Sound It Out

Writers: AL, Chelle
Date Posted: 11th February 2013

Characters: Irabel, Veerona
Description: Irabel helps Veerona as she tries to learn how to read.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 12, day 9 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentioned: Jylanya

Her locket
was put up somewhere so she didn't break it which was
probably a good
thing. As it was the girl child was coloring furiously with the crayons she
had
gotten and the pictures weren't all that great. Still, she seemed to
be happy with them as she
continued while sitting at a small table in the
lesson room.

"Hey Vee." Irabel plopped in a chair next to the child and
craned her
neck to get a better look at the drawings. "Very nice. Been
coloring long?"

"Ummm maybe..." Being young, she didn't yet have a
concrete sense of
time. With Irabel's appearance, though, she brought her
head up and stopped coloring. The
dolphineer now had her attention,
drawings forgotten. "What are you doing, Bel?"

"Just came by to see how
you were doing and was wondering if you had any
thought as to what you wanted
to put into your locket yet." Irabel
reached out to turn one of the drawings
toward her and get a better
look. "Very nice."

"Ohhhh ummmm nope not
really. See I've been doing my harper lessons
and now I'm learning my letters
and words." Reading was hard stuff and
Veerona was trying very hard to
figure it out. She looked away, hoping Irabel
wasn't upset at her for
forgetting about the present.

"That's all right, no rush." Irabel slid
the drawing back over to the
little girl. "Need any help with your
reading?"

"Well....what's this word?" She pointed to it as she tried to
sound it out
quietly with her lips but wasn't really getting
anywhere.

Irabel leaned forward and covered up all but the very first
letter of
the world. "Take it one step at a time. What does that letter
say?"

"Mmmmm" She made the sound for M, thinking of being
hungry.

"Good, now the next?" Irabel slid her finger over just a little,
just
enough to uncover the next letter and let Veerona look at
it.

"EEEEEeeeeee...." she squealed, thinking that one was easy. It was
when
you tried to put it all together that there were
issues.

Irabel nodded. "That's right, when you have two 'e's together,
they say their name.
All right, next" And the next letter popped up from
beneath Irabel's slowly moving finger.

"Ummm......teee," she said,
hoping it was right. Sometimes it said 'tuh'
though and she didn't know
which this was. It was all so hard.

"That's the name of the letter. Very
close." Irabel tapped the word
and covered up everything except the T. "Try
one more time, you can do
it."

"But it can say tee sometimes right
though? Like in that stuff you drink?"
She didn't drink it. She thought it
tasted like seawater, but Lany did
sometimes.

"No, not by itself it
can't. Only when it's combined with certain
letters." It was hard to read,
especially since the rules had a lot of
exceptions but Irabel was fairly
certain this one didn't. "Like ea and
ee, they have to come after it for it
to say 'T'."

"Hmmm..okay. So this is a 'tuh' then?" Trying to figure it
out in her
brain, she hoped it didn't get muddled. Veerona looked again at
the word on the
page.

"Very good. Next!" The finger zipped to the
side a little to reveal
the next letter and amusement spread over Irabel's
face. "This is kind
of fun."

"Sometimes. It's good when I get it
right. Sometimes I get a prize from
teacher." Her eyes followed the finger
and her mouth moved for a bit. "Well those
letters say eeeennnggg. I
know."

"Hey, good job. Put it all together and you get what?" Irabel
was
enjoying the time with the little girl. There was just something
about
Veerona that she found irresistible.

Her mouth moved as she made
the sounds over and over again silently
inside her head. And then it clicked.
Does it say mee-teeng?" Watching
Irabel, it was clear she craved reassurance,
needing to know she was doing
it right.

"Excellent job, Vee. Next
thing you know, you'll be reading stories to
me." Irabel grinned and reached
down to flick the little girl's nose.
"I have to run, but I'll see you
later. You let me know if you come to
a decision on that
locket."

"Okay!" she called out after the trailing dolphineer. In some
part of Veerona's
mind, Irabel reminded her of her mother-who had also
been a female dolphineer
even though she now had Jylanya to mother
her.

Last updated on the March 7th 2013

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