Language Arts (Ossac, Horik)

[Ossac Naegling & Calypso]

LANGUAGE ARTS

ossac // horik

time & date:: noon, mid-january
weather:: overcast and chilly
previous threads:: long time, no talk

CURRENT IC SEASON - DEVASTATING WINTER

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Two or three times each month, Ossac spent a day in town to gather supplies and such for the next couple weeks. Today was one of these days. He'd hired one of the other shepherds to keep an eye on his flock for the day so that he could get done what needed doing.

Ossac had spent the morning at the market purchasing food, getting items repaired, and replacing things that had gone beyond use. Normally, he'd spend all day at this and visit the mead hall for a hearty dinner after, but today, he had something else in mind for the afternoon. Recently, he'd re-encountered Horik, an old classmate. After expressing an interest in reading, he'd let Ossac borrow his book, which he'd eagerly read. He'd promised to return the book when he'd finished it, so now that he'd finished his shopping, he planned to drop by to bring it back.

His pack was heavy with fresh supplies, so to spare his back, he tied it to the back of Calypso's saddle. After asking around a bit, he was able to find where Horik lived. He hadn't thought to find out where he lived when they met before, but everyone in town knew each other so it wasn't too difficult to find out.

It was hardly worth the fly, but they decided to take to the sky and save the time it would take to walk to the other side of the village. Calypso landed outside a small home that matched the description he'd received of Horik's home. Ossac dismounted and pulled the book he'd borrowed out of one of the saddlebags. "Feel free to wander, girl... but I shouldn't be too long" he told his dragon, giving her a pat on the side.

Ossac approached the door and hesitated before knocking. He hated to arrive unannounced, but somehow he knew Horik wouldn't mind. "Here goes nothing" he mumbled, reaching up his fist and giving the door and thump.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Most of the day thus far had been fairly quiet. Horik was working away at one of his mini-projects that he always kept off to the side, though if he actually ever finished it, who knows. But being inside near the forge fire was definitely a lot better than being outside where the chilly winter winds seemed to be battering the village every now and then. Plus it was a typical overcast day on Berk, not like Horik needed to look outside to see the depressing mood those clouds tended to bring along.

"Come on now... just fit nicely for me.." Horik quietly spoke to himself as he pushed a small spring into place inside a metal box which he had placed on the table. He felt the spring trying to push back against the metal tool he was using, "All you need to do is.. fit right... there." He spoke again as he moved the tool away and looked to the half opened box.

With a sigh of relief, Horik sat himself back in the chair and looked around the shop. The heat from the forge behind him was working at his back, he could feel the difference in temperature from his chest compared to his back at this point. He looked back to the box and gave a smile before giving it a small, but apparently hard pat, because he was not prepared when the spring shot out at him. Covering his eyes, it took a second before he felt what could have been compared to a bee sting, hit his forehead. "Ah by Odins damn beard! Why can't you work with me for once?!" He just about yelled at the box before he sat for a moment, covering his forehead with his hand before he heard a knock at the door from out front.

Getting up from his seat, Horik slipped off the working gloves he had on and pushed them off to the side on his desk before walking to the workshop door. He walked through and then made his way through the smaller portion of the home as he walked to the door, "I've said it once and I'll say it again, if your dragon gets caught up in a net you bought off of me, not only if there no refunds-" He started as he went to open the door, paying more attention to his throbbing forehead at this point as he looked to his hand as he pulled it away from his face, "- There's also no way I can make it any clearer that you must be a com-" As Horik spoke he looked up to the visitor and quickly noticed it was Ossac, "Oh damn. I'm sorry about that Ossac!" He held onto the door and smiled as he looked to the shepherd as his door, "What uh.. What brings you around here?" He asked as he tried to reel from his stupid comments from prior, "And come inside. No point letting the heat out."

Horik motioned for Ossac to walk in, and once he did, Horik shut the door behind him to stop the heat from leaving the home. He quickly turned on his heel and looked to Ossac and smiled as he adjusted one of the leather bracelets on his wrist, "So ya, what brings you around here Ossac?"

