Unearthed Legacy

[Zach Kaiser]

Garv nodded. Fortunately, his explanation seemed sufficient enough that she continued eating. Which was good, because if she asked the specifics of how the thing worked, he'd either have to admit he didn't know or make something up.

Sitting down to eat with her, he noted that she seemed a bit more lively today, so he figured he'd ask a question or two.

"It's good to see you up and about--not sure my back could've taken much more," he joked. "But now that you're more or less back on your feet, what are your plans?"

He was sort of afraid to ask, as he was fairly certain she wasn't going to remain in his company longer than she had to, but if this beautiful woman was going to slip through his fingers soon it was better he was aware of it.

[Nayt]

Xibtrae stopped eating to look across the table to Garv, a reaction prompted by his inquiry. Indeed she was up on her feet; it hadn't taken long, but she was able to walk without much difficulty. She still wasn't 100%--more like 5%, but that was enough to allow her more freedom of movement.

Plans . . .

She had to think about this one, and rather than respond immediately, she chewed down the bite of toast she had, figured that the time it would take for twenty unconsciously counted bites would be enough to allow her the opportunity of thought. Unfortunately, she really didn't know what she was going to do. Xibtrae had a goal, and that was to release Val. How to go about that, though, she had no idea. Stronger souls in this position could communicate near instantly--souls such as Xibtrae's--but currently she couldn't even hear Val. It was going to require some research. Xibtrae stared for a fraction of a second at the bracelet upon her wrist, her connection to the young human girl . . .

Xibtrae swallowed and instinctively reached for something to wash it down with, only to find no beverage. No matter . . .

"Wel . . . ic eom smēalic fore wīsdōme," Xibtrae replied. She didn't have to completely lie about this. "Wīsdōme of . . . Gaiasouls. A . . . ic dō nā cnāwe hwǣr tō āstellan . . ."

Well . . . I am searching for wisdom. Wisdom of . . . Gaiasouls. [But] . . . I do not know where to start . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Gaiasouls?" This surprised Garv immensely--not because it was so unusual, as there were always people interested in Gaiasouls, but because it was conveniently right up his alley.

"Well...I don't much about them; not many do. Who made 'em, and for what, it's all a mystery--every treasure hunter dreams of getting their hands on one." He let out a sigh, and for an odd moment he had a serious, pensive look on his face. "I used to, too."

"But...I do know where you might be able to find more. This country was known for researching pretty much everything on the planet and some things that aren't--both science and magic, too. Once I've taken care of some things in town here, I'm going to a city that had a big institute for researching magic--or what's left of it, in any case. Wouldn't surprise me if they were researching Gaiasouls there, too."

"It'll be dangerous, but you're welcome to come along, if you like," he said with a grin.

[Nayt]

Seems he knew about them. That was good. I think. On one hand, that would make information about them a bit easier to access. On the other hand, that suggested that there were numerous instances of Gaiasouls on the planet, enough to merit study. That couldn't possibly end well.

It was a good lead, though. Xibtrae gave it thought while she ate, perhaps something a bit off putting to Garv as she stared at the middle of the table in thought for what seemed to be a good minute or two, saying not a word. There were just certain things to consider. Once she finished with the toast, Xibtrae folded her hands in her lap. A napkin would have been nice, but just like water, she wasn't going to outwardly ask for it unless she absolutely needed it.

"Eall riht," Xibtrae replied softly with a nod of her head.

Val could wait where she was for a little while longer, right? Xibtrae had waited thousands upon thousands of years; it wasn't like Val was going to age any while she was trapped, anyways. So . . . if Garv's business here took a week, it wasn't that Xibtrae was simply delaying the inevitable. She just hadn't a choice, right?

It was a good mask to wear, at least.

[Zach Kaiser]

Garv was a little disconcerted and annoyed at first, and she didn't react to what he said at all or acknowledge that he'd even said anything. It was, at least, not an outright "no."

When she finally agreed, he grinned. Okay, so she was probably only staying in his company because he could potentially get her information she wanted, but at least she didn't despise him to the point of avoiding him anyway.

"Well, we'll wait a bit in any case--I'm going to try and see if I can convince some of the locals to pay me to do what I was going to do anyway, and you need to get back to full strength. There isn't a nice long wall the way there, unfortunately, and as much as I like feeling you pressed against me I'm not carrying you." Pause. "Well, unless you can convince me otherwise..."

It was a joke, as Garv didn't actually expect her to take him up on the offer, but he certainly wouldn't object if she did.

[Nayt]

Xibtrae furrowed her brow as she stared at him, soon after his joke about not wanting to carry her unless she "convinced" him. She didn't understand some of what he said, but she got the gist of it; enough to purse her lips and furrow her brow in displeasure. And she wondered why she thought he'd been the one touching her before . . .

