Ah, the gentle reader returns.

So now that we have met Hestia, perhaps now we can go about out main character's education. Or snap her mind in half with just how alien this world really is to our own.

Shall we?

Chapter 4

She looked at me a moment, probably wondering why I looked at her with a 'oh SURE you are' look of disbelief. I wouldn't ever expect a Goddess to dress like she was. A white shirt, white elbow gloves and simple sandals. The only colour on her clothes was a blue ribbon that was tied to both her upper arms and ran under her breasts. Her hair was done up in twin tails, held in place by two neat white and blue bows.

"You can understand me right?" She asked, to which I nodded, "And that certainly isn't the local language you're speaking, right?" I nodded again. "Do you doubt your senses often? Or are you really that daft?"

I looked down at the ground... Or tried to. This lady had a staggeringly huge bust for her size. Not wanting to get lost looking down THAT particular thought I said, slowly, just to keep calm, "I have had a very confusing time recently. I arrived in town, naked, was rescued after trying to be a hero. I have since then seen things that my mind can only just barely comprehend." I looked up into her eyes again, "Aside from numbers, I cannot read or speak to anyone. I've heard six different languages too. It has been very frustrating."

She frowned at me thoughtfully, but I continued, "Then, I hear your voice, and understand it. I've been humbled so badly recently, that I don't want to ask an more favors. But please? Can you help me?"

She smiled at me, and for an instant, the logical bit of my brain simply snapped off. In the past, you might have had to hit me with art to get me to notice, let alone care. But her smile made me think of all the simple things I enjoyed, that I had to throw away as I got older. "How can I help?" She asked.

Mia had given me the rest of the day off to talk with this 'Goddess'. We went to my room, where I offered her my bed to sit on, while I sat in a chair. She introduced herself as Hestia for starters. My history lessons were sketchy on the name, but I recognized it instantly as the Greek goddess of the hearth or fireplace. She also said she wasn't the only deity to descend either.

"So... You were all bored?" I asked, "You descended from the heavens because you had nothing better to do?"

"More or less." She replied. "Eternity is very dull, but the children are so interesting. With your short lives you accomplish so much..."

For a divine being, she was quite easy to get along with. A little childish in her mannerisms, but I hardly minded that. "So..." I started, then stopped, my tail making a 'swish swish' noise as the tip brushed the floor. "I have so many questions... It's hard to begin..." I trailed off with a sigh, "I've never been good at speaking to others."

"How about I start then?" Hestia asked before I waved a hand for her to continue. "You lied when you told me your name." She didn't seem angry, just matter of fact.

"Eight days ago, I dropped from where I was, to the middle of a back alleyway not too far from here. Literally." I half smiled at the memory, "I... Was different than what I am now. My old name didn't fit me, so I started new."

"Different?" She blinked at me, and I nodded. "Different how?"

I couldn't bring myself to deny her an answer, and I wasn't ready to tell her everything... so I gave her half truths, "I was nearly forty years old, for one. I had a job that paid the rent, fed me, and just barely kept me sane. But I was basically just existing." She nodded at me, "When I got here, I was like this." I motioned to myself with one hand, holding my tail in the other. The latter brought me comfort, so I hugged it to myself, "I couldn't understand anyone. None of the patrons could either. It's been very frustrating."

"So how do you want me to help?" She asked.

"Materially, I absolutely need only two things." I replied, my logical side taking over again. "To learn the language, I need the alphabet, and a book meant for children. A Rosetta stone, so to speak."

"Really? Why didn't you ju... oh, right." she started, then trailed off. "That's it?"

"Material wise, yes. I am sure I can get the help I need here to actually learn it. If it weren't for Mia and the others, I'd probably be... Actually, I'm not going to think about that." Hestia nodded at my decision. "But aside from that, I'd like to know what is going on in this city... Gods and Goddess, legendary structures, mercenaries, people throwing other people around like paper..."

"I'm not very good with history, being kind of new here too... But I'll try." Hestia replied with a shy smile.

Somewhere around the middle of her history lesson, the logical side of my brain simply gave up. Monsters from underground, sealed by the giant tower Babel. Adventurers, not mercenaries, gifted with a divinity's blessing or 'Falna'. Once blessed the mortal does heroic things to gather 'exilia' to raise their abilities. Certain thresholds mark out 'levels' which give much larger leaps in ability.

These adventurers go to the dungeon to keep the monsters at bay. The monsters are born from the dungeon, and hold within them a 'magic stone'. Those are sold to the governing body of the town, the 'Guild' (which I learned Eina was a representative of) for money, and used in all sorts of applications. Mostly as an energy source.

