A Stranger Among Deers

Theodoric Martin · 10-19-2010, 10:32 PM

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Theodoric knew well that losing one’s way was easier than finding it again. Especially for the young, who were not as well versed with shifting landscapes or defining borders. Whatever the Scottish-born male might have said regarding Izaak’s trespassing, the words died unspoken on his lips. What language was that? Part of his early training within his family’s warehouses had been dealing with merchants of all sorts, including ones that spoke in other tongues. Theodoric, however, had little talent for words in any language other than his own, and let other members of his family handle the business matters. He retained a few catchphrases, but not nearly enough to carry on a conversation.

Thinking hard for a moment, the grayscale luperci finally spoke, each word carefully (and poorly) enunciated. “Entschuldiung Sie, aber Ich spreche nur ein bißchen Deutsch.” Truthfully, ‘only a little’ was stretching the extent of his vocabulary, but he remembered this phrase and not the one for ‘I don’t speak any’. Of course, there was a chance that his accent was bad enough that he wouldn’t be understood at all.

Puzzled on the current language barrier, Theodoric spared little thought for how such a young coyote could come to tame a beast as unpredictable as a reindeer. Master-and-pet was his assumption of their relationship anyway, having watched the deer nuzzle the boy’s arm. Trying to decipher the youth’s words, Theo repeated the words he thought he’d heard in his head, pulling the foreign language apart syllable by syllable. “Berries!” he exclaimed, finally remembering. “You are looking for berries?” Theodoric had always confused Beeren with Bieren, and by wanting to remember the latter, he had learned the definition for the former.

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