I lifted my head, saw a branch which no longer has leaves on it. Several birds are standing there, looking at me.
I threw some bread crumbs forward.
Birds seems to be looking at me with doubts. I was wondering "what kind of face can make the birds feel easier? "But I gave up. I can't read the horse's face, then how would the bird be able to understand my face?
Oh, I could be wrong! Horse doesn't have face muscles to make expression. That is, only humans can make "expression".
Elves can make facial expressions too. Iruril is lying in the blanket, with her arm on her chin, she is making a lazy expression like she woke up just now, looking at me and the bread crumbs. She looked up at the sky. Iruril smiled, then start whistling.
"Hush, hush, hush, hush -"
Soon, a little bird flew down from the branches. The bird began pecking the crumbs, and soon after, all the other birds also flew down and started pecking the crumbs. I held out my legs, using my arms to support the body, and I am watching this scene. In order not to scare the birds, I said in a very low voice:
"Your are good at whistling!"
Iruril looked at the birds, and then looked at me.
"Can you give me some bread?"
I took a bread from the basket. Iruril in the blanket is eating the bread in a recumbent posture.It looks very natural. She can actually eat while lying down! If it's Jamini, she will not be like this. But I also don't feel that it's rude. She is not human, isn't it funny for me to have that feeling? If we say an elf is lying in the woods above the leaves and eating, it sounds normal.
"Oh, it better to sit when you are eating."
Oh, what a Sanson. Iruril turned to Sanson.
"Huh?"
"If you are lying down, hmm, it may not be good for digestion....."
"For most creatures, their posture has no relationship to their digestion ability."
Thus Sanson has nothing to say. He smiled faintly, and then went back to his geography book. And I laughed, continued looking at those birds.
Iruril stood up from her position. She cleaned her hands, began to tidy up her hair. Because her hair is very long, so when she sleeps, of course, it will become a mess. But Iruril is now like a dog who shakes its body, shaking her head left and right, back and forth vigorously. I am totally shocked, and Sanson's jaw is also dropping. All of those birds flew away.
After Iruril finished shaking her head, finally collect her entire hair to the back, forming it with her hand. It looks really simple. Iruril picked up the leather coat beside her, found a comb, then started combing her hair.
"Hmm, I don't usually watch girls combing their hair, but this looks very simple!"
"How do human girls tidy their hair?"
"Well, first they wash it, then comb it, and then let it dry, then bun it up or make a braid ......"
"I want to wash my hair too."
"Anyway, they don't shake their heads like you did, I was a little surprised."
Iruril tilted her head, said:
"Oh, right, human hair usually intertwines, but our hair doesn't, when we shake it can all spread out."
"That must be very convenien."
"Well, is that convenient? Hair like mine is not easy to braid. My hair is too thin and dry, so most elves have disheveled hair like. It looks very strange, doesn't it?"
"No, not at all."
"I always want to try braid or bun hairstyle. But this kind of hair..... Do you want to touch and see?"
Iruril came to me, then grabbed a handful of hair to let me feel it. I gently touched. Iruril asked me:
"Isn't it very thin?"
It feels like a kind of yarn.
"It is really thin. But looks like you have a lot of hair."
"Right, we have so much hair, more than enough to make a bow. The bowstring of my bow is made with my hair. Usually when elves have their hair grow to certain length, they use it to make bowstrings. And they will always bring the bow with them."
At this point, Sanson said:
"Oh can I take a look at your bowstring?"
Iruril immediately took the composite bow out from her luggage and gave it to Sanson. I also got close to see that bow. Sanson holding a bow, bouncing the bowstring several times, and then he made a remarkable face.
"Very good bow. Though it doesn't fix my size, it's still really good."
"Size? Oh, are you referring to length of arms. Do you want compare your arm's length with me?"
Iruril outstretched her arms to the sides, hence her chest is popping out. Sanson ran back back a few steps, and his head hit the tree. He is patting the back of his head and groaning, then Iruril looked surprised and said:
"Why did you run away suddenly?"
Because if two people compare their arms length this way, they will touch each other's chest. It's similiar to a hug. Hey hey, I blushed by just wathcing. Sanson barely calmed down, and then said:
"Ah, um, forget about that. Oh yes, did you say that this bowstring is your hair?"
