Closed Feathers and Letters

[Rinya]

Day 12, Season Winter, 513 AV

The amount of snow that had fallen on the city was rather ridiculous in Rinya’s opinion. She had whispers through the guard during her short shift at the Warren that there was quite the unhappy reimancer causing the storm now thoroughly attached over Riverfall, but that was the most she was able to glean from anyone. Not that she was entirely interested about the weather—it was just turning very nasty and even her fairly new cloak to keep her warm wasn’t doing its job anymore. She was thoroughly cold and wet and Rinya would be incredibly surprised if she didn’t get sick from having to walk home in the storm.

Judging by the rate that it was falling, if she hadn’t left when she did—she wouldn’t have made it home at all. Being snowed in at the Warren with a bunch of burly Akalak—Rhys included—was not exactly a thrilling idea. With the weather however there wasn’t much need for heavy guard, and a good number of them had been called away to deal with the ‘issue’ to begin with. Rinya just counted herself lucky she wasn’t actually chosen to stay. Her choice of weapon however and poor lack of sight in a white out didn’t make her a good candidate. Fine by her, she’d rather fluff up next the fireplace instead.

Rinya had no idea if Jorin was at work or not either. The bond was mellow and fairly quiet, the traces of love still evident as ever. That never seemed to go away actually, and Rinya was as used to it now as her own emotions. She just hopped that he didn’t have to rehearse in this kind of weather. Actually she wondered if it was even possible. The stage itself would have to be nearly brushed off constantly—but actors were stubborn if nothing else… or at least Jorin was. If nothing else he’d bring home whatever part of the play he was in—however big or small since his new reinstatement. He was just happy to have a job again, and Rinya was simply happy to not feel constant frustration from him. He wasn’t built to handle that kind of feeling.

Shoving the door open to the condo, Rinya noted that it was indeed quiet and a bit cold. Jorin wasn’t home then. Shutting the door behind her roughly, Rinya carefully pulled off her new cloak, draping it with care over a chair before she went about pulling off her drenched work clothing. Nothing was worse in her opinion—other than the weather of course—than cold wet clothing. Gathering them up in her arms she carried them over to the fireplace before dropping them into a pile on the floor. Rinya actually counted herself lucky, Jorin had been preparing for the storms and she didn’t have to go far for the firewood.

Stacking the wood up carefully, she snagged the flint and tinder box and set about actually starting the fire. Rinya watched the slow carrying flame, blowing gently now and then to nudge the wood to light. It took longer than she would have liked—given that the room itself was just freezing with her cold skin—but the wood finally took and Rinya leaned back on her heels with a grin on her face. It would be some time before the fire actually started to put off any good heat, so she made her way back to her cloak and shook it out a few times to get the remaining un-melted snow off it. She paid several good Mizas for the cloak, and she rather liked the thing, so she dragged a chair as close to the fire as she dared before laying the cloak out across it.

With the fire going, Rinya decided she was more than miserable enough with her cold skin. The log she used to perch on in front of the fire was there as always—though she had been avoiding it since their little tiff. While they were certainly more than fine, the log indicated her hawk form… which just brought the wariness back to her. It wasn’t going to bite her, but neither of them had actually attempted to spend time in or around her hawk form. Rinya knew she was probably overthinking things, but it was what she did. In the end however it didn’t stop her from shifting into her hawk form. The cold was too much for her and she wanted nothing more than to preen her feathers in front of the fire.

So she did just that, hopping across the floor to her log—completely forgetting about her wet clothing across the floor—and went about sorting through her feathers, pulling the extra water from them while she (hopefully) waited for Jorin’s own return.

Color Space

[Jorin Ertihan]

Snow was not something Jorin was really a big fan of. Zeltiva wasn't known for snow, though it did get its share of the cold wet stuff. Jorin for his part wondered if perhaps Kirsi was feeling at home now, given that Avanthal was perpetually covered in the stuff. Regardless, the show had to go on, and the amphitheater held rehearsals, snow or no snow. Most of the actors grumbled and growled but understood that the production would not wait for nicer weather.

While the stage itself was well-swept to ensure that it was clear of snow and debris, that didn't change the fact that the place was petching cold. An icy burst wind gusted in from the north, carrying with it whistling promises of more. Jorin's teeth clattered in his head and he was barely able to get his lines out, despite the relative rarity of lines to start with.

When he'd first returned to the Amphitheater after being offered his job back, there was a palpable sense of hesitation. It was as though the stage master didn't know what to do with him, and that uncertainty filtered down to the actors as well. Though only a relative few knew the true reason for why he'd been let go, everyone could feel the tension in the air.

Farline had done a good job. Even with whatever Eric had discussed with the man, the sense of camaraderie with the man had evaporated. Perhaps it would return some day, with time and distance from the whole event, but as it was there was a sense of distance with the man that hadn't been there before. Jorin couldn't quite tell if the man was embarrassed, ashamed, or simply suffering from a case of wounded pride.

Jorin mused with some amusement that Rinya somewhat spoiled him; their extremely open relationship and bond meant he didn't really have to try particularly hard to understand how she was feeling. Whether nervous, angry, happy or sad, their emotions were always available to one another. Such as at that moment; the bond was relatively quiet but he nonetheless felt her love for him. And simply feeling it caused him to feel more love for her, until the emotion became a warm, soft glow that shielded him, even if only psychologically, from the bitter cold outside.

