“So, in our language, blue and green are pronounced the same but we write them differently like so.” Vivian drew two symbols in the air with her finger.

“I see.” Mono studied the floating green signs. They were very similar to each other but the right one, which Vivian had indicated as green, ended in a curve instead of a line. As he continued to look between them, their lines suddenly blurred and Mono felt another headache begin. With a sharp inhale, he closed his eyes and looked away.

“Are you alright?” Vivian asked.

“Yeah, I just get a headache if I look at the words for too long.”

“I didn’t know my handwriting was that terrible.”

“That’s not what I meant, I --”

“She’s just joking,” Ad cut in. Mono opened his eyes to look at Vivian, who was smiling mischievously from the front of the wagon. “I think,” Ad continued, “you might be getting sick from spending the night outside in those clothes.”

Mono moved the front of the cloak the siblings had given him when they had noticed that he was still shivering and looked down at his outfit. It was torn in several places and one side of his pants was dark red from when he had scraped himself while frantically climbing the hill. “I think you’re right.”

“I’ve never seen clothes like those before,” Vivian said. “Where are you from anyways?”

Mono hesitated. He wasn’t really sure if he should tell them that he wasn’t even from this… world? Planet? Dimension? What was the correct phrase to describe his situation, he wondered. “A place really far from here.”

“How far?” Ad probed.

“Basically another world.”

Both of the siblings laughed at that response. “Alright, we understand,” Vivan said. “A lot of people around here don’t like to talk about where they came from too. But can you tell us more about your name? Not to be rude, but it’s rather strange. Is it common where you’re from?

“Not at all.” Mono gave an exasperated sigh as he thought about his name. “Apparently my dad really pushed for the name. I have no idea why he chose it but he definitely didn’t think it through: people kept making jokes about me and a disease with the same name my whole life.”

“Yeah, it’s annoying when people make fun of something you can’t change,” Ad replied.

“Whatever do you mean by that, Adamas?” Vivian asked.

Mono saw Ad wince at the word. “Wait, so your name is actually --”

“Just call me Ad or Adam. I hate being called… that.”

“You know it’s not that bad of a name, Adamas,” Vivian teased. “Remember what Mom said: ‘adamas for unbreaking,’ ‘ad amas for --’”

“I know, I know!” Adamas interrupted. Realizing that he had spoken really loudly, his ears reddened as he continued at a normal volume. “But did she have to pick something that allowed for so many puns?”

Mono thought that Adamas was a pretty interesting name, but he didn’t say it. “Alright, Adam it is then.”

“Thank you.”

Mono moved the cloak back into place. He could actually feel the cold a bit now. “So, where are you guys from?” Remembering what Vivian had said before, he amended his question. “If you want to tell me, of course.”

Vivian opened her mouth to answer but quickly shut it and turned to look at Adamas who seemed to be contemplating whether or not to answer Mono. After a moment, Adamas glanced between Mono and Vivian before giving a big smile. “Why, we’re on our way home from Atlatl,” he began in a syrupy sweet voice, “where my dear sister has been studying. As you probably know, studying at Atlatl isn’t cheap but she got a full scholarship because she’s just so talented.”

“Ad!” Vivian protested.

“I heard,” Adamas continued as he ignored her, “that she’s really popular there too. They call her the wr--.”

“Alright, Ad, I’m sorry for bringing up your name!” Vivian interrupted. As Adamas began to laugh, Vivian turned towards Mono. “They invited me to Atlatl because of how much work I put into my talent. I accepted because it was a good chance to represent the Weavers.”

“I see.” Mono replied. He didn’t actually understand the scope of what she was saying but her tone made it sound like something he should already know. Based on the context, he was certain that “talent” meant something different than normal and “weaver” meant more than just people who wove things together. Focusing on the words began to give him another headache so he just let the words slip out of his focus.

“If you’re able to,” Vivian said hopefully, “you should come with us when we head back to Atlatl. Your talent is pretty amazing. I’ve never encountered anything like it before.”

“My what?” Mono asked, confused.

“Your talent; you know, how you can talk to us even though we are speaking different languages.”

