Yojoti and I rose, of course, with the sun. The moment of confusion about my situation was there, but it didn't last long, feeling the rough ground of the small clearing in which Yojoti had set up camp through the sleeping bag--which now felt like laying on a threadbare sheet. I covered my eyes with my hands, regretting that I had no way to extend my sleeping time. Although even if it was dark enough, my bladder was singing a song as well.

The first thing I miss from home, and it's blackout curtains. Where are my priorities? Whatever. I'm even more stiff and sore than I thought I'd be. Sleeping on the ground, even with a sleeping bag, is ROUGH. And that's on top of all the digging and walking yesterday. They call fifty "over the hill", but even thirty feels like it was ages ago, right this moment.

"Uuugh. Oh man." I couldn't help an audible complaint as I rolled over and fought my way off the ground. Yojoti, who had crawled out of his tent and was dismantling it, shot a sympathetic look in my direction, mumbling something I had to assume meant "Yeah, I understand", or maybe "I'm not surprised".

I staggered sheepishly out into the grass to relieve myself, purposefully not making eye contact with Yojoti as I came back. Kneeling down to roll up the sleeping bag, an Idea came to me.

I'm not a fan of carrying this thing in my hands, in any fashion. What if I looped the rope through the center of the roll to hang it off my shoulder on my back? It'd definitely be easier than hand-carrying it. Two passes through ought to be enough, don't you think? It'd be even better if I had one of those packs where I could just strap it to the top or bottom, but I never owned one in the first place, let alone had it stored in the shed. This is the best I can do for now.

After another fight up to vertical, I tried looping the coil of rope over my shoulder again, and the sleeping bag slid down to hang behind my left elbow, rather than in the middle of my back as I had expected.

Oh yeah, gravity. The only way to keep it up in the middle would be to do something like loop the rope around it, and then somehow attach the rope coil itself to my shirt to prevent it from just sliding around as the weight of the sleeping bag pulled it down. I don’t have a way to do that, but this is way better than having my hands full with it.

Hmm. I wonder whether Yojoti trusts me enough to pick my "weapons" back up? I guess we'll find out.

"Yojoti!" I called to my latest acquaintance, and he looked up from stowing his own bed roll. I pointed at my tool belt, then mimed passing my hands around my waist. He considered for a moment before an "Aha!" expression lit up his face. His eyes crinkled as he waved a dismissive hand at me and smiled, returning to his work.

Okay, looks like we're pretty cool with each other. "You didn't try to kill me in my sleep, so I guess letting you carry your weapons is fine" is probably a good enough basis for a tentative partnership.

Bending down for the third time wasn't quite as bad as the second time. After straightening, I settled the belt on my hips and buckled it behind my back, jingling all the way.

Yojoti had finished packing himself and was sitting next to the nearly dead coals munching on hard tack. In the strongest moment of cliché ever, my stomach growled while watching him. He chuckled, pulling out another roll and tossing it to me. I fumbled a bit, but the bread didn't fall. Yojoti smacked the ground and spoke a word, which I supposed meant "sit". I caught his eye and repeated the word while beginning to crouch, and he nodded as I finished my descent.

I guess I've got words for "bread," "jerky," "sleep", and "sit" now. I think it's important to establish "yes" and "no" too. But how? It looks like nodding or shaking your head have the same meanings here, as far as I can tell. Let's give it a try.

"Yojoti?" I called his name and pointed to my head, making an exaggerated nod. "Yes," I said, hoping to convey that I wanted him to share the word in his language. His word was just one syllable as well, which I repeated. He pointed at me and repeated the word, which I took for an affirmative.

Next I repeated the sequence, this time shaking my head side to side and saying "no". Yojoti gave his word, which I repeated, then he called out the "yes" word, pointing at me.

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Ok, I think we have those settled. Time to double check!

I pointed to him and said "Yojoti, yes. Trevor, no". Then pointing at myself, "Trevor, yes. Yojoti, no".

