After that first word we repeated a few more I had learned up till then until the light got too low and we both had to get some sleep. When morning came I helped Elde up again and sat him outside our shelter (I guess it is now) before I took my usual morning swig of water and then waved him off as I left to go about my day.
At the docks I spent the day repeating and going over in my head the words and letters I had learned so far to pass the time between my begging. When the day came to an end as usual I went to the cart as always and bought some scraps for Elde and I from the day's pickings. After that I headed back to the shelter, with Elde’s share, ready for a few more words to add to my vocabulary and maybe some lettering to go alongside it but instead, I was met with a surprise.
Elde had made me a curriculum.
***************************************************************************************************************
The next few months quickly fell into a routine.
Everyday began with an early morning rise followed by a walk down to the river for a wash and a waterskin refill of some fresh water. When I got back I would wake Elde up and we would go through something close enough as I could figure out to physical therapy. I would help him walk and stretch out his legs and push him a little bit further each day to work him until he was exhausted to make him stronger.
After that, I would set him down for the day and then head off to go begging. The day came to an end with me collecting our food from the cart and from there I would quickly head back to the shelter where Elde and I would sit together and eat our meal.
Then we got to work.
I think this was what was actually helping Elde to recover. I still don’t know how he ended up here in the slums with me, but in his past life he must have taken his teaching role very seriously, because with each day that passed, some more vigour came back into him as my education progressed.
When we started out it was like being back in primary school again, except no nap time or recess and there was only one topic - Cali. He began by laying out the alphabet for Cali which, despite being the language of a pre-modern society, is honest to God… completely insane.
When Elde laid out all the letters for the Cali language on the first day, I was terrified. It turns out that the Cali language is made up of 66 consonants and 11 vowels, for a grand total of 77 letters. That is more than two and a half times more letters than the English language. That means that there is a hell of a lot of more words and more specific ways of saying those words than anything I have even conceived of before.
When Elde went through the symbols he wrote down one by one my stomach sank. I looked up at him with some pretty serious trepidation on my face but all he gave me back was that no nonsense teacher look that said - “This is what you need to learn. Suck it up princess”.
Uuuggghhh.
So that’s what we did. Everyday he made me go through the consonants and vowels again and again, writing and vocalising each sound. He tested this everyday by saying a letter and getting me to write it down, or, either writing a letter down and getting me to say it back to him. This continued on for about two weeks until he was satisfied that I had gotten enough of the Cali basics down pat.
From that point on however he started making me try and write out words. We started with what I knew already and then kept on adding as many nouns as we could come up with together. This was a process of getting me familiar with how to assemble words properly and the principles behind it all or so I figured, so I took every word pretty seriously.
Once we got past that point and struggled to come up with any more nouns did Elde start adding in adjectives. It was tricky at first, that’s for sure. The structure of the words were unlike anything I knew before and Elde really struggled trying to describe descriptions to me but we made our way through it in the end.
From nouns and then getting our way through adjectives we then moved onto verbs. After that came adverbs and then connectives and then everything else altogether. All the while I kept learning as many words as we could possibly come up with and then putting them together into new and different sentences so I could learn the grammar as well. By the end of what might have been six months, I had successfully brought my reading and writing up to a primary school level equivalent.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
It was hard work and I was nowhere near proficient, but I was proud of myself.
So was Elde evidently, getting that satisfied look in his eye seeing his student being sculpted into a somewhat capable student of literature. I had always wanted and meant to learn another language back on Earth but I had been too lazy to put in any serious effort. Although it was a bit left field, I had managed to accomplish one of the things I had always wanted to do. Yay me!
With my newly earned grasp on the language I had managed to start having actual conversations with Elde now, halting though they may be. He still isn’t approving of my accent yet however as he interrupts me whenever I haven’t spoken words to the standard that he deems acceptable. Besides that though, I am learning a lot more and a lot faster from Elde now that we can actually communicate better. One of the major things I had wanted to learn and have managed to decipher from Elde is his story.
“How… you… get there?
“How did I get here? Is what you meant, correct?” he asked back, correcting me.
“Yes.”
