Closed [The Stone Garden]First Lessons[Ferrin]

[Aranta]

46 Spring, 516AV Aranta arrived at the Stone Garden before Ferrin did; the Zith could already see the odd looks he was being given by those few people already wandering among the stones, and he pulled his wings closer to himself, actually wrapping them around himself to form a pseudo-cloak. He'd found that many times that would help ease some people's innate - and not unearned - fear of him, though Aranta knew that he would need his hands once Ferrin arrived. If he was to learn to write today, he knew that he would at least be holding the little sticks he'd seen others use to make the markings that were, apparently, then read. Learning to read and write had been a goal of Aranta's for a while, but he'd been unable to find someone willing to spend the rather large amounts of time required with a Zith, often only one-on-one. Granted, Zith weren't exactly known for their patience and dedication to anything other than the more violent aspects of life, but there were those few - like Aranta - who had longer attention spans and were slightly more disciplined. Zith were usually driven by one main goal in their life, and that goal helped to determine their personality. For Aranta, that goal was not survival, or power, or strength, but rather knowledge. He wanted to know as much as possible about everything he could. A stiff breeze drifted by, and Aranta could see a few of the nearby humans shiver; he snorted quietly to himself. These little breezes were nothing compared to the stiff winds that were found at higher altitudes that Zith often had to combat when flying. His grey-and-red fur probably helped even further with the cold, but still. Humans were odd creatures, and if they weren't so numerous they would not be so powerful, in Aranta's opinion. The next breeze brought with it a faintly familiar scent; after a moment's thought, the Zith's expression brightened. He recognized the scent as that of the human, Ferrin, who had promised to teach him to read and write. Turning towards the source of the scent, Aranta waited eagerly for Ferrin to come into view.

[Ferrin Al'Mandrikan]

Timestamp: 46th of spring516av
Location: Stone Gardens

|| "My Words" || My Thoughts || "Your Words"||

6th Bell, morning

The Bazaar was totally bazaar. The marketplace literally appealed to Ferrin as a whole different city. Save for the size of the indoor like market. Ferrin had so many things on his mind he felt like he couldn't quite concentrate. Just fifteen days prior he had met a bald headed Zeltivan, named Shimoje. His uncle had been captured by bandits, but since he's back now. Things have been quite it still felt like he was gone. Ferrin wondered what had happened to him out there. Outside of Syliras. The bandits and that ritual. It was peculiar. Surely. Ferrin still couldn't quite put his finger on to why the ritual still occurred.

Ferrin rubbed his furry beard. He and his teal blue eyes looked around the indoor market for whatever supplies he could find to teach a Zith how to read and write. Ferrin figured that he could teach Aranta the basic alphabet. Ferrin remembered the lessons that his mother gave way back when, while he was a babe. Back in Kenash, things felt easy. But, Ferrin left Kenash for his own reasons. Well, mainly it was to become a Knight. Primarily.

The Kenashian was swathed with his usual attire. The regular cotton clothing. His short broadsword at his side and this time though, without his cloak. But, he had his back back strapped around his shoulders as if he were preparing for a travel. But, alas, he was not. Ferrin figured that he was best without it as it was getting a bit to warm to wear the heavy cloak. As Ferrin looked around the Bazaar he'd notice so many people. To many people. Ferrin felt a bit claustrophobic almost. All of these people, Ferrin still questioned how each one can go through the streets without not being so close to one another.

Each booth was different. And uniqe in its own ways. Already, clothing for the summer wear have been folded out and preserved on a clothing booth. Ferrin looked at it as he walked, but bothered not to examine it any further. He kept walking. The chatter of the locals rang through the man's ear as he wandered almost lost, looking for... writing tools. Yes. So many things could distract him. So many.

It was at that time that Ferrin had eventually discovered the tool booth that held the kits and supplies. Ferrin walked up to the human merchant before him. He avoided the cluster of people that walked on by going on about their business. "Excuse me. Sir? Mr.!"Said Ferrin as he trotted closer towards the man behind the booth. His feet tapped lightly against the stone battered down street. "Aye. Mr. what do you want?" Asked the merchant with a quirky smile. His bald head matched the most of his face as blank and wrinkled. The bald headed merchant scanned Ferrin with his dark eyes and gestured Ferrin to come over.

