Date: 4/28
Time of Day: 6:57
Cloud Cover: Partly cloudy
Precipitation: 0 in
Temperature: 57°F
Wind Speed / Direction: 8 mph / Southwesterly
Viewing Distance: 6 mi
Yao was still ignorant about this place that he lived in. Its people, its history, its name even. He felt that he was in a place of limbo, unaware of the spirit of the land that he occupied. Did this place have stories? Legends? A place like this, so large and fertile, should have such things, right? It should.
He hadn't settled on a den yet, just wandering from place to place each night. Nothing felt particularly comfortable yet. He sat beside a scoop in the ground under some ferns, where he had picked for the night. He looked up at the canopy, watching the sky darken into night.
Matty had died four days ago. A fall from the glacier, destroying his body. It was... tense, around the woods. Lenny hadn't seen many people out and about lately - hadn't seen their leader or the white wolf since that day. Lenny was not doing great, herself, but she was sticking in the territory, vigorously patrolling with almost frenetic energy.
She still had mud clinging to her legs where she'd dug the grave. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to wash it off. It was strange - she didn't even know Matty, but Lenny was not accustomed to death, and it had shaken her. Made her feel far more protective of this pack.
A sigh pulled from her lips as she padded through the forest, brushing her scent along some of the ferns as she passed. To be honest, she almost didn't even see Yao until she was nearly on top of him, silver eyes affixed somewhere in the middle distance.
She was tired.
The large man was staring up at the sky, looking about as lost in thought as she was, and Lenny shook off the fatigue and fuzziness in her mind to approach him with what she hoped was an amiable smile. Though... it might've been a little forced.
"Room for one more?" she requested, offering him a slow wag of her tail.
He could hear something rustling the ferns, the noise growing louder as the creature approached him. He looks down, breaking away his gaze to see who the culprit was. He grins as he recognized her. Lenny. She looked tired, the smile on her face tight. Of course,
he says. She smells of earth, and when he looks her up and down he sees that her legs are caked with it. Were you working on something? Pole sana.
Lenny flopped down dramatically onto the ground beside him, not quite touching but enjoying the proximity. Her legs ached, she realized when she took her weight off of them. Though that was likely because she had been walking all day.
Were you working on something? She supposed that could describe what she'd done a few days ago. Gravedigging was a type of work. The next words she didn't recognize, but they were pretty.
"You could say that. Just some digging." A stretch then, gaze flicking up to the darkening sky before landing back on the boy. "What's that language you keep speaking?" she asked with a small smile, chin laying on her forelimbs.
He let out a soft snrk of amusement as she flopped down. His eyes had long since moved away from the sky, more interested in her physical presence than mapping the stars. The stars would remain. Ground here must be tough,
he said, looking at how caked on the dirt was. Wet with melting snow and ice, still frozen from the winter. Kiswahili. It's what I speak at home.
This was the first time anyone had asked. It made him nostalgic. He peppered in his native tongue here and there, but he hadn't anyone else to speak with. He missed the vibrancy of his native tongue, the wide-open vowels and trills. Common — English — was too harsh for him. There were plenty of words he mispronounced.
"Yeah, but I'm, like, super tough. No big deal," she responded with a soft chuckle. Tomorrow, she'd wash the mud off, she decided. Silver eyes traveled back up to the dark wolf and she raised her head just a little bit, thoroughly interested.
Kiswahili. It was a pretty word for a pretty language. "Ki-swa-hi-li," she said slowly, breaking it down into syllables so she didn't say it too wrong. It must be weird, to be in a place where no one spoke your native tongue. Lenny wondered if that might be lonely. But luckily, there was something she could do about that. "Teach me a sentence," she urged, moonstone eyes searching his face.
He rolled his eyes mockingly. Sure you are,
his voice was dripping exaggerated approval.
Ndyio, that's good!
he smiled at her pronunciation. She'd gotten it right on the first try. He took a moment to think of a good sentence to teach her. Jambo, jina langu ni Lenny. Try that.
