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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:39:47 GMT -6
She didn't stick to merely the script of the book, commenting on anything she could make use of in the pictures, and indicating them to the Tat-lung as she spoke.
As time went on, the picture cards were retired. The Tat-lung had very strong recall, and unless she was introducing something new, they had no real need of the cards after a few sessions. As his vocabulary and comprehension progressed, Rabbit began speaking more and more normally around him. It was difficult to test for understanding sometimes, due to the fact that he couldn't reply in turn, but she felt that he understood her more often than not after the first week, and nearly all the time by the end of the second.
They had a little more time left, in which Rabbit did her best to broaden the Tat-lung's exposure to the extent of spoken Common, but she suspected he knew it well enough to get by with reasonable fluency, and that any further developments in his understanding would happen more organically through natural exposure.
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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:40:19 GMT -6
From there, it felt only natural to teach him to read as well. They began with picture cards, only this time they were letters, and Rabbit sounded each one out in turn as she presented them to the Tat. He couldn't respond in kind, but she could see him observing them closely, and he was very likely committing each to memory. She had explained to him that they were moving on to written Common, and he had seemed eager at the prospect, though there had been an attempt to conceal the extent of his enthusiasm. She did not understand why, but having no emotions of her own to draw from, it was naturally more difficult to empathize with all the idiosyncrasies of organic emotion. Still, so long as it did not affect their process and outcomes, there was no need to intervene. Indeed, in this case she concluded that it would likely be detrimental to acknowledge it at all.
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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:41:11 GMT -6
Pride may come into play, as poorly as she understood the notion of it, and the drawing of attention to her observation might yet sour his mood beyond what was needed for him to allow her to teach him.
They went over the letter cards three times, by the end of which she could tell that the Tat's eagerness had given way to impatience. He was ready to move on. She obliged him by returning to the patch of dirt that he had thus far used for his illustrations, and scratching out a simple word into the dirt.
"H, A, T. Hat." She sounded the word out slowly, indicating each letter in turn. The Tat watched her closely, then carefully replicated the markings in the dirt with a delicate claw. His script was painstaking but neat, and Rabbit nodded to him.
From there, they went over several other simple words, then more complex ones.
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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:42:00 GMT -6
As the Tat got the grasp of what he was doing, he began sketching out simple little pictures of things and looking to Rabbit to see how she would spell the word, which she obliged as soon as she understood his intent. After a few such exchanges, he began drawing the pictures and then spelling out the words himself and checking in with her to see if he had it right. At this point, as he was the one setting the pace by choosing the words to spell, they began to run into more difficult words, words with certain rules and exceptions, and so on. Whenever they encountered something like that, Rabbit did her best to explain the spelling as clearly as possible to the Tat. Some words simply had no sense to their spelling, and had to be memorized; she explained that too, to which the Tat wrinkled his nose in distaste.
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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:42:10 GMT -6
Still, he followed along with a voraciousness that had to be checked when at last Rabbit could spare no more time for him. She had other obligations of her own to attend to. The Tat seemed disappointed, but accepted this with relative good grace.
The contrast between this Tat-lung and her own charge were more stark than she had initially anticipated.
The next day she returned with a variety of books. If he had grown comfortable enough in the space of a day to begin spelling things out on his own, then it was likely that he was ready to begin reading. She gave him the same simple picture books to start. He began slowly, but by the end of the second book he was reading with more confidence, and the span of thirty minutes was enough for him to tear through the rest. The difficulty lay as much with handling the pages as they did with the reading itself.
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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:43:57 GMT -6
Still, he was resolute, having developed something of a passion for it. Whether he liked the books or was simply eager for more practice was difficult to determine.
He quickly moved on to the more difficult reading material. He flipped through several books in a quick, dismissive manner before selecting one that seemed to suit his interests better. Rabbit waited and observed him for a few moments, but when it was clear that he was absorbed in the book's contents, she left him to attend other matters. Perhaps it may be seen as negligence on her part if anyone had been around to observe, but she thought that he would be able to comfortably take care of his own progression from there.
Over the next few days, she brought him more books and checked in with him on his progress, but it was clear that he had taken quite quickly to reading.
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Post by Noa on Jul 22, 2021 17:47:17 GMT -6
Now her only value to him was in the provision of more books. It was just as well, as his time with her was coming to an end. She had done as she had been asked, and instructed the Tat-lung in Common, both verbal and written, as well as she could. To what purpose, she did not know, but it was not her role to ask.
He seemed oddly weighed down by the prospect of their parting. Perhaps he had become attached to her in the small amount of time that she had spent teaching him these things. Nevertheless, she belonged to the Gracehaven estate, and he did not, and so he returned to his own residence. He looked as though he wished to say something to her -- or write it, as he was unable to speak -- but in the end he did not.
With her job completed, Rabbit returned to her usual tasks.
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