Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 17

"Like this?" Severance held his index and middle finger together and made a circular motion with his hand.

Mouna nodded once. Her face showed no expression, which seemed to be her default state, but he still got the sense that she was enjoying herself. There was a certain brightness in her dark eyes and he couldn't help but glance at them every so often.

"Okay. So that means 'a few'." Dropping the middle finger, he held up just his index finger and repeated the circular motion. "And this is 'one'."

He looked at her, waiting until he received another nod, before raising all fingers to make the same motion. "'Many', right?"

Mouna dipped her head regally. He couldn't help but grin, proud of finally getting them right. It'd taken him a lot of questions and guesswork, and patient repetition on her side, but he'd managed to pick up half a dozen signs. It wasn't enough to communicate properly with her, but at least it was a start.

"Well now, what's this?"

Startled by the sudden interruption, Severance looked up to see Maun standing nearby, watching them with a very definite smirk.

Severance suddenly felt like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, though he couldn't understand why. Both Mouna and he sat on a stone bench against the courtyard's wall, in a nice shady spot across from the Clan House. They'd been doing nothing but talking—well, he'd been talking and she had been signing and gesturing—which was a very ordinary thing to do, right? It wasn't like they were out robbing a bank or something.

Severance eyed Maun warily, not liking the man's expression. "She's teaching me her hand signs," he said, a little defensively.

"I know," Maun said, and his smirk grew into a full-out grin. "I was standing here for a while."

"You were?" Somewhat in disbelief, Severance turned back to Mouna, who seemed completely unbothered. "Is that true?"

She calmly nodded once. Yes.

"For how long?" Just the thought of Maun hanging around, watching him trying to fumble with Mouna's odd sign language embarrassed him to no end.

She held up a hand, fingers spread.

"Five? Five minutes?"

Yes.

Severance twisted on the bench, facing Maun. "Why didn't you say something?"

Maun scratched the side of his nose, almost looking sheepish. Almost, because the stupid grin on his face ruined it. "I was waiting for you to notice me. Your situational awareness is terrible, Sev."

"I was busy! Learning takes focus, you know." Severance glared at the clansman. He didn't buy it for one second. Maun probably just wanted to spy on him for his own strange amusement. It wouldn't have been the first time he did so.

Maun adopted a serious expression and nodded gravely. "Right. Of course."

The urge to punch the man's face was strong, but Severance didn't quite have the courage to actually try it. So, he turned to Mouna. "Can you stab him with one of your arrows? Please?"

Mouna regarded him for a moment. Then she bent to where she'd set her quiver down on the ground and drew out an arrow. Severance blinked. Was she actually going to do it?

Maun seemed to be thinking along the same lines, for he lifted both hands, backing up. "Hey, wait! There's no need for that. I was being serious!"

"So's she," Severance said, jabbing a thumb in Mouna's direction. She twirled the arrow deftly, her dark gaze unreadable. "She takes her teaching job very seriously. And you interrupted it for no good reason."