Returning Tutor

[Kreans]

Kreans had made his way through the town once again, nostrils full of the scent of death and sickness as he worked his way through it's peoples huddled in doorways and generally looking more downtrodden than he'd ever seen from humans. It was a pity that this plague was sweeping through them like Skaldi through their prey, but the humans had long terrorised the Skaldi and so he had little pity for the fact that nature was turning back and getting some measure of justice for them. His own people were certainly being effected by this however which brought confusion to him, how could nature's justice effect those that it had been sent to get justice for, surely the Skaldi would pull through it, surely.



Ignoring those people around him he would once again head up towards the tower that served as the focal point for this city, it was half broken and lacking anything really to make it look halfway imposing, not a great place for a ruler to choose to live in. Then again when the pickings were as slim as they seemed to be here in terms of buildings he supposed that you took the best you could get, and this was certainly the best building out of those he'd seen in the city, although that didn't say much.



Kreans would stop before the guards at the entrance to the tower and stare at them both for a few seconds, were they the same then he'd pay particular attention to the one that had called him an animal previously, were they different then he'd give each a slow looking over. "I'm here for the Duke again, our lessons were interrupted by your plague."

[King Redgar Karligar]

Once again the soldiers would gawk and allow the lizardman past. He wasn't hurting anyone. Not many humans thought Skaldi were intelligent and sentient creatures. Every time one spoke it was a surprise to someone outside of New Skaldira and the Alliance. Though Morith was an Alliance territory, more or less, it's people were still very backwards in some attitudes. As evidenced mainly by their governor, who happened to be a certain Duke.

This certain duke's men would verbally direct the Skaldi to go to the same floor as before. There the Skaldi would find the same Duke in nearly the same position as before. Sitting at his desk. This time the bloody papers that had been were gone, the quarters had been cleaned. The furniture had been replaced. He had a larger, much larger handkerchief, and was looking a bit wan.

"Skaldi Kreans! I remember you, you're the one that taught me to partake in high conversation. You're here for the second half of the lesson I presume? I'm ready to engage in this battle when you are. I've been practicing. Even if in my head between hacking my lungs out. If I fall into another fit, let us do as we did before and ignore it. Pressing on through hardship is the warrior's way."

Redgar hadn't changed much, he was just more verbose and maybe better spoken.

---

Hacklung: 10
BcFg0G63

[Kreans]

Kreans would follow the guard's directions once again and head up the stairs, noting still the room full of useless weapons and wondering once again at it's purpose, it seemed to him as though it could be purely for decoration which seemed to the Skaldi like a waste of space. Why would one dedicate a room to displaying useless weapons, what was the point to wasting the space and the resources to make such useless weapons when it could be used for something better.

When he arrived at the Duke's room he'd note the fact it was much cleaner than last time, with not a speck of the Duke's lifeblood remaining across the various surfaces it had been splattered last time. He sat in his chair with a much larger cloth than before to catch it all should he begin hacking up his lungs once again, a good precaution considering how messy things had gotten last time, Kreans was hoping it wouldn't be as bad this time but at least precautions had been made in case it was. Still he would maintain some distance between himself and the desk that the Duke was stationed at, he had no desire to be caught by an unexpected deluge of the Duke's vital parts should the disease strike him without warning or at the wrong moment.

"It seems you have been practising, your speech seems far better than when last I was here. I had no intention but to continue if you fall ill again, I've no time for those that would allow something like a disease to stop them in their work. I'll need paper and writing implements once again? A set for each of us."

[King Redgar Karligar]

"Yes, yes. Of course. That makes sense."

Redgar opened up the desk and pulled out a stack of paper, as well as a pair of inkwells and quills. He gestured for the skaldi to sit across from him at the desk. He was curious as to how the creature would accomplish this task. There were several chairs and stools around however. Redgar dipped his quill in ink and tested it out on the top corner of the page he was about to use. For as stupid as he was at certain things, when he approached a task as if it were a battle things changed. The odds were no longer insurmountable. The pen was his sword, the ink his soldiers, he could direct them to formation in that manner. As he did in normal battle.

