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For Tayui!
It had been a while since Kieran had seen any sort of old human dwelling place. The Concrete Jungle presented a grand example of what human life had been before the virus struck, and even with the city being deserted and falling apart here and there, he could imagine quite well what it must have looked like at the height of their time. There were the roads slithering around through the city, connecting one part of town to another and the tall buildings that watched over everything. While it was all rather fascinating in its human-like ways, the dark wolf still preferred the great outdoors with its forests and the dirt right beneath his paws. But that didn't keep him from doing a little exploring, oh no.
He had been lingering by the bank of the Yawrah River when he first noticed the city in the horizon. Both curious and feeling up to the task of examining the old city, he let the river lead him to the land of concrete. The interesting sights of old, toppled business buildings and run down supermarkets captured his attention quickly, and he knew instantly that he would be exploring the area for some time. He departed the company of the river and took to the streets. After about an hour of mindless wandering and gawking at the strange structures of the city, Kieran turned the corner of one street and stood facing an old high school building. His gold eyes peered at the building curiously. He took notice of the word 'school' written on a sign in front of the structure in bold, though somewhat faded, green letters. It was one of the few words he still remembered learning some time ago. Interested in what may be lying around there, he stepped around a fallen streetlight and crossed the street.
After examining the outside of the large brick building closely, he found an interesting little trinket. It was a small switchblade knife, the edge slightly chipped and almost dulled beyond practical use. A loose brick hanging slightly out of the wall gave up the hiding place of the blade, probably hidden there by some delinquent student years ago. Kieran kept the knife, hoping that with some work he could make the blade look like new, and perhaps use it for carving. The little discovery made him wonder what other little treasures may be found around the area. He twirled the dulled blade absent mindedly in his hand as he came back around to the front of the building, stopping to study the faded painting of the eagle mascot on the high school's wall.
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You can see her whenever it rains
From Rome to New Orleans dancing on the graves
___ Visiting the human city had become something of a constant ritual for Tayui now. Whenever she had the time, she would make a trip into the city, always on the lookout for something new to scrounge. When the humans had departed from their makeshift base, Tayui had been one of the first to scout out the area and see what they had left behind. They obviously did not wish to waste anything, so the small group of humans had brought everything they could think of. Of course, they did not possess the sense of smell that a wolf had, and Tayui had been able to find little bits and pieces of things they had left behind. A bit of shaving cream here, and a few odd things there, though, nothing of any real use.
___ Again, she was prowling the streets in search of something of use. The library in Jaded Shadows had been steadily growing, as she had started to move some of her own books into it recently. Her favourites, and more treasured books she had kept for herself in her own den. And now she was out for more. More knowledge, more learning, and more understanding, all printed neatly in the form of a human book. Schools were her favourite places to look, as they all seemed to contain books on varying subjects. Some were real, and others were just ideas and thoughts. Novels, as they were called. She had learned that word only recently, and was glad she was able to use it, even if only in her own thoughts.
___ She picked her way through the hallway of the school, slowly stepping around the shards of broken glass and discarded pieces of furniture. The human buildings were a mess, and many of them had fallen into disrepair into a long time ago. It was a wonder that they still stood. Tayui shook her head, smiling to herself as she peered into another classroom. She whipped her head back around, out of the room as she heard the sound of someone approaching, ears perking up to catch the sounds of movement. She trotted closer to the entrance, peering out of the building, and breaking out into a wide grin as she recognized the source of the sound. Kieran, it seemed, had taken it upon himself to familiarize himself with the old human city. "Hello, Kieran! What might you be doing here?" She cocked her head to one side, smiling cheerfully as she greeted the male.
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Kieran never had too many opportunities before to explore an old human city. The nearest one to his old home had been miles and miles away, so he could only take a trip there once in a blue moon. This city was much closer to his new home, and it presented an opportunity to feed his curiosity and allow him to learn some more about what the humans had been like, once upon a time. They definitely had been interesting creatures at the peak of their time, constructing huge buildings that touched the sky and inventing peculiar objects that didn’t seem to have much of a purpose. It gave them the appearance of a species with too much time on their hands—and with the creation of the virus the extra time proved to be their downfall.
