LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 36, Day 61 – 70: Cultures
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 61,
I am making progress in learning Draconic, though it is very difficult. The sentence structure is similar to English in some cases, but completely different in most others. For example, the sentence “I do not know” in Draconic would be said using the words «I-not-know», which is quite familiar, but something like “Where are you going?” translated literally would be «You go where?».
There’s also certain ‘filler’ words like ‘to’, but they are used in other circumstances. An example would be a word that sounds like ‘tuh’, which is used when mentioning possessions. Example: Saying, “This is my food” would be something like, «This-is-I-tuh-food».
Even more confusingly, there are no tenses in Draconic, or at least not really. The sentence structure changes, and different words are used instead. There’s one word that is appended onto the end of a sentence to denote past tense (which sounds like ‘guh’), but there’s no such equivalent for the future tense. To denote the future, certain words are used to mean ‘I want to do X’ or ‘I will do X’, but the words meaning ‘will’ and ‘can’ sound almost the same to me, which further complicates things.
I was always bothered by people who held the “I’m too old to learn,” type of mentality, but I can’t help but think that this would be easier if I were a younger man.
Whenever I get tired of learning Draconic I read out common words from a dictionary to Fathom, that way we cover a lot of the rarer words. I’m skipping some words that would be better explained at a later time, and he already knows most of the common words, so it shouldn’t take more than five to ten days to cover the rest.
In terms of medical progress, Fathom went down to the beach today with significantly less difficulty than before. I’m glad he is recovering pretty quickly, though as he gets better he also gets increasingly more annoyed by the chain on his wing. His wing doesn’t ache when I palpate it, so I think I’ll have to take it off tomorrow.
I’ve also created many sucrose-fructose solutions for the penicillium mold to ‘infect’. The fermentation process will take a long time, but it is hardly complicated. I’ll begin extracting the penicillin on day 71, 240 hours from now.
[Day 62]
“...Okay, I promise,” Fathom grumbled reluctantly.
Pryce had spent a long five minutes explaining to Fathom that the wing-bone would not be at full strength yet, and that if he tried flying right now it could immediately break again. Fathom was unwilling to make a forever-promise that he would not ever fly again unless given permission, so Pryce had to add in the condition that he could fly if given permission or if 30 days had passed, whichever happened first.
It didn’t take long to remove the chain and stitches, and the rods fell away easily without support. Pryce examined the wing closely for any oddities, but it seemed to be fairly straight with only a moderately visible scar where the initial wound and surgical opening had been.
Immediately after Pryce let go of the wing Fathom wrapped it around himself so that he could scratch various areas with the backside of a knuckle, rumbling loudly in satisfaction as he did so. A minute later he extended the wing back and forth experimentally.
“Start slow, and stop moving if it starts to hurt,” Pryce cautioned.
“This…feels good,” Fathom said, eyes wide and sounding more disbelieving than happy. “This feels better than…before I got hurt,” the dragon said quietly, his voice tinged with wonder. “It almost feels like my wing before I broke it the first time,” he added absently as he tested his range of motion with a wide sweep, lightly buffeting Pryce.
“You can try to flap your wing harder until it starts to hurt,” Pryce advised.
Fathom stepped away from Pryce to safely extend his other wing, and began flapping them both with incrementally greater force. He stopped after the third flap which kicked up a swirl of dust. “My wing hurts a little bit, I will try again tomorrow,” he said, folding both wings against his back.
“Good, does your wing hurt very much?”
“No, it only hurt a little bit, and it does not hurt now,” Fathom said, emulating a human gesture by shaking his head, though it looked odd when performed by a dragon. He paused for a moment, then surprised Pryce by nudging him appreciatively. “Thank you,” Fathom said sincerely. “When I am healed, I think I can fly better than before.”
“Oh, you’re welcome,” Pryce said, looking up at the dragon who excitedly lashed his tail-tip in anticipation of the day he would be healed. “Did you fly much better before you broke your wing the first time?” The malunion seemed relatively minor to him, but perhaps it had a significant effect on his flight.
“Yes, I could fly better,” Fathom confirmed with a bob of his head. “Only a bit better, but a bit is very important in a fight, and it felt…wrong, not good like it was before. Maybe it is like if you need to run when your leg cannot bend very well,” he added speculatively.