"I am ready. Let us proceed."

---

Hacklung: 20
8mGrLQC1
100

[Kreans]

The Duke seemed to take a good stance to the lessons, he was focussed on the learning above all else and was happy to make the power his own as kreans had mere weeks before. It seemed that the Duke was a man somewhat like himself, and if the stories he'd heard were true he was a vicious and capable warrior, both traits that were positive in the Skaldi's eyes, it was just such a shame that he was a human. Krean would take a good look over the Duke once again, eyeing at whatever weapons he could see on the man and attempting to assess the quality of his armour, it looked quite well made from what he could see but he was unsure quite how strong it was, it seemed to be iron and so it was probably good enough to turn most regular weapons. Once he'd had a look at the Duke's armour he would look for a weapon, most good warriors kept their weapons within reach at all times.

Still, his martial side aside he as here for a lesson, and a lesson the Skaldi would provide. Kreans delicately picked up the quill, dipping it as daintily as his claws could manage in the pot of ink and doing a miniscule scribble to check that it worked, ignoring that the Duke had spoken at all. When he was satisfied he would begin writing out the Cruic alphabet on his piece of paper, leaving a short space after each letter and saying each out loud as he wrote them. Once all of the letters were applied to paper he would speak, "This is the Cruic alphabet, as you must know every word is made of these letters and these letters only, if you must learn a language of one of the more alien species then they may be different but these are what you'll need for Cruic."

---

Teaching Redgar Literacy I (1/5)

[King Redgar Karligar]

Redgar narrowly avoided a coughing fit by clearing his throat and nodding at the lizard. He was not equipped with his armor today, but his Arming Sword was on his hip. He considered it a sidearm compared to his main weapon Snarling Fang. The arming sword was basic, but powerful enough to gut a man, and under Redgar's command it could likely gut Kreans as well. The Duke was a fine warrior indeed.

In regards to the alphabet, Redgar nodded. He had seen the letters before on many things. Papers, documents, signs and such. He knew that when they were arranged in a particular order they represented a particular word. He had just never bridged the gap between his spoken skills and that information. Now that Kreans was helping to do so, it was starting to stick with him. His sister had never been a help regarding this either.

"Good, let's continue. I'm familiar with the letters. I've seen them before. Some more often than others."

---

Hacklung: 30
5CWb7LJ1

[Kreans]

His sword seemed good enough, although Kreans was sure he could make better given the time and materials, maybe he would attempt to create something similar as a back up weapon for himself shoudl he need it. That or as his primary weapon, the spear he held while solid was old and worn, he needed to get some better weapons and armour for himself when he could get hold of the materials, of that he was certain. For now he'd carry on with his spear as he always had up till this point, it had served him well so far and hopefully it would continue to do so.

"You'd have to live in the middle of nowhere to not have seen letters." A somewhat humorous statement considering Kreans had for most of his early life lived out in the middle of nowhere without having seen any sort of words or sentences, Sissak was not a language that could be easily put to paper.

From there he would write out some of the simpler words that he'd gone through with the Duke in the previous High Cruic lesson, saying each out loud and writing them down to give him a simple vocabulary to start off with. Once he'd grasped that he would expand it by writing out names for things in the room and that the Duke was likely to be familiar with. "...Desk. Chair. Sword. Warrior..."

---

Teaching Redgar Literacy I (2/5)

[King Redgar Karligar]

Redgar was looking less pale, but he could feel that a coughing fit was going to come on soon. he prepared himself mentally for that while writing out the words that Kreans had told him to. His letters were big, and shaky, but they eventually formed the words. He was not so old that he had shaking hands to begin with, it was a life of wielding a sword and never a quill that made his hand shake with the effort. He assumed the Skaldi had similar problems with those claws of his.

The Duke had no time for jokes at the moment though, this task taking the majority of his concentration and will. He took the Skaldi's statement more as a factual expression confirming that the Duke wasn't some country hick from the reaches of Skaraptica or the Darthaks even.

