And They were Called Yutsuukitsuu

Over the next several weeks, my time as an Elder apprentice was basically the same: clean, work on strengthening the voice, make tea that was passable but not quite up to the level, and Mesa still didn't like me, but that was to be expected.

My day was now completely packed, but I adjusted easily enough. Now that I had conditioned myself, keeping up with Moonlight Guardian on patrol was a walk in the park—quite literally—and sparring was fun. Mesa made working at the Elder's place a bit stressful, but he wasn't actively bullying me.

Speaking of Mesa, I did continue his practice of tasting the tea before serving it. My pallet still needed much refining; I could tell the difference between tea brewed for one minute and three minutes, but not a difference of 30 seconds. One of these days I would figure out what good tea tasted like.

However, it did get me thinking that the Elder was hoarding some luxuries for himself. On top of the tea, he had various kinds of spices, dining utensils, candles, and even incense! When I asked him about this, he claimed that my fellow tribesmen had no interest in this stuff, sadly. I asked him why he did, then? He said they are "acquired" tastes. So he was saying that power had slowly corrupted him. Can no leader go untainted!?

It was around the third week that the Elder pulled me aside. My voice had made rapid improvements since I had started working with him. When you are starting at zero, getting to 50% isn't that difficult. My voice was still weak by human standards, but Snowcap Elder felt I was ready to start learning to speak; I had no objections.

"Now Indigo, the key to speaking is being able to produce a number of sounds..." The Elder proceeded to explain at length, but as a native language speaker, you are already intimately aware of those details, so I will spare you the lecture, and not because I zoned out through his entire spiel. "Did that make sense?" His tone made it clear that he thought this was a difficult concept.

"Yeap!"

He canted his head. "...Any questions?"

"Nope."

"...Well alright, let us begin then. These are the sounds you will need to be able to make to speak 'Caster.'" When he invoked the idea of this language "Caster" he used the sound. Though I don't think he intended it, he had just taught me my first word.

"...Caster," and Caster would be the first word I uttered in this life.

"...'' The Elder's eyes went wide and I didn't need to see them to know. He was rendered speechless. "Ahem," he cleared his throat, which seemed appropriate. "Well, let's teach you the sound you will need..."

For the next 10 minutes or so, the Elder introduced me to the sounds of Caster. I think he had originally planned to spend the entirety of the evening on this. After he gave the first sound he began explaining how to position your tongue and lips, but I interrupted him by just producing the sound, rendering his explanation unneeded. This pattern continued a couple more times until it became me just parroting back the sound he made with no elaboration. With a few exceptions for sounds not found in the English language, I had little trouble reproducing the sounds.

"Indigo," Snowcap Elder began after he had gone through all the sounds. "You have made more progress than I had after an entire cycle of diligent study. Everyone said you were a genius—I was inclined to believe them—but this is beyond even that!" I was about to let the praise go to my head until I remembered I was a native verbal speaker.

Though it wasn't inflating my ego, it seemed to be taking its toll on Mesa, who I judged to not be happy about my inherent ability to vocalize. I based this not only on precedent, but also the fact he was supposedly writing something into a book, but often stopped abruptly, spending more time clenching his pen than writing. His demeaning emotes were also absent.

"I'll tell you what Indigo," the elder sipped the tea he had been nursing. "My tea isn't yet cold, and I had honestly expected this to take much longer. How about I just start teaching you the names of objects?"

My ears perked up and my tail got a little more active. "Yes, please!"

"Very well, so objects in Caster are represented by sequences of sounds." I nodded my head. "So listen carefully..." He proceeded to give me a set of 10 words, starting with... Yutsuukitsuu. This is the word that refers to our species! Finally, I can stop using indirect means of referencing our people's species! Hallelujah!

There were nine other words of course, and other than being basic words, there didn't seem to be much of a theme. I think they were just words he thought would be useful to know. It was also at this time, that I remembered, that learning languages was very time-consuming. It could take years to learn a language the traditional way. However, we had access to a nontraditional tool.

