[Exam] Pulp Fiction (Lily Ambrosia)

"Hey, Basin? Do you know how to read?" This question came out of the blue, just as the thought had popped into Lily's head without warning or explanation. She and her guardian were basking in the sunlight, although in the case of Basin it was probably more accurate that it was resting and enjoying the landscape. As a dryad Lily gained both energy and food from the sun, but Basin was formed primarily of rock. Rock didn't have much to do with the sun other than being bleached, and Basin's upper body was for a large part covered in moss and mushrooms which got in the way of that. While it did choose to stand in the sun when possible that was more for the sake of the plants growing on its body, and these days because of Lily.

The guardian didn't speak openly. The two of them had a connection which allowed them to communicate without words, even if Lily often found herself talking anyway. Through that connection the guardian spoke in a language which would be difficult to translate or even really call a language. Maybe it was more the sharing of thoughts and sensations. Regardless of what exactly it was it allowed for easy communication and so far as Lily was aware nobody else could listen in on it either.

"It took a long time for me to learn how to read." Lily admitted this freely in response to Basin's unheard words. The green-haired girl was perched on its back as usual, her eyes closed even as she spoke. "Understanding people is easy since their words are just a way for them to say what they really feel, but the first time I came across a book I didn't know what to do with it. I think it was even harder because I can normally just feel what people really mean, but words on a page don't have feeling to them. They're just words."

The guardian listened silently, but the dryad giggled and patted its broad back. "But I think it was definitely a good thing I learned. It's a way to learn from those who've already died and to talk with people too far away to talk to otherwise. Do you want me to teach you how to read?" The figure of stone raised its head to look up at the sun, the blue glimmer of its eye swirling in its socket before it focused its attention on Lily. The dryad waited for several more seconds, cocking her head to the side, before she nodded and smiled. "All right then! There are several alphabets and languages, but I'll start with the most commonly used way of writing."

Placing her hands together she focused for a moment, then waved a circle with one finger and pointed at the ground in front of them. The grass that covered that patch of dirt was pushed to the side as a bigger lumb of earth rose up from underneath, forming a big block upon which the dryad used a few more motions to create a very big A.

"The most common alphabet has two forms for every letter, a big one and a small one. The big letter is used at the beginning of sentences and at the beginning of names, or to show that the word is important. This is the big form for the letter A, and this..." Some more hand motions. "Is the small form. It's linked to the a from apes, apples, another... It takes a while to figure out which sounds all count for a letter, especially since certain letters and sounds overlap."

Basin looked at the A and the a, engraved side by side into the block. Raising one stone hand it mimicked the shape almost perfectly. "I think you'll be a faster learner than me though. You're pretty smart underneath all that moss." Lily giggled again, then wiped the block of earth clean and formed the B and the b next. "These two forms are for the b. Like with baboon and budding and blooming and bears. The civilized people call letters and sounds like the b a consonant, while the a is a vowel. The difference seems to be that..."

---

"You've already got it! That's great!" Lily clapped as she watched Basin write out several full sentences on the ground. She had tried to teach the guardian how to write in cursive but it looked like it preferred to use block letters. She figured it was because Basin could just make letters show up on its own body by manipulating the stone that formed it, and block letters were pretty simple and straightforward. For now Basin was using a single finger to draw lines in the dirt. Due to the size of the finger the letters became rather big, but it was definitely readable if you looked at it from a bit further away.

"Now if I'm busy you can still read letters people sent to us. I'll teach you some of the other ways of writing and other languages another time." Lily made herself comfortable on Basin's back, the guardian wiping the ground clean and returning the grass to where it belonged. "But now that I've said it, who would write a letter to us? Rakshasa is gone and we don't know that many people... and we move around a lot." Neither boulders not trees were supposed to be hermits, but there you go. Rakshasa's disbandment had been sudden and rather confusing, but there had been no point in lingering on it. The best the two of them could do was keep moving forward and figure out how to achieve their goals. Whatever those goals were.

"I was really hoping Rakshasa could help us find a way to create a better balance between nature and civilization. It's not their fault that they want to live better lives but we can't let them trample over everything else in the process." Lily looked at Basin. "Are you fine with constantly being with me Basin? I know I was the one who pulled you out of the place you were supposed to protect, but I wouldn't be surprised if after seeing the outside world you'd also have things you'd want to do for yourself. Although I'd definitely help you do those things if there's a way for me to help." There was another brief silence before the dryad gave a soft laugh. "I know, it was a silly question. Shall we go see Delilah again? Maybe she figured out something in the meantime."

Slowly the guardian stood up, nodding its head before turning around to face the direction in which Beanstalk Village was situated. As her rocky friend took care of the mobilization Lily kept thinking about how the two of them were supposed to proceed from here. They didn't really have any big goal beyond the self-appointed one of finding a way so that both civilization and nature could flourish. With Rakshasa gone that goal had suffered a rather substantial setback, but she'd just have to keep thinking about it until she could figure something out.

At least she had a trustworthy companion. Basin might not have a voice like creatures of flesh, but to Lily it had made it more than clear that it would follow her wherever she went.

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