Yay, my favorite thing to do, meet new people. Mezu was picked up by Brick and now sat in his lap. He let him play with his locks and I walked over to an empty chair.

Dodger, Brick, and Mezu split the couch that directly faced the fireplace. Their weapons were placed on the ground by their feet, but I couldn’t get a good look at them from this angle. Dot and Lefty took the other couch. Dot was playing with her staff and some tools. Lefty was stretched out next to her.

Sailhin got comfortable in her armchair and Paeris paced behind her slightly glancing at the seats remaining.

One was an armchair that was next to Sailhin, and two less cushioned chairs sat with their backs to the fire. I didn’t want to sit particularly next to anyone, so I took one of the ones by the fire, which prompted Paeris to sit next to Sailhin.

The seat was a bit overly comfortable, even if it was less cushioned than the armchairs, so I got out of it and pulled it away going to take one of the wooden chairs from the desk.

“So, what’s up with Kayden calling this half elf a full elf?” Dodger asked.

Of course, she could see too.

“I just didn’t correct him when he called me one.”

She took her feet off the table and sat leaning forward looking at me more intently.

“An elf with aura, fun to see. We should fight some time, but your pathways aren’t very open. And the ones that are open are weird. What order did you go in?”

“Uhh, well I did my hands first but then I was trying to see mana, so I tried the ones in my head.”

She laughed, “what a weird way to learn.”

Brick nudged Dodger, who looked at him. He did a few hand movements, and I tilted my head confused.

“Yeah well, it’s not like I had much of a choice for my method. I didn’t learn about the proper ones till later.”

“Human sign language, hopefully you can learn some basics, but I will translate when it matters.”

Yeah, Alcoroth, me, and learning things sure is something that happens quickly.

Brick signed something again and this time Dodger replied in sign as well.

Paeris watched them for a second before looking back at me.

“We all speak our own languages, we learned a few of the most important signs and are learning more. But if there’s an emergency and he really needs to tell us something he has another way to communicate with us”

“Me and Dot speak Egathi, Dwarvish and common, by the way. And obviously the elves speak elvish, and common. What about you?”

“Might as well tell them, you’re not great at hiding it anyway.”

I did not miss the lack of encouragement.

“I can speak Dwarvish, and common and can understand elvish but my speaking isn’t great.”

“Not hiding anything I see.”

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Dot’s comment was a bit unexpected since she seemed so focused on what she was doing.

“Well, I’m bad at noticing if the languages switch sometimes. Might as well tell you first, instead of you just noticing later.”

Lefty laughed.

“Well, the twins over there speak common. Dodger’s mother tongue is a bit rough around the edges, but they mostly talk to each other in sign anyway.”

“So, what are you mixed with?”

Dodger and Brick’s discussion had ended and Mezu left his seat running over to me. I looked around at them.

“I’m not sure, I didn’t know my parents.”

“Alright, not a problem. Looks like you use a sword. But can we know more about your contract?”

I wasn’t really sure what to say. It’s not like it was like an actual ‘spirit’ contract (an actual summoner would summon a spirit as their method of fighting, they’d be able to use spells because of them and not without them), Mezu kind of doesn’t do much. But there are other summons, if they were summoned at some point I’d have to explain them right?

“Just keep it short, that the young master only intervenes if need be.”

“Uhh, yeah so this is Mezu, I sometimes call him Fluffy. He likes the taste of me, so I trade him my flesh as part of our contract. And if things go really bad off, he really doesn’t like whatever we’re fighting, he’ll help out.”

“The healing is part of that?”

Paeris looked at me a bit more intently than I was expecting. Most of my arm was back, my hand was just finishing up at this point.

I nodded and stumbled through, “Yeah… well I mean he gets hungry a lot… doesn’t really like eating other things so it’d be a bit inconvenient if he couldn’t eat when he wanted to right? So, with the occasionally help I get the healing of wounds and stuff too. It’s automatic most of the time but it can be enhanced occasionally.”

“That’s good then, I have one less person I need to be worried about during a fight,” Paeris breathed out a sigh and leaned back into the chair a bit.

“I don’t really have any other questions. Just wanted to make sure we understood that. Since we haven’t fought together, running into a fight without knowing where we might need to help out now and then isn’t great.”

Sailhin stood up and stretched.

“So, there’s a kitchen, does anyone know how to cook?”

Dodger rose her hand, “If its meat you just stick it over some fire still it’s brown on all sides and then it’s usually good.”

Sailhin sighed, “I’ll take that as a maybe.”

Lefty and Dot stood grinning, “well we can cook mostly. I’m sure it’s better than some salad eating elves could do.”

“We don’t just eat salads,” Paeris glared.

“Don’t worry we’ll toast you rabbits some vegetables.”

Dot pushed Lefty slightly as she chuckled, and they headed to the kitchen.

“I guess eating before we start climbing wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Dodger said, “oh let’s take the time to teach you some basic signs.”

“Stick to basics, yes, no, question words, numbers and our names,” Sailhin said getting up “giving too many to him might make things difficult.”

Would Fluffy be able to learn them too? I looked at him relaxing in my lap.

I had a feeling he wasn’t supposed to talk about anything complex with me, and we had come up with our own little ways for him to tell me things, but wouldn’t it be nice if he could say more?

“Got it,” Dodger rolled her eyes.

Sailhin tapped Paeris out of his trance, he had still been looking at me.

“Oh, right. Also, Quartz, since we all know, you don’t have to hide your ears anymore if you don’t want to. Having your hair like that must get in the way when you fight right?”

“Oh, uhhh, honestly I don’t think I ever noticed.”

Sailhin and Paeris glanced at each other.

“Yeah, well it is pretty short. But still, you could try it. If you want help just ask.”

I nodded. It still didn’t feel like I should for some reason. They left the room and Dodger quickly got onto the table and sat in front of me.

“Alright, the most important thing. How to sign that you’re hungry.”

Brick hit the back of her head and sat down next to her.

I didn’t know why they were so close I could see them just fine from where they had been sitting originally.

“Fine, alright let’s start with what.”

They both held their hands out flat with their palms facing upwards, at a slight angle towards each other and shook them side to side slightly.

I did my best to copy their movement.

“Pretty close.”

Brick took my hands though and demonstrated how much I should move them. It was more of a movement directly towards each other at the same time than a side-to-side movement. After a couple more repetitions I got it.

“Alright let’s do who.”

Brick showed me his hand, everything but his pointer finger and his thumb were down. Then he put his thumb under his chin and bent his pointer finger quickly a couple of times before stopping.

I did my best to mimic it.

We then went through, where, when, which, why, how, and understood. How and when were the hardest two I thought. They took me the longest to get and I actually needed Brick’s help to get how right.