"I See you, Magania," says Isibel, when this sentence becomes true.

"I See you, Isibel," says Magania. "It would please me to hear all that you may wish to tell of your time spent with Tialle's friend, before we must return to camp."

"We spoke of speaking," Isibel says. "He can count to twenty, and name dragons and unicorns and elves, boats and islands and the lights of the sky, and make intelligible sentences of them."

"When I spoke with him, some words passed between us that I did not translate," says Magania.

"I am not surprised," says Isibel. "He did not tell me what they were; perhaps we have not ventured into the necessary vocabulary."

"You may become surprised if he tries to mime them," Magania says dryly.

"While a life without surprises would be dull, I believe I could happily pass my days without that one, were I warned in advance," says Isibel, equally dry.

"He chose to express his gratitude for your company by offering you the use of his body," Magania explains. "In some detail, which I am not prepared to repeat even had I understood it all."

Isibel makes an eloquent face. "Ah."

"I hope that your curiosity is satisfied," says Magania.

"On this subject," says Isibel, "I believe it is."

"I am pleased to hear it," says Magania, and she walks with Isibel back to the camp.

In the morning, Isibel returns to the forest with a fresh notebook and dressed in one of her more conservative outfits, not that she was particularly daring yesterday, and looks for her demonic pupil.

He is floating naked in the pond again.

"I See you," she calls out.

He laughs, waves, and splashes his way to solid ground.

She waves. At some point today she's going to ask him if he wants some clothes. She'll introduce the relevant vocabulary. But not first. "When the sun was down, at night, I slept," she says, miming sleep. "Now I am awake again." She opens her eyes. "And I am here to talk to you and teach you my language." It feels inane, but how else is he going to pick up conversational fluency?

"Elves sleep at night," she corrects. "Elves sleep during the night. I am an elf, so I sleep at night."

"Elves sleep at night," he repeats. "Elves sleep at night, sleep at night, sleep at night," with successive gestures perhaps meant to indicate successive instances of this activity.

"Elves sleep every night," Isibel supplies. "And wake up every morning."

"Elves sleep every night," says the demon, nodding. "Dragons sleep..." and he spreads his hands, highlighting the gap in his vocabulary.

"Dragons sleep when they are bored," says Isibel, and for effect she looks with utter disinterest at a tree and folds her arms and taps her foot.

"Bored," giggles the demon. "Dragons sleep when they are bored."

She smiles and nods, and looks for a good place to sit to begin the lesson proper.