Partner

I started this night, got about halfway through and felt exhausted (despite the early hour) so it was set aside. Obviously not quite better. Which makes me sigh. But it still turned out highly amusing.

The teacher is trying to be understanding, but being a people, she's rankled by the idea that she has to butcher her own language for the sake of the Sidhe. But direct translations are the best way to learn about culture.

Considering Partners chapters all have one word chapter titles... I wonder how fast I'll run out of possible titles? Probably pretty fast. I try to pick a word that reflects what the chapter has in it. Not always effective. Ah. Well.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




“Now. We will start with something simple. Introduce yourself to your partner in the proper manner. Hello, my name is, my rank is.” The teacher was an older woman, a kindly woman, who turned from kind and gentle to vicious if someone disobeyed.

As the partners had found out when Koln had walked in late. Because Essuan was having some woman issue, he said. Koln had received the brunt of it. And then received a blistering lecture about making a pregnant woman stand for so long.

Mik turned to Paw and said, “Hello, my name is Mik, private second class of …” he managed to dodge giving his last name by turning to Koln and saying, “Uhm. What exactly is our… group called?”

Koln frowned, “you give your training group’s rank.”

“They disowned me.”

“Right. Then you say of no brigade.”

“Damn it,” Mik muttered, “private second class of no brigade.”

Paw hesitated just a moment before saying, “Te Paw wehnsio itamadoo-” and a bunch of chatter that Mik didn’t follow.

“Good,” the teacher walked up to them, “now, if we look at the Sidhe as a whole, they all said ‘te’ and then their name, therefore, te means…” she pointed at Mik.

“This one.”

“No. It means ‘I am,’ silly goose.”

“By their own grammatical structure, the way they speak out language, the grammar they apply to our language, then I can only assume that the Sidhe have no word for ‘I,’ ‘he,’ or ‘she’ they have no pronouns. Woman or man, Paw and Mik,” Mik shook his head, “to try to give their language our own words without first understanding the Sidhe themselves. We know that other languages have more or fewer words for colour or for snow. Then why is it hard for us to wrap our heads around the fact that there are no pronouns.”

“It,” Paw murmured, “Sidhe use word it. Like… that shirt, Paw like it.”

“What does it matter what we call it in our language? It’s the Sidhe equivalent of ‘I am,’” Koln muttered, “yes, it is improper to state, but it makes it so that the others can understand it better.”

And a look that clearly stated that Mik was either about to put his foot in his mouth or reveal something he probably didn’t want to reveal.

“This one is unhappy. This one exists. This one becomes very ill.”

“This one never has bad dreams,” Paw added, “if’n Sidhe say that people say this one, Sidhe and people never be separated from one ‘nother and. THIS ABOUT COMMUNICATION SO CRAZY LADY DO PROPER. Or’n Paw and such ons speak like badly things that’n no people of mind saneful know rightness of.”

The woman blinked at Paw, she folded her arms and gave a quick, hard nod, “obviously we are here for communication purposes, so whatever are we thinking, telling you what your language means?”

Paw leaned towards the woman. The other Sidhe did as well, all watching her, as if they expected her to turn into a monster at any moment and eat them all. Around the room the partners, Mari and a few of the nurses who had joined their class looked highly uncomfortable.

“Wait,” Mik broke the silence just to keep the Sidhe from going down the path they were on, “does that mean I’m insane?”

“What?” the teacher asked, eyes narrowing as she pinned Mik with a look, thinking he was being funny.

“If you are,” Taln muttered, “so am I. Though not much understanding the ‘or’n’ didn’t quite work. Sounded more like one of those words they ‘destroy’ and then throw in there when they get frustrated or upset with us.”

Mik looked at Paw, wondering if Taln was crossing the line. The male gave a small nod of his head and then turned to look at Lillow. Lillow shrugged, crossed her arms and scowled at Paw. Paw turned back to the teacher and looked as if Lillow was trying his patience.

