[center][h1]Learning[/h1][/center] [hr] It —they? No, it— did not think. Not really, not yet. It did not have emotions, either. But it did feel things. It remembered, too. Remembered its Creator, remembered its mission, remembered all it had come across until now. It remembered that bright periods lasted a certain time, then were followed by a dark period, and on and on and on. It remembered that three bright-dark cycles ago, it touched something liquid and cold, and became wet itself, and almost froze when the colder dark period came. It remembered the time it fell from high and almost scattered from the impact. It remembered every time its parts met and became one, and everything else his parts remembered. But it could not remember heat since it became what it is now. It knew heat, it knew it had been in a very hot place when its great self had been created. But since it had been broken apart, it had only felt cold. Cold, cold, cold... That changed pretty quick. It felt something move nearby, in the minute vibrations of the earth and air. Something big, much bigger than itself. It followed the new thing. And then it felt heat. The new big thing was warm, the air around it too. The new thing made sound and moved and moved other things. Maybe the new thing was a person. It had never met a person other than its great self and its Creator. Right now, though, it wasn't a person, not yet. But if it became big enough, if enough of its kind joined it, it could be a person then, and it could meet the maybe-person. It followed the maybe-person. It followed for a bit, and then got closer, and reached out, and touched the maybe-person… …It was like a jolt of ice had touched her. Which was funny, because Toffee no longer really felt the cold. Or anything other than her feverish body. It kickstarted her awareness and her mind began to think, to reason, to react beyond instinct. She was sore, hungry, thirsty and her head was pounding. Why was she moving so slowly? What was she holding? With a slow turn of her head, her eyes rested upon her spear, dragged to the point the stonehead was gone. Dark splotches covered the spear where it wasn’t cracked. Another jolt- no, a touch, made her blink and look in the other direction. Her eyes meandered until they reached the ground and she just… Looked at the pile of sand. Sand? Why was that strange again? Her eyes blinked at different times and it dawned on her- it was still winter. In the forest. Covered in patchy snow. And yet here was a pile of sand and it was following her? She came to a slow stop and the sand stopped. Huh. Her mind, still processing this strange sight, found it hard to comprehend. Then the pile of sand reached out with a tendril and touched her. Right where the furs covering her leg had been torn to shreds. When did that happen? Then reality came crashing down and Toffee’s expression went from numb slackness, to pure shock. She instantly backed away and kicked at the thing, before tripping and falling down into a snow covered bush… …It had not expected the maybe-person to move away from it so fast, or to kick at— The sand pile was scattered across the forest floor. It laid unmoving for a few long moments… before little by little, sand grains began to move around, reaching for each other and sticking together in pairs, and then more, and more. Soon, a larger blob of sand was the center on which all other sand particles converged. It rapidly grew back to its previous size, as if Toffee's kick had never happened. It shook once, twice. And then it began to feel and remember. It remembered the kick, though it had happened to a previous self, not it. It remembered the feeling of scattering, and reforming. It remembered that the maybe-person (or just person? it had reacted to it, nothing else had so far) was nearby. And unlike its previous self, this one was much bolder. I flowed smoothly to where the person was laying, and reached again, this time not just to poke, but to fully wrap around an ankle. It didn't try to harm or crush. It simply felt. The texture, the heat, the minute tremors of the skin, how it broke out into goosebumps. And when satisfied, it let go, and waited for the person to move. It would follow. It would grow, and learn, and become a person, and meet the person in front of it… …Toffee stared, dumbfounded. She had stopped struggling as the thing approached her, despite her instincts wanting only one other thing- fight. She shut her eyes as the battle inside of her was waged and before she knew it, the thing had touched her again. Green eyes snapping open, she looked, she waited and then it let go and stilled. She waited for a few more minutes, never taking her eyes off the pile. When she was sure it wasn’t going to try anything, she picked herself up, wincing as the bush scraped her skin. When she was on her feet, she patted, removing most of the debris and snow on her. She looked towards where she had left her spear, thought better of it and took a single step forward… …and it moved with her, following close enough to not lose her, but far enough that it could probably manage to dodge another kick. It shadowed her next few steps the same way, only once briefly darting off to the side where it had felt the call of a small, thumb-sized