V
“Veselin? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
Veselin stood above the ape creature, the hand holding a small jar of healing balm quivering. He was only trying to keep the thing from dying. “I… I was just doing Grandma’s healing ritual, and then the human started talking... “
“Maybe you mixed up the steps? It’s the forehead slap first, then the balm on the gills!” Mila, his sister, chimed in, “do humans even have gills?”
“They don’t! I just put it all over its face- that's not the point! It talked, didn’t any of you hear it?”
“Hear what?” she approached the bed. “The chattering?”
“But it wasn’t chattering! It spoke!”
She laughed. “Well, if you could call that speaking-”
“Did you not understand it?!”
His father spoke up. “Calm down, Veselin! You must be hearing things.”
“I am NOT!” Veselin turned back to the human, who looked terrified. “Say something. Anything.”
In a hoarse voice, they spoke: “.....something?”
“There! You see?” He turned to his family, but was met with confused looks. “You didn’t hear that..?”
The human spoke up. “Where am I? And why are you the only one talking Obrexian?”
“Talking what?”
“Obrexian. My language. You’re talking it, while the rest of you are speaking gibberish.”
Veselin’s barbels bristled. “Our language is NOT gibberish, thank you very much!”
“Seems like it to me,” the human murmured.
He turned to face his family again. “Did you catch any of that?”
Again, blank faces. Mila seemed especially concerned. “It has a… very strong accent?”
His father stood up from the wicker chair, approaching the bed. He snatched the balm from his son’s hands. “Maybe this is expired…”
“I’m not crazy!!!” Veselin cried, crossing his arms. “The ape talks!”
The human gasped. “Who are you calling-”
They were cut off by the sound of a horn from above ground. The sun was at its peak in the sun; it was lunch time.
“Ope, time to go!” Mila and Veselin’s father went towards the entrance of their home, changing from their dry indoor clothes to their waterproof clothes to leave into the river. “Are you coming, Veselin?”
Veselin looked at them, then back towards the human. “...I’ll catch up with you two.”
They dived into the water and swam up and out onto the surface, leaving Veselin and the human alone.
