Wheeling Gull Isle poking a voodoo doll you didn't know i made

He was already giving up — but Reed wasn't, and it was her urging that kept him from going fully mute for the rest of the lesson. With a few soundless sighs he finally started to give it another shot, and soon it was clear that he was quite limited.

Mou tried to go through all the sounds he could. She wanted him to enunciate vowels, so that's what he did; of the "A's" he could only whisper, catching the sound at the roof of his mouth. With the "E's" he could do more, trapping them behind his teeth effectively so that he could produce the sound of "E, as in Egg, or E as in Reed's player — or Reed."

Similar to the "A's", Mou couldn't pronounce "I's" very strongly. They were breathy sounds, working only in the case of "mill" or "kill", almost entirely glottal in its use.

He was too tired — of hearing his voice and of being watched by Reed as he spoke — so he stopped there, and only went on if Reed prompted him. It was good to have a breather even if most of his sounds were airy and useless. Of the "O's", he could say "Oh", but not "ooo," but something caught in his throat and he felt a constriction in his weak larynx, and was left sputtering and coughing for a few moments.