“Hello. I am Fio” I thought at the feline holding her head in pain. She was confused and not just because she had rammed her head into the ceiling. It was pretty obvious she did not understand what my new item, the supersensory matrix, was doing.

“Me.. lrrow?”

Almost. That was closer to an actual word. I tried to pay more attention to the actual thoughts being sent across. I realized there was a need to know what speaking felt like. At least it made it much easier. When I sent “Hello” through the connection, I was not speaking. I was projecting the memory of someone speaking the words. Which worked because I had used English in my previous life. So, what if I tried to use Ordugh?

“Hoohow”

Yeah. I could see why she had such difficulty making her words clear. We would both have to practice. And I should teach her Ordugh anyway while I was at it. That should have been her first language. English was pretty much useless in this world. Unless there were other people that had been reincarnated. Even then, not all of those would have to know English. Huh, I might have made a mistake teaching her a language from a foreign universe. The only real advantage was that I could show her more easily how the sounds should appear in her thoughts. I promptly took out the Thaumonomicon and pulled up the introduction. Placing it in front of the ocelot, I started to read out loud into her head.

“Those of weak mind, turn away. The secrets of this tome will turn you into babbling fools, for the secrets of magic are not kept secret out of a desire for power, but to protect the weak.”

I made sure to articulate every word properly and speak as slow as possible without losing the melody of speech. Quickly, the ocelot started to pay careful attention. I was still wet from the dive but neither of us cared as we huddled up and I taught my friend how to not just read but speak. She might need her own supersensory matrix once I left but I could make one easily enough. I did not plan to go anytime soon.

Once I got through the introduction, I started from the beginning. Then again. And again. And again. How long I read the same words to the ocelot, I did not know but it was worth it. By the time my mana ran low, I was mostly dry and both of us were too exhausted to do anything more. I sent a final “Goodnight” and we got some rest.

When I woke up, this time I had actually slept, I found myself lying on flat stone. It took a moment to remember the proceedings of last night. I started off the day giving myself a good shake and followed that up with some thorough [Preening]. The dive had ruffled my plumage into a terrible state. After I was done, I looked around and spotted the ocelot still sleeping on her bed. She was looking content, her mouth moving irregularly and a few sounds escaping every once in a while.

There was no food and I was hungry so I shifted to my metal form and left the hideout. It was dark out and judging from the moon, already early morning. There might only be an hour or two until dawn. I found some prey and thanks to leaving behind the Thaumonomicon, I had enough space to store breakfast for my company.

As I returned to her den, the ocelot was just waking up. She yawned and stretched her limbs in a graceful manner and I dropped my hunt on the floor. With a hoot, I caught her attention before activating the supersensory matrix and greeting my friend.

“Hello, friend. I brought breakfast!”

She flinched as my thoughts reached her but was much less surprised than the last time. Still, she decided to answer me with a vocalized meow and went over to smell my hunt. We dug in together without any further conversation and after washing herself in the water trapped at the entrance, the ocelot was finally awake enough to pay more attention. Hopefully, we could talk soon.

I tried once more, “Good morning!” but only got a “Melleow” in return.

“Let’s get back to it!” I sent and opened the Thaumonomicon once more.

Thus I taught her for another two days with only minor improvements. Her ‘hello’ was almost human by now but most words were still difficult to understand. We had figured out how to send emotions through the matrix at least which allowed us to communicate somewhat efficiently. Things like ‘hungry’, ‘tired’ and ‘bored’ were easy to get across. There was a lot of ‘tired’ and ‘bored’ coming from my student. So much, I reconsidered my methods. Maybe I was a bad teacher?

We had been hunting together and no longer exhausted ourselves fully with learning to speak which helped with concentration at least but there was still enough to improve that it would take weeks before we could hold a proper conversation. Then, I had an idea. What if we learned together? I was already skilled at English while the ocelot had no clue how to speak it. As for Ordugh, I had heard it but I had never spoken any of the words. So I went ahead and pulled up the introduction to the Thaumonomicon in Ordugh. Ocelot gave me a look and sent a feeling of exasperation. ‘Another new thing?’ was the question I got from her. I nodded holding eye contact. Then I began to read it through the telepathic connection:

“Fooze hoof whooek mhaong…”

I stopped.

