Rex’s early life was focused on learning the language of the people around him. Karla was eager to help, of course, but they were both trapped in an extra spacious stable and had little to work with. There were only so many objects and body parts Karla could point at in her language lessons.

It would have been impossible to progress much further, even with Idea’s help, but Karla decided to trust Eric and told him about her attempts to teach Rex how to understand spoken words.

Eric had been faithfully coming to visit his dragon every day to feed him lunch, and play with him a bit. He’d even brought a ball to play with. Rex dutifully learned to play “fetch”. Rex was willing to put up with a lot, and he was smart enough to realize that earning the favor of this particular child was worth sacrificing what little dignity he had. Seeing Rex’s patient look and Eric’s evident amazement at how easy it had been to teach Rex such a simple game, Karla had decided to confess.

“Master Eric, I think Rex is a lot smarter than just a dog,” Karla explained earnestly, “I have been teaching him words,” she told him. “He knows right, left, and paw, and a bunch of other words.”

“Rex, lift your right paw,” Eric said slowly, somewhat doubtfully.

Rex did so, “lift” was not a word he’d learned yet, but Eric had helpfully demonstrated what he meant by lifting his own hand. Rex added a new word to his short list.

“Swish your tail,” Eric told him.

Rex knew tail, but “swish”? Idea offered unhelpfully. This time Eric had provided no clues, so Rex glanced at Karla who was cheating by vigorously swishing her own tail back and forth with a pleading expression. Rex got it, and swished his own tail back and forth too. Idea announced. Rex was good at remembering and deciphering new words, but Idea had flawless memory and sophisticated translation algorithms. So far as Rex was concerned, translating was the only useful thing the overly talkative voice in his head did, but he did try to learn the words himself, mostly out of boredom.

Eric frowned thoughtfully. “He’s learned a lot of words already,” he said, turning to face Karla, who guiltily stopped moving her own tail.

“I may have cheated, master,” Karla said, shyly, “I was swishing my tail to show him.”

Eric nodded, he’d suspected as much, he’d seen how Rex had looked at his own hand before imitating him, and seen Rex look to the side to see what Karla was doing behind him. So he tried something sneaky. “Rex, lift your left hand” he said while raising his own right. Would Rex get confused? Also did Rex know that hand and paw were the same thing?

Rex tilted his head, was this a test of some sort? He guessed what Karla had said had something to do with admitting that she’d helped, it was based on his ability to read human expressions. This was not an ability native to his own brain, but rather, Idea noticed, one of the many ways in which Rex was able to instinctually access information from his cybernetics. Rex was as adept at using Idea’s circuits as Idea was at using Rex’s neurons. Idea had a complete subroutine library dedicated to understanding human facial expressions, and Rex borrowed it. Idea for his part, mostly used Rex’s brain for fuzzy logic, creativity, and emotional processing, areas in which a pure mechanical AI would struggle with. This meant empathy was sort of shared between both the organic and cybernetic parts of the duo’s brain.

Karla looked embarrassed, her face flushed red, and the few words he’d understood, “I’m sorry”, “show”, “swish”, and “tail” gave him enough context.

This meant that this time the demonstration was a deception, Idea realized, sharing that insight with Rex, who’d been about to raise the wrong paw. Eric hadn’t raised the wrong hand by mistake, he wanted to see if Rex really knew “left” from “right”. He carefully raised his left paw.

“Do some using words you taught him but no demonstrations.” Eric ordered.

Karla rapidly ran him through some of the words she had taught Rex and Idea. In quick succession the dragon sat down, stood up, drank some water, moved some straw around, moved into a corner, came back, opened his mouth wide to show off his sharp teeth, and gently nibbled on Karla’s tail.

That last one made Karla blush, even though she’d been the one who taught him the word for “bite”. She’d just figured if Rex accidently bit her too hard, she’d rather be bitten on the tail, as it was mostly fur and not important to her duties. Rex had surprised her by his gentleness and managed to tickle her. In retrospect it had been a dangerous thing to ask a dragon to do, but Karla trusted Rex not to simply bite her tail off. She should have told Rex to bite something inanimate.

“You trusted Rex to bite your tail without hurting you?” Eric asked, impressed. Karla had conviction in what she was saying, Eric was almost convinced. “Ok, what’s the most impressive thing he can do?” Eric asked.

“Say your name,” Karla told Rex.

“Rrr-eck,” Rex said. It was about the only thing he could say, his vocal cords were shaped for roaring, the “r” sound came naturally to him, the “ex” sound he managed by sort of pretending he was trying to dislodge something from his throat. It came out like a short growl and a sharp cough that didn’t quite blur into a single syllable, but it was recognizable, barely. “Karla” was completely beyond him to say, though he had tried, much to Karla’s amusement. It had come out “kek-rawr-awa,” like a soft cough followed by strangled roar choked halfway through.

“That’s cool,” Eric enthused, “say my name, Eric,” he ordered Rex.

Rex shook his head, opened his mouth and pointed at his throat, then put a paw over his face apologetically, like an embarrassed puppy. It was a very clear message to convey through non verbal cues. Karla hadn’t really thought much about it, but Rex could actually communicate to some degree by exaggerated non verbal cues, it's how they first started “talking”.

Idea had encouraged Rex to teach Karla to understand certain gestures, conveying what Idea thought would work via mental images. Idea had a database that included sign language, and it planned to work Rex and Karla up to that level, eventually. Both the dragon and the girl seemed eager to learn.

“Oh,” Karla said surprised, “He’s saying he can’t say that, sorry,” she translated.

