This is the 2nd key chapter of the story, I truly hope you'll like it, I struggled writing the midpoint, but after that it was all smooth sailing, enjoy it!
Valen yawned as he woke up, stretching his arms until they met unexpected resistance. Now properly woken up, he opened his eyes… And chuckled, the Valstrax had evidently curled up around him once again.
Probably woken up by his accidental touch, the Elder soon yawned as well, revealing the two rows of teeth that lined his beak. It then blinked a couple of times, and then turned to look at Valen, emitting a rumble of appreciation. Valen petted him for a bit before retrieving his hand. If he wanted to carry on his outlandish idea of the previous evening, he had to act quickly.
Waiting for the Valstrax to uncurl and walk a bit, he then picked up a rock and started smacking the ground, emitting a loud thud, making the Elder snap to his attention to him. Then he repeated the action two more times. Thud thud. Then, with his free hand, he drew an X in the air and smacked the ground two more times. Thud thud. Finally, he drew two parallel lines in the air, one above the other, and smacked the ground once more. Thud thud thud thud thud thud.
The Valstrax was now tilting his head to him, clearly confused by the turn of events. Valen smiled and smacked the ground once more, five thuds resounding in the chamber. He repeated the X in the air and smacked four more times. And drew the parallel lines once again… But then placed the rock on the ground, being careful not to cause any noises, and gestured to the Valstrax with a hand, inviting him to complete the sequence.
The elder was clearly tilting his head, his gaze unfocused, and Valen was then sure that he was deep in thought, either trying to understand his action or, Valen hoped, trying to complete the sequence. He wasn't sure if it was a mistake trying to start with multiplication instead of basic addition… However he couldn't explain why, but he was confident his host would be able to complete the challenge.
Then suddenly the Valstrax raised a claw and stroked it on the ground, creating a loud Tick. Then did it again. Tick. Valen held his breath. Tick, tick, tick. He mentally counted in his head. 'Six, seven, eight' tick, tick, tick 'Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen' tick, tick, tick. 'Nineteen...' and with a final Tick, the Valstrax went still, just as Valen counted. 'Twenty.' He raised his head and looked at the Elder, who seemed to be expecting something. And then Valen nodded, smiling while clapping his hands. He couldn't believe it, that the Elder was able to understand what he was expecting him to do, and answer correctly at the same time! He truly surpassed his expectations. The Elder rumbled in pleasure in the praise.
'Maybe… Maybe my idea has a chance to work after all… I better get on with it now, else I won't have the time to carry on my goal before I have to leave.' Then a thought occurred to him. 'Do I even want to leave? Do I want to carry on hunting as I have before, knowing that everything we know may be wrong?' Then a flash of a memory appeared in his head, of yellow scales, and Valen immediately shook his head to dismiss the picture before he got into a panic attack. 'Yes, because it is also our last resort to save civilians. As much as I hate to admit it, we don't really have an alternative… However, I won't kill only to get better equipment and will accept only missions where the monster proves that it will wipe out everything in its path if not dealt with. That is my resolve.' Satisfied with his resolution, he looked at the Valstrax and took a deep breath. 'Time to start an idea that's as crazy as a Jho.'
Then, looking at the elder, he pointed to himself and said. "Valen", then pointed to him "Valstrax". He waited for a bit, but the Valstrax only tilted his head to the side, it didn't discourage Valen a bit because he continued. He picked up the dried-up sponge and then mimed drinking something. He then pointed to the rest of yesterday's meal and made the action of picking it up and eating it. Valen then repeated this ritual for several other things in the vicinity, turning on the fire and doing a wave towards the top with his hand, picking up a rock with his left hand, and then making a fist with the other.
After Valen pointed to his notebook and mimed opening the book, he was looking for a new item to give a sign to when the Valstrax emitted a rumble that made him snap to attention. The Elder poked the book with his beak, seemed to think for a bit, then it backed off, quite a bit, and what he did next baffled Valen, he shifted the position of his wings so that they faced forwards, and then, pressed the membrane of them together, and opened them… Almost exactly as Valen did just a moment ago.
Valen gaped at him for a long time, until the reality of what the Valstrax did sank in and he broke into a huge grin. Only to stop itself soon after, but the elder just made a weird noise in response, like several quick rumbles in succession. It took a moment for Valen to get that the Valstrax was laughing. He was laughing at Valen thinking that it would be offended by his teeth. He couldn't stop himself, he joined the Valstrax in his laughter, the act releasing tension that was stockpiling up for a long time in him, it was so freeing for Valen that it took several minutes before the giggles stopped and he could breathe normally. Once he had calmed himself down with a big breath, he looked back at his host and noticed he was approaching, then nosed Valen's cheek delicately, who rubbed the Valstrax's in response. They continued the contact for a bit, before the elder disengaged, a strange look in his eyes, that Valen would describe as 'determined' if he had to put an emotion in it.
Then the elder nosed the rock, curled the claws on his right foreleg, and did a light tap on the ground. Valen immediately understood it was his own sign for "Rock", and graved the gesture in his mind. He figured he would have to note them on a book eventually though. The Valstrax continued by nosing the pot and did his best approximation to reproduce Valen's gesture for fire. Then he made the act of tearing out a strip of meat from a carcass with his beak, an action Valen had become intimately familiar with recently. And finally, the Valstrax put his head close to the ground and then made a strange motion, like a single wave that left his head pointing upwards, but he quickly guessed what it was for, a mirror of his own gesture for drinking.
