-- Spring 88th, 508 AV --
These days, Jenni had two classes a day, Nari in the morning, and History in the afternoon. History was by far her favourite subject, and left her with something to be excited about at the end of the day. Nari… was a little boring, to be honest, but the Inartan language was so funny sometimes that it was still entertaining. At the moment, the Twilight was on her way to her first class of the day, her notebook in hand and mind trying to remember what they’d learnt the previous day. They’d been learning the language all season, but pronunciation was a pain, it was so different from Common, that they moved at a snail’s pace. Even Jenni herself had trouble with that part, her brain easily understanding what was going on, but her tongue just couldn’t keep up! It was even a problem when talking normally, she spoke so fast that half the time people couldn’t understand her. Honestly, it was a pain to repeat herself over and over. But that wasn’t the point. What she needed to focus on right now was… Nari.
Yesterday, they’d worked on numbers. They’d been doing that for the past few days, working their way up to 100. On the 86th they’d started, going only up to 20, then yesterday they’d worked their way up to 100… just like common, the past 80 had been relatively similar, just the base numbers like thirty, forty, fifty, and so on needed to be learned. Today, apparently they were reaching even bigger numbers! This excited the girl, mostly because doing that meant she could try doing math in Nari, which would certainly be something that would please her father. He was a numbers guy, and gotten her into it too, though history was more her specialty. Well… to do math , she’d have to learn the words for ‘add’, ‘subtract’, ‘equals’… and a whole bunch more. Maybe she’d ask the teacher after class? While waiting for said adult, she took out her notebook and began scribbling with a piece of charcoal, noting down the specific words she wanted to ask their Nari teacher. Beside each of them she added an equal sign, to add them as she learned them. The final list looked a little like this.
Plus
Minus
Equals
Times
Divide
Squared
Though she wasn’t even quite sure how to work with the last, she’d heard her father mention it before, as in ‘2 squared equals 4’, or bigger numbers, like ’12 squared equals 144’. She’d yet to figure that out, but next season she was taking Mathematics, so she could always do it then… Summer was coming in barely three days anyways! The thought made her grin widely. Season change always led to new classes… which, at least at the beginning, was always fun. Sadly, she wasn’t taking History again… just Anthropology, which, from what she’d heard, was quite similar, except if focused more on culture than the actual history part. At least it should be interesting. She shrugged mentally, and snapped her book closed as her Nari teacher approached, ready to start the day. She filed in behind the woman, and took a seat, charcoal at the ready for any new numbers to add.
“Morning class!” the woman -Mrs. Maseta- said, smiling at the students around her. Jenni listened to the rest of the class intone their greetings as well, but didn’t bother to speak herself. She never did, it was almost a habit by now. She was a Twilight, and more important than most of these people anyways. She leaned back in her seat and waited for the lesson to get started. Their teacher was a Lhavitan, but one who, oddly enough, had spent a large number of years in Wind Reach, and becoming as fluent in Nari as she was in Common. It made her an excellent teacher in the language, and one of the best in the school. So of course she was Jenni’s teacher. She was shortish, and not entirely fit, but with deep red hair that made her nearly look Inartan. Sometimes students sword she was actually from the city of the Wind Eagles, but since everyone knew the Inartans got homesick, it was easily dismissed. Soon enough, however, she quieted down the class, and they got to business.
“So. For the past two days, we’ve been working with numbers, and today is no exception. We’ve reached 100, but today we’re actually going to one million. I know, big numbers, but it’s actually simple” She added this last when the class groaned in dismay, causing the Twilight to emit a quiet chuckle. If they were heading at the same rate as yesterday, it would really only take a few words before they reached one million, no matter how big a number it seemed. Really… almost NOTHING reached one million, at least anything countable. Sometimes on boring days, Jenni spent a while trying to count as high as she could, but had never even reached 1000. Still, for nearly a bell afterwards, she’d randomly catch herself counting random numbers, sometimes starting at 60, or sometimes just one. It was an odd effect, but a funny one at that.
”I’ll just go over what we’ve learnt so far….” Mrs. Maseta turned to the slate board, and, using a piece of chalk, began to write down various Nari words. Jenni was easily able to recognize the list by now, but the bird-like language was still an odd one. The board read
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten
Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty
Thirty, Forty, Fifty, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, Hundred
”Now, I’m assuming you all remember the basic rules?” There was a general tone of consent. ”Good… then you, Shin. What’s Eighty Eight?” Said kid, sitting at the back, glanced up in surprise. From what it looked like, he’d been chatting to a friend of his in whispers. From Mrs. Maseta’s glare, she’d noticed. The Twilight had to resist grinning, amused at the students silent humiliation. ”Eighty Eight? Uhh” he paused, then switched to broken Nari ”Sixty Eight?” he guessed, the hesitation obvious in his voice. He quickly eared a chuckle from a few of the smarter students, and the teacher sighed, before correcting him. ”No, it’s not Sixty Eight, that’s Sixty Eight. Eighty Eight is Eighty Eight” She switched easily between the two languages, some students nodding in answer. Shin had hid his head in shame, pretending to flip through his notebook to avoid looking at their teacher. Her explanation done, Mrs. Maseta turned her attention to other students.