Iruril kept shaking her head, but then answered the question very cheerfully:
"I wrapped many times before success. You see, it's black right? Other elves also carry a bow with the same color as their hair. So if you see an elf with a bow which has different color from her hair, you know there is a long story behind that bow, or something very important for the elf. "
"Oh, yes, you explained very clearly."
"Huh? ......Alright."
Iruril shook her head again. Sanson seems to hit hard on the tree, he is still talking nonsense. Iruril took the bow back, then she still felt very strange and looked at Sanson, and then walked back to where she put the leather coat. Whenever she walks, I have a feeling that leather pants are really beautiful..... Should I buy one for Jamini? But will that girl look good with leather pants? Iruril picked up the leather coat and put it on, and then began searching in her luggage. Soon, she took out a very very huge book. I will believe if someone tells me it's a shield! Sanson and I are looking at this big book with our admired eyes, Iruril has opened the book, and began turning those huge pages. Because the pages are too big, so Iruril uses her entire palm to turn the book pages.
"Ah, can I have a look?"
"Can you read it?"
Sanson and I approached and started reading this book. Oh, a whole new experience! The white part should be paper, and the black part should be words, right?
Sanson and I looked at each other, and then looked at the book again. On the book there are strange sharps and patterns, there are also many complicated texts, but we don't know what kind of language is that.
"Is this Elvish?"
"This is the language of magic, Rune. In fact, we can't read this language out."
"Huh? We can't read this out?"
Iruril thought for a while, she cleaned the leaves on the ground, let the soil exposed. She took a small stone, and then began to write something on the ground. THM, OEW. What is this?
"Can you read this out?"
I used a surprised face to read them letter by letter. Then Iruril smiled and said:
"I would read like this: Three Human Man, One Elf Woman, '
"Oh!"
Sanson and I nodded.
"But we can read these letters out right?"
"Yes, that's because these letters can be read out originally, so you could read this out as" THM, OEW ", but Runes can't be read out in the beginning. But Rune is like the letters I just wrote, they are meaningful. The explaination seems a bit strange, but that's the best I can illustrate. "
"Oh... So, why the spells those wizards memorizing, they could read those out when they are casting?"
"Those are not runes, those are "Initial". Rune is the language when wizards memorize spells, while "Initial" can be in your own language. When they memorize spells written in Rune, naturally there will be an Initial created. For example I wrote "THM, OEW", and when I cast I read out "Three Human Man, One Elf Woman,". It's similar for magic. "
"Naturally? Then if one can understand runes, he can use magic ......"
It sounds so simple.
"No, not like that. You also have to understand how magic flows."
"How magic flows?"
"Take Aphnaidel as an example. He is a wizard, so he understands runes. But even tough I taught him the means, also wrote down the runes to him, he still can't cast "Summon Follower" immediately. Because he still needs spend some time to study and train on the flow of magic. He will be able to cast the spell only after that. Of course, I could have taught him essentials on the magic flow, it should be easier for him to master the spell. "
I shook my head.
"So..... Wizards teach their disciples, what do they teach taught? I always thought that they would just teach them the spells."
"Teach them the techniques of using magic, the methods to practice the techniques, the runes, then they teach them the spells. That's when they teach the runes required for particular magics. That is like you said 'teach them spells'. But those are not all of learning magic. After teaching the runes, they need to explain the flow of the magic. This is a difficult part. If we take swimming as an analogy, leanring runes for a spell is like entering the water. If you want the magic comes alive, it will be like teaching how one moves his hands and feet in the water in order to swim."
I raised my hands and said.
"Oh, that's so complicated! Sanson, is my head smoking?"
"Yeah, a lot of smoke there!"
Sanson's joke made me laughed. But Iruril turned to a worried face and asked:
"Huh, what does that mean? Why is your head smoking?"
Ah? Do we need to explain?
"Oh, that's just a joke, when water is boiling in a kettle, wouldn't it be smoking? So if our brains are boiling, we say 'our head is smoking' "a. So this is just a metaphor."
"But Huchi, I don't see smoke on your head!"
Sanson and I are speechless and looking at Iruril. We wanted to continue explaining, but when we try to start illustrating, I suddenly feel that using kettle as a metaphor of brain, it's really difficult to explain why people should find this funny.
Why did we joke about this?
Are you not translating this anymore? Really sad if so, this was a really fun story.
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