His mother was, to put it mildly, not happy. They were saved from the worst of her wrath when she discovered they had not done much harm. This led to them escaping with only a lecture. That and promising to never touch her roses again.

Seeing Orn beginning to fade she cut the lecture short. Looking to his father, “Both Orn and my roses need a break after this morning. I think it is best we have lunch early.” Turning back to Orn she added, “And since you have clearly trained today, we will continue with your studies afterwards.”

…

He shifted on the hard wooden bench next to his mother. They had been sitting there for hours as his mother taught him how to read. Orn repeated after her as she slowly read from the book.

Each page took an eternity and she constantly asked him to go back and retry the way he pronounced some of the words.

“Try again. These letters make a soft ‘Kah’ sound.” His mother’s finger underlined the word.

“Kah-bolds,” He tried again using her correction.

She nodded and was about to continue when there was a knock at the study door. They looked up to see Orn’s father poking his head into the small library. “Olivia said dinner would be ready in an hour.”

“She came by to let us know as well.” His mother replied flatly.

Seemingly oblivious to his wife’s tone he continued. “Good, good. Well, I thought we could play cards while we waited. It will give Orn a break, since he has been studying for hours.” He smiled, “And it will teach him his numbers. “

“We will finish this page and then join you.” Not waiting for his response, she turned back to the page. “Sound this out for me.”

The promised reprieve was enough to motivate Orn to redouble his efforts. If I do well I can be done in a few more minutes.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

At least that was the plan. In the face of his effort, his mother became ever more demanding of his pronunciation. She even made his start over from the top when he made too many mistakes.

“That was very good for your first attempt.” Orn beamed under the praise. “I will leave the book here and Olivia will work with you tomorrow from this page.”

Orn nodded eagerly. Olivia had helped him learn his letters years ago, so he knew she was a less exacting teacher. Hooray Olivia!

His mother raised an eyebrow at his reaction. “It looks like she is not pushing you as hard as she could. I will speak with her about that.”

Orn struggled to find an objection, but his mother put her hand on his back and steered him towards the door. “Unfortunately, that will need to wait. We have to feed the shark first.”

It did not take Orn long to realize who she meant by the shark. They entered the dining room to see his father shuffling cards at the table and grinning predatorily.

They had played several hands after teaching Orn the rules. Orn lost badly every time. His father won most hands by a large margin. Though on occasion his mother would eke out a win. Those were more fun since what Orn did could affect the game.

He was slowly getting the hang of the game by the time dinner came out. His father seemed disheartened as he put the cards away. Orn had also learned why his mother had become stricter after his father popped his head in. The count really like to play cards and was also very good at them. This was made worse by the smug grin he got whenever he won. A hand or two facing an opponent like that is not that bad; doing it for most of an hour made Orn want to go back to reading.

[Lac]

She watched the priest exit the wagon. He is losing weight. His robes used to fit him.

The priest walked towards the city’s temple, praying the entire way. She laughed as she heard his desire that the goddess's name be written somewhere he could find it quickly. Oh no, little sister is not that kind. You will not find the answers you seek here.

She considered the man as he walked straight to the temple library. He is not yet there, but I see potential.

She chuckled at the thought of using this specific priest as her prophet. Koa’s face when she realizes would be so funny.

Turning her attention back to the priest she watched him skim past books he had already read. If he goes through them all, I will get Clo to see that a couple books fall into his hands. They will nudge his personality in the right direction.

Satisfied, she started moving on to the next potential prophet. His madness makes him easier to work with, but preaching to animals… She shook her head. At least the fool is amusing to watch