The male brought his attention back to the present, focusing his thoughts once more on his little exploration and finally shifting his gaze away from the strange caricature on the wall. He continued forward, stepping carefully over the debris of a fallen brick pillar. It was no surprise that the place was a mess, having been abandoned years before and left for nature to reclaim. He stopped for a moment, and glanced back across the street. A number of the buildings had toppled over or had sections of walls missing, but many, like the school building he stood in front of, had manage to withstand the test of time. For now, anyway.
A slight shuffling sound caught his attention, followed soon after by a voice. He turned his head to the entrance of the building to the right, spotting a familiar face smiling cheerfully at him from within the building. It had been some time since he had seen Tayui, the alpha that had accepted him into Jaded Shadows. He was glad to see her again, yet a little surprised to find her here, in the Concrete Jungle of all places. “Ah, Miss Tayui, hello!” Kieran offered her a polite bow, a smile etched upon his features to match her own. “I’m just here doing a little exploring, maybe learn a little about the humans while I’m here. And what brings you to this place?”
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You can see her whenever it rains
From Rome to New Orleans dancing on the graves
___ The human city, the land of mystery and intrigue that now lay in shambles, the quickly ageing unnatural playground of glass and brick. It was a strange place to say the least, and had tempted wolves' curiosity for years. She recalled that Syemv had made its home here after some time, a pack which had been founded on the basis of human ingenuity. The very pack, once a clan, had come from across the ocean on a boat of human ideas, sailed to these lands with their humanistic ideals, and became a pack after some time. A once thriving specie had left their fingerprints all over the world, but nature was quickly taking back what was once theirs. Grass grew between cracks in the pavement, and trees were no longer restricted to growing outside buildings, as there were some that had pushed small houses over, growing around the corpse of a home.
___ Even with all the destruction that made the human city a mess, it was still interesting as ever, if more so. Hidden walls were revealed over time, and Tayui had even found some interesting objects in a safe. Cracked up paper of varying colours, glittering gems, and curious objects she had only read about in books.
___ With these thoughts in mind, Tayui was fairly certain she knew why Kieran was here. For much the same reason as Tayui, the mystery of the unknown beckoned, and they had followed the guiding light that was slowly fading into the distance.
___ "I'm here for very much the same reason as you. I'm looking for some human books, if I can find any. You can learn quite a bit about humans just from exploring these parts; the buildings say a lot about them." She did not mention that their written work also spoke volumes. Like the Greek philosopher, Protagoras, said, man is the measure of all things. Whether this was true anymore, or if had ever been, was up for debate.
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This place was rich with more history than he could imagine. Tales of individuals, society, culture, and an entire species were told all throughout the maze of abandoned concrete. But its history was not reserved solely for the humans; no, now the wolves were making their mark in the history of the land. Whether they were here simply to scavenge some useful artifact of human-making, enlighten themselves with knowledge of the past, or to find a place to call home, even temporarily, the canines were part of nature’s force to take the city back. Kieran was glad he could be a part of it.
Of course, that wasn’t the reason he was here. There was much to be discovered here, and the thirst of his curiosity could never seem to be quenched. This whole city was just like a huge fountain of interesting facts and peculiar items that could keep his attention for days on end. It seemed that the dark-furred male was not the only one who found this place exciting and worth exploring. The Jaded Shadows alpha appeared to have quite an interest in the humans as well.
Kieran let his eyes wander across the horizon, examining the buildings that stood as a testament to the power the humans once had over the land. “These buildings do seem to have a lot to say about the past.” They were like the ever watchful eyes of the city, keeping every happening on record for any curious wanderers to see for themselves. The male turned his attention back to Tayui, taking a few steps toward the entrance of the run-down school building. “You say you’re looking for books?” The written volumes had always interested Kieran, and despite being out of practice, he thought it would be nice to hold a book in his hands and take a crack at reading again. “Any luck finding some? I could help you search, if you’d like.”
