The Hooded Teacher [Coren]

by **Svasra** on February 7th, 2013, 11:40 pm

Timestamp: 5th of Summer, 505 AV

Age: 13 years old.

Is it normal to be nervous? Not just a small flutter, or the gentle nausea of the first day of school. This was the type that made her brush her hair back repetitively, and shift on the spot. Her parents stood on either side, Father's hand clapped onto her shoulder. More a vice than the reassurance it was supposed to be. Svasra knew this was for her own good though, reciting the mantra her mother did when walking here. "Alright, Svasra, we'll come and get you in a few bells," Minara said with a kind smile.
"Yes, Mother," Svasra replied dutifully as she kissed both cheeks of mother and father. When they left, Svasra turned back to the door at hand.

It was the door of Coren's family. That much she knew. A boy slightly older than herself that knew Common, and was willing to teach for the price her parents offered. They said he seemed like a nice boy. Of course he was nice to adults, though, so Svasra decided to keep her mind open to other opinions of this strange Vantha. Blinking ever-changing eyes, Svasra took a breath.

Had it really only been ten days since her parents started bickering over her learning Common? Svasra knew they thought it would give excuse for her to leave Avanthal all the more, though they figured she was asleep when they argued. Her mother supported the language though, deeming it necessary for any "educated" woman to know. They spread it around they were looking for a tutor, and were willing to pay per bell taught.

The response came quickly from a boy who did not claim to be amazing, or even Fluent. He knew enough though to give Svasra the basics that would at least allow her to learn more on her own if she so chose. Her parents had said his name was Coren, and he was very friendly and sweet.

She knew she needed to be admitted soon, or else people would begin to stare. They couldn't judge her though! This was a boy she'd never met and they expected her to just prance into his room and learn from him? Stories cannot just be told in Vani, she patiently told herself.

Her knock seemed very loud against their door.

by **Coren** on February 8th, 2013, 5:00 pm

Even though coren knew that his pupil was going to arrive at his door every moment, he wasn't wasting his time with doing whatever young vantha skyglow boy's did at his age. Instead he was sitting behind his desk carefully going over a few sheets of paper filled with his own messy handwriting and sounding out the strange words in nader-canoch he had written down just a few bells ago when he had his lessons with the old mage he had manage to convince to teach him the arts and ways of the mages, heck the man had even thrown in some history lessons for free. Something that sounded a lot more intresting too this young vantha then trying to cut a block of worthless wood into equally worthless animals. The boy silently thanked morwen for the fact he managed to convince his teacher to give him a few days off from his lessons and that the man neglected to tell his parents about it. At first he had wanted to take the time to get some extra practice in with his glyphs and magic, but when he had gotten word that a pair of vantha where willing to pay money to give their brat some lessons in how to speak common he hadn't been able to resist.

Coren perked up when a loud knock echoed through the hold, he quickly shoved the few sheets of papers underneath the mess of who knows what that littered his desk, the less other people knew about those hobbies the better, and quickly made his way towards the front door. “I'm coming!” The teen.
As Coren opened the door the first thing that the young girl would notice was the fact that he was wearing a long thick winter-bane robe with the hood pulled up, an attempt to see underneath the hood revealed that the young boy was wearing a strip of something that covered the lower part of his face including his nose, only leaving his friendly looking green eyes visible from underneath the hood.
“So I'm guessing you are Svasra snowsong right?” Coren said in a friendly tone as he took a step aside. “ I'm coren. Didn't think you where going to come this early, though that just gives us more time to teach you common. Just follow me to my room and we will get started.”

by **Svasra** on February 8th, 2013, 11:26 pm

“I'm coming!” came a muted voice, the sound of feet trotting towards the door accompanying it. Svasra felt mildly relieved it didn't sound scary, or intimidating, more just like a normal kid wanting to make some money. Surely he couldn't be that bad right? Swallowing, Svasra watched as the door swung open and a young boy stood in its shadow.

Or his own shadow. She couldn't really tell. Svasra tried not to gape at the hooded figure in front of her, craning her neck slightly to peer at his face. The only thing she could see was a pair of lively green eyes, that seemed the exact opposite of the rest of his demeanor. With a friendly gaze, the man said, “So I'm guessing you are Svasra Snowsong right? I'm Coren. Didn't think you where going to come this early, though that just gives us more time to teach you common. Just follow me to my room and we will get started.” Right. He spoke in Vani, which was nice. Svasra was worried he might be one of those harsh teachers that just started screaming at her in Common. Not that it's happened, but a childish imagination never pairs well with new experiences.

