[73rd day of fall 513.a.v.]
[The University of Zeltiva]
[West Wing]
[Middle-day]
The students had finally returned to the classroom. Amelia seemed to have been so enthusiastic about the lesson that she almost ran there. She had no desire to look for a seat that most would consider better, a eat somewhere in the back. The girl still sat in the front, not bothering to look behind her, until she noticed, it had become even quieter than before…and the teacher was not even in the class. She turned around, and realized that about a quarter of the people had left. The ones who had staid, seemed to have no interest in socializing with each other. ”did he scare them off?”
She could not help but wonder how a man like Denarius would scare off so many people. After all, he gave off the impression of power and knowledge, experience…not horror. But somehow, Amelia was blind to notice that the man indeed did, give off just enough of an intimidating vibe, to scare off the weakest minded ones. Sure, there was a reason behind it, the man wanted to have only the strongest mined ones left, those with a will of steel. Denarius believed, that the language of the first humans, was too valuable to pass down to the average scholars, he was even confident, that many would leave before the exam.
The silence as the man entered seemed to be overly silent. You could hear the clicking sound of his soles against the wooden floor as he walked towards the desk. His manner of walking was clearly that of a man who knew exactly what they wanted and needed, what they would accomplish and Amelia could not help but to memorize that manner of walking. Since for all her life, she had been thought to glide, rather than walk, to make people believe she almost floated above ground…though she couldn’t really do much of blending in with that, now this confident step, that would work.
He stood against the desk, with a slow, almost torturing gaze he looked over the remaining people in the auditory. He did not waist more than a split second on each face, probably not even trying to memorize them. Once he realized that so many had left, a barely noticeable smirk crept on his face, but it was gone just as fast as it had appeared. ”what is he thinking?” she kept wondering about it, but knew that an answer would never come, or maybe?
Everyone waited, waited for the man to begin his lesson, but nothing happened. More out of boredom the girl dragged the sheets of paper near herself, than she opened the bottle of ink, placing it closer to herself. Amelia began examining her quill, a fine feather colored in a pater of brown, white and just a hint of reddish-browns on the tip. She wet it in the ink and with a smooth glide, began writing down the word “Nader-Canoch” in a slightly large manner. It was the boredom that made her write it down as beautifully as she had done.
Nothing happened, but she could hear quills scratching the surface of the paper behind her, bottles of ink popped open one by one, sheets of paper crunching, some leafing through empty books. Once this happened ”Now that you are ready, let us prepare for the Anthropology class of the Ancient tongue””he was waiting?” yes, he was waiting and Amelia, nor the rest of the group had realized it, except for maybe a few that had superior abilities of analysis.
”For starters, how many of you know what linguistic anthropology stands for?” the man asked as he looked over the class once more, nobody even lifted their hand. He looked over them once more, and then when he was about to explain himself, Amelia stood up to identify that she is able to speak ”Anthropology is a form of science, that studies the social impact of a language on people…how it influences their sociality? she managed to fake out a nice, steady voice of confidence, but inside her hearth was running in a way she had never thought possible. Just a pound more, and it felt like it would jump out of her body, and from the way that the teacher looked at her, it felt like he knew how she felt, better than she would like to admit.
The man nodded and with his hand identified for the girl to sit down ”You are quite correct, that would be the possible shortest definition I have ever heard, but it is right…what is your name?” he asked, not really identifying real curiosity in his voice ”Amelia Cross””Well, Ms.Cross, and the rest of you, please remember that you do not have to stand up when speaking to me…unless I tell you” it felt like Amelia had been somehow humiliated, but she did not dare to frown, instead she let her nose sink down in the paper sheets and wait.
