Reading Lessons
Zeno and Abi feels. enough said
Zeno sat in the corner feeling out of place. Everyone was running back and forth with their papers. He set his head in his hands. Maybe he could ask Hiryuu for something to do. He stood up and ran into Seiryuu, knocking all the papers out of his hands
“Seiryuu! I’m sorry,” he bent down to help pick them up.
Seiryuu sighed, “You need to be more attentive, Ouryuu.”
“Sorry.”
Seiryuu pointed to a paper that had flew on the other side of the table, “Don’t forget that. Here help me organize them.”
He raised up and set the cluttered mess on the table. Seiryuu started stacking them in random piles.
“The king’s goes here. The Military’s goes here. Hakuryuu’s goes here.”
Zeno picked up a paper and squinted at it. He shook his head and handed it to Seiryuu. Who looked up at him, “You have to help me. These need to be organized.”
Zeno shook his head, “I can’t...”
Seiryuu sighed, “You can’t read?”
Zeno shook his head, “Not much…”
Seiryuu sighed, “You,” he pointed to the nearest servant, “help me.”
The small servant squeaked and bent down to help sort the papers. Zeno walked off red with embarrassment.
“Ouryuu, see me here at noon tomorrow.”
Zeno swallowed nervously, “Okay.”
Zeno stepped nervously into the room. Seiryuu was sitting at a table with a sick of papers as high as the table. Zeno took the seat across from Seiryuu. He looked up and handed Zeno a sheet, “What can you read from that?”
Zeno squinted at the sheet of paper, “Um, go, king, Hiryuu, west…”
“Okay. So you only know directions and names, correct?”
“Yeah-“
“You’re not a traveling priest anymore, Ouryuu, you need to further along your education if you’re going to be of any use to King Hiryuu,” Seiryuu began to sift through the papers.
Zeno hung his head, “Yeah. I know. I just…”
“No excuses. We will meet three times at noon.”
Zeno nodded. He would do anything to be of use to Hiryuu.
The first week was absolute torture. Seiryuu was a hard teacher. Zeno was reading everything from military reports to poems. Zeno hated poems. When he crossed a word he didn’t know he had to write it down and look it up. During the second week, he wasn’t doing any better. By the third week, he was ready to cry.
“I have decided that I hate words,” Zeno grumbled.
Hakuryuu sighed, “Are you talking about those reading lessons Seiryuu’s been giving you?”
“Yes! I’m so frustrated. I’m never going to get this. It’s taking forever.”
Hakuryuu shook his head, “It’s not gonna just come to you. Reading is an important skill and it’s not gonna kill you to learn. Otherwise, you gonna take fighting lessons with me and we will really test out your super healing.”
Zeno eyed Hakuryuu’s hand and nodded. He walked off towards the library. His stomach was in knots. These sessions didn’t help anyway. They just added more stress to his and Seiryuu’s lives. He turned the corner and a new face had taken a seat next to Seiryuu. King Hiryuu sat looking at some papers.
“This is his progress. He’s come further than I expected in the first couple of weeks,” Seiryuu said while pointing at the paper.
Hiryuu nodded, “It’s good to see my dragons helping each other out. Well I’ll excuse myself.”
Hiryuu got up and saw Zeno. Hiryuu smiled and patted Zeno on the back while he walked out the door. Zeno smiled, between Seiryuu’s praise and Hiryuu’s encouragement he couldn’t wait to hit the books, until he got to the second sentence.
Zeno sighed as he read the inscription. Here lies Abi, the first Seiryuu. Zeno rubbed a tear from his eye, “I’m sorry I was late.” Zeno pulled out a poetry book, “Thank you for those long frustrating hours, they helped me with my priest duties and writing letters and…”
He rambled on for a while, the book still in his hand. He finally set it down in front of Abi’s grave. He took in a shaky breath, “Thank you.”
