The more she looked at Turo, the more the man just completely baffled her.
At first she thought that he just hadn't understood her, but... He couldn't even light a fire!
Maybe his tribe didn't use it? If he really came from the south, maybe they didn't need it for warmth, that much was obvious... But what about food? Did they eat everything raw? That didn't seem plausible.... And he hadn't looked unfamiliar with cooked food.
It was almost like... He had been born in the body of an adult and had none of the skill and experience that came with it. Which was impossible, unless... he had lived a very secluded life until now, someone else doing everything for him...
She had one theory about what he was, that could explain at least some of his... More strange qualities. And no, it was not "he's a spirit".
She had no way to confirm it though, not yet. She first needed to be able to talk with him better.
So the strange writing material was called paper! And it wasn't leaves, but wood... Somehow. She examined the paper with this new information, trying to think of a way to ask Turo how it was made. Wood could be pretty flexible, so maybe by cutting it in really thin sheets...? But then how did it become so soft...? How did they make every piece so perfectly even?
So many questions, she had no idea where to start.
But maybe... She could try and confirm where he was from.
She flips the "paper" back to the map of the area she's been drawing these last day and points first to Turo.
« You» she then draws an imaginary circle around the page, then offers the pen to the man.
« Where... Did you come from...?» she asks, pointing at various spots on the map.
He stares at the page for a couple seconds, leaving her to wonder if he got what she was trying to say. But more than perplexed, he looks... Conflicted.
Does he not want to tell her?
Maybe he doesn't even know?
He slowly takes the writing stick from her hand and presses it, staring at the page. She notices that he holds it differently than her, daintily propped between two fingers, and then he hesitantly, slowly, draws a little "X" shape at the bottom right of the page.
Sada tries to mask her enthusiasm. He is from the south!
« I knew it!» she whispers, ignoring his confused blink. All right, next question... She gestures for the writing stick again, and on a blank page, draws three simple human shapes. Sada circles one and points at Turo.
« You» she then mimics walking with two fingers like he had done a couple of days ago.
« Alone? Or with people? "People"» she repeats, drawing a circle around all the stick figures together and hoping it was understandable. Learning words from stuff you could physically point at was easy. Most abstract concepts, less so, but they could try using drawings as symbols to represent them. As long as they were understandable...
At her side, she hears Turo shuffle uncomfortably for a moment, clothes crinkling slightly, before pointing to the single circled figure.
She looks up at him again - and that impossibly neatly trimmed beard looks even more weird up close, unnatural -, but he interrupts her before she can voice her next question.
« "Is"... You... "Alone"?» he stammers a bit, his accent all wrong and weird and... Outsider-ish. But the fact that he is trying at all and that he actually picked up words that she's been using is strangely... Endearing. She's not the only one that has some questions, it seems.
« No. My people are, umm... Here.» she draws another "X" similar to his in another corner of the map, north east to their current position. Sada waits a couple seconds, observing his reaction. He looks... Pensive.
« Do you want to...?» no, too complicated.
« You... Come... With me?» she asks after a moment, pointing first in his direction, then to the little stick figures and finally on the position of her settlement on the map.
It takes a couple of seconds, but then his eyes go wide and he starts vehemently shaking his head, looking suddenly nervous.
« Oh no, absolutely not-» he mumbles.
Sada frowns a bit.
... She doesn't understand. Surely staying with a group of strangers is still safer than living alone? Maybe he misunderstood her?
His reaction is making her theory a lot more likely though.
« All right... » disappointed, she goes back to the first sheets of paper, and starts pointing out the various plants and mushrooms, just trying to get out as much vocabulary that could be useful as possible. It's slow going, but when they arrive to the sketches she has made of various creatures, he seems to suddenly perk up. He gestures for the writing stick and points to the first sketch, one of the big birds of prey with grey and red feathers... Not like her drawing can show it, since she had access only to one color.
« It's a Fire Wing...» they were dangerous while they were hunting or if you happened to get near their nests, but she liked to look out for their fallen feathers; they were soft and incredibly warm, great to wear during the colder season by sewing them inside clothes, or as accessories. Turo nods, just the hint of a smile on his lips.
« "Talonflame"»
Is that what it was called in his language...?
Then, to her surprise, he starts sketching a Fire Wing of his own alongside hers, with a great amount of details.
A couple of strokes to draw the head, the curved beak with a sharp point and even sharper eyes... he is good at it, the picture so similar to the real thing it's like one of the creatures had been quietly sitting between them all this time, posing for reference.
