Malis stuck her tongue out as she concentrated on the scroll of parchment in front of her. The long feather quill she usually used was replaced by a thin wooden shaft with a different nib on the end. Carefully she dipped it into the ink beside her and then closed her eyes to think. Sounding out the words as she laboriously placed them onto paper the troll still had a few starts until she completed a letter that wasn't completely covered in smudges and mistakes crossed out. She had promised that she would send a letter to the ambassador but she couldn't think of what to write. Malis gnawed on the end of the pen and made a face as she managed to get ink every where. She missed her feather, letter writing was so much easier that way. Rolling her eyes, the troll came to her last thought and ended the letter with a flourish. As she looked at her handiwork, Malis realized she still had a lot of space left. This she could easily fix and quickly scratched in a sketch of a polar bear which she had hear all about.
Nodding to herself, Malis rolled it up after making sure the ink was dry and sealed it with a blob of wax like Mister Joni had showed her. Satisfied that she had done a job well done the troll sent her baby dragon out to the mail box to post it. Looking back at the growing pile of books and papers she sighed. There was a lot still to learn and the books didn't even have pictures! Malis was sure she would never see the light of day for a long time...