colony of its brethren. It had swiftly merged with them, and went back to following the person. It still hadn't heard the person talk. Its great self had been taught language, and so it knew of it as well, but it had yet to hear it. Was the person unable to talk? Or did people only talk with other people? If that was the case, he needed to hurry up and become a person, if it was to learn about languages… …“What in all the great spirits are you?!” Toffee said, her voice a bit shaky. She winced at the sound and her throat throbbed with use. How had- No no. Focus! The thing was unnerving and it was following her! Except when it darted away but then it returned! “Answer me, damn you!” she cried, now a tad hoarse… …it jolted at the words. The person spoke! It actually spoke! If it could feel emotions, it would tremble in joy. Now, it didn't really know exactly [i]what[/i] the person had said… but it sounded harsh. Panicked? Or angry? Was the person afraid of it? It did not have a clear reference for those feelings, so it could not be sure. It did not damage the person, either, so why would they be afraid of it? It only followed, only learned. It felt it, then. The call. Another collective like itself, but not small like the ones it had been merging with so far. A big one, like itself. Maybe even larger than itself. If they met, if they became one, it could be enough to make it a person. It began moving in a direction, and then stopped, fighting against its instinct to just rush to its brethren. When the person did not follow it, it moved closer again, before moving back towards where it wanted to go. Would the person understand? Would they follow?... …“Want me to follow, don’t you?” Toffee sighed, then she took a deep breath through her nose. She didn’t want to do this. She was hungry and tired and she needed to figure out what had happened to her. What was her last memory…? It was… Red. Red and blood. Blood and red. Pain and anger. Anger and pain. She gritted her teeth and pounded her forehead with her palm. “Ancestors!” she cursed and looked at the damn pile of sand. It would be, if anything, a distraction from her own memories. Fine. She would follow and began to walk after it… …the person followed! It began to move through the brush, stopping from time to time so that the person would not lose sight of it. It felt the call get closer. Just as he had answered it, its brethren also answered to its own answering call. They were getting very close to each other. And as it went around a bush, it saw it. A collective twice, no, at least three times its own size. It shook with anticipation, and as if obeying an unseen signal, both rushed towards each other. They crashed in a spray of sand. Connection after connection formed, mixing their beings until they could no longer be separated. The new self stayed still for a moment. It felt the wind and the ground. It heard the breaths of the person who had followed one of its parts here. It remembered so much more now. And then it felt something else, something new. Something inside, a strange metaphorical warmth, an elation. Joy. It was a person now too! It could feel it. Could feel the real thoughts flowing in its mind. The wants, the curiosity, the emotions. [i]We wonder if we can understand each other. We hope they are nice. We're so happy to meet them! Are there other people near as well?[/i] It stretched its body, firming up its shape from the amorphous puddle it had become. It stretched up, and up, until it was about half the height of the person accompanying it. It stretched a tendril, and from it, other smaller tendrils, crudely imitating one of the person's hands. It waved the new appendage around, trying to catch their attention. It hadn't figured out how to speak yet, so this would have to do for now… …Toffee stared in bemused disbelief. The sand found more sand? That sand became a child sand? Had that been a baby before? No, no focus Toffee! She slapped herself and the sting brought about a certain clarity only pain could draw. It was waving at her. But how? How could it see? “What’s going on?” she asked aloud, hoping for an answer. When one did not come, the absurdity of it made her laugh but she sobered quickly when a stark realization overtook her. Her expression then grew dark and she spun around, growing more and more agitated. “Teefee!” she barked. “Teefee if this is a dream, I swear-” she cut off, not knowing really how to end that sentence. She would swear what? She had left Teefee. Oh. She had left her sister and Tad… …The person talked more! They saw that it tried to communicate, and it even understood a bit of what they said! This was going great! If only it could figure out how to speak too, it could answer their questions… The person used air to talk… Maybe it could try something like that? It reabsorbed its waving appendage, and opened its top to swallow a large bubble of air. It quickly made itself as hard as it could, so that the air could not escape, and then observed the person some more. The finer details were most likely lost on it, as it did not really see, and instead used its senses to feel the general shape of obstacles around it, but it understood the general gist of how to speak. There was a hole that could change shape, and when