"Aaah! Yes! Yes!" Yojoti exclaimed. I clapped and gave a little hoot myself. It feels good to communicate and accomplish things! Mildly proud of myself, even if it's just a small thing.

From there, we spent some time going back and forth identifying different items around the camp as the sun truly rose. Rocks, fire, sun, sleeping bag, tent, knife, bow, hammer, and more joined my vocabulary. Not that I have a chance in hell of remembering everything perfectly on the first try.

Oh! I'd like to show Yojoti to the shed, in case we can find or put together anything useful there. It also wouldn't hurt to have his help burying the gnoll. Let's see if I can get my message across.

I called Yojoti, then started drawing on the ground. First, a right angle for the roof, then an open square underneath it, and then a rectangle in the middle of the square. Hmm, if I say "shed" here, he'll probably respond with "house", which is what this looks like. That'll be close enough for the time being, until I get more vocabulary and can communicate the difference better.

I pointed to my masterpiece and said "house". Yojoti didn't miss a beat and spoke his word, which I would take for "house" for the time being. I then caught his eye and pointed to the South while repeating it. He raised his eyebrows at me and made an "Aah" sound. I pointed two fingers down and flipped them back and forth past each other while saying "walk". Yojoti gave his word, so I responded by pointing back and forth between us and saying "Yojoti, Trevor, walk house?"

Yojoti shrugged and nodded, glancing at the sun's position.

Oh yeah, we need some way to establish time and numbers. Hmm. There's no way to know if they measure time in hours, but I have a reasonable understanding that days are about the same length based on the matching time from my phone--which is surely almost dead now. I guess we'll start with numbers. I hope I'm not putting him out too much. I also hope I have some way to repay him for his food and kindness. We can't just keep eating his supplies out here indefinitely.

I caught Yojoti's attention and drew a single line on the ground, saying "one". Yojoti looked puzzled, so I drew another and said "two", and so on through "five," crossing through the other four in the old time prisoner's way of counting days.

"Ah!" Yojoti exclaimed as he understood. He held up fingers as he counted out for me up to ten. I repeated them back, then made a questioning face as I started over with one finger saying "eleven". Yojoti nodded and continued on up to twenty.

It seems like it may be similar to Spanish, just adding the new digit up to ten to the word for the current "ten" place. Hopefully there's nothing crazy like "four twenties" meaning eighty in French. Now, about times...This will be the biggest chance for not being able to figure things out so far, but let's try this idea.

I pointed at the sun with my left hand, then traced an arc overhead toward the West, following all the way back around to my left hand, then said the word for "twenty four".

Yojoti looked puzzled. Not surprising. It's highly likely they measure days and hours differently here. Let's try a different direction.

I waved my hands to sort of "reset" the question.

I pointed at the sun and said "morning", then pointed directly overhead and said "noon", followed by pointing to the West and saying "evening".

This time Yojoti said "Yes!" and mimicked my actions with three more words. I repeated them a couple of times to commit them to memory as best as I could.

This time I pointed to the sun and said "morning" followed by counting up to six, then "noon" followed by counting to six again, then "evening".

Yojoti still looked at me blankly, gently shaking his head. I guess it's possible they don't actually measure time in hours, only sections of the day. Or at least Yojoti doesn't, out here away from civilization. I still want to try to communicate that we should be able make it to the "house" before noon.

I shrugged at Yojoti and shook my head. "Walk house noon, no," I said, hoping it would communicate my intention. Yojoti pondered for a second, then said "Yes!" and a word I didn't know yet. I raised my eyebrow at him, and he put a hand out in front himself saying "noon," then chopped a hand between the first one and himself, repeating the new word.

Oh, that probably means "before"! I clapped once in excitement and said "Yes! Walk house before noon!", and Yojoti gave his own nod of approval to show that he understood.

Man, this is kind of fun! Who knew that learning a language could be so enjoyable? I'm looking forward to being able to convey things better, but this process of discovery is honestly its own reward along the way. Well, let's get "along the way" back to the shed before the morning gets away from us.

I pointed South and asked Yojoti "Walk?" He nodded, and we were on our way.