Father's out on campaign and doesn't know. Mother thinks she's on a school trip. The school thinks she's staying home. In truth, she's in a cave in the mountains. Digging a tunnel with her fists, in the dark. If she can connect the southwest passages to the main burrow, she'll be able to visit much more freely.
Her steady break-scoop-pack movements make a comfortable rhythm, and she allows herself to fall into an almost trance-like state as she works.
To the bookstore, then. The proprietor is a wrinkled old man with thick glasses.
"Oh, Eliko," he says. "How nice to see you again. Who's your friend?"
"This is Tarinda. She's a traveler."
He chuckles. "It is good to see young people with ambitions. Oh, Eliko, I'm afraid I haven't gotten anything new since your last visit."
"Do you have one that is - mm, all of the kinds of words that there are? I am learning."
"A dictionary? Yes, over here." He pulls a rather thick book off a shelf and passes it over.
"Thank you!" And she starts paging through it, too quickly to be really reading everything but making sure to look at it all.
The written language seems to consist of ideograms, which concatenate into a dizzying array of possible constructions. The book is grouped into sections by which strokes form the basis of the character.
Well that's gonna be harder for Tarinda but easy as pie for Page, who is doing most of the work right now. Look look look look.
"Hmm, okay." Flip flip. "I might need a job for a little money before I try to get really started."
"Mm. 'Fraid I don't really do enough business to pay an assistant. They're always hiring over at the factory, though. Or you look like you're equipped to do a little bounty hunting, maybe."
"Sometimes a criminal escapes the guards. A bounty is posted at the board. The hunter finds the criminal and brings them to the magistrate's office for the reward."
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