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 Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:28 pm
Andarien looked crestfallen. "'Malirahc's gone?" he asked sadly. "Where did they go? Couldn't 'Lessa help Le'nda?"
After all, Alassëa was a healer, and though Andarien hadn't needed her help personally (that he could remember at least) he knew that she helped people who weren't feeling well.
"Is it really bad?" he asked, worried that it might be something that had proven too difficult even for Alassëa's skill.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:31 pm
Lin smiled and ruffled Andarien's hair, "No, I believe it's just because she wants her mother by her side when she has the baby. Arwen, you have not met her, but she's a healer too."
Of course neither child was around when Leyenda had Amalirahc and that hadn't been an easy birth.
"If we don't see them again before we leave for the Borderlands, we'll see them again when we sail."
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:33 pm
Andarien was only slightly consoled. "Sail?" he repeated curiously.
This was the first time sailing had been mentioned in his presence, and he knew very little about it at all. Less than might be expected, because of course most conversations ended up taking place in languages that he couldn't understand.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:37 pm
"Yes, sail, on a ship, on water," Lin replied blinking, "You haven't heard us talk about this before?"
Since really that was what they spent most of their life doing these days was traveling and/or sailing.
"Luk and Aethos come from lands across the sea, even Kelirahc does, though he has chosen to live with Leyenda, but the family flies to Kelirahc's home on occasion."
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:05 pm
Andarien blinked back at Lin, a little surprised by her incredulity, and then he blushed and looked at his feet, ashamed.
"Well ... I mostly don't know what you're saying," he replied softly, his chin and his voice quivering. "I can't help it if I don't know ..."
He rubbed his eyes with the back of his fists. He wasn't crying, but he could feel the tears welling up. He always felt so stupid because he didn't know anything because he couldn't understand anyone most of the time!
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:19 pm
Lin knelt down so she could be closer to Andarien's height and carefully hugged him because she still wasn't sure what was on her shirt.
"I know, and I forgot you were very young when we were in the Westland so anytime we did talk about it in common elvish you probably don't remember. The truth is, your ada and I also sail to travel, and your ada makes maps. That is his job and duty, to chart out land, which gives us a good excuse to sail."
Sitting on the ground she looked at the two, she was sure Miyuki would remember, but it had been a long while since this came up.
"When we take Luk back, we'll be traveling around the land his city exists in, because we haven't seen it yet and it hasn't been charted, but we need to sail by ship to get there."
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:23 pm
Andarien forgot about Lin's warning, and he wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his face in her shoulder.
"I never can understand anybody 'cept Sylvar!" he cried, the tears coming now. "I hate it! I hate it! Why can't I understand anybody 'cept Sylvar? I try and I try but I just can't!"
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:48 pm
"I know you do, but there are times, there are just some things you might not be good at. No one is good at everything."
It was just that the staples of Lin and Earendil's life, Andarien happened to not be good at. However, Lin knew she chose that lifestyle because it was what suited her.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:55 pm
"But it's not that I'm not good at it, it's that I'm so horrible at it!" Andarien wailed. "I can't understand anybody and nobody even tries to talk to me, nobody 'cept Sylvar! Even you forget all the time and you always talk to me how I can't know what you're saying!"
He had been holding it in for a long time, pretending it didn't matter to him, learning what he could in the one language that made sense to him, trying to bear with it ... but it was getting harder and harder as time went on, and he felt more and more alone, even when he was with his own family.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 4:44 pm
Lin sighed and pulled Andarien onto her lap, she was worried about this honestly.
"I'm really sorry about that Andarien, I forget yes, but not that I forget you can't understand. Common Tongue is the language I grew up with, so it is the one I fall back on without thinking, and yes... your ada and I use other languages when we don't want you or Miyuki to understand us, but we have always done so under the assumption that by the time you two understand us you'll be old enough to also understand the touchy topics we're talking about."
Goodness knows, her parents did it to her too when she was growing up, it was just a fact of life. Learning a language gave parents a kind of time frame in which to judge how old was old enough for children to understand some really delicate topics. Though the problem was now, Andarien seemed to be less and less able to get a hold of the languages and no one in the family had Common Elvish as their birth language.
As much as she hated to admit it, they might have to take Iorlas up on that offer, because while it was bad here, it was going to be worse when they got back to Gaia.
By this time, Miyuki had slid off the couch and had joined her brother by his side. She knew he was having issues, but he had always written it off as fine to the point where it sounded like he didn't care that she had thought he really didn't care (which had always kind of frustrated her).
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 5:07 pm
Andarien snuggled into Lin, flinching when the shards of glass that were in her shirt scratched at his face and hands, though they were too small to do more than simply irritate him.
"But I can't talk with hardly anybody and I never know what's going on," he cried. "I hardly know anything at all!"
Never mind the fact that when it came to mechanics, he seemed to be a prodigy; when he was always left to himself, not knowing what was going on, being the last to know anything, never understanding what people were saying, always feeling lost ... he honestly felt quite stupid.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:38 pm
"But you know many things," Lin assured him, "True, it may not be languages, but you know quite a bit. We're all like that, there are just somethings that do not come to us naturally."
She would know, her family have always been predominately magic users to an extent, and while there were people that weren't, that was a small number.
"But how about this, as much as I had reservations about Iorlas' offer, you have brought up a good point. Unfortunately, Common Elvish is not the birth language of your ada or myself and this could be a problem for the future."
The last thing she wanted was for Andarien to be isolated because he couldn't talk to his own family with ease.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:48 pm
Andarien peeked up at Lin through wet lashes. "Offer?" he sniffled, wondering what she meant by that. "Can Iorlas help me better than you and Ada? Because I can't learn languages from you."
Tactless as it was, it was true - though he knew it wasn't Lin or Earendil's fault that he couldn't learn languages.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:03 pm
"Well.... Iorlas said she can do something that would help you to know all languages, but the method doesn't sound really pleasant to me and I didn't want to take the easy way out unless I was certain we don't have a choice."
Really, the drinking blood sounded really unpleasant unless you were a vampire, and she had been certain it would have taken Andarien just a bit longer than most people to get at least one language.
"But we're heading to the Southland which is dominantly High Elven, and Common Tongue is the language to learn to communicate with different people from different nations. Not to mention Gaia's dominant language is Common Tongue, also called English. There are only a handful of people who know the Elvish of this world and even fewer who know Common Elven, so.... it would probably be wise to talk to her before we get to the Southland, or at least before we get to Gaia."
Because that would be a disaster waiting to happen.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:11 pm
Andarien was really getting curious now. It sounded like his mother was explaining a lot of things except how Iorlas could help him.
"What can she do to help me?" he asked, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. Then, remembering something he had seen Shiro do with his tablet, he added, "If she's gonna write down all the words for me, then that won't help me, because I can't read yet."
He was learning his runes, but that was as far as he'd gotten so far. Basic sounds, but not yet putting them together.
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