Chapter 2: 5 Days To Capital

I woke up before sunrise, not as rested as I hoped to be but enough to get me through the day. The fire was still going strong so I presumed someone was up every once in a while stoking it. Most likely they would also be the ones on look out. It wasn't hard finding the man but it was one of the few with whom I didn't speak the same language. Not to be rude, I bid the good sir morning greetings, observing social decorum even if he wouldn't understand. A simple grunt from him would have sufficed but he probably felt the same weight of societal decorum to dispel greetings of his own. I froze.

If I wasn't completely awake before, I was now. He looked at me probably wondering why I was still there making things awkward for the both of us. I rolled the words on my tongue not trusting myself to blurt out what was on my mind. Parted my lips again and said

"…by any chance, know where I can find water, I made a mess in the carriage yesterday." His language, strange though it may have felt but I was familiar with it. There were words referencing more nuances in concepts like the concept of 'love' existed in it's variants; Eros, Philia , Storge , Agape ; yet I instinctively understood.

His face instantly lit up with the joy of a man meeting a kinsman on foreign ground. Relief at finding an island of familiarity amidst all the seas of strangeness. I found his unadulterated joy slightly off putting but I also actually wanted that water so I grinned trying to match his energy.

"…about that water…" I interjected not wanting this to go on longer than it has to, my social battery was already running low from a wrestless night.

"Oh sorry about that, you can have this." he handed me the water bottle he had in his tent and a cleaning clothe that had to have been made in haste. "Let's catch up before the days travel brother."

I thanked him and left for the carriage to clean up the dried blood, I wasn't so crass as to think that my blood bothered no one, if not the rustic smell, then the macabre sight of it should be enough induce formication. On my knees and scrubbing, it became easier to get lost in thought.

[…It's the same strangeness I felt yesterday when I could suddenly hold conversation again. If todays events are anything to go by then that wasn't my language…i'll hold onto a hypothesis for now: It takes exposure to comprehend an entire field of knowledge. Either I already knew it and simply forgot -most likely- or… less probable but, it takes exposure to learn "language", this would also explain why they all feel strange. Arithmetic can be considered a language, it's a numerical indexing of reality. Saying "10 meters" to someone communicates a particular 'distance-between-points' of reality. It did not feel strange so it should be something I already knew about]. The blood mostly gone, I sat and leaned back against the wall watching the sun rays through the canopy.

Not long after sunrise, everyone was packing up their tents, so I went over and joined in on the foray cleaning up the temporary camp. The man from earlier came up to help with my tent as well as continuing the conversation from where he left off. I was glad that he seemed to have calmed down and simply beamed with joy, an improvement from the earlier toxic radiation.

"Breakfast in 5 minutes." the other man, whom I found out was his younger brother, shouted from where he was tying up his luggage to the carriage.

"My name is Hami, and he's my brother Kito" he said pointing at the boy coming towards us. He seemed older than he actually was from what his brother said.

[I guess that's why I placed his at mid twenties yesterday]

"Turned 19 last month" he said placing his right palm over his left chest in slight bow. I awkwardly imitated the gesture, "I had an incident yesterday and I forgot…everything, you can call me Chima for now though."

"…Yeah I saw, thought you'd be dead, you passed out and just bled, all I could do was stop the bleeding and see what happens." said Kito

"Well, whatever you did was enough. I lived. For that, I am grateful." I felt guilty about the whole affair.

"Don't worry about it, he secretly enjoyed it, he wants to be a doctor…just stay away from eating random stuff." Hami said mid yawn.

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"Seems you've been skimping out on us big man, I didn't know you spoke their language, the accent was on point too!" Hadiza always the observant one.

"Neither did I," I said taking my seat from yesterday, "I woke up and it was just 'there', like I've spoken it my whole life."

"People speaking two languages isn't uncommon" said Bitrus. "The empire is made up of many different groups of people, learning both the empire's language and your group's is an all too common pattern."

"Could you speak the empire's language for an hour today?" I asked, trying to test my hypothesis. Hadiza's face turned red as she suddenly found the carriage walls all too impressive. Bitrus chuckled and said "sure, we'll wait for Ola, and see what we can do for both of you."

"…and which one of my charms is being advertised, Bitrus?" I looked up and saw Ola hefting herself into the carriage, donning a black traveling cloak.

"The children don't know the empire's language, would be nice if we get them acquainted with the basics. We still have 5 days till we go our separate ways anyway." said Bitrus as his gaze warmly lingered on Hadiza.

"…may it never be said that Ola, in all her transcendent beauty and peerless talent, is not magnanimous in her gifts." said Ola with a dramatic flair.

Hazina seemed to enjoy Ola's theatrics for she forgot her earlier embarrassment and bubbled with laughter while Ola seemed dead serious in all her expressions. I could see why Bitrus was fond of the girls.

It wasn't long that the remaining party members were in the carriage and the journey begun. Bitrus , true to his word, explained the basics to grasping the empire's language as we crossed the country side. At a certain point, I felt the now all too familiar strangeness of sound morphing to words followed by a defrosting sensation. I interrupted Bitrus and Ola's cram session, "I'll take a nap to process all of this." Hazida still had enough will power to continue so I just leaned back, shut my eyes and took a nap.

I didn't know how long I slept but since I found Hazida still listening, I gathered it couldn't have been more than an hour. After listening for a while, I rolled the words on my tongue for a bit before patting my lips and, "…how long did I sleep?" there it was, the empire's language, flowing as if it was my native tongue.

