65th Summer, 516 AV
"Al! How you doing today?"
The librarian behind the desk was, as he had been the past few times she entered, jovial and welcoming. Aladari still couldn't believe that he learned her name so quickly, but perhaps that came from being so well-read.
"Heya." She did not have the same abilities.
She wasn't dumb by any stretch of the imagination. She had the capacity to learn, it simply hadn't been evoked. Aladari could read and write in Vani (her parents had made sure of it), but Common text had always eluded her. It had limited her schooling in Zeltiva and her job capabilities in Sunberth. However, her frequent trips to the library would be remedying that soon enough.
Making her way down the hall to the increasingly familiar space, Aladari ignored the suspicious looks of the parents in the Children's Well. It didn't bother her as long as they didn't confront her, and in Riverfall it seemed confrontation was generally out of the question.
Selecting a book she had been working on just the previous day from the shelf, Aladari returned to one of the short, stubby tables and squished herself into the seat. Armed alongside with her notebook and writing utensil, she opened the first page and began again.
She had been over the first page of the book many times, so she hardly had to look at the page to know what it said. For the sake of recognition, though, she ran her hand along the words as she mouthed them in turn.
It was a fine day. Syna shone brightly, allowing children in the field to bask in Her warmth.
Though two words had given her difficulty initially, both "shone" and "bask" were now inked into her notebook several times over, along with the definitions. Finding their meanings was always the most difficult part, whereas pronunciation for these words were rather straightforward. She had even made an accurate guess as to the meaning of "shone", but she had been wrong before, and it was embarrassing enough that she would not be wrong again. So, each word was penned into her notebook once, carefully copied from the book, then researched in the library. No word could be assumed.
Their parents lounged too, for their work had been finished by midday.
"Lounged" was carefully inscribed beneath her previous vocabulary, but as of yet the line for the definition was blank. She had simply run out of energy that day, and had never gotten back around to finding it. She could guess, as "too" implied it had a similar meaning to "bask", but again, she had no confidence in her ability to decipher a word's meaning. She would have to find the definition today, but it would be inefficient to search one word at a time. She needed to gather more before making that effort.
So, pen in one hand and book in the other, she flipped the page began her next day's worth of work.
Word Count496
The librarian behind the desk was, as he had been the past few times she entered, jovial and welcoming. Aladari still couldn't believe that he learned her name so quickly, but perhaps that came from being so well-read.
"Heya." She did not have the same abilities.
She wasn't dumb by any stretch of the imagination. She had the capacity to learn, it simply hadn't been evoked. Aladari could read and write in Vani (her parents had made sure of it), but Common text had always eluded her. It had limited her schooling in Zeltiva and her job capabilities in Sunberth. However, her frequent trips to the library would be remedying that soon enough.
Making her way down the hall to the increasingly familiar space, Aladari ignored the suspicious looks of the parents in the Children's Well. It didn't bother her as long as they didn't confront her, and in Riverfall it seemed confrontation was generally out of the question.
Selecting a book she had been working on just the previous day from the shelf, Aladari returned to one of the short, stubby tables and squished herself into the seat. Armed alongside with her notebook and writing utensil, she opened the first page and began again.
She had been over the first page of the book many times, so she hardly had to look at the page to know what it said. For the sake of recognition, though, she ran her hand along the words as she mouthed them in turn.
It was a fine day. Syna shone brightly, allowing children in the field to bask in Her warmth.
Though two words had given her difficulty initially, both "shone" and "bask" were now inked into her notebook several times over, along with the definitions. Finding their meanings was always the most difficult part, whereas pronunciation for these words were rather straightforward. She had even made an accurate guess as to the meaning of "shone", but she had been wrong before, and it was embarrassing enough that she would not be wrong again. So, each word was penned into her notebook once, carefully copied from the book, then researched in the library. No word could be assumed.
Their parents lounged too, for their work had been finished by midday.
"Lounged" was carefully inscribed beneath her previous vocabulary, but as of yet the line for the definition was blank. She had simply run out of energy that day, and had never gotten back around to finding it. She could guess, as "too" implied it had a similar meaning to "bask", but again, she had no confidence in her ability to decipher a word's meaning. She would have to find the definition today, but it would be inefficient to search one word at a time. She needed to gather more before making that effort.
So, pen in one hand and book in the other, she flipped the page began her next day's worth of work.
Word Count496
