Making Friends

Suddenly, Naka sounded displeased. Bewildered, Tien turned around, her expression resembling a puppy's after it had been told off for no apparent reason. She was too showing respect! She hadn't said anything bad. Swinging her gaze around to Sorcha as she spoke, the fairy watched her solemnly, clearly unhappy at being reproached for something she didn't understand. She looked from the letters to the redhead as she finished speaking, and her wings visibly drooped with sadness. "I know that word," she said, and her voice wasn't as brash as usual. "I just didn't know it looked like that."

Turning away, Tien hunkered down, running a hand over the letters; F... R... I... She knew each one of them, but the way they were assembled was silly. Quietly, she tried to sound out each letter, getting stuck on the I and E every time. She knew how to pronounce them, but they didn't belong in the word. It was pronounced frend, and the I made it into something silly. Suspiciously, she twitched a wing and looked over her shoulder, as though Naka and Sorcha might be playing a prank on her. "You're sure this is a real word?"

Naka would have smacked himself on the forehead but he stopped himself.
"Yes yosei, i'm sure it is an actual word. the retters "I" and "E" together make a short "E" sound." He explained.
"There are many ranguages arr over the worrd, this is just one of them. You must approach things with an open mind." His words were true and he sensed Tien was wise enough to at least listen to reason. Surely she could remember a time when she didn't know exactly how to survive in the wilderness and needed to learn.

Naka sounded reasonable, as he often did, and the fairy looked mistrustfully at the word. It didn't make much sense, but what else had she expected? One of the first words she and every English-speaking human learned was xylophone. Tien had never seen - and probably would never see - a xylophone in her life, but she could draw one, and pronounce it, and with a little help, she might even be able to spell it. Maybe all words with this needlessly difficult, using strange unnecessary letters. Tien wanted to know what it was her friends were reading all the time, but this was an especially tall order.

She had decided that the redhead was kind, and not humble just to make her feel better, when Sorcha stood and completely changed. After she spoke, the fairy stared up at her blankly for a few seconds, before her violet eyes filled with tears. Gasping, she took to the air and flew quickly to Naka's shoulder, putting him in the middle as a sort of buffer zone. "I made her angry," Tien whispered, trying not to start crying. "I didn't mean to, Naka, I promise! Will she be happy again if I go away?"

Naka grabbed Tien by the back of her shirt and set her back down on the table.
"You have nothing to fear. Sorcha is a kind woman. Be nice to her and she wirr be nice to you." He explained to the poor crying fairy. His own violet eyes fell upon Sorcha and he sought the cause of her vexation. Given he had already pinned down it was probably the fact that she had put herself out and been turned down and then made to feel as though it was she that was being helped. He was not glaring though, not even remotely. His was a gaze of pride for putting herself out there.
"Thank you for offering to help her. If anyone can do it, I know it will be you." He said to her in a gentle voice, but in Japanese.

She wanted to believe Naka, because this was his friend and he couldn't possibly be friends with someone unpleasant. But the two humans spoke in a funny language to each other, and although the fairy hadn't a clue what they were saying, she was good at judging tones of voice. Sorcha wasn't happy at all. Maybe she was nice, but Tien didn't know how to be any nicer than she was being. Wiping her eyes, she wrapped her arms around herself and looked up tremulously as the redhead spoke. Truthfully, she didn't understand what she had done wrong, or why the girl wasn't sure they could be friends anymore. Her wings drooped and she stared at the book for a moment.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice quiet, and she wiped her face. "I'm very sorry."

Taking to the air, she gave Naka a small, sad wave and flew out of the cavernous room, wanting to go and sit in the forest for a while. Tien never did anything wrong in the forest.