But of course, there isn't one; he must be going from memory, not unlike her when she takes notes after some sightings.
But to be able to draw it so perfectly... He must have seen so many of them! And from really close, no less...
Sada finds herself almost transfixed by the smooth movements of his hand while it flits along the page, expertly filling in the drawing. The way he moves, even how he was holding the writing stick, not a single blemish on his fingers ... It's obvious he is much more used to doing this than... Lighting a fire, or holding a weapon, or ... really any kind of manual activity.
Someone else must have done them for him all this time before now, giving him the opportunity to get that good at something not immediately useful for survival like drawing.
And there is only one role she can think of that would allow for that kind of privilege, if it was even possible.
Turo finishes his drawing, absentmindedly flipping the writing stick between two fingers before giving it back to her, then starts listing off the various body parts in his language. They are not immediately useful as words between them (how many times is something like "talon" going to come up in a conversation?), but she still listens attentively. They are useful to her, and he seems... Weirdly knowledgeable about these creatures.
« Fire Wings umm... "Move"... No...» he lifts his arms and moves them a couple of times up and down, and she has to stop herself from giggling: the white cape loudly flapping along makes him look ridiculous.
« Fly...?» she offers, only half successful in stopping a laugh from escaping her.
He blushes a bit -which is weirdly adorable - and keeps talking.
« Y-yes... they "Fly" with... Fire... Umm...» there's obviously something else he wants to add, but can't explain. He sighs and palms his face.
« Of course they do, dumbass... How do I explain "fireproof"...?» he mutters to himself, lowering his hand to rub at his chin.
Sada stares at him for a moment, pointedly avoiding her eyes after noticing that she had been gazing at him just a bit too hard.
« "Dumbass"...?» she repeats, picking out one of the words from his muttering at random, and only because it sounded funny.
Turo freezes, a flash of horror on his face that quickly gets replaced by a stuttering, incredulous laugh that he tries and fails to contain.
« Wha...? No! Nononono, don'tusethatword, of all the things to pick up» he manages to get out, shaking his head but still being mostly incomprehensible.
Sada just stares at him, perplexed - and just a touch amused at his reaction -
« Turo, what is "dumbass"?»
His laugh only gets louder, and he can't do much except keep shaking his head, tears in his eyes.
It takes him a good couple of minutes to calm down.
... Now she really wants to know what that word means.
---
After a couple more hours, when they've exhausted speaking (or as close as they could get to speaking) about every creature in her paper sheets - or her "notebook", as Turo had called it-, the man stands up and Sada knows, before he even looks to the south, that he is going to leave.
She frowns, trying to think of a way to get him to stay; knowing him alone, in the dark, in a place unfamiliar to him... It worries her. She can't help but picture another Brutal Fang jumping out of the water to drag him away, or another hundred ways he could end up dead.
That he isn't is still baffling.
Maybe he knows of some special way to avoid creatures attacking him...? Not that it worked before.
Turo seems to hesitate for a moment, then gestures for the notebook.
She gives it to him, and he flips it to the first blank page. He draws a circle with some lines coming out of it.
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« Sun»
All right...? He already told her how to say it in his language though...
He looks up and searches the sky for a moment before quickly drawing another half circle.
« Moon»
He circles both of them together, then looks up at her for a long moment.
« "Day"»
Sada looks at the drawing; a sun and a moon together form... What?
He thinks for a moment, then draws another line, this time with only half of a sun over it. An arrow pointing away from it, and a moon after that... Oh! She almost jumps a little when it hits her.
He's drawing day and night! She nods enthusiastically and he smiles, then proceeds to draw another couple of sun and moon symbols, each with arrows leading from one to the next.
« I'll come.... Here... in "three days".» he enunciates slowly circling the last couple of symbols, before giving her the notebook.
It's a sequence of days and nights... He's telling her when they can see each other again. If the first symbol is today, and there is another after that, and a couple more after than one...
He starts to slowly back away, cautiously, and Sada looks back down to the notebook, conflicted. A part of her really wants to tail him, to discover where he's going. What he is obviously hiding from her. Why he looks so reluctant at the idea of meeting other people.
But... He did just promise to come see her again.
She doesn't want to break that trust right away.
« Three days.» she nods, and to give him proof of her good intentions, sits back down on the log.
He looks a bit more relieved at that, and turns around quickening his pace.