It would simply take some getting used to. There was a new dynamic at the Amphitheater; Jorin was no longer the go-to man for resolving crises, despite the protestations of quite a few actors. A last billed could not be placed in a position of such importance, after all. Jorin wryly noted to himself that didn't keep them from immediately restoring his position as de-facto inventory manager. He guessed that few people really wanted that job.

When rehearsals finally ended, Jorin trudged his way back home. The city looked quite different, covered in white snow. It made the place seem more... serene, somehow. Delicate, almost, with the deliberately attractive curves and bends of the city covered just so, like an artist had woven a white tapestry over the place. Then again it might just be the artist in him. He knew for a fact that the cold and snow made his wife quite miserable.

When he finally reached their door, he gently pushed it open, to find the fire had already been made. It danced cheerfully in its place, several logs from the pile placed beside it to feed it when it got low, and a pile of wet clothing was lying haphazardly on the ground. However, somewhat ironically, her new cloak had been carefully laid across a chair that had been deliberately shifted closer to the fire.

For his own part, Jorin wasn't nearly as soaked as his wife obviously had been, if the small puddle forming around her discarded work clothes was any indication, though the snow had gotten into his hair and, annoyingly, into one of his shoes. He couldn't feel the toes in his left foot; the snow and ice having melted and soaked his sock through, turning it into an icy-cold, wet tomb for his poor limb.

Brushing the snow off (making sure to get most of it outside their home), Jorin quickly discarded his shoes before stripping off the offending sock, rubbing the sole of his foot to try to encourage the blood to circulate. Did it snow quite like this back home? Jorin couldn't be sure, but he didn't remember blizzards quite this bad. Then again, the rumor mill at the Amphitheater was circulating that a rogue Reimancer had caused the storm.

Reimancer? Like Uleru? Jorin couldn't imagine why a mage would want to make an already miserable storm worse. Then again, maybe the mage was just crazy. After all, magic wasn't banned in Riverfall, just controlled like in any civilized city. If the man (or woman!) was a rogue mage, he or she must have seriously gone off the deep end. Or something along those lines.

Despite the discarded clothes, at first Jorin couldn't find his wife, until he noticed her perched on her favorite log in front of the fire, preening her feathers and making herself comfortable. Jorin supposed for a Kelvic, especially for a bird kelvic though he supposed it might be the same for any Kelvic, the animal form was more comfortable in winter than the human form.

Humans, after all, were uniquely unsuited to surviving the cold. They had no hair, fur, or feathers to block out the weather, and their limbs were ever exposed to the elements without heavy coverings to protect them. Rinya had noted even during the cooler days of fall how much she hated cold weather. Jorin wasn't such a fan himself, but then as a human he wasn't able to cover himself in feathers. He made do with first grabbing his poetry book and Rinya's quill, then sitting down in front of the fire, right next to Rinya, stretching out the soles of his feet toward the welcoming warmth.

As she said she would be, his wife was quite miserable. He could feel it across the bond, how unhappy she was with being cold and wet. And he wanted to help, somehow, but short of drying her out with a cloth or something along those lines, which would probably not be any more effective than simply her own preening, there was little he could do.

Almost instinctively, Jorin reached out, before hesitating slightly. It was not that he was worried about treating her like a pet. If there was one thing Jorin didn't do, it was rehash things that were already resolved. He and Rinya had already had that argument; and the determination was that simply the action alone was not sufficient to define their relationship. She was his wife, not his pet.

But was it too soon? The fight was still fresh in his mind; Rinya's fury directed at him and his own rising to meet hers. The slamming of her door; the muted sobs on the other side rending at his heart. All the frustration of days and days of failure at the Amphitheater boiling over. Home was supposed to be a haven and it had turned into a battleground. Would she even want him to touch her now, so soon after they just had this fight?

But it was the same thing, whether feathers or skin. Rinya had not seemed angry when he'd kissed her in front of Eric and the Thespians. Nor when he grabbed her and pressed her close while leading her through their tents. Contact with him never seemed like something she ever disliked. So rather then withdrawing his hand, Jorin pressed forward, reaching out to stroke her feathers gently across the chest, doing his best to try to catch her gaze despite her being a bird.

"I... is this alright?" Jorin asked, almost in a whisper, as he continued the action. He didn't know how she would feel about this; whether she'd be happy he did it or just reminded of the fight and therefore having her anger resurface.

Jorin resisted the urge to shake his head violently. No. That second option... it would be what Farline would do. How Farline would react. Even despite promising to excise her from his heart he was still using what he knew her reactions would be to inform how he treated Rinya. This was his love, his wife. He was quite sure she wouldn't be angry... he hoped. He just needed to trust her.

black

[Rinya]

The sound of the door opening caused Rinya’s head to shoot up, cocking slightly to take in Jorin’s form—what she could see of it from the floor anyways—as he entered. If the bond told her anything it was that her mate was nearly as cold as she was, though the being so close to the fire and the feathers themselves had begun to heat her chilled skin rather quickly. There were still wet spots however across her feathers that not even the natural oils to help repel. But at least by this point she was a great deal warmer than when she had gotten home.

Jorin didn’t look too thrilled with the cold however. He pulled off his shoes rather quickly and a sock followed before he started to rub his foot. Still, he certainly looked better than she did when she had gotten home. Rinya wasn’t even entirely sure how she ended up with so much snow under the cloak. Maybe she had been walking against the wind and had been so focused on getting back home that she hadn’t even realized it. But it was easier to relax now that he was home. If they were going to get snowed in she would much rather be with him anyways.

