16th of Ashan 721
Kisaik was a bit shy when he arrived for his first lessons at Saoire’s school. Yet everyone there was pretty nice and helpful, pointing him in the right direction. All it took was some blinking, some stretching of the old legs, and he made it to his class in good time. He wanted to make some friends while he was there. It was possible that he could hitch a ride on one of their shoulders, that is if they didn’t mind.
Kisaik saw the workroom, the place where they’d be learning to make hats. As the Mortalborn of hats, Kisaik felt invigorated already by his proximity to the very expression of his domain. And yet he was humbled, because he knew absolutely nothing about how hats were made! His only experience was the illusionary hat that sat on his head, and was able to pull out temporary tools for whatever tasks he needed to do.
Speaking of which, he doffed his hat in his hand and shook it in the air. After a few shakes, his old hunter’s cap turned into a fashionable and tall top hat, with a few cards stuck in it. Still, the etchwing feather was in the hatband. He really loved that pretty and colorful feather! It seemed to match whatever fabric it is paired with.
The top hat he wore was a deep forest green, with a yellow band. The feather mimicked these colors. He of course wore his armor, just because he was a knight, and it didn’t need removing for any real reason. Tunawa always smelled of flowers, so it wasn’t as if he had to take a bath like the big folk when they got stinky.
Kisaik began skipping along and hopped up onto a table with a spring in his legs. He nearly didn’t make it, but then blinked with a loud ‘pop’ onto the desk’s surface. The desk, he apparently shared with another student. A cadouri with white fur and the face of a small terrier. He glanced at Kisaik with some curiosity, before turning to face the teacher, who greeted them now.
She was another cadouri, this one about four feet tall, with a cat’s features and orange, ticked fur. She smiled at all of them and wore the most interesting hat with all manner of decorations and feathers stuck in its band. It was a very tasteful piece of headwear, though, if Kisaik was being honest.
”Hello, class. I’m Tabitha Dash, I’ll be your teacher in Millinery. Hat-making!”
”Hello!” Kisaik said, waving his hand while a few of the other students also greeted her in unison.
”Oh my, a tunawa hat-maker? How unusual.” Ms. Dash smiled at Kisaik, and then looked around the room nodding in approval at all who were gathered there. ”Well, let’s get started, shall we?”
Kisaik didn’t know why it was unusual for a tunawa to be a hat-maker. Perhaps because most of them grew plants out of their hair, and preferred sunlight? But Kisaik grew flowers out of his beard just as often as his scalp. And he’d always enjoyed wearing hats, besides!
The white-furred cadouri that sat at Kisaik’s desk was called Westly. They’d gotten to talking during the class about things, and it turned out Westly wanted to be an adventurer. Kisaik was glad to tell him about all his adventures as a knight errant. As they spun out their threads, as Ms. Dash had set them to do, Kisaik started out by telling him about the time he’d ridden through a plain brushfire and was set upon by vicious wolfmice. There had been a tall person there, a human, with a torch waving ti all about setting fire to the brush and trying to drive off the mice.
Kisaik began getting invested in his own storytelling, and became animated as he went, ”And then, I sat on the treasure hunting human’s shoulder, and we both made our way back to Yaralon. His name was Azrael, he was an impressively large fellow, and good with a torch.”
Kisaik thrilled to remember the flames that had eaten of grasses and wolfmice. Most tunawa were afraid of fire, but Kisaik thought it was a thrill to ride through them. His cat was less enthused about it at the time, as he remembered.
”Well, that sounds like an interesting adventure…” Westly responded, as he adjusted his spinning wheel, turning the spindle so that it caught more of the thread he was spinning. Then the pooch began peddling again.
Kisaik popped a cranberry from his domain bag into his mouth, chewing noisily as he stretched his legs to pedal the small spinning wheel they’d given him to use. Even though it was one of the smallest ones they had, Kisaik still had to stretch his arms and legs to operate it. And his stretchy ability required him to eat many sweets, hence the eating and chewing of cranberries.
He continued regaling Westly of the episode. ”He was chatty though, he probably would’ve talked my ear off all the way to the Wall of Yaralon, had I not hopped off to ride my cat back home! Still, he was a good’un.”
”Mmmhmm. So where is Yaralon, what is that like?” Westly asked, absently. Kisaik thought he wasn’t very entertained by his story, but that was fine because Kisaik had enough fun for the both of them just to tell it!
”Yaralon? Much farther to the south, on the big continent southwest of Scalvoris, I think. Way far down, near Athart and Nashaki, I think?” Kisaik scratched his head, and then shrugged as he adjusted the spinning wheel once more. The thread sometimes got loose on the wheel and came off, for whatever reason. Kisaik probably just needed practice. As for where Yaralon was, he only knew it was a straight shot by sea from Desnind. He’d only heard of Athart and Nashaki. But was told they weren’t far from there.
It was then he remembered another adventure from Yaralon, which he promptly began telling to his classmate. ”Oh! Now, in Yaralon there are many fractures, and fractures contain these magic rocks, guarded by all manner of weird things. Like fairies, goblins, and demons! This one time, I was quested by a young boy to find the Tooth Fairy!”
Westly guffawed as he rolled up his spindle, now fully wrapped by yarn, and furrowed his brow at Kisaik. ”Now I know you’re telling tall tales. The Tooth Fairy isn’t real!”
Kisaik’s mouth dropped open, as he gaped at his classmate. ”She is too! I took my human friend’s teeth to her, as quested, and slept within the small fracture! When I awoke, a couple of magical rocks were left on my pillow!”
Kisaik was very disturbed by the fact that Westly didn’t believe him. How could he convince him? Oh! He actually still had those rocks! He reached back into his domain pack and pulled out one of the shards of territe. Here, he raised it up, stretching his arm at a few feet so Westly could get a good look at it. ”See! Behold, proof that the Tooth Fairy exists!”
Westly snorted, ”That’s just a pebble. It doesn’t look very magical.”
Kisaik went agape again and stuffed the territe shard back into his pack, so it wouldn’t endanger anyone. It was magic, why couldn’t he see that?!
Nevertheless, Kisaik was done rolling up his spindle of threaded cloth and took it off of the spinning wheel. He hopped to follow Westly back to their desk. Once there, he blinked with a pop to the top of the desk. He was very put off by the fact that his classmate and a new friend weren’t believing one of his stories. It was downright infuriating!
Kisaik frowned, perhaps for the first time in his life, but it probably looked strange as Ms. Dash gave him a reprimanding glance.
Nevertheless, their teacher stood to the front of the class and clasped her paws together as she regarded the rest of the room. ”Now, Class, with your partner, you’ll be using both threads of yarn, learning to load them into a loom. Do you all know what a loom is?”
One of the other cadouri present began to answer, which gave Kisaik an opportunity to turn to Westly. His new friend had to believe his story, he just had to! He would convince him!
”I can prove it’s a magic rock!” Kisaik whispered as loud as he could to the white-furred cadouri. ”I’ll prove it! I’m taking a course in ensorcelling. Meet me there, my teacher will tell you himself that it’s real!”