"Love the encouragement there, thanks Yao," she pouted at his sarcasm, rolling her own eyes and offering him a playful smirk. How rude.
Ah, so she'd gotten it right. Maybe she wasn't a total idiot after all. Still, she was careful in her echoing the sentence - albeit slightly off. "Jumbo, jeena lan-goo ni Lenny." She paused and nudged him with her paw, eyes alight with mirth. "You better not have made me say something bad about myself. I'm trusting you."
His muzzle twitches at the butchering of his language, both appalled and amused. He shakes his head, laughing. Oh no! I wouldn't. I'm telling you how to say 'hello, my name is Lenny'.
He chuckled. Your pronunciation is wrong — jah-mmmmmbo. You hum the m's. And the n's. Lah-nnnngu.
He had never had to teach his language before — at least not to a foreigner. He'd corrected his siblings' and cousins' words, certainly, but they knew the tongue — the patterns and grammar.
The boy's laughter drew a light chuckle from the young Archer as well, effectively distracting her from the pain of the last few days. "I wouldn't care if you did. I was the one who threw snow on you when we met," she told him, then tipped her head as she listened more carefully to the way he pronounced his words. Huh. It was much prettier that way.
"Jah-mbo," she said slowly, much more deliberately this time. "...jina lah-ngu ni Lenny." Her accent mimicked his own, as well - not in a mockery, of course, but trying to legitimately learn how to use the words properly. "Better?" she asked, eager moonstone eyes searching him for approval.
I'm not going to get you back that way,
Yao promised, winking slyly. Though that would be funny, it was too easy. Ndyio!
he said, grinning. That means yes,
He added quickly. Kiswahili isn't as tricky as the Common tongue. There's no tricky sound changes or weird rules.
He had hated learning the language when he was younger — too many things to trip you up.
Lenny looked at him with eyes narrowed, but huffed out a laugh and shook her head. "You're right. Too predictable." A bit of warmth seeped into her face when he winked at her, but she ignored it pointedly. "Yeah, common tongue does have some weird rules, huh? Especially when I do a Voice." But she liked to make things more complicated than they needed to be, it seemed. "It's a pretty language. I'd like to learn it more." She looked up then as the sky darkened further and exhaustion crept into her bones. The girl had done too much these past few days. "Nobody back at my home spoke another language, but I'd imagine it might be a little lonely to be the only one around who can speak it."
Really?
He hadn't heard anyone call his native tongue pretty before. It felt strange. It was something so natural, so a part of him that he never thought much of it other than normal. Asante. Thank you.
He took it then as a compliment. It wasn't as if he had made it up, after all. A little,
he admitted. But that was what he signed up for, wasn't it? To be a stranger in a strange land, constantly a foreigner in search of something new and foreign to himself.
Lenny nodded her head. "Yeah, it sounds a lot softer than common tongue. Like, almost soothing?" she tried, tail giving a light thump against the ground. A smirk crept over her maw at his admission and she rolled onto her side. "Well, fret not - you'll be hearing a lot more Kiswahili from me!" she proclaimed, dramatic as usual. A deeper version of her own voice, with a heavier, looser grasp on the words. "I'm a quick study. If you don't mind teaching, of course." Another warmth under her fur - this time from embarrassment. "Would you like that? Or am I just being too..." Lenny? "...too much?"
Me and yao:
I shall speak it more for you then,
he declares.
If you want.
Yao adds the words almost sheepishly, his embarrassment over the situation becoming plain. She put on another voice. It wasn't as dramatic as the first one he had been introduced to, but he finds it amusing nonetheless. He chuckles again as he began to lay down.
He only does so with the front half of his body, his rear legs still standing upright. He looks her in the eye.
Why would you be too much?
he asked, genuinely confused. The language barrier prevents him from really understanding what she meant.
You're the right size, I think.
uh same here from us xD
"I do want," she enthused, feeling just a touch more special than she probably should've been feeling in that moment. A soft snort of laughter escaped her when he paused halfway, and she shook her head, reaching out to press on his shoulder with one paw.