I also learned the proper names of some of the races. Mia for instance, was a Dwarf. I would never have guessed that one. But there were many others, from all around the world. Humans, elves, cat people, Chienthrope (dog people), dwarves, pallum (a sort of child like demi-human) and my own apparent race, Renard, who were rare outside their homeland, and usually had some kind of inborn magic.

"You look puzzled." Hestia said, looking at me then out the window at the lowering sun.

"Not puzzled... I understand so far. But where I am from, we had nearly none of this. The gods were nothing more than history lessons at best, footnotes at worst." I sighed, "And most of them were jerks. Humanity was more of a plaything for them. Maiden raping, village burning, monster spawning... Oh... Sorry."

I tried to comfort the suddenly downcast Goddess. "Always good ones in the bunch though." I smiled at her. "I think we have a little more time before the dinner crowd comes in."

"One more lesson then. Was there something in particular?" She asked, brightening up again.

"You mentioned some where in there, 'Familia'." I started.

"Oh! When a God or Goddess gifts their falna on a mortal, they become part of their Familia. In exchange for the gift of falna, the Familia takes care of their patron." She frowned slightly, "I only have one person in my Familia so far, and I have to work a part time job to make ends meet..."

I had the sudden urge to reach out and pat the young looking Goddess on the head, so I did. I noted that her hair was impossibly soft. "Since we ate all of the potato puffs you were trying to sell, how about I ask Mia to pay for them, for today. And you can come back with my poor man's Rosetta stone."

She looked at me with a smile, "Deal."

With Hestia translating for me, I told Mia my plan, and begged her to buy the potato puffs Hestia had come into the tavern with. Reluctantly she agreed, but she smiled all the same at my good fortune. After Hestia left, Mia took me aside and handed me a small pouch on a long string.

"Pay." She said, using one of the half dozen words I'd picked up. I accepted it without opening it, and tied it around my neck before tucking it under my uniform inside my binding. She then gave me one of her matronly pats on the head, then started belting out orders to prepare for the dinner rush.

The next day was by far the most awkward. It started out as usual. Ryuu taught me how to fall while I tried to punch and kick in what I hoped was her general direction. I was getting a little better, I thought, but that might have just been Ryuu taking pity on me and letting me get closer with my attacks.

No. The awkwardness came after. As per usual, I was going to let her into the bathroom first, but she instead tugged me inside as well. She then started stripping out of her practice clothes, and motioned me to do the same. Puzzled, I did so, politely turning my back to her while she ran some hot water into the bathtub.

As soon as I had the ribbon binding my breasts in place, I felt a brush against my tail, and hands come up under my arms. Had this been a week ago, the contact with my tail would have locked me in place, but now, I simply held very still.

I made a questioning noise as Ryuu's hands cupped the underside of my breasts. I'd only ever given myself a few experimental pokes and prods, to make sure they were in fact attached to me, and not just some hallucination. But here I was getting groped by my elven sparring partner.

She wasn't moving her hands, just holding my extra anatomy up gently, making a 'hmm' noise, before giggling quietly as my tail started to wrap around her leg in a friendly manner.

I was about to try turning around, but she let go and gave me a little push. I turned around to face her but she was already getting into the bath. She waved me over to get in too, and we quickly scrubbed off the morning's exercise in silence.

I figured out later more or less why she had given me a surprise fondle. After I had dressed for work and stepped out of my room, I saw her and Mia having a quiet chat. No more than a few sentences. After that however, Ryuu approached, pointed back to my room and said "Valis."

Shortly after, Ryuu and I were standing in front of a just opening shop a little ways off the main street. I couldn't read the sign obviously, but from the frills and such in the window, as well as the small window display. A woman's clothing store.

I suppose I did only have very small selection of clothing. And they weren't really even mine.

With Ryuu's help, and my own ability to read price tags, I used what money I had been payed to get real clothing for myself. It was hard to tell if Ryuu approved of my selection. But she helped me find the right sizes due to her earlier 'helping hands'. I kept it simple and conservative. I knew I had curves. Nice ones too. But honestly I'd rather not have shown them off any more than I had to.

The shopkeeper, a middle aged human who was nearly falling over herself trying to get me to try things on, was very helpful. And in the end, I purchased two sets of the same clothes and two pair of what a modern day women would call 'sport bras'. Ryuu didn't even raise an eyebrow at my choice, and even bought two pair for herself when she saw me hop up and down a couple of times to see just how bouncy I was. Or rather how bouncy I wasn't, in this case.

