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 Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:49 am
Adonis watched the girl carefully as she reached up and pulled out one of the barettes, holding it out to him. This was the same kind of gift she had given Armel, the gift that had angered Adonis with jealousy and made him second guess her alliegence. But now, being handed one of his own, the jealousy was gone.
In light of this new advancement, Adonis began to form a new opinion of this little girl who reminded him of himself so. It was an opinion similar to that of the one Elena first elicited when they met. She was clearly intelligent enough to give him homage, and appreciate his help. A new ally was born.
He took the star from her hand, and gave her a bright, genuine smile. It was rare. "Thank you. I know just where to put it." It was just the right size and shape, too. Wrong color, but he didn't mind.
He lifted his wrist, and held it up, watching carefully as the orbit of stars circled around. Holding the barette with two fingers, he held it out to the circle of stars, and dropped it carefully into the gap where one star was missing. While gravity should have surely let it fall to his lap, instead the star bounced softly in the gap, adjusting itself to it's new home. The steel backing of the barette disappeared, and the star pulsed blue between it's brothers of gold around it.
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:02 pm
Khali lifted her head from the book long enough to see what Donny was going to do with the gift that she gave to him. It was the first time she had noticed the orbiting stars and her eyes widened.
How did he DO that? No, better yet, why couldn't she do that. As far as she was concerned her shiny prettiness just didn't cut it when he could make things FLOAT.
"How do'ya do that?" she asked softly, getting her face close to his wrist to watch the stars with interest. The book was forgotten...for now. She hadn't even found out HER powers yet.
If she even had any.
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:11 pm
Adonis blinked down curiously at the girl, suddenly practically in his lap. Being that she was so small, it wasn't much of a hindrance, so he indulged her by letting her watch the ring that floated mindlessly around his wrist.
"I don't, actually. I was born with star tattoos around my wrist, and when I grew up a little.. they kind of popped out and came to life. I don't think I could control them or anything. They're just.. there. Like jewelry. Moving jewelry."
He concentrated, trying to make the orbit slow down, but they ignored his silent commands and happily bounced their way around their normal path, over and over. You could almost hear them laughing at his attempts to control their movement. He felt indignant at their stubbornness.
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:15 pm
"Oh."
Well, if it wasn't a power that was okay! It was still cool! And more than she could do. The only thing she even vaguely noticed was her lack of being able to get cold. The sun hurt her skin, but actual heat didn't.
"I don't have anything special like that but I can't get cold?" She shrugged her shoulders and picked the book up again. Khalindra opened it to the first page and stared hard at the first sentence.
"Ah...Tea...Ottie! Ottie s..stair...eh...duh.." she paused, "stared. Ottie stared at the ohkeyan..."
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:33 pm
Adonis leaned over and tapped the inside of the book with one finger. "Remember, look at the pictures first before trying to read."
So she couldn't get cold? That would certainly save on heating and coats. Donny hated coats, they never fit right. It would be a useful ability to have.
He watched her read for a minute, before leaning back and snatching his book on Napolean from the shelf behind him. He wasn't much of a teacher, but he didn't mind reading together.
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:58 pm
Right. Pictures. Khalindra's eyes focused on the picture for a moment before she tried the sentence again, "Ottie stared at the ocean in th...ow...gt..." she looked a little confused.
Perhaps she hadn't mastered the idea of silent letters yet.
Frustrated, but not put off, Khalindra attacked the word, "Thow...guht..." that wasn't a word. At least, she didn't think it was a word.
"Thought!" It had to be thought. Nothing else made sense. Looking up at Donny for approval, Khalindra smiled weakly, "Is that it?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:13 pm
That was a hard word for a beginning reader. Donny felt an unjustified sense of pride, as if his presence had inspired her into reading better. He smirked softly and nodded. "That's it. That was a hard one, I'm proud of you."
He had his book in his lap, but hadn't really begun to read it again. It wouldn't do to be so rude when someone was trying to learn to read beside you. Instead, he listened to Khalindra read, trying to picture the story she read to himself. He waved his fingers idly. "Continue."
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:18 pm
A beaming look came over the small Tale's face and she returned to the book for just a moment before realizing that Donny had a book of his own. And it was bigger and didn't look like it had many pictures in it.
