Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

Quugaarpak (Male).

I don't even know how to pronounce that, let alone what it means, Adon thought.

Samson, do you know what a Quugaarpak is? Adon asked.

No, his brother replied.

Goldie? William? Adon transmitted.

No idea, Goldie sent.

"I have no idea," William said. "Nor have I ever seen anything that looks or smells like these monstrosities."

That last part seems unnecessary, especially considering that we do not know if they understand us yet, Adon thought.

Trying to come at the problem with insight into the specific species wasn't going to work, then. He would simply have to apply his charm, such as it was. Adon hoped the Quugaarpak wouldn't decide to simply eat the group after a conversation with Adon. In addition to killing him and his friends, the feeling of rejection as he died would be palpable.

Here goes nothing…

Adon fluttered forward to the front of his group, opened a telepathic channel with the nearest Quugaarpak, and began communicating.

Hello Quugaarpak, Adon sent. We come in peace.

Please have language, please have language, please have language… he thought to himself desperately.

The creature opened its mouth and responded with what Adon could tell was a carefully chosen arrangement of words. Unfortunately, it was incomprehensible.

"Vlard a smargle gorgamor," the monster said in what Adon read as a friendly tone. It moved its mouth quickly and fluently, as if it regularly spoke, despite having the physical shape of a giant beast that Adon would have imagined to be less than intelligent. A good reminder not to judge by appearances. The Quugaarpak's breath rolled toward Adon along with the words, and he could not help noticing that it smelled strongly. The odor was reminiscent of rotting vegetation.

"It has its own language?" William said in a tone of slight disbelief. Then he coughed.

That Goddess-damned odor! William thought indignantly.

They seem to, yes, Adon replied.

He kept most of his attention on the Quugaarpak, though.

Adon had experience of attempting to communicate with Red back when the spider was alive. Red had possessed no language at all. Since Adon had already done his experiments into teaching Claustrian to Red, albeit unsuccessfully, he felt well prepared for a quick crash course. At least these creatures were definitely capable of language.

He sent an image of himself and the word, "Adon."

Then he quickly sent additional reference words.

"Ant," "Quugaarpak," "humans," and a number of others, followed by some more complex ideas accompanied by images. Adon went through "friend," "enemy," "fight," "help," "food," and a number of other terms using the words themselves accompanied by an audiovisual cue to indicate what Adon was talking about.

Humans, Adon, Quugaarpak, friends, Adon sent after many preparatory messages, trying to lock in the impression he wanted the monsters to come away with.

"Adon, Quugaarpak?" the monster asked.

"What is this fellow asking?" William said.

He wants to know if Adon is a monster too, Samson replied. Adon, remind me, are mystic beasts monsters?

As far as this Quugaarpak is concerned, we are, Adon shot back instantly. Even though I don't think it's the case from what Rosslyn has told me.

He refocused on the Quugaarpak.

Adon like Quugaarpak, he sent.

Then he spent several minutes trying to give the creature an understanding of words such as "like," "the," other prepositions, and pronouns.

The Quugaarpak fortunately proved a quick study.

"Adon, like us," it said with satisfaction.

Yes! Adon sent in a tone of triumph. The Quugaarpak had not only understood the idea that Adon wanted to convey in response to its question, but it had also learned how to use basic Claustrian pronouns!

The other monsters pressed forward suddenly, gathering around the lead Quugaarpak and beginning to mutter back and forth with it in that unfamiliar language they had, and Adon sensed William reacting behind him, the young lord's hands sliding toward his weapons.

If they take another step closer… William thought.

Please relax, Adon transmitted to William only. If I can tell you're on edge, the monsters can tell too. We're doing all right. They've made no aggressive movements, and I don't think these things are hostile at all.

"You have no way of knowing that for certain," William replied in a harsh whisper. His voice sounded shaky, to the point that Adon wondered how William was doing physically. But the young lord stood still and steady for the moment at least.

Adon could not tell William that he did, in fact, know what he was talking about. At least not without admitting how deep the mind-reading powers he possessed went.

The butterfly briefly wondered if that might not be the wisest course, in this fraught situation. Unlike the relatively simple minds of the monsters he was spending most of his mental bandwidth monitoring, the Duke's son had a fairly complex and subtle brain. He was capable of hiding deep thoughts and feelings, and Adon would only know what was going on under the surface if he really focused in on William.

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Adon had been lucky enough to intercept a loud, aggressive thought from William just now, but that did not mean he would be so lucky in the future. The young lord could attack the monsters without Adon having much warning, just because, with his warrior training, William would keep his mind and body relatively calm until he needed to act.

But Adon at least did not sense any immediate intent to start a fight. William was trusting him.

Ultimately, the idea of giving anyone outside of his circle of trust any additional insight into how Adon's Telepathy worked seemed like too big of a risk to take for what were ultimately fairly speculative reasons. Maybe William would do something rash because he distrusted Adon's assessment. Probably not.

Then he heard the voice of the Quugaarpak again, and Adon focused his attention back on the monsters almost completely.

"The humans, like us?" it wanted to know.

Humans friends, Adon replied with no hesitation. Humans and Adon, Quugaarpak friends.

I am glad this is working for you, where it did not with Red, Goldie sent quietly, to Adon only. But I think I should mention that this air is having a bad effect on William. He is hiding it from you for the good of our mission, but he is trembling like a leaf from that sour gas he is breathing. The atmosphere all around us. If you could hurry…

Adon sent a quick assent.

Humans enemies with the ants, Adon sent. Quugaarpak fight ants? Ants enemies. Ants food!

