The Chained Watcher

Poor Penmanship

~~~

Grian and Scar are wandering through the forest, not really chatting but also not too bothered by it. Scar is practicing using telekinesis to hold a pebble above his palm while walking, resulting in very sporadic success and very frequent tree faceplants. Pretty amusing, at least for Grian.

While steering Scar away from another tree, Grian catches an annoyed complaint on the wind. "Oh come on! I swear that was perfect!"

He motions to Scar to be quiet, then quiets his steps, creeping closer in a fluid, soundless way.

There, sitting on a vaguely flat rock, is a vaguely young mage. He can tell because of the way the magic of the world interacts with them, giving them strength.

The mage is currently hunched over a rough roll of vellum, an inkwell by their side, scratching out something they wrote angrily. "Oh whatever. That glyph's dumb anyway."

When they show no signs of noticing him or Scar behind them, Grian sneaks closer, motioning to Scar to stay put. Should he just be walking away? Yes. But he's curious. He wants to see what they're doing.

Standing behind them, he peers over their shoulder to see what they're doing.

The mage is writing in Galactic. Not skillfully, mind you, but it's still Galactic. The words on the page, though most are scratched out, carry a hint of magic. Most recently, the word that had raised their ire was 'soul-light'. At least it makes sense now why it didn't work.

He stands behind them as they start slowly drawing the next word. And three letters in, he already has no clue what they're trying to write. Xenuc? What's Xenuc? It doesn't have the symbol denoting a name, so what are they trying to spell?

Glancing back up the page, he spots another spot with one of the mystery letters. Axd. Or rather, 'and'. The boy's Ns look like Xs. Another word. Cee. Or rather, see. The Ss are literally Cs.

So what's the word? Nenus? Unless... No, don't tell him that chicken scratch is supposed to say 'Nexus'?!

Unable to help himself, Grian remarks, "Your calligraphy is atrocious."

They jolt, try to hide their paper, and look back at him with wide eyes. His wings are hidden by a mottled brown cloak, but there's no changing his eyes. This makes them very, very afraid. God-touched do not treat mages kindly, accusing them of defiling the magic of the gods.

"G-God-touched! F-Forgive me for not noticing your presence-"

"Nah, you're fine, kid. I was deliberately quiet anyway."

"I-I swear I wasn't doing anything, I-I was just..." He can see them grasping for an excuse. "Practicing my scribe skills! For m-making copies of manuscripts for the church!"

"Seriously, you're fine. I'm almost certainly even less enamored by this place's 'gods' than you are."

Scar is watching on, amused, and hops up beside them, stealing the vellum to read while they're distracted by him. He squints confusedly, leaning in close... "...Xenuc? Grian, am I reading things wrong again? That's not a word."

Laughing, Grian crosses his arms on top of Scar's head, looking down at the vellum with him while the young mage stares on, mortified. "No it's most certainly not. I could be wrong, but I think they were trying for 'nexus'. It's just... Their Xs and Ns are swapped, and they keep putting the dot over the S to make it a C."

The mage snatches their paper back, defending, "I-I'm still learning! I-It's practice!"

He snorts. "Then keep a copy of the alphabet next to you. Seriously, the only reason I know what you were trying to write is because I looked back at your previous attempts at words and found some that were only a single letter off."