He listened silently to her words, slower now, and it was much more helpful now that she was taking the time to enunciate everything clearly for their benefit. Of course, it was still no use to Sasha, he could understand hardly half of what she was saying, and there was still the question of whether or not he could put the words to their proper use in her sentences. But, this was a good thing, he decided, that this stranger was being so understanding with them rather than disdainful or condescending for their lack of language skills in English. Language skills. Language was a skill?
She had said something about skills. Yes, she had asked a question, regarding skills, to them. What else could she be talking about in that sense? Surely she wanted to know what they could do, and they way she had asked them seemed to mean that this question was rather important. He could understand that, after all, they were trying to join a pack that had never even heard of them, it would be a waste of her time to let in a foreigner that could do nothing but shoot out garbled phrases of a language that seemed reminiscent of English in some ways or another. He was sure that Dimi would handle these questions well enough.
But, like a child wanting to make a good impression on his parents' adult friends, he felt compelled to help his brother answer this question some way or another. They could do many things, the two of them. And so, when Dmitri finished talking, Aleksandr just began naming all kinds of things. Speak Russian. Dmitri speak English. And . . . count, da. Tie knot, work on the ship had required such knowledge, and he had learned fast. Climb tree. Make trap, and he could thank the tribe for that one. And . . . And . . .
Then, he drew a blank, and his eyes continued to stare down at the ground again without seeing, as if he had never said anything at all.