“Well… it’s not an interesting story but it is a bit sad I suppose. We have been together for some time now and we depend on each other, so I guess it’s only fair that you know something about me and my history. But! Only if you answer some of my own questions about how you got here too, alright? You are quite the mystery young Barde and I have questions of my own that I would like answered. Fair?”
“...Fair.”
“Well alright then. Where to begin… Let's see… I was born and raised in the great eastern port city of Welle as the third son of a laborer. When the Selection came around for me, and all the others in the city, not one of the kids in my generation had the talent required to walk either of the Paths unfortunately. However, it was discovered that I was quite a bit smarter than most of the other kids going through it at the time. As a result, I was accepted to be schooled by the Institution with those of us who had enough brains to learn to read and write and make a career out of working for them if we could make it through our education.”
Elde stopped there, taking a moment to reminisce, before he continued.
“My parents were proud of me, but as a matter of fact, I was actually at the back of the cohort of those chosen for their intellect and only ended up just passing the qualification. But I wanted to live up to my parents expectations and so even with my just barely passable results I endeavored to improve myself. And so, when I somehow passed the Cali competency exam as a young man, I took on the role of an instructor soon after. My idea was that by teaching Cali to the next generation it would improve my skill at the same time so that one day, I could maybe even learn Calzyian to improve my qualifications and move up the ladder as they say. But that never came to be. My parents soon after my exam and new job found me a suitable wife that was compatible enough with my affinities and in what seemed no time at all, we were married.”
“Selection?” I interjected while he paused.
“Hmm… oh… well, I suspected, but anyway. The Selection is to determine if a child has the sufficient affinity to emerge from the masses and walk either of the Paths.”
My mind suddenly flashed back to the Wizard and Bluey, his knight. They were both extremely strong, hardly human. They must have walked the Paths Elde is talking about.
“Where was I… oh yes, I had just gotten married and for a couple years my life was pretty good. Until my wife... died... giving birth to our first child… a boy. Who died as well.”
Melancholy casted a shadow over his face. I have no words or understanding to offer him so I leave him to his thoughts. I’ve had no wife or children and I’ve only ever lost grandparents so there’s no way I can comprehend his grief. Although I will probably never see anyone I ever knew again, they're probably still alive, and I’ll never have to witness their ends, unlike Elde.
“After that … I wallowed in my grief for some time. Until one day, I caught wind of a position on the new sea route in the city of Mellawin. I had needed a fresh start, maybe even a bit of escape, and so I took the position and lo and behold, here I am.”
So… this city is called Mellawin. And it's a fairly new city apparently built to accommodate some sort of new shipping route. But to where?
“But unfortunately…” he continued “Calamity would strike on the ship over here. For just as we were a day away from port a horde of sea beasts struck the convoy. I remember little of it, only the terror of their attack and how dreadfully the ship keeled over as it fell prey to it. But the next thing I know, I’m waking up in what I’m still wearing now...” as he motions to his rags “...with a foot missing on a ship that had been a day behind my own and had picked me up from the floating pieces of debris that I had somehow managed to cling to.”
“They cared for me for a while when they made it to port but I was sick and feverish. I had lost all my wealth and belongings to the wreck and all I had to my name were the clothes on my back. When I was finally thrown out when they set sail again I was all on my own, in this new city, and very much still sickly and very much in shock. Still was, I think, for a very long time. With no other recourse I took to the streets and that, in the short of it, is how I ended up here.”
I had struggled with his tale a bit but I think I had understood most of what he had said. Finished, we sat in silence for a bit as we both reflected over his story until Elde brought himself back from his reverie.
“So… you now know how I got here, but how did you?”
Yeeeeaaaahhhh… How do I explain this? I’m from a different world, Earth, and I was magically kidnapped by the mad wizard who lives in the dark tower that overlooks the city and the only reason he let me go was because of a whim brought about from his own grand self delusions of grandeur and him not needing any more bodies to experiment on.
How do I boil all this down in a language I’ve just started learning?
There’s only one word that does it justice. So I look to Elde and give him my answer.
“Soofa.”
Elde widens his eyes at that and as I brace myself for further questioning…
“I thought as much lad, how else could someone who doesn’t even know Cali be here. Don’t worry, I understand. You don’t need to explain.” Elde responds, reassuringly, with an expression of compassion and understanding on his face.
“...”
“...”
Huh?