I darted over to him where he was eating and scooped him up along with some of his food and ran inside.

Only once I was in the changing room I sighed and looked down at Fluffy.

That little blood covered face looked up at me and was reaching for something in my other hand.

I looked over, oh, I was holding his food.

I looked back at him.

“Sorry buddy.”

I put him down and was about to hand it to him when I looked back at it.

I was holding Fluffy’s food.

Fluffy’s, food…. which is Quartz.

I handed it to him quickly, felt the swelling in my throat and sprinted to the toilets.

I made it just in time and let it go into the bowl.

I must’ve looked so weird grabbing Fluffy like that.

Come on idiot.

There wasn’t much in my stomach to empty out in the first place, so I cleaned off my face and went back to the baths.

Fluffy was no longer in the changing room but I saw that his robes were off in a basket. Someone else must’ve come up and brought him in.

Though, it was probably Brick that was in the bath right now. Quartz wouldn’t come wash Fluffy while missing an arm.

I gagged.

I had picked up that arm.

I shuddered.

I still took off my clothes, I couldn’t avoid him while being this dirty. And I had to take care of Fluffy’s hair.

I took a deep breath and headed into the bath.

I was right, Brick was squatting behind Fluffy, who was sitting on a stool, washing his hair of the blood and dirt from the past couple floors.

I silently sat down on my own stool and started to wash myself. I tried not looking over at him. The only benefit to him not being able to speak was that I had to look at him to be able to converse with him. As long as I avoided making eye contact, we could avoid the subject.

There were still a lot of signs that I didn’t know but I could still understand him considerably better than the rest. There was still a lot for me to learn, and without asking Brick, Dodger had been my teacher. But she quickly got bored helping me since I’d ask her way too many questions, and she really doesn’t seem to be the studious type.

I knew that the signs they used weren’t from any specific language, it was simply how they talked with each other. Translating things was easy but I think for her, actually teaching someone else the signs was a lot more work.

The grammar wasn’t the same as common and explaining it in reference to common’s grammar wasn’t something an illiterate person could do. That’s not to say that it’s a fault for her to be illiterate, it just wasn’t a need for her since Brick was able to read and write. And she didn’t care to study, she was clearly much more interested in fighting.

So, Brick was the better option for teaching me, but without a sufficient supply of writing materials, Dodger would have to translate explanations and that in it of itself was very uninteresting for her.

I stupidly didn’t bring any extra notebooks or other useful study materials, I had just the one that I used for any research. And that was quickly being filled up.

If I had even considered to bring more, I would’ve loved to spend more time on the sixteenth floor. Dot showed me the stack of notes she gathered from the books she was able to read before the librarian had kicked them out.

I wouldn’t want to ask her to give up some of her paper just for him to teach me signs easier.

I should’ve actually looked on the twentieth floor for some. Past me didn’t think about it since we were in a bit of a rush to avoid certain eyes.

I finished scrubbing myself and glanced over to see Brick rinsing off Fluffy.

“Here I can finish,” I offered.

It was usually easier to braid his hair wet, and then dry it with mana later. He always seemed to sit better while in the bath.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He smiled, “Thanks.”

“Of course,” I signed back.

I pulled Fluffy from him and put him in the bath, I sat at the edge behind him and worked on braiding his hair up and out of the way. Once I was done, I got in the water my self.

Fluffy floated around for a bit before Brick joined us.

“Sorry for calling you mom all this time,” he signed.

“It’s okay,” I signed but looked down slightly, “I get it I can be a little overbearing.”

He shook his head, “Its not that.”

What did he mean?

He looked like he was trying to think of what to say. He kept lifting his hands about to start signing but didn’t.

“You don’t have to push yourself. I get it.”

He shook his head harder, “can you use your mana sight?”

I had recovered enough mana for now. I wouldn’t be able to move onto the next floor any time soon, but I could at least do that.

“Sure,” I smiled softly and turned it on.

I really thought that the glow his mana now gave off really suited him. Fire itself would’ve been a bit too soft to represent him, but lava… I think it suited him very well.

Then I saw the mana above his head move and shift into a phrase.

‘Can you see this?’

“How did you do that?!” I exclaimed out loud.

My eyes were wide, and I stared up at it. I never considered using mana in this way. I mean it would make sense it was a way to communicate between people who could see mana, but it wouldn’t necessarily be something very secretive. You couldn’t really hide it from others.

The mana shifted to, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Oh sorry, that was just… anyway why’d you show me this?”

“Well, I know you’ve been trying to learn sign so we could talk more, but Dodger and teaching don’t mix well…. anyway, that’s not what I wanted to say.”