She did however raise an eyebrow when I took a scrap bit of paper and drew what I hoped had a similar existence in this world. Boxers.

To my relief, they did in fact exist in this world. And after a quick hunt for a similar store for men, and a weird look from the shopkeeper, I had a few pair of boxers. Thanks to the wide variety of races in Orario, they even had a proper hole in the back for my tail.

Thus carrying my new clothes, we returned. I had settled on a loose fitting pair of pants and a sort of half kimono long sleeved top, both in green to keep it simple and low cost. My undergarments were both dark gray, though that was because I really didn't feel comfortable being brightly coloured.

Still never going to tease a woman about clothing...

Hestia returned just as the dinner rush was getting into full swing. She also had some one with her as well. A young man, a boy really, who was just a little shorter than I was. He too wore adventuring gear, though his was limited to a simple breastplate, a tough looking brown overcoat, dark undershirt, dark pants and simple leather boots with what looked like hard soles on the bottom. What was really remarkable was his face. If this had been my old world, I'd have thought he was albino. But his skin wasn't pure white, just very pale. His eyes however were red, and his hair was snow white. He looked a little nervous in the tavern as he talked to Mia at the counter, and I instantly thought, 'rabbit.'

I met gazes with Mia, and she nodded and waved me over. Expertly weaving around the tables chairs and stray feet, I approached and called out to Hestia. "Welcome back, Hestia."

"Ah Kodori." She replied, though I heard a slight hitch in her voice as she called me by my 'lie' of a name. "I brought you what you asked, and my Familia member." She turned to the boy, "Bell?"

He looked up at me and I extended a hand to him. "Kodori." I said simply.

"Bell Cranell." He replied, shaking my hand like he meant it. I could see that he was timid, but his handshake was solid. He said something else, and I looked to Hestia.

"She can't understand the language yet." She said to Bell, then to me she continued, "Pleased to meet you, Miss Kodori."

I couldn't stop myself from 'snerk'ing into my hand, but before Bell could look too crestfallen I put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Kodori."

He hesitated, but I gave his shoulder a squeeze and he relented, "Kodori." He repeated. I gave his shoulder a pat, then turned back to the Goddess.

"I thank you for your help." I took a half step back and bowed as I did to Ryuu before we started sparring. Hand holding fist in front of me, I bowed, then stood. "I hope to repay you for your kindness some day."

"Well..." She started, but I held up a hand.

"I am on the clock right now. Tomorrow after lunch we can talk?" She smiled and nodded.

"Tomorrow after lunch then." She replied looking at Mia for permission, and smiling brightly at me when my Matron nodded.

That night my lessons started in earnest. Gifted with a simple bit of paper and some help from Chloe this time, I started sounding things out, and writing them on a separate bit of paper as they would translate into English. Just as I did with basic Japanese and Hirugana when I tried to learn it. An interesting thing I'd discovered was that our alphabet was very similar. Same number of letters, in the same order, making almost the same sounds.

After that, I picked up the book I had been given, and started translating. Letter by letter.

Chloe made me stop just before closing to brush my tail. After the first few brush strokes I lost my concentration and put my head down on the bar top where I had been studying. I hadn't gotten too far, but there were a few words I had sought out first, once I knew what to look for.

I flicked my tail away between brush strokes, making Chloe 'eep' as it brushed against her face. I spun around on the bar stool, hopped off and reached out with both arms, collecting the surprised cat girl in a hug. It was then I used my first sought out words, whispering it in her ear.

"Thank you."

She didn't seem to mind the hug at all. I don't think I could have survived it if she had taken offense. This did however attract Arnya and Syr, whom I also hugged and thanked. Lunoire wandered over, question on her face, and I hugged her too, despite having known her less than two days, she had already saved my life. After thanking the three, I went to the kitchen, hugged and thanked the cook May just before she left, and then waited for Mia to put a dry dish away before thanking her as well. Ryuu was washing dishes, so after giving her a hug and thank you, I nudged her out off the stool she was standing on so I could stand on it, bow to them all, and thank them again.

I don't think I'd ever been this happy, and embarrassed, at the same time. My old life was one of a shut in. I had no use for people aside from work and shopping. My family was distant and cold. My social life out side of work was non-existent. New body, new life, new routine. I refused to go back to my old ways. Not after my faith in other thinking beings had been so thoroughly restored.

