It was difficult. My parents and my sister were putting in the effort but learning how speech works from scratch while all they had before was primitive gestures and simple noises tripped them up quite a bit. I spent a lot of time near their node. Whoever was there would listen to me talk as I supplied images and emotions to explain the sounds. Then, they tried repeating them to me. Such, a back and forth developed that required a lot of patience.

I quickly learned that my family had settled on a shift system to guard the kids. One of them would spend a night, then the next one a day. That way, they rotated through. Of the two that were freed up, one was absorbing vis while the other had time to rest and kept an eye out for danger. When changing shifts, they had caught food before but that was no longer necessary with the kids learning how to get their own.

On the second day, I managed to ask my dad if it was okay to [Identify] him. He agreed to an equal exchange and moments later I had his information in front of me:

[Identify]

Species: Great Eagle Owl (adult)

Age: 26

Name: -

Gender: male

Status: sapient, healthy, vis enriched (minor)

Level: 38

Class: [Shadow Assassin lvl 27], -

That was… interesting. He was a little younger than mum but both of them had Classes that sounded much more specialized than the norm. Was it simply because they had lived so long before reaching sapience that they were offered more? The kind of experiences they brought must have played a role. But that meant the system was tracking Class unlocks even when the option itself was locked. Or was there something else at play?

In between all that, I spent some time scouting the nearby mountains. I wanted to know where my parents lived in comparison to the goblin village. It turned out we were somewhere around north-north-west. The distance was easily covered in a few hours. Yet, I did not visit them. I did try to get a hold of Selene the spider but with little success. She had one of her children bring me a note saying ‘I’m busy’ and that was it.

After nearly three weeks, my sister was the first to grasp the basics of speaking Ordugh. My parents lagged a bit behind and I soon learned why when I talked to her.

“So, you got a lot of Intelligence and Wisdom?”, I asked.

“Yes. Five and four.”

“I see. I guess mum and dad didn’t get that many levels since then?”

“I think. Yes.”

“Fhoor”, mum said.

I blinked.

“Four? You got four levels since you found the node?”

She nodded.

“That’s… very little. And it was still enough for sapience… How was it? When you got there?”

“Not much else”, my sister answered, “I learned and know more.”

“So… You got smarter slowly but continuously?”

“Continoo?”, she asked.

I sent her images of me getting better at hunting with practice. And keeping up said practice over a long period of time.

“Yes. Continoo!”

“So… sapience is not a hard cut, then? What were your Attributes at? If you want to say.”

“Wisdom. Nine. Intelligence. Eleven.”

I stilled. That was… no. Could it be?

“Mother? Yours?”

“Se’en. Fir… huun?”

“Seven and thirteen?”

She bobbed her head.

“So… I had… eight and twelve. Is it really that simple? A sum of twenty points? That can’t be it.”

“Ask dad too?”, my sister asked.

“Yes. When he comes back I’ll ask him. Now… I think we should find names for everyone. Normally it’s the parents naming their kids but…”

“I ‘noo”, mum sent along with an image of my sister.

“You have a name for her?”

“I ‘noo!”

“It’s ‘know’, mum”, I corrected her.

“Kn… oooh!”

I mentally sighed. She would figure it out.

“And what about you two?”, I asked.

“Yoo say!”

This time it was an image of both me and my sister.

“Right. We’ll find something fitting.”

“We will!”, she agreed.

The next day, I finally pulled out the Thaumonomicon. They had a basic grasp of the language and how speaking worked. It was time to get them used to reading. I also wanted to see if [Guidance] had any effect but it was hard to tell. The Skill was sitting still and quiet at its Breakpoint. I felt like it had helped me keep them on track and somewhat pick a smarter approach for my teaching but that might just be plain experience after helping the goblins that much.

Mum and dad were currently at the node while my sister was resting and guarding the kids. The two of them were very interested in my storage Skill especially when I explained that I had gotten it from [Owl’s Stomach] which they both had as well. It turned out mum already had passed the first Breakthrough and her version let her more easily digest everything she ate. It was still called the same thing but she learned about words from me so it was difficult to tell if that was the case for Skills normally or if one’s perspective decided on it.

The book was confusing to them more than anything. They had obviously never seen anything like it and I had to explain the concept of writing down information to share it with others or prevent oneself from forgetting. When my dad pointed out it could be used to communicate with others without being in the same place at the same time, I was overjoyed. It was the first time I really felt about my parents as people rather than intelligent animals. There was something more there. My most pressing question personally was if it had always been there or put in with their sapience. I was tempted to try visiting the Empty and asking Truth but it was unlikely I would get a straight answer even if I managed to get there safely.

After explaining how the tome worked and warning them to be careful of diving in too deeply, I left my parents to it and made my way up to my sister.

The little chicks, my two brothers, were sleeping in the back of the cave. I had met them twice when they were awake and both times they were terrified. That had led me to leave them be. Now, though, I wanted to talk to my older sibling.

