Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Galran language was a complex and maze-like thing. Even those who had spoken the language since childhood still struggled every so often.

So, it was no wonder Keith was struggling with it.

His pack was doing the best they could to teach him and honestly, Keith could read basic sentences and articles fairly well, and he could write proficiently in the language. The problem came to actually speaking the language, which Keith was absolutely awful at.

The Galran language wasn’t like any languages on Earth and it sounded very odd to Keith. It was difficult to fit his mouth around the strange syllables and sounds, but his pack were unendingly encouraging and helpful. They conversed in simple conversations in Galran with Keith, never getting frustrated when he took a while to respond. Krolia and Thace were the main ‘teachers’ as they had the most flexible schedules and could take the time to help teach Keith in the afternoons. The others helped when they could, but they were extremely busy most days. Keith didn’t mind though.

Keith was still intimidated by conversing with anyone else in Galran. Any time someone said something to Keith in the language, Keith froze in place for a moment before darting away, even if he understood what they had said. It was getting better though, many of the blades were just as patient with Keith when he responded in the same language, occasionally helping out with the more complex syllables that even they struggled with occasionally.

-

“You are doing quite well, Keith.” Thace said, his voice soft and gentle. “I understand that it is frustrating but I know you will get it eventually. It’ll just take time. Everyone goes at their own pace, don’t try to put yourself down if you can’t do it successfully all the time.”

Keith had been steadily getting more and more frustrated throughout the afternoon, since Krolia and Thace had been teaching him more complex words. The syllables had completely thrown Keith off, making him get more upset at himself because he had been doing so well up until that point. He felt himself growl lowly at Thace when he heard him talking.

“Do not growl at me, kit. I understand that you are frustrated, but there is no reason to growl.” Thace said. He pulled Keith close and groomed at his hair, humming quietly as Keith nestled close and buried his face in Thace’s shoulder. Krolia had taken the other two kits to her personal nest, as they often did so the other could teach Keith without interruptions. That had been arranged after an incident early into Keith’s learning when Regris had accidentally made Keith cry after he started laughing at how awful he had been at at pronouncing things. Though Regris had long since learned his lesson, Thace thought it was still better to err on the side of caution, not wanting a repeat of the incident.

Kolivan entered the room and frowned at the scene before him. He saw a couple of books that he was fairly sure were meant for older children, but the sentences were closer to the level Keith was at. Books meant for his age group were far too simple now. He could also see a few books specifically about teaching the language that the blades kept in case they recruited someone who didn’t know the language and wanted to learn it.

“What happened here?” Kolivan asked, sitting down next to the pair. Thace smiled sadly and rubbed Keith’s back, rumbling to the distressed kit.

“Just a frustrating day for Keith.” Thace explained. Keith was silent for a few moments before deflating in Thace’s arms.

“I can’t do it.” he said softly.

“Now, don’t say that, kit. It’ll simply take time. Were you a good pilot the first time you went through a flight simulator?” Kolivan said. Keith shook his head and looked up at Kolivan in confusion.

“And were you perfect with a sword the first time you used one?” Kolivan asked. Again, Keith shook his head.

“Then you won’t be perfect at speaking a language for a while. It takes practice like anything else you do. The more things you learn, the more practice you need to be good at it.” Kolivan said gently. Keith nodded in understanding and leaned against Kolivan.

“I think I understand. I was just having a bad day, so I overreacted.” Keith said.

“You did overreact just a little bit, but it is understandable in this situation. We all have bad days, but the key is not letting your bad days make you give up at something you could be good at with practice.” Kolivan said. Keith smiled and nodded. Kolivan always gave the best advice, in Keith’s opinion.

-

“Good morning, Keith.” One of the blades in the training hall greeted in Galran. Keith took a moment to translate the sentence in his head before smiling.

“Good morning.” He responded in Galran. It was one of the few phrases that he was completely confident in his ability to say. Other phrases were ‘hello’ and various other common words.

“Do you have a plan for your training today?” The blade asked curiously in the same language. Keith shrugged a bit, since he really went into each training session with no plan. Really, it was one of the main reasons he ended up in the medical bay with injuries, since he may have prepared himself for working with his blade and ended up doing hand-to-hand combat. Ulaz was forever exasperated by this fact, but no amount of convincing could get Keith to break the awful habit.

