Chapter 42: Change of Schedule
Unlike days before, Sir Gunnar presented himself in front of his apprentices and squires more exhausted than they were used to seeing him in.
Even when he finished telling them his plans for their study session that day, he didn't sit down as he had the day before. Instead, he paced around the library knowing he would start to nod off if he got too comfortable.
Irene subtly observed him from where she wrote down her notes. She wondered what he got up to when he couldn't sleep. Was he as affected by the monsters as the others were? Was there truly no getting used to seeing such a thing?
It wasn't the business of an eleven-year-old, she imagined.
The first book she had gotten into regarding wyrms was informative enough to cover all the points she would need to answer the questions Gunnar required in their research. Even the stories of the north helped her paint a picture of how she would track a wyrm or kill one if she was ever faced with it.
Irene found herself hesitant to get into the second book. There was a hint of guilt within her as she thought of not keeping up with her grandmother's teachings and being more fluent in her father's mother tongue. There was a time she could write the alphabet quite well but, by that point, she was only able to do random words that didn't string together anything of importance.
At the top of her page, she wrote her name in the tall, thin Sünstoian glyphs. The alphabet reminded her of pine trees and arrows.
However, she quickly scribbled out a bit of it, realizing her name wasn't Irene there, but she was only slightly certain about how to spell Iro.
She glanced around, silently laughing at herself. As if anyone else would know that she wasn't referring to herself by the correct name.