While Kanik was asking me about the words in the Vestrian version of my book, Rymar sauntered into what I now knew was called the "living room." His reddish-orange hair was wet and slicked back over his head. His pants were a light blue that complemented his turquoise markings. He was also wearing a white shirt with a necklace dangling down the middle. A strange, almost hourglass-shaped pendant hung from the leather cord.
"Work?" Kanik asked as if this was typical.
"Mhm," Rymar agreed, understanding the English even if his accent was only marginally better now. "Week auff. Now ah gaw back do da kafay."
"He's had a week off after getting back from our trip to negotiate trade deals with the Reapers," Kanik clarified for me. "Now he has to go check on his bar."
"Bar?" Because to me, that word meant a pole. "Like a rod?"
"No!" Kanik laughed, lifting his hand in a wave to Rymar before saying something in Vestrian.
I caught fun, day, and late in all of that. At least, I was pretty sure if I changed the letters and squished the sounds their way, that would be what those words meant. But before I could ask, Rymar headed for the door so I smiled politely at him. He paused with his hand on the handle to smile back.
"Yu lern lots," he told me.
Then he was gone, but Kanik acted like this was normal. "Rymar owns a place called a bar," he explained. "Well, technically, it's a cafe, but we all call it a bar. It is a building where people come to get simple food and many options of drinks. Some are alcoholic."
I gasped. "But alcohol is the Devil's tool!"
"It's also pretty good, which is why Zasen and I go there for drinks," Kanik assured me. Then he leaned back and a lazy smile took over his brown-freckled face. "And so you know, Zasen's been out since before dawn."
"Oh." I hadn't even missed him!
Kanik just nodded. "This is how Dragons help their communities. We have jobs. We call it working."
"Like cleaning?" I asked.
He murmured at that. "Yes and no. You see, a job is doing something others want and need. Not just you and your own household, but those outside it. Rymar sells food and drinks. Zasen hunts for meat. He sells the hides when he can, but mostly he supplies meat to people who can't hunt on their own, because they either don't have the time or the skill."
"So what do you do to work?" I asked.
"I teach science to children, usually those around eleven or twelve years old. It's called middle school, and my job is called a teacher."
"So, you give sermons?"
"No." He shook his head to make the point. "I teach them the same way I'm teaching you. We introduce new things, discuss them, and learn about them."
Okay, that made sense, but there was one thing I felt I was missing. "So when do you do your work?"
"Mm..." He thought about that for a moment. "It's summer, Ayla. The children are given time off to enjoy the summer and be with their families. In a few more weeks, however, the next school year will start. I'll go to the building we call a school at that time. Well, just before the children return, but around then."
"And you're the one trusted to educate the children?" I pressed, thinking it sounded a lot like what Mr. Cassidy had done.
"I'm one of them," he agreed. "There are many teachers, though. We have a subject, like Vestrian or science or math. Our goal is to make sure everyone here grows up with a basic level of knowledge."
I nodded, pretty sure I was following along. "So it sounds like how things were done in the compound. As children we were assigned duties, like cooking or laundry. It stops when we get married. The duty of wives was to care for their husband."
"Except we get paid for it."
That made my brow crease. "Paid?"
"Money."
Which led to an entire discussion on what money was and how it was used. Oddly, it made sense. If someone did a task for another, then that other owed them for it. That was how it should be. If a woman cooked for her husband, he should owe her for it, since he didn't have to do it. If she cleaned his home, he owed her because he'd been able to sit and entertain himself instead.
But not all things were done for money. Things people did for themselves, of course, weren't paid. That included chores like taking care of the home they lived in - which didn't support my example about caring for a husband. There were also favors, done just to be nice, like how these men were helping me.
I didn't want to be something they had to take care of, though. I wanted to help them just as much. I wanted to prove I - and my friends, although I didn't say that - could be helpful here. When I tried to explain my thinking to Kanik, he told me learning Vestrian helped. It helped more than I could imagine, which was why they wanted me to focus on it first.
We were still talking about that when Zasen returned. He was filthy, happy, and announced he'd gotten a fawn. Kanik seemed pleased, but as Zasen headed for the bathroom to clean himself up, I realized that like Rymar, he was also wearing a necklace with an hourglass-shaped pendant. Kanik, however, wasn't wearing one.
Then again, I hadn't seen Zasen or Rymar wearing them until today either, so maybe it had something to do with work? I filed it away as something to ask, and then got back to my book. Today, I was trying to read the one in Vestrian without checking the English version to see if I was right. Sitting on the couch, Kanik had his own book and had told me I could read it next if I understood Vestrian well enough.
That was a challenge I couldn't refuse, so I focused hard on the words. My lips moved at times as I silently tried to sound them out. That was what I was doing when a man's chuckle pulled my eyes up. The scent of shampoo hit a moment later.
"You mouth the words when you read?" he asked me in English.
So I smiled and did my best to reply in Vestrian. "When the wards are uns fat are new to me."
"When the - " Kanik tried.
But Zasen's lips were split into a wide grin. "No, I got it. When the words are ones that are new to her." He nodded. "Not bad, Ayla. Not bad at all, but I think you should take a break."
While he was still talking to me in English, I had to try in Vestrian again. "But I'm a tha gud part!"
"Trust me," he said before switching to his own language. "And you can bring your book, but sometimes using words makes it easier. It helped with my English."
I sucked in a little breath because I'd understood all of that! Granted, he'd spoken slowly and had enunciated it well, but it was still progress. So, clutching my Vestrian book to my chest, I hopped up excitedly.
