Private Finished A Dog in the Sand Dunes

He smiled at the quiet Selkiris and offered his hand, "Hello, I'm Ekya."

She had asked if he attended the academy - academy? He saw someone just like her at the Starlight Academy's high school when they gave him the tour. Could it have been her? Just how many plant-people were there?

After she handed him her notepad, he read what was on it. One word puzzled him, "asl? What is asl?" he said more to himself. He had heard many unknown words the few days he has been here, most technology-related, and figured this was another.

He watched with some amusement as Morgana scolded Selkiris. His mind started to piece together a puzzle. She was trying to communicate with Selkiris. But since he had her notepad, how could Selkiris answer? Several answers came to mind, but the most obvious was Selkiris could talk. That is when the final piece fell into place. If so, then she should be able to hear! Because she had written everything, he assumed she was deaf. The ides she was mute never entered his mind, although it should have.

"Um, Morgana, can you hear me?"

Selkiris jumped a little at the sudden kicking of sand in his direction. What did he possibly do wrong? He watched as Morgana did a weird charade but quickly got the picture of what she was trying to say. She wanted him to talk, fine, he would talk. More and more this woman was eerily reminding Selkiris of his own Morgan.

Selkiris quickly crouched down to wipe off all the sudden sand on his robes before standing back up and nodded to Ekya. “Hello Ekya, I am Selkiris. Nice to meet you.” Selkiris shook Ekya’s hand, revealing his own pale, veiny hand in the process. “ASL stands for American Sign Language. It’s typically used by those who are deaf or hard of hearing but is also used by many other people.”

Ekya noticed the pale hand of Selkiris, possibly an undead? With all he had seen here and there, a definite possibility.

Once Selkiris explained what 'asl' meant, although he had no idea what 'American' meant, it did make sense, "Ah, thank you. That does make sense."

He handed back the notepad since she would need it more than he would, "Thank you. As you can see, I can both talk and hear. To answer your question, I really have not been here that long and hope to be entering into the ninth grade - I think. I finished 26 terms in the Subliminal, which I think is two-thirds the way through our ninth grade. " After a long pause and a little blushing, "Um, are you a - plant?"

Selkiris watched as the two seemed to be chatting, and once again decided to pipe in once Ekya asked if Morgana was a plant. “I believe Morgana is a fey, a type of dryad perhaps.” Selkiris knew that it was a little rude to talk about someone else’s species before they even properly said they species themselves but Selkiris just couldn’t help but join in once species were being discussed.

Selkiris glanced over again to Morgana and instinctively started to fiddle with the wedding ring on his hand. Something about her was was too similar to Morgan but he couldn’t place his finger on it.

When Selkiris mentioned, she might be a Fey and possibly a Dryad, he smiled. Although pixies and fairies had a single-gender, most plant types had both. He was not sure about Dryads but suspected Nightshade might be a Dryad or, at least, a Dryad type. He wondered if they had something in common.

Morgana gave him a flower from her own body? He has never been given a gift from any girl. His first impulse was to hug her but decided that it would be too much on a first meeting since this was not a real date.

"Ah, thank you?" He just stood there awkwardly holding the flower.

Looking at the note, he knew the first part was written to Selkiris and suspected the last part was to him.

"I believe a Dryad was a tree spirit. There was one on board the ship I came on, at least, I think it was a Dryad."

He has been noticing subtle glances between them like they might know each other but was not sure. The look on her face changed that. He stepped away from them and turned his back, figuring this was one of those times privacy was in order.

Selkiris nodded a little and pondered what Morgana had said. “I am a little familiar with the fae and these ‘black dogs’ but I don’t know too much about them sadly. Fae are naturally evasive creatures so getting a chance to sit down and study one is rather uncommon. Dryads are nature spirits and often guardians of sorts for places such as groves.”

Selkiris did not seem to react at all when Morgana quickly snatched his wrist, but underneath his cloak he had a face of visible surprise. He wasn’t expecting her to do something so sudden.

He watched as the woman seemed to compare her ring to his own, they were nearly identical. To say this unnerved him would be an understatement but he didn’t say a word or even move. Only when she tried to remove his hood did his other hand shoot up and grab her wrist. “With all due respect Morgana, I prefer my privacy if that’s alright. I only take off my hood when necessary or with good friends. Perhaps if I knew you better I’d show you my face but otherwise I’d ask you don’t try to force my hood to be removed.” He sighed a little, all these ‘coincidences’ were pretty unnerving but he had suffered from such extreme similarities before. He wouldn’t be tricked this time.