air left that hole, sound was made. So, it imitated it as best as it could. A small hole linking the air reservoir and the exterior formed on its surface, facing the person. It tried expelling air a few times, but it took some tweaking before it managed to make a single sharp whistling note. It froze for a second, then started doing it again and again, finding different notes and sounds. “Fooooo… Fweeeeep… Fwee! Fee!” It concentrated. It felt like it was about to manage a real mortal word. It shook its body, trying to add some percussive sounds as well. “Tsch. Fee. Tchee. Fee. Teefee? Ssshyou? Shyou Teefee?” It vibrated in pure glee, overwhelmingly happy to have copied the person’s words. It was doing it! It was speaking too! Maybe they could introduce themselves to each other now… …She recoiled as if someone else had slapped her. This was no dream, she realized.. But she couldn’t rule out it wasn’t a nightmare either. When could sand talk? Then again, this wasn’t ordinary sand. Was it… copying her? Toffee narrowed her eyes. Only one way to find out. “What is this?” she asked, “What are you…” …Oh, that was an easy question! “Tch. Ee!… Tsheesh… Thish. Ish. Weee. Sshaaa. Buh. Bu.” Mmhhh, okay, an easy question, but not an easy answer. It tried again. “We sha-bul-ho. Shabulo. Sabulo. We Sabulon! We rem… burrr… We are remember, we are peep... People! Frrriend!” “Shyou tal… talk. Shyou are people alsho. Also. Cree… Kht… Cree-ah-tor… Creator said so!” It was really getting the hang of it by now! It was very proud of itself for trying so hard, which was a nice feeling. It was also very proud of the other person (Teefee?) for listening so well to it. It knew that it could just approximate the right vibrations, so it was grateful for the other’s attentiveness. Speaking was much harder than it had expected, it turned out… …So it wasn’t copying her then. She noted that and her head began to hurt. If this wasn’t some sort of trick or dream or even a nightmare, then this meant that a pile of sand was communicating with her. Trying to, at least. And it had called her friend. Why? She was overthinking this entire situation, wasn’t she? Did it even know what a friend was? it obviously was just figuring out how to talk. “You are Sabulon then? You are… People?” she asked, the words just sounding ridiculous in her mouth when they were targeted at sand. “Who was your creator?” she followed up… …“Earth. Khthon. Khthon-Earth. Creator-Earth. He made Sabulon, made grrrreat one selfff. Then scattered ussss everywhere! Many ssssmall sssselves now, to learn and remember,” it recounted, thinking back to its great self’s birth in the Pale Wastes. “Whhho made shyou, Teefee-Friend? Not Khthon. Too ssssoft forrr Khthon. So who? What? Why?” it questioned as it began circling the person, trying to get a better sense of their shape. Tall, and long, and soft, and with no way to change shape, it looked like. What a strange creature… or was it the strange one of the two?… …Toffee tried to recollect if she had ever heard of this Khthon but she came up blank. She scrunched her nose as a cloud moved overhead and light fell on her face. She grumbled something unintelligible and then said, “I’m not Teefee. My name is Toffee. And I’ve never heard of your creator before and to be honest, I was made by my mother, not a creator. Well I guess in a sense she was my creator but that’s besides the point. Uhm,” she followed the creature as it circled her, “What are you doing…?” …So the person was not a “Teefee”, but rather a “Toffee”. Good to know! And Toffee was made by a “mother”, whoever that was. Toffee's question caught it a bit off guard. Was it not obvious? “We are obser-fing. Observing. Learning. What Toffee-Friend is like.” It remade its hand-like appendage to demonstrate, and then for good measure also made a long, swishing thing like the one on Toffee's back. A tail. “Learn the sssshape. Ifff we meet more Friends-Like-Toffee, we know what they are!” it explained excitedly, waving its appendages around, “Shyou are ssstrange for Sabulon. One big piece, not many sssmall pieces like us. So we learn!” “Are shyou alone? Are more people around? We would like to meet more people!...” …More people? Her face went slack. “There are no people around.” she said, “And I’m not your friend. We just met.” she sighed and sat down on a rock, finally looking at herself. She was shocked to see that most of her fur garment was torn and ripped. More alarming were the dark burgundy splotches. Had she been bleeding? Checking quickly for wounds she found only small cuts and scrapes. Then she felt her face and found the tacky-feeling blood all over it. Perhaps the greatest gut punch of all, was that she wasn’t bothered about this, whatsoever. She gripped her face and moaned, “I’m a mess…” …They weren’t friends? But she hadn’t tried scattering it since the one time it startled her, so she clearly wasn’t an enemy either… and it tried to be nice to her… if that didn’t make them friends, then what were they to each other? That question would have to wait, though. Toffee looked… distressed. Did it make Toffee sad somehow? Was Toffee damaged?! “Isss Toffee alright? Doesss Toffee need help? We not know how flessssh works… Doessss Toffee need other Toffees? We can help! We