John had paid attention this time, as his customer was speaking. The story was certainly interesting, and John looked forward to seeing the dried fish fill the markets soon. Maybe he would take a walk down the street and look at it soon even. A reminder of his customer every time he saw it. But no, what was most interesting was how the customer spoke.
Many of the sounds the man made were not produced from the muscles in the neck but instead from a similar type of mechanism formed with the lips or tongue. The letter produced from air that pushed through the restrictions imposed on it in the mouth, not the neck. A 'p' sound coming from air breaking through the lips, while a 't' came from air breaking through the tongue. An 'm' was formed with close lips while the neck muscles vibrated, while 'n' was the same but with the lips open and the tongue restricting the flow. The letter 's' came from pushing air through a small hole formed with both the tongue and lips. And the letter 'k' was formed similarly to 't' but with the tongue restricting the air flow much further back in the mouth.
The letters 'b' and 'd' confused John. They seemed almost identical to 'p' and 'd' respectively, and yet there was something else happening that he couldn't quite place. Something that made John identify them as different letters. They were close enough anyway, and John was pleased with what he had learned, so set out to work on it once more.
He formed the spacial voice box and mouth he was used to now, and worked on practicing his new letters. These ones weren't a constant vibration like the muscle in the neck, the air blasting through only once before the rest of the word continued as normal. It was a bit tricky to get it working, being so used to the rapid oscillations of the other muscle, but with a bit of trial and error he got something working.
There were still a few letters that John struggled with, a few sounds that he couldn't quite figure out just yet. Some that he could make work sometimes but not every time, but he had something now. And he was excited for his next customer to try it out with.
It didn't take long for another person to come into John's store, the door opening less than an hour after he finished with his day's practice. He fiddled with it a little more but there was nothing like putting it into practice to figure things out, John felt.
A human girl walked into John's store, her light brown hair resting at her shoulders, framing her tanned, scarred face. She wore well used but maintained metal armour with leather straps holding the various pieces together. Some thin, well fitted dark clothes sitting below and leather gloves covering her hands. A scabbard hanging off her waist, rocking as she walked in the store. Two more men were waiting outside, dressed in a similar garb.
John formed the now familiar spacial structure as he prepared to speak. The woman's hand rushing to the sword at her waist as he did.
"Stand down." The woman said, and John obliged, his magic fading away. He wasn't sure why she would need him to not speak but she must have her reasons.
"We have been allowing you to stay here despite numerous disruptions to our town, but a kidnapping has forced our hand. I must ask you to come with us for questioning." The woman said, her hand still resting on her sword.
John was confused, to say the least. He had been nothing but kind, he felt. He helped the people who came by, gave them books, listened to their stories. He certainly never kidnapped anybody. Sure, at times he may have felt like killing people but these were fantasies, things he recognized as harmful, things he would never do. And kidnapping was never one of them. What use would he have for a child? He can't eat them even if he wanted to, and even if he could eat them it's not as though they would provide any meaningful sustenance. The power contained within one was hardly of worth to John, useless for any kind of rituals.
He didn't understand. And he sent this confusion, this desire to understand through to the woman. She flinched back in pain and drew her sword.
"Sir I said stand down. If you attack me again I will have no choice but to use lethal force." The woman said, sword pointed at John.
This was beginning to be frustrating for John. He thought about just killing the woman. It would be so easy, he thought. Just erase her from space, be rid of this pest once and for all. But he couldn't stay here if he did that, and he liked it here.
John nodded his head, resigned to his fate. He would do what he could to maintain his presence here and if it didn't work, he could just release his frustrations on this lady and go find another place to set up his shop. Maybe it was time to go learn about another planet's people anyway.
The woman lead John down the street towards the center of town. People staring at John even more than normal as he was surrounded by guards being paraded through the streets. They spoke in whispers, thinking he couldn't hear the terrible things they said about him.
He just wanted to sell people books, John thought. He wanted to set up a nice little shop and talk to all his customers who came through, learning about who they were and what they've done. And in return he'd get to give out books, his collection making its way back into the universe piece by piece. He didn't understand why it had to be so challenging, so difficult. Why he had to put up with so much vitriol to do it.
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But John was nothing if not patient, the years would pass and people would forget. As long as he could clear up this kidnapping thing, his life would go back to normal eventually.
The woman led John inside a large stone building, 'Courthouse' written in wooden lettering above the front of it. A clerk sat at a desk inside, eyeing the group as they walked into the back, dropping john off in a small room with metal bars blocking his passage. They closed the door and locked it.
"Wait here until we have time to question you." The woman said, before walking away.
John wondered why they would bring him here just to tell him to wait. They were the ones who wanted to question him, why should he have to wait?