“That makes sense,” Pryce nodded in understanding. The condition was minor, but it kept Fathom from being his best, like a slight limp.
“Do you…want to learn more Draconic?” Fathom asked, only hesitating a little to offer the lessons that he had so little patience for.
“Yes, let’s get started,” Pryce smiled.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 62,
Fathom’s wing is healing well, and he was able to flap his wings with a significant amount of force before the ache in his bones stopped him. After that he asked if I wanted Draconic lessons, which marks the first time he’s ever offered that.
Fathom believes he will be able to fly better than before once he finishes healing. I suspected as much, though I didn't want to raise his expectations in case something went wrong in the healing process.
I realized something today. Humans also use “I see/I can see that” to convey understanding, even for things that aren’t actually visible. We don’t think about it much, but we say that for things that can’t be seen because our sight is our most effective sense. Expressions involving other senses do exist, of course, but they are much less common.
I bring this up because dragons have similar expressions, but their very language describes things in a perspective different from humans. For example, there’s only one word for ‘smell’ and ‘taste’, probably because dragons use their tongues to do both.
If something is bad, it can ‘smell/taste bad’ or ‘sound bad’, even if the subject in question makes no noise and has no odor. One Draconic expression literally means ‘I can [sense] that happening’, where [sense] can be anything like smell/taste/hear/see, while in English we just have ‘I can see that happening’
Here’s another: one Draconic expression translates to “I saw it coming,” but it literally means something like “I hear(d) it coming early.”
[Day 63]
“What are you eating?” Fathom asked later that day, looking up from his now-empty cauldron of soup at the hardtack Pryce held in his hands.
“This is hardtack, it doesn’t taste very good, so I don’t think you will like them,” Pryce said, dipping the bread into the soup so that it would soften.
“I want some,” Fathom requested, not dissuaded at all.
“You’re supposed to eat them with soup, because-” Pryce said, then remembered that Fathom could chew through bones. “Nevermind, here, try one,” he said as he tossed a piece of bread at the dragon, who snatched it out of the air with his jaws.
Fathom crunched loudly on the relatively small piece of bread, and for a few moments he looked as though he wasn’t sure if he liked it. “This does not taste good,” he said eventually, “but this does not taste bad, and the…hardsoft is good, I think.”
“Hardsoft is texture,” Pryce chuckled, amused.
“Can I eat more?”
“Yes, as much as you want,” Pryce said emphatically.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 63,
Nothing much happened today, but Fathom is certainly happy at having regained use of his wing; he’s been waving it around just because he can, and I later noticed that he slept curled in the opposite direction to tuck his head under his healing wing.
He’s also begun to sunbathe with both wings extended in order to catch more sunlight. Interestingly the color of his wings slowly darkened as they were exposed to sunlight, presumably to absorb more heat.
Apparently it’s a rather pleasant thing for dragons to do, like napping. I’d asked him why he didn’t do that earlier, and he said it’s uncomfortable to extend only one wing. Fair enough.
Fathom’s attempt to exercise his wings went a little better than yesterday. I encouraged him to use more flaps rather than powerful ones to rebuild his muscles, so he spent some time today 'flying' on the ground in place awkwardly before getting bored and asking me if gliding down to the beach counted as flying. I’m very glad he bothered to consult with me first, though it was clear he regretted asking for clarification the moment I told him that it was a type of flying, and that he could try gliding in three days, just to be safe.
It’s kind of hilarious in a mundane way, just how much an apex predator weighing in at over 4,000 kilograms can sulk.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 64,
Fathom was able to generate a much stronger gust of wind today than he could a mere two days ago. He seems to have regained some of his lost muscle mass, though his hide is still loose here and there. He certainly doesn’t need any encouragement to eat anymore food; we’re rapidly running through the ship’s supplies as it is. It’s a good thing we packed a lot of non-perishables, though Fathom expressed discontentment at the fact that humans use precious iron to make canned food.
Later in the day he taught me about Draconic numbers, and they’re surprisingly very well structured. One-through-ten are unique sounds, of course, but ‘eleven’ is ‘ten-one’, ‘twelve’ is ‘ten-two’, and the rest of the numbers follow this sensible format. Larger numbers like ‘One-hundred-and-twelve’ would be ‘One-hundred-one-ten-two’.
I wonder if this makes it easier for hatchlings to learn math?