So she went back to her feathers across her back, just across her tailbone. All in all she wasn’t too worried about her tail feathers; she wasn’t going to be using them much indoors—at least nothing beyond balance anyways. She could hear Jorin shifted across the room, but with her new position she couldn’t actually make just where he was. Even with her warming body, the snow itself left her feeling a little miserable. Rinya told herself over and over again that it had been a choice she made herself—one that she had made before too. But this storm was unnatural if the rumors were true. That alone could cause crankiness in her.

Though she supposed it could have been worse. They could have asked her to go with. It wasn’t likely, since she herself wasn’t an official member of Riverfall—which brought about an interesting thought. Could she be? Considering their views of Kelvic, she probably couldn’t obtain such a status within the city without considerable change among the Akalak. Oddly enough the idea didn’t bother her really. She was much better living her life out of the way completely than in the possible view of others. Either way she didn’t have to trudge out in the snow any longer so it didn’t matter.

Rinya was quite aware of Jorin as he sat down next to her. There was closeness between the bond every time they were within close proximity to each other. A content feeling that spread through her—it was quite often the effect of calming her down when she raged. It did not stop fights however, as she had been previously thinking of. There was a flash of hesitancy across the bond that struck through her warm feelings and Rinya did her best not to let her stomach drop. Quite slowly—as if she was afraid he’d jump away from her—Rinya brought her head back around to look at him, leaving feathers forgotten for the moment.

Rinya could see his hand caught in the air between them. It was difficult to tell just what he was thinking, considering that was what caused the fight last time… or rather the fact they just couldn’t see eye to eye on the issue. In some ways Rinya had won that fight—by the time they finally crawled into bed together he had already stroked her feathers without fear. It seemed like forever that his hand just loomed there and Rinya feared she might end up in another fight with him—over the very same issues she thought they had fixed.

In reality however his hand only hovered for several ticks, before he brushed his fingers over the feathers of her chest. The touch was barely enough to ruffle them, but he was touching them. Her. But like always he was afraid he might have pressed some territory that he shouldn’t have—much the same way she did when she had simply looked at her perching log. Was it alright? By her standards it was more than fine. She was more worried about him.

Letting out a quiet chirp, she twisted head so she could reach his fingers with her beak. It had been an idea to bite him before simply because of his ridiculous notions of treating her like a pet. Showing affection on her terms was a little harder, simply because Jorin’s actions were obvious. She nudged the top of her beak against his hand gently before reaching out and nibbling across the skin of one of his fingers. Nowhere near harsh enough to break the skin or even cause pain, but it was the only thing she could think of to put his mind to ease. After several ticks, she went back to nudging his fingers and then went straight back to the task at hand as if he hadn’t asked the question at all—preening her feathers across her back.

The only other thing she could do for him was keep the bond’s emotions as simple as possible with as few negative emotions as she could possibly pull off at the moment. There was still a twinge of fear—mostly at the thought of fighting with him again than anything else—and trepidation that perhaps it was too soon to ask such an act from him considering his views. But mostly it was simple emotions such as the love and content feeling of his presence. She was perfectly fine with it so long as he was.

Color Space

[Jorin Ertihan]

Once again, Jorin had touched Rinya as a bird. And once again, Mizahar did not explode. Another Valterrian did not occur. Fire did not consume the city. The snow just kept falling gently outside, covering the ground with a soft sheet of white fluff. For her part, Rinya just chirped slightly, and Jorin gave her a curious look. She bent down, rubbing her beak on his fingers and nipping slightly. It wasn't enough to break skin or even hurt, and the emotions coming from here were that of calmness and encouragement. Like as though she was trying to tell him it was alright.

Then Rinya went straight back to preening, as though his action was something perfectly normal and nothing he should be worried about. Jorin's mouth curved into a small smile as he continued to stroke her feathers, the hesitation and concern from before slowly fading. What had he been worried about, anyway? They already had this discussion. After a few ticks, he decided to bring the hand up and very gently stroked the feathers just on her neck with the back of his forefinger.

"You know," Jorin mused, "I wonder if our Cheva's Mark is under there, beneath the feathers. I guess it would have to be, but I can't really see it. Oh well..." Jorin shrugged. It wasn't really that important, but he rather liked seeing the mark on Rinya's neck. It was a pleasant, constant reminder of how connected they were, in all ways.

"You know, I don't think I've ever said this to you before, but you're actually a very attractive bird too," Jorin noted. And it was true. She was cut quite a figure with her deep chocolate-brown feathers making a striking contrast with the white of her breast feathers. "I think the word that best describes it is... regal," he mused, and then grinned slightly. "I'd come up with another poem, but I think I'll save that for another time. Oh, but speaking of poems! Would you be interested in learning a few new letters?"

Jorin glanced over at Rinya as he asked this, his other hand bringing up his poetry book. The last time, they'd stopped at 'g' if he remembered correctly. And despite the fact that Rinya was not able to speak in this form, he actually felt rather confident the bond could tell him what he needed to know. Sure it didn't give him detailed information. In some sense it was rather vague; just flashes of emotion and intention. But that was generally enough.