“No I got that,” Eric said, “I understood what he meant.” Eric was now convinced. Rex was smart enough to express himself in a few simple gestures? That was more impressive than being able to “say” his own name at command. So far everything could be explained as a very clever trick, but he’d actually replied to Eric’s spoken request in a way that showed that he understood what he was being asked to do, and could explain that he couldn’t do it.

“Try to say my name,” Eric said again, just to see what Rex would do.

Inwardly, Rex sighed, he guessed that “try” meant to do it anyways, though it was a new word, he got it from context. The tone of voice said that Eric was still testing him, and Idea had impressed on Rex that making friends with Eric would help them both.

“Eh-rawr-hic” Rex managed, combining a short grunt with a half hearted roar with a hiccup-like inhalation midway through. It was better than he’d hoped for, given that most times he wasn’t actually using his vocal cords, but rather trying “alternative” ways to make sounds.

“Not bad,” Eric said approvingly, reaching out to rub Rex’s head playfully. Rex accepted the caress calmly. Idea said as well, pleased at how cooperative Rex was with Idea’s agenda of ingratiating the duo with the humans. Rex for his part, was mostly worried about trusting Eric. Rex believed that letting others know that he was quickly learning to understand human speech might be dangerous; he was not as trusting of humans as Idea seemed to be.

That night Eric sat at the dinner table with his parents, Able and Leonard. Eric’s mother was a beautiful woman with a sunny disposition that had little to say during dinner, but was always willing to make time for her son throughout the day. She mostly occupied herself writing to and reading letters from her extensive network of noblewomen friends. The Duke, Eric’s father was not a cruel husband, but he had little patience for gossip and his mother knew this and respectfully kept to the background and only became animated in the various social functions she attended. She handled the exact sort of things Eric’s father found tedious with great enthusiasm. That Able and Leonard ate with the family was because Able used the time to relay the day’s reports, and Leonard because as a mage he was an honored part of the household who often shared his vast knowledge on a wide range of topics whenever expert advice was needed.

Eric waited patiently for Able to finish his reports on the productivity of some orchids at the edge of his father’s estate. When Able was done, Eric seized his chance.

“Father, I would like to bring Rex into the house and bring him along with me throughout the day.” He said, thinking this would give Rex more chances to pick up new words. Eric need only point at stuff and give the names, just being outside of the stable would vastly expand Rex’s vocabulary, Eric thought to himself. He was nervous about admitting that he believed Rex was as smart as he'd come to believe, afraid the adults would dismiss it as childish fantasy.

The Duke whose first name was Howard, though few called him by it, was puzzled by his son’s request. He paused to think about it, but the Dutchess reacted first.

“Son, dearest, you can’t bring a dragon into the house, think of the poor maids who will have to pick up after it when it poops. And what if it eats one of the cats? I would hate to see them suffer so,” She said with a shudder.

“No, mom, Karla already has him potty trained, he uses a chamberpot,” Eric explained. “And he’s really well behaved, he wouldn’t eat any cats. We can bring Karla too to help take care of him, just in case,” he added, thinking that Karla might enjoy some time outside the stable too, and generous enough to include her.

“Karla?” The Duke asked Able. He ignored the claim that the dragon could use the chamberpot because he’d picked up on the name and had focused on that.

“The slave girl, sir,” Able said disdainfully. This made the Duke think that what his son had actually meant is that he would bring the slave girl along to clean any accidents into a chamberpot. It was a workable solution, so long as a slave was there to watch the dragon, there would be someone to handle it when Rex failed at his “potty training”.

“Could you handle bathing her and fitting her for a maid’s outfit?” The dutchess asked.

“Of course maam,” Able added politely.

“What do you think dear?” The dutchess asked the duke, deferring to her husband’s decision.

“I’m not convinced,” The duke admitted, “It sounds dangerous.”

The dutchess nodded sagely, she was in agreement. “Well, there you have it Eric, sorry, I’ll see if we can get you a puppy if you’d rather,” she offered.

Eric frowned in frustration, looking at the various adults for a possible ally, but only Leonard seemed mildly interested.

“What about if I take them to Leonard’s afternoon class?” Eric offered, by way of compromise. “Leonard is a powerful mage, he can keep me safe. If Rex misbehaves we can quit, I won’t complain, I promise.”

Eric spent his afternoon getting tutored by Leonard. He generally liked the old mage who had also been his father’s teacher, and Leonard was exactly the type of adult who could be persuaded with a bit of flattery.

“Wouldn’t it interfere with your lessons?” The dutchess asked.

“I wouldn’t want to further burden Leonard,” The duke said thoughtfully, “He already generously gives of his time to teach you,”

“I would study extra hard,” Eric promised earnestly, “If you let me, it would be a reward for me doing all my homework and if I fall behind with my studies you can take the privilege away,” he bargained.

Inwardly the Duke was pleased by his son’s resourcefulness and willingness to negotiate. He wanted to encourage his son to study hard without being harsh, and one more reward to offer or take away for misbehavior was tempting. “Are you willing?” he asked Leonard.

Faced with the scrutiny of three nobles and one steward, Leonard was hard pressed to refuse, though he could have. In truth, the idea of having more opportunity to observe the strange dragon appealed to Leonard who was a curious man by nature.

“The first time Rex poops in my office, he goes back to the stable for good,” he said with an affectionation of a man conceding a great favor. He could see the usefulness of having another lever to get the good natured boy to study harder, though in truth, he felt Eric did well enough, and did not feel the need to give him more work, despite the Duke’s inclinations. A ten year old at Eric’s level was impressive enough.

“Thank you, Leonard,” Eric said gratefully, with a small nod towards the amused mage.