Ben looked at Liza who was still swaying gently in the hammock. He waited for her chuckling to stop before starting the conversation again.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you teach me your language? I’d like to learn how to read and write as well.”

“What do you want that for? Doesn’t your ring cover all your needs?”

“But the ring is the ring, it’s not my own voice. What would I do if it ever stopped working or if I lost it or something? Wouldn’t I be screwed?”

“Hum, makes sense. I’ve taught kids back in Tirin how to read and write, so it should be no problem but… they all knew the language. It’s something everyone knows since they’re little, I’ve no idea how to teach you that.”

“I can help with that, I’m an expert after all. I know five languages and was amidst learning my sixth when I was transported here,” said Ben proudly.

“Wow, that sounds hard. I can speak common and I know a few random words in elvish, but that’s all. I couldn’t begin to imagine how difficult it would be to learn the language of the other races.”

“You just have to study and practice. It’s the answer for learning any skill. As long as you’re willing to teach me, I’m sure I can master the language in six months.”

“I’m willing, but in return you’re responsible for cooking lunch and dinner! And the clean up!”

“Deal!”

A few hours later, Ben went to the kitchen to fulfil his part of the bargain. He searched around for the stocked goods and made a list of his available ingredients.

[Ok, we have meat (thank you Eliot!), wheat, rye, cabbage, carrots, butter, salt and some herbs. Not bad! It’s not great, but at least the food situation is not rock bottom. I can make this work.]

He used the grains to make porridge, fried the meat with butter (after preparing it with salt and herbs), and boiled the cabbage and carrots. All in all, it made for a tasty and nutritious meal. Everyone sat at the table and ate heartily.

“Wow, that was good! You can cook well, I made a good deal!”

“Hahaha, thanks. I guess Eliot and Boro liked it too,” said Ben as he watched the duo licking their plates clean.

When they were done eating, Ben grabbed all the dishes and began cleaning up. He still wasn’t used to this world version of doing the dishes. It only consisted of heating up water and rinsing the wooden plates and the cutlery while scrubbing any food remains off with his fingers.

[I know detergent is too much to ask, but at least give me soap! Come on!]

Done with the “cleaning”, Ben sat back at the table, refilled his cup with more water and cracked his knuckles in anticipation. He was about to learn the most interesting tongue he’d ever come across, a language from another world!

“Ok, let’s start! You said you have no idea how to teach me, but it’s very simple really. Teach me some simple words first. This way I can begin building a vocabulary and getting used to your phonemes,” said Ben.

“Phonemes? What’s that?”

“Huh, how to explain it… in simple terms, phonemes are sounds. Every language uses different sets of sounds, or phonemes, to form all its spoken words. Some phonemes are common and appear in many languages, others not so much. If you start to learn a new language that contains a phoneme you’re not used to, it can lead to some difficulty in your understanding or speaking skills.

That’s why Japanese people can find hard to pronounce words ending with consonants, like the English word stop, or how English speakers can find hard to pronounce open words in Spanish or Portuguese, like agua/água. Therefore, getting used to hearing and training to speak the phonemes is important, otherwise you can end up with a strong accent and finding hard to understand what a native is speaking.”

Finishing his small rant, Ben noticed Liza’s bewildered gaze and Eliot’s tilted head. He understood that most of what he said was lost on them. He coughed embarrassedly and continued.

“Anyways, don’t worry about it. This table we are sitting at, how is it called? Just keep repeating the word. I will remove my ring and listen carefully, then I will try to say it. You can give me a positive sign when you think I got it close enough and we’ll move to a different object.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Ok.”

Liza repeated table, table, table like a broken record and Ben took off his ring and primed his ears. After some time, he was the one saying tablious, tabloou, tablee until he finally managed to say table and Liza gave him a thumbs up. After making sure he’d the word table down, he asked Liza to teach him how to write it. Eliot followed the whole procedure with keen interest and clapped his hands in excitement.

In this way they spent a good portion of the afternoon. Ben would listen to a word over and over, speak it till he got it right, then learn the symbols that made that object into writing. Surprisingly, Eliot and Boro didn’t get bored halfway through (like they usually did with most things), but stayed focused the entire time. The first one to give up was Liza.

“That’s enough for today. If I need to repeat tree one more time I’ll go crazy. We can continue tomorrow.”

“Fair enough. Thank you.”

The days passed peacefully and soon two months had gone by. Ben still had nightmares some nights, but they weren’t as frequent. He was learning in a good pace and could now hold a brief (although meaningless) conversation. The real surprise though came one morning when they were preparing a boar Eliot and Boro had caught.

