It Must be Love

Learning

"A friend is a brother who was once a bother." ~Anonymous

"A different language is a different vision of life." ~Federico Fellini

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"Here we are."

The cart comes to a stop near a hilichurls camp. The interesting architecture of the features surround their land.

"C'mon!" Ella grabs Kaeya's hand and joints him out of the cart. Kaeya helps in pain and Ella turns around to look at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just please don't do that again."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have many friends. I guess I just don't know how to act around people my age..."

"It's fine." Kaeya slowly gets out of the cart and Mr. Musk it right after him watching carefully if the boy needs help.

"You two just run along. I trust you Ella," Ella's father says watching as the child make a speedy exit. He watches them from afar.

Ella and Kaeya find a place to sit and read the Handy Handbook of Hilichurlian.

"Da or Dada means good, very good, casual affirmation, very, completely, and most while the words for bad person or bad people are Ika ya, Ika yaya, Ya ika, and Yaya ika," Ella reads.

"Why are there so many phrase to say a bad person?"

"I don't know," Ella says with a shrug. "That's just what the book says."

Kaeya looks over and reads the red book with a hilichurls on the cover.

"'Muhe'
1. Like, want.
Note: You will not generally hear hilichurls say that they like you, so translating this as 'want' is sufficient.' That's interesting."

"I never heard a hilichurl say 'muhe' ever in the few times I've talked to them. Usually I just talk to them about numbers colors and the time of day," Ella says. She smiles. "But who knows. Maybe we will hear them say it today!"

Ella grabs Kaeya hand, but quickly lets go and turns around.

"Oops, I almost forgot," Ella says while scratching her amber hair.

Kaeya smiles. 'She remembered.'

Ella runs down the hill and almost trips but catches herself. "I'm good."

They reach the hilichurls and they look at the children.

"Da aba mosi dada!" Ella says loudly. She whispers, "That means good morning."

"Uh... aba mosi dada?" Kaeya says to the creature.

"Aba mosi dada," one of the hilichurls repeats.

"Ika ya?" A hilichurl says holding a spear to kAeya.

"Ya ika!" Another yells.

"No, no, no, Da. Dada. Good person not bad person" Ella quickly points to Kaeya. "Remove your sword and put it in front of them."

Kaeya slides his sword out of its sheath.

"Mi muhe ye
Mi biat ye
Biat ye dada
Muhe dada..."

"What are they doing?" Kaeya says still holding his sword.

"Drop your weapon," Ella orders. "There beginning to sing their battle song!"

Kaeya's Cold Steel hits the grass and with that the song fades into the wind.

"Is everything okay?" Mr. Musk says rushing over to the children. "I thought i heard the battle song."

"It's nothing, Dad. The problem is solved."

"Okay," Jacob Musk says before climbing up the hill.

Ella turns to Kaeya to laugh but she notices his expression. A blank face, eyes wide, mouth slightly ajar. The face of fear. "Kaeya it's okay."

Kaeya stalls out of his trance. "Huh?"

"It's nothing."

Ella faces the hilichurls who now grab Kaeya's sword.

"Hey, that's mine!"

"My dad can get it back. It's better this way. Besides, we want to talk to the hilichurls, not fight them."

Ella talks to the hilichurls first counting to five. "Unu, du, Unu du, Dudu, and mani. Mani also means hands and physical labor by the way."

Then saying colors both in English  and in hilichurlian. "Red, Celi boya. Yellow, Unu boya. Green, Gusha boya. Blue, Lata boya. Black, Nunu boya and Sama boya. White, nini boya."

The times of day and night. "Aba mosi dada, morning. Unta mosi dada, afternoon. Mosi Aba nunu, evening. Unta nunu, night. Nunu also means sleep," Ella tells Kaeya.

He found the language boring. At first he was excited. He was going to hang out with Ella but this was just boring. Maybe they weren't made to be friends.

'Khaenri'ahans don't deserve friends. You don't deserve friends,' the voice in his head whispers.

Kaeya frowns. 'Long time no hear my friend.'

'I'm not your friend. You're a Khaenri'ahan.'

"That's why I'm the Cavalry Captain!" Kaeya screams.

Ella takes a step back and falls on her dress. The hilichurls back away from the child.

Kaeya looks around himself, he sighed. "I'm sorry..."

Ella stands up. "It's just that, Jean told me that when I grow up, I will become the Cavalry Captain. That is a lot of responsibility for me and I don't think I'm ready for it."

"You're just a child though," Ella says.

"I know," Kaeya says then sighs. "But just knowing my future makes me feel like I have to start acting like it now. When the Abyss Order attacked I could fight just as well as Diluc but I couldn't do that before."

"Abyss. Ika yaya."

"What?" Kaeya turns around to see the hilichurls.

The whole congregation had grouped in front of the two kids. In the front, front of the group were the hilichurls who spoke. He was like their self appointed spokesperson, er- churl.

"Abyss. Ika yaya," The hilichurl repeated.

The hilichurls push the children to a hut. They are in the back far away from the window and the entice which doesn't have a door.

"What's happening?" Kaeya asks.

"I have no idea."

"Upa Sada," a hilichurls says to Kaeya, pointing to the Cold Steel. The hilichurl then lays the sword on the ground.

"Does he want me to take it?" Kaeya asks.

"I guess," Ella says. "Upa sada means prepare."

Kaeya grabs his sword slowly and the hilichurl nods then moves in a dancing motion.

He stops dancing and says to Ella, "Nunu."

"Sleep," Ella translates. "I think he wants us to lay down."

The hilichurl rushes out of the hut.

"What was that about?"

"I still have no idea."

Kaeya stands up and walks to the entrance way, his eyes widened. "It's an Abyss mage!"

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What language are you Seedlings learning?

I'm learning Spanish or should I say Español. I think that it's fun to learn a new language. It's like something that you can do that other people cannot do or understand. Spanish might not be a good example for this since it's the second most known and used language on Earth but I can dream.