A drabble about counting
Doren has- one two three four, and- one two three four fingers on his- one two hands; Aig-Ashtie counts aloud. That’s- one two three four five six seven eight fingers.
It’s cold outside, and snow has buried the fields Doren is teaching Aig to tend, so they have come inside to work on something smaller.
“How long’ve you been?” Doren had asked, and Aig had started counting days, and days and days until Doren cut her off.
“Not days,” he said, “There’s too many of them; you won’t remember.”
He’d pointed out the window to where the moon hung, still visible in the day. “Do you watch the moon?” He asked.
Aig had nodded. “I do! It changes, and so do the stars, and at one point, I came up with some words and sounds about it, to do every time the moon is round, and one for the stars when it’s gone...” She hasn’t done it since Doren found her, because he always has other things for her to do, but maybe one night she’ll show him.
“Do you know how many times you’ve done the one for the moon, then?” He’d asked.
“I didn’t make it until I started watching the sky. There was a lot more time before that.”
He’d huffed then.
“Do you know how long you’ve been?” Aig had asked.
He was silent for a long time, and then, “What amounts do you know, Aig-Ashtie?”
“All of them?” She’d said. Of course she knew all of them. Why wouldn’t she?
“What’s the biggest then?”
“There’s not one, beast-brain.”
He’d nodded. “Do you know how to put amounts together?”
“Like, one two, and another one two, is one two three four?”
“Yeah. Like that. What’s twelve and feldit put together?”
Aig had squinted at him. She has feldit digits, counting her toes and fingers together, so it was easy enough. Starting from the amount after twelve, she’d counted up on her fingers and toes, all the way to egrie, and given that as her answer.
“What about, egrie, bentie, and benum, together?”
“..If you have some pebbles for me to use. But. You’ve got a better way, right?”
And Doren had taught her about numbers.
Aig counts Doren’s fingers again, this time using numbers up to four. He has one two three four, fourand-one, fourand-two, fourand-three, twofour fingers, which is eight. Aig has one two three four, fourand-one fourand-two fourand-three twofour twofour-one twofour-two twofour-three, threefour fingers, on her one two three four hands, which is twelve. Then, just to prove she understands, she counts her toes as well: threefour-one threefour-two threefour-three— and here she has to come up with a name— fofour, fofour-one, fofour-two…
She needs a few more, so she goes back to Doren’s fingers: fofour-three fofour-four fofour-fourand-one fofour-fourand-two, which is benum.
“Good,” Doren says, and his fingers close around hers. She smiles.