"I have an idea for speeding up the learning process."

"Oh, and what would that be?" He rested his head on his fist. By this point, he was open to hearing anything I had to say.

"What if you only communicate to me in Caster, but give the meaning behind each word telepathically. That way I can begin to assimilate a large number of words, while still being able to communicate." The idea was that this would almost be like subtitles, only more connected to the language.

"...That's a great idea!" He sprung up out of his chair. "And that way we can have our meeting in Caster and Indigo will be able to understand!"

Mesa looked up. "You can't be serious?" The Elder just nodded vigorously. "But with Indigo... That was the one good... Oh, never mind." He slumped back down into his notebook.

So from then onward, the Elder only communicated with us in Caster. He would vocalize it whenever possible, but would also broadcast the sound of Caster with telepathy. He also demanded that we do the same. In my case, if I didn't know how to say it, he would tell me and then have me repeat it, and he demanded I verbalize it every time as well. I may have regretted giving him this idea a little as my larynx was in a perpetual state of inflammation. But my language skills did progress fast.

Mesa complained a lot about this new policy. Not because it was difficult, but because it slowed things down. Verbal communication was slow and even when done only telepathically it still took more time than traditional methods.

"If you hate verbal language so much, why did you learn it? Is it a requirement to be an Elder?" I asked this question to Mesa with all sincerity; I was still trying to form that good working relationship, but this had only deteriorated with the "Caster only" rule.

"Sigh... Indigo, most Elders don't speak verbally. It's pretty much a worthless skill." He went back to drawing on a piece of paper.

"But why would you learn a useless skill? You clearly don't enjoy it. Or maybe you used to like it?"

"It's useless in most cases, there can be exceptions," he clarified.

"Like...?" I realized I was being annoying, but I couldn't just let him leave me hanging with an open-ended answer."

"Like if you... your village has a lot of dealings with humans and the like." He tried to wave me off and resume his drawing—kind of looked like a map.

"But why did the Elder learn it then?"

"Because he is an eccentric and has unusual interests!" He gestured to our surroundings and all the artifacts the Elder had collected. "Now if you don't mind." He wrote something down on the map. I couldn't read or write at all, so I had no idea what it said.

"But if it is so useless, why are you using it to write something right now?" Okay, I admit, that one might have been a bit of a troll.

He slowly looked up and turned his head to look at me. "Indigo... I really don't like you."

Looked like I managed to piss him off even more. Good job Indigo.

After two months I had progressed so far in my study of Caster, that the Elder added reading and writing. Now I really enjoyed speaking—it made me feel special for some reason—but pragmatically speaking, it had no use; Mesa would argue that it was actually a hindrance. However, with the introduction of reading and writing, I could make practical use of this new language. For one, as my reading skills improved, more and more of the books became accessible to me, and to my delight, they covered a wide array of topics that I would otherwise not be privy to. Writing wasn't as useful but was the natural complement to reading. Snowcap Elder liked to keep records and notes, so, much to my chagrin, I found myself adding to those documents that would probably never be used if the Elder's present track record was any indicator.

I was also pleased to find that whatever body was responsible for developing the writing system, did not go with one of those unnecessarily complex and difficult symbolic systems, with an incomprehensible number of characters, where the meaning and pronunciation varied depending on context, and instead went with the much more robust and practical phonic alphabet. That's not to say it didn't have its quirks and irregularities, language being living and breathing and all. But I will take that any day over a system designed to be inaccessible.

It was also around this time that the Elder began bringing me in on more official subject matter and asking for my opinion. These meetings had been exclusively between Snowcap Elder and Mesa—usually carried out while I did some chore—but now, I was being included. Honestly, this wasn't more than perhaps an ego boost, as I didn't really have any interest in government affairs. Still, I did sign up for it, and it wasn't all bad.

"Indigo, I realize that carving out a new room is a time-consuming process, but your idea is unreasonable." Mesa almost always opposed my ideas.

