The passing of the Wild Hunt takes some time to recover from. Zildjian feeds the new arrivals some of her “chili” which is anything but. Larrikan has already encountered it and knows better than to eat any. The strangers – including the beautiful vixen – seem to like it. So does the piglet, but they eat anything.
Food calms things, and the students begin to ask about the visitors again. Blue and the other artist really want to get a closer look at the foreigners. Larrikan notices the vixen he has so carefully gotten close to has gone quiet, and is letting the others bear the brunt of the exuberant curiosity. Clearly, she is just fine with letting the others be examined, while she stays here. Larrikan approves of this plan, although he’d like to look at her, too.
Larrikan sits quietly, hiding in plain sight, rubbing his new friend’s ear, and melting her into a happy vixen shaped puddle.
Eventually the students take the other three visitors off, apparently for a bath, and then to be drawn and questioned.
Zildjian pauses long enough to murmur, “You be good, fox.”
Larrikan smiles and replies, “Always.”
When the hubbub dies down, the vixen opens her eyes and smiles at Larrikan. She speaks, but the words make no sense.
Larrikan just smiles at her.
She wakes up the dozing piglet, puts him gently on the floor, then stands and stretches. When she yawns, Larrikan can see she has similar teeth to his own, at least in the front. The ones further back may differ, but he only got a glance.
The done, she turns to face him and bows from the waist, holding the bow for a long moment. When she straightens, she points at herself with both hands and says clearly, “Sakura Murasaki.”
When she points at him and says, “Larrikan of the Swift Folk.” he beams at her, and nods. He points at himself and says his name. She repeats it, carefully. When she points at herself and pauses, he replies, “Sakura Murasaki.”
She corrects him, gently, letting him say her name until he has it right.
Sakura then goes around the inn, pointing to or picking up common items, and looking at Larrikan. He names them, and she repeats the words, waving at him to repeat himself.
Over the next hour, she picks up or points at a lot of common items. When she picks up the same kind of item, she will repeat the word first. She was almost always right.
A breakthrough was her picking up a mug and saying, “plate.”
Larrikan says, “No, mug.” and she pounced on the word “no”. It took a lot of confusing objects and hand waving to be sure she had “no”. Yes was next, and easier because she could say “no-no” to convey something.
Larrikan is delighted to help Sakura learn words. He shows her common stuff in the room, introduces her to Aykuh and Hotspur, and makes her laugh by juggling three empty mugs.
Eventually she has enough words for the moment, and sigs down again, primly. She glances timidly at Larrikan, and smiles a little at him, and gestures towards herself.
Larrikan moves over to her and puts his arm around her again. When she leans into him, he smiles, and starts gently stroking her ears again. She smiles.