"I'll have you know that I am very big," she proclaimed, feigning offense, and then dropping the act as she continued.
"I was talking about my personality. If I was, like, you know... getting on your nerves or something." It was something she did sometimes - not intentionally, but just that who she was was a lot for some wolves to handle.
Then I will,
he promised. He laid the rest of his body on the ground, flopping dramatically with a huff. Ah,
He said, understanding. Vimba kichwa. Big head. I'll tell you if you've gone too far. Ikiwa umechupa mipaka
Well, that was nice. Not the big head thing, but the acknowledgement and the agreement to tell her if she was being too annoying. Still, she smirked and pawed at him again, laying her head down. "You're the big head," she argued, though there was no heat behind it. A pause, before she continued. "Thanks for spending time with me tonight. I needed a friend." And that might've been one of the most sincere things she's ever said to anyone. But, Lenny thought, she really had gotten lucky with finding a friend like Yao.
He chuckled. If she was saying what he thought she was saying, then she was extremely big headed, he wasn't. Or thought herself to be. Despite her attempts to learn his language, metaphors were a tricky thing to translate.
Of course. You come to me any time. You'll never bother me.
He said the last four words earnestly, placing a paw on her to emphasize his meaning. He lived shoulder to shoulder with others for most of his upbringing, and with wolves Yao thought were far more annoying than Lenny thought herself to be. Only this period of his life was an anomaly.
Yes, Lenny was certainly the big headed one here. Or maybe they both were, thinking back to when he got so angry at her for dropping snow on him. Maybe she was the big head, he was the hot head. But metaphors were difficult, and she wasn't gonna try it right now.
Was it hot in here? Lenny felt like her face was burning beneath her fur as Yao touched her (muddy!) paw with his own and said sweet stuff that made her chest feel weird. For the first time in a while, Lenny felt like she was accepted fully by someone that was not her sister. Embraced. It was... nice. Her mouth felt a little dry as she spoke again, trying to recall the word he'd used for thank you earlier. "A... asante," she replied, turning her eyes back to his with a small smile. "You'll never bother me either."
It felt good to have physical contact with someone he knew. He didn't know he was craving it, but now that he had it he felt calmer, more grounded.
Lenny was nothing like home, but she managed to evoke so much of it at the same time. Even as she stumbled over his native tongue, and he flinched and cringed, he couldn't help but feel centered. Was that a word for it? He didn't know what to make of this, but he felt grateful for it. Ebo, that's the word for it,
he said. I am glad wewe ni rafiki yangu.
"You'll have to tell me what you said in the morning. It sounded nice," she said with a smile, and, in a moment of boldness, scooted a little closer to the male, so the fur on their sides was brushing. Her eyes fell shut and she sighed, resting her chin on her unoccupied paw. "Thanks for talking to me tonight. I really needed it."
And, just because she felt like she was getting too sappy, she nudged his shoulder with a small smirk. "Let's go to sleep. It's late." She was really tired, too, she realized - body aching and eyelids drooping. It was certainly time for some much-needed rest.
She moved in close, and Yao was suddenly aware of the heat she radiated in the chill of the night. He pushed against it out of habit, matching her bold move with one of his own. It was far from the depths of winter, but spring nights were still cold. He was glad that she decided to share her warmth with him. He was glad for many things about her, really. He was not much for thinking too hard about things, or analyzing his own thoughts, so the process was alien to him, much like this land, and her, but it wasn't unpleasant — much like this land and her. He smiled, almost blissful as he rested his head next to hers, exhaustion coming in slower for him. Lala salama.
he said, his voice just a gentle murmur as he began to nod off.
Really, Lenny, too, was a wolf of emotion and feeling rather than thinking too hard on things. In fact, she didn't think she'd ever really thought much on what she really wanted out of a companion. But, she thought, if she could choose, it would be something like this. Like him. The warmth and contentment sent her off to sleep quickly, with a murmur from him that she barely registered. Nonetheless, she'd sleep til morning and wake feeling better - like the world wasn't so bad anymore.
Fade