=Gaspard & Ciara & Emlyn | Just After Noon | Town Circle
Gaspard might have only been speaking broken Aurellian, but it wasn’t shattered beyond all repair. Still, quite old seemed an understatement where his books were concerned, given that he sounded as if he had belonged to a time several centuries past. “I would like to see those books sometime, if you would care to lend them to me?” There was no way that she and Gaspard would fall into a similar arrangement to the one she had with the Marshall, but Ciara wanted to help in some small way, if possible. Seeing what Gaspard had started off with would give an indication of whether it was the student or the source material that was the root cause of his problem.
Not that it was some terrible thing, to speak the way he did. He had managed to convey his message, more or less. It also spoke to a quiet dedication, if he had tried to learn a language entirely alone without a teacher there to guide his grammar and pronunciation.
Emlyn’s enthusiasm was as bright as the sun shining overhead, but Ciara could tell that she was taking care to slow down in an effort to speak more clearly. The gods only knew how fast the milkmaid could chatter away when she was really excited, and it was sweet of her to make a concerted effort to make Gaspard feel welcome. Even if her aim fell a little shy of her mark; Ciara had strong doubts that Gaspard would go so far as to wear a flower crown. Still, he had surprised her once already today, so who knew?
“You are more than welcome, as I’m sure you could tell,” she said to Gaspard in Clovennian, before one corner of her lips ticked upward into a faint grin.
That much would have been clear to anyone, regardless of the language they spoke. The rest was not so guaranteed. “Emlyn wants to know if she can make you a crown of flowers, and if you would like to dance. If your first answer is a ‘no’, then perhaps you can console her with a ‘yes’ to the second. But if you would like a crown, you can spend the time it takes her to make one dancing with me.”
Both options were a challenge, and Ciara enjoyed the tease of it for a beat before offering a third option for escape. “We can of course look for something to eat or drink, if neither of the other choices appeal.”