Ryuji was shocked, to say the least. Here was a completely different face staring up at him. Just when he had gotten used to the idea of being an elf, now he was a beastfolk? Oh, wait! That’s right, he had been clawed by that werewolf! Oh no, did that mean he was going to be a werewolf too? Apparently, it did!

Finally, the smell caught his attention again and he couldn’t contain his hunger anymore. He went around the corner and bought four skewers. He had meant to share them with Karen when he bought them but then the realization dawned on him that he couldn’t go back to her like this.

He walked away from the stand after paying one large copper. The merchant’s comment about him being a light eater didn’t even register in his confused state of mind. He was just wondering what to do in this situation. Should he approach Karen and tell her all about the werewolf? No, he still didn’t know how serious being a werewolf might be and he didn’t want to scare her with this.

As he was pondering what to do, he was also slowly savoring the flavor of the meat skewers. At least if he were stuck looking like this nobody would question him about wanting the meat. But then what about his favorite, bread? Well, beastfolk probably ate bread more readily than elves ate meat.

Then it occurred to him that Karen wasn’t the only relationship on the line. Teresa knew him as the tall thin elf Ryuji and also Dorn his new magic instructor. He might not be able to reconcile those relationships if he lost them. He was just getting himself worked into a fit when a voice burst into his worries with sheer decibels.

A woman was standing there in one of the many lean-to stalls along the street and had her hands cupped to her mouth. Ryuji began to think that she probably didn’t need any help with a voice like that when the content of her boisterous call struck him. She was yelling about jewelry! That was just what he wanted and if his approach would shut her up then all the better!

Ryuji walked up to the stall and as hoped the woman stopped yelling to greet him. He asked her for a recommendation and she went through a good number of her wares. In the end, Ryuji was left stuck on whether to get Karen a pair of earrings or a bracelet. Then it occurred to him that she was generally in a manual labor kind of position and the earrings would be more out of the way. Then he realized that he couldn’t remember if she had pierced ears.

He decided that he would take the chance and picked out a pair made from some kind of greenish metal. When the woman looked skeptically at him, he asked her why and she told him that those were very expensive since they were made from orichalcum. Ryuji inquired about the price and found that they were over one small gold for the pair! These earrings were almost as expensive as his sword for crying out loud!

At that point, it occurred to Ryuji that he might not get another chance to give her a present so he settled on those same earrings and bought them much to the surprise of the vendor. The pair of earrings had a simple leaf and flower pattern to them with the center of the flower being occupied by a large garnet. The vendor praised him for the purchase and explained that the metal was very sturdy and would likely never break despite any kind of abuse. She also said that if the girl he was buying them for, got a fever the day after putting them in, to give her honey and have her cool off in the river for a couple hours and her body would accept the metal. After that warning, she saw him off with a smile but he was still very troubled.

Ryuji realized he was lost, a few ‘minutes?’ later. He began looking around for anything familiar and finally spotted the guildhall a bit after that. He made his way over to the guildhall and he knew his way back to the inn from there. He walked slowly back towards the inn considering what he would tell Teresa. He had no idea what he would say if Karen were back.

He was in the alley a couple streets down from the Sleeping Tree still finishing off the meat skewers when he noticed something. The hand holding his skewer wasn’t furry anymore! He quickly gulped down the last of the meat and began feeling of his face. Sure enough, he was an elf again! That was great news, now he wouldn’t have to apply all the worst-case scenarios he had dreamt up on the way here. He made his entrance to find a somewhat worried-looking Teresa who quickly rushed over to him.

“Where’s Karen? Didn’t she go out with you on a date, er, to show you around town?”

The answer to the whole mess hit Ryuji all at once and he adopted a sheepish apologetic look as he explained. “We did, and everything was fine till the end. You see, I wanted to get her another present and walked over to a stall to buy her these. *he displayed the earrings to which Teresa’s breath caught in her throat as she wondered yet again why such a rich fellow was staying in her inn* But after I bought them, I went back where I thought she was before but I guess I got confused and lost her instead.”