So there I stood, thanking them with my freshly learned words, making what was probably a total ass of myself.

And not giving one tiny little damn that if I was.

After a small round of applause, Mia put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Dishes."

To which I replied with one other new word. "Yes." And turned to take over washing dishes for Ryuu.

Ryuu must have mentioned something to Lunoire, because the next morning when I went down to spar with the elf, she was waiting there as well. I bowed to her as I had with Ryuu, and to my surprise, she returned it. She then got into a fighting stance that looked like a mix of Karate, with one hand low and opened, and Boxing, the other hand close to her chin and closed. Her feet were fairly close together, but he weight was on the balls of the feet, making her look ready to spring off either foot.

My stance, compared to hers was a bastardization of Tae Kwon Do and Karate. Most of my weight was on my back foot, and instead of closed fists, one over my solar plexus, and the other forward, they were both open.

Ryuu simply stood to the side and watched us.

I just hoped Lunoire would show the same restraint at Ryuu, when it came to punishing my technique.

There is something to be said about learning a new language through full immersion. My half learned words helped me build on what I had already been hearing for days now. The brain likes patterns, and when you know the word 'I' and 'juice' you put the sentence together automatically even if you don't know the word 'want'.

Mia had said something on my behalf to everyone as the morning crowd had finished filtering in too. And it seemed that everyone I'd talked to spoke slowly, and clearly. Just so I could pick up on the words without trying to sort out slurred words or slang. Mia and her girls might not be adventurers, but they were respected by them for sure.

Elated at my own progress, and good fortune, when Hestia showed up just after the lunch rush was mostly over, I gave her a hug too, and a thank you.

"You're learning so fast." She commented as we sat at a table. Chloe brought out lunch for myself and Hestia then wandered back to the kitchen to clean. I made sure to thank her. What a simple understated phrase...

"I could explain the logic behind it, but I'd probably bore you." I said in English, so I could be more fluent with her.

"I suppose." She said, before taking a bite from her sandwich. "I am just happy I could help."

"You have no idea how much you have, either. I've not learned the words yet to ask, but I'm almost positive we haven't had a single divinity other than yourself come here since I arrived." I also nibbled at my meal before continuing, "So, you were going to ask me something, before I had to get to work?"

She fidgeted in her seat a moment at my bluntness, and had several false starts before she finally asked, "Would you like to join my Familia?"

To be honest, after hearing about how she only had one member, was poor, and spent a good while trying to get members before she picked up her single adventurer, I expected this question. It was an obvious one, really.

"What would be involved?" I answered with a question of my own.

"Well, first I would have to gift you with Falna. Where I write your status on your back. As my new member, we would have to register you at the guild. Bell can help you there as well, he says Eina, his adviser is teaching him many things." She paused, "The guild will also supply you with a starter weapon as well."

"That's it?"

"Basically, yes. Then it's just coming back alive at the end of the day." The bluntness of her reply startled me, but the worry in her eyes was clear as polished glass.

"When I can ask Mia, properly, without translation, if I can leave her service to help you." I put my hand out across the table, "Her answer will be my answer. I owe her that much at the very least. Deal?"

She smiled her 'everything is awesome in the world' smile, and nodded, taking my offered hand in hers and shaking it. "Deal."

Authors notes.

And so the adventure continues. Our heroine learns words of simple gratitude (which I wish the rest of the world would do too.) and makes a deal with Hestia, our favorite micro Goddess.

You may all have noticed the larger amount of story breaks. For the sake of speeding things up a little, as the chapters have been getting longer, I skipped some of the excess descriptions. Trying to give the impression that the days were blurring together a little as some sort of a routine set in. In my humble opinion, this is still some what of a prologue to the story.

And!

Just in case anyone was curious about 'the logic behind it'. The brain likes patterns and picks up both consistencies, and inconsistencies. You look at a white wall and instantly your eyes see the spot of dirt on it. You listen to music, and you tap your foot to the beat of the drum in the background. You feel along a wall and notice even the smallest dips and bumps in the paint. The same can be said of language. If one knows the words for lets say, 'take' 'plate', and some one offers you a plate saying three words, your brain will assume the middle word is 'this' Take this plate. I am dramatically simplifying it, but that is the general idea. Once your brain knows a few words, it will try and fill in the blanks with what logically should be there.

Anyhow, lesson over, chapter done.

Until next time, gentle readers.

(edit, years later...)

So, if you're reading this, and are going to keep reading this, I happen to have a discord now! Join in, maybe chat with me and some of the readers: aKAQg4bnYu