Shuffling up to her log, Jorin opened the book eagerly, flipping through the pages and looking for a poem to look for one that might properly show off the letter 'h'. By that point, the earlier trepidation had pretty much vanished completely and he was comfortable absently stroking her chest feathers as he flipped through the pages trying to find something suitable.

"Ah!" he cried, as he found what he was looking for. "Here we are." Jorin brought the book closer so Rinya could see. The flames flickered and danced across the page, casting long shadows down the recesses of the book before illuminating it again and making it somewhat difficult to read. When he realized his wife couldn't quite make out the words, he shrugged and decided to try something different. After all, if all the lessons were the same, it would get boring. It sure did when his father taught him mathematics.

"Hmm, well, the last time I think we got up to 'g'," he stated, as he went over to the fire and used a stick to get some of the ash from the burnt wood and settled it over the hearth. Using the ash as a writing surface, Jorin traced the next letter on it, nice and large so that even in the dim light of the afternoon and the fire, it was easily visible.

"That there is the letter 'h'," he explained, then he traced a few more letters, forming the word 'hello'. "And that's the word hello, which begins with the letter 'h'. You might recognize one other letter there." Jorin knew Rinya couldn't reply in her current form, but nonetheless he smiled at her and searched the bond.

If he sensed confusion, he'd slow down or try to look for other potential routes to teach her, but at the moment he was content just going down the letters. So as he waited for Rinya to chirp or whistle in acknowledgement, or send across the bond whether she understood, he continued to trace the letter he just showed her into the ash before them, over and over again.

black

[Rinya]

Rinya’s simple demonstration of encouragement seemed to be far more than enough for him. The awkward tension between the two of them—something she had not felt between them for some time—faded nearly as quickly as it came on. Nothing came of the act except affection between the two of them as it should have been the first time. Rinya wasn’t one to stew over something that she could now deem officially over, so unless he drastically changed his mind she knew there was little to fear in the first place. His fingers moved across her feathers from her breast to her neck and she warbled slightly during her preening.

Jorin pondered out loud if her Cheva Mark was still on her neck even during transformation. While physically she couldn’t see it of course, she could actually feel it. Not in the sense that the raised skin caused issues, but the feathers raised slightly over the area, causing them lay differently. It would not impede on her flight of course, but it was something noticeable—at least to her. Besides it reminded her that even this form—Jorin had chose to marry her as a whole, and not just the human. Which he was currently showing with the gentle motion of his hand against her feathers.

Rinya lifted her head to look at him as Jorin mused that he had never said it, but he rather found her bird form rather attractive too. Anyone else might have thought it odd, but Rinya always thought her bird form was much more… physically pleasant to the eye to look at. She didn’t compare to a lot of the human (or human like for that matter) females running around, and her bird form was striking… at least to her. Rinya also knew that Jorin was just appreciating her in another way—though she couldn’t help but inwardly smirk. It undoubtedly came from the fact he loved her. He couldn’t care less either way. But it was nice to know regardless.

He teased her with the idea of a new poem before swinging off into another tangent, one that she was barely familiar with. It was a wonderful idea of course, since they were likely to be snowed in and didn’t have much to do. She could easily go for learning a few extra characters in the alphabet—and of course his enthusiasm had nothing to do with her choice. He shifted closer to her and Rinya whistled softly before stretching out her wings to remove the slight ache from sitting too long in one position.

Jorin went about looking for another poem with one hand—the other still pressing against the feathers of her chest. Rinya almost wished there was a way to show him she enjoyed the attention, but she figured at the moment the best way how was simply the bond. Generally they used kisses to show what they felt despite the bond, but that was not a choice. So Rinya fluffed slightly, nuzzling his moving fingers lightly while she expanded on the more tender feelings coursing through her. A form of ‘welcome home’ and ‘I love you’ that she physically wasn’t able to say to him.

He cried out as he found whatever it was he was looking for and he shifted the book to show her, though her eyes couldn’t quite make out any of the letters in the dim light, and he noticed it too. He muttered something about leaving off at ‘g’, which sounded about right to her seeing as she couldn’t remember what came after. The letters still resounded in her head ‘a’ through ‘g’—and of course Jorin’s attempt at making it that much more difficult to learn the letters. Rinya thought it might be wise to remain in bird form for most of this lesson. They still had trouble keeping their hands off of each other, not that it was an issue even before marriage, but it certainly got ‘worse’ afterwards. Given his last lesson they would never make it past… whatever came after ‘g’.

Jorin shifted forward to grab a stick, gathering ash across the hearth and began to draw the next letter into it. Creative… most certainly creative, Rinya probably would have laughed slightly. It wasn’t something she was ever likely to think of. He went on to explain the letter ‘h’ before he added new letters across the hearth in—apparently—the word hello. She immediately recognized the ‘e’ sitting in the word, but the rest still made no sense to her. That would come with time and of course, lessons.

But it was as easy to absorb the information now as it was before—perhaps just a little easier actually without his fingers making it difficult to think. Rinya wasn’t sure if it was her rapt attention on the letters, or Jorin’s influence that made it easier to absorb the letters, but she certainly understood. So she let out a soft whistle, flicking her wings only just slightly outwards in the best ‘continue’ kind of motion she could make.

Color Space

[Jorin Ertihan]

It was certainly a unique experience, what they were doing. Jorin had no idea if it was similar for other bonded pairs, or whether the fact that Rinya was also his wife and lover that made any difference. Rinya was the first Kelvic that Jorin had any significant contact with, so he didn't know if other bonded pairs ever communicated this way.