"I don't think so, there are many benefits to digging the new food storage space under the tree." In many cases, such as this one, I believe he was sincere in his opposition.

"Do you mind going over those again, just so we can be clear?" But other times, he was just being confrontational.

"An underground storage location will be cooler, and food will keep longer." He might have thought he was doing me a disservice and being a thorn in my side.

"But we don't have a food rotting problem, your proposal would just be an inconvenience." But the truth was, I loved arguing, and the more petty the better!

"We don't have a food rotting problem NOW. But the reason we need to build additional storage is because we are running a huge food collecting surplus!"

"What's your point?"

"My point is unless you propose that everyone just start eating double what they are currently, food will sit on the shelf longer and be more susceptible to spoilage."

"That's just your hypothesis." He dismissively waved a hand.

"Maybe, but it is true the longer food is kept, the more susceptible to rot it is."

"That doesn't even matter, how do you think everyone will take it if they suddenly have to go all the way down to the surface to retrieve provisions?"

"I don't think it will be as troublesome as you think, with the winch..."

Mesa suddenly jerked his head up. "Oh, she's here."

"Umm... Who is here?" I wasn't expecting to be pulled out of my argumentative trance. But my question was quickly answered when Morning-Sun Hunter came strolling through the door. It was unusual to have visitors this late, and I was especially surprised to see her come calling this late at night. That was until I saw Mesa go up to her side.

Of course, those two were courting, it was strange I didn't immediately make that connection. Now that I thought about it, what was strange was that this was the first time I had seen her stop by, but maybe she usually visited earlier, or they just met outside.

It took her a minute, but she eventually got around to greeting us. "Good evening Snowcap Elder." She bowed. "And... Indigo!" Her ear straightened up. "That's right, I heard you were an apprentice of the Elder too now!"

Mesa shifted his gaze between Morning-Sun Hunter and me. "Are you familiar with Indigo?" She came over and hugged me. This had become something of a routine whenever we crossed paths—I was grateful that Moonlight Guardian and I patrolled from hidden vantage points. Looking back at Mesa, he was clenching his fist. Was this jealousy? It's not very becoming to be jealous of a 7-year-old "not child."

"Of course! He was the reason I made my intentions clear to you." Mesa almost fell backward. This was clearly news to him.

"Indigo did?" He looked back at me with a barrage of disjointed sentiments: disdain, gratitude, resentment, respect. I suppose the word that best describes it was confused. However, after taking a moment to let his brain process his 7-year-old nemesis, to my surprise, he settled on gratitude. It only lasted a moment before he went radio silent, so I don't think he intended to share that. But it looked like his love of Morning-Sun Hunter was greater than his pride and dislike of me. I had declared our working relationship dead a while ago, but now there was a sudden blip on the heart monitor.

"Alright, we are off." Mesa made his formal bow to the Elder before escorting Morning-Sun Hunter off on what I assumed was a date.

"You two have fun now, hehe," the Elder replied with a wave of his hand.

"Umm... What was with the chuckle?" I thought that was strange.

"Oh, hehe, it's nothing." Okay, it was clearly something.

I went to bed before Mesa had returned, he must have been having a fun time indeed. I wondered if that was where the Elders' mirth came from? At any rate, I woke up the following morning and began to prepare breakfast. As the junior apprentice, such tasks fell to me, and I had taken to rising early in order to have our meal ready to go right when the other two had gotten up—I had taken up this habit back when I was still trying to get that working relationship going with Mesa and had just kept the habit.

The Elder was the next to rise, and I wasn't surprised—I was sure Mesa was tired from his escapades. However, Mesa too made his entrance in short order, but only he looked a little different. It was such an unusual occurrence, that it took me a moment to process it, but the irregularity was obvious. He was wearing Morning-Sun Hunter's mask...

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MORNING-SUN HUNTER!?" I charged at him, much to his surprise, and tackled him to the ground.

"Indigo! What are you..!?" He struggled to get up, but apparently, the training with Moonlight Guardian had actually made me quite formidable in a fight.