Ryuji winced and kind of shrugged. “I finally managed to find my way back here but now I need to go back to the shop for the evening before the master there gets mad at me. I really wanted to give these to her on our da… outing. I really don’t have time to wait though. Could you please apologize to her for me when she gets back?”

At Teresa’s nod, Ryuji headed for the door again. He turned around just as he got there. “Also, could I ask you not to tell Karen about the earrings. Wait, that’s right, does she have pierced ears?” When Teresa nodded with a wide grin on her face Ryuji matched it for a second before rushing out the door.

Ryuji raced back to the magic shop and found Dorn there waiting with the same grin on his face. It was like everyone was in on the same joke and Ryuji wasn’t sure if he was the center of that joke, and if he was then he wasn’t sure he cared. More obscure rambling lectures on the nature of magic awaited that evening.

Dorn took a good candlespan, something close to an hour, to hit his stride. Once he did the lectures became more interesting and less random. The main topics of discussion for the evening lesson were to be magic calligraphy, the affinity certain materials have with the magic elements, and how the different elements combine to form certain types of spells.

Dorn began writing some of the symbols for the differing spells out at one point to illustrate the difference. At this point, Ryuji made a horrifying discovery. “Oh man, I can’t read any of that!”

Dorn stopped in the middle of his lecturing and looked over at his new apprentice for a moment before the words registered. At this point, he looked back and forth between Ryuji and the writing on the page then adopted an apologetic look on his face. The look was disconcerting with the dwarf’s large teeth but Ryuji wasn’t about to point this out, that would be too rude. “Aye, sorry laddie. I be forgettin’ that ye dunna know these things. Ye’ll be needin’ ta learn magic writing anyway. It’s not like regular words can be used for tha likes of magic spells.”

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With that explanation, Ryuji suddenly felt much relieved. Yes, he would have to learn two languages but it was somehow better than needing to know the local language for it. It meant that he wasn’t any more handicapped than he would normally be at this point.

In fact, the character set for each of the three major types of magic were all different. There was a set specifically for casting, summoning, and enchanting. And he would need to learn all of those in addition to the regular language of the land. Then there were obscure languages that had spells written in them which he might need to learn if he were to try to become a magic scholar in the future.

Ryuji asked about the obscure spells in lost tomes and the like and Dorn filled him in on what those were about. Apparently, there were once a lot more spells known than in the current age. A lot of those spells were recorded in tomes in different dialects that hadn’t ever been translated for whatever reason. The problem wasn’t that the magic language had changed but that the languages of the land did. There were sometimes, however, rare glyphs of the magic language to be found in those kinds of tomes. Usually, they would only work in that one spell though because nobody knew the meaning of those glyphs to put them into any other spells and a lot of those spells were very unique.

Ryuji was fascinated as the lessons naturally progressed to the magic affinity of various minerals and substances. He quickly realized just how vital his limited knowledge of chemistry and geology was once again. At that point, he looked around and spotted blank tomes for sale and made a mental note to buy one before he left for the evening.

They were well into a lecture on the nature of complex multi-element spells when Dorn looked up at the window. He had finally noticed how late it was getting. Ryuji was wondering how long he would keep going but he was too interested to interrupt him for something so trivial.

Dorn seemed lost in thought for a moment. When he next looked at Ryuji he had a wicked smirk on his face, once again made all the worse by the anatomy of his jaw structure. “Quiz time!”

What followed was a rapid-fire barrage of questions, over the things they had discussed. Ryuji only got a couple wrong, or more like he didn’t give the answer in as much detail as Dorn wanted. By the end of the quiz session, Dorn was looking very surprised indeed. To Ryuji, this was hardly a warmup compared to the intensive memory-based learning style that his old school had used. Honestly, anybody that went to a Japanese Highschool would be an utter failure if they couldn’t remember this much right after the lecture was over. They would probably be seen as a failure if they couldn’t recall the same things several months later to take their exams.