[Ossac Naegling & Calypso]

Shortly after giving his little knock at the door, Ossac heard shouting from within. He recognized the voice at Horik's. He'd definitely found the right place, but his response to a knock at the door made him wonder if he should have come at all.

Ossac saw Horik's face change from frustration to surprise as he recognized who was standing on his doorstep. He gave a brief apology and Ossac smiled in response and replied "It's no problem! I just hope I haven't come at a bad time! I happened to be in town today on one of my regular stops and figured that I would pay you a visit while I was nearby."

Horik invited him in and Ossac accepted the offer with a nod and answered the question as he stepped over the threshold "I've come to bring back the book I borrowed from you some time ago" he lifted the book from his side with a flourish as he referenced it. Inside the home, it was even warmer than expected.

"You sure keep it toasty in here" Ossac commented as he slid his warm outer clothing off. He gave a laugh "Hey, I can feel my fingers again!" he looked up to see Horik watching him and twiddling with his bracelets. He asked again what had brought him around. He held out the book for him to take. "Just the book. Figured I'd return it. It was great, by the way. I really appreciate you letting me read it. The story was very good, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!"

He glanced around the inside of the building and let his eyes linger a moment. He noticed hand tools lying around and the forge burning across the room. "I was under the impression that this was your home, I didn't realize it was your... workshop" he looked back to Horik "I'm sorry I caught you while you were busy, I asked around and this was the place everyone told me I'd find you and I just wasn't thinking you'd be at work. I'll head along, then. Wouldn't want to disrupt your progress today." Ossac took half a step toward the door, slightly embarrassed to have dropped in on his work day.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik smiled as he adjusted himself a little bit, watching Ossac curiously as he held out the book for him. "Definitely read that a lot faster than any other individual on this island." His smile slowly turned to a snarky little smirk as he took the book off of Ossacs hands and gave a small nod of the head as a silent 'Thank you'. "And to your earlier inquiry about if it's a bad time or not, it's really not a bad time." He reassured as he walked over to a closed cabinet off to the side of the room and opened it up.

"Hey! You have to keep it warm inside like this. I mean, it's a little more so because the forge is going as well, so it's a little hotter than normal." Horik spoke as he opened up the cabinet doors and looked through the books that lined the shelves. He ran his finger along the spines of the books as he looked for where to place the book, "I'd hope I'd enjoy the story, cost me about a weeks worth of work in the way of a silver bracelet." He muttered loud enough but soon put the book in a spot on the shelf and looked to Ossac with a smile.

He made his way over to Ossac who had started to question the fact about where he lived, and that people had told him it was here. Horik gave a nod of the head as he patted Ossacs back, stopping him from making the steps to the door, "You're just in my workshop is all. Where I actually live, sleep, cook and so on as the daily life goes..." Horik pointed to a doorway off to the side, "That would be in that part of the building.. So yes, I do live here. But this in particular is my work room." He looked to Ossac and smiled before he walked over towards the forge and looked over it for a brief moment, "Besides, you already slipped off whatever outer layer of clothing you had on. So aside from staying for a little bit as I'm about to suggest, also staying in this part of my home will be more comfortable. The other end isn't as warm thanks to the lack of a forge fire, but still pretty nice anyways."


Horik took a small stroll around his workshop as he made sure some things were in proper order, or at least presentable. Though he figured Ossac could care less about it, or if he did, he wouldn't be able to tell whats out of place and such when it came to the tools that were laying around here and there. "So whilst you're here. Why don't you stay for a little bit? I'msure we can figure out something to do, talk about the book, or something related to it at least. Could teach you something as well if you wanted." He felt himself babbling a little, so he toned it done and just gave a soft smile, "Speaking of which, when am I supposed to start teaching you Dragonese?"

[Ossac Naegling & Calypso]

Ossac smirked when Horik subtly complimented his quick reading and nodded when he assured him he hadn't made bad timing in his visit. "Excellent! I guess I'm not used to village life like I used to be- out in the fields I'm only really busy in the morning and evening when I have to move the flock. Calypso keeps an eye on them for me most of the day, which is why I have so much time for something like reading" Ossac was truly relieved- would have been embarrassing, he was hoping to make friends not enemies.

