Yelena took an opportunity for a deep breath after finishing the search. She wasn't unused to better treatment as a member of the BPO, but it was refreshing to receive such from a Westerner given stories of how they treated their women.

Yelena raised an eyebrow at the book, but it couldn't be read by two at once. Having given her report, she briefly closed her eyes for a deserved rest.

Lena wasn't sure she understood what she'd read or what it meant, but they'd surely been here for quite some time to make such detailed propaganda.  Because that's what this was, propaganda.

It might tell them something indirectly.  It'd be curious to see what the natives made of it, where it was inaccurate and where it might not be.

((OOC: You could ask Bhalla about it. Or Mattaki, if someone translates))

Yeah... I don't think Mattaki is my biggest fan right now.  Lena tries to find Bhalla.  I'm not sure this is a good idea either but hey.

Bhalla had left the headquarters and had been wandering around the small village.
It was odd. So many traces of a vibrant, if small community. How many had lived here? How many before the Deutsche came and how many later?

She watched Mattaki and the Non-Deutsche soldiers clean out the Nest. Hopefully, it would give some peace to the battle mage. She turned to head back to her assigned quarters, that she was to share with the two who spoke Deutsch, yet weren't Deutsche.
One of them, the one Mattaki had threatened before, walked towards her, waving at her.

With nothing really better to do, Yelena followed Lena out toward where they saw Mattaki.

((While we're waiting for Bhalla and Lena to initiate their conversation...))


Mattaki directed the Russian and British soldiers with his gestures, adding words seemingly just for emphasis. They had already piled up several boxes a few meters away from the nest entrance. One of the Brits was tearing the boxes apart, setting aside some neat piles of firewood and another pile with what seemed to be still useful.

They were working fast and efficiently.

With nothing else to really do at this point, Yelena went over to help with the work Mattaki was directing.

The village made Bhalla intensely lonely. It would have been easy for her to slip away, to slip off with Jangie and find another band, make another place. To be surrounded by not-Deutsche in a place that had been ruined by their other tribes was worse than finding the place by herself.

When Lena appeared with the book, Bhalla worked to puzzle it out. She recognized most of the words, but not all of them. "Ef-Fruk." she said, pointing to the "Trolle." "When eat meat, dangerous. When no meat, peaceful. Do not like to fight."

Lena asked in utter fascination.  "Is there anything else here that's wrong?  In fact, is any part of it correct?"

Lena hated she had to ask that question, but she'd been spying on these chumeaters for far too long and knew exactly how they worked.

With an extra pair of hand, the work went even faster and the nest was soon completely cleared from any debris the Germans left behind.
When Yelena went back inside, wiping the sweat from her forehead, she saw Mattaki standing in the center of the shallow pool, slowly turning, taking in the sights.

One of the British soldiers, quietly whistling to himself, had scrounged up some mortar, it seemed and used some wood scraps to expertly fill in and smooth over the bullet holes in the wall, every now and then stopping to pry some shrapnel out of the wall with his knife.

Mattaki nodded and when saw Yelena, he spoke.
"[Language unknown: Ol, ast il ing stapreyin as. Lobeho ionut, tr]Deutsche."

He looked up and shook his head. He pointed to himself. "Mattaki."
Then he pointed at himself with both hands, quickly running them down from his head to his toes, then turned left, then right, repeating the gesture.
Finally, he spread his arms in a big circle, encompassing himself and the two figures he had drawn into the air next to him. "Axtzal", he said.
Then he pointed at Yelena.

Yelena had learned several languages, and understood what was being attempted here. She repeated the gesture, pointing to her chest. "Yelena."

She then pointed to some of the other Soviet soldiers and made the grouping motion, though not quite as big as Mattaki. "Soviets."

She then pointed to the Soviets and then the Americans and Brits. She made an even bigger encircling motion with her arms. "Allies."

She did use English for these statements as that was likely to be the most utilized language in this particular group.

Mattaki nodded and repeated the words.
"Yelena. Soviets. Allies."

He put both his fists on his chest and bowed his head. Then he pointed to the exit and beckoned Yelena to follow her.

Outside, he grabbed his spear and looked down at the dirt, lost in thought. Then, he started drawing. Five short, straight lines. Then he pointed at Yelena and the other allied soldiers who had gathered around, too.

A quick box around the five lines, then seven more boxes.

Then a large box around these eight and next to it, a single short line.
He pointed at the large box. "Zukeshed."
Then at the line. "Nimin-Mah."