She looks at him until he completely disappears from view amidst the trees, then closes her eyes and holds still, straining her ears.
His footsteps are still audible for the time it takes her heart to beat thirty times- then they're gone.
---
« So you've met with that strange man again? » Chalo asked, her dark raven hair clinking as the little wooden beads that decorated it rattled against each other.
« Yes, I've actually got a theory about him now.» Sada answers, carefully following the other woman along the trail they've been walking along for a couple of hours.
She had gone back to the settlement after Turo had left: no reason to spend those three days just lazing around.
The trail was just the faintest line visible among the grassy field that extended all around them. The grass grew pretty high, tall enough to hide both a person walking upright, or most creatures. That made this area relatively dangerous: creatures couldn't see you coming, but you also had no idea of what could suddenly jump out at you. Unless they left traces, like the one they were following. Grass flattened by a great number of creatures stepping on it, walking in an orderly line. A herd, and Sada was pretty sure she knew what kind of herd it was. That was the whole reason that Chalo had dragged her along after all: she was the only other one in their group both curious and crazy enough to go along with her ideas.
« You do? Let's hear it. I still think that your mother is right and he is a spirit... But not an ancestor. A creature spirit, the ones that come out at night and can disappear in smoke.»
Sada lets out a sigh, crouching briefly to examine a patch of grass that looked like it had been burned.
« He is not a creature. First of all, he talks. »
« Yeah, but not our language, right? What if it's a creature using you to learn how to speak?»
« ... That's way more ridiculous than him simply being an outsider.» Sada rolls her eyes, and Chalo simply shrugs.
« ... But it's more interesting. Anyway, your theory? » she asks again, cautiously parting the grass growing on both sides of the trail to check their surroundings.
Sada follows her a couple of steps behind, swiftly stepping on Chalo's footprints to reduce noise to a minimum.
« He's the shaman of his tribe. The lore-keeper... He knows so much stuff about creatures, and can draw one perfectly! He looks like he has barely travelled before now; maybe he ... Really just didn't, because his role in the group has always been to create medicine, or... Teach the children about stuff, not hunt or explore.»
Chalo hums briefly, not convinced.
« Shamans get their role when they are are old, though. And Narjik still knows how to use a spear, not like this Terg guy-»
« Turo. And maybe in their tribe it's different, and it gets appointed at birth. » she explains enthusiastically.
« It would also explain his weird clothes. They're not for traveling, they are his shaman clothes. »
« All right... » Chalo stops and turns around suddenly, forcing the girl to stop walking.
« If he's so important for his tribe... What's he doing here? Alone?» she asks in a triumphant tone, but Sada just crosses her arms over her chest. What, did she think she hadn't thought of that?
« I've asked. He didn't look happy at the idea of meeting other people. I think he's been... Driven out. Forced to get away from them.»
Chalo goes from looking smug to slightly worried.
« So you think he's some... Outcast? Doesn't that mean he did something bad if they banished him?»
Yeah, that... That was the part of her theory she couldn't quite explain. You had to do something pretty awful to get thrown out of your tribe and left to die in the wilderness. At least, that's what she had been told; it's not like it had ever happened in her lifetime.
Sada shakes her head.
« I'm sure there's another explanation. He... Does not look like the kind of person that could hurt someone else. He was shaking completely terrified when I first approached, didn't even try to grab my spear. » she just can't reconcile the image of the weird awkward man that blushed while fumbling for his words with that of someone that had... Killed a fellow tribesmen, or something even worse.
There was just no way.
« Yeah, the explanation is "He's a spirit creature", just admit it!»
She laughs at Chalo's eagerness to see her theory get proven true.
« You would love if he was, didn't you? Like in that old story... »
Their little discussion gets interrupted when they arrive at their destination. The trail opens up in a little clearing, where the herd of creatures they've been following is hanging around, sleeping or grazing by nipping at the grass.
Their fur is blue, but most of the body is covered by white, soft wool. Occasionally, two of the creatures would accidentally brush on each other, sending little sparks flying with a sound similar to a crackling fire, but much sharper. In the whole herd, just two creatures were different, and obviously the leaders of the group, being slightly bigger, with pink fur and strangely less wool on their bodies.
Probably a male and his bond mate.
Watching how the creatures changed while growing up had always fascinated Sada terribly. Why didn't humans change like that? It wasn't fair.