He listened as he slid the book back into place. "Oh yeah, I loved it! Definitely worth the price. You'll have to tell me what you think when you get around to reading it yourself!"

Ossac was quiet as Horik explained his living situation. Ossac took another look around, noticing details he hadn't before: what was on the shelves, abandoned projects, and dirty dishes. The place was cluttered, but it a nice way. A way that felt lived-in and productive. Ossac sort of liked it. He looked over as Horik indicated the door that led to where to where he lived. He nodded "Okay, makes sense" he commented absent-mindedly.

What Horik said next seemed like an invitation to say for a while, setting Ossac at ease. He leaned back against a counter behind him, unsure what else to do for the time being. Horik strayed to the other side of the room, putting a few stray things in order.

When Horik formally suggested he stay for a bit Ossac replied quickly (maybe a little too quickly)"I'd love to-" he dropped back to silence when he realized Horik wasn't done speaking. He finished with a vague offer to teach him something. Ossac hoped that he hadn't forgotten about the dragonese... and he hadn't! He broke out into a grin when he mentioned it "Well, only if you can really spare the time..." he tried to be polite but was really bursting at the seams with excitement.

Horik only smiled back, and Ossac took it as a yes. His grin widened and he set his coat on the counter behind him before standing up fully "where do we start?" he asked eagerly.Q1ZGLjNg

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik was impressed at how quickly Ossac seemed to want to get on with learning the dragon language. He knew it wasn't going to be easy teaching a language to someone who didn't have a full concept of the idea, but he hoped that Ossac was able to pick up on at least a few of the basics, hopefully very simple sayings or at least things like how the vowels sounded and so on.

"When do we start? Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any right? You're in town already, you've already made yourself somewhat at home.. Oh you said where do we start." He started on, making it seem like he had actually misheard what the other male had said, but a grin soon pulled at the corner of his lips, clearly showing that he had just been messing around with Ossac with his little 'accidental' sentence. Horik gave a small wave of the hand and looked around the room, "I'm not particularly sure on how much dragonesse you actually know, so getting some sort of a baring on that would be a good start no?"

The dirty blonde male had made his way across the room, passing by Ossac as he moved from one end to the other, "With that being said, I have books around here that can help to get us started regardless of the fact if you know much or not." Horik had stopped himself at the doorway to the workshop again, having the door swung open at this point with him standing in the doorway, leaned up with his back against the frame of the door. He wanted to get a response out of Ossac before he decided to ramble on about anything else, so he took a moment to let the other speak, only really needing basic information from him.

Soon Ossac spoke, and what he could gather, the shepherd knew very little about how to speak the language. It seemed like Horik had a lot of work ahead of him, but was it really like Horik to deny a challenge set before him? Nah, not at all. Plus in the process he might actually be able to befriend Ossac a little more, or at least more so than how close they were in the dragon academy. So that bar was set very low to put bluntly.

"Well it would seem that we have a lot, and I do mean a lot of work ahead of us. But nothing that time and a little bit of patience can't accomplish right?" Horik gave a toothy smirk before he moved from the doorway and into the workshop, feeling the heat of the forge hit his body again as he walked over to one of the cabinets where he kept his collection of books, "So starting from... practically the start.." He spoke loud enough for Ossac to hear him, but it was really just thinking aloud for him as he fingered the spines of the books and he searched through them, "Alright this should be a good start then."


The tinker-man took a thin, blue covered book from the casing and shut the doors to the cabinet before walking over to a table nearby. He motioned for Ossac to head over towards him and took a seat whilst he did so, "This book will help us with a guideline of sorts. This book is moreso things about how to enunciate each of the letters you would find in the dragonese language, different sounds and pitches.. So on and so forth really." He paused for a moment as he took the spine of the book and pressed it lightly against the wooden desk surface before slowly pulling the covers apart from each other, the parchment paper pages gave a small crinkling sound as they rubbed against one another and settled down again, "I like to teach by.. letting other people do the work, obviously. So.." He said as he turned the book so it would be right-side up for Oss and pushed it across the smoothed wooden surface to the Shepard, "I want you to start reading those pages aloud to me, and don't worry about screwing up how things sound, I'll correct you on them. But this will help get our toes in the water that is the dragons language."

