Journal Vignette 04.01 - Gigi Speaks

By Loni Huff

Aja wakes feeling like her head has been packed with chilla tree pollen, having indulged in too much fermented aca juice at the feast the night before. From the light filtering into the small hut she shares with guests Sherayna and Shawna, she guesses it’s just after dawnbreak. The other two cots are empty, presumably because the two women have already risen to start their day.
Gigi appears to have recently returned from night foraging – sweet tamaya fruit if the dark pink fibers stuck in the ruff of fur on his chest is any indication – and has suspended himself from the roof to sleep. As usual, the two bonded friends struggle to accommodate their opposing sleep schedules. She balances precariously on her sleeping cot, reaching one hand up to touch her companion. Gigi drowsily wraps one wing around her hand to encourage her petting of his belly. He purrs contentedly at her attention until she tries to gently pull him down from his sleeping perch.
“Batnap!” he protests. Never having heard him speak – at least not with actual words – Aja is so startled she loses her balance, tumbling gracelessly to the floor beside her overturned cot and barely stifling a yelp.
She jumps to her feet, gawking at Gigi. For his part, Gigi seems unaffected by her reaction and subsequent fall and is instead intent on settling back into his wings for a long sleep.
“Did you just … talk?” Aja says hesitantly.
His beautiful golden eyes meet hers, and he responds dryly, “Always talk. Gigi give many warnings. Aja no listen.”
Aja is taken aback by this information. Have Gigi’s frequent chirrups and squeaks been intended to convey actual meaning this entire time? She has always been able to sense his moods and emotions, and seemingly he hers, but why is she suddenly able to understand actual words? Can anyone else hear him?
She pulls on the woven grass sandals that are commonly worn in Korlostra and seizes the masterfully carved quarterstaff beside her bed. Although Morvion initially crafted the masterwork staff as a gift to her, he asked their mutual friend and companion Tars to first adorn it with carvings of jungle birds. Most thoughtfully, one end of the staff has been affixed with a twisted bronze loop, a half-foot in diameter, providing Gigi a perch from which he can hang upside down, rather than uncomfortably sitting upright on her shoulder. She extends this end of the staff up to Gigi, gently nudging him before he can drowse off again. With a sound best described as a harumph, he complies, dropping from his sleeping place onto the end of her staff.
She assumes Gigi is falling back asleep when he suddenly swivels his tiny countenance toward her and states in a sonorous tone significantly different than before, “Hurry lest you share her doom, pain shall soon claim the night of queries.” He then tightly wraps his wings around him and falls asleep, refusing to be roused.