A, B, C (attn Carnhain)

[Drea Raylin]

Drea neatly set out a bottle of ink, a few pens and a stack of parchment on teh desk in front of her. Mehrin had given her orders to teach Carnhain how to write. Drea assumed it was because she had as much experience writting reports as she did in the feild, but it was probably because he didn't trust her enough to train new scouts yet. Truth was, Drea wasn't sure if she trusted herself either.

 

Drea stepped back to observe the desk inside her room. The eye for detail cursed her even with simple things like this. Being a Banner Captain again, she was given a semi-large room and just received a new desk that morning. Her paperwork had already begun piling up, but she set it to the side. Carnhain came first today. Paperwork could wait. It'd still be there tomorow, and the day after. Carnhain may not be. Timing was perfect. Just as she finished placing the tools on the desk, a wrap came at the door.

 

"Come in," she called, probably too loudly. The walls of the barracks were thicker than the fabric of the tents she was used to.

 

The door swung open and Carnhain entered, almost apprehensively. Drea offered a smile to calm his nerves. She held out a hand right away to stear him away from a salute. Division wise, she held no rank over him.

 

"Drea Raylin, you must be Carnhain. Welcome." She shook his hand firmly. "Let's get started." Drea showed the way to her desk and let him sit in the chair. "For now, I want you to tell me what you can write. Alphabet, words, what kind, sentences, paragraphs and such."

 

 

OOC: Stel, just give a basic description of what he can do, papers, general "page length", Has he written reports yet or isn't he even there yet?

[Guest Estel]

Running a calloused hand down his cheek, Carnhain nodded. With a flick, he cleared the rest of the soap lather from his razor and turned his indecisive mind to the clothing littering his floor. Were this any normal training session with Rowul, Kedyn, Amon or even Mehrin, he wouldn't have bothered to fuss over his appearance but training with the former Undercommander of the Band, a complete stranger and woman no less was a completely different matter.

 

When he finally left the barracks, he was clothed in a clean white shirt tucked into perhaps too tight black breeches and covered by a red tunic. Seeing as this was not involving weapons, he left his shoulder-length blonde hair loose.

 

His knock at her door was answered by a rather loud "Come in!" He entered with some sort of mix between amusement, confusion and nervousness. Xandrea Raylin sat behind her desk, looking him over. His salute was waved off and she greeted him with a smile. "At least she's not another Miria." But then again, he and Kedyn's new love had gotten along until the battle.

 

Carnhain sighed at he question. It always felt a bit demeaning to be reminded that he couldn't do something as basic as read and write. Taking a breath to calm a sudden welling anger in him- though he couldn't decide whether it was at himself or Drea- he began. "Well, I can write, though it would be difficult to tell my writing from that of a three year-old. No, I don't write my own reports, though I can read and sign them." He couldn't seem to hide a note of bitterness in those words.

[Drea Raylin]

Drea gave a sympathetic smile. Part of her could not believe that a man of his age could not read and write, but another part knew that she was lucky to have two parents who worked enough and could afford to send her to school. Afterall, she had just finished giving Mehrin her lecture on how diverse the band was, Carnhain was just the emphasis in her own mind.

 

"Well then, let's start small. No worries, you have pleanty of time. Why don't you show my your alphabet and we'll go from there?"

 

Light, this was harder than she thought. She wasn't a classroom teacher, she was a scout! What did Mehrin have her doing now days? Biting her lip to stop a frown from confusing Carnhain, making him think she were frowning at him, she watched as he scratched the letters along the parchment.

[Guest Estel]

The alphabet? The alphabet he could do! He began slowly, writing as carefully as he could. Of course, for all his care and time, it appeared as though it was written in the hand of a five year-old. The letters were wobbly and uncertain for though his hand was sure enough on a sword hilt, it had rarely held a pen in the twenty-one years it had been attatched to his body.

 

Looking at his work he scowled. Carnhain shoved the bit of parchment back at Drea, slumping in his chair. Now not only did his writing look like a five year-olds, but he was throwing a fit like one as well!