[Ossac Naegling & Calypso]

Ossac chuckled when Horik teased him, pretending for a moment he'd misheard what he'd said. He rolled his eyes at Horik's grin. So dramatic.

Horik suggested they start by getting an idea of his skill level.

"Well, I suppose I know a few things. All Berkites do. The usual things: greetings and such. That's about it though. The language is complex, or at least it seems to be." he replied. Horik walked across the room as he spoke, heading toward the bookshelf. He offered the help of some of the books in the little education.

It was clear from the response Ossac got that he had quite a bit of learning to do, but that didn't necessarily disappoint him. The opportunity to see more of Horik interested him for sure. Ossac nodded as Horik offered a little encouragement to him.

"Yeah, I'm hoping I'll be able to do it. Patience shouldn't be a problem, I'm more than willing to put in the time!"

Ossac watched intently as the other man glanced over his collection of books, looking for something specific. After a few seconds, he plucked one off the shelf and made his way back over to him, sitting close by. He explained what the book contained and rambled a little about its contents before setting it down on a table and opening to the first page. When Horik turned the book toward him, Ossac slid his hand across the table and turned it toward him, thumbing through a couple of the pages as Horik spoke. He instructed him to start reading from the beginning, so Ossac flipped back to the first page. He'd been told he didn't need to worry about messing up pronunciations, but he sort of was, not wanting to embarrass himself.

He cleared his throat and gave the first set of letters a look. He could feel Horik watching him, which made him nervous, despite his usually confident attitude. Luckily, he knew the first few.

"This first one I know- 'hello' and the second too- 'goodbye'" He scanned down the rest of the list. "I think I know a few of these...maybe?" He started the third phrase, unsure of the pronunciation. The translation said "I am a friend." "Um, okay. 'We are no friend' or...um... 'We am a friend'? Is that close?" he asked, looking up at Horik with a questioning look. He hoped his accent wasn't too terrible.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

Horik watched with avid curiosity, he had never taken to teaching someone the dragonese language. So with that put he was more than happy to teach Ossac about it, even more so he was happy to see how he was at teaching. Sure he had a little viking rascal off to the side that he taught a thing or two, but that boy had long rushed off to do whatever he was doing now. So naturally Horik moved onto the next thing that rushed through his doors.

The dirty blonde male sat by and listened to Ossac speak out in the dragon tongue, the pronunciation was a little off here or there and so were the words. But Horik expected this much, he figured with a little work... Okay maybe quite a bit of work he could whip Ossac into fine working shape in regards to the mastery of the dragon tongue. But to give Ossac the benefit of the doubt, he did seem to know enough to get himself off the ground.

"I am a friend." Horik corrected, repeating himself again and pointing out what Ossac had said as opposed to what he was now saying, "You weren't very far off, just sounded more like a wee child trying to speak like an adult." The inventor mused but the teasing tone was clear in his words so he didn't have a worry about Ossac getting discouraged or anything. He did know that the shepherd was a little more timid compared to himself, but then again, Horik was a lot to take in if you weren't ready for him.

"Dragonese is not a difficult thing to pick up really. So long as you pay attention to how you word yourself then it's actually smooth sailing." Horik started off before he pointed to another line for Ossac to speak aloud, but he cut himself in just before hand, "I still remember the feelings when I was learning this stuff and slowly realized what Argent was saying to me. Such a lil' shit he is, but he's a lovable one that's for sure." He snickered to himself and waved his hand for Ossac to continue on.


There were line here and there that Ossac clearly messed up on, most were done with fair accuracy but one or two did seem to completely tongue-tie the Shepherd. Horik was impressed with it but he wasn't sure whether he was impressed because Ossac was doing well with the language thus far, or because he had no other teaching experience to compare to. He decided to go with the first.


"Have to say I'm a little surprised at the decency of your speech." Horik crossed his arms and leaned against the table and looked to Ossac and gave a sly little smirk along with his body language, "Hope that statement doesn't offend you."