Can you Understand Me?

The next time I awoke, everything was different. It was dark where I was, and warmer. There were walls all around me. In front of me was the bowl of water again, and a different bowl, with pieces of meat.

But the most important thing was, sitting in front of me, far in front of me, was a Grubber. It was a different kind of Grubber, taller, thinner, longer limbed. It had a tail, and wasn’t the same shade as the others had been.

It was covered with stuff, like the others had been, but it was a different kind of stuff, almost as if made from parts of a tree. <<Ah, you are awake. Can you understand me?>>

He was talking to me. I knew that. And he had said that I was awake.

<<Awake, me>> I replied, and took a drink. When I moved I noticed that someone had tied my wing to my body, and covered it with something. I thought about taking it off, but I knew it would hurt. My head was spinning, and I was sick to my stomach. The water helped.

//Can you understand this?// he asked, and I looked up sharply.

//Yes.// I said, because I could. It was very different than the noises he had been making earlier, and these noises made me angry, but I understood them. And somehow they made me feel safe.

//Good. Who are you?//

“Whaawhoa.” I said.

//Yes, but in this talk, how would you say it?//

//My name is…// “Whaawhoa.” I said.

He shook his head, and then tried something else, //How did you learn this talk, this language?//

//In dreams.// I said, //It is dream language. Bad dreams.//

I took another drink and then began picking at the meat. I wasn’t sure if it would make my stomach feel better or worse to eat some meat. I was hungry, but sick. I tried some.

//Tell me about the dreams.// He said.

//Bad dreams,// I said. //Sad. I cannot fly, I am tied to the ground.//

++Interesting++ he said.

++What is interesting?++ I asked, and he looked up sharply.

++You understand this language?++ he asked, quickly.

++Some. The other easier.++ I answered. The meat seemed to be doing well, and I went back to eating. He talked some more, but I ignored him.

Over the next few days... altho I really couldn’t tell day from night, many other people came by, altho the one male the most often. I talked to him some, and ignored him mostly. I ignored most of the others, too.

One day, tho, a smaller person came. One of the first kind, the short and fat kind. Somehow, I liked him. //Hi. I hear you speak Farmer?//

//I can speak. I don’t like it, it makes me angry.//

//Why?//

//I don’t know. It is from my dreams, and they make me angry.//

//What do you normally speak, then?//

“I speak like this, of course, like all Eagles do.”

//That was pretty, if a bit loud. What did it mean?// He asked me, and so I told him.

//My name is Gunther,// the boy said, //what is your name?//

“Whaawhoa,” I said.

//That’s hard for me to say,// He said, //What should I call you in my language?//

//Well, it means ‘beloved wind’, but I don’t think that works. Pick a name for me.//

//OK. How about ’Bill’?//

I looked at him, //Is that a joke?//

He laughed, //Yep. You like it?//

I laughed too, which hurt, and we had my new name.

Gunther and I had fun talking. He told me how it was that I had woken up here.

//You see, we had some medicine, and we put it on a sheet, then we wrapped it over your head. You fought hard, you were scared of it. I don’t blame you for being scared, I would be scared if a bunch of Eagles tried to wrap a sheet over my head.//

//But I don’t remember any of that,// I said.

//No, the medicine made you sleep, and it made you forget.//

//Oh. We don’t have medicine like that,// I said.

//Do you have medicine?//

//Not really. If you are sick, Mother might bring you some plant or something and make you eat it. Usually it makes you throw up.//

//Yuck.//

//Well, you feel better after you throw up, at least I did.//

The other man kept coming, and Gunther told me it was important to talk to him, too, so I did. He spent a lot of his time talking about my language, the Eagle language. He had me talk to him, and tell him what things mean, and after a while it got so he could speak some of the words, altho not well. His voice was far too weak.

He brought by a series of others, too, who all talked to me. He asked me if I knew them, which was silly, but I duly told him, “No,” for each individual person.

Most of the people were the short people. A couple were the taller kinds with the tails like my teacher. Once they brought in this very funny looking man with feet like a duck, and who talked to me in yet another kind of speech. I answered him, and everyone was pleased, but I couldn’t say more than that.

But then, one day, someone else walked through the door.

//Bill, Bill!!// Gunther yelled, over my screaming, “What is wrong?!”

But I couldn’t tell him. I didn’t know. All I knew was that someone new had walked through the door and I was screaming. I couldn’t even tell, myself, what I was yelling. It was a word I didn’t know, a word I could never admit I knew.

Everyone had frozen in shock. There were five of them, plus the new one, and they were all staring at me.

//Bill, Bill!// Gunther had ran over to me, and was hugging me. Eagles didn’t hug, but I understood it, and eventually calmed down.

//Bill,”//he said, //Why did you call him your...//

I couldn’t hear that word. I screamed again, and shook him loose.

He stepped back at him, and I screamed, //Don’t call him that! Don’t say that word! He isn’t, he can’t be!//

//No, Bill, he isn’t. He only has two children, and they are both very young, and both in Farmer form. But why did you say that he was?//

//He can’t be.// I said.

//He isn’t, Bill!// Gunther said, and came over and hugged me.

//Who are you?// I said to the stranger, after I had calmed down. //Why do I know you?//

But he didn’t answer. Instead he walked over to me and looked me in the face. //Jonathon?// he said, and my world ended.

View from a Height

On a world far away, several races live… mostly in peace. What few knew was that they were all one race… that a dwarf could become an elf, who could become a troll, who could become a farmer.

A young farmer prince was climbing with some of his dwarf friends when he found out that the same thing applied to eagles…

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Von