vive le français /river/

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

Ooh, her interests. What does she like to do?

“Euh, j’aime a lire, j’aime a explorer, j’aine apprendre, euh… C’est tout ce que j’aime, je pense. Intéressant, non?” she says, her tongue suddenly feeling like a wad of cotton in her mouth-- cry and impossible to manipulate. Ugh. Why is it so hard to think of stuff she likes to do? She should know the most about herself, right? Then why is this UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE!? GRR!

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

He chuckles at her answer, short and sweet and the way she stutters as she tries to think of other things. "C'est interressant, oui, mais aussi court." He ran his fingers through his hair- was it really so hot out here that he was sweating? Good Lord- thinking of one the items on her short list that intrigued him. "Tu explores? Où? Quand??" The idea that such a small girl would be the adventurous one fulfilled all the cliches of Hollywood, he noticed, and he almost laughed again. But wait. He doesn't like cliches. Cliches are boring.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

“Ici, la. Partout. Je vais vous montrer. Viennent sur.” And with that, she small, barefoot girl walks out of the veranda, headed to who-knows-where, not looking back to see if Antione is following, or even wants to go exploring. River has to do something, or she’ll go crazy just sitting here on the veranda.

She starts to walk toward the stable, realizes that she’d rather be on foot, and changes her direction to head toward the forest.

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

"Énigmatique fille," he muttered to himself, watching the girl hop off the porch. He grabbed his tie in his left hand, fixed his button with his right, and set off after her, his runners scuffing on the dirt path. He walks slowly while he puts his tie back on, then checking to make sure his phone was in his pocket, he ran to catch up with her.

"Nous allons à l'écurie?" he questioned, eyebrow raised, still running. That wasn't quite what he was expecting. Then he saw her change direction. "Ah, la forêt. C'est mieux comme ça." He grinned, and kept running.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

River turns back to Antione, smiling. “Voulez-vous voir mon endriot favorite?” It’s the best place in the place to be, for River, at least. As to what it is, well, Antione would figure that out pretty soon. It’s not too far. Maybe a half-hour’s walk, if you knew the way to get there. There was probably a better way to go, but this is the way River knows, and this is the way she’s going to lead the Canadian boy.

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

"Oui, mademoiselle, je voudrais le voir beaucoup. Mais, où il est?" THe stables had vanished in the forest and it was just the two of them, surrounded by trees and sky and grass and leaves and the only sign of civilization was each other. HE ran a little father, falling in step just behind his guide. "Comment loin ici est-il?" It's muggy in the forest, but he keeps losing and ruining his ties, so he leaves it on, using it instead to wipe the sweat off his brow. "C'est trés chaud dans la forrêt."

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

“Pas loin. Trente minutes.” she says, slowing down to where the two of them are walking side-by-side. Well, half an hour without running into any streams or lakes, that is. But River doesn’t do water. So she found out how to go there in a less direct route, though it might be a tad more dangerous.

“Oui, c’est trés chaud.” she says, smiling. “C’est moins chaud ou nous allons.” They’re heading to a cave River had found a while back, set into the side of a hill. The stone of the structure provides natural shade and cooling from the sun, smiling down from high above.

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

Half an hour? No rush to get back to school- it wasn't like they had class until next week, anyway, so, well, why not? He nods. "D'accord," he says, tripping slightly over a tree root. "Nous allons marcher."

Cool at her special place, huh? That would be good. Really good. The States must be like hell in the summer. "Qu'est ce que c'est, une chute d'eau? Un ressort caché?" These were the things he longed for in the heat of the South Carolina day.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

She shakes her head. “Euh, non. Je n’aime pas l’eau.” Well, that certainly sounds odd. ‘I don’t like water.’ Who doesn’t like water-- well, River, obviously, but what sane person doesn’t like water? It’s EVERYWHERE. It’s impossible to avoid.

“Vous verrez.” she says with a small, mysterious smile.

After about half an hour, the pair arrives at a small hill, looking just like a normal hill, until River takes a step forward and brushes aside some branches and one particularly thorny bush, revealing a small crack in the side of the landform. She steps into it, her small form instantly swallowed up by the darkness. She closes her eyes, though it doesn’t make the darkness any less, and gropes her way toward a small, table-like rock formation and takes a flashlight from it. When she flicks it on, the beam cuts a deep gash in the pressing shadows.

“Viennent sur.” the girl calls back to the boy.