not know where otherssss are, but we know where otherssss [i]not[/i] are!” It twisted itself in distress, half reaching towards Toffee… …She looked at the thing and couldn’t help but smile. But it didn’t really reach her eyes. “You’re sweet, Sabulon. You remind me of my sister, at least, who I thought she was. But no, I don’t need others like me. I’m just tired…” …Oh, she was just tired. That was a relief! Tiny parts of itself sometimes got tired too, and went in dormance for a while. She was just one big part, though, so she probably had to go in dormance all at once. Though the cold was probably bad for her; it remembered finding something soft like Toffee, but it did not move or make noise, and it was very cold. “Toffee can resssst. We find warm place, dark place, and shyou go in dormance. We make sure is ssssafe for shyou!” It pointed with its whole body to the east. “We remember cave, Earth-home, not farrrr. We sssshow shyou, if shyou want…” …She perked up at that but only a little. Toffee wasn’t really sure if she could trust the pile but honestly, it just seemed way too… innocent. Which also reminded her of Teefee and brought about a really strong feeling of guilt. It would probably be the best for both of them if she just got up and ran but at the same time, she couldn’t help but want to protect this thing. She stood up, placing her hands on her hips and said, “Okay Sab. As long as you promise not to murder me in my sleep, you can lead the way and I’ll follow. And I’ll teach you a few things…” …It jolted and stood very straight, as if standing at attention. Toffee was going to teach it! How amazing! It did not know what “murder” was, so it did not think it would do it, but it would ask Toffee on the way, so that it would not happen accidentally. It did not want to make her mad, or sad. “Toffee follow ussss! Cave is not far, we arrrrrrive before dark issss here.” Its shape became low and long, and it began slithering along the forest floor, trying to find the clearest path forward. “Shyou will see, issss nice. No wind to blow you away!...” …“You’re an odd little thing.” Toffee commented as they walked. “But okay. Here’s a lesson for you, Sab. You seem really new to life, so just know not all people you’ll meet will be kind. I’m not particularly kind, mind you but others will be worse. They won’t be your friends.” She thought about her village and about Malac. She looked at the snake-like sand and pursed her lips, “Most might scream or be alarmed when they first see a talking pile of sand, that’s just how us humans react to strange things. They’ll get used to you, I’m sure.” She felt her lips crack a little as she moved her mouth and she rubbed her throat. “We should find some wate-” she cut off and realized she was stupid. Toffee then grabbed a handful of snow and put it into her mouth. It was freezing and the amount of water she got was miniscule but it helped a little… …So not everyone would be as nice as Toffee? That was a shame… but it supposed how people could be not-nice was worth learning about as well. As for how others would react to it, it had handled Toffee’s initial reaction, so it would figure out how to handle the others in due time. For now, it had another question in mind. “Shyou said ‘human’. Shyou human? But shyou Toffee. What issss difference between human and Toffee? Sssame thing?” it asked, a bit confused. “And what did shyou do with cold-wet? Shyou take and put in shyou? Why? Isss feels good?...” …“The difference?” She said, pondering the question. Her brow furrowed. Was pretty hard to think about deep questions like that when your head was still pounding and your throat was dry but she’d try. “It’s basically the same. I am Toffee. You are Sab. I am human. You are… Sand, I guess?” She shrugged, good enough. “It’s called snow. Just another form of water, like the rain or a pond. I’m thirsty and it helps a little…” …“Snow” could melt into “water”. “Water” could be found in “ponds” and “rain”. It felt good to be able to put words on what it had learned. It really liked Toffee, she was very helpful. “We are Sabulon. Sabulon are ssssand. We are Sab to shyou. We think we undersssstand.” It seemed other people had more than one name. Toffee had already given it one. “Sab”. It was a funny feeling, but it did not hate it. It supposed it could be handy to be separate from other Sabulon, and… oh! That was the whole point of names, wasn’t it? “We not know what ‘thirsty’ is, but more wet-water and ssssnow is on the way, iffff helpsss. But we will not touch wet-water, we not want to freeze! Freeze make moving not-easy.” Sab carefully went around a puddle of half-melted slush as it said this… “...Yes. Winter has come. It’s my first winter, probably yours too. I can’t say I’m much of a fan.” she sighed. Silence stretched and Toffee’s thoughts began to encroach upon what in the ancestor’s names was she doing? Clothes ripped. Bloodstained. Fatigued. Hoarse. What had she done? Why couldn’t she remember? “Hey… Sab? When you found me, do you remember what I was doing?” she asked… …“Sabulon remember everything,” Sab stated matter-of-factly, “Shyou was moving, lesssss fast than now. Shyou was holding sssstick, and shyou was not talking, and then shyou kicked part of usssss.” It paused for