Ferrin walked over. "Do you have parchment? Ink? Quill?" Asked the Kenashian. Ferrin took a look at what was on the counter. Toolkits of all sorts. Artist. Cartographer. Wood carving. Anything. Ferrin looked through a box. Yes. There was paper. And the ink and quill all in one. Ferrin figured that all of this would be more than what he was hoping to spend."How much for the box of the writing stuff?"Asked the Kenashian as he closed the lid and eyed the bald headed man curiously.

With a joker smile. "Aye. That was custom made my friend. Originally to fit all of those goods within. Ten golden Mizas."Said the merchant with a greedy grin. Ferrin attempted his best to dwindle down the price, but he is not so good with negotiations."That's... How about five golden Mizas?" Asked Ferrin as he wanted to get the price as low as he can. "That's to low. I'll make you a deal of seven golden Mizas. Take it or leave it." Offered the merchant with a stern look. Ferrin scowled. "Fine, here." Said Ferrin as he fished out seven golden Mizas from his one of his pockets. He then placed them on top of the counter with a hard thump over the counter. The merchant smiled and nodded his head. Ferrin took the box and left without another word.

Afternoon:

Ferrin especially made a trip to reach Aranta how to read and write. He was totally unsure how he was going to teach the Zith. He was surprised to see the Zith here before him. Ferrin usually gets to be the early worm. "Hey Aranta! Glad your here!" Exclaimed Ferrin as he spotted the Zith. He rushed towards the Zith. The Stone Gardens was one of the interesting places to visit. But, as long as Ferrin held his nerves at bay. He'd be fine. Also, if he doesn't get into too much conflict with the Zith. "So, Aranta. Said Ferrin as he neared the Zith.

"I was thinking. We could start with the Alphabet. It's easy to learn."

[Aranta]

Aranta's attention is caught by the box Ferrin is holding in his hands, and it takes him a moment to realize that the humans has actually spoken. "The 'alf-a-bet'?" he asks, sounding out the unfamiliar word. "What is that? Is that the markings people make on the little flat pieces of bark?" Aranta had seen people writing, of course; it was how he came to want to learn how to do it himself, after all. There'd been a brief visit to the library in Kalinor that hadn't yielded much except a determination to learn how to interpret the markings that were printed on the pages of the books; the Zith knew that there had to be information hidden in those markings, and he wanted to know everything. Perhaps that was an unrealistic goal, but Aranta had managed to make it from his colony to Kalinor, and then from Kalinor to Syliras, and now he was going to learn how to read and write. That was much more than anyone else in his colony had ever managed before. "You say it is easy to learn?" Aranta asks, voice and expression eager. "How will you teach me?" He knew that Ferrin had been nervous around him the day before, so he tried not to crowd the human too much; Aranta was well aware of his size, tall as well as broad, and with the wingspan he had, he could look larger than life if he wanted to. But right now, he very much did not want to. He didn't want to potentially scare off the first person who was willing to teach him something he dearly wanted to know. So, the Zith kept his wings wrapped around himself for the moment, and tried his best to stand still, though he couldn't help but think that he wasn't doing a terribly good job of that. At least he wasn't bouncing around the way he'd had a habit of doing when he was a pup and excited about something.

[Ferrin Al'Mandrikan]

Timestamp:
Location:

Ferrin neared the Zith with ease and caution. The two just met yesterday, and Ferrin still had his phobia of Ziths. The alphabet, he'd asked what it was. "The alpha-bet. You see is what makes up our language. It's a list of letters that help us to speak and write today." Said Ferrin as he knelt down and grabbed hold of a stick after he placed the box of writing toiletries down beside him. The wind ruffled his curled hair, but if hadn't bothered the Kenashian. He took the large enough stick and traced one line flowing in a diagonal slash, slowly. /

Once he got it to look big enough he took the stick and drew the other leg. Flowing the opposite direction. \ it didn't take long for how he wrote it. After he was done he finished with a line in the empty space in between the dirt creating the letter "A." Ferrin figured that it would be big enough for the Zith to duplicate. His knees were slowly getting matted with dirt, but this Kenashian didn't care.

