Bast was quiet, which she usually wasn't, but this time she had to be. Because she had to listen to everything Hooty said. He used big words, really big words, and he didn't try not to use them just because she was little. Bast really liked that, because it meant he thought she was smart too. So she tried very hard to be smart and figure out what the big words meant just by what he was saying. She was pretty sure she got some of it, but not all of it.
It was like that word he'd used. Context. Hooty said it was how people could figure out what the symbols meant when they weren't sure. So Bast needed to figure out what context was, and how to use it. It was a way to learn, and she really wanted to learn.
But he said people could be taught too. Could he teach? Could he teach her? Because Bast wanted to know.
“So sometimes, it's okay to make it up a little bit,” she said, trying to say what he said in her own way, “if you keep the meaning mostly the same, but sometimes, you need to say it just right because changing something would make it not what was really meant. Right?”
Bast shoved half the honey cake into her mouth, chewing furiously as she thought about that. Then, after swallowing only half of what was in her mouth, her words were a little muddled when she said, “So it's better to know 'xactly what it says before you make...” she paused, trying to remember the word. “Interpations. So you should learn what the pictures mean, right? I want to learn.”