It was all emotions and intent, and no words except from him. And for some reason, Jorin felt that this was just as important as when they cuddled in bed, or kissed each other in the morning, or made love. This sort of simple interaction was just as crucial, because his wife was a Kelvic. She wasn't a bird pretending to be a human, or a human pretending to be a bird. She was Rinya. Both forms were her, in every sense of the phrase.

He could feel warm tender feelings flowing across the bond, rather the way she felt every time he came home but stronger somehow, like she was focusing on those feelings to set him at ease because as a hawk she wasn't able to say it with words. She also nuzzled his fingers and fluffed her feathers a bit, and he smiled at her in response.

Jorin decided to focus on the warmer emotions as well. His time at the Amphitheater, while as rewarding as ever, was still somewhat... tense. There was a pall that had fallen over the actors since his sudden departure and just as sudden return; whispers and rumors followed in Jorin's wake and he hated the gossiping and politics that followed. He had thought that Eric's endeavors would put things back to normal, but in reality it simply restored only one part of his work. The rest, it seemed, was still up to him.

But that would be a conversation for another time. Part of the reason he found it easier to focus on the gentler, more tender emotions with his wife was because it also served as a form of distraction from the tension that still existed, however slightly, at work. And really, this was how it should have been, the first time he'd come home and found his wife perched on her log. Home was a sanctuary, a place of comfort for them both.

Jorin didn't know it but he was actually thinking the same thing as Rinya, that in some sense it was a good thing she had decided to spend most of the evening as a bird. Their last lesson, while quite... fun for them both, was probably less productive than it could have been. And given the fact that they simply could not keep their hands off one another these last few days, Jorin was quite certain had his wife been in her human form they wouldn't get very far past 'h'.

Rinya appeared to understand. At least he had not sensed any confusion across the bond, nor did she whistle in that way she did when she was warning him of something. He still remembered her loud whistling call when he had sliced into her hard-won fish the wrong way, spilling its guts all over their kitchen. There had been nothing like that, rather a softer call and a brief fluttering of her wings that seemed to signify that he ought to continue.

But Jorin decided to try something else. After all, if they were going with a new teaching technique, might as well try all sorts of new things. Jorin turned to Rinya on the log and gave her an encouraging smile, and then pulled some more ash onto the hearth. If there was one thing for certain, it was that the cold weather all but guaranteed they would have more than sufficient ash from their fire to finish their lesson.

Smoothing out his temporary writing surface, Jorin grabbed his small twig he had chosen as a writing implement and began carefully tracing the letters he'd taught his wife so far. After all, it wouldn't do any good teaching her new letters if she'd forgotten the old ones. So he drew them onto the ash in a neat line, each one large and as legible as he could make them.

He began with 'a', trailing it off with a signature flourish that was probably unnecessary, moving on past 'b', 'c', and 'd', before finally finishing off the alphabet with 'e', 'f', 'g' and the letter that Rinya had just picked up, 'h'.

Eight letters so far, out of a total of twenty-six. Had Jorin been someone else, it might have been reasonable to think he'd want to give up. After all, they hadn't even gotten to forming words yet. They'd had quite a lot of time and yet in the end they were still only on the eighth letter of the alphabet.

But Jorin knew his wife was far from stupid. And more to the point, he loved spending time with her. As he gently set aside the stick near where she was roosting, and resumed stroking the feathers on her chest. Jorin nodded at her, then at the letters he'd just drawn, an expectant look on his face.

"Well, I thought we'd go over some of the letters that we've already done," Jorin explained. "So let's see, here. Why don't you show me where 'c' is?" he tried.

It had been several days since they'd last had a lesson of this nature, and Jorin would not be disappointed if Rinya had forgotten. When it came to his beautiful wife, he had infinite patience, so if he needed to go over the first eight letters all over again, he had no problems doing it. Still, he secretly hoped she would get it right. After all, she was Rinya, the most amazing woman in the world at least according to Jorin. He knew she'd remember, and had absolute faith and trust in her.

black

[Rinya]

Rinya had honestly noticed Jorin’s tension, a shift from his somewhat depression and frustration that came with having no job. This tension was different than frustration though, something she couldn’t actually place but could feel it none the less. It was something that generally faded when he returned home and he no longer had to think about—whatever it was causing it. Though she was more than clever enough to notice it only happened when he worked. She felt no such tension on days they spent together. There was no telling however just what was going down at his work that would cause such tension, and Jorin hadn’t exactly opened up about it.

It wasn’t an issue she felt that needed pushing. Despite his shock when he lost his job, he had still told her the rather important news once he had gathered himself up enough to handle saying it. Even then she had been willing to just sit silently with him. If Jorin found it important to tell her, then he would. He was the last one between the two of them that was likely to hide a secret and she trusted him enough to know that. He was more than happy at home and that was all that really mattered in the end. If it boiled over again into their home, then it was obvious that it needed talking about. Until then, she could easily leave him be on the subject.

Jorin himself seemed to understand her simple body language, which she was grateful for to no end. Being able to understand each other while she sat in either form was important—at least to her. Though Rinya could guess it was just as important to him as well. There was no issue with correcting him if there was trouble, but for the moment he kept the teaching simple. The example of the letter, and a combined word with it was much like the lesson before, only this time she was able to see permanent attention to detail. Like how to draw the ‘h’ into the ash and have it remain, unlike drawing into one another’s skin.