« Which one were you thinking about?» she asks in a whisper while scanning the herd with her eyes. Chalo quietly points at one of the smallest creatures, close to the edge of the clearing.
« I've kept an eye on them. They're not aggressive, they prefer to flee rather than fight. And this one's even calmer than the rest. He will be perfect. »
Sada nods approvingly, then rummages in her pouch.
« You saw them eat the pink berries, right?»
« Yeah »
They creep closer to the creature by skirting around the meadow, keeping hidden in the tall grass.
Sada throws one berry near the... What even is it's name?
« What do you call them?» she whispers, observing it trot near the berry and start sniffing it.
« Is that important right now? I haven't decided!» Chalo hisses back, then holds her breath, staring at the creature with anticipation.
It starts to eat the berry, and Sada throws another one to goad it into coming a bit closer.
Well it's important for her, how is she supposed to take notes about them otherwise?
They look pretty cute, but she's not sure about what they can do... Their target has just started munching on the second berry. It's so close now that she could hold a hand out and pet it, and really doesn't look like it cares much about them.
Now the tricky part; she winces a moment, hoping for the best and that Chalo had gotten the right idea about these creatures.
She pulls another object out of the bag, a bright red root firmly wrapped in leaves, and after making sure that it's tightly balled up, throws it in the middle of the clearing. It makes a loud popping sound, scaring - and thankfully not enraging - the rest of the herd into taking off running.
The only one left is the smaller creature that is still eating his berry, and is only now placidly turning around to check out what the noise was.
It seems to realize it's been left on its own, and lets out a "meeeh".
Chalo practically shoves another berry under it's mouth to distract it.
« Heeeere, you want the tasty berry? Yes? Sure you do» she waves the fruit around taking a couple of steps backwards... And the creature seems to think about it for a moment. It looks back to where it's herd was. Then to the berry in the girl's hand.
And actually starts to follow her, trotting along.
« Holy spirits, it worked!» Chalo grins and hugs her, and Sada can't help but get excited herself.
This... This is huge. If they can get it back to the settlement, they can use it's wool without having to scrounge up little pieces by what they found laying around, or by actively hunting them.
If they could get another of the opposite sex, maybe they could even start an herd of their own!
There's just one last thing to decide.
« ... What do we call it?»
---
In the end, they name the creatures Spark Tail, after noticing its tail lighting up. Well, Chalo actually wanted to call them "Fluffyhead", but Sada had refused.
« You can call this one Fluffyhead, but I'm not going to refer to this things with such a silly name»
« But look at how fluffy it is! And why? Are you afraid Terg will laugh at you? He won't even know what it means.»
« It's Turo, and.... That's not it.» she grumbles, watching the Spark Tail chew on some grass right outside her tent.
It's just that she wanted it to sound... Proper. She keeps staring at the creature that, admittedly, was pretty fluffy - just not enough to deserve naming it after that singular characteristic. How silly would that be?
As long as it had food, it really didn't seem to mind being apart from his herd, or being surrounded by humans. They hadn't even needed to build some enclosure for him, just made sure to keep it away from furs and other things that could catch fire brushing against the sparks that came out of his wool.
What a simple, peaceful life it was leading.
The kids already loved it, and Narjik was trying to figure out a way to trim it's wool without getting hurt. She would love to help with it -it was something new to do, a new problem to solve-, but she had to get going if she wanted to reach the meeting point with Turo in time.
---
She arrives at the camp at sunset, and to her surprise, finds it already set up. The fire is crackling, not strongly admittedly, but there is a certain skill in feeding a fire and keeping it going that the man obviously seemed to lack, so the fact that he managed to get it started at all after apparently having it done only once before was impressive. Turo himself is sitting cross-legged near the fire in his usual clothes, a second notebook and writing stick of his own propped up on his knee, intent on drawing or writing something on the page.
Something looks off about him(or... More than usual), and it takes her a moment to consciously realize what it is.
It's only been three days. His facial hair should not be that long.
She blinks, trying to decide if it's just her mind playing tricks on her and she's misremembering how long it was tree days ago, or if it's just another weird thing to add to the growing list of strange things about Turo.
Probably the latter, she decides with an almost resigned shrug.
Turo looks up at her approach, just a twinge of fear crossing his expression before he relaxes, recognizing her. He raises his free hand and waves it in midair.
« "Hi" »
Sada timidly repeats the gesture and word, not quite sure what to make of it. A greeting? Or some kind of ritual?
Maybe a way to show that he was unarmed, like during their first meeting?