The words shifted quickly, but I was able to read it.

It was really interesting, they seemed more linked to the speed at which he thought of them and not necessarily the speed that he might speak.

“Star-Paeris.”

Star?

“Look I- you’re not overbearing. That’s not why we called you Kahzhaw.”

Kahzhaw.

“Me and Dodger met in an orphanage, so we never had parents. Our Yozhya had explained briefly about what a Kahzhaw or a Shymgyen was like… And when we met you and Shymgyen, sorry you and Salhin…. I can’t spell her name sorry… when we met you guys, that was the feeking you kind of gave off, the meaning of the words in Shokhazh I mean, not what would be the common meaning.”

The goliath’s language? But Dodger never spoke in an accent, and neither did Brick. They must’ve been in a human orphanage.

“Yozhya said that they were from the words birthed and protector, and support and protector. At the time we didn’t know was birthed meant.”

He scratched the back of his head, a bit embarrassed.

“She just said it meant that they care about your health and safety. Thinking about it I think she just didn’t want to explain sex to us.”

I laughed, yeah, my aunt didn’t look forward to the conversation, so much so that she just handed me a book about it.

“My mom did the same.” I signed.

Well, she’s not technically my mom, but…. If that sign meant their version of things, it made more sense to use it for auntie.

He smiled, “Yeah well you and Salin? You guys gave off the vibe that you actually wanted to help us. And you seemed to care more about our injuries and stuff than Sailhin, she always seemed to just criticize our fighting. I mean I got it as her own way of caring, but we decided that you’d be Kahzhaw and she’d be Shymgyen.”

“Oh, I get it…”

Even knowing the explanation, it still felt weird to be called that by him.

“So, I’ve been trying to think of a new sign name for you. And… I landed on S-”

He seemed to shut off the mana before he finished the word, and he signed again.

He held his pointer fingers up like he was counting, but his palms facing me. He rubbed them together and then flicked his chin twice with the back of his hand facing me.

“So, I told Dodger that was our new sign for you.”

“What does it mean?” I signed back.

He looked away slightly, “its just how I see you… I don’t know how to spell it.”

That was a lie, he instinctively almost told me it earlier.

But I didn’t want to push it, I was just happy he had changed it. I couldn’t help smiling.

“Thanks for telling me all that, I know it must’ve been hard.”

“Seeing you smile was worth it.” He signed.

I turned my face away screaming internally.

How could he say something so cheesy that easily?

Lefty came in at that moment.

“Food’ll be ready soon. Just gonna wash up before hand.”

“H-how’s Quartz?”

“Well, better than the golem floor. But we’ll see how long it takes for him to get aggravated again. You’ll have to have a break, right?”

“Yeah, we’ve no idea what the next floor is, and I used up all my mana to fix the tree.”

Brick splashed and I looked over at him, the mana above his head was shifting too fast for me to read.

“I can’t read that fast, what’re you trying to say.”

“You shouldn’t’ve healed me if you were exhausted like that!” he managed to sign.

“But you were hurt, if you don’t heal burns fast enough, they could scar badly, and since some of them were really deep they would’ve affected you range of movement. I’d rather pass out then let that happen!” I signed that before I realized what I had said completely.

He stood up suddenly.

“You need to rest. Dot can dry Fluffy’s hair, don’t use any more magic tonight.”

“But-“

“No one else is hurt, there’s no need to. Dot can dry his hair.”

“Alright, but we do need to talk about the healing later.”

“Can you speak Paeris? I feel so left out of the conversation since I can’t see you guys.”

With his back turned to us and, me right behind him, even if he turned around, he’d only be able to see Brick’s signs.

I switched to very rough Egalthi “I just said that we need to talk about the healing thing later, without Quartz.”

“Alright, and man is your accent bad.”

“Hey. I learned it from a nonnative speaker, it’s the best I’ve got. Especially with Fluffy around, I thought he’d only understand common.”

“I don’t think he’d be able to say anything to Quartz anything. I mean sure sometimes it seems like they’re having a heavier conversation, but I don’t think that little fluffy head is really understanding a whole lot of it.”

Brick grabbed my arm, “out now, you could get lightheaded.”

“I’m fine,” I signed.

“No, lets go.”

I couldn’t really say no to his face, and I was weak, so it was rather easy for him to lift me out of the bath.

“Geeze you two teiguri, the bath is for everyone.”

I didn’t know what teiguri meant, but I’m sure he was making light of the situation.

“Don’t use words I don’t know!” I complained as Brick carried me out into the changing room.