As the carriage rumbles along the bumpy, pebbled path, the group is spread out in the study. Zyphon and Achiin in a corner talking to eachother for a bit before nuzzling to bed on some fluffy pillows they packed. Seff and Elkhra casually sitting next to each other as they watch the setting sunlight shine through the windows. Akhmin resting, his head down, legs and arms crossed. All the while Riddik is driving everyone toward a crossroads. 

As everyone is occupied, Alex's eyes start to open up. He sees the ceiling of an unreckognizeable room, crystals hanging from above, glistening in the lowered light unexpectedly moving along the walls. He takes a minute to get up out of the blanket, holding his head as if to have had a migraine from before. As he aches, he erks vocal groans. His eyes shoot open and he gasps, touching his lips. "Alex..." he says. He's actually saying words? "ALEX!!" He shouts, smiling with a grin. Everyone looks at him but with expectancy. Before long, Alex's grin lowers. He remembers not being able to say words, only a name. He looks over to a rocky and raw gemstone on the ground and remembers a name for it. Was it azul? Blue? He thinks for a bit but remembers an S. He points at the gemstone he found and speaks. "Sapphire" in a strine and gentle masculine voice. As Seff twitches his ears, half napping with the rest of the family. Akhmin is still awake, merely resting his eyes.

Alex is mesmerized by the gemstone's luster. "I... can... speak." slowly getting used to his voice, he shifts in speed. "I can speak. Alexander. I am Alexander. Voice. I have a voice?" He starts realizing he can say almost anything now. He goes over to different objects and picks them up. He sees a crate and picks something from its hold, "This... this is a rock." He looks over to another crate. "Ah-- a gemstone! Gem. Gemstone." He laughs a bit. As he huffs after the laughing, he touches his throat, smiling. "Laugh..." He doesn't remember... how he can speak... he doesn't know why he can speak. He doesn't understand... what he is... and yet he knows he is.

Alex looks at everything saying a word he recognizes from memory. He points at all the objects he can name. Akhmin watches as he is happy for him, slightly smiling as Alex boisters with excitement at his newfound ability. Alex notices, however, the bookcase. For some reason he is feeling a lure toward the wooden archive. Pages inserted inside several encompassing, hardened folders to protect the knowlege within. He aches... to know... 

Before Alex could get to the book he was most intrigued in reading, Riddik opens the door from the front. "So I've got a path we can take up on this crossro--" He spots Alex reaching for the book. "I'd advise against touching that..." He walks over to him and puts the book propped back up on its spine, closer to the back of the bookcase for protection. "It is very old... I should have put it in a case long ago. It needs proper care." Alex steps back a bit. "Why is it old?" he asks. Riddik leers his eyes softly and then looks at him. "It's just a very old journal I wrote from the times Seff's father and I went down to Termigann... Old folklore and scriptures from time's past. It's nothing more than ancient poetry now..." As Riddik's hand slips down the rind of it and he steps away, Alex looks down with doubt. He didn't care if it was just poetry he wanted to read it. He thinks for a bit about the issue. The book is old and cannot be opened... physically... why-ever the reason, there should be some way without touching it, right?

Riddik looks at everyone and motions Akhmin specifically to help him outside. As they leave, Alex puts his hand upon his chin in ponder. He looks up at the book. He remembers being able to scan for statistics. As the others are napping from the journey so far, he takes a look at Seff leaning on Elk's shoulder and smiles, focusing back on the book. He closes his eyes and opens them with a flashing blue ring on both pupils. It takes quite a bit to get it to work but he tries to strain his eyes as he barely creates an xray image beyond the leather. Despite this, it's hard on his vision and all of the language is incomprehensable. It's all jumbled up in layers and he tries several angles. Nothing works. He takes a large inhale and breathes out in disappointment, his eyes cease glowing. Blinking, he rolls his eyes and sits down, his head resting on his palm.

Akhmin and Riddik view a collapsed road beyond the crossroads. A signpost shows two different paths, the left and the right. The left one goes down and the right one goes through a field of chiro corpses with flowers glistening upon the darker green fungal grasses. Akhmin thinks about the dangers of the left route but also thinks about Alex's infantile mind. "We should go left. It's enclosed and has been stable for years, correct?" Riddik nods and agrees. "Fairly crumbly... but yes, stable", Riddik replies with closed eyes. "It was the cavern on the other side of the road beyond that cliff... we should be ok." Akhmin pats Riddik's shoulder softly and speaks, "It should be fine then. Since we're going this way, we should meet our neighbors on the way there." Riddik looks around, puzzled at his idea. Who exactly?