Closed [Stories in the Snow]A Chance Meet (Naira)

[Geothryn]

12th of Fall 512 AV Historical books went into the Histories section of the library, under the subcategory of Recent Histories (Books with subject matter consisting of Pre-Valterrian history had their own subsection). The books mostly chronicled the inception of the various city-states and their governments (Or, in the case of Sunberth, lack thereof). Geothryn filed these away according to author and, where the same author was involved, title. Some books the library contained in multiplicities (The History of Avanthal, for example, is one of these books. The library had six copies). He leafed through each book before shelving it, absently looking for torn pages or other damage to the precious information contained within the bindings. Damaged books were set aside to be repaired. All in all it was rather monotonous work. While he was on shelving duty Geo composed music in his head. The quiet of the library was a resounding emptiness that felt almost oppressive to the young musician. He yearned to fill it with the sound of his lute but he knew that wouldn't happen as long as there were more books to sort and more shelves to dust... He whistled under his breath, quietly turning the air in his lungs into music. His lute lay behind the front desk, safely out of reach from prying fingers; namely, his own. On his break time he often practiced either playing the lute or learning how to write the music on paper, which was turning out to be much harder than it seemed. Alas, he could do neither since he had an entire cart of books to shelve. It was looking to be a boring day, indeed.

[Naira]

Searching for peace and quiet from the winds and outside world, she found herself in the library. Coming in, a large gust of wind came with her, and she stood for a moment. She rubbed her arms, then walked a bit forward to the front desk, putting her elbows on it and her face in her hands. She stood up and backed away from the desk, listening to a whistle with a distinct sound. She decided that she should follow it. If it were the librarian or a worker, they shouldn't be too talkative anyway. And she just wanted to see who it was.
Following the sound, she found herself standing a yard away from the source. She watched the dark skinned male shelve books. She attempted a whistle, as she observed him. It was awful and had no good tone- it was far to sharp and sqeaky. She looked at his black hair, and the various green curls. She wasn't very embarrassed with her failed attempt to join in with his song. She wondered if it would catch his attention.
"Hello," she mumbled. Immediately after speaking she regretted it, and she looked back over her shoulder. Maybe, she could turn around and walk out and he would never have known she was there... But her feet seem planted on the grounded. She cleared her throat and decided to make conversation, since she felt so unable to move. "I'm Naira."

[Geothryn]

Geothryn's ears practically perked up at the sound of the slightly-off-tone whistle. The squeaky notes pierced the air and caught the young man in a net. He resisted the urge to cringe and turned towards the sound, putting on a smile. What he saw pleasantly surprised him. After spending most of the morning surrounded by books, the short white-haired girl was a sight for sore eyes indeed. He brushed stray dust from his shirt and put the book he was trying to sort back on the cart. His smile was genuine now; instead of the smile reserved for impatient customers, he wore the smile he reserved for pretty girls who wanted to ask him things. "Hello!" Said Geo, holding out his hand. "Welcome to Stories in the Snow. I'm Geothryn, but you can call me Geo. What brings you here today?"

[Naira]

She looked at him, smiling a bit, holding out her hand to gingerly grab his. "Geothryn," she repeated, wondering how it would feel in her mouth and on her tongue. It was quite fun, and she appreciated hearing the name she would be able to say. "Well," she took a deep breath. Speaking wasn't her specialty. "I was actually just coming here to get some peace and quiet...but, I did like your whistling. Made it to where it wasn't too quiet." she shrugged, now blushing. "Does that sound silly?" she felt much more comortable, though not completely at ease. "I hope I don't sound completely strange. I'm not really a social butterfly."
This statement led her to look down at her feet almost shamefully. She looked up at his cart, then to Geothryn. "Shelving books?" she looked at the shelves. "Dusting?" she was curious as to how the whole thing worked, but wasn't willing to ask about that. Instead she offered help with something she knew how to do. "Want some help dusting?"

[Geothryn]

Naira was definitely not a social butterfly, as she put it. But the way she spoke and the way she held herself spoke of a naive innocence that reminded Geo a bit of himself. Just a bit. He cocked his eyebrow at her comment about making it not too quiet. "Not silly at all," He answered, his eyes turning an interested shade of green. "I felt the same way." When she looked down at her feet Geo took the opportunity to resume his work. He picked up the book that he had replaced in the cart and found its location on the shelf, then gingerly nudged the two surrounding books away from each other to make space for their new companion. "I appreciate the offer," He said, smiling once again, "Really, I do. But I don't think Felix - he's the main librarian - would like it. He'd probably say something about how you have no experience in handling books and you'd probably be liable to break them trying to shove them back into the shelf like a barbarian." His voice trailed off, and he realized what he said could have been taken in the wrong way. "Not that that's true. I don't think its true. It's just, I'd rather not test him." Geothryn stopped talking, realizing that he was rambling. Sighing, he gave a wry half-smile, and in his mind he sarcastically congratulated himself on being such a great conversationalist as his eyes betrayed his innermost feelings with a quick jaunt into the purple spectrum. "Do you have any interests? Anything you wanted to learn more about? I'm sure the library has a book on it, and I'd be more than happy to help you find it."