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“Wait, has he?” Adamas interjected. He looked at Mono curiously.

“Yeah, how could you not tell?”

“I just didn’t. Though, I’m not surprised,” Adamas added, “you always were more sensitive to aether related stuff than me.”

“Oh, it’s not like that. You should just pay more attention. Anyways,” Vivian looked back at Mono, “what else can your talent do?”

As the conversation had been going on, Mono began to understand the context a bit more. Apparently talent was their word for magic and they thought that he was using it by talking to them through the language barrier. “Um, talking to people is pretty much all I can do.”

“So how’d you wreck the tavryr’s leg?” Adamas asked. He pointed to the beast whose body was lying between Adamas and Mono, who were in the back of the wagon, and Vivian in the front. Mono had been deliberately avoiding the thing mentally and with his eyes but he forced himself to look at the beast. Where its front left leg should have been, there was nothing from the joint down. The damage looked to be old since the skin had healed over.

Looking away quickly, Mono teresly replied. “It wasn’t me. It was like that when I f-- when it found me.”

“Huh,” Vivian said. “Tavryr are normally really perceptive. Not many things could have done that to one.”

Adamas nodded his head in agreement. “Definitely not something normal. It would have to be something sudden and explo--” He was cut off by a loud bang. The force caused Mono to fall over face first as the entire wagon reared on its back wheels before crashing onto its side.

Mono lay stunned in the overturned wagon. His head was hurting again and his ears were ringing as he felt someone begin to shake him to get his attention. Turning to his left, Mono saw Vivian looking at him with a concerned expression. Her mouth was moving but he couldn’t hear anything over the ringing.

After a moment, the ringing subsided but Vivian’s words were still incomprehensible. Did he hit his head too hard? No, Mono realized, he had dropped Sojourn's stone during the fall. Mono frantically looked around until he found the stone next to the beast’s body. Picking up the rock, he turned to Vivian. “Are you okay?” He asked.

Vivian looked between Mono’s face and the hand which now held the stone. “Yeah, I’m alright. How about you? You’re bleeding.” She pointed to the right side of his face.

Mono moved his hand to touch his forehead and winced. Apparently he had hit his head during the fall. “I think I’m alright. They say head injuries bleed a lot more than normal ones.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Mono looked around. “Where’s Adam?”

“When the cart began turning, he caught me so that I didn’t hurt myself. After making sure I was okay, he told me to check on you as he dealt with whatever caused this. Are you able to move? We should get out of the cart and let Ad know that we’re both fine.”

Mono looked himself over while testing his arms and legs. Beyond the headache from hitting his head, he felt fine. “I think I can move, but I am a bit dizzy.”

“Use me as support then. Let’s exit out the back.”

“Alright.”

The two shakily made their way outside. Blinking rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the light, Mono saw Adamas talking to a group of four people near the overturned wagon’s left side. Each wore cloaks mottled green, brown, and gray which had hoods that covered each of their faces. As Mono and Vivian began to move closer, Mono heard Adamas speak in the same terse tone that he had when Mono first met him at the river.

“You thought this was a ‘funny’ way to get our attention?”

The cloaked figure in the front gave a laugh. “Yeah, we just wanted to make sure you guys were awake this early in the morning. It’s not like anything was broken: we both know Atlatl-made carts are tougher than that. So calm down, me and my friends just want the tavryr.”

“Why?”

“It’s obviously ours.”

The figure’s condescending tone annoyed Mono. Clearly, it bothered Adamas as well as he crossed his arms and took a deep breath before speaking again. “Please,” he said evenly, “explain to me how the tavryr is yours?”

“Well, it’s simple really: we’ve been hunting it for the last couple of months. It would have been ours a few weeks ago but it escaped our trap. Since we would have eventually gotten the tavryr and you would never have without it missing a leg, it should be ours.”

“Oh, you’re the reason why it’s missing a leg?” Adamas asked.

“Yes,” the figure answered, “but I already said that.”

“Do you have any idea how dumb it is to let an injured animal like that roam around?” Adamas demanded. “Injured predators become desperate for food since they can’t catch prey as easily. That desperation leads them to act more aggressive towards people. Your actions almost got someone killed!” Adamas pointed at Mono.