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

Okay. She doesn't like water. That's not weird at all, oh no. Er. Pierre let it drop, and they kept walking. As long as the place they were going was colder than the rest of the island, he would cope.

They walked quietly for most of the half hour, listening to the bird calls and the like. They chat a little, but mostly they listen and walk. He imagines what River is hearing, is she can understand all languages- what did the birds talk about? He could only wonder.

They finally arrived at a little hill, normal in most respects. He doesn't see the tiny entrance until river was halfway through it. "Attendez-vous!" he called, laughingly, squeezing his considerably larger body through the crack. He is blinded by the sudden light, and then-

The breath catches in his throat. "C'est beau," he manages after a few moments- he isn't sure if this is the right adjective for this- he would have never imagined such a place under his feet.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

River smiles, sweeping the beam around her little hidey-hole, illuminating the small space. If she had to guess, she would say it’s about two hundred square feet on the ground, which isn’t a bad guess by anyone’s standards. The chamber is actually twenty two feet by nineteen feet, with the ceiling a mere nine feet off the ground. Oddly enough, it isn’t compacted dirt, like the outside of the hill-- it’s made of stone, made cool by a small fresh-water spring trickling along one side of the room. It’s clear that River hasn’t been anywhere near the water-- all of the things she had scattered around the room (blanket, pillow, towers of books, first-aid kit, extra batteries, spare flash-light, spiral notebooks) are at least five feet from the spring. A few stalagmites make small table-like structures around the edges of the enclosure.

“Le ruisseau a l’eau douce, si vous avez soif.” Don’t ask her how she knows it’s fresh. She doesn’t know how she knows.

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

"Vous avez menti-il de l'eau ici." He chuckles, then strides the room across all of River's belongings. He bends down to the spring, cupping the cool water in his hands and sipping slowly. It is fresh, fresh and cool and clean and wonderful dihydrogen oxide. No wonder the cave is so refreshingly cool- the water must keep the temperature regulated. Ah, nature.

He returns to the main area, wiping his hands down on his pants. He finds himself a little ledge in the wall, perfect size for the Canadian, and sits. "Venez souvent ici, hein?" he asks, glancing at the various personal items strewn about. IT looked like she roomed down here, not in the Galatia dorm like she should.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

“Oui, j’ai menti. J’essaie de ne pas penser à la trop d’eau. J’ai eu une mauvaise experience avec de l’eau pas trop longtemps dans le passé.” The experience that she spoke of actually happened two years in the past, but for her, it’s still as vibrantly etched into her memory as ever. She watches as he drinks from the stream, then props the flashlight up onto a stalagmite, angling it so that it illuminates almost the entire cavern, then snags a water bottle and takes a drink from it.

“Mmhmm, je suis souvent ici.” She doesn’t sleep here a lot-- every once in a while, she’ll sneak out of the dorm after a bad dream, or when she’s feeling particularly low, and curl up underneath her blanket (Actually, it was Simon’s blanket. He had given it to her before she left home for the School, thinking she might need a bit of home. As it turned out, she needed it more than he had expected. Such a good brother.) and read for a while, or just sit and think.

[Pierre Antoine Giroux]

I’m told that people like to call us dreamers
Because we won’t ever stop until we’ve done all we can do
There are so many things I haven’t seen
So I’ll look ’till I just can’t look no more

What could have happened to her? At least she still had the common sense to drink the liquid, but something that makes one utterly detest water must be a traumatic experience indeed. Should he press her for details? He didn't want to intrude into her past, but now, now this was tempting him, begging to be revealed.

"Mauvaise expérience?" He raised an eyebrow, but didn't go further. If she talks, she talks. If she doesn't, then he could always ask about one of those notebooks on the ground.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

“Il a été-- je l’était, je suppose-- une étude du cerveau humain.” She watches him, feigning casual indifference, but really waiting with bated breath to see what he will do next. Ask her about the experiment, let the subject drop, say nothing at all, or even something completely different.

The notebooks are… Interesting, to say the least. They’re all written in different languages and of different subjects-- that one there, the green one, is in Italian; it’s about music. The orange one, closest to the river, is in French. After one of her nightmares, she had written down everything about the School and the Experiment she had thought of at the moment. The morning after, she had considered dropping it into the stream, letting the water wash away the words, but couldn’t bring herself closet than six feet to the water. A few of them are about what she sees and hears. And the blue one half tucked underneath the pillow? That’s in English. It’s about her family.