"Naturally, this should get easier with practice."

---

Hacklung: 40
0TxzpN2Z
57 --Resisted

[Kreans]

His hand was unsteady but it was working, it seemed that he had a similar trouble to the Skaldi but likely for different reasons, Kreans struggled because his claws were larger and thicker than the quill was made for and the Duke struggled and shook also when he attempted to write. Still the words came out legible at least, they were somewhat twisted and unrefined but the Skaldi could read them quite easily still, at the end of the day that was the part that mattered in terms of him having completed his job and getting paid for doing so.



So far Kreans was hopeful that the Duke wouldn't be caught by the plague as he was last time, there'd been no signs of it as of yet other than him looking somewhat ill, if they could make it through without the distraction raising it's head then that would be far better than being awash in blood as he tried to teach. So long as the Duke survived long enough to give him his money however that was what really mattered, all else was inconsequential so long as he completed his job and got paid, if the human died afterwards then what did it really matter. Although he might think the man a capable warrior amongst his own kind he was still just a human and so he had no real care beyond what use they could be to him and the Shadowscales.



"Swinging your sword becomes easier each time, as far as I've seen writing is the same." Kreans would respond, it was a comparison that the warrior should understand, if he hadn't spent a good amount of time practising as Kreans had since he was a hatchling then he wouldn't be a warrior. He'd make the practise harder however now by adding in what small amount of grammar he knew, reaching into his new belt and pulling out his paper from his own lessons to copy the grammar off of, it hadn't all stayed in his head properly so he needed the paper to remember.

---

Teaching Redgar Literacy I (3/5)

[King Redgar Karligar]

"Skaldi Kreans, I assumed you were a warrior but the way you speak of swords and such means you understand what the true warrior spirit means. We should spar sometime. I'm interested to see how I stack up against one of your kind."

It was immediately after that moment that Redgar began to cough again. He coughed into his sleeve at first, and then into the handkerchief. He tried to stifle it but he couldn't. The disease kept rampaging through his system. He felt some of his life slip away. But they were nearly done the lesson. He gestured for the Skaldi to continue. He did not want to miss anything.

---

hacklung: 50
f0ufk50e

Recovery: 25


HP: 450/500
·

[Kreans]

From the moment the Duke's response had left his lips Kreans own lips would turn to a savage sort of smile, in truth he had not tasted proper combat for far longer than he would have liked, and the chance to spar with a human warrior without any problems of death or consequences was something that wasn't likely to come around many more times in his life if it ever did again, Redgar was a somewhat known warrior, having fought in the battle of Morith quite viciously as he had heard tell of it, even defeating an enemy commander somewhere along the ways, it was a fair assumption to take from that that he had some sort of skill at war even if only minor enough to best another human.



It was unfortunate however that with the disease he was currently afflicted with it was unlikely that any fight that they had would most definitely not be considered a fair combat by anybody with two eyes to see the Duke's form. Once again the dreaded disease had struck at the Duke and he was left coughing and spluttering out, he tried admirably to lessen it first into a sleeve and then into the handkerchief that he'd come prepared with just for this occasion, but still it broke free of his efforts and ran wild upon him. If they were to spar together he'd have to contend with this disease also in the Duke and if it struck then they'd be unable to fight anymore.



Still he showed his spirit however, motioning the SKaldi to continue onwards with the lesson even as he slid further towards death himself, it was admirable at least that he was upholding his side of the bargain even through this. "I would take great joy from sparring with you when the situation allows, currently it seems you need more to combat your own failing health though rather than I. Also these words I can barely read, I'm not even sure if that is a letter or some squiggle on paper." Kreans would point to a small sentence the Duke had written that to him was almost illegible and rewrite it on his own piece of paper as what he believed the Duke was trying to achieve, guiding him through the correction best he could with no regard for his failing health.

---

Teaching Redgar Liteacy I (4/5)

[King Redgar Karligar]

Redgar was too busy coughing to reply to Kreans. All he could do was keep a quill in one hand, the handkerchief in the other, and continue coughing and writing at the same time. It wasn't too much yet. If he had to estimate, he could hold out for a while longer before he had to sit over a hot bowl of soup and open up his airways.

