Julie sat at the table while reading the first book. Even after a half hour her eyes seemed to burn with an intensity that when the others looked up from their own books, almost frightened them. It was almost as if she hated the very text written on the page. The aura she gave off was the same wild aura that she gave off when she was facing off against them in the arena. They quickly turned back to their own books to ensure that her wrath wouldn't turn to them.
It was Robyn who first closed her book, having only gotten a quarter of the way through the first book in her stack but she had never been the studious type. She was the daughter of a miner and just from her build it was clear that she preferred physical exercise over mental gymnastics. After a certain point she closed the book, took her stack of four books regarding variety of intermediate topics to help her in the courses to come and left to her bedroom to rest.
One member leaving led to the others leaving in short order. The next to leave was the most petite of the members, Alys. She did not make much of sound as she rose from her seat and slipped away akin to a shadow having met light. Her short stack of books likewise slipped out of sight. Not long after the others stood casually and headed for their rooms with their reading material leaving only Andrew, reading his book regarding the use of healing elixirs and salves in battle scenarios, Julie still reviewing the book regarding the basics of military strategy she had been reading from the beginning and Jien reading his book on complex arcane theory that nobody could make heads or tails of.
Surprisingly it was Andrew who left prior to Julie, standing up and smoothing out his uniform before taking his books and walking to his room to chat with the others. Jien had noticed everyone leaving but hadn't stopped them, knowing that every person had their own tolerance to different learning environments. Not everyone enjoyed reading books as much as he did, preferring practical lessons, or perhaps lessons of an even more physical nature. He had only provided them books he felt that would help them in the courses to come. Of all those in his group Julie was the only one that he had aimed to provide with what he considered necessary knowledge to survive in the academy.
The wild girl seemed to attack reading the book like she was in a battle against an impossible foe. Her eyes blazed with an intent that would have left the others frightened if they had decided to stay. By this point it was just Jien and Julie, one leaning back in his chair, flipping from one page to another at a speed that would leave many believing that he was just scanning the contents rather than reading. The other had the book on the table, hunched over it with one hand in her hair, flipping pages roughly whenever she had finished reading the contents of the previous one.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
At a certain point in her reading Julie stood up abruptly, pulling Jien's attention from his reading session. He looked at her with calm eyes despite the not-so-subtle intensity in her aura. She ignored his cool gaze, turning to her room while leaving her books stacked on the table and her current book open. Jien tilted his head curiously but didn't make a comment, instead making to concentrate on his own studies once again.
It was a couple of minutes later that Julie stormed back into the room, under her arms a thick pad of paper and in her hands a standard pen and well of ink. Jien once again looked up from his book, this time with more curiosity evident in his eyes. He still did not make a comment or question her as she sat down roughly in her seat, set the inkwell and paper on the table next to the book and flipped it back to the first page.
Julie ignored the curious eyes on her as she began to review the text on the first page again. She only made it a part of the way through the page before she dipped the pen in the inkwell and started to take what Jien assumed were notes. He noticed that she took her time writing them, ensuring that her handwriting was decent and that she was writing a fair amount for only looking at the first page. He wasn't sure what she was actually writing about, but he was hesitant to ask at this point. Not out of fear, but rather because he didn't want to interrupt her line of thought.
He and the others, who had been occasionally peeking from behind their doorways were caught completely off guard when Julie stood once again. This time instead of walking off to her room she took the sheet of paper she had been writing on and brought it over to Jien. She towered over his sitting form with a slight scowl on her lips, as if slightly upset to even be talking to him. The other members were bracing for what they felt was going to be an argument or perhaps even a fight.
It was only when Jien finished his current page that he looked up from his book, meeting Julie's heated gaze with a cool one of his own. "Can I help you?" The words were a mix of calm and curious, a certain confidence in his gaze. The answer left everyone but Jien himself stunned. She pulled up a chair and started asking a variety of questions on the notes she had taken, trying to relate it to what little formal education she had and her own life experience.
Jien simply smiled in response to the variety of questions, pulling all of the related information he could and using his experiences to filter down to what he felt would be most helpful to her. A look of enlightenment seemed to radiate from her eyes after hearing some of his answers, leading her to scrawl down notes wildly in the sheet, crossing out some of her own and writing on the edges when the page was filled with text. It was then that Jien knew just how seriously she was taking this and couldn't help but smile inwardly.