"You think you can handle the letter A. Big pal?"Ferrin had almost felt the sensation of fear tickle away a bit as his hairs on his back grew less tensed up. At that point, he knew that he could get along with this Zith. At least, for now.

Speech Thoughts Your Speech

[Aranta]

Aranta listened to Ferrin's explanation of what the 'alphabet' was - the alphabet was the name for all those little markings that Aranta had seen. And the markings were called 'letters.' Interesting. Hopefully that was just the first of many things that Aranta would learn today. "How many of these... letters are in the alphabet?" Aranta asks, curious. Surely there wasn't an infinite number, or only a few; Aranta had seen many different ones, but he couldn't imagine that there were a lot of those characters, otherwise how would anyone know them all? Watching Ferrin move the stick, the Zith carefully unwrapped his wings, folding them against his back as he moved to squat on the ground next to the human. Aranta watched the movement of the stick intently, a claw tracing the movement through the fur on his thigh without thought. First one slanted branch, Aranta thinks to himself, watching Ferrin's movements intently. Then another, facing the other way and with the tips touching. Then a little branch in the middle to join them. It seemed simple enough, and Aranta recognized the shape. It had never before held meaning, and it still didn't, but hopefully Ferrin would give it meaning. When Ferrin asked him if he thought he could handle copying the shape - the letter, Aranta reminded himself - the Zith nodded, not bothering with the stick and instead reaching out with a claw to copy the movements. First the stick that was slanted to the left - / - then the one facing the other way, its top touching the top of the first mark - \. And then the final motion, a simple slash through the middle, crossing over both marks. "There," Aranta says, satisfied. "That is a - an 'A'?" Aranta studies the marks on the ground, tilting his head as he thinks. His letter is much rougher than Ferrin's, a bit lopsided, but it is recognizable. Not a bad copy, Aranta thought, satisfied.

[Ferrin Al'Mandrikan]

Timestamp:
Location:

Ferrin noticed that the Zith hadn't used a stick. He can't write on paper with a claw, that would just tear through the paper. Ferrin released a tensed smile and nodded his approval of the attempt. The attempt of making the letter A. Ferrin had almost felt achieved already. He had gotten Aranta to at least write the letter "A." So, that was a start. Perhaps, Ferrin could have Aranta try writing it with his claw to get a sense of the alphabet. Then, manage with a stick eventually there'll be a time where Aranta could use the quill.

"Good, good. Here watch me how I draw the letter. "B." Said Ferrin as he loaned out a smile and grasped the stick with three of his fingers. The index, the middle and the thumb. Surely, and rested the stick firmly against his wrist down. Since the stick was a nice thick sized stick. Ferrin drew the line going done, nice enough to know how he had started it with. And then the "U's." The "U's," were drawn facing outwards and connected to the straight line. Creating the letter "B."

"How about try the B. See how well you do?"

Speech Thoughts Your Speech

[Aranta]

Ferrin had seemed pleased with Aranta's attempt at the letter 'A'; now he was showing Aranta a second letter, one that he called 'bee.' It looked a bit like one of those annoying, flying, stinging insects of the same name. Aranta reached over to give himself a bit more room, and then copied Ferrin's movements once more. A straight line down, and then two curved shapes with their ends touching the first mark, the rounded bits pointing towards the left. "There," Aranta says, proud of himself. "The letter B." He dusted the dirt off of his hand, considering the letters scratched into the ground, head tilted, and then asked a question he'd thought of earlier. "How many of these letters are there? Do all races use the same letters?" Aranta knew that different races sometimes spoke different languages, but did every language also have its own letters? It would take a lot of work to learn all of those letters, too. But if Aranta could learn one alphbet, the Zith supposed that he could learn them all. An ambitious task, maybe, but Aranta was willing to work towards it if the task would be worth his time. If most texts turned out to be written in this language, however, then perhaps he wouldn't bother with other alphabets. OOCI can see this getting really repetitive really fast; do we maybe want to skim over the rest of the alphabet and perhaps start covering the basics of combining letters to make words?

