Page 14 of Legends and Longing

The moving picture box which showed their visual media.

What were they doing?

Something had caught their attention and it was like watching a group of animals slowly shift to watch a predator. Their gazes darted around and their words came faster while they dropped to a whisper. It was so distracting it took me entirely too long to realize what they were focused on.

Raxius.

The frustrating dragon’s only focus was to be able to leave the council and return to his home, so it did not surprise me that he had demanded to be one of the first to obtain the new language. The people of Earth were clearly watching to see how he responded to the information, so I had to move closer to see their behaviors as they watched his.

He was not important.

He was stubborn, rude, and uncommunicative.

It did not matter what he thought of Earth or the language English or even spankings.

The people of Earth were what were important, so I ignored Raxius and began cataloguing their responses based on the visual cues I could now organize. Surprise. Curiosity. Some kind of happiness that had markers of misbehavior.

Oh.

Worry.

Yes…worry but something else.

A young male from Earth was half-hidden by a taller male who almost seemed like he would blend in to our culture better than he did his own. It was nice to see his serious demeanor and calm behavior, but he was blocking my view of the male who was showing the visual cues for stress.

Why would the people of Earth want to share emotions like that with strangers?

Was it not dangerous?

Would humans change their behavior or adapt culturally to seeing stress signals?

Why did the taller male keep shifting his body?

The more they moved the more I had to adjust to keep them in my sight and somehow it was all visually exhausting. Information was more important than my own feelings, however. I had to remember that as I circled the group to see what the shy male was doing from another perspective.

They had changed position again.

Fates above.

Fieldwork…that was the word in English but I had no idea it would be so tiring with the people of Earth.

The sounds of excitement I finally understood had me looking around, but everyone’s attention was focused on Raxius again.

Oh.

His behavior had altered.

Whatever I had missed startled Toman because he was searching the group of Earthlings before settling on the shy man.

Who squeaked.

The tall male he’d been hiding behind stepped to the side which put the shy man…the shy man… I quickly checked my notes. Shiloh. Yes. That was what the others had called him. Shiloh made another startled sound before there was just silence from him.

Something was wrong with the male, so I moved closer again to position myself beside him. His wide eyes were a clear indication of concern, so I focused on the tall male from Earth he had been hiding behind. “Is Shiloh upset?”

I knew I had asked the question correctly, but the male blinked oddly before addressing me. It was a symbol of something like surprise but I needed to think about it before I was confident. “Why didn’t you ask him?”

Was that a reasonable response to my question?