Regardless, Redgar pursued the lesson. He rewrote the parts that Kreans told him to, with a more deliberate and slow take. The words were beginning to make sense to him. He remembered some from the signs around town. Of course he'd still be a slow reader and writer for a while, but who knows? With time he might become poet laureate of the country. Unlikely, but no fantasy of grandeur and accomplishment was beyond Redgar. Why not be the most powerful warlord and poet in the country? What would the peasants care if he was both?

---

Recovery: 25
9lYKTXef

HP: 400/500

[Kreans]

Kreans observed the Duke's ailment, it seemed unlikely that he would recover anytime soon without some sort of help, if he had anything on hand at this point he might even offer it simply to prevent Redgar from spilling out his blood everywhere and potentially passing the disease along. The Skaldi had nothing of the sort on him however, and even if he did still he was unsure if he'd actually give it to the human, but he would edge himself slightly further back to ensure that he was hit by none of the diseased blood that was leaving him.

As much as he may dislike the Duke simply on the basis of his humanity, at the very least he could say nothing of the man's determination, even in the throes of this deadly disease he still held the quill in hand and attempted to rewrite what he had previously been told to. The spirit of a true warrior ran strong in the Duke, determined to see his task through to the end no matter what, which seemed very possible considering how the disease had ailed him both times the Skaldi had come to visit and how each time the Duke had fought through to continue on the work they'd agreed of. Kreans made no concession for the man's illness however, correcting his mistakes just as brutally and handing him several pages that he'd been making copies of as Redgar worked, reference sheets for the simpler parts of Literacy that would slip his mind as he began to familiarise himself with the art of written word properly. "I believe that may be all i'm capable of teaching you, i'm surprised you've survived."

---

Teahing Redgar Literacy I (5/5)

[King Redgar Karligar]

Good news! Redgar was now literate! At least by the Skaldi's standards and likely by common people's standards. Bad news, he was still coughing up gobs and globs of blood. Of course, he was a man of his word. Now that he could write, he did so to communicate. The Skaldi could read after all, and what a novelty Redgar thought that was. This was a moment for the history books. Of course, now was not the time to begin writing edicts and laws, but Redgar wouldn't be able to help himself. He had acquired a newfound power. The power of the pen. He passed the paper to the Skaldi.

I am grateful for your assistance Skaldi Kreans, here is the second half of the payment. I'll be glad to spar with you when I am feeling in better health. I'm sure I'll need your services in the future, please keep an eye out for my bulletins.

With that Redgar would pick up a small pouch of gold from the desk and toss it at the Skaldi.

---

Recovery: 25
O7LjsQgK

HP: 350/500

Redgar pays Kreans the remainder. Redgar gains Literacy I! (+1 pt for Lords)

[Kreans]

His time teaching the Duke had come to a close for now, and for the Skaldi it couldn't have come quickly enough. The Duke hadn't appeared to be getting any better as they progressed and still now he appeared as though he may no make it. Luckily that mattered not at all to Kreans, he was here simply for the coin and once he had gotten it he would be away from the Duke hopefully without contracting this malady that seemed to plague him.

When Redgar passed over the paper he would nod appreciatively, his writing was leaps and bounds ahead of what it had been at the beginning now that he possessed the power to put word to paper in a fashion he'd been unable to do before. Once he'd read the Duke's message he would take the offered coin, it was his due after all for putting up with what he had, Kreans was just glad that the Duke had written down what he meant to convey rather than opened his mouth and risked spreading more pestilence in the air, thank the ancestors for small miracles.

Coin safely packed away in his belt Kreans would stand and take several steps towards the door before turning, "I'd welcome the chance to spar with a human such as yourself, it could turn be fun." At this his gaze towards the failing man would turn predatory and he'd show the Duke his razor teeth, "And if all of your bulletins are as profitable as this one then I shall keep an eye out." With his piece said he would leave the tower and begin winding his way through Morith back to his camp.