Throw Hands

“Here, here,” Vivien said. She held her hands up, and slowly demonstrated the movements. “Try this.”

David took a deep breath, adjusted his ballcap, and tried again. Doing his best to remember what Viv had shown him. He got about halfway through when Vivien held her hands up, gesturing for him to stop.

“Did I do it?” David asked, a smile spreading across his face. He glanced over at Dustbunny who sat next to him. “I think I did it!”

“No.” Vivien sighed. “No, no, you did not do it.”

“Wait, what?” David frowned. “What did I do wrong?”

“I’m pretty sure you cussed her out in sign language.” Dustbunny commented. “Like, really bad.”

“See?” Viven said, exasperated. “Dustbunny gets it.” She made a couple of signs at the Gormaden, who responded, bending an ear, and shaping his paws in the air.

“Thank you,” Vivien said, “it’s not hard y’know.”

“It’s really not.” Dustbunny said with a gleeful smile on his face. “I’m gonna retire from adventuring, and then I’m going to work at a hot dog stand as an interpreter.”

“Can’t they just point at the menu?” David asked, a frustrated frown on his face.

“What if they want condiments? Extra sides, secret menu items?” Dust insisted.

“No, no, that’s fair, good point.”

“This is so stupid.” David grumbled. About that time Rayne walked by, she glanced over at the three of them sitting on the floor.

“Are we making fun of David because he can’t do sign language?” Rayne asked with tentative excitement, and then with a smirk, gestured in sign language, “because I can, and will, make fun of him.”

“Aw no way.” David said, “you too?”

“I was literally raised as noblewoman in the North,” Rayne shrugged, “I learned like two and a half languages and Northern Sign Language was one of them.”

“It’s very similar to ESL,” Vivien said. “Wait, what is Gormaden in the North?” Rayne paused, muttering quietly, and holding up two fingers.

“I want to say it’s this,” she said, repeating the motion. “But I’d have to go back and check to be sure.”

“Okay, so I can’t talk with my hands,” David said, “but I can defuse a bomb, so pretty sure we’re on equal footing here.”

“You’ve never defused a bomb though?” Dustbunny asked confused. “You always snip the wrong wire and make it tick down faster and we almost die.”

“I can do other things.” David huffed and crossed his arms.

“Oh yeah?” Rayne had an evil grin across her face. “Like what?”

“I can um…” David was finding it a little harder to think of things he was good at than he realized. He stood up and began to stomp off. “Okay look, I can’t speak with my hands, but I swear I’m about to throw them!”