Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sajah grunted around a mouthful. A temporary stand-in for an answer until he had downed several more. Without a tongue to taste with, Sajah was not much of a food connoisseur. Beyond that, what he was used to was ‘whatever was left’ for the slaves to eat: stale bread, old or expiring fruits and vegetables, and the cheapest staple product that could be cooked into gruel. His best experiences with edibles were when he stole visits to Nyko and got ‘treats’ from the kitchens—few and far between.

After downing enough food to satisfy the immediate hunger pains, he slowed down, ‘savoring’ more for a moment longer before reaching for the paper again.

i like to listen

‘Long’ stories filled silences and allowed him to learn more about the person he was with besides. In this case, between being the one who had carried through his and Nyko’s rescue and what tidbits of his personality Sajah had seen so far, he was more than interested in learning what he could about the man across from him. But, for starters, since the man had said he was free to begin immediately:

hello

Freeing up both hands temporarily, he tapped to the paper, indicating the word before signing, «Hello.» He took up the charcoal again, adding after it: my name is S A J A H K A, and followed it with a slow, careful repeat of the sentence with its adjoining hand motions. «My name is S - A - J - A - H - K - A.»

Sajah hadn’t expected Xewai to actually attempt to mimic the gestures immediately. They were eating, after all, and for one just beginning, a full sentence of gesture — which, unlike simply a different ‘language’, was an entire different method of communication — was not something that could be picked up after one glance. Not to mention, Xewai did not need to learn to gesture them at all himself, only recognize them. Thus, when the man even tried, Sajah was surprised, and impressed by the effort.

Sajahka nodded. He did have a letter system. It had come later, since as a young child, when he had first began his attempts at crafting communication with Nyko, he had not even begun to learn his letters. But, he had one. After learning to read and write at least on a very basic level, it had seemed worth the effort, and useful in particular for indicating new words, or specifying names, which had no symbol of their own.

He did as suggested, though, eating while Xe did and happily finishing the rest of his prepared portion and several slices of melon. He hadn’t intended to stay much longer than for breakfast and whatever that brought, but Nyko was still healing, and he couldn’t imagine better company in a strange place than one so eager to communicate with him.

Thus, once through with his food, he wiped his hands clean, and began to spell out the alphabet, as well as a few quick key words which would be useful for the other man to recognize for rudimentary communication.