Svasra followed him, and closed the door politely behind herself. "So, uh, where did you learn Common?" she asked as she made her way to his room. Though curiosity burned her very soul as to why he wore such clothing indoors, Svasra determinedly kept her mouth shut. "Do you know any other languages?" she added, again turning to close another door behind her out of pure habit - if Coren wanted the door open, he would have to explicitly say so.

Maybe he's just really cold? Svasra wondered, touching the gnosis mark of Morwen subconsciously at the thought of unmarked Vanthas running around. She wondered if they would literally be running to keep warm . . . either way in here it was a pleasant temperature, and Svasra could come up with no firm conclusion as to why Coren decided to dress like he had something to hide. To put it bluntly, it made her slightly nervous to be alone with him.

by **Coren** on February 13th, 2013, 6:55 pm

A small check would reveal that yes, the hooded youth had received morwen's blessing just like every vantha should have. So he wasn't wearing all those clothes just because he was cold.
Coren easily picked up on the fact that the little girl was nervous, but he just linked that to the fact she was a young girl alone in a house with a boy who she didn't know anything about. He was convinced that would go away when they where busy with the teaching thing. That or she might just be a bit shy.

“Good questions, I picked up most of common on my own. I started with the fun words the sailors usually used at the docks and worked on the rest of the language on my own time with the help of whoever had time to help me.” Coren answered in a cheerful tone. “I don't know any other languages other then vani and common though. What about you? How much do you already know about common and do you know any other tongues then vani?” Coren tried to break the ice a bit as he stopped at his room holding the door open for the little girl.

A few clothes where strewn haphazardly on the ground and another big cloak just like the one he was wearing at the moment was hung on a nail in the wall behind his bed. The ground was also littred with small pieces of paper and pushed against the right side of the room was a fairly big and sturdy looking desk with a single chair. The desk was messy and a few writing utensils where strewn hapzardly over its surface. Two small stacks of paper where resting on the right side of it.
“Here we are,come in and don't mind the mess.”

by **Svasra** on February 19th, 2013, 1:02 am

Following up on her previous thought, Svasra subconsciously registered that Coren held Morwen's mark somewhere on his body, though she couldn't see where he might hold his gnosis. She managed not to frown, and studied him for a moment more. Interesting, perhaps a stylistic choice? Why someone would want to cover themselves up, was completely foreign, though Svasra decidedly didn't judge the boy and tried to push uneasy thoughts away. Stylistic. That's all. He's not hiding something under that cloak. Nothing at all. Nothing harm-

" - I picked up most of Common on my own. I started with the fun words the sailors usually used at the docks and worked on the rest of the language on my own time with the help of whoever had time to help me." The boy's voice interrupted Svasra's swirling thoughts that she determinedly kept away from anything slightly creative. Was it weird that Svasra thought his voice was just too happy? He did not look like the type that would be so cheerful to teach some little Snowsong to speak Common. It was a tad disconcerting, she had to admit. Coren continued though, "I don't know any other languages other then Vani and Common though. What about you? How much do you already know about Common and do you know any other tongues then Vani?" Pausing for a moment, Svasra struggled to remember the formation of the phrase her parents drilled into her one the way over.

Compared to Vani, Svasra thought of Common as a very ... rudimentary language. It sounded harsh, clipped, and awkward. It made her stop short when her breath wanted to weave the words together in the waterfall sense of Vani, of the delicate music it sounded like to cascade into the stories it so gracefully told. Common just ... spoke. It was just there. Most unpleasant, Svasra had to say, though unfortunately it was widely used and Vani was not. With this in mind to keep her from simply running away and living within the lyrical world of Vani, Svasra's brow furrowed and she snapped her fingers as it came back to her.

"Lovely . . . home . . . MakesMeHonored!" she chirped. She deliberately slowed down with inserted overly long pauses for the first part, then in her struggle to form the correct verb tense her Vani origins became more prominent to run the rest of the sentence together one word tumbling into the next. Svasra smiled meekly. "That's all I know in Common, my parents told me to say it when I came here, though I'm not completely sure what it means. Something about an honored house?" She seemed puzzled before shrugging.

The door to Coren's room yawned open. It was messy inside. Svasra blinked her wary gaze, and peered around for a moment. Writing utensils, paper, large desk .... did he write for a living? Or plan to write for a living? He had another cloak too, and it being in here instead of in the entrance led Svasra to assume it was more part of his wardrobe than any outerwear that might be kept on a hook by the outer door. "Here we are, come in and don't mind the mess." Coren gestured the little girl in, and Svasra went willingly.