[Drea Raylin]

Wow, this was going to be more challenging than she thought. Not only did the man know as much as a youngster, he behaved as one too. She wondered what division he was in and made a point to talk to any commanding officers he might be under. Discipline was key to learning, but it wasn't her job to enforce it. There was only so much she could do here and now. Taking the parchment, she looked over it. She smiled, at least he got the letters in order, and they were ledgiable.

 

"Not too bad, Carnhain." Positive reinforcement was always good. She could sense his frustration, and that would get him nowhere. "Now lets try something else. I'm going to write a few words, and I want you to trace over them, then write them again just below mine." Drea took her time scripting each letter neatly. She didn't have perfect handwritting either, but she didn't want to teach him her misguidings. "We'll do this exsecise and then move on. I want to work on your penmanship before we get you writting full reports. Your officers wont be too happy if they can't read your writting."

[Guest Estel]

'My officers aren't very happy that they have to do all my paperwork either' he though glumly.

 

But trace he did. At first, even tracing his letters were wobbly. Though he realized from watching Drea write, that that was partly do to the fact that he held his pen wrong.

 

And so they continued for quite some time and even Carnhain could see a small improvement in his writing. Spirits suddenly lifted, he looked for Drea for his next assignment.

[Drea Raylin]

Drea smiled at Carnhains progress. Hey may have discipline issues, but she could at least help build on his self esteem. Looking at his last assignment, Drea read over the words on the page, clearly understanding each one. "Very good, Carnahin. You've shown a lot of improvement." She saw a pleased grin across his lips and chuckled. "I think you're ready for the next step. I want you to write a brief report of your day yesterday. Don't worry about length right now, just write."

[Guest Estel]

Carnhain nodded, self-doubt rising in him. He had barely written anything longer than a sentence or two on his own, let alone an entire report.

 

But he stubbornly took up the pen and began writing away.

 

i began the day by wakeing up arownd noon and eeting brekfest and wen i was dun i red my reports and sined them before shifting the riting part to the corporels under me and with the paperwurk dun i tot a cuple of new privets to ride desently enuf to not fol of thare mownts and then i ate super and went for a ride

 

Though it was short, it took him the better part of an hour to write since he had to take time to soun out every word and then struggle to remember which combinations of letters formed which sounds.

[Drea Raylin]

Needing to get other work done before lunch, Drea moved to another chair and let Carnhain work in peace. The last thing she would want is for her teacher looking over her shoulder as she wrote for the first time. Better to give him some confidence, let him know she believes in him first. Quite some time later, after the only sound in the room the scratches of the pen and Carnhain's whispers as he sounded out the words, the scratching stopped and the paper was pushed to the side. Drea set her own quill down and smiled in his direction.

 

"Are we finished?" She asked enthusiastically. Carnhain nodded and Drea stood to receive his paper. She read it over and with a smile sat back down? "May I?" she asked, grabbing a pen and motioning to the parchment. Carnhain nodded again. Drea went through and corrected all the punctuation and spelling, Light there are a lot of spelling errors! She handed it back to him, the kind smile still across her lips. "I'm going to give you some homework. We'll call it good for today, but this is what I want you to do. Take this report back with you, and make all corrections I have shown. Also, here's a list of general vocabulary and spelling you may need." Drea made a quick list of 10 words he would use in his reports that weren't already in his paper. "I'll report to your officer, and schedule another time to see you. More than likely next week." She handed him the papers and walked towards the door. "Don't be afraid to ask for help, and please, please take this seriously. You'll advance so much quicker if you have these skills. Don't worry, I'll keep working with you as well. Before long, you'll be writing better than I do." She gave a chuckle and said her goodbyes, then got back to work after the door had been shut.

 

 

 

OOC: I thought I'd wrap it up for now. Let me know if/when you want to continue. Or just go ahead and post the next meeting right away. up to you.