The Experiment – Chapter 12

“Sak Vallah! That was cool!” Demoriel cried out excitedly as he stood beside Melanee in the elevator, Xaviour on her shoulder. “First you were like, Hah! And then you were like that!” A large smole took over Demoriel's muzzle as he moved his paws around as if simulating a battle sequence. “Yes, I know, I was the one who did it. Now can you please shut up already?” Melanee groaned loudly in return after hearing Demoriel boast for the fiftieth time. One of her paws reached up to pet Xaviour as her other massaged the shoulder that had hit the ground when she rolled. It had hurt.

However, despite Melanee's obvious distaste, Demoriel rambled on about Melanee's battle proudly. The young veelah just rolled her eyes impatiently before recalling what Demoriel had stated previously, her eyes lighting up slightly as she remembered. “Oi! Ya' big goof!” She interjected angrily. Demoriel had paused midsentance to look at her. His mouth was still open slightly and his paws were near each other, as if in the process of discribing something. “You said 'Sak Vallah' before, what does that mean?”

Slowly closing his mouth, Demoriel lowered his arms and looked at Melanee properly. “Sak Vallah...It means Saint Veelah. I will show you her statue in the centre of town sometime.” It seemed as though Demoriel was prepared to say more, but decided against it. This was mainly due to the fact that the elevator had stopped a floor early, and had confused Melanee slightly. However, as an extremely bulky draq female boarded the elevator and made her greetings, it became ovious that the draq was Kahorem, Melanee's literacy teacher. And she was about to have a lesson.

Xaviour was instantly drawn to the female, and jumped from Melanee's furred shoulder to Kahorem's barely clothed one, nuzzling the woman affectionately. It seemed her dragon blood highly interested him. Melanee was surprised at the dragon's movement, but the woman seemed unphased and even pet the strangely affectionate creature.

They all arrived at Melanee's small apartment quite rapidly. Demoriel invited Kahorem indoors, to which she accepted gleefully. Xaviour immediately began to bound around the apartment, as if showing off his “nest” to the draq woman. It was found to be qutie amusing by everyone in the appartment. Demoriel went to make everyone some dinner as Melanee and Kahorem sat down at the dining table.

Kahorem removed a quill and a couple of large books from her bust and placed them on the table. “Are you ready to learn?” She grinned slyly and opened one of the empty books, placing her quill against the page. A few symbols were formed on the page. Beside them Kahorem wrote a few words. “Leshija vente”. After pronouncing them, Kahorem stated their english translation. “Let's begin.”

Another quill and inkpont was passed to Melanee as well as an empty book. She was told to copy what Kahorem wrote, and try to pronounce it. Single word greetings were taught first, before moving on to stringing them together in a short sentence.

“Seetha von deeta, Konde zu Melanee.” Her voice had to hiss out animalistically as she struggled with the accent after three hours of study. “You have to snarl a little more Mel, this is the language of animals!” Kahorem urged wearily, carrassing the base of her muzzle. “You're the worst student I've taught!”

“well I'm sorry, I grew up learning English!” Melanee spat back angrily, she qas quite annoyed with her failure during such a lengthy lesson. She used her new found displeased mood to snarl out the words.”Seethah von Deetah! Don-de zu Melaahnee!” Her voice resonated throughout the dining room, following by a rapping clap. The noise stirred Xaviour from his slumber on the desk, and caused Demoriel to poke his head out from his bedroom, where he was writing up a report to file to the queen.

“Congratulations Melanee! You finally said it right!” Kahorem cheered as she pointed down to Melanee's books. The runes written on her page were a few symbols followed by “Seetha von deta, Konde zu Melanee.” Apparently writing in English characters, yet still the Veelan language. The words following were in full english though, stating “Good day, my name is Melanee.”

Kahorem slowly collected all the materials expect for Melanee's book and slowly rose from the table. “That will be enough for today. Remember to study, I'll be back tomorrow.” Kahorem smiled as she made her way to the door. Xaviour let out a quiet whine and tucked his head under his outstretched wing in dissapointment.

Demoriel let out a quiet growl that somehow sounded friendly. It seemed to be a greeting among draq's, as Kahorem returned the sound before leaving. Melanee let out an exasperated sigh and closed her writing book. “I really sucked today... But I think I finally got the accent right so it should be okay now...” She whimpered slightly. Xaviour just let out a purrish growl in an attempt to comfort her.

When that failed, he raised his head and gestured it towards her bedroom slightly. Melanee sighed heavily again and nodded, raising slowly from her chair. Xaviour slowly unfolded from his curled up state and launched onto her shoulder. With a quick goodnight to Demoriel, Melanee and her dragon brought and end to another day.