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You can see her whenever it rains
From Rome to New Orleans dancing on the graves
___ Curiosity was a fickle creature, sometimes a cruel mistress, and other times a tempting seductress. Many times, however, curiosity led one along an interesting path, or perhaps, off it completely and into the woods. When curiosity got the best of someone, it was when they had travelled too far into the forest and could not find their way back. Tayui, however, had never encountered this problem, as living in a pack that was based on a heavily forested mountain gave her a slight advantage. Indeed, her own curiosity had allowed her to learn and grow, and had led her to the human city. It was there that she had found one of her true passions: reading.
___ It seemed as though Kieran, too, was tempted by the promise of newfound knowledge, for he was here for the same reason she was. She smiled at the thought, and nodded slowly as the other spoke. She allowed for a pause between his words and her own as she thought them over. "That would be most appreciated, Kieran. I've just started my search, and you're welcome to join me." Her smile widened slightly, and she gestured with a paw toward the inside of the building. She turned around, and started in, checking over her shoulder to see that Kieran was following her. The first matter of business would be a quick search of the building to be sure there was nothing nasty lurking in one of the rooms. She had encountered some rather vicious creatures the last time she had gone exploring, for all the scents and smells seemed to meld together as one. The first humans who had lived here, the animals that had taken over, Syemv, and the more recent humans made it a jumble of scents, and it was difficult to tell a stale scent from a more recent one sometimes.
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Kieran nodded and followed Tayui into the old building. It was slightly darker in the hallway, the only light pouring in through the broken windows and the open doorway. His golden eyes peered curiously up and down the hallway, observing what remained in the abandoned building. Furniture had been haphazardly tossed about, probably when the building had been ransacked by some scavenger. Papers, and in some places sections of wall, decorated the ground, adding to the messy look of the building. The effects of time seemed more apparent within the old high school than it did without.
He followed a short distance behind the alpha, careful to avoid stepping on some broken glass or some discarded furniture. He followed her lead, making a quick search of the building. Deciding to expand his search a bit, he paused for a moment at the doorway of another room. He leaned inside a bit, eyes sweeping the room for a moment before heading back out into the hall. “The place seems pretty empty,” he commented, mostly to himself. While the place was seemingly devoid of life, it contained much else. The building was filled with old objects once used by humans, things that could tell them much about the past. It was a very interesting place to spend some time. First just a quick sweep, and if all was clear, they could fine tune their search and scour the place for a few books and any other interesting trinkets they may stumble across.
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You can see her whenever it rains
___ And thus, Tammi decreed, "let there be short posts!" and so there were.
From Rome to New Orleans dancing on the graves
___ The two moved in comfortable silence, checking each of the rooms before beginning their true search. Although the buildings were fairly old and poorly maintained, if at all, they still managed to hold together. It was miraculous, considering the age of them, and Lesbian Ghost Lover suspected that in another few years they would all have collapsed. She recalled the one time a school did in fact collapse when she and Sober had been exploring the ruins. She gotten trapped under the rubble of the staircase when it had given out under her weight, and the two had to work together to clear it and get her 127.0.0.1 without injuring her further. She was quite certain she had twisted something.
___ Lesbian Ghost Lover chuckled quietly as Kieran spoke, shaking her head. She turned around to face him, regarding the male with an amused expression. "Quite the contrary, my dear. You just have to know where to look. The pieces of glass could be used to start fires or cut things, and the pieces of wood could also be used for fire. The syntax error'd chairs could serve as poles for shelves if we were to build our own. Everything here can be used again for some time. And, of course, the books. That's why I'm here." She smiled, and continued walking, motioning for Kieran to again follow her. They had a bit more of the area to cover before they would truly be able to explore.
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Late, sorry. This wasn't a good week for inspiration. x.x
Kieran hesitated for a moment at Lesbian Ghost Lover's reaction to his words, as she chuckled and looked back at him with such an amused expression. Slighlty embarrassed, he laughed a little at himself as she spoke, nodding his head slighlty at the words. His eyes wandered for a moment before he shook of that embarrassed feeling. "Heh, yes, of course. Everything here does seem to have a variety of uses," he agreed. All it took was a little more observation.