Rather than voice her displeasure with Garv's perverse idea, Xibtrae shook her head, softly announcing: "Ic eom cann faran on mīn āgen."

I am able [to walk] on my ----. Though she didn't quite appreciate the joke (yet, at least; perhaps when she spoke and understood the language better, and knew Garv a little better as well, she'd be able to!), Xibtrae remained as respectful and proper in her language as she possibly could. It had only been when she felt as if Garv was inappropriately touching her that she ever once spoke with any sort of frantic declaration or complete lack of respect.

". . . ætsamne . . ." Xibtrae whispered, pausing while she picked her next words carefully. She didn't want to give Garv the wrong impression or anything. "Willa þū tǣcst mec þīn geþēode?"

---- . . . will you teach me your ----? Unfortunately, this one was a bit harder to understand. Not only would Garv not grasp the introductory word, but the direct object was unintelligible as far as the languages he currently knew. A guess could be made, but there weren't many context clues available to him.

[Zach Kaiser]

Her reply to his joke was about what he expected, and he surmised that she was saying she could walk by herself. That was...debatable, given that she was leaning heavily on the wall to do so earlier, but he had little doubt she'd be walking fine on her own by the time they left.

Unfortunately, what she said next was lost on him. The first and last words were entirely incomprehensible to him, and that last one in particular was essential for him to understand. What did he want him to teach her?

He resisted the urge to comment about certain things he could and was perfectly willing to teach her; it was pretty clear she didn't mean that, and saying it was probably just going to frustrate her.

"Teach you...what?" He thought about what they were doing, and came to a conclusion. "To cook?" he asked, gesturing to the stove.

[Nayt]

The worst thing that could happen between them was inappropriate touching. The second worst thing was a misunderstanding of language, which was what they had. Both of these could easily be fixed by her learning how to speak Garv's language. Getting to that point may prove difficult, though. Xibtrae furrowed her brow again as she thought about this. How to convey that she was talking about language . . .

First, she figured she could name off different languages. Unfortunately Garv probably didn't know those languages or speak the language that Saqin did, and that she had learned over time. This idea was scrapped quickly. Then she considered drawing a picture, or perhaps just moving her lips as if she was trying to form a word but letting no sound come out. None of these would have been very effective.

Finally, she pointed to her lips and spoke, but unfortunately didn't realize that it might have seemed a bit like some sort of innuendo. "Mǣlan . . . unnn . . . sprǣc . . ."

That, too, was unlikely to be all that effective, as Garv wouldn't recognize either of those two words. Xibtrae could just hope, but that wasn't going to get her very far . . .

"Unnn . . ." she dropped her hand hopelessly before finally asking, "Englisc?"

[Zach Kaiser]

"Englisc?" That word was close to one he knew, a word he sometimes heard used for the language he spoke. "Ah, I get it. You want me to teach you to speak Common, eh?"

That would be easy enough--she seemed to understand it fine. Heck, she'd probably pick up on it herself even without his help.

"Sure, I can do that. But I'll warn you, common isn't my first language." He paused and grinned at her before finishing.

"My first language is the language of love."

[Nayt]

Xibtrae sighed and sulked her shoulders. She'd have hung her head, too, were it not for the fact that it would have been far too disrespectful. This man was going to be helping her out immensely, after all. Not only was he going to take her somewhere to investigate Gaiasouls, but he had already saved her life (presumably), and he was going to be teaching her the language that people around here spoke. Or so she thought. In actuality, Greoul had its own language and only the extremely educated members of society knew a lot of Common, but most others knew enough to get back in another country. Conversation wasn't possible, but they could get directions.

Nonetheless, she didn't want to risk burning this bridge she had with Garv, even if he was incorrigible. Xibtrae had to wonder if she'd ever get used to someone flirting with her this much again.

The woman straightened back up and calmly replied, ""Common," līcian."

"Common," please, she had replied, wanting to make sure that Garv knew that she didn't want lessons in love, but in the language he called Common.

[Zach Kaiser]

Garv was growing to expect her responses to being hit on, and this time was even counting on it. He grinned. "It's just as well; if I were to teach you everything I know about love, we'd be here far longer than a week." Then he winked at her.

"'Course, it's time well spent, so if you ever change your mind, I'll set aside some time."

As he gathered up the dishes he used and piled them next to the previous day's dirty dishes, he said more seriously, "'Please' is the word, by the way. 'Common, please.'"

[Nayt]

Xibtrae consciously refrained from replying that she might like to pass on the offer, but it wasn't like Garv would understand her very well anyways. Besides, if she was too adamant, she might have seemed rude, and one of Xibtrae's was a fairly honorable and proper existence. She always tried to not offend . . .