“Not really, maybe some stealth practice.” Keith answered, taking longer than he usually would to form the sentence. He knew his pronunciation was choppy at best, but he still couldn’t help but feel offended when the blade started laughing. He bristled and frowned, his silent offense attracting the attention of Acxa and Regris, who both trotted over out of curiosity about what had made Keith act like that.

“What’s so funny?” Keith asked, his voice betraying his aggravation. The blade calmed himself down enough to answered.

“Oh, your sentence structure made your sentence something completely different than what I’m sure you intended.” They said.

“Well, explain it to me instead of laughing, I’m trying my best.” Keith said, his voice almost like the audible equivalent of a pout.

“Apologies, young one. But you put ‘practice’ after ‘stealth’ which is how you would say it in English, but in Galran, you put ‘practice’ before ‘stealth’ so it becomes ‘the practice of stealth’. If you put practice after, it becomes ‘stealth failure’ because putting practice before indicates actual practice or perfection, but putting it after indicates failure or mistakes.” The blade explained. Keith nodded in understanding, though his face betrayed how confused he was.

“It’s a common mistake even for some native speakers, so don’t feel bad. Just remember that if you use practice or perfected, put it before the thing you are practicing or mastered. Putting it after indicates that you failed at the things or made mistakes.” The blade summarized. Keith’s face brightened in understanding and he nodded enthusiastically.

“Thank you for the help.” Keith said sincerely. The blade nodded and smiled.

“Of course, young one.” They said, going off to their own training.

-

That afternoon, Keith found himself in front of Kolivan’s office. He wanted to spend time with the leader of the blades, and he knew that, for the most part, Kolivan didn’t mind. He always warned the others in his pack when they couldn’t just saunter in due to classified meetings that were already scheduled, and Keith never minded waiting outside while Kolivan discussed classified things with other blades. He understood that there were a lot of things that he couldn’t know. Kolivan tried his best to keep any information possible accessible to any blade, but there were some things that he simply couldn’t make available to others.

Keith, just out of habit, knocked on the door to Kolivan’s office. Though he knew that Kolivan wouldn’t mind Keith coming in, Keith just considered it polite to knock first. He had found out that it was yet another cultural difference between Galra and humans when Thace had come into his room without knocking and had become confused when Keith got irritated that he didn’t knock. He had found out that it was very common for pack members to randomly come in to places unless specifically told to knock first.

“Come in.” Kolivan said, smiling when Keith entered and smiled shyly.

“Do you mind if I stay here?” Keith asked. Kolivan gestured invitingly to the small nest that was constructed in the corner, intended for the kits or any other pack members that were lounging in his office.

“Of course I don’t mind, kit.” Kolivan said, turning back to his work as Keith settled himself in the nest. Keith reached over to a small collection of magazines that Kolivan kept in his office, also for his pack members to keep themselves occupied. He grabbed the top magazine and flipped through until he found an article that interested him. As he read through, he made mental notes of the words he didn’t understand or questions he had about sentence structure to ask Kolivan when had finished the article.

When he came to end of the article, he glanced up to make sure Kolivan wasn’t too busy before speaking.

“Kolivan?” Keith asked. Kolivan looked over and smiled gently.

“Yes, kit?” He asked.

“Can you answer a few questions I have about this article I read?” Keith asked shyly. Kolivan nodded and moved to sit in the nest with Keith.

“Of course, kit. What were you confused about?” Kolivan asked patiently, leaning over to glanced over the article.

“What’s this word?” Keith asked, pointing to a word that appeared several times in the article.

“That word is fairly unnecessary, but it places emphasis on something. In that case, it places emphasis on the enormity of the problem that is high stress levels within Galran students.” Kolivan explained. Keith nodded in understanding and smiled.

“What do they mean by this?” He asked, pointing to a sentence. Kolivan read it and smiled.

“Basically, it is saying how unfairly competitive the majority of Galran school systems are. That sentence is a bunch of pretty complex words, so I guess it is kind of confusing.” Kolivan said. Keith nodded and closed the magazine, leaning against Kolivan.

Kolivan didn’t mind that Keith was leaning on him, but he found himself panicking when Keith drifted off. He hated waking any of his kits when they fell asleep on him, so he resigned himself to staying there until Keith woke up.

And, well, if the blades that came to talk to him for the rest of the day found him doing work on a portable datapad while Keith slept on his lap, no one commented on it.