable. And soon, I had a beautiful woman lying on my bandaged up chest who would teach me parts of a new language.