I tried again.

“Tfoose hoff hooeag mooin…”

Damn, this was difficult. No wonder ocelot had not improved. I had completely forgotten to let her practice! How could I be so stupid? Ugh…

Anyways! Now I knew what I had done wrong and under the snickering snorts of my audience, I changed back to English.

“Your turn!” I sent, along with the corresponding feeling.

The cat tilted her head at me and sent a question. I answered with affirmation. “Practice!”

She sat up on her hind legs and looked at the English text. After giving me a glance and taking a deep breath, she started.

“Meowss owv wiikh meing, deorn avvaee…”

She trailed off looking at me in doubt. I held my amusement tight, making sure not to show any of it through the connection. It would not do to discourage her. I had been a terrible teacher these last few days, I would do better! So I encouraged her to go on with a nod.

“Yes, good. Try again.”

“Meowse ovv weeg main, churn avae…”

Again, she looked at me, doubt shining in her eyes. I held her gaze and sent: “Those of weak mind, turn away.”

She tried again, getting a little better. We went back and forth, my student trying a sentence, then me showing her what it should sound like. As we went on, my amusement quickly died down and was filled with determination to teach. Her own feelings turned from doubt to desperation and before it could get too bad I decided to go back to Ordugh. The fumbling sounds I sent to her along with my own exasperation at my inability returned my student’s humour and soon we had found a good rhythm. A few hours in we got into another conversation. She sent a question to me about the different languages.

She asked, why they were so far apart and why was I only capable of pronouncing one of them properly. I tried something new and sent an image of a human. Or rather, the feelings my senses gave me when I looked at a person. There was not much in my memories about actual humans but I had seen dwarves recently and that image was easily understood. She confirmed she had seen them herself and I received an image from a grounded perspective with a few colours seemingly out of place. Along came a sense of smell so intense I doubled back. Was that how an ocelot saw the world? Very interesting.

Returning to the topic at paw, I combined “Ordugh” with the dwarves. I also sent an image of the orks and goblins along. Then, I sent “English” along with a human.

Once again, a question returned. “Engleej” was sent along with an image of myself. She wanted to know how I could ‘speak’ English.

I hesitated. This was a little risky to talk about was it not? Telling her I was from another world? Then again, she was a wild, if sapient, animal. As long as we could communicate properly soon, I could tell her to keep it a secret from other sapients. And the eldritch monster had figured it out on its own, right? I was probably overthinking this. So I sent an image of a human overlapped with my own reflection from the pond.

“I was a human” I sent along.

The ocelot froze for a good few seconds. I could feel a few emotions fighting in her mind and spilling over to me. There was a bit of fear, wonder, some reservation and most of all confusion. I decided to refrain from showing her my experiences of being reincarnated or anything about the Empty, really. There was just too much of a risk to fry her brain.

After a moment she had rebooted and started blocking her emotions again, only sending what she wanted me to know. The last thing I got was a hint of embarrassment. She had not wanted me to know about her feelings in that much detail. I answered with encouragement and sent my own feelings about the revelation after. My fear and doubt about how she would receive me now as well as the hope we could stay friends.

The ocelot took a deep breath at that and returned the friendship along with a question. It felt more like, ‘what are friends?’ than ‘are we friends?’ which gave me pause for a moment. Right, how could an animal living in the wilderness know about friendship? Especially in a dangerous environment of magical beasts like this world. I answered with what I understood friends were supposed to be. There was enjoying each others company, helping each other out and being able to laugh and get laughed at. That was most of it at least, I thought.

The ocelot considered for a moment and then sent a question, this time attempting to speak the word into my mind.

“Freownd?”

It was accompanied by an image of the two of us with the Thaumonomicon.

I chuckled and answered her with a reaffirming image.

“Friends!”

I did not expect the tackle coming from her but as I lay pinned to the ground and was licked with affection, a notification popped up.

~ding~ You have made friends with a new species, congratulations! Experience is awarded!

~ding~ You have reached level 21. Attribute Point allocated. 1 Attribute Point awarded.

Wait, I could level up by making friends?