Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Subtle signs indicated my people’s confusion but it was not the same.
“How completely did they integrate themselves into Earth society?”
The professor’s question was not unexpected considering the previous debates, but I didn’t know what side he’d originally fallen on. He had always been very quiet and thoughtful as different options were given.
“Completely.”
His lack of reaction was frustrating after being with the people of Earth for so long.
“I told you. You’re almost a local.”
My mate’s bouncy and mischievous tone said his goal was attention and distraction.
“I think correcting your behavior later is something I need to think about.”
Sending him an image of his own pink bottom had him fighting the urge to laugh. On Earth the other dragons and mages would’ve assumed we had been talking as mates, but here it would confuse everyone.
“That is interesting.”
It was only going to get more interesting…a thought which Wren agreed with completely.
“Oh yeah.”
“I have learned the native language of the people that live closest to the gate, but their world is very fractured and there are countless additional languages on their planet.”
As Wren slowly explained what was going on, I stayed primarily focused on my people.
“The spell works but it takes time for the words to be fully assimilated and it must be done with someone who has a complete knowledge of the local language. Our first choice for the spell did not work out as expected. Her knowledge was very limited due to living in isolation and I was not fully able to follow other locals until I bonded with my mate. At that point the spell or possibly the mate bond worked much better.”
As expected, that made everyone shocked and their eyes even widened, a sight that had Wren laughing in my head as he translated to the others.
“He told them we’re bonded.”
The people of Earth had much stronger visual reactions but my people stayed on what they considered a very important point.
The bond.
“You bonded? With one of our people from Earth?”
Wren seemed pleased that general confusion was the only reaction we were getting. His fears of us not being accepted were turning out to be unfounded so far.
“Yes. It was unexpected but they are able to make strong bonds and did not lose that knowledge. Understand that a lot of other information, both cultural and magical, was not passed down for a variety of reasons.”
I knew he’d come back to that point later, but for the time being he stayed on track.
“I know our people will be glad that they did not lose the ability to bond.”
His words were careful but his eyes kept darting between the humans and I knew he was ready to ask countless questions.
“I and the others are looking forward to getting their language so we can speak to them more easily.”
That brought us to another issue.
“The spell gives a full accounting of the language…including what we would see as…mate-related topics. It has been discussed and they decided that the language should not be given by a spell to someone considered too young to understand the physical aspects of bonding.”
And eyes went wide again.
Hmm.
Some were clearly shocked and others seemed intrigued.
“I think some of your friends here are going to end up being friends with the diner men, Daddy.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the possibility of him being correct.
Chapter 27
Wren
This was so much fun.
“Toman just told them about all the dirty stuff the language spell is going to give everyone.” As they all did their best to either not giggle or not roll their eyes, I kept my voice as quiet as I could. “He’s being careful about it, though, but some of them are really curious.”
That had several people from Earth coughing to try to hide their laughter which just made the fairly blank-looking aliens even more confused.
Had they never seen outside laughter and just had happy feelings on the inside?
I’d always thought Daddy was kind of blank-faced but I’d been wrong. He’d definitely been working really hard to give us facial expressions. Most of the aliens were so blank they were almost like watching Data from Next Generation.
As most of the aliens blinked at Daddy like they weren’t sure they were processing things right, I spoke up and did my best to sound professional.
Or as Daddy said…like Pierce.
“Don’t forget to explain that we have people who can come teach English the slow way to kids who want to learn.” The language spell was just going to give all the fun parts of English way too soon. “I’m pretty sure they’ll understand it better once one of them gets the magic kind of English.”
We were colorful fuckers.
They were not…at least not yet.
We all waited as Daddy spoke up, the native language sounding weird after only knowing Earth languages. A few of us had heard some of the words because some mages used it when they worked magic, but yeah, no one had heard enough to have a conversation in it.