The mess was slightly comforting, in all reality. It was something .... expected. Of all the things presented today, Svasra suspected the sixteen year old male to have a messy room. It was simply the swing of things when it came to teenage boys. She smiled and nodded with, "No worries."

Without invitation, Svasra settled down on the side of the bed, tucking her legs up criss-cross. Forcing herself to be at ease, the little girl tilted her head at the older boy wearing the dark cloak. "Where do we begin?"

Note: Svasra speaking Vani, Svasra speaking Common.

by **Coren** on March 2nd, 2013, 12:01 pm

Coren smiled underneath his mask as the smal girl chirped out a sentence in hacked common. “Lovely home, makes me honored.” Coren repeated her sentence, with out the awkward structuring. remembering how his teachers had always sounded back his sentences back at him correctly to hear how it needed to sound.
“the first word means lovely, the second one means home , and then you said make me honored.
I think your parents wanted you to say I had a lovely home and that you where honored to be here or to get tutelage. But I don't think they are that good at Common from what I hear.” Coren said with an audible smile in his voice as he walked over to his desk and began making some space, relocating some of the writing utensils and stacks of paper to his bed.
“We begin at the beginning of course. I'm going to learn you some words that you can use in a greeting and learn you how to use some verbs in the right tense. He motioned for her to sit down at the desk after he managed to make some place, he pulled out a piece of paper from a heap wrote down a small list of words, sentences and other things about the common language on it. Each with their respective translation in vani to their right.

the page :

He pushes the page towards svasra. Unlike his room his handwriting was clear and quite neat, even though his letters where pretty small.
“Most of the things on the page make sense by its own. Just words or sentences with the translation next to it. This however.” He points towards the last paragraph on the sheet of paper. “Probably needs a bit more of explanation. Its how you form the verbs in common. I wrote it three times because to be and to have are irregular verbs, verbs who don't follow the normal rules. While to see is a normal verb without such difficulties.” Coren calmy explained. “You still following?”

by **Svasra** on March 9th, 2013, 3:15 pm

"Lovely home, makes me honored," Coren corrected, his tongue twisting much more gracefully around the awkward words. Common was such a hacked out language in her opinion, but her visage was that of a studious child, nodding vigorously as she parroted back,
"Lovely home, makes me honored."
"The first word means lovely, the second one means home, and then you said make me honored ... I think your parents wanted you to say I had a lovely home and that you where honored to be here or to get tutelage. But I don't think they are that good at Common from what I hear," Coren added with an amused tone. Svasra giggled in agreement, as her mother admitted the last time she had spoken Common was with a trader more than four years ago.

Following Coren to his desk, Svasra settled down and listened closely, "We begin at the beginning of course. I'm going to teach you some words that you can use in a greeting and teach you how to use some verbs in the right tense." Squinting at the age, Svasra struggled to read it, let alone be able to find any meaning. Though she came from a poetic family, they rarely marked down their works, and when they did it was in a loopy script Svasra could never decipher properly. The young girl had learned to read with the rest of the students, but as she didn't actively train at it, she found herself puzzling over a few things before the words fell into place. It wasn't until she began to tell her own stories, and record them herself did reading become something necessary and over time much easier - that wasn't for years to come though.

"Most of the things on the page make sense by its own. Just words or sentences with the translation next to it. This however," Coren gestured to the last paragraph, "Probably needs a bit more of explanation. It's how you form the verbs in common. I wrote it three times because 'to be' and 'to have' are irregular verbs, verbs who don't follow the normal rules. While to see is a normal verb without such difficulties. You still following?" His tone was patient and calm, a teacher that Svasra always learned best under. She took a moment before responding, finger running underneath the words as she read them.

" ... H'ello... my n-ame isss Svasra ... how ... errr you?" Svasra attempted, sounding like a Vani lamely trying to pass for a Common-speaker. Her accent rung over the words awkwardly, stressing a random syllable, or stretching out a sound too far. Svasra blinked up at Coren, though she gave up straining to see his face underneath the hood, just looking up to where his eyes looked out. "How is it supposed to sound? What does the alphabet sound like in Common?" she asked, reverting back to the much more lyrical Vani-tongue.

The afternoon sped by quite quickly, much to Svasra's surprise. She felt like she had barely started when her parent's hand banged loud against the door. She enjoyed the classes, she had to admit, and knew she would one day speak Common. "Thank you Coren!" Svasra said as she left, waving to the dark figure in the hall.

End

Note: Svasra speaking Vani, Svasra speaking Common.

by **Noblesse** on August 15th, 2013, 3:51 am

Svasra Snowsong :

Coren Skyglow :

True nobility lies in being superior to your former self

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out. Heehee.

Flashback The Hooded Teacher [Coren]