Ottie and the Star was closed to examine the bigger book, "What's that book about?"
One thing she had learned about books with no pictures were they were very very interesting. Khali ahd made her father read to her from his medical book and while it did have little sketches, she learned about how certain things in her body worked. It was fun!
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:50 pm
He blinked when she turned her attentions to the book on his lap, and picked it up. The only picture involved was the one on the front, of a short man who stood proudly in uniform, with a very large head under a very large hat, and his hand tucked firmly into his jacket pocket.
"This? It's about a man from history, his name was Napoleon. He was very smart, and very persistant, but people didn't like him very much and so his plans for world domination failed. Much like many other men like him.."
Donny studied these books; Napoleon, Caesar, Hitler.. and learned from their mistakes. Their loss would be his gain.
"It's a little boring sometimes, but.. I learn a lot from it." He shrugged.
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:01 pm
Khalindra didn't much understand what world domination was...Nor did she really understand why people would try for something she didn't understand.
"Are you going to try to do what they did?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. If he was trying to learn from their mistakes..."And what is whatever it is that they did?"
And another thing! How could learning ever be boring...?!
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:17 pm
"No." He said flatly, setting the book back down on his lap. "I'm going to do much, much better things." A slow, small smile lifted the corners of his lips. He would not be like them. He would succeed.
"But you've abandoned your book to hear about mine. That's unacceptable. I was listening to the story and now I'll never know what Ottie was thinking about." He tapped the book with his finger expectantly and waited. "Tell me about it."
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Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 2:27 pm
She was going to ask what he was going to do when he told her to go back to the book. Blinking, she put aside her questions - which he hadn't heard the last of - and opened the book back up.
"I wohn...der. Wonder. I wonder wuh-hat...Wuh-hat?" That didn't make sense! "The ni...guh..hut..."
Well, this wasn't going well. She was lost at how that word worked! Remembering that Donny had told her to look at the picture she concentrated, "Night! That's it! Uh...I wonder what the night is thinking."
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Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:35 pm
"Okay. Stop." He paused her there, one brow risen slightly in thought. "That's a good question."
Analyzation was the way he was taught to read books, and he did it to every book he came across. It was why it took him so long to get through them.
"What do you think? About the night." His gaze travelled to the window, where the dusky evening sky was already showing one or two of the brighter stars. "What do you think the night is thinking?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:31 pm
Khalindra obediently stopped her reading and looked up at Donny with a raised brow. Did she do something wrong? Ah! He was making a comment. That was okay, then.
"The night?" she repeated, following his gaze, "I think...I think the night's very very pretty - but in a dangerous sort of way. Because you can get lost in it, you know? And I think the night knows things that others don't. That's why it has the stars - it's Night's night light to scare away things. I think the night wishes it wasn't so burdened by the endlessness of itself."
The young Tale continued to look out at the stars, "But I wonder why I'm so in tune with the night and why I feel more comfortable with the stars and darkness then with the day time."
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:23 pm
Pretty, but dangerous. It seemed like a very good way to describe the night, he thought. He listened to her, though his eyes pulled away from his comforting gaze on the dusk sky and fell on her again somewhere near the middle of her explanation. A single brow rose slowly as he contemplated her response.
"Those are some very big thoughts for a very little girl." He murmured, impressed. There was no condescending tone in his voice; he didn't think he would have come up with better ways to express the night than that, by far.
He didn't think most adults would have, either.
"You're very close with the night, that's why you're in tune. You're a night child." He looked back up at the sky. It had already darkened within the few minutes of looking away. "I am too."
He loved the day, but the night was where he felt at home. When lying out on the grass, he could feel the distant rays of starlight warm his body, just as the sun would. They were pulled to him, to his beauty. They were enraptured. Perhaps, one day, they would come to visit him themselves, instead of reaching out with soft fingers of warmth to touch him. Then, the world would surely burn to a crisp.
He grinned for a moment, before shaking his head.
"It's true, the night has quite a burden for never ending. I couldn't even imagine it." He tapped the book, seemingly done with the conversation. "All right, you get back to your book, stop letting me interrupt you."
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