brain like NYU

Dawn had come and gone, but not by very long. The sun was above the horizon now. A hint of blue lay around its edges, while much of the sky was still purple. They'd been walking for a little while now. This is lame! Divo lamented internally, kicking a pebble from the path. So far, she liked Olya. She liked to tell stories even more than mama, and she laughed a lot. No one laughed as much as her, in the whole family. Except, maybe, Yaya and Dom. Maybe. It was a tight contest, between the three.

All morning they followed the river, going the wrong way from its flow. Apparently that was the way to the sea. Except that the sea was on the other side. Divo had already been to the sea, and it had been cold. And back home, not here. She wasn't sure what Olya intended. "Your lessons will be taught in the common tongue, Divo." The shaman said, after a long time without saying much. Her strange, dual toned eyes locked onto Divo's own mismatched pair. She always seemed so dreamy, and lost in her thoughts, when they walked. Dom was like that, sometimes. The girl whined, low in her throat. "Whyyyy?" She asked, but Olya was already talking. "To better your use of it, over time." She said, looking away again. "Oh."

Oooh pretty. The sunlight made it easy to see the bright yellow flowers to her right, near the trees. They looked soft, and fluffy. She wanted to eat them, and see what they tasted like. Would they be soft in her mouth? Or like when Dom had convinced her to eat the thistle? That was not fun. Vaugely she could hear Olya talking, but she wasn't invested in listening anymore. "Today, we are looking for an herb called Earth Smoke. My teacher preferred that name, though I usually call it Fumitory."

Jaws parted to enclose one of the blossoms in her teeth, and pluck it from the earth. The stem oozed onto her lips, and she nearly dropped the flower altogether. Were they supposed to drool? She'd never seen a plant drool! The tiny yellow bloom was soft. "Divo!" Olya snapped. Whoops.

Whirling to look at her teacher, eyes wide, the girl couldn't defend herself. What was there to say? Chewing the flower wasn't as fun as she thought it would be. The little bits got caught in her teeth, and didn't taste all that great. A lot like grass, actually. With a strange, milky part to it. Was that the plant drool? Did plants make milk? "Sorry Olya."

walk "Talk" think