He seemed to be at a loss again. He made another line and pointed at it. "Mattaki. Irhandi." Then he pointed back and forth between the lines and kept saying: "Nimin-Mah. Irhandi. Nimin-Mah. Irhandi."

He looked at the allies' faces, looking for a sign of comprehension.

"Hard." Bhalla says. "These words are for me slow." It's frustrating: she understands enough to get an impression of the book, but it is hard to figure out what the writer thinks, and harder still for the gnim to get her thoughts around the language. "Some is real? Not whole. Of folks, not whole. Much they are not know."

"Or they're misleading.  They like to do that.  The Nazis, or the Deutsche as you've taken to calling them, have many weapons.  One of the worst and most insidious they have is... well we call it propaganda, but I'm not sure that translates.  It's... well it's when you tell a big lie many times on purpose to make people believe you."  Lena tried to explain.

"Nah-tsee." Bhalla echoed. "This word for themselves they use not. Always the Deutsche or the Deutsches Folk. We are not Folk." She pointed at herself, then at the images in the book. "None. None are Folk." Her slender fist clenched. "Others for serving. For laughing. For hurting. Deutsche--Nah-tsees--they listen not. Never."

"Yeah... Okay let me take a crack at this.  The truth is, not all the Deutsche are Nazis, it's like a... faction, a powerful faction that took control of the Deutsche in their own country.  But they like to claim they are the true members of their own kind.  They have a lot of bizarre ideas, all of them false, but they've been horribly effective at getting themselves and others to believe most of them.  Nazi is the proper word for them, they must be recognized as responsible for what they have done.

"They believe they have the right to be horribly cruel to others.  They have caused the greatest war that the world I come from has ever seen.  They have done unspeakable things besides.  They cannot even treat other humans as Folk, I am not surprised they do horrible things to others."  Lena pointed to the pictures herself.

"I've been pretending to be a Deutsche for many years, living among them, feeding information to the Allies."  Lena wasn't sure if this was helping.  "I know a lot about them.  I don't know about their military strategy or things like that like the soldiers do, but I probably know the most about who they are culturally.  I wish.. I wish any other humans had found this place but them.  I hate them so much... and it scares me."

Bhalla's head bobs up and down. She points to herself. "Doctor." She knows it is not quite the right word, but it is the one she heard the Deutsche use when--

She cuts the thought off.

"Make hurts better." Her fist clenches. "But Nah-tsees, I want them to hurt. To hurt and go away."

"I think it's fair to say that's quite the popular sentiment.  What they've done here... well, this is as bad or worse as everything else, but they've done uniquely horrible things everywhere."

Lena wasn't sure if this was helping or hurting.

"They stop. We make them." Bhalla said, exhaling sharply through her nose. "Lies, hurts, death. They are very many. The Nah-tsees, very many. How are we stopping them?"

Lena thought about that carefully before answering.  "Well... in my native world, we stopped them with the blood of a lot of brave men.  Or... we seemed to.  I suppose everyone in the Allied nations contributed something.  Honestly, I've been so far in the details of my espionage I don't know much about the overall strategic situation.  Any of the soldiers probably have a much better rundown on that than I do."

Yelena squinted at the lines to see if that helped, then slowly shook her head. She had some ideas of what he could be trying to say, but it certainly wasn't clear to her.

Mattaki tried it a few more times, adding more lines, and circles and boxes. Finally, he shook his head and looked to the sky.
He picked up his spear again and bowed slightly to each of the soldiers that had helped him, ending with Yelena, then walked away.

---

Bhalla saw a shadow moving past her, half-turned and recognized Mattaki.
[Language unknown: "Com utar stiul seset illeretinort. Ll wencwh a ee ti foieussi. Wileti ure en p iv pr wenddi dayconith. Sawe m essantles at atihisome il ic man on at ati misato io. Ate ilfostar ineromast u eaudayore-larout om ouol linstibut str aress les." ]

That reminded Bhalla of Jangie and the invitation.

[Language unknown: "Be ousit tallro Haonth."] Bhalla says to the axtzal. [Language unknown: "Wawi i ome eran hemind. Hi os nacaai tr ich deroveing k el witmi Entousmen. Has areartrat porina k bemoie?"]

Mattaki nodded. [Language unknown: "Linsa bentte ndeos undestanyson po loera. Erthi we sanat enctrader? Ngast il adest whatin? Ent oness somwh hondca nt an ica?"]