Ben had his ring off and was cutting chunks of the boar in rhythmic fashion. He was much better in dealing with all the blood now, but his enthusiasm for learning was driving Liza mad.

“Meat, meat. M-E-A-T. Bone, boneo, bone. B-O-N-E. Fur, furo, F-U-R.”

“Argh, this can be so annoying!” exclaimed Liza.

Cleaning the blood from his hands in a bucket of water, Ben slid the ring back to his finger and nodded at Liza.

“Sorry, what did you say? I didn’t catch that,” said Ben’s ethereal voice.

“Oh, nothing, just talking with myself. I was, huh, admiring your learning efforts.”

“Haha, if you want to learn you got to put the hours in!”

Ben happily took out the magical ring and continued repeating some simple words related to his task at hand, much to Liza’s despair. She did her best to zone out all of his noise.

“BoOones, tusky, tuskk, T-U-S-K.”

“Meat.”

“Right, meat, meat, M-E-A-T.”

“I– I like meat,” said a raspy and low voice.

Surprised, Liza dropped the knife in her hand while Ben scrambled to put his ring back on his finger, his eyes open wide in astonishment. Even Boro who was sleeping calmly in the hammock woke up and flew to Eliot’s side in excitement.

Only Eliot kept his head down, absorbed in his work. He kept cutting the creature, his eyes fixed at his assigned part of the job. He opened his mouth again and spoke with difficulty, his voice so low you would miss it if it wasn’t for its crass quality that sounded grating to the ear. To Liza though, there was nothing irritating about it. She was extremely happy to see the silent young man finally talking.

“Meat, meat, meat. I li–ke meat,” said Eliot.

“Eliot! You’re speaking!” exclaimed Liza with glee.

Eliot stopped his work and looked at Liza with his head tilted sideways, like he usually did when he was confused. Liza ignored his reaction and grabbed his arm with enthusiasm.

“Quick, quick. Say my name. Say Liza.”

Silence.

“Come on, say Liza.”

Silence.

“Liza, Liza, Liza, Liza, Liza,” she repeated like she usually did for Ben.

“Li-za, Liza,” replied Eliot.

“Yeah! Hurray! Today I’m making lunch! And it will be special! I’ll go talk to Isadora and get a few more things for us! We’re commemorating!”

She smiled widely at Eliot, patted his shoulders affectionally and went to the village with a skip in her step. The trio watched her go nonplussed. Ben smiled and shook his head.

“She likes you a lot it seems. I’m kind of envious.”

“Like? I like meat. Meat, meat, meat. I like meat.”

Hearing Eliot’s response, Ben laughed boisterously. It was like having a kid around. He thought about taking his ring off again to continue practicing but decided against it. He might miss something Eliot said after so long without talking, that would be a shame.

Eliot kept his “song” going for a bit longer, but his voice kept getting raspier and raspier, until he couldn’t speak anymore. It was clear that those few sentences were already too much for him after such long period of silence.

Ben was not worried though. He knew it was normal for that to happen and that Eliot would need some time for a complete rehabilitation. He went inside and brought back a cup of water, giving it to the young man.

“Drink, your throat should be parched by now, right?”

Eliot drank the water with delight, his throat indeed felt uncomfortably dry. They continued their work on the boar and by the time they were finished Liza was back. She carried a wicker basket filled with different foodstuffs and ingredients.

“You’re finished? Good job. Like usual, bring half to the kitchen and send the other half to the elder. I’ll start cooking right away!”

One hour later, they were all seated at the table and eating the best meal they’d in this past few months¹. There was pie, bread, meat, three types of fruit and five of types vegetables. For any local this lunch would be considered a sumptuous feast. Everyone ate with relish until there was nothing left. They finished the lunch with a toast of wine, like it was traditional for celebrations.

“For Eliot’s first words! Cheers!” exclaimed Liza.

“Cheers!”

Afterwards they fussed over Eliot for some time, trying to keep him talking and get a conversation going. Unfortunately, he only spoke sporadically and without stringing together his thoughts at all. He got tired of it a while later and stopped talking altogether, no matter what the others did. In the end they’d to give up for the time being.

With the celebration over (and everyone feeling bloated from overeating), they lay down to take a nap. Soon the cabin was filled with the sound of quiet breathing and some occasional snoring. Like this, the peaceful times continued.

-

¹ Well, apart from Ben and, in some part, Boro. The feast he received (or stole, in case of Boro) from the Hampshires was in another level.