The penicillium colonies are doing their job well and thoroughly infecting the vessels I placed them in. There’s really not much to report on that front, it’s literally one step away from watching grass grow.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 65,
Learned more Draconic, and Fathom spent more time essentially doing physical therapy.
I’ve been making more progress with my lessons, sometimes Fathom will even throw an entire Draconic sentence at me. It is rare that I can correctly guess the translation, but on occasion I am able to comprehend what he’s saying. Admittedly I only understand one or two key words and guess the rest using context, but progress is progress.
Fathom was able to kick up a sizable dust storm with his wings today. He seemed quite satisfied with that, though he was disappointed again when I denied his request to try gliding one day earlier. If he were a human I would force him to wait for far longer – clean breaks usually mend in one to two months, and regaining full strength can take as many as five – he's already able to use his wing quite a bit despite the fact it's only been 25 days, so he's clearly healing much faster than a human. I felt bad about rejecting his request for permission, but I will stand by my decision to have him wait until tomorrow.
Gliding will be a good exercise for him, in both the mental and physical sense. Save for pulling up from a dive, the most strenuous part of flying is the process of taking off; but that strain will be greatly lessened if all he does is glide. Put simply, this form of exercise should aid in his recovery while being relatively safe.
Fingers crossed.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 66,
Today I asked Fathom to glide a short distance first, just in case something went wrong. He obliged begrudgingly, and climbed up to some higher ground and gained a running start in order to glide a few of his body lengths.
When this didn’t strain him much he tried gliding longer distances, and then slow turns in wide arcs. A few more of these tests later I gave him permission to glide down to the beach, which he did without issue aside from a slightly ungraceful landing that strained his legs a little, though no harm was done.
Fathom has been overjoyed at being able to ‘fly’ again, even if it’s really just gliding. Even so, it's good to see proof of his recovery, and his enthusiasm is contagious.
I've seen it before he was injured, of course, but dragons are so large that watching one take flight feels almost magical.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 67,
Fathom was a bit sore from yesterday’s exertions, but he was eager to glide down the mountain, climb back up, and glide down again to build up his strength. He also ate more now that he’s exerting himself like this, but I’m quite sure he will be able to hunt again before food is an issue.
We talked about his liquid flame today, and I decided to refer to the organ that spews fire (located on the interior of the lower jaw) as ‘liquid fire gland’, and the organ that stores the liquid ‘liquid fire sacs’. The liquid fire gland is distinct from the gland that expels hydrogen (which I’m calling the gas fire gland), so they need to be distinguished.
I’ll hold off on giving them specific names until I learn more about the structure of a dragon’s internal organs…though I’m not looking forward to that; I can’t imagine dissecting a dragon can mean anything good has happened. I realize that I had taken the knowledge of our own biology for granted; it must not have been easy to research.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 68,
I’m starting to have a general grasp on the most common nouns in Draconic, and Fathom is slowly expanding the vocabulary that we use day by day. He seems to have gotten over most of his dislike of teaching now that I’ve actually made some progress, and he does seem to enjoy being the one to explain things for a change.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but he’s much more nimble now, and he can climb his way up and down the mountain without much difficulty – though he almost exclusively glides down these days. He says his injuries still ache, but they don’t hinder him much anymore.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 69,
Nothing much happened today, Fathom spent most of the day resting his sore wings and teaching me Draconic.
My grasp of the language has improved incrementally these past few days, and I now know enough to be certain that with enough time, experience, and context, I would be able to understand most of their speech. Only dragons can teach Draconic – for obvious reasons – so it will be a slow process to get other humans fluent in comprehension, but it won’t be impossible.
I imagine that Celeste will learn English much more quickly than Fathom, as Fathom himself can help teach her which will surely be more effective than me using pantomime and point-and-name.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 70,
Fathom asked me if he could start flying now that he’s been gliding for four days, and I allowed it on the condition that he spends at most a minute up in the sky for the first attempt.
It went well, and he was able to gain a considerable amount of altitude in a short amount of time. Upon descending he reported that his wing bone was a bit sore, but it didn’t hurt very much. I managed to convince him to refrain from flying for tomorrow at least, he can try it again on Day 72.
His bodily condition continues to improve, though his blue color is still slowly fading. Right now his hide is the color of a dull blue sky, and I imagine it will take him some time to regain that color he once had.
The penicillium colonies are doing great, harvesting begins tomorrow.