Chapter 9: The Democratic Convention

It's a comfort to get back to my standard lessons. Naturally while the werewolf was recovering her Albanian assistant had to go back and forth to the factory daily, and to accompany her for the last two days to head her off from doing work beyond the strength of her scars. I was amazed how quick she healed. The stories say it takes silver bullets to kill werewolves, not that I believe them, but I joked with Valeria that there was no silver in the grenade that got her.

Mr. Solis is back at work, on crutches. He may be old but he has the constitution of a werewolf. Arben is still recuperating under the grandmotherly care of Mrs. Ruka, and I visit him daily, with Shadow and Cricket, keeping him up to date on the repairs. He's worried about Anastas taking his place, but I told him, having been primed by Valeria, that there was plenty of leadership role to go around, and life would be a lot easier if he and Anastas divided the territory between them, particularly as the factory acquired more workers from among the refugees.

I told the same thing to Anastas. He's been working his tail off organizing the work, and learning how to use the computer (Valeria got him his own), and brushing up on his reading and math skills. Apparently he had some education before the collapse, enough to learn to read and to join flocks if the numbers are simple. Once for lunch I met his wife and his daughter, about eight years old; his son died of some disease recently. I told Anastas that in the First Division the women were as fierce and smart as the men, and a daughter would be encouraged to do the lessons, including unarmed combat. He might actually teach her.

In the family and in the clinic we speak a lot of Chinese, though we're by no means able to express everything we need to. When we land in China in about a month, it's going to be rough. There's a lot of similarity between Chinese and spoken signs, the way they both use voice tones, and the way you have to combine words to get most meanings, but from there the two languages go in opposite directions: Tiger signs are organized for easy learning whereas Chinese must have been designed to be hard for people like me and Shadow. For example, in Tiger signs the voice tone tells how the words go together, while in Chinese you just have to know, or guess, and the tones modify the meanings, which again you just have to know, or guess. I suppose I'll speak it well eventually, but everyone complains how hard Chinese is.

I learned a lot from Valeria and Quin, and Angela and I learned a lot about teamwork from having Cricket around, as did she. But it was a comfort to get back to having a normal margin of space around everyone in the tent. I'm not used to having people in my lap all the time. Last night, however, we had another guest, just one this time: Titania, Selen's mate. I was disappointed not to meet Selen in person, but he and his staff have their hands or paws full maintaining the mental health of the First Division and repairing the health of numerous crazy Illyrians.

Today is a great day for Illyria: the day we begin our revolt against the invaders. Tiger