exploratory kidnapping

[alicornucopia]

In this room are two women, one gray and sixty years old, one just thirty and red-haired, both wearing elaborate outfits. The younger casts a spell.

In this room is now also a third person. (On whom the elder woman promptly also casts a spell, which she had at the ready.)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Is it usual for families to run schools? Will it be yours when you grow up?"

[missnicegirl]

"I think sometimes it works that way, but it might not have if Miss Honey wasn't a teacher at the school already. I don't think I'm going to be a teacher when I grow up, but I'm not sure yet. I have lots of time to decide."

[alicornucopia]

Raha nods. More ingredients ensue. "They think they'll have a dragon available to teach you Ertydon tomorrow or the next day."

[missnicegirl]

"Ooh!"

[alicornucopia]

"So then you'll want to look over your schedule again and see where you want to fit in those lessons, atlhough I'm not sure the dragon they find will have as flexible a schedule as me."

[missnicegirl]

"We'll see when I meet them, I guess."

[alicornucopia]

And: ingredients, until Terali comes to make sure they're done and unsummon Matilda home.

[missnicegirl]

So many ingredients!

When it comes time for Matilda to be unsummoned, she says, "That was really fun! Thanks, Raha! Bye!"

[alicornucopia]

"You're welcome!" says Raha. And she is back home again.

[missnicegirl]

The next day, in addition to her own notebook, she brings a book for the anthropologist; it's a comprehensive history of books and writing on Earth, from cuneiform and papyrus up through the printing press and the typewriter. It's not recent enough to discuss computers.

[alicornucopia]

The anthropologist is delighted to have this book.

Also, there is a teenage girl with silvery hair present. If she were on Earth, apart from the hair she'd look southeast Asian. Terali introduces her. "Matilda, this is Fena; she's a dragon. Fena, this is Matilda. I don't think Fena has much time before she needs to go off to school herself, but there should be a chance to figure out a schedule."

"Hi," says Fena.

[missnicegirl]

"Hi! It's nice to meet you! What sorts of times can you give me language lessons?"

[alicornucopia]

"I have school from right about when I get up until ninth-and-twelve," says Fena, "but after that I'm free except for Saanen afternoons."

"Saanen is a day of the week, and it was yesterday," Terali says. "Today is Sinen, and from there it goes Fenen, Lunen, Chenen, Inen, Arnen, Saanen."

[missnicegirl]

"Oh, we have seven-day weeks on Earth too! Ours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Today is Thursday."

She does some calculations in her head, and then proposes a schedule to Fena that satisfies her constraints and doesn't conflict with the witchcraft lessons. Matilda is going to have a busy month.

[alicornucopia]

Fena takes the notes on this and then convinces Terali to teleport her to school, and Terali agrees, disappears with Fena, and comes back alone. Matilda is then free to continue studying witchcraft while the anthropologist supervises.

[missnicegirl]

Witchcraft! Yay!

[alicornucopia]

Witchcraft lessons continue in a fairly predictable fashion; the next day, of course, she also has language lessons with Fena. This time when she is summoned she does not get a translation spell.

Fena says, "I've never actually taught somebody a language beyond just a few words before. I think they picked me because all the other dragons in the country have, like, jobs."

(Her English is flawless and her accent precisely Matilda's.)

[missnicegirl]

"I think you will probably do fine," says Matilda. "Tell me about Ertydon!"

[alicornucopia]

"There's a few countries that speak it, I guess you want Linnipese Ertydon since this is Linnip and you're talking to Linnipese people. Uh... okay, hello is rai."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay." She writes this down. "Let's see, what's the alphabet like?"

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, yeah, duh, sorry." Fena writes out the alphabet, and names all the letters, and produces their nearest English equivalents.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda extracts more words from her, along with their spellings. Then sentences. It is a very productive lesson.

[alicornucopia]

Fena seems pretty okay with being steered around by Matilda's opinions on what's next.

[missnicegirl]

And Matilda is perfectly fine with learning languages from someone who has no idea how to teach them! Everyone wins.

[alicornucopia]

Lessons continue. Raha is generally more impressed with Matilda's progress than Fena is (Fena turns out to be well over a century old and very vague on the concept of having to learn a language; she notes that the other girls at her school seem to have more trouble than this when they're studying Leraal or Vansalese or Munine or Kida, but seems to chalk it up entirely to smaller humans being better at language acquisition.) Raha gets through all the ingredients featured in the introductory recipe book, quizzes Matilda on them, and then lets her start working on the potions in the book. They're very assorted. She could make soap or confectioner's glaze or a headache cure or sunscreen or plant food or glue that will only set in the presence of a second potion and then bond permanently.