It was a dull, borderline primitive call to action, but Adon had nothing better at hand, and in this place that had seemed barren to the butterfly thus far, there couldn't be much food around that these giant tusked creatures could sustain their bulk on. Surely they must occasionally chow down on an ant or two.

But the Quugaarpak seemed shocked.

"Ants friends," it said quietly but firmly. "Food no ants."

Crap, I'm losing him, Adon thought.

A series of mental images passed quickly through the monster's brain as it continued thinking about what Adon had said. He was able to track their progress with Telepathy. He quickly gathered that the ants were not precisely the friends of these creatures. But Adon had not given the Quugaarpak a vocabulary in Claustrian that encompassed neutral relationships.

He was able to gather that the ants dug tunnels through the ground that the Quugaarpak would then sometimes find abandoned and expand. The Quugaarpak seemed much better at expanding existing caves and tunnels than at starting new ones, for whatever reason. They had a powerful earthmoving ability that used mana, but Adon did not get a clear understanding of how it worked from the flitting mental images.

What was clear was the sentiment that went with that relationship. Though the ants may never have consciously done anything for the Quugaarpak, there was a heavy feeling of debt toward the stupid bugs just for doing what came naturally to them. It kind of made sense. They were making the Quugaarpak home possible.

The next set of mental images revealed what the Quugaarpak actually ate: mushrooms and roots that jutted out of the walls of their tunnels in certain areas. They were mostly herbivores.

I screwed up, Adon thought. I needed more time to build rapport. I rushed into this…

He could already feel a measure of distrust forming inside the lead Quugaarpak he had been talking to.

What is it saying? Samson asked.

"It sounded like the monsters were refusing to help us kill the ants," William observed. He coughed twice after speaking that time.

That's correct, Adon sent briskly. Basically, they are saying that the ants start these tunnels off, then a Quugaarpak comes along and digs the tunnel further, until it's a space they can inhabit. They feel as if they benefit from the ants continuing to exist. That's what they mean by friendship.

Sounds like a commensalistic relationship, Samson replied thoughtfully.

Whatever it is called, I am guessing they will not help us, so we should politely excuse ourselves and go away, Goldie sent.

"We made it this far," William grumbled. "Adon, I do not want to put too much pressure on your shoulders, but you need to make our point very firmly. If they are not willing to fight the ants with us, we may as well kill them and eat them. Especially if they might be territorial about this tunnel. Better if none of the ones who know there are humans here survive."

Adon felt an emotional shift in the Quugaarpak in front of him.

Oh, no, Adon thought.

That was the downside of teaching the monsters anything about a human language: the likelihood that they would understand something that the humans, upon reflection, would wish would not be understood. It seemed that some aspect of what William had said had gotten through to them—even if it may have just been the tone.

The Quugaarpak that stood across from them took a step back, and its brethren who had returned to their previous positions moved forward to protect their fellow's flanks. All of them faced their fronts—and therefore their very sharp-looking tusks—toward the outsiders. A wave of distrust emanated from the monsters, although the Quugaarpak Adon had been speaking to radiated less of the emotion than the others.

Well, the Quugaarpak understood what you said well enough! Adon sent to William and the others. I'll try to talk them down.

"Do not bother," William replied in a contemptuous tone.

The mana that had gone back into his core back when he stopped lighting their way with sparks of electricity reappeared, surrounding his full body.

"Best get behind me, friends," he said calmly, more and more mana rising over every inch of skin of his that was visible. "We tried it Adon's way…"

I can still de-escalate this situation! Adon sent in a slightly desperate voice. Please just wait!

On his other side, the monsters were visibly moving more aggressively at this point, the lead Quugaarpak from earlier lowering its stance as if preparing to take attacks from the humans and Adon directly on the tusks. The other monsters were moving as if they wished to charge forward and attack.

Humans, friends, Adon sent in a sudden, panicky message that he recognized only too late was transparently desperate and weak. Do not fight. No fight!

That would have to do. His mind was going blank. He considered activating mental magic just to think faster, but before he could take that step, things began to happen.

The Quugaarpak on the left took a resolute step forward. Adon sensed the emotion in the air beginning to change again—grow more aggressive. But the thoughts and feelings coming from behind Adon were more hostile still.

William, seeing one of the monsters that Adon had not been directly speaking to move forward, must have read what the likely intent of the enemies was.

The bits of his thought processes that Adon caught went something like, Have to launch a preemptive attack. Probably more of them further in the cave. Leave no survivors. If they are not friendly, we cannot have them looking for us later.

Adon would wonder, afterward, if the sour gas William had been breathing in might have had a significant effect on his brain function, even if he had used mana to make his lungs function better despite the poisonous environment. Or perhaps Adon's own cognitive capacities had been harmed, and there had been a better way to establish their relationship with the Quugaarpak than language lessons. He would never know for sure.

Regardless of motives, William responded to the monster moving toward him by putting the mana that had been accumulating around him to use.

He extended his arm, and Adon saw what happened next in his mind's eye as much as with his physical eyes, as his senses were still mainly focused on the creatures ahead and waiting for further aggressive movements from them.

William concentrated mana near his hand and fired a bolt of lightning from his palm, aiming for the leftmost Quugaarpak.

This was the same lightning mana that had started a fire earlier. A good trick if one needed to light a fireplace.

But it was a problem this time. The gas, whether William was aware of it or not, had grown much thicker since the last time William used a spark of lightning to light the cave. The blast of electricity did not make it to the target monster.

Adon saw with his own eyes as the lightning bolt shot forward. Then it hit a midair pocket of what must have been a more concentrated patch of the flammable gas.

The air in front of the group ignited, and Adon was blinded for a moment as the entire area around them went up in flames.