4 Chapter 4

Jean sat on a branch that was high up in the tree. He had already gotten over the fact that he spoke a language he had never heard before. Jacquard wasn't too concerned about it.

'Hadn't you always been speaking English?' he had asked.

'I have?' Jean had replied.

'How do you think we have been communicating?'

'Oh, that's right.' He had replied and that had been the end of it.

Today he sat on a branch high up in a tree, eating a teu fruit when he sighted a figure moving through the trees. Actually, it was walking through the trees, destroying everything that stood in its path. It kept getting closer, but the moment he sighted the figure he calmed down.

The figure got close to where he was and sat down by him, destroying the trees in the way. \\"How goes it little one?"\\ The figure asked. It was a huge gorilla like creature with leathery grey skin and short hairs on its body. It held in one hand a gourd that looked like it was carved out from wood directly. It lifted up the gourd and placed it to its lips and took a sip.

Jean looked at the yemerey that had sat down beside him. He didn't understand what was said but he didn't care. He opened his mouth to speak but was stopped when he saw the yemerey frowned.

\\"What is that?"\\ It asked.

The yemerey pointed a big finger at him and Jean felt his heart stopped.

\\"What is that?!"\\ it screamed again. Jean was scared beyond his wit and immediately began to flee. He jumped from the branch he was on and onto one that was farther away. He kept jumping trying to increase the distance between him and the yemerey.

\\"Wait!"\\ the yemerey shouted and began to chase after him. \\"Wait! I just want to talk!"\\

The yemerey tore through the woods, uprooting the trees in its path. Unfortunately, it lost sight of Jean and one of the trees that it tore from its path had Jean on it. Jean was flung into the air like a rag doll. He tried to hang onto the tree but the force was too much and he was torn away from the tree that flew through the air. He hit the floor with a splat and rolled a little way off before coming to a stop.

He lost consciousness the moment he hit the floor and the first time he came to he saw the forest laid out before him, devoid of anything but trees. He heard the voice give orders in the background, yet he couldn't see anyone. And as he lost consciousness, he realised that he understood what it was saying.

\\"Find it!"\\ the voice called. \\"Find him!"\\

The second time he came to he could see movement in the forest, dark shadows flitting in-between the thick trunks of the trees. He heard their calls coming from the forests, they spoke in the language of the yemerey.

\\"I've found it,"\\ a voice called out, \\"They are over here."\\

And then he blacked out.

The third time he came to was the last time he woke up from unconsciousness. He woke up in a hut without corners and wooden walls. A yemeru sat a way off, watching him suspiciously from the stool it sat on.

\\"Are you awake yemephu?"\\ It asked and Jean nodded.

\\"Good,"\\ it replied before it headed out and hollered something Jean couldn't make out, mostly because he wasn't interested in what it was saying.

Jean was more interested in what was going in his head, or rather what had gone on in his head. He had lived most of his life unable to understand what the yemeru, merey, and mephu meant when they spoke, yet as if overnight, he felt like he could give a fairly good speech in the same language.

He thought about it for a while before shrugging it off. It was probably the same thing that happened with the English that he and Jacquard spoke, who he had not spoken to through this whole ordeal. Which was impossible, if he really thought about it. He was about to contact him when a yemeru walked back in.

\\"Get up!"\\ it barked, Jean nodded and got up quickly from the wooden board he had been lying on. The yemeru nodded its head. \\"Good, now come with me, the council wishes to meet you."\\

Jean nodded and hurriedly followed after the yemeru. They walked out of the hut, passing through the brown sheets that covered the entrance, and the light shone almost directly into Jean's eyes.

His eyes quickly got used to the light but it took his mind a moment to process what he saw. A wide road stretched out before him and phinetis with carriages on their backs rode down the wide street. Circular stone building filled the other side of the road, each building surrounded on all sides by large patches of grass, each populated with something different.

Some had flowers on them, others possessed creations of different kind, others contained mini forests with trees arranged side by side with the same height. Some contained trees that twisted this way and that and had some yemephusi with blades cutting the leaves.

He opened his mouth to speak when a phinetis carriage rode out and stopped before him. Surprised he wanted to turn to the yemeru by his side and ask him a question, only for him to be shoved forward by the yemeru.

\\"Move,"\\ it ordered, \\"Get in. Hurry. We don't have all day."\\ Compliantly Jean entered into the phinetis carriage, wondering if this was the same insect he used to eat in the forest. The yemeru that had ordered him in got in beside him and shut the door. The carriage began to move and at first Jean was elated, at least until he saw the weapon that the yemeru sitting beside him was carrying and his heart tightened up.