The Language of Kindness - The Tranquil: Part 2

The Language of Kindness
The Tranquil: Part 2

   Pyrri didn’t rush with the journey to her clan. She made sure not to tire out the topsiders following her as she occasionally glanced behind to check on them. Seeing three pairs of curious eyes meeting her gaze, she smiled warmly before carrying on without saying a word. Helda and Orvi felt slightly uneasy following a stranger in complete silence, while Rauhaira took it easy as she was confident in her abilities to fight back if things went sideways. Orvi and Helda simply hoped that the Keeper hadn’t lied and sent them into a trap. They both tried to focus on taking in the beauty of the strange glowing crystals of the underground world as they passed them by. The illuminating gems here looked quite a bit different from the ones found in the topside continent called Vitalus and Orvi could sense the energy they were containing in their cores. Meanwhile, Rauhaira was with her thoughts, trying to imagine how the clan she’s about to meet looks like and how they welcome someone like her among them.

   All of their anxious thoughts were immediately lifted when they reached the Tranquil clan’s territory. To the topsiders’ surprise, there were trees growing here, and not just any stunted ones but a full blown small forest offered shelter to the clan. The trees were most likely sustained by the magic-filled glowing crystals as the trees had entwined their roots around them, siphoning the energy to thrive. Despite the majority of the light crystals being partially covered by the roots, there was still plenty of pleasant light all around the cavern. The Haedians here were busy with their everyday tasks, peacefully communicating with each other via unknown sign language as they prepared food, medicine or were repairing some older rugs with new colorful fabrics. The Haedian children were playing around, occasionally only laughing wholeheartedly but otherwise keeping quiet as the adults did. The atmosphere was extremely easy and pleasant, yet something felt… wrong. Not daring to disturb the mute agreement, Rauhaira kept following Pyrri while checking her surroundings only from the corners of her eyes while Helda and Orvi stood still a little longer to observe the way of life of the Tranquil and admire the large beautiful crystal clusters and complexes that were scattered all around the grassy ground. Noticing Pyrri heading to one of the open caves in the wall next to the forest, Helda gave Orvi a nudge to get his attention before she picked up the pace to catch up with Rau and mysterious Pyrri, Orvi closely in tow. The Haedians they passed by smiled welcomingly and signed something with their big hands but sadly, none of the topsiders knew how to properly respond to that besides giving them a nod with a smile in response.

   Pyrri led them to a carved cave that seemed to be a cozy classroom. The room was lit by candles instead of the crystals, which made the Pullers feel more at home. The low shelves carved in the stone wall held multiple interesting objects, such as different types of gems, samples of dried flora, all sorts of ceramic vases and cups and lastly, vast selection of items that seemed to be toys meant for the kids. There was one adult Hae standing in front of a handful of children and all their eyes turned to the newcomers, which made them smile and greet Pyrri together with the guests. Pyrri pointed towards some free space in the back of the room, indicating for the trio to have a seat, after which she sat down next to them to observe how the guests reacted to that. The teacher made a bow before standing up to point at the cave walls. Only now did Orvi, Rau and Helda notice how the walls were laden with countless carvings in them, representing a Haedian in various poses while doing different gestures and next to each image was written the meaning of it. The written language looked vastly different from the ones the topsiders knew, so they had a very hard time deciphering the meaning of them. The teacher smiled and returned to their place to continue communicating with the kids. They were probably already practicing the sign language when Pyrri led the guests here. Helda realized that they can’t solve this by working individually, so she established a mental connection with Orvillos and together, they extended it to include Rauhaira as well. Having exchanged some initial thoughts, they felt a new presence knocking at their connection with the intent of joining it. Helda looked at Pyrri, who sat the closest to her and seeing the Haedian’s surprised yet curious expression she realized it was her who wanted in, so they allowed her to join their mental conversation.

“My, I didn’t know you were capable of such magic, my apologies for not trying this with you when we met.”

   Pyrri’s presence felt nice and warm, her mental voice being extremely soothing.

“That’s alright, it’s really nice to hear your voice and talk to you, Pyrri. I am Orvillos, my mate is Heldanau and our companion is Rauhaira.”

   Orvi did the quick introduction round, to which Pyrri bowed slightly to participate in the official introduction. Rauhaira liked being practical, so she extended a question into the mental link.

“May I ask why you brought us here? We don’t understand the symbols written on the walls.”

“I was afraid of that, but I wished to see if you could understand some of our language with the help of this dictionary. Now that we can exchange thoughts, I can help you learn some of it. Just keep your eyes on the teacher and I will translate.”

   Helda would’ve liked to ask a few more clarifying questions but thought it to be inappropriate, perhaps she can continue the conversation with Pyrri whenever this lesson was over or the kids were given a break. Her attention, together with her companions, shifted to the teacher and as they listened to Pyrri’s mental voice talking to them, they began to recognize some of the gestures the teacher was using. Helda found it extremely adorable how one of the children practiced the moves, after which they turned around and with a beaming face to gesture the newly learned signs to the topsiders. The teacher didn’t seem to mind that at all, and all three Pullers did their best to respond to the kid. It didn’t take long when all of the young ones had gathered enough courage to attempt “talking” with the Vayrons, asking them questions about their appearance, where they came from and how the world above them looked like. Both the teacher and Pyrri worked as translators, helping the kids and the topsiders to find the right signs to use. Since this fun process took a lot of concentration, Helda allowed Pyrri to carry their mental link so she could fully focus on the lesson. One of the pups wished to touch Rauhaira’s glorious mane, which she allowed and surely enough, every single one of them followed the example and thanks to that, Rauhaira’s mane was full of small clawed hands ruffling it, giving her a nice makeover. This made the children even more cheery and Orvi together with Helda couldn’t resist chuckling at the comical sight either. Looks like communicating and connecting with the Haedians here wasn’t so difficult after all.