Teaching started quick, too. At first, she focused upon him and blinked confusedly, not understanding what he was getting at--then it hit her. He was correcting her, sort of as a lesson? Xibtrae could make the distinction of words--well, one word, please--for this, but other more complex sentence structures might start to get to her. After all, her sentence structure was much different than Garv's.

Again, Xibtrae sat up straight, assuming that Garv was going to continue a sort of passive teaching. Like an obedient pupil, she folded her hands in her lap and shut her eyes, repeating, "Common, please."

It might take awhile, but she figured that she'd get the hang of the language eventually. She had, after all, learned Saqin's language rather quick. It had taken, what, maybe a year before she spoke it fluently? And that one was completely different than her own. Common, in truth, had enough similarities with her language that she could be fluent with it within a month, if that.

[Zach Kaiser]

Garv gave her an odd look. "Er...no need to be formal. I'm not exactly a professor or anything." It was strange for anyone to treat him with respect for anything other than his fighting skills--he was the kind of person that didn't generally command much in the way of respect based on just his demeanor.

"Anyway, like I said, that's a stove, and..."

And so a week went by as such, with Garv taking the time to teach Xibtrae how to speak Common as best as he could. It helped that she was quite intelligent--more so than he was himself, he gathered. There were some struggles, though, resulting from Garv not having formally studied his own language--he could speak it, but he didn't consciously know a lot of its rules.

Several more times Xibtrae would also find herself visited in the night, again being touched, but never in a way that would be considered obviously inappropriate. Every time she investigated, she'd find Garv sleeping--or at the very least, putting on a very convincing act of it.

But regardless, the day arrived when Garv and Xibtrae were set to leave. The treasure hunter had managed to track down a client willing to pay to find out what became of the academy he intended to visit anyway, and the up front portion allowed him to buy enough supplies for both Xibtrae and himself (including a pack so she could carry her own).

"Here, I got something you'll appreciate." Reaching into the cabinet he'd hidden it in, he pulled out his surprise: a large, purple blanket. One that was obviously not the same as the one he already packed. "Seeing how well it worked, I decided a spare was a good investment--you can use it for the trip."

He tossed it to her, so that she could pack it in with her own things.

[Nayt]

No matter how many times Garv told her that there was no need to be formal around him, Xibtrae never became too casual. She always maintained a certain degree of formality--always a straight posture, always a respectful tone, and rarely did she say anything that could be misconstrued as rudeness. They were aspects about her that she would never change, regardless of how many thousands of years she remained conscious.

Which was something Garv was never informed about, of course.

Nonetheless, each night she awoke to something touching her, she felt more and more uncomfortable, but eventually stopped voicing her concern when it was obvious to her that Garv had no idea what she was talking about. More than likely, it was just her imagination, and something that was normally felt while sleeping--just the natural act of waking up. Since she hadn't gone a single night since her revival into the world without waking up to feeling some sort of sensation of touch, Xibtrae had no particular time to compare it to; she hadn't slept since then without waking up in that way, therefore it must have just been the natural process of waking . . .

By the day of their departure, she had a few more articles of clothing to work with, particulars that weren't so . . . showy. Embarrassingly showy, that is. Xibtrae didn't mind so much wearing something that showed her cleavage or her mid-rift, but only if it wasn't particularly tight--the sort of thing that didn't leave much to the imagination, like the shirt Garv had let her borrow. She inevitably managed to obtain a button down shirt and a decent bra (a concept which completely boggled her mind at first, but was well accepted once she understood its necessity); said shirt was quite a bit low cut, but flowing, and dark in color. She also managed to obtain a skirt to match this.

It was the same clothes she was wearing when she was getting ready to leave. Not having much, her pack was quite light, and before they left the city, she was surprised to find Garv tossing a large purple blanket her way. This meant some privacy while they were sleeping outside, didn't it? For some reason, that was fairly surprising . . .

"I thank thee," Xibtrae declared genuinely as she started to stuff the blanket into her pack.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Don't get me wrong," Garv replied, as if reading her thoughts. "I'd love to sleep next to you--and I will if you want--but I figure all it takes is you rolling over and I've got a couple new holes to breathe through."

This was a bit of a fib, as the truth was that while Garv was all for making the best of a situation with a girl, there was a fine line between that and taking advantage of them. It was a line he didn't intend to cross, and withholding his spare just so he could be next to her would be crossing it.

Besides, he was only lending it to her--he'd want it back when they were done. Though he hoped that wouldn't be for awhile. Or before he got to see if her exotic looks meant she was exotic in bed.

That part will take some work yet.

"Well, whenever you're ready," he said, hefting his pack up.