Private Finished Beary Nice Day, Innit?

Salal had truly grown to appreciate the forest and nature on this island. It reminded her of her home forest back in Canada, although this place didn't have as many pines that seemed to reach the very clouds. Salal missed her pines. You could almost say Salal was pining for her pines, or at least that was what Tyler would've said and Salal would've laughed out of pity. He had truly loved puns.
Salal sighed quietly from her spot under a rather large oak. She hadn't had time to ask any of the people in charge if they could try and find out what had happened to her friend, and now Salal was stuck wondering if Tyler was okay. He wouldn't have just betrayed his promise to Salal, so something must've happened. Salal simply wished it wasn't anything too bad...

But Salal couldn't do anything about it right now. Right now she could simply try and make the best of her new life. Salal opens her textbook and squints at the symbols on the pages. She is currently learning how to read and to try and catch up Salal always practiced during her free time. Tyler had only taught Salal how to speak and even that she did pretty badly. Her mouth just didn't bend the way humans' did.
"A...A cat...runs..."
Salal slowly repeated from her book, her voice tense from concentration, which in turn worsened her pronunciation. This was going to be a long road...

@GrimRPer

Though Salal has quite the keen hearing he didn't hear the person approaching. She had been that focused on trying to read the sentence "The man is hungry". So when suddenly a voice called out to her Salal flinched slightly and her ears pressed down cautiously. Salal looked up and at the young man. He didn't quite smell human, even though he looked like one. Salal had noticed that many people on this island shared that same attribute. Salal slowly closed her book and gave the man a careful smile, making sure her teeth didn't peek out from under her lips.

"No, I only speak it. Reading is still hard."
Salal answered, struggling slightly to pronounce her Ls and Ss and the Rs in turn were overpronounced. Salal wasn't embarrassed or ashamed of it, she had no control over how her mouth was shaped.
"I am called Salal. Like the berry. What are you doing here?"
Salal's question was direct, but her tone was only patient and curious with no hint of rudeness.

Speech impediments and accents were hardly unusual on the island, Salal had observed that despite only having been here for a short while. But it was still a comforting feeling to know that Yvern had a similar problem with pronunciation as Salal. It made her feel less alone and Salal liked not feeling alone. Yvern sat down by her, pretty close actually, but Salal didn't mind. Yvern didn't smell dangerous but he smelled...like a reptile? That was strange...

Yvern showed Salal his notebook and she leaned over slightly, looking at the contents. She was impressed; Salal knew close to nothing about art and drawing but she could tell that the drawings were good. Salal didn't comment but her face was an open book full of awe.
But one thing Yvern had said caught Salal's attention and she looked at him with curious confusion.
"Planet? Not country? What is a planet?"
Salal wasn't stupid by any means, but her only friend had been Tyler, and although Salal hadn't known it Tyler had had little to no interest towards space and had never explained that there were other planets out there. Salal only knew about the stars and the moon and that was it.

Yvarn's explanation didn't answer many questions and instead brought up more. The earth is a planet? But...earth is just earth. Earth is dirt and rocks and soil, how is it whatever a planet is? Solar system Salal had memories of hearing, Tyler had said that was where they were when he had explained that stars were just balls of fire really far away, floating weightlessly in space. So if Salal pieced together the information she was given a planet was a place...in space. And if earth was a planet, there was earth in space, floating weightlessly like stars and going around other suns. All that was...very surreal, so much so that Salal's head hurt. Just knowing that beyond the sea there were hundreds of other countries alone made her feel small and amazed, but in space too? Oh dear, Salal was feeling a bit overwhelmed...

Salal, though she was in her thoughts, didn't miss Yvarn mentioning something about how he really looked like. Salal was offered a distraction from her expanding thoughts when suddenly Yvarn turned into a...giant lizard. Salal's eyes widened a bit, she hadn't seen another person who was a humanoid animal like herself. So although Yvarn's sudden transformation had taken Salal by surprise she very quickly became happy.
"You're like me! Did you find a magic amulet too?"
But right after asking Salal realized that that most probably wasn't the case. Yvarn had looked human and turned lizard out of his own volition. So he wasn't like Salal, not really. She didn't take the question back, but Salal's posture and expression slumped slightly.

((I'm so sorry I wrote Yvarn's name as Yvern XD))

Salal had been right, Yvarn wasn't like her. Well, if you thought about it it was impossible for anyone to be like her because Salal's amulet was probably one of a kind on the island. At least the people who had brought her here had said that there weren't amulets like that here. Salal was an anomaly among anomalies. Suppose that meant that it didn't matter if no one was like Salal because everyone was unlike anyone on this island. That was comforting, in a way.

Yvarn's words were a bit difficult to understand, but it boiled down to him being able to transform into many different things. Or so Salal interpreted it.
"You are right. You're a nice person even when your outside changes."
Salal commented on Yvarn's words about some things never changing. Yvarn had changed his look but inside he acted the same. And he was still wearing the same fun shirt.
"So...this is your true form?"
Salal asked after a short moment of silence. She couldn't even imagine what it would feel like to be able to transform into many different forms. Just transforming into her current form had been a painful and jarring experience.