In the past two years, I've had a few questioning comments on the characterization of the major falcolf character of my book, Kayli. I can see why some people might not like her (she is, in essence a talking animal) but there's one or two things these people are obviously not getting if they are only taking her at face value - that is, as a weird talking animal. (If you don't like talking 'animals' you are doomed to hate my entire series, since there are many 'talking animals' involved in it. While I try to keep as much scientific stuff in my stories as possible, there is still an element of magic too.) Kayli is probably the most purposefully created character that I have ever crafted. She exists because the plot of AOH had came to a major snag chapters after beginning, a snag which (unless you're extremely puffed up with humanity's apparent super master species status) you would definitely see.
Imagine the predicament of Zack and Sarah who have suddenly been abandoned on an alien planet with no technology of any kind to help them. They have no way of calling for help. They have no shelter and no knowledge. They do not know which plants are edible and what are poisonous. They have just arrived on this world, so they know absolutely nothing about the place, except that the air is breathable. Now; imagine what they don't know at this point - this planet is full of predators - honest to god predators, aka, the truly carnivorous kind (like starfers) which happen to be just as intelligent as our two poor castaways are. In plain, simple terms, in this situation with no hope, no ideas and no way of helping themselves, Zack and Sarah are doomed. They are absolutely, unarguably toast. That isn't a very exciting story. Our heroes are shipwrecked and then they die. The end.
It's obvious, since we'd like these two poor sods to live, that they need help, but from who?
Enter Kayli. Now, I'd say it's a pretty lame question plot-wise to ask why I gave this falcolf the ability to speak any language. If she couldn't speak English, she would be completely useless to Zack and Sarah as a guide. However, contrary to movies, it does not make any sense at all for Kayli to know English and by her anatomy, to really have much of an ability to speak it. Normal falcolfs (and most other native Rimarian cultures, usually deemed Falla) can't physically speak English. They have a common language called Common Fallan but most native cultures have their own languages - and one falcolf in one geographical region would probably not speak the same cultural language as the falcolf who lives a thousand kilometres away, but that's okay, because that's what they have a common language for, so that if they meet each other, nobody's confused. Native Rimarians are raised bilingual (which says a lot for their society. They may not always have prehensile hands, but they are educated.) In any case, since Zack and Sarah have just arrived on Rimer, it makes no sense whatsoever for any natives to know English, even the ones physically capable of speaking it, like kiri and kyra.
Thus, nobody native can speak English. So, how does Kayli do it?
As I said before, she has the ability to speak any language and she is because of this, a bit of a walking dictionary - only for thousands, even billions of languages rather than just one or two. Kayli can talk to trees. She has only to spend a minute or two with any given living thing to be able to understand it - and to be able to respond. This might make her seem like a know it all, but she's not, because while she is a walking multi-lingual dictionary, she isn't a walking encyclopaedia. She knows the definition of a given word, if you asked her what the War of 1812 was about, she would only be able to define that there was a war in 1812 and she would probably wonder what the heck 1812 means, because she sure wouldn't relate it to a year date as we do, since Rimarians don't run on our calendar. Her dictionary-type knowledge can also be bias, since the only word Kayli knows for her own world in particular is its name - Rim-err - and in fact, the word 'world' in reference to her planet is pretty hard for her to process because of this.
And so, with Kayli's ability to speak any language, Zack and Sarah's situation is relieved; providing she wants to help them. Kayli is one of the most solidly developed characters in the universe of my series and one of the oldest (though not nearly as old as Zack and Sarah, who trump her by at least a decade) in real world time. As a pup she's a feisty, venomous little spitfire who, like many dogs, doesn't like men, hates most sentient males of any species and yet she has a capacity for great caring; she finds it hard to attack the prey that she can understand - Kayli is not a willing predator, so she resorts to scavenging that which is already dead. She wants a family and to be loved. Unfortunately, that's not really in the cards for her.
Because of Kayli, Zack and Sarah survive. In a hunter-gatherer society such as what Kayli lives in as a scavenger, even a carnivore like her knows which plants are poisonous and which aren't from being taught such as well as watching the grazing of prey. She's extremely special in her lingual abilities and with them, she is able to teach Zack and Sarah what she knows. She is willing to leave her home with them because she has never felt cared for there.
In
Ashes of Hope, you the audience meet Kayli as an unwanted adolescent pup who becomes a guide. Later on in Rimer's timeline, she never really stops being a guide for her humans but the way she does it changes. She's definitely a character who grows.
