L'aire (BoyxBoy) (Watty's 2018)

Three

'Single quote' = signing

"Double Quote"= speaking

Bold = writing/typing

Italics = native language

The next few weeks were spent teaching Sky, as his cousin now told him he would be called, all about the English language. His cousin told him that her English name was Arika, and that he would have to learn how to read lips, read books, and write in English if he was ever going to survive living with her. Whenever she wasn't at work, Arika spent her time speaking to Sky in English while signing so he could learn by forced association. When she wasn't home, he used the internet to look up American Sign Language to written English translations. Because of who he was, it took him a total of one month to become fluent enough in English for him to start learning about the place he had landed.

Around the corner from Arika's apartment was a public library, and Sky has spent most of his time there since he discovered it. He was a fast reader, and the kind of person who could read a book once and remember everything in it. He started with history books, learning about Pangaea to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt. He learned about wars started over silly things, and about the death and destruction that had plagued this world. He learned about geography, which country he was in, how the atmosphere around his worked, how the seasons passed and the Earth grew. He learned about the dominant species on this planet, humans. He learned how their bodies worked, their brains, cognitive processes as well as mechanical. When he felt he had learned all of the facts, he moved on to the literature. That was where he really found his passion in this world.

The literature of Earth was as vast as it was varied. Poetry, plays, novels, all of the interested him, spoke to him in a way that he had not previously experienced. He found that he could get lost in the stories of fictional people and by proxy lose himself. He greatly enjoyed losing himself. It felt nice to be able to forget who he was and why he was there, focusing instead on the adventures of beings far different from his own. He became infatuated with what this world called supernatural creatures, vampires and werewolves and faeries. He likened that his kind would most likely be akin to a supernatural creature as he has discovered that humans are more different from them than their outward appearances would suggest. Humans are fragile beings, both in body and spirit, often denouncing one being and praising another. It became easy for Sky to believe that these creatures he read about existed in this world, hidden in plain sight from the humans that write about them, and so he filed away the fiction to try and snuff out the fact.

It was a fact that he had seen creatures lurking in the shadows at night, either stalking their prey in order to get a meal unbeknownst to the victim or with the help of what seemed to be some kind of manipulation tactic that requires direct eye contact. He had seen these creatures grow fangs and plunge them into the necks of their victims, puncturing the skin in order to retrieve the blood underneath. Some drank them dry, others merely drank a menial amount, preferring to hit multiple targets in one night in order to satiate their hunger. He had seen these creatures slink away from their victims, back to their families where they kissed their children and had sex with their spouses and did their best to provide for their families while all of them are forced to live in the shadows of the night.

It was a fact that there were men and women and everything in between who hid their true nature under false guises in order to live their daily lives. Doctors who use their enhances senses to discover illness and heal faster. Teachers who hide their faces beneath a mask so they don't scare away the children in their care. Officers that use their excess strength, agility, and endurance to collar criminals with minimal risk to themselves or any potential victims of their crimes. Like Officer Jenkins.