'Okay. So what do I do now?'
He had just saved her from a violent brute. That was good. But now they were there, two strangers in a primitive world full of dinosaurs, unable to communicate properly.
Or could they somehow?
It was worth a try.
"Can you understand me?"
He spoke slowly, articulating his words carefully, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she would catch on. He paired his words with gestures, pointing to her and then to his own ear, trying to reinforce the question.
The woman murmured something that William didn't understand. A low sound, almost a grunt, but with a strange cadence that seemed to form words. Except they weren't words he recognized.
That's when a message appeared in the air.
```
[LANGUAGE AUTOMATIC TRANSLATOR]
IDENTIFYING PATTERNS...
PREDICTING STRUCTURE...
CALCULATING ACCURACY ESTIMATE
[ 78% ]
DO YOU WANT TO LEARN THIS LANGUAGE?
[ Y / N ]
```
William blinked. Then he blinked again, as if that would make the message disappear. He was already expecting another bug; he was in disbelief.
The system.
The damned system that had been completely useless all day, that had bugged during calibration, that had reduced everything to a pathetic "EVOLVE!"; this system was now finally working?
'Is this for real?'
For a moment, indignation took over. He wanted to yell at the interface, ask why on earth it had chosen this moment, after he almost died, to finally show some usefulness.
But he took a deep breath. There was no point in getting indignant about a floating piece of screen. If the system had decided to cooperate, he was going to take advantage of it. Sure, He still considered the potential risks; the system could translate incorrectly, leading him to insult someone, or even worse consequences could arise.
"To hell with it, I don't have much to lose," he said, dispelling any remaining hesitation and encouraging himself.
He focused on the "Y".
The interface blinked.
```
LEARNING PROCESS
NEW LANGUAGE STARTED
LOADING...
[████████░░░░░░░░░░] 40%
ESTIMATED TIME: 3 SECONDS
```
Three seconds. He was going to learn an entire language in three seconds.
It was cutting-edge technology. Or magic. Or both.
The bar filled up quickly. 50%. 70%. 90%. 100%.
A sudden, strange pain surged through William's head, accompanied by dizziness that made him fear his head might explode.
"As I suspected, something worse than a translation error is my head exploding." he thought. Amidst the throbbing pain and spinning sensations, he cursed the system. Fortunately, the disturbing feelings quickly subsided, and the interface reappeared.
```
LANGUAGE ACQUIRED!
[LANGUAGE: KAI'AN]
[PROFICIENCY LEVEL: 78%]
FULL SYNCHRONIZATION.
```
William felt something strange. This time it wasn't pain., it wasn't discomfort, it was more like... a click. As if a key had turned in his head, unlocking a door he didn't even know existed. Suddenly, the girl's murmurs, which before were just meaningless sounds, began to organize themselves into patterns. Into words. Into sentences.
He understood.
He couldn't explain how, but he understood.
Before he could say anything, strange words appeared floating in front of him, written in an alphabet he didn't recognize, but the meaning was there, translated directly into his mind. It was as if the system was showing him what to say, providing ready-made phrases, translating his intention into the correct sounds.
"Can you understand me?"
The voice that came out of his mouth wasn't exactly the same as before. The timbre was the same, but the pronunciation... the words came out in a strange, guttural flow, full of sounds his tongue wasn't used to forming. But they came out. And he knew, with absolute certainty, that they were the right words in her language.
She tilted her head to the side. Her amber eyes studied his face, scanning every inch as if searching for some clue. Then, to his surprise, she nodded.
Yes. She understood.
"Seriously? You... you talk? You can talk?"
William didn't even need to think about the words this time; they simply came, flowing from his mind to his mouth in her language. The adaptation was instantaneous now.
She nodded again, more emphatically this time. Yes, of course she could talk. Why couldn't she?
"Then say something," William said.
Her lips moved, carefully forming the words. A strange sound came out, a sequence of grunts and clicks that made no sense to him, but the system translated instantly, showing the meaning floating in the air.
She had repeated exactly what he said. "Then say something."
The voice was a soft and pleasant hoarseness, but clear. A somewhat deep tone for a woman, but not unpleasant; it had musicality, its own rhythm.
Hawke blinked.
"Hey, don't imitate me."
"Hey, don't imitate me."
She repeated it again, but this time with a playful glint in her eyes. Her hands moved, making the same gesture he made when he spoke, opening and closing her fingers in front of her mouth as if it were a talking mouth, an almost perfect imitation of his movements.
'Is she... teasing me?'
The situation was somewhat funny. There he was, trying to establish serious communication, and she was treating it as if it were a game of repetition. Testing the intonation in which he spoke.
Hawke couldn't help it. He laughed.
It was a short laugh, more of a playful snort than anything else. There was something absurdly funny about his whole situation, in the middle of a world of dinosaurs, after almost dying, with a system that finally decided to work, and the woman he had just saved was acting so unexpectedly. He had already expected that she wouldn't act "normally," normality didn't exist in that place.
"Okay, okay. I understand."
He pointed to himself with his index finger.
"My name is William Hawke."
He spoke slowly, clearly articulate, this time using his own language, wanting her to hear the original sounds, not the automatic translation. Then he pointed at her, his eyebrows raised in an obvious question.
"You have a name?"
She observed the gesture, processing it. She looked at his finger, then at her own chest. Her head tilted again, this movement seemed to be her "thinking." Then she nodded and pointed to herself as well. Her mouth opened and a sound came out.
"Kaira."
She nodded again, confirming. Then she tried to do the same with his name.
"Ui... Uilian..."
The pronunciation came out all crooked, her tongue struggling with the 'W' and the 'L' in succession. She frowned, concentrating, trying again.
"Uili... Uilihan..."
It wasn't working. Frustration began to show on her face; her lips compressing, her eyes narrowing. She clearly wasn't the type to like failing at something.
Hawke raised his hand in a reassuring gesture.
"You can call me Hawke. Just Hawke."