It seems to be the right thing to do in any case, because he smiles and gets up, closing his notebook and slipping it into his robes before she can so much as catch a glimpse of it - to her disappointment, she kind of wanted to know what he was drawing.
« You... walk... With me?» he mimes the by now usual gesture, surprising her again.
Walk? Right now with the sun setting?
Sada nods and stops just a moment to better tie the spear slung over her back, then grabs a piece of wood from the fire to use as a torch. She glances at him while they walk away from the camp; he's got both hands hidden in his mantle, head moving left and right while he seems to be scanning the trees looking for something.
« What...?» she starts to ask, and he turns back to look at her with a small smile.
« Fire Wing feathers. »
It takes a moment to recognize what "feathers" meant, before she remembers his portrait of the creature. Why is he so interested in them now? Unless...
« Are you.... Cold?» she mimes some shivering, and after a moment of hesitation, he quietly nods, looking a bit frustrated.
Sada grimaces, mentally berating herself. Of course he must be cold, not being used to living in this area. She starts to actively look for the feathers, while the obvious question of "how didn't he freeze to death the night before our meeting " keeps nagging at her.
Maybe he had something else from a creature with the power of fire with him these days, and it has now lost it's effect. She shuffles a bit closer to him, raising the torch, and he gives her a little smile noticing the gesture.
They find some feathers, but they are obviously not the ones they are looking for: much bigger, mostly white with a blue purple base. It's not the first feathers of that kind that she sees around here, but she still hasn't been able to spot the creature they belong to.
Turo also seems intrigued by them, getting down on one knee to pick one up. His free hand goes to his neck, where his strangely smooth purple clothes start.
They seem to cling so tightly to Turo's body that, when he hooks one finger around the fabric and pulls it down slightly, it almost looks like he's pulling away a weird layer of purple skin.
It looks creepy enough to distract her for a moment from what he is actually doing, namely pulling out an object hanging from his neck that was obviously hidden under his clothes.
Sada lets out a little gasp and points at it.
« My necklace!»
He nods, looking a bit embarrassed, then holds up the necklace still looped around his neck in one hand and the feather in the other. Some of the smaller feathers used in the necklace have the exact same shade of blue.
Sada gets a bit closer, keeping the torch at arm's length.
They could be from the same creature... And as far as she can remember, there are no flying creatures around with bright blue feathers.
« What is it?» Turo asks, probably his way of asking what creature it came from.
Sada shakes her head.
« I don't know.»
He looks disappointed, and slips the feather he has found in his mantle, and the necklace back under his clothes.
They keep looking for a while, but the sun having set completely in the meantime forces them to stop. Wandering around in the dark is way too dangerous; the torch is now their only source of light, complete darkness pressing against them all around otherwise.
Actually, not really the only source: Turo's purple clothes seem to glow slightly in the dark.
She stares at them for a second while he notices and ties his mantle closed, slightly embarrassed. Those have to be the most useless and backwards clothes she's ever seen.
Noticing that Turo seems to glance around nervously, she grabs his hand and guides him by walking ahead.
Or at least tries to, because his hand almost seems to squirm away from the contact, and then he suddenly stops. She turns around, only to find him with his head held high, eyes fixed to the night sky.
And an expression of almost child-like wonder on his face.
She raises her eyes to the sky as well. The moon has almost completely disappeared that night, leaving only the myriad tiny lights in the sky to shine. She's always wondered what they are; some are bigger, some smaller, some look like they are twinkling, like really small distant fires, high up in the sky.
Who's lighting those fires? Some creature, flying up in the sky at night? Maybe other people, living really, really far away?
Turo is looking at the sky like someone who is seeing it for the first time in his life; he resumes walking, slowly, but keeps glancing up, and barely avoids stumbling to the ground a couple of times, smiling all the while.
It's both adorable and heartbreaking at the same time; where they... really keeping him secluded somewhere his whole life?
Maybe he wasn't banished from his tribe. Maybe he escaped.
Maybe he's terrified of meeting other people because he's afraid of getting locked up again.
Her theory only sounds more plausible when they get back to the camp, and she insists on giving him some of her pelts to sleep in.
He looks incredibly nervous as they settle down on opposites sides of the fire.
She can hear him turn around, unable to sleep, long into the night, until she herself finally falls asleep.
He's gone come morning, but there is a piece of paper torn from his notebook left near her when she wakes up, with two day and night symbols drawn on it.