After several ticks however Jorin seemed to get an idea. He tossed her a smile and went about drawing more ash from the fire. Rinya leaned forward as much as she could, using her wings and tail as balance to try and see what it was he was doing. She recognized the letter ‘a’ immediately, though she didn’t remember it needing such… flourish before. She knew though that everyone’s writing looked different, and Jorin being a writer of poems it probably came naturally to him. He continued to draw out more letters, and Rinya felt her head reel a little. All the letters she had learned thus far by the looks of it, seeing as he stopped at ‘h’.

The line looked quite long, though she knew there were many more letters yet to learn. For a moment she was struck by the taunting task of learning it all—and then having to form words with them. If she wasn’t so keen on being able to read Jorin’s poems herself, it would have been pointless to her. Not to say that she couldn’t use the skill outside of his poems, but she had never really needed to know how to read—or write—before. Shaking out her feathers, she hopped off her log. Carefully so she didn’t rustle up the ashes with her wings, she hopped closer as she inspected the letters one by one.

Honestly she hadn’t quite remembered their order. They often got a little mixed in her head at times, but she did remember all of them. Jorin mentioned that perhaps before he got ahead of himself on teaching her new letters, that maybe they should go back over the ones they had already done. It made sense, seeing as repetition was the way to learn. Jorin questioned her gently on which letter was ‘c’, and she scanned the written letters across the ash. The amount of faith and trust coming across the bond almost made her worry. It was nearly impossible for her to disappoint Jorin, but she certainly didn’t want to let him down. He had been working hard with her on learning these simple symbols.

The first two letters passed easily, being ‘a’ and ‘b’, and it was the third letter in the line she was positive was ‘c’. Scooting a little closer to the letters, Rinya tapped her beak on the floor directly beneath the ‘c’. She did not want to get her beak full of ash—that would be a pain to get off. In fact given the weather outside, she would have to do it as a human, and that would simply just distract them from the lesson at hand. Tilting her head her left wing, she stared at him straight on, letting out a small chirp to imply further that it was her choice of letter.

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[Jorin Ertihan]

Jorin knew he would have been proud of his wife regardless. Even if she'd gotten it wrong he'd still be proud that she would have tried, and honestly it was to be expected to get things wrong at first. The gods knew, he had whiffed so many lines the first time he had walked onstage it wasn't even funny. In the end, it wasn't one's failures that counted, but what one did to correct them. At least that was Jorin's philosophy and he was sticking with it.

As it turned out, he didn't need to worry. Rinya hopped forward off her log, her golden eyes scanning the letters and tapped her beak just below 'c', correctly identifying the rune he had asked to to find. Jorin felt a swell of pride for her, and if he was being honest a bit for himself. He didn't even know if his teaching methods were even particularly good.

After all, the only teacher he'd ever really known particularly well was his father, and for all the man's brilliance as a mathematician he was actually not a very good teacher. If Jorin wasn't so busy being proud and happy at his wife's success, he might have even felt a bit guilty for thinking that of his own father.

"That's right!" Jorin enthused. To someone else, his reaction might have been seen as perhaps sarcastic, but the bond would tell Rinya his excitement was genuine. Sometimes having a bond like this was a very helpful thing. Jorin's smile widened and he reached out to stroke her feathers again as he congratulated her on a job well done.

"There are a few words we can actually form with just the letters that we have here," Jorin explained. "For example, we can form the word 'bag' with just the letters 'b', 'a', and 'g'."

Jorin drew the letters out on the ash for her, making sure to make the letters as legible as possible and trying to control the fancy flourishes he liked to put on his text. It was pretty, but made reading difficult, and he knew that just learning the basics was hard enough without him having to add additional difficulties for her. But he decided to make her task a little bit harder this time.

"I think you're ready for a bit of a more difficult test, my love," he announced. After all, the best way to learn was to stretch one's limits. Still, he made sure to send calming emotions across the bond. No expectations, no pressure at all. He didn't want his wife stressing out over getting it right, but he did want her to stretch her mind a bit. After all if she passed this next one she would have clearly learned the letters that he'd taught her so far.

"So here's what I'm going to do," he explained further, as he wiped out the letters he'd already written on the ash. "I'm going to write out the letters in a random order. They will not be in the order that I taught you. Then I'm going to ask you to point out a few of the letters I call out."

As he was saying this, he was still stroking the feathers on Rinya's chest with the back of his hand. He really wished there were other ways to show he loved her, even in her bird form, but he hoped the love that was coming across the bond would be enough to tell her. He made sure to focus on that, even as he started writing the letters all out of order, starting with 'd' and proceeding with no discernable pattern until he ended with 'b'. The end result looked something like

d a g e h c f b

A jumbled mess. If he'd had, perhaps, wooden blocks with the letters on them, he might have asked Rinya to use her beak to push them about until they were back in order. Hmm... an interesting idea. He knew Kirsi was a carver by trade, perhaps the creation of such teaching tools would be an interesting challenge for her. Something to remember for later.

As it was, he simply indicated the random mish-mash of letters and smiled at his wife. "So now unfortunately, you cannot rely on the order of the runes to know which letter is which. You will have to rely on your memory of what the letter looks like." Jorin did not say, 'you do not have to get it right'.