The group turned towards Mono. After looking at him for a few minutes, the leader gave a shrug. “This area was already dangerous to travellers,” he said indifferently. “It’s not my fault he wasn’t prepared enough to deal with the hazards inherent to the region.”

Adamas’ face hardened. He looked furious. “You are not getting the tavryr. It’s not yours and you don’t deserve it.”

The leader laughed again. “You’re not really in a position to decide things. We’re taking the tavryr, even if we have to roughen you up a bit.”

“Try me.”

After looking at Adamas for a moment, the leader moved his right arm underneath his cloak. Adamas immediately stepped forward to grab the arm with his left hand.

“You don’t want to do that,” Adamas warned.

“Let go.”

“Not if you’re going to pull out a weapon.”

“I said,” the figure said angrily, “let go!” He raised his other arm to throw a punch.

Before the punch even fully began to swing, Adamas moved his right arm to grab the figure’s left tricep. With a rough tug from his right arm and a push from his left, Adamas deftly pulled the figure off balance and used the momentum to catch the figure in an arm lock. The leader struggled for a few seconds before Adamas applied more pressure.

“Stop, you’re going to just hurt yourself while struggling. If you continue, anything that happens will be your fault.” Adamas cautioned.

“Shut up.” With an angry huff that sounded more like a growl, the figure yelled out “Get him!” to the rest of his group.

The other cloaked figures looked at each other in hesitation for a moment before moving towards Adamas. Mono watched nervously. It was a three on one and Adamas already had his hands full; it wasn’t a fair fight.

The group should have brought more people. Before the cloaked figures got too close, Adamas pushed the leader towards the group. The leader knocked into the leftmost member and sent them both sprawling. Adamas then took a few steps forward to hit the front member, who had edged sideways to dodge the errantly tossed leader, with a left hook. The figure took the hit and instantly began falling, knocked out cold. Before the front figure even hit the ground, Adamas turned towards the remaining person and ducked underneath the punch that the last member had thrown. Still ducking, Adamas quickly used his right arm to punch the solar plexus. As the final member doubled over with a wheeze, Adamas threw another left hook to knock the figure out.

“Adamas!” Mono called out in warning.

While Admas had dealt with the two upright figures, the leader had managed to get up and pull out something from his cloak. He raised his arm to throw the something at Adamas. Adamas quickly turned his head to look at the leader and, upon seeing that something was about to be tossed at him, dodged by diving sideways into a roll.

The something thrown turned out to be several things. They were about the size of golf balls and had the texture of bark. After sailing through the air towards where Adamas had been and then landing on the ground, they exploded like firecrackers. Unlike firecrackers though, there was no spark or smoke but rather bits of boiling water and steam.

Mono stared at the bits for a moment before turning back to Adamas, who had managed to sweep the leader’s feet from underneath him and now stood above looking down.

“Don’t move,” Adamas thundered.

The fourth member, the one that had crashed into the leader, froze in place. He held up both of his hands in surrender. Adamas took a look around at the other two figures on the floor before turning his head slightly towards Mono and Vivian.

“Are both of you okay?” He asked.

“I’m alright.” Vivian replied.

Mono looked at the cloaked group and gave a sigh of relief. Adamas had dealt with them so quickly. “Yeah, I’m also--” He felt a wave of vertigo.

“Mono?” Vivian asked worriedly. She held him tighter to prevent him from falling over.

For some reason, Mono suddenly felt insanely tired. His thoughts were coming in sluggishly as the ground began to get slowly closer to his face. Why was he on the ground? Oh, he realized, Vivian hadn’t been able to hold him up as he fell so she tried to make him descend slowly instead. The world was getting darker as Mono’s eyes began to droop closed.

“Mono? What’s wrong? Was it your head injury?”

Vivian’s voice became fainter. Her words devolved from understandable questions into something Mono couldn’t understand. Maybe the stone wasn’t working, he wondered.

Eventually, those too petered out. Mono was left once more in silence and darkness.