First Lessons (Miora)

[Riley]

Riley couldn't help but smile, she was smart. "You're right, there are more than twenty six sounds, ch and sh for example. And th. You get those other sounds by combining them with other letters. The ch sound comes from the letters C and H, the sh sound comes from the letters S and H, and the th sound comes from the letters T and H." Riley pointed out each letter to her, "So we have ch as in chase, sh as in shut and th as in that." Riley then went through all the letters one at a time, pausing just long enough to answer any questions, and to give a few examples of each letter. Pondering the next question for a few moments, he took a bit before answering. "The ancient language has more sounds, but has a letter for each sound, unlike our language." After a few seconds, he simply decided to speak in the ancient language for her, "The ancient language has many sounds and words foreign to our own language. More than I can say in just a few sentences."

Riley smiled, pointing at her name again. "I sounded it out and used that to spell your name. You can sound out most any word and figure out how to spell it from that. As for Nimrod..." Riley considered her question for a while, he had at first thought magic, but that wouldn't do. He couldn't get used to using magic to solve everything that wouldn't be healthy. So naturally he got creative, a small smile crossing his lips. "I got an idea for you, give me a little bit to work it out." Riley slowly stood from the chair, then tapped the book a few times to indicate for her to study a bit. He didn't expect her to do too much, but thought he had to play the responsible adult. With that he stepped outside the tent, looking around for a rock, he entered the tent again.

"We'll heat this up, and then keep it under the nest at night. That will keep Nimrod warm and you won't have to worry about squishing." Riley pulled one of the lanterns over to his desk and lit it, dropping the rock in the lantern by the flame. He smiled and set the lantern aside for the moment, leaning back more in his chair and looking over at Miora. "I'm glad you like the book, there's blank pages at the back for you to practice writing. You can use the ink and pens on my desk, or the charcoal."

[Lisenet]

The sound of the ‘ancient language’, as he called it, was one of the strangest sounds Miora thought she’d ever heard. Like water rippling. Or the words fish would say if they could speak, somehow combined with birds. The songlike birds, anyway; she was fairly sure the featherwad would never sound that melodic. Miora dusted off her arms after he finished speaking it, to brush off the odd feelings the words had left once they fell off his tongue. Maybe the elves did only have one tongue then—she was sure Riley only had one, and he could still speak like them. But maybe he could only speak it because sometimes he was odd, like them, who were always odd.

Miora tugged the slim book onto her lap, then off it again. Chairs were so uncomfortable—she much preferred grass. Chairs were still better than cobblestones though, not that she’d seen any of the nasty things here. The grass was cool, like Nimrod’s scaly feet pressed against her stomach. She didn’t want to grub about with any of Riley’s charcoals or inks just yet though—she’d probably only break or spill something, as she still wasn’t accustomed to the trappings of living in an actual structure, if that’s what you called the tent. She wasn’t accustomed to considering anything hers. So she found a bare patch of dirt to sit next to and shakily, determinedly traced them in the dirt and scrubbed them out.

When Riley came back in she lifted her head and asked, ”Why haven’t birds got feathered feet? Why the scales? Do they help them fly? Taesi hasn’t got feathers.” At least, none that Miora had seen. She supposed the dragon might have some hidden somewhere, and then Miora probably shouldn’t ask where. When Riley showed her the stone he dropped in the lantern that Miora avoided because she was sure she would break that too, she nodded her approval, though she didn’t think a stone that small would stay warm that long.

”You can use the ink and pens,” Riley suggested, as far as practicing the letters went. But Miora shook her head, tucking herself up against the cloth wall. Charcoal was well enough, but ink made her nervous. It spilled, it wasn’t any good to drink, and it changed things black forever unless she was willing to scrape off the skin it had stained. She’d opened up his inkwell once to see what was in it and touched just a little bit of it on her finger. It took an afternoon of scrubbing to bring her finger back out of the shadow the ink had created. Charcoal at least didn’t obliterate what it drew over. Ink was missing things in a bottle. It made her nervous.

The bird gave a muffled croak, so Miora combed through the grass and found another beetle, crunched it into manageable mush for it, and poked it down just far enough for Nimrod to gobble it. ”How will you keep warm in winter now that you’ve given the featherwad your clothes?” she wanted to know next. ”How does it decide if it eats plants or meaty things? What’s the difference since they’re all food? Why do some animals have different colored eyes than we do? Is that what makes them see better? Why get rid of your ladyfriend’s wings if they don’t hurt her?” She found a bit of apple she must have dropped the day before when she next sat her hand in the grass, brushed it off and popped it in her mouth.

[Riley]

This was one thing Riley had to admit he loved about Miora, she asked any question that was on her mind and absorbed the knowledge. There were times he actually had to go a research her question a bit before he could answer it. "Near as I can tell they have scaly feet to help them grab things, feathers can get slick and let things slip easily. Scales not so much. I could be wrong though, but that makes sense to me." Nodding in agreement, he leaned forward onto his knees slightly. "You're right, Taesi doesn't have wings. She flies through magic mostly, I could even fly using magic if I wanted to. I just don't like the feeling much, it's kinda disorienting." Riley watched as she started tracing the letters in the dirt and smooth them out again.

Smiling Riley decided to give her a chore, something to keep her busy. "I'll help you with four five letters a night, then when we're done, I'll help you put them all together fully. I'll even write up some stories my mother used to tell me when I was your age for you to learn to read on." His own scrolls were too complex for her to read, and some of them were in the ancient language, hell, some of them were even to complex for him. He was just required to learn all the material in them, so he had to force himself to learn it and understand it. Taesi was able to help him in that sometimes, and sometimes he was able to help her understand it.

Riley then considered her next set of questions, though most of them were simple enough to answer. "That was one of my old tunics, I have several more. I can get more if I need them, just like I can get you more clothes if you need them. It decides because of it's nature, owls eat meat, it's just the way they are. Some animals can't stomach vegetables the way we can, some animals can't eat meat either. Some animals have different eye color just because they do. Just like humans have different eye color just because they do." Riley closed his azure blue eyes and then muttered out a silent spell under his breath, when he opened them again, his eyes were now the exact shade of violet as Taesi's scales. "I don't see any different now than I did before." Another few words in the ancient language and his eye color returned to the azure blue it normally was.

That was when he considered her next question, this was was slightly trickier, not because it was a difficult question, but because it wasn't his place to tell her everything. He decided on the simplest form of the truth, "Because Ana doesn't want them, and I love her and want her to be happy. If she wakes up one morning and decides she wants her wings, or wants them changed to be useful. I'll help her however I can. But right now she doesn't want them, so I'll help her get rid of them if that's what she wants." Riley then tapped the book with his finger, deciding to change the subject from Ana's wings. "The first four letters are, A B C and D." Taesi chose that moment to speak up, "And so the first lesson begins."