“Alright, so it’s too much work to sign out people’s names, well even if we were taught how to spell things in the first place it’d probably be too much work. I mean Dot and Lefty have short names, but Paeris and Sailhin are long.”

I didn’t think that they were all that long in comparison, not that I’d say anything.

“So, we have sign names for everyone. We’ll do Paeris and Sailhin first since we didn’t actually tell them what their signs meant.”

She was grinning and talking softer now.

“So Paeris acts like a mom, or how we always thought a mom would be. So that’s his name.”

Brick held his hand out flat and moved his hand so that his thumb would hit his chin. That was easier than how, so it didn’t take long.

“Sailhin is the dad if Paeris is the mom obviously. It’s the same thing but just at your head instead of at your chin.”

Brick did it and I copied.

“Easy enough.”

“Cool, for Lefty, it’s this.”

Brick held his hand open and with his middle finger, he touched the side of his forehead and quickly twisted his hand out.

I copied that one.

“Dot’s is a bit more involved.”

Brick showed me, his thumb was touching his fingers and then his hands faced each other. They moved opposite each other and then his hands switched. Everything but his pointer and thumb were fully bent, and the thumb and pointer were half bent before the movement was repeated.

He did it a couple of times and I still didn’t quite get it so he moved my hands, so I got the positions right.

“Yeah, I mean for now it’s good to just recognize it, but it’ll help you remember them if you do it too. And signing in situations where we can’t talk openly would probably be helpful.”

“If it’s either me or Brick signing, we use this to talk about each other.”

Brick held both hands up with their thumbs out. One was held in front of him slightly, and the other was at his cheek, he then moved the one at his cheek down to the other. When they hit each other his pointer fingers straightened.

“But for everyone else, Brick’s is this.”

She crossed her arms at her chest and made a light clawing movement. I copied.

I was wondering what these meant, I could probably ask Alcoroth later.

“And for me.”

Brick crossed his hands and closed them at the same time as if grabbing the air, then uncrossed them and moved them downwards opening his hands flatly.

This one was more complex than his, but it was still easier than Dot’s.

“We thought of some temporary one’s for you and Mezu. For Mezu its just what you call him, Fluffy.”

She made the motion of grabbing a ball in front of her and kind of squeezing its surface but not very hard.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I hoped it stayed, cause having the same nickname for him was nice.

“And for you it’s this.”

There was a slight grin on her face as she pinched her fingers together and gestured towards her bottom lip.

Alcoroth’s laugh and the positioning could only mean it meant something to do with eating.

“Did you really name me food or something?”

“See you’ll pick it up in no time,” She was laughing too.

Brick shook his head and nudged her.

“I get it, it’s just temporary. We can always think of a new one. Alright let’s get to understand, yes and no and then numbers.”

By the time I had finished learning them, Dot had called us all to eat from the other room.

Mezu followed us into the kitchen and picked his seat before the rest of us sat down.

The kitchen table was filled with three different dishes. One had a much larger portion than the others, but it looked familiar.

“Alright, they made their own food, but you can eat the rabbit food if you want since they made more than enough. I made something from my home and Lefty made something from his.”

We sat around the table and plates were passed out.

“Alright, so the best way to- “

Before she finished her sentence, I was already grabbing the small flat round shaped bread, placed it on the table next to my plate, and then stacked the meat part itself onto my plate| I used the bread to pick up the meat and started eating. Only when I was a couple bites in that I noticed no one else had started.

“Right, well just do it like he’s doing it.”

I didn’t even remember the name of what she had made, but I knew how to eat it.

“Mine’s just rice and meat and vegetables, not complicated.”

I watched him fill two bowls with the two separate things and start eating. We ate mostly in silence. And when I finished the meat and bread, I made two small bowls of the stuff Lefty made.

I hadn’t spent a lot of time with beastkin, well enough time to really eat their food. And yet this taste was as familiar as the dwarven meal. Why didn’t I remember it, but the taste was aggravatingly familiar? I knew what this was and yet I didn’t have the faintest reason why.

I stared into the bowl, and felt my eyes start to get wet. I just kept eating to try and stop tears from forming.

“Well, now that foods basically done, we should decide what to do, either we can sleep and then go to the next floor. Or we can go right away.”

“Let’s go right away! We just ate we’ll be full of energy!”

“Exercising after eating isn’t good Dodger how many times do I need to tell you that?”

“I do just fine,” she grumbled crossing her arms a bit.

“Let’s put it to a vote, hands up to climb, hands down to stay the night.”

I didn’t even think about voting since I was still eating. But I looked up and saw all but Paeris’s hand up.

He sighed, “fine, but after we do this floor, we should all rest.”

I stuffed the last bit of food in my mouth and helped them clear the table sticking everything into the sink.

“Might as well see if things will just clean up when we leave,” Dot said stopping Paeris from starting to clean.

“If not, I’m not doing it when we get back. We should just do it now.”

“Alright, let’s just go, we can all pitch in later if it doesn’t get done,” Sailhin said pulling him out of the kitchen.

Mezu climbed up onto my back when I got up from my chair and I helped him up onto my shoulders. I was happy, this would be the first time Mezu would probably get to see me fight again.

Once I got into the living room, I saw Sailhin and Paeris getting ready.

“Quartz, are you sure about your hair? I mean it really wouldn’t be hard for me to tie it up real quick.”

Why did he even care about it?

“It feels weird to do that. Elven hair styles aren’t really my thing anyway.”

“It’s not an elven hair style just tying it up. But he’ll shut up about it now.”

Sailhin had her hand gripping his shoulder tightly.

But also, why did I still care about it? They were right, they all knew, there was no need to hide it. Then why had I been hiding it all these years if they knew? Was it because my ears were as long as a regular elf? Was that normal?

All this thinking wasn’t great, but if my hair hadn’t bothered me before it wouldn’t bother me now, would it? And yeah, elven hairstyles were a bit weird to me.

“Let’s get going!”

Dodger was grinning tightening a strap for the holster of what I could now see was a large axe. She also had too shorter blades, one strapped to each of her thighs. Brick had a collection of weapons. Dodger helped him put on the back harness that held two small axes. On his left hip was a blade of similar size to the two that Dodger had and on his right was a mace.

“You can’t leave without us, anyway, so don’t rush so much.”

Dot and Lefty came over to us already dressed.

“Alright, now that everyone’s here.”

Sailhin tapped on the button that said yes and the banner disappeared. A banner popped up in front of me asking for confirmation. I looked around and saw the others looking at a similar position, so we all must have gotten it. I pressed the button. The others did it and with a click, the door swung inwards.