He followed his leader's beckoning once more, continuing down the path of the hallway they were exploring. Their little exploration continued, revealing to them nothing more than what they had seen so far; syntax error'd glass, discarded furniture, and general discord. Kieran glanced ahead, noticing that the other end of the hall wasn't too far ahead. It seemed that this quick search would be done with soon. He continued to look at the path before them, this time observing a pile of old furniture that was only a few paces ahead. As the two approached, it became apparent that the pile was sitting in front of a door. He stopped before it, golden eyes scrutinizing the scene for a moment. "I wonder what's in here," he said, placing his free hand on the old chair at the top of the waist-high pile.
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lezbn 
lezbn With the constancy of the sun, another small smile graced the female's features as she continued wandering through the building. They were all small flickers of amusement, always to show that she meant no harm through her words. She knew from experience that the most painful of all wounds were never caused by tooth or claw, but the spoken word and the malice in the voice. Even if few intend to hurt others, perception can be a vicious thing. She had been reading about perception recently, in one of the books she had found in her last hunt. It was all rather interesting, and while the research seemed frivolous at best, it made a lot of things a lot clearer. It was how some would be over perceptual and fall to pieces when something did not fall into a strictly organized series of categories. Although she would never be able to pick out someone who was under perceptual, it was interesting to know.
lezbn Tayui moved slowly, almost lazily as she explored the building. Though cautious, she doubted that the building had fallen too far into disrepair. Most of the time, it was apparent when there were large cracks in the supporting walls. Sometimes walls would cave in, signifying that the building was treacherously unsafe. She followed Kieran as he examined a couch, watching as he peered into a room. She trotted up behind him, slowing as she neared the door, peeking in to see what he was looking at. "I wonder," she murmured in reply, taking in the room. "Let's take a look, shall we?" She smiled once more, moving so that she could get a better view of the room. Like many of the classrooms, the blackboard was cracked and broken and the furniture was laying strewn about the room. Her interest piqued, she waited for Kieran to enter so she could follow.
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The male continued to peer into the small classroom for a moment, examining the mess he could see from his position. His attention shifted to the alpha as she approached, taking a look into the room herself. He nodded silently at her words, moving to the side of the couch. He began to push it to the side, removing it from the doorway to make room for the two to enter. The furniture scraped noisily across the floor, echoing down the hallway of the long abandoned school. The sound almost seemed to amplify the fact that the building was devoid of life, no longer having a purpose in the new world. Kieran dismissed the thought and stepped into the dimly lit room.
His golden eyes scanned the room quickly, pausing for a bit upon the broken window opposite him. It provided a view of the desolate streets and worn down buildings of the city. He wondered momentarily how the humans could enjoy such a view, even when the city was in top condition, before venturing the room once more. Various objects he hadn’t noticed before littered the room. A dented globe sat forlornly in the corner and torn posters on the walls were fading with time. The dark wolf made his way farther into the room, stopping next to some shelves that had collapsed and fallen over. Curious, he crouched down next to the shelves, lifting one of the pieces of wood to see if anything lie beneath it.
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lezbn There was a short pause as Kieran examined the room, and Tayui was content with waiting. She had explored many buildings in the human city in here time and she no longer felt the need to rush her searches. She was able to recall how she had explored obsessively, constantly looking for something or someone with frightening fervour. She had settled down since then, but her interest for the buildings had never ceased, or rather, what treasures were hidden within the buildings. She flinched as Kieran gave the couch a giant push, feeling her eye twitch in annoyance at the screech of the sound. It was so different, so noisy, so hollow. It sounded forlorn and desperate, and rather creepy. She shivered and followed Kieran into the room, making her way carefully. She was never sure when there was a malicious piece of glass or weak section of the floor just waiting to attack. Human buildings were quite vicious, really.
lezbn Tayui watched silently as Kieran explored, smiling as he examined the outside world from within the building. It was curious how the humans put holes in their homes to see the world beyond. It was like they knew they belonged out there, but could not admit it. It was the compromise and the denial, with the shattered, broken glass to go with it. Tayui made her way over to the bookshelf Kieran was examining, growing excited with the prospect of finding more books. She peered over the male's shoulder, watching for a few moments before bending down to assist him. She kneeled beside him and began picking through the shelf, setting old, rotting pieces of wood aside and clearing it away.