A few minutes passed as John sat in the room, wondering how long they would be. Surely if they brought him here now to question him, it would be soon, right? An hour passed, and still nothing. Nobody coming to his door, nobody apologizing for the wait.
John didn't see the point in waiting any longer so he left, appearing back in his bookstore. When they were ready, they could come and get him. To force him down to the courthouse just to make him wait until they were ready? Offensive, John thought.He sat at his desk for another couple hours, practicing his speech. He was getting pretty good at it even, he thought.
His practice was interrupted by his door being kicked down, thrust into the store, smashing into his bookshelves and knocking over the books. A dozen armed guards running into his store, lead by the same woman he saw earlier. More still waiting outside his store, surrounding it.
"Sir, I don't know how you escaped or why in the hells you chose to come back to your bookstore when you did. But you are hereby under arrest. Do not resist or we will have no choice but to use force." The woman said, nodding to one of the guards.
A man with thick iron chains approached John, struggling to secure his limbs with cuffs. John helped out a little bit, extending the space around the cuffs so they would fit a little bit better. He had nothing against people just doing their job, but the woman who broke his door down and damaged his store would not get off so easily.
"Follow me to the courthouse, again. And this time you will not be escaping." The woman said, leaving the building.
John was tired of being stared at on the street, and this larger, almost army sent to capture him would not make that any better. To hell with the consequences, John thought. He had been nothing but kind and respectful in his time here. And if the people in charge couldn't understand that, it was their problem.
Instead of making the long, shameful walk back to the courthouse he simply teleported the entire group to inside it. Many of the people ending up in his caged room with him. Most falling to the ground or running to the corner in fear.
"What the hell did you just do?" The woman asked.
The woman pressed her sword up against his neck, stopping John as he tried to write in the air. "You will not be casting magic. Stand down, this is your final warning." The woman said, almost spitting her words out at John.
John focused on the space around the woman, gripping it with his mind and moving her away. He could see her struggling against the force but didn't care. This had gone too far, and he had every right to be able to communicate his side.
'Teleported. Didn't want to walk.' John wrote in the air, the woman's eyes going wide with fear as the black writing appeared in the air. He released the woman who screamed at him and ran at him with her sword.
John merely pushed her back again and extended his awareness to cover the courthouse. Looking for somebody important, somebody powerful. He saw somebody in a room upstairs, filling out paperwork. Several people running towards the room and talking about the sudden arrival of a few dozen people.
This was the person, John thought. He teleported to the man's room, appearing in front of him. The man's eyes widened as he stood up.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
'John' John wrote.
"Ah, you're the creature we're supposed to be arresting for escaping prison. I see." The man sighed, and sat back down. "I frankly don't get it. You could kill all of us on a whim and you haven't, even after you've been treated so poorly. But the higher ups are calling for your arrest so we have no choice. Apparently some noble child went missing recently, and she was last seen in your shop. I don't suppose you know where she is?"
John thought about the child who was in his store recently. He thought he found her parents, but he didn't really verify that either. Or perhaps she got lost again immediately afterwards, if those were her parents they weren't very careful with her. He sent an image of the girl to the man, as a question.
"Ah, yes. That's the girl. She was kidnapped very recently. The current theory is that you ate her. Did you eat her?" The man asked, smiling as John shook his head. "I didn't think you would. We would've had a lot more disappearances if you were going around eating children. She belongs to a noble family here, and they won't rest without either your death or their child returned. You wouldn't happen to know where she is would you?"
John shook his head, but wrote 'Find' in the air.
"You can find her?" The man asked, as John nodded his head.
His awareness spread, covering the entire town. He could see every single person, every family living their lives. Some people were cooking, some were sleeping. Others still playing some kind of game in their yard. But the child, and the people he found was nowhere. He extended his awareness further out, covering the forest and land nearby. Mountains, caverns and forest filling his mind. Monsters prowling their lands, stalking their prey. Creatures far beneath the earth, resting in a near eternal slumber. But still he could not find the child.
Even further still, nearby cities and rivers reaching his mind, but nothing. It wasn't until he was nearly a quarter of the way around the planet that he found the girl, further than he expected any humans could travel in that time frame. Curious, he thought. He was so sure they were humans.
The girl was working in a mine, hands covered in blisters as she smiled and giggled between coughs. Other people, of various ages were in the same mine, digging deeper and deeper. They all seemed so happy, despite their injuries.
John teleported the girl to him, the man reacting as soon as she appeared.
"Well that was certainly easy. She seems to be under some kind of spell, we'll need to get a healer in here. But everything should be good now that we have her, I'm sorry for the interruption." The man said. John nodded his head, and teleported back to his store.