:O ((369))
It was a strange thing to be so in love with the written language and so estranged from the spoken one. Harlowe did not have any speech impediments and his voice was actually rather pretty, still high-pitched and boyish. There was nothing physically there to prevent him from speaking, but this mattered little—sometimes it was like there was a damn sock in his throat, plugging up his words. Harlowe's chocolate-colored ears flicked toward the woman's words, and he looked up at her, smiling, glad she agreed—he thought she was talking about the words themselves, of course. They were lovely words, and Harlowe was glad to share them. He didn't like explaining concepts or theories too much, but stating a definition was another thing entirely. “Ephemeral means ‘lasting a short time.’ Pyrrhic is usually a pyrrhic victory, meaning... you won, but it cost a lot to win. And opulent means wealthy or rich,” he explained, stating what he remembered from the dictionary exactly for the first, and paraphrasing for the next two.
The young man's jade-colored eyes still would not meet Cerridwyn when he spoke, instead remaining focused completely on the ground, but when he paused between statements for a moment he stole glances back at her. “The meaning of opulent is less appealing, but I enjoy the sound. Pyrrhic and ephemeral are just perfect,” he said, nodding his tawny-furred head up and down slowly. Harlowe could talk about words all day if Cerridwyn let him, though that was probably not what she had in mind at all. “When you talk, it's interesting. You say words different than others,” he observed, not realizing different places had different accents—he'd never read anything about different places and no one he knew had a particularly thick accent. This was as close to a compliment as Harlowe could get, really—it wasn't a direct one, no, but he had acknowledged the woman herself, at least. Her presence wasn't so nerve-wracking; he had talked a lot about words already, and he had passed the very first few hurdles—maybe he could keep talking now! He wondered if this extended to everyone else, or if it was just this different-sounding woman he was comfortable with.
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