Bitrus, Ola and Hazina paused, after an awkward silence, their blank expressions cracked showing how they felt. Bitrus was impressed, Hazina scandalized and Ola…Ola was suspicious.

"How!" Hazina, almost brought to tears asked, her hours of cramming must have been brutal, drawing solace from the fact that she wasn't alone. Ola did not speak of it while Bitrus, he just looked on with approval then told Hazina that it must have been among the things I forgot and hearing them speak triggered the memories. This line of thought seemed to have calmed Hazina and a new source of motivation taking root, the fact that she was the only one in our niche that didn't know how to speak the Empire's language.

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At noon, I moved up to sit next to the brothers and the lonely girl.

"How many languages do you know?" asked Hami after I settled down.

"Don't know yet, that should be the last one I think."

"alas, the girl to our right hasn't had good company for days. It's not a problem but… she looks like she needs it." Hami said as he waved at her.

"You could go sit next to her, good company doesn't have to involve conversation." I looked at her and noticed she had a distant look in her eyes as she watched the passing terrain "…and she seems to have a lot on her mind."

His brother's stomach growled. We both looked towards him, his ears beet red from embarrassment. Hami chuckled and said "Well, his stomach sure knows how to make itself understood when it's being ignored."

Kito wisely pretended not to have heard anything and continued reading his medical book. I, on the other hand couldn't help but dwell on what he just said.

['He ignored his stomach's protests' meaning communication happened between him and his stomach. Without the need to use words to express it's discomfort to his brain. The concept of 'discomfort' was shared. If I were to use an analogy: Two individual people, have nothing that binds them on a fundamental level. They both have their unique life experiences that birth their understandings of concepts. Pain from falling from a tree is different from pain from burning your hands in flames. But they are both partial understandings of the concept of 'pain'. When we communicate, we give a general name to the other party by way of 'words' and hope they have the same understanding of the concept as you. So you may say 'I'm in pain' while remembering the fall, they, on the other hand, will remember having their hands burn.

However, the communication between the stomach and mind is one of shared 'concepts'. The 'discomfort' concept's variant felt by the stomach can be understood by the brain for they are fundamentally linked biologically.

Arithmetic on the other hand is simply attaching labels to reality. longitudes and latitudes label abstract space on the planet. Meters, Kilometers; label distance between points of space, weight; identifies how much the concept of 'force' is acting on stuff. Arithmetic is simply sticky notes all over reality.] I passed out…again.

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"At least you didn't bleed this time" Hami said with a concerned look on his face. The sun was setting and Bitrus was setting up my tent twice now in a row. I actually felt pretty great, my mind felt cool, my thoughts felt organized and… my body felt exhausted.

"What happened?" I asked but my heart wasn't really into it.

"Well, one minute you seemed to be in deep thought, the next, you were collapsing. Then you came down with a fever. It passed after the first hour but you were still out cold, till now that is." Hami said as he handed me a bowl of broth. "Thanks, sorry for the trouble again, Hami."

After the meal, I went to take a shower by a river stream. It helped get sticky sweat and grime off. I was concerned about my health but didn't know how to react to it. I felt great! yet the black outs were clearly symptoms of something problematic. I pushed it to the back of my brain for now since there was nothing I could do about it. After the shower I went to meet up with Bitrus and Hadiza.

"tisk tisk tisk, one lesson and your brain fried." said Hadiza. I could only grin at the cocky punk. I actually liked the kid.

"Thanks again for the tent Bitrus, I won't pass out tomorrow." I said seating next to the old man.

"I'm more worried about your episodes. Get it looked into, the capital should have people that are good at that kind of stuff.", said Bitrus, shaking his head.

[Seems very little is known about the capital] I idly thought.

Ola still hadn't talked to me since my nap earlier in the day. I looked around and saw the quiet lady brushing her teeth, getting ready to turn in for the night. The longer I looked, the more I could feel her exhaustion. She was tired and a darker, depressing 'scent' was about her. I couldn't identify the emotion. I slowly left the camp fire and approached her, making sure she could hear me approach. A new 'scent' reached my perception, it reminded me of a blend between 'intrigue' and 'curiosity'. I took it to mean:

[She wants to know who's approaching… and what I want.]

I stop walking, slightly raised my voice and used the empire's language. "Hi, I'm temporarily called Chima, was wondering whether you'd have my company before turning in."

As expected, she had no idea about what I just said and I could feel the earlier blend turn to a rather distinct 'frustration with herself'. Subconsciously, I noted that I could pick up on the nuances when communicating with her …and it should probably work with everyone else. She however responded, exasperation leaking in her tone, "I don't speak this shi**y empire's language but I'll have to learn it if I intend on actually surviving in that wasteland of a capital"

[note to self, she is NOT shy] but I got to atleast listen to her speak. That's all I wanted tonight. I thought I would have to sleep on it like before but this time, the defrosting sensation happened instantly.

Rolling the words on my tongue to see if it feels right, I patted my lips and responded "Worry not, they all rise and fall in time. Glad to make your acquaintance, I'm temporarily going by name the Chima".

She froze and only her cup of water splashing all over her legs brought her out of it. I could feel the scent of 'panic' that morphed into 'relief' then 'joy'.

[she must have thought of her slander of the empire being exposed, then the contents of my own speech morphing her panic to relief, then the joy stems from finally having someone to talk to.]

I smiled at her and she beamed one back at me. It was beautiful.