a moment, trying to piece all of its observations together into one bigger conclusion. “Shyou… not looked well... Shyou look better now.” Then it reared up a bit, pointing through the trees nearby. “We here! At cave!” On a little bit of raised land sat what looked like boulders that had crashed against each other. A small opening laid at the base of the rocky formation, an opening Sab knew led to a larger cavity, hidden from the elements, perfect to take refuge in. “Shyou can resssst soon, and we not ‘murder’ shyou, whatever that meanssss!” It wiggled happily, proud to be helping its not-yet-friend… …Toffee eyed the opening with apprehension, Sab’s words taking their time to digest. She had never really been underground before and wasn’t sure if she’d like it much. Still, it was shelter, wasn’t it? More importantly, “Can you even see me, Sab? How did you even get us here…?” “...We remember way. Part of usssss wasss here before. We remember rockssss on the way, how fassst to move, how long to move. Issss easy!” it explained. “And we not see. We not have eyes! We feel. Feel light and feel other Sabulon. Feel heat and touch.” Sab concentrated a bit more on what it could feel from Toffee, trying to get a better picture of her. “We know shyou ssssoft from touch. We know shyou are warm. We know sssshape of shyou. We know you not sssame color as bright-time sky. We know how shyour voice movesss in air. But no details.” It paused once more, trying to put its feelings into words. “No details that shyou can feel, at leassst. Isss not bad. We not not-see in dark, issss practical!” It slithered into the cave entrance, and waved at Toffee through it. “Follow! Is sssafe. Khthon not get mad if you not steal…” …Toffee staggered a bit as she stood before the entrance. The sand’s explanation on how it viewed the world really didn’t register with her. Even her own thoughts were getting muddied. She didn’t really catch the last thing Sab said either, as her mind began to swim. Her knees buckled and the exhaustion she felt finally caught up to her and she collapsed before the entrance. The world went dark… …Sab, well, Sab panicked. For the first time ever, it felt fear. “Toffee? Toffee?! Can shyou hear usss?!” When she failed to respond, it began nudging her, and when [i]that[/i] failed as well, it had to think of a proper solution. It wrapped around her waist and pulled, trying to drag her into the cave proper. It felt bad for the scratches its sandy self and the floor would create—it did not want to damage Toffee—but scratches were better than freezing in the wind. Warm. Things needed to be warmer. Sab had thought Toffee would be able to make fire herself, but it seemed it was going to have to figure something out. It dashed out of the cave. It remembered how a tree had burned in a storm, and so it broke sticks from small trees and shrubs, and carried them back inside. It remembered the feeling of its parts rubbing against rock, against itself, and the brief spark of heat that it created, and began rubbing sticks against each other. It took hours of tries and near misses, but eventually, a small smolder appeared. A small smolder that spread to the branches and the wood, and grew into small flames. Fire. Warmth. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. Sab would keep the fire fed, avoiding the too-wet wood. When the flames were high, it would sometimes heat itself in it and then lay on Toffee, trying to warm her up more directly. It slowly counted the hours until Toffee would wake again… …It would not be until a full day passed before Toffee finally stirred. When she did, she gasped loudly and sat up. She was momentarily confused by where she was. It was dark, only the faintest embers of red light lay next to her and furthermore, she was covered in sand. If it wasn’t for that fact, she would have dismissed the previous day as a dream. A strange dream but a dream nonetheless. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes. She was still tired but she was so hungry and so thirsty. “Sab?” She said in a hoarser voice, if that was even possible. “What happened…?” …Sab jolted up and climbed off of Toffee. “Toffee! Shyou back!” it semi-yelled, relieved beyond belief. “Shyou stopped moving and ssssspeaking! Was it dormance? It sssscared usss…” “Are shyou well? Are shyou cold? We can make more fire…” It twisted itself in worry. “We not know what elsssse… water? ‘Thirsssty’?...” …She nodded slowly. “That’s… Thank you Sab. I am thirsty, yes. And I’m hungry. I should go and hunt while I still have strength in me.” she groaned as she stood up. This creature had helped her, repeatedly and this was weighing upon Toffee. It was a good weight, she realized. It meant she had grown fond of it. How odd. “Come on friend, you can learn some more if you stick with me for a bit…” Toffee said with a smile. “Friend! Shyesss, we will follow Friend-Toffee!” Sab answered as it followed her out of the cave. [hider=Summary] A Sabulon comes across a strange person, finds its voice and learns. Toffee finds a pile of sand that learns to talk, struggles with her memories of the previous few days and eventually comes to accept ‘Sab’ as a friend. Goes to show that friendships really do come in all different shapes and sizes. [/hider]