Max was woken up the following morning by a timid woman, who told him, "Berator Glass wants to see you, sir."
He grumbled a bit and sat up.
"OK."
Five minutes later, he was brought to a room with a table and a few chairs, Shanira sitting in one of them. She looked up and smiled at him.
"Hello Max! Why don't you take a seat?"
He smiled back at her and complied.
"I had you woken up a bit early today because I was informed that you, my young friend, never learned to read and write. What did they even teach in schools?"
Max shifted. "They said we would get to writing next year. I know how to read, though."
She nodded solemnly. "I want to teach you as much as possible in the short time we have. I was thinking we could asses the skills you have now by reading a short story, is that all right with you Max?"
He nodded and she pushed a thin book towards him. Freunde und der Bär. The Friends and the Bear.
He flipped open them first page and saw a picture of two people walking in the woods, and he began to read.
"Zwei Freunde gehen durch einen Wald." Two friends are walking through the forest.
He turned the page. The same two people were were on it, but a bear had appeared from far away. "Auf einmal kommt ein Bär." Suddenly, a bear appeared.
On the page beside it, he saw one of the friends hiding in a tree, looking very scared, and he read again. "Der erste fürchtet sich sehr, laucht weg und steigt auf einen Baum." The first friend was very frightened, so he ran off and climbed a tree.
Max glanced up briefly to see Glass's face was calm and smiling.
He pressed on.
Next, he saw a picture of the second friend lying underneath the tree, and he feared he was dead, eyes going wide. Still, he read on.
"Der zweite kann der Bären nicht allein töten. Er legt sich schnell wie tot auf die Erde, denn man hat ihm gesagt, daß ein Bär keinen toten Menschen frißt." The second friend could not kill them bear by himself. So he quickly lay on the ground as if he were dead, because he had been told that a bear would not eat dead people.
Max breathed a sigh of relief that the man was not actually dead and kept reading on the next page, depicting the bear smelling the man lying down.
"Wie er nun wie tot auf der Erde liegt, kommt der Bär. Er kommt näher bliebt über dem Körper des Mannes stehen fülht mit seiner Zunge den Kopf des Mannes, fülht seine Nase und endlich auch seine Ohren. Aber der Mann leigt wie tot auf der Erde, und der Bär geht weiter." As he was lying there on the ground, playing dead, the bear came along. He came closer, and stood still, and with his tongue, checked out the man's head, his nose, and even his ears. But the man lay on the ground as if dead, and the bear walked away.
Max knew there were only a few pages left, so he eagerly pressed on, curious as to what would happen to the two friends.
"Nach einigen Minuten kommt der erste der Freunde vom Baum herab und sagt zu dem zweiten: 'Der Bär hat dir etwas ins Ohr gesagt. Was hat dir er gesagt, Leiber Freund?'" After a few minutes the first friend came down from the tree and said to the second friend, "The bear said something in your ear. What did he say, dear friend?"
Max quickly turned the page.
"Deiser Bär war ein kluges Teir. Er hat mir ins Ohr gesagt: 'Der Freund sitzt dort auf dem Baum läßt dich ganz allein mit einem wilden Tier. Suche dir einen besseren Fruend!'" The bear was a clever animal. He said to me in my ear, "Your friend sits there in the tree and leaves you alone with a wild animal. Find yourself a better friend!"
Max chuckled a bit. "That bear was right!"
Shanira shifted in her seat. "You are great at reading Max! If that's what they are teaching in school, then I see no problem with it. You did fantastically."
Max beamed. "Did you want anything else, Frau Glass?"
She laughed softly. "Only for you to go eat breakfast, young man. You have your class with Majestät Croman soon, yes?" She snapped her fingers. "Speaking of which, he told me you are also in possession of Fire! That's incredible! You will be very powerful one day Max, if you just keep on practicing."
Max blushed. "Danke schön." Thank you very much.
He left the room smiling.
That was a good day.
So, I'm not going to be all "Sorry for a filler chapter" b/c this was important and I happen to like filler chapters. If you want action, you can stick around. Sean and Sapphire will arrive at the fortress of doom in 3 days story time, giving Shanira juuuust enough time to... well, you'll see.
The Bear story I painstakingly copied from the following link:
http://germanamericanpioneers.org/FreundederBaer.htm
It was Glass's way of being super manipulative, trying to ingrain in Max that the friend in the tree was Sean and the gang. This also would make her and Ty the bear. Your welcome.
Love you guys, next chapter is a look of the outside. Will be posting shortly, since I'm thinking about it.
Enjoy Deutch club, suckers.
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Orbs of Power
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