“Is fine.”

“Now that we’ve gotten introductions out of the way, I want you all to look at your partner and tell them what you are interested in. Sidhe, I want you to do this in our language, if you can speak it.”

“I like…” Mik kind of stumbled there. It had been nine months since he had tried anything that he liked doing. Give or take a couple of weeks, so he did the only thing he really could do, “carving and coming home to Paw. And eating the food Paw makes for Mik. Me. Makes for me.”

“Paw like paint and bead and cook and dance and music and books and Illuva and fishing and hunting and berries and trees and gardening an pets and animals and sky and stars and biological mechanisms and sea and water and fish and art and history and sex.”

The other pairs had listed one or two things, so a good deal of the room heard Paw’s last interest.

“Well…” the teacher murmured, “I never specified that you should only share one or two of your interests. Very good Paw.

“Show off,” Someone muttered.

Mik reached out and grabbed the someone by the hair and yanked them close, “you disrupt the class again with snotty comments and I’ll beat your face in with your chair, understand?”

The man nodded and Mik held him for a moment longer as he had seen Souse do to riled Sidhe who had just overstepped their bounds. When he was certain the man got the message, Mik let him go and turned back to the teacher as if nothing had happened. She arched an eyebrow at him and took a quick survey of the room.

“Now. We are going to pair off the pairs and add one of those without a Sidhe. So. You and you, pair with your Sidhes and-”

“Whoa,” Koln interrupted, “Sidhe. There’s only the one word. Saying Sidhes is like saying fishes or mooses.”

“Your Sidhe, then, and,” the teacher looked at those sitting against the wall and pointed at a random nurse, “you.”

So they were all paired off. Mik got the man he had threatened and Mari. Like it was some kind of sick joke. The groups adjusted the furniture and sat on the floor and the Sidhe immediately began chatting to one another.

Most of the people remained silent. Not the moron partner Mik got.

“He attacked me. You saw it. Violent brute this one is. Should be dealt with properly.”

Mari rolled her eyes. When the man wasn’t looking, of course, but she still rolled her actual eyes.

“…so do I have to fill out paperwork to see disciplinary action?” the partner asked.

“Do I have to fill out paperwork to see disciplinary action on this man for being snotty and not being part of the group, for singling out me, yet again, as the target of his taunts as he likely has Paw in the past?”

“Verbal abuse is taken seriously in the military,” Mari murmured, “I do not know if you need to fill out paperwork, or if we would even take action against the man, considering the fact that you took the initiative and dealt with it yourself.”

The other man looked startled.

“Now. What we’re going to do is something that you may have done in a preschool class,” the teacher handed a ball to one of the Sidhe in each of the groups, “say the first thing that comes to your mind and then pass the ball to someone, they in turn, say the first thing that’s on their minds and so around and around the ball goes.”

“I never did that in school,” Mik and Mari muttered as one.

Paw had the ball. Their ball red with dibbles on the sides. Like… dodge ball balls, only smaller than their heads, just large enough for Mik to hold in two hands. The Sidhe turned the ball over and over and bounced it between his hands, obviously delighted at the sound it was making as it hit his hands.

“Paw,” Mik murmured, “say a word and pass the ball before she comes over here and notices.”

“Popsicle!” Paw flicked the ball at the other partner.

The ball struck the man on the head and bounced away, catching Souse in the back. The larger male turned, plucked the ball up and gently tossed it back to Mik. The partner, across the little circle from Mik, glared first at Paw, then at Mik.

“He did that on purpose.”

“No way to prove it,” Mik muttered, “but. I doubt he did. He’s excited.”

“Mik say word and pass ball.” Paw murmured.

Or Paw had done it on purpose, knowing that the ball would come to Mik and knowing that the first word on Mik’s mind was… the man stumbled over the idea of saying that out loud and said “stick.” instead and passed the ball to the other partner’s Sidhe.

And so their first class went.


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