e&tg 32

[rone]

(ugh, now i'm REALLY stuck — time to extrude the words.  avert your eyes.  really.)

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"What, d'zee have something important t'tell yez?"  He barked laughter.

"No.  I mean, yes.  Look, he's bonded to me, well, we're bonded to each oth—"

"Ha!  Rubbish!"  He waved a hand.  "Bonding's an instictive thing with reg'lar animals.  Ain't no such thing as bonding with intelligent beasts.  If he goes'n takes a shine t'yez, that's a conscious decision he's making, no question.  Who told yez he bonded t'yez?"

"Uh, Master Druid N'Jeet, um, Nallim something Jeet."

"Never heard a him!" he yelled.  He turned around and picked up a seedling.

"He's with one of the druid/ranger unions out east, if that helps."

"Oh, one a those master druids."  He walked a few steps away and knelt.  "Always nattering about balance and ecosystems and parts per million a pollutants..."  He shook his head as he finished planting the seedling.

I felt like i had inserted myself in some internecine philosophical argument.  "Umm, yeah.  So."

He turned his head to me and gave me a withering look.  "I han't forgotten what yez asked for, if that's what yer trying t'insinuate with that babbling."  He dusted his hands and got up.  "So yez want t'talk t'yer friend, eh?"

"No, sir, i want to understand him when he talks to me," i repeated patiently.

"I knew that!" he growled.  "Just testing yez."  He motioned at us with his fingers.  "Come this way."

We walked towards the wall of the greenhouse, where there was a small windowed shed.  He opened the double doors so Kohasadi could come in.  Inside it was cool and dry.  "Ohhh, this is nice," i said as he closed the doors.

"Can't have the heat and humidity muck up the paperwork and instruments in here, now, can we."  He rummaged in boxes and drawers filled with odds and ends for a while.  "Ah!"  He pulled out two thin metallic arches.

"What are they?" i asked.

"Beast translators.  The archdruid types lend `em t'novices during their training.  I managed t'hang on t'mine, if yez know what i mean."  He snickered.  "Well, let's just make sure they still work."  He wrapped one around the base of each ear.  "All right, gryphon, so what's this about yez being bonded t'the biggun here?"

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Some of the dialect bits don't quite work for me, or are perhaps inconsistent, but the underlying story seems fine to me.

If you're worried about the how of Mwaele learning to understand gryphon (thus far, the halfling doesn't seem generous enough to want to give his translating gadjets to Mwaele), you can always skim over the details (maybe he doesn't remember them, or doesn't understand the process himself), and go for the bit where the gryphon starts talking comprehensibly. Of course, that opens up a whole new series of problems: what motivates and interests a gryphon, apart from the prospect of tasty horses, or cute gryph-babes (for that matter, is Kohasadi male)?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i kinda felt that way about the dialect, too, but i figured i'd try to roll with it.

I'm not worried about the how of it, that's one detail i've had worked out since the beginning (due to the D&D at the core of the story, of course). The problem i'm having now is the connecting bits from plot milestone to plot milestone. It's interesting that you've already figured out that the druid won't merely give the translators to Mwaele...

I suspect that the gryphon's motivation is going to become an interesting problem for me, and it'll certainly be unavoidable once he starts speaking. But that doesn't worry me, either.

(for that matter, is Kohasadi male)
Yes. (http://ronebofh.livejournal.com/317022.html)