[Naira]

She watched him, curious. She'd seen the changing of his eyes, and almost wanted to get up really close to look at them. She listened to him as he spoke, smiled, and then continued on with his words. Made her wonder why he wouldn't let her, but then it was answered before she could ask. This made her grin, and she did not at all take it offensively. Even before he reassured her. She nodded slightly as he spoke the words, "Not that that's true".
She expected him to continue, his tone of voice warm. She liked it. He was a very likeable person. Watching the blue come into sight, she slightly gasped, and had to force herself to listen to what he was saying, intead of say, "Your eyes..."
She shook her head quickly. "No interests." she paused, then realizing what she said. "Well, I can't...uhm, well, I can't really read. Like, at all." she was blushing again, and she knew she was going to sound like an idiot. "Can't really focus on the learning part of it to really get to the reading portion."

[Geothryn]

Geothryns eyes deepened in color, becoming a very dark blue-green. His smile disappeared, however, and was replaced by a slightly open mouth as he stared in semi-astonishment. He stared at the girl, wondering how it was she couldn't read, when it struck him - she was a Kelvic! Now that he knew - or, thought he knew - what to look for, he could see that her fingernails were sharp, almost like claws. And when she smiled, her teeth seemed just a bit too sharp to be normal. It was a good thing she didn't touch the books, then, or she might have accidentally ripped them with her nails. And she wouldn't have been able to read the spines to know how to sort them, anyway. Still, her illiteracy was something that could be overcome rather easily. And teaching someone to read was definitely more interesting than sorting books. His head nodded ever-so-slightly as he resolved himself to the task, then put the book he was holding back onto the cart and turned to Naira. "Would you be interested in learning? Right now? I could teach you. I mean, I've never taught someone how to read before, but it shouldn't be too hard..." He had a feeling he would be eating those words, but it seemed like such a harmless thing to say. And it would, if anything, help Naira decide to learn. If it didn't discourage her and send her running, that is.

[Naira]

At first, she was scared. He wasn't smiling. He looked a little too shocked for her liking, and his eyes had began to change colors again. This happened very frequently, and she was starting to wonder if it went with his thoughts, or feelings. Or maybe just as he pleased. Her eyebrows raised, slightly unsure. Should she turn, apologize for being an inconvenience, and walk away? He seemed very... she watched as his eyes darted from her face to her hands... her nails. He saw her nails. Her hands bunched into fists, her nails digging into her skin. His eyes wondered up to her teeth. He saw them, too. She wondered if it always took that long for others to notice her small, abnormal qualities.
He seemed to come to a conclusion about something, when he nodded his head. He put his book back in the cart. What was he doing? Wasn't he going to shelve it, too? All of a sudden, he'd turned to her. He asked... if she wanted to learn? For him to teach her?
The question struck her as odd, and she looked at all of the shelves in the library. Learning to read, and she could read all of these. She was tempted, but was she going to be embarrassed? Was he going to make a fool out of her instead of truly help her? Her eyes narrowed, and she looked at him a moment, considering the options. He seemed like a gentleman. Nice. Not cruel. Not like he'd do anything to point out that she wasn't very smart. Not that she wasn't street smart. But she definitely didn't have an education. Her eye brows relaxed, and she shrugged.
"Sure," she spoke confidently. Trying not to show she was afraid. "I guess I could try."

[Geothryn]

Geothryn saw the way she narrowed her eyes, calculating. What was she thinking of? Was there something on his face? He almost brought his hand up to wipe his cheeks when her gaze softened and she gave him a shrug. "C'mon, I'm sure you'll do fine," He said, grasping the cart's handle. His eyes ran idly across the rows of shelves as he pushed the pile of books to the back room, looking for any titles that were out of place. "Besides, even if you don't learn everything there is to learn today, that's normal. You don't learn how to write in one day." He found two along the way, and quickly but efficiently rearranged them so that they were in the proper order. After putting the books that he had yet to shelf away, he found a board of slate and some chalk and brought them out. Showing them to Naira, he continued. "I can give you the basics, though. And once you know the alphabet it's fairly simple to learn on your own." Motioning for Naira to follow him, he led her towards one of the wider aisles that contained within it a few tables that were perfectly suited for the task at hand. After setting the board and chalk down, Geo pulled out a chair from under it and smiled, nodding towards it and indicating that he wanted her to sit. After she sat, he would take the seat next to her and fold his arms on the surface of the table, resting his elbows on the wood worn smooth by years of books being placed upon it. "So, you have absolutely no experience in writing, right? We'll have to start from scratch?" He asked, though the way he said it made it seem more of a statement than a question.

[Naira]

Watching the slight movement of his hand, that would've been a full motion if he hadn't faltered. He moved, his hands on the cart, eyes wondering. She liked to watch his eyes. They might have been on of her favorite things to watch about the character. She listened to him speak to her, his voice comforting her worries. She wasn't planning on learning much in just the day. She didn't think she was really capable of so much at once anyway, if at all. She watched his movement of the books, and then saw as he pulled out a slate board and chalk. Writing... she thought back, to where she had may of seen someone write before. She bit her lip, drawing blood slightly. "Ow," she whispered. A small, hoarse hissing noise came from her throat. It noted the slight loathing of embarrassment, and she already felt vulnerable with the idea.
She nodded as she was shown them, and as she spoke. "I don't think so. For me. I'm not... I can't...learn well." She followed him to the tables, where she listened as the chalk and board touched, and he made a gesture. For her to sit? She smiled at him, hopefully warmfully and not appearing strained, and then sighed as he asked if they had to start from scratch.
Nodding solemnly, she murmured, "Yeah. I have no experience." she seemed to be rewording his question as a response. "I'm sorry."