Sticky Pages

"Say 'Deny'" echoed through her head as Minestus silently projected his voice. Astra unconsciously answered back, "Yes, but this has to look natural."

Ostobuti faragan
Ti kinini staert
Egerirate key-arigan
Dilinitae praert

At this point Astra gently touched Checkers on the back of her neck to get her attention, and said, "Checkers, I cannot deny that your voice is beautiful, but I cannot follow the poem on the page. Unless your people do completely different things with the letters I know, this poem does not match to any of the writings."

Checkers was jolted by Astra's abruptness. "The poem is there to be listened to, not read." She then asked herself, "Am I doing this for mostly for her, or mostly for myself? If mostly for myself, then I just using her sorrow as an excuse to indulge myself in the pleasures of reading the old language. If it is truly to try to help her, then I need to bring it to her on her terms, even if it lessens my enjoyment a bit.

Checkers responded, "Astra, I have learned something on my first day here with Lord Fred. I can see things that you cannot see. What appears to me as red, like the lettering here, is often invisible to you. These are actually two separate works - someone has overwritten the older Dolomite with an unrelated work in another language. I can read it with little trouble."

"And maybe that is why the dragon never knew that many of these passages existed," Checkers thought. She did not know that she was not the only one in the room having that thought.

"How interesting," Astra responded. "You know what I would like to do, after you finish? It would be nice to write this down, on a clean paper. That way you could take it home when you finish your quest."

"That would be good. We could be here for months getting everything, though." She tried to turn the page to get an idea of how many pages might be involved, only to find out that the book was now composed of two very think leaves, with only two pages accessible.

Checkers said, "Well, that is peculiar. I wonder if it was something I said. I am afraid that Belboz will be angry with me for hurting the book."

Astra replied, "Let us not worry about that. Perhaps the book gets tired, and he can coax it open with his magic."

"A very funny thought. A book as a living creature, with feelings. I guess I think of them that way myself, sometimes."

"Yes. Well, what was the poem that you were reading about?"

"I only was able to get through two stanzas, but the translation runs roughly:"

"48 years ago
The world was wide
I gave you to my heart
And walked down the trail with you"

"That trail was green, lush, and wide"
All the peaks were within reach
All I had to do was ask.

"That is a very compact language to get all that thought into two stanzas" observed Astra.

"It can be. Unfortunately, it is not quite compact enough to get all that on the same page, so we will not be able to finish it. But I will do the best that I can."

Checkers read the poem as far as she could. Astra forgot her troubles for a moment and just listened. She did not follow the words, but just listened. The words were indeed like music. When Checkers ended the passage abruptly, Astra felt a tension. Continuing the musical analogy, the recitation felt incomplete, as if a couple final tonic notes had been dropped.

"I wish we could get to the rest of the poem," Astra said. "Would it be possible for me to play with the language, and learn a few words? How would I say 'I am Astra?'"

Checkers had to think for a minute. "The closest translation would be Inanglideri Astra. I would say Ti Checkeri, but if I were you I would not try Ti Astri. My countrymen would scoff at your pretension, as ti has overtones of "I am a fellow Glider," which you obviously are not."

"There is a prejudice against humans is engrained in their language, Astra thought. She said aloud, "What is the Glider word for friend?"

"Dustil," answered Checkers.

"I hope that you consider me dustil."

"I would be honoured to be allowed to hold you as dustil, Astrichi. I would also call you tanichi, which is our word for 'one who has shown honour.'"

"Thank you, Checkers. I would consider you dustil and tanichi as well.

"Dustil I will accept happily. I have done nothing to earn being considered tanichi yet, like you have, but I hope to deserve it one day."

Checkers took the pen and paper started to write the poem carefully. Astra could see that the Dolomite script was easy to follow. It was very similar to her alphabet. Checkers read to her as she was writing. Astra started to repeat what Checkers said. There were differences in how some letters were pronounced, but she started to see some patterns, and made fewer mistakes. Checkers made the comment, "If you want to understand the language, you need to practice it. But you are doing well. I imagine that by the time that Fred gets back, you will have a firm grasp of the basics, and may be able to speak with me in it."

Checkers did not know that with her last sentence, she had accidently broken the charm that had stuck the ends of the pages together.

1. But Minestus noticed, and demanded that Astra say "Deny" again.
2. Minestus, excited by the relevations, missed Checkers' accidental breaking of the charm.

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