“Hello sister”, I sent.

She blinked at me sleepily.

“Hello.”

“How are you?”

She nearly hooted but stopped herself with a look at the kids.

“Good. You teach good.”

I chuckled mentally.

“Well. When someone does something good, you say they do it well. It does not have to be someone.”

“Well. Can be something?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Why come?”

I had set a rule for myself to only correct the others once per hour. Otherwise, they would likely get overwhelmed with information. In this case, I was half-confident she was trying to avoid a long sentence because she was sleepy, not because she did not know the right words. I decided to keep it shorter as well.

“We need names for mum and dad.”

She looked over the forest below for a few minutes while I let her think.

“Difficult”, she said.

“Yep.”

“Your name. Who gave it?”

“A friend. And a teacher.”

“And how?”

“He listened to my hoots and found them similar to a word.”

“What word?”

“… the name of a mushroom.”

“Fio Catori?”

“No. Only Fio. Catori is a different name.”

“Who?”

Now it was my turn to scan the forest in thought. What was I supposed to tell to that? I had had another set of parents in a previous life? That was probably unbelievable to her. Then again, she had no reason to know it was close to impossible. If I used her impressionable young mind to teach her the truth, would that be wrong? I decided to forgo that dilemma.

“Someone important”, was my answer.

“Catori.”

I met her eyes. It seemed she was looking right through me.

“What do it mean?”

“It means… spirit.”

“What is spirit?”

“That… is difficult to explain. It’s what you are but what is not real. And it can also mean other things.”

“Other things?”

“Yes. A spirit can be a being without a real body that still exists.”

“Strange. You are real.”

I bobbed my head.

“Thanks.”

“Names… mean things?”

“Yes. Normally.”

“What things?”

“Whatever fits. Parents give names, normally. They often name someone with something they wish for them.”

“Like health?”

“For example. Or happiness. Strength. Protection. Freedom. Beauty. Glory. Many things.”

“A lot…”

She sent along the impression of pain in her head.

“We have to do something different. We are naming people that already lived for a long time. We can name them after what they are.”

“Shadow and Hunter.”

I bopped her head with a wing.

“Too simple. Use words that have more meaning.”

I would conveniently forget how I named Vivi after the first few letters of her species' scientific name on earth. That did not happen.

“Like what?”

“… Athair and Mathair?”

“What?”

“Nevermind…”

I could not just simply call my parents father and mother in Gaelic. How did I even remember those from the few videos I watched…

“I like.”

“No.”

“Then what?”

Silence returned. It took another hour before I had a better idea.

“You think of something important for them. And I think of something. Then we combine the two.”

“… Yes. Good.”

“Shadow and Hunt”, my sister said a few moments later.

“… why are you so fast?”, I complained. And yet, I was pretty sure I already knew what I wanted to call them.

“Seer and Teacher”, I sent.

“Seer?”

“When we were young, mum always stayed in our nest to protect us. Dad was outside, either hunting or looking for any trouble. He was ‘seeing’ to our well-being.”

She bobbed her head after thinking it through for a moment.

“And how to combine?”

“Seedow? No. That sounds stupid. How about Shadeer for father? And mother can be… I don’t know. That one is difficult.”

“Maybe… Teachunt? Huner?”

“I think those don’t combine well… There might be a better word than teacher…”

Once more, silence spread. Eventually, I thought of something.

“So… Hunt could be said as hunter. Teacher could be said as mentor. They both end on -tor. Maybe we can call her Tora?”

My sister blinked.

“Why not Tor?”

“It needs the ‘a’ to sound like a woman.”

“… why?”

“… I don’t know. It could be Tori? Or Toru?”

“Or Tera.”

“That… Terra means earth. It’s the aspect of earth, you know?”

“Oh.”

We spent some more time staring into the trees. It was soon to be time for father’s shift and he would take the little ones out to practice hunting once again. I did not want to be here when they woke up if I was completely honest with myself. I could do without the drama of terrified chicks.

“Let’s think about it?”, I suggested.

My sister met my eyes.

“I like Terra”, she sent.

“… why?”

“It sounds nice.”

“Well… We could just call her Aeria or something. Based on air.”

Her eyes widened.

“That’s well!”

“You mean good.”

“But it’s doing the being!”

“That’s just how it is.”

“Words…”

“Yep. Words.”

We decided to wait for the next morning to tell our parents their names. Dad was overjoyed while mum was a little more shy about it. We made sure to have all of us be there together. Now, mum’s status showed ‘Aeria’ as her name while dad’s showed ‘Shadeer’. Mum told us she had something in mind for my sister but wanted to get better at speaking and discuss it with dad first. That would happen sometime in the future.

For now, I wanted to get myself some food as well. The sun had just risen and it was as good a time as any to get myself some fresh rodent for breakfast.