Quickly taking a bit of time to scribble the gestures in his notebook, he then paused to think about what is the most important things to define right now between them, and the answer was immediately obvious to him: 'yes' and 'no' should absolutely be the first thing he tries to explain to his host. The issue that arises however was that defining those two concepts when you didn't define them before is tricky.
Valen tried to think for a while, the Valstrax eventually tilted his head in question due to how long he spent thinking, but then this act also suddenly inspired Valen, and he just decided to go with the flow.
Picking up the sponge, replenished by the Valstrax after Valen went to sleep it seemed, he poured some water in his mouth, then looked at the Elder, and nodded his head. Then he squeezed out some on the ground and shook it. Then he picked up one of the sticks still lying around. He feigned sharpening the tip and nodded, then suddenly, without any prompting, broke it, the SNAP of it breaking feeling way louder than it should. And repeated the 'no' gesture.
He was thinking about what to demonstrate next when suddenly the Elder moved with purpose clear in his eyes and picked up a rock with his beak, then he put it back down and did a sharp nod, the sudden motion looking very bird-like. Then he raised his right forelimb and smashed it on the rock, splintering it, accompanied by the sharp shake motion of his head.
Valen suddenly beamed, having a way to carry agreement or disagreement between them would definitely help him in the future, or even learn new words. The Valstrax crooned in agreement in response, he seemed happy to have gotten a new way of communicating too.
The joy that Valen felt was so much he felt the rest of the day passed as a blur, he mostly remembered it when looking at the countless notes he took in his manual, detailing which motion the Elder did for each word, and it became quickly apparent that he preferred to use his wings whenever possible, the dexterity of them being way superior to his front paws. Several words used them exclusively even, from 'stick' being him wiggling the outside spear of his right-wing, to 'Flying' which involved the Valstrax poising down with them and doing a quick burst of dragon energy (the equivalent being Valen doing a ridiculous flap motion with his arms, which caused another episode of laughter from the Elder).
This was how the next few days went as well, first, the Valstrax went to hunt, harvesting some herbs as well if Valen ran out, and they both took their time to eat, the hunter also tending to his leg. Then once both were sated, they spent the rest of the day deciding on new words, and each was taking more and more time, as they had already run out of easy descriptions, and Valen was trying to use their limited vocabulary to explain concepts. The one he was the most proud of that he managed to explain to her, was the idea of currency, basically using an agreed-upon object to exchange. He isn't sure the Valstrax got all of the intricacies, but he is satisfied with what he managed to do nonetheless. (Valen's motion was mimicking dropping coins in his hand, while the Valstrax choice in response had been… to tap into his right paw with the tip of his left wing.)
However, nothing beats the shame Valen had when he finally got the courage to finally get to try to have some words for the genders. He knew that monsters had no concept of shame on this, the act left him flustering still. Still, by this, he finally got a gesture for a male, and from that, agreed on another for a female… And the Valstrax immediately blew the supposition he made a few days earlier by referencing as female. It took a while for Valen to finally make the mental shift of designating him by her instead, but still, it didn't stop the embarrassment Valen felt when he managed to explain his pickle to the Elder, which immediately started another hilarity episode from her.
However, the days passed so quickly that it was only when he was chatting with the Elder that Valen realized he hadn't used his crutch as often as he did normally, and that there was only a dull ache from his leg remaining. However he still had a slight limp, but he surmised he would always keep it. At least he could push himself through when he wanted it. And that was minor enough that it wouldn't hamper his hunting. Valen guessed he could even go back without trouble if he wanted to.
This hit him, Valen could get back if he desired so… But did he? Did he want to go back to hunting, with the new friendship that he nurtured with an Elder? He was sure he would immediately lose his hunting license should his relationship come to light…
However, this also made Valen remember that not every monster was capable of such coherent thought or compassion as she was. Most of them were simply wyverns who were simply more intelligent than a common bird and defended their territory. Then… There was the fact that some of them got mad, either by an illness or an event, and they became uncontrollable, expressing their furor and pain on anything living around, no longer killing for food or protecting territory, but killing for the act itself…
And should an elder become this state, as intelligent as he now had the proof they were… They could wipe out entire communities. So Valen raised his chin and spoke in the air, resolve to fill his being. "I probably won't hunt for the sake of hunting anymore… But that doesn't mean I'll not hunt to protect. And this I swear, I'll make sure any quarry I seek will not be unjustified. Because… I would not be worthy of her anymore…"
Clenching his fist in resolve, he looked to the Valstrax, who was tilting her head in confusion and smiled. Then he said to her. 'Tomorrow I leave.'
He almost expected her to protest, however, she just nodded and replied. 'Me carry you near village.'
Looking at her now, graceful, and her scales reflecting the sunset's sun, Valen finally had a revelation, he now knew how to make sure he never forgot his savior, his companion, his friend.
'Thank you, everything…' "Nikki." This last part he said out loud while making a motion that was like scratching a wall with two fingers… And he made the greatest gift he could do to the Valstrax, a gift that would cement their friendship, making sure neither would disrespect the other. A name.