[Ferrin Al'Mandrikan]

Timestamp:
Location:

Ferrin felt merely accomplished, somewhat. At least he did. Hopefully, this teaching thing would get easier as the two moved along. Ferrin didn't understand why the Ziths weren't taught how to read and write the human tongue. Though, they were knowledge horders in a way. Otherwise, Ferrin didn't mind teaching Aranta, it was the fact that he had had large claws and the wings. Aranta could knap him any second.

With a smile, Ferrin patted Aranta on the back with a plausible noc. "Good job. Once you get the rest down. We can learn how to write more words." Ferrin adjusted the position of the stick round his hand as be drew his palm had gotten sweaty and he carved the rest of the alphabet into the dirt with the stick. The winds felt good and a bit damp, though with the spring season there can always be some peculiar weather.

The Kenashian wrote fairly nicely. It was decent enough to be legible at least. Ferrin then moved a bit further out rising and stepped over the letters with ease as he didn't want to confuse Aranta. He knelt back down and started writing one word that related to the letter A. He started by drawing the first letter. For his first word. "A- P- P- L- E." Apple. He waited for Aranta to finish up with the alphabet itself before he continued on with different letters."If you think your ready. We can start working on words?"

OOCYeah your right. I've just went along with what you've said and fast forward it basically to writing words.

Speech Thoughts Your Speech

[Aranta]

Aranta carefully copied the letters as Ferrin wrote them, repeating their names to himself under his breath as he scratched them out. He moved from 'C' to 'Z', taking his time to make sure that he knew their shapes well. When the Zith was done, he turned his attention to what the human was doing; he was scratching more letters in the dirt, and Aranta tilted his head as he watched, naming them to himself as Ferrin worked. A... P... Another P... L... E., Aranta thought, watching the stick move through the dirt with interest. "That is a word?" he asks, just to confirm. "Which word is it? I want to learn as much as you are willing to teach me today." Aranta knew that he could not possibly learn everything that there was to learn about reading in one session, but he'd already learned the letters of the alphabet, and if he could begin to learn to piece them together to form words, then he would consider today a day well spent, despite the fact that it was still earlier than he would have liked to have been up and about. Learning trumped his own personal comfort, in Aranta's opinion; every Zith had their driving force, and the pursuit of knowledge was his.

[Ferrin Al'Mandrikan]

Timestamp:
Location:

As Ferrin continued his crouching position. He just only chuckled at the comment of wheterh the word Apple was a word or not. Ferrin nodded."It is, It's Apple. You know, like the fruit."Said Ferrin as he loomed to the side of Aranta and watched him carved the word. Ferrin grinned, it was a mere grin a pride. Ferrin was sure that he hadn't even thought of teaching a Zith anything. He'd turned out to be wrong.

"So, you want to learn what I can teach you. I guess we can formulate some sentences and get things moving the right direction."Replied Ferrin simply as he shrugged his shoulders and rolled his head round to loosen up the tension between his neck and the spinal cord. "Let's try something simple. 'My name is Aranta.' Ferrin crouched around the letters that Aranta drew, he figured why earse the progress so far? He then drew what he'd said and waited for Aranta to do the same. "Here now you try." Said Ferrin as he looked up at the sky.

Was it already getting late? Ferrin hadn't realized that the sun was almost hiding beneath the horizon. He was so intent on teaching Aranta that he had forgotten about time itself. "It's also getting fairly late as well. How'd you feel about we recontinue this some other day? Since you also might be busy and I still have my Squire training. How does that sound?" Asked Ferrin when he watched the Zith carve the last letters of his name down.

Speech Thoughts Your Speech