x
Yesterday, they’d worked on numbers. They’d been doing that for the past few days, working their way up to 100. On the 86th they’d started, going only up to 20, then yesterday they’d worked their way up to 100… just like common, the past 80 had been relatively similar, just the base numbers like thirty, forty, fifty, and so on needed to be learned. Today, apparently they were reaching even bigger numbers! This excited the girl, mostly because doing that meant she could try doing math in Nari, which would certainly be something that would please her father. He was a numbers guy, and gotten her into it too, though history was more her specialty. Well… to do math , she’d have to learn the words for ‘add’, ‘subtract’, ‘equals’… and a whole bunch more. Maybe she’d ask the teacher after class? While waiting for said adult, she took out her notebook and began scribbling with a piece of charcoal, noting down the specific words she wanted to ask their Nari teacher. Beside each of them she added an equal sign, to add them as she learned them. The final list looked a little like this.
Plus
Minus
Equals
Times
Divide
Squared
Though she wasn’t even quite sure how to work with the last, she’d heard her father mention it before, as in ‘2 squared equals 4’, or bigger numbers, like ’12 squared equals 144’. She’d yet to figure that out, but next season she was taking Mathematics, so she could always do it then… Summer was coming in barely three days anyways! The thought made her grin widely. Season change always led to new classes… which, at least at the beginning, was always fun. Sadly, she wasn’t taking History again… just Anthropology, which, from what she’d heard, was quite similar, except if focused more on culture than the actual history part. At least it should be interesting. She shrugged mentally, and snapped her book closed as her Nari teacher approached, ready to start the day. She filed in behind the woman, and took a seat, charcoal at the ready for any new numbers to add.
“Morning class!” the woman -Mrs. Maseta- said, smiling at the students around her. Jenni listened to the rest of the class intone their greetings as well, but didn’t bother to speak herself. She never did, it was almost a habit by now. She was a Twilight, and more important than most of these people anyways. She leaned back in her seat and waited for the lesson to get started. Their teacher was a Lhavitan, but one who, oddly enough, had spent a large number of years in Wind Reach, and becoming as fluent in Nari as she was in Common. It made her an excellent teacher in the language, and one of the best in the school. So of course she was Jenni’s teacher. She was shortish, and not entirely fit, but with deep red hair that made her nearly look Inartan. Sometimes students sword she was actually from the city of the Wind Eagles, but since everyone knew the Inartans got homesick, it was easily dismissed. Soon enough, however, she quieted down the class, and they got to business.
“So. For the past two days, we’ve been working with numbers, and today is no exception. We’ve reached 100, but today we’re actually going to one million. I know, big numbers, but it’s actually simple” She added this last when the class groaned in dismay, causing the Twilight to emit a quiet chuckle. If they were heading at the same rate as yesterday, it would really only take a few words before they reached one million, no matter how big a number it seemed. Really… almost NOTHING reached one million, at least anything countable. Sometimes on boring days, Jenni spent a while trying to count as high as she could, but had never even reached 1000. Still, for nearly a bell afterwards, she’d randomly catch herself counting random numbers, sometimes starting at 60, or sometimes just one. It was an odd effect, but a funny one at that.
”I’ll just go over what we’ve learnt so far….” Mrs. Maseta turned to the slate board, and, using a piece of chalk, began to write down various Nari words. Jenni was easily able to recognize the list by now, but the bird-like language was still an odd one. The board read
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten
Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty
Thirty, Forty, Fifty, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, Hundred
”Now, I’m assuming you all remember the basic rules?” There was a general tone of consent. ”Good… then you, Shin. What’s Eighty Eight?” Said kid, sitting at the back, glanced up in surprise. From what it looked like, he’d been chatting to a friend of his in whispers. From Mrs. Maseta’s glare, she’d noticed. The Twilight had to resist grinning, amused at the students silent humiliation. ”Eighty Eight? Uhh” he paused, then switched to broken Nari ”Sixty Eight?” he guessed, the hesitation obvious in his voice. He quickly eared a chuckle from a few of the smarter students, and the teacher sighed, before correcting him. ”No, it’s not Sixty Eight, that’s Sixty Eight. Eighty Eight is Eighty Eight” She switched easily between the two languages, some students nodding in answer. Shin had hid his head in shame, pretending to flip through his notebook to avoid looking at their teacher. Her explanation done, Mrs. Maseta turned her attention to other students.
Common - Nari/Crook - NPC - Writing - Reading
x