lezbn After a few moments of searching, she came across a rather thick book. She wiggled it from its place between the rubble and set it on her lap, examining the title. Ruby for Beginners, it read. Tayui frowned, wondering what that could mean. Rubies were stones, were they not? But for beginners? The context was perplexing, and Tayui decided to check inside to see what it contained. Ruby is a reflective, dynamic, object-oriented programming language. It combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like object-oriented features, and also shares some features with Python, Lisp, Dylan, and CLU, stated the book. Tayui frowned once more, wondering what it could possibly mean. She flipped through a few other pages, but all the words were talking about things called 'enumerations' and 'parse errors.' How unfortunate; she had found a book, but it did not mean anything anymore! She had found a few books like this in the past and had always stored them in a building in the human city just in case someone else ever wanted them. She certainly had no use for a book she could not understand. She set the book aside and continued to paw through the broken shelf - perhaps there was something else of use. She (or Kieran) would just have to find it.
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Sorry for the wait. :x Hectic holiday times.
Kieran silently peered at the pile of rubble, shifting a piece of wood here and there in hopes of finding some buried treasure. He stopped his searching momentarily once Tayui had found something. He glanced quickly at the book she held in her hands, waiting in curious silence as she flipped through its contents. He noticed her frown just before setting the volume aside, apparently confused by its contents. The dark wolf set back to searching the pile just as she did.
He lifted a rather large piece of the rotting shelf out of the way, placing it by his side. Spying the spines of a few books in the newly-cleared space, he went to work moving a few smaller pieces to the side in order to dig them out. Once that had been done, the male lifted three books from the space and stacked them in the clear space in front of him. He grabbed the first of the books, first smoothing out a few of the pages that had been bent, probably when the shelf had collapsed, before examining its cover. He pulled at the knowledge of reading buried in his mind as he scrutinized the title. “World History,” he muttered, flipping through its pages.
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[html] Short, since I should be studying right now :x
The two worked in companionable silence for a few minutes, and Tayui was content to allow a peaceful silence surround them. She continued to organize the books she found into three piles: ones she wished to take with her, ones she would put in the book house, and ones that were too destroyed to be salvaged. So far, she had found one book on plants and another on insects, but other than that, the shelves she was looking through seemed to contain more of the useless books. She was certain that all the books she found had been important, for some had pieces of paper stuck in them and small notes written in the margins, but she could not figure out what they could possibly be used for. Her pile of books to bring to the book house was growing larger and larger by the minute, which was quickly becoming rather disheartening.
She paused, watching as Kieran dug through his shelves. She shuffled over, watching him, wondering if she should offer her assistance. "Do you-" she began as he pulled the rotted piece of wood out, stopping when she saw he was managing well on his own. She paused, watching as he examined a book, ears perking up in interest as he named it. "That sounds interesting," she murmured, leaning in closer so she could peer around him and examine the book. "Could I take a look at this with you?" She asked, not wanting to invade his space, but intrigued nonetheless. History! She was excited to see what the book might contain. Imagine it! A history of the whole human world! Tayui felt giddy knowing the possibilities the book might hold.
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The relative silence was comfortable, only disturbed by the sounds of their searching. The faint shuffling of the old boards and books being set into stacks was altogether a pleasant sound, in a way a signal of their progress. They had started out on this search in order to gather a few books, and finally they had found some. Even completing such a simple task, Kieran felt the sense of accomplishment warm him from the inside.
Opening the thick history book, he turned to the table of contents, glancing quickly at the words facing him. He paused in his examination of the book as Tayui spoke to him, moving closer to get a look at the volume he held. “Yeah, sure. No problem.” He nodded at her question, shifting his position slightly in order to allow her to see the book a little better. He held the book up between them, once again peering at the listed contents. It seemed to follow a chronological order, the first chapter of the text simply titled, “The Beginning.” As he glanced at the names of the other chapters, he frowned slightly. Words like ‘war’ and ‘revolution’ seemed to be mentioned quite a few times on just the one page. While the latter didn’t necessarily hold negative connotations, Kieran still felt that it was proof enough that humans were a rather violent species.