Had he been teaching anyone else, he would have, but with Rinya he didn't need to. Their bond transmitted his total acceptance of her, his simple faith and love. Even if she got it wrong, he knew she'd get it right eventually. Was completely and utterly convinced of it and nobody would be able to tell him otherwise.

"Now then, my love," he continued, indicating the new set of mixed-up runes before her. "show me where 'e' is."

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[Rinya]

The pride coming from Jorin alone told her that she had gotten the letter right. Rinya was glad however that she was not in human form at the moment because she was sure her face would have been flushed red. While the letters themselves she did remember—how she remembered them was even clearer. And that had led to quite the interesting night, and she considered herself quite lucky she remembered anything of it in the first place. But then, much like Jorin she never did anything by half if she could help it. She was intent on learning this if it killed her.

Jorin’s enthusiastic reply also gave way that she had chosen the correct letter and she chirped several times in reply. He reached out to stroke her feathers and she ruffled her feathers in response. It may have not been the easiest way to show her affection, but it was direct—and if anything Rinya herself was direct. It suited her just fine, and she saw no reason to change that. Jorin moved on, actually showing her a word she could put to use with the letters he had taught her already. Rinya stared hard at the letters he wrote out in the ash. ‘Bag’ certainly looked easy, though whether she would remember how to actually spell it in the future was up in the air.

But in the very least she could pull his general intention towards the word from the bond. She could see and hear it, which made it far simpler to keep it in the forefront of her mind. The spelling itself would probably take time to adjust for however. Jorin moved on from spelling and told her it was time for a more difficult test. Part of her wanted to groan, but the other part of her knew that it was probably necessary. She had picked out the letter ‘c’ with fair ease. Rinya wasn’t sure if it was the order of the letters that gave it away, or her actual memory of the letter.

Jorin himself remained fairly calm, focusing the energy the best he could across the bond. She supposed if she let herself that it would become incredibly easy to let the stress take over her mind at increasing the difficulty so soon, but for the moment she was fairly confident. She had been practicing the letters since he taught them to her, repeating them in her and even went as far as tracing the letters randomly while she thought about them. Flicking her tail feathers, Rinya waited as Jorin scratched out the word ‘bag’ and began to write the letters into the ash once again.

A random order? Well that probably wasn’t as difficult as it sounded—seeing as she still had trouble keeping them in order herself. In the long run she wasn’t sure actual order mattered, seeing as ‘bag’ itself did not start with ‘a’. In her mind so long as she remembered the letters at all then she could move forward with the lesssons. But then—there was probably a reason for the order. She had no idea what that reason might be, but this was a test she was more than welcome to try out, to see if she had forgotten any of the letters in the first place.

After Jorin went about scratching out the word ‘bag’ from the ashes, he began to script the letters randomly. In the very least she knew it was random because the one thing she did remember about the order was that the letter ‘a’ was certainly first. ‘B’ and ‘c’ were easy enough to follow with, but that was where the order got fuzzy in her head. As he finished, he encouraged her to move forward and point out the ‘e’ to him. Clicking her beak several times, she took in the letters laying out in the ash before her.

She recognized the ‘a’, ‘b’, and ‘c’ of course as the letters were already clear in her mind. ‘G’ and ‘h’ went right along with it being the newest letter she learned, and a letter recently added to spell her first whole word. It only left three choices from that point, and Rinya realized that it was much harder than it looked. She leaned as close as she dared, taking in the three letters that remained. Instinctively she knew that one of the letters was ‘f’ as she vaguely remembered it came before ‘g’, but for the life of her she couldn’t quite remember.

However she knew better than to rush this. If she forced herself to pick one of the letters at random then she wasn’t really learning anything was she? After several long ticks she was able to rule out the ‘f’ sitting between ‘c’ and ‘b’, but that left the last two dazed in her mind. It felt like forever as she sat on the floor, glancing between the last two letters and trying to clearly remember which one was which. Past memory was foggy, considering by that point it had been so difficult to focus past the desire between them.

However it was the one word that she still didn’t know entirely how to spell, but he had mentioned it before that gave it away. 'Love’ ended with ‘e’. Rinya focused on that memory, trying to sort through it until she could figure the rune confidently in her head. Shifting away from the ‘d’, she tapped her beak on the floor in front of ‘e’ with a sharp chirp. That had to be it… seeing as ‘e’ was the hardest for her to remember. They had been rather—distracted at the time.

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[Jorin Ertihan]

Jorin sensed slight embarrassment from Rinya, and he suspected if she were in her human form she'd insist she hadn't done anything special. Perhaps to others she hadn't, but Jorin knew that learning any new skill took time and dedication and far too many people gave up way too soon. He was glad to see his wife wasn't such a person.

He didn't know if her grit was part of who she had been before, or whether it was something she learned while being with him. It certainly reminded Jorin of his own stubborn pride, her refusal to give up despite the daunting task before them. And he was glad for it, because she would need every last bit of that if she was to learn to read, since the art was extremely complicated to the uninitiated and could be very frustrating.

Thankfully, Rinya had gotten it right a second time as well. Not that Jorin had any doubts that she would. Perhaps it was unreasonable of him to think that way. After all, despite the fact that he knew she was very intelligent, even smart people made mistakes. And learning the alphabet, despite the apparent simplicity, wasn't as easy as it sounded.