"You killed Morning-Sun Hunter! And now you are wearing her mask like some kind of sick Hollywood killer as a trophy!" Mesa struggled to get a word in, while I continued to pummel him.

"Indigo... What... Stop!"

"INDIGO!" The Elder grabbed my shoulder and tried—with some success—to pull me off him. "Stop this at once! Morning-Sun Hunter is fine! She proposed to him!"

I was so startled by the words that had left the Elder's mouth—and yes, he was still using Caster—that I froze mid-pummel. After I realized what those words meant, my body went limp. I turned my head to face him. "...Huh?"

"Morning-Sun Hunter proposed," he reiterated. I sat there dumbstruck.

"Could you get off me, Indigo?" Mesa's words were commanding, but all things considered, more constrained than one would expect. I was actually impressed.

"Oh... Yeah... Sorry." I got off and Mesa stood up dusting himself off.

"Are you not familiar with courtship customs?" The Elder asked, seemingly bewildered that I wouldn't know.

I looked to Mesa and back to the Elder. "A-Apparently."

The Elder regained his composure quickly, and though he was astounded that I was unaware of such a commonplace custom—at least according to him—he was more than happy to explain how a proposal was performed.

"By tradition, proposals are performed on the night of a full moon. Preferably on a clear sky, but if the weather isn't cooperating, being able to see the moon between shifting clouds will suffice, though some say that it's a bad omen to propose in such conditions."

"Why the full moon?" It would be auspicious, perhaps, if it was by chance, but forcing the issue just made it cumbersome.

"Tradition, Indigo. Tradition! Though I don't know if it extends to other tribes." He looked to Mesa.

"My tribe didn't go by the moon. Proposals are performed during storms." Really? Now that seems like a bad omen.

"Anyways, in the light of the full moon—hopefully—the native, that would be Morning-Sun Hunter in this case, proposes to the sojourner."

"Wait, isn't it normal for the man to do the proposing?" Back in my home world, this was by far the norm, and deviating from it was still met with sideways looks.

"No... Why would that be normal?" It was the Elder's turn to be confused.

"Well... Umm..." I had no explanation, maybe back home I could think of some explanation, but things were different here.

"It is done this way, Indigo, because you are being invited to join the tribe. What right would a sojourner have to propose such a proposition?" Mesa explained. That was actually a good point.

"Excellent deduction! That sounds just right!" Was the Elder unaware of the reason? I guess that is why traditions are traditions, so you don't have to think about them.

"But that still doesn't explain the mask."

"I was getting to that, be patient." My gaze dropped to the ground. "To propose marriage in the prescribed situation, the native will remove their mask and hand it to the sojourner." Oh, that's a big deal. Though if they had been courting, they have probably seen each other's faces several times. "If the sojourner accepts, they will remove their mask and hand it to the native. They will don each other's masks, and congratulations, you are engaged."

It seemed like a bizarre ritual on its face—no pun intended—but so too is giving someone a ring if you have no cultural context. But this seemed more meaningful to me than giving an absorbently expensive item. This appeared to imply that they were accepting a part of the other into themselves. I couldn't help but be moved by it.

Rubbing my chin, "that seems... nice." I looked over at Mesa and caught his eye; he was still disheveled from our... tussal? Yeah, let's go with tussal. "Oh... Sorry about that..." My face was flush with embarrassment. I hope I hadn't ruined what was sure to be a wonderful day for him. "Congratulations!"

He straightened out his collar. "Might I ask how you came to the conclusion that I had... done what you accused me of?"

"Well..." I explained to the best of my abilities without referencing my previous life, no easy feat let me assure you. After I finished, I couldn't help but notice that Mesa had been slowly inching himself away from me.

"I see..." He didn't see, he was clearly perplexed and perhaps a bit uneasy.

"Well, you certainly have a creative imagination," Snowcap Elder inserted. "But let's try to keep the creativity to productive matters, yes?"

"Umm... Y-Yes, of course! I'll keep myself in line in the future." My tail tucked itself squarely between my legs.