[PRP] Common tongue, common ground (Abidemi x Isifo)

[Puhterodactyl]

Abidemi sighed at the barracks, lounging as he waited alone. He wasn't sure what he expected, but anything would be better than this. He'd formerly been outside of the pride, as a soldier shortly after the Nergui made contact with the pride infected with a plague, but he'd since returned. Maybe it was the wrong choice.

He'd joined the Firekin with some Hongshan lions, so having traveled with them for a time, he felt compassion towards them. Their warrior spirit that refused to surrender to the Nergui was more Firekin to him than he was, at times, despite having been descended from their blood. Those who could speak the common tongue some told him about the Nergui, but Abidemi, born in a peaceful pride and never having really suffered, almost found it too hard to believe.

Slowly he picked up some of their language, and could identify with them more, but the next thing he knew, they had arrived at the Firekin and he found his grandmother. He spent more time with her and the native members than in the Red Quarter, and members didn't think of him as a Hongshan. With no one to interact with at the barracks now, he thought maybe he should pay them a visit. He lifted his head to look in that direction, but his ears flattened against his head. He wasn't so sure, they seemed to be settled and closely knit now, maybe they wouldn't humor a visit from him. He went from lying down to a sitting position, hesitant.  

[Kaelyndra]

Isifo was on his way out of the barracks.

Though they had not yet exchanged words, the two males held a distinctive parallel in their thoughts. The black-eyed male, his red iris' as spooky as the patterns on his body, was headed for the soldiering grounds. His head was swaying ever-so-slightly as his anxiety grew.

Isifo had no desire to hear his ears ringing again. Fighting, honorable as it may have been, was not his calling. As far as he could gather, they thought he had potential. One of Isifo's brute hits could fell small opponents. However, he was terribly slow, and had no sense of the Firekin's dancing motions. He constantly loss, and seemed to have no shame.

There was a term for this: fireless. Isifo had no temper.

However, he did have eyes. After months, no years, of seeing nothing but next of kin come in and out of the barracks, it became very obvious when someone who did not belong was prying. Isifo stopped, and stared straight at the male. He grunted, loudly, and bobbed his head.

"Why are there?" The lion's poor use of common tongue was apparent in his accent if not recognized in his direct lack of a subject.

Puhterodactyl

 

[Puhterodactyl]

Abidemi tried to sputter out an answer, he wasn't quite sure how to explain himself. The other male's broken speech didn't quite help either. He should try to answer in the Northern tongue, put the male at ease. If Abidemi was correct, he felt he'd seen the lion spar before, and he was a real force to be reckoned with.

"I, uh, wanted to..." what was the word? He fumbled. "Sord." Talk. That was it! It'd been some time since he'd made any effort to speak to a Hongshan in their own tongue. Usually, as Isifo demonstrated, they tried to speak the common tongue.

"I joined the Firekin with the Hongshan. I haven't... sordad to the ones I've joined with in some time, I mean... seka." He winced. He was butchering this, hopefully the lion wouldn't answer just in fluent Northern. But maybe they could meet each other in the middle?

Kaelyndra

 

[Kaelyndra]

Isifo's muzzle grew into a fine line as he watched the Firekin stumble into his words. He turned his head towards the sound, twisting his ear until the words became the loudest.

The Hongshan could gather the word want, and then a word he intrinsically knew. It took him a moment to realize the word had been said in his home tongue, because his brain was so focused on the other language.

"Wrong time," Isifo corrected quietly in the common tongue. "Time say is future. Want osu."

Isifo quickly shifted into his language. "We can talk," he calmly answered. Then, he switched back to common tongue. "You," he tried, remembering the pronoun this time, "Have a piakseum?" Question, the word meant.

Puhterodactyl

 

[Puhterodactyl]

Abidemi grimaced an apologetic smile. Hopefully he wasn't making an a** of himself or seeming presumptive. Probably all the guilt he was feeling over not associating with the Hongshan in the Firekin was invented. They didn't need him in the least bit, why should he feel a duty to reach out to them? He chewed the inside of his mouth as he tried to think of what to say next.

Piakseumi was something he recognized. While he was traveling with the Hongshan it was something they said frequently in reference to him, because he did have many questions.

"Have the Hongshan kassrad varr? How does aqaraeuma reda the Firekin?" He wanted to know how the Northerners were settling, if they liked the Firekin. In the travels alongside the Hongshan, they seemed to humor Abidemi, but of course, opinions varied.

Kaelyndra

 

[Kaelyndra]

"Firekin are ksibburm." Isifo's muzzle split into a grin. "Hard-heads," he tried to explain as he plowed his way through common tongue.

"Good fights." Fights Isifo wasn't very good at, apparently. He had thought himself a soldier! Not that he was the worst soldier they had, but Isifo certainly place himself on the very lower rungs. He could steal beat some of the adolescents, and was slowly learning how to better avoid the Firekin strikes.

"Prefer raoqae resk." The Hongshan moved onto his back leg and swung a heavy paw to the ground. It was slow, but there was a great deal of force that sent sand moving. His throat held the smallest of chuckles.

"You guard?" He had not seen him on the soldiering grounds, to his knowledge, but Isifo did not know most of the Firekin by name or by sight.

Puhterodactyl