That was clearly indicated by the time it took for Rinya to scan the letters, and he could feel the concentration across the bond. He of course, didn't know what she was specifically concentrating on, the bond he shared with her wasn't nearly that specific, but then again it didn't need to be. This was a new way to communicate with her, and he was rather enjoying it.

Her soft chirps and the way she fluffed her feathers at his touch, combined with the sense of happiness and contentment that he could feel coming from her, told Jorin that Rinya was happy he was able to touch her like that without fear or hesitation like before. And she concentrated hard on the letters in front of her and he realized that she was actually trying to remember which letter it was, and he was genuinely surprised.

He had suspected that unless she'd been practicing quite diligently, she wouldn't remember the letters in the right order, to say nothing of what they actually looked like. He had half expected her to rule out letters she did remember and then just randomly select from the remaining. But he supposed that she would see that as almost cheating. And it would be; if she'd done that ultimately she'd have been cheating herself out of a chance to truly learn. And Jorin couldn't help a second swell of pride for her.

"Correct again!" Jorin praised, beaming at Rinya while resuming the stroking of her feathers. It was quite calming to him as well; the feathers on her breast were very soft and downy, and he liked the emotions that his touch drew from her. Besides, he didn't just marry Rinya the woman, he married RInya the bird. She was Kelvic, not human, and both forms were her, and Jorin needed to - and wanted to - accept and love her in both.

"If you remember, the word 'love' ends with 'e'," Jorin reminded his wife, lightly sketching out the word 'love' on the ash and underlining it. He was quite sure she remembered that particular lesson, and he couldn't help the slight blush as his own memories conjured what happened afterward. It wasn't that he felt any embarrassment for having mated with Rinya; the gods knew they'd done it so many times over the past few days.

But still he was quite surprised that Rinya remembered anything from that lesson, given how distracted they both had been. He mused that maybe lessons of this nature were better done with his wife in her bird form; while they certainly loved each other with the same intensity regardless of what form she took, in this circumstance at least they were far less likely to become nearly as... distracted, as before.

"OK, Rinya, you've certainly learned your letters very well," he praised again, pride and love in equal parts flowing across their bond. "So let's continue the lesson. We've gone past 'h' for 'hello', so let's try the next letter. This letter is called 'i'. And the word for self, 'I', consists of just this one letter." Jorin drew them in the ash before he realized... he hadn't actually taught his wife the difference between capital and lowercase lettering.

Jorin didn't want to overload his poor wife with too much information at once; if he were to go over capitalization now there was a legitimate question as to why he didn't just say something about it at the beginning. But, deciding to follow his own advice about "no secrets" from his wife, Jorin smiled at her and explained why the two letters he'd drawn were in fact the same letter, just different capitalization.

"Both these runes are actually the letter 'i'," he began, forestalling the annoyed whistle that he knew would've been an irritated sigh if Rinya had been human. "And I know, it's a lot to absorb at once. I should've mentioned it earlier but every character in the alphabet actually has two version: an uppercase or 'capital' version, and a lowercase version."

Jorin pointed at the lowercase 'i', taking special note to point out the differences between it an the uppercase one. "See how like in most lowercase letters, 'i' tends to be shorter than its capital version. A single lowercase 'i' typically has no syntactic meaning other than to denote the letter. But the capital version of 'i', which you'll notice has no dot above it, denotes the word 'I', meaning 'me' or self."

Jorin knew his wife would be frustrated at this point. Now she had to learn the letters all over again?! After all her hard work, she had to do it again with the uppercase versions? Jorin forestalled her concerns by saying, "We can go over capitalization and why it's important for writing in a later lesson. For now, I can say that the overwhelming majority of the letters you will encounter will be lowercase."

Jorin decided to pause for a moment, and look Rinya right in the eyes. Despite the fact that the fireplace threw shadows over his face he knew she was aware of his eyes, and he continued to stroke her feathers to calm her as he continued to explain. "The letter 'i' is also the beginning of quite a few other words, such as 'island'." As he said this, Jorin made sure to draw out the word 'island' for RInya to see, and then he wiped out the ash, pulling a bit more from the hearth and drew out the letter 'j'.

"And this one's called 'j'," he introduced. "The previous letter was something of an exception," Jorin explained somewhat apologetically. "While every word has an uppercase version, only 'i', as far as I am aware, is in and of itself a word. Well, 'a' can also be a word; though the standalone word 'a' is usually lowercase."

Jorin could have gone on, of course. About how the first letter of a sentence or a proper name should always be uppercase. All that good stuff. But the only uppercase letter she had even seen was 'i'. If he was to do that he'd have to go back over all the letters RInya had learned so far and show all new runes to futher confuse her. Jorin made a snap decision. No; he and his wife had already set down a set pattern to how her lessons would go.

Indicating the hearth, Jorin drew out the runes for his own name. Most of the letters, he knew his wife didn't even know. But still, he was sure she'd want to know this particular word. After all, if he was illiterate he knew the first two words he'd ever want to be able to read and write were that of his own name, and that of his wife's.

"These letters spell out my name," he commented softly. "Do you perhaps recognize some of the letters?" he asked. There were only really two... so far. But he knew that him telling Rinya this word was his name would catch her attention. Still, regardless, Jorin released his hand from Rinya's feathers, allowing her the freedom of movement she'd need to point out with her beak the two letters of his name he'd taught her so far.

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