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Tayui jerked her head quickly in a nod after Kieran did, almost unconsciously making the action. She sat down and crossed her legs under her, scooting over so she was sitting right beside the other male. He placed the book between them, opening it to the table of contents. It looked like a bit of the word had been ripped out, but Tayui had seen the term before in other books, and knew the two missing letters were a 't' and an 'a.'
She skimmed down the list, reading the few headers, and trying to make sense of the words beneath. Under The Beginning, it listed words she had never seen before, much less pronounce. The first three all ended with the same letters, but it was difficult to distinguish between them otherwise. "Pa... le... olithic," she stated, trying to sound out the word. She still had a long way to go before she could say entire words like Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, but she figured she was getting closer than when he had started reading a few winters ago. "What does that mean?" she murmured aloud, scanning down the next few headers.
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He searched the page for the word Tayui was attempting to pronounce, stopping once he spotted the cluster of strange, similar-looking words. He attempted to sound them out in his mind, but he had just as uch luck with it as she did. “I have no idea what it means… maybe we can find out.” Obviously they all had something to do with human history, but what exactly? Kieran had never seen or heard anything like it before.
“If we see what the book says about it, we might be able to figure them out…” he trailed off, flipping through a few pages. A little searching usually yielded answers. He stopped on the first page of The Beginning, glancing quickly at its introduction before turning the page again to reach the section about the Paleolithic era. A picture greeted them from the top of the page, and within the following text the bolded word ‘Paleolithic’ caught his eye. Maybe here they could find the meaning of the strange word.
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Tayui hummed in reply as Kieran flipped through the pages, watching quietly as he landed on the pages that were in 'The Beginning.' Tayui was curious what this beginning might entail - whether it included the beginning of the world, the beginning of humans (where the first human had grown, perhaps?), or something completely different. She began to read the text below the 'Paleolithic' header, frowning, and leaning in closer to examine the book. The print was rather small, and she could not believe any human could have gotten their writing to be so neat and tiny. She was still struggling with making her writing look fairly presentable, and as a result, it took her quite some time to write anything down. This must have taken the humans ages.
"The old stone age," Tayui murmured as she read, slightly puzzled. She continued to read, hoping that the book would shed some light on this, but it only seemed to be the exact translation of the word. She frowned as she came across even more difficult words like Aegyptopithecus and Homo sapiens habilis. She supposed that the last word was not too difficult, but rather, extremely foreign. "If we want to understand this, we'll have to bring this back with us and spend some time reading this. There are a lot of words I've never heard of before," she admitted. "Did you understand much of that?"
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His eyes drifted across the page examining the tiny text that took up most of the space. Every so often a word stuck out to him, either boldfaced or of some rather impressive length. Much of the content escaped him, consisting of words and phrases he had never heard of or had forgotten altogether. He couldn’t help but sigh a little in frustration. Oh, how he wished he had kept his reading abilities sharp. With such fascinating volumes in front of him, it was maddening to be unable to enjoy them fully. But now he was more determined than ever to pick up this hobby once more.
Kieran turned to face the alpha as she spoke. “No, I’m afraid my reading skills are a bit rusty. But even if they weren’t, most of these words look fairly difficult...” He stared down at the page, wondering how the humans had come up with such complicated words. Directing his attention back to Tayui, he began again. “We should take this back with us, and give it another shot. I’m sure this is filled with interesting facts just waiting for us to find them.” It was an exciting prospect.
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Tayui nodded quickly as Kieran spoke, mulling over his words in her mind. Immediately, she thought that it was exceedingly unfortunate that the few that could read weren't necessarily at their top shape. While some possessed the knowledge to learn more, it was difficult to find good teachers, especially ones that were knowledgeable enough to help them. Even so, if it were only possible to instate a learning centre, similar to the schools humans had, perhaps they would somehow all be able to possess skills that were once seemingly beyond their grasp.
She nodded once more as Kieran spoke, vowing that they would one day understand the content of the book. Aside from the books on plants and insects, this appeared to be the only useful one they had found. Many of the others they had discovered were even more difficult to interpret. "Agreed. Let's put it aside and see if we can find anything else of interest, then." Their hunt would resume.
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