That evening, after buying his blank tome for making a journal of past and future knowledge, Ryuji left feeling that he had truly learned something valuable. Dorn had a slightly different impression of the evening. To him, the memory capacity and knowledge of this young elf were nothing short of miraculous. While it was true that many elves were gifted with an aptitude for magic, this one seemed to be positively born for it. Dorn couldn’t have asked for a better candidate for apprenticeship and he knew it. This was a disciple to watch in the future and be cherished in the present.

Karen was very upset when she returned to the inn but Teresa told her to calm down. “Your elf guy came back here a little while ago. Apparently, he got himself lost but managed to find his way here. He wanted to wait for you but he said he had to go back to work.”

Karen looked quite puzzled about the last part because she didn’t think Ryuji had a job yet. Or for that matter, that he would need one! In the end, she just sighed and nodded her head before returning to her room to change for work.

That evening was a disaster. Karen couldn’t concentrate at all. She dropped the dishes a couple times and she scorched a pot of chowder. Finally, Teresa told her to just go clean the rooms and that she would handle the kitchen. It was in that way that Karen missed when Ryuji came in late that evening nearly at dark.

As soon as she spotted the elf coming down the stairs Teresa called for Karen to come down also. When she got down to the dining room she understood immediately and a look of relief flooded her face. She quickly took the tray of food that Teresa handed her and walked briskly over to Ryuji.

Ryuji had heard everything even though his back was turned to the whole scene. Elven hearing was awesome! He was sitting in anticipation of the coming events. Karen then approached him on his left side and set his tray down and he thanked her politely.

Karen stood there for several moments as he just blithely tried the chowder and cheese bread. She was getting irritated with him as she became ever more impatient to hear his explanation. She already heard what happened from Teresa but that wasn’t the point, she felt like he should at least explain it himself, or better, he could apologize for making her worry so much!

Ryuji could feel her tension building as he seemed to ignore her. Just when she seemed like she was about to say something he pretended to notice her standing there. “Oh right, your tip!”

Karen couldn’t believe the words that came out of his mouth. Did he have no idea how worried she had been? He rummaged in his pouch for a second and came out with something he set on the edge of the table simply saying here you go and smiling at her like nothing was wrong at all. Karen was on the verge of tears and grabbed his tip off the edge of the table and was getting ready to throw it at him when the feeling of what was in her hands didn’t match the feeling of coins. When that clicked, she looked down at her hand and found she was holding the single most gorgeous pair of earrings she had ever seen in her life.

Suddenly, the tears in her eyes were for a completely different reason and she couldn’t hold back any longer. She started alternating between bawling and laughing as she ran back into the kitchen clutching the earrings to her chest as if she were afraid her heart would jump right out if she didn’t hold it in. Meanwhile, Teresa simply watched the whole affair with a grin from the corner of the bar. She did have to reassure several of the other customers who were looking menacingly at the young elf without understanding the situation. He was quite sharp though and paid for a couple rounds of ale for everyone. Good drink will do wonders to calm the nerves.

That night before going to sleep Ryuji started writing his magic primer. He started with everything he could recall from any of his science classes and was followed by everything he remembered from all of his math classes. He also wrote in everything he could remember about historic battles. Most of his history would be useless because it was just memorizing the names of people and places and the dates that major events or people lived. The little bits of political maneuvering and diplomacy that he could recall ever learning about he also wrote down lest he forgets them and needs them in the future. He then left a huge gap before starting the next section. He wasn’t sure what else he might remember but he wanted the room to write as much of it down as he possibly could.

His next section was all the magic-related things he had thus learned in shorthand kanji. Once he realized how odd his writing was to this world, he decided to write all of the language arts in a different section altogether. He found that between the katakana, the hiragana, and the Kanji there was a huge volume of nothing but language that he would have to write and he was only going to get a start on it tonight, unlike the magic-related portion that he wrote out in full.

The last part of the volume he used as a journal and he wasn’t about to skimp on writing down his account of life events since coming here. His time here had been something of a whirlwind. He was amazed that his time here took three full pages to write down. Finally, he got the idea to write a little bit about his old life so he would always have something to remember it by. Ryuji didn’t get very far before he found himself crying and just couldn’t continue. He cried himself to sleep that night remembering his family that he would never see again.