Bassist and the Beast

Chapter 31: Illiteracy

"Thy... Thy..."

John paused as he stared at the book he held, Paul looking on from his chair as his gaze swept over the vast amount of books in the library.

"Just tell me. There's no need to be ashamed."

"No. I can do this."

Taking in a breath, John focused on the first line on the book's page that he had opened to.

"Thy... gar... den?"

Once again, he paused.

"Es... is... uuuhhh..."

Silently, Paul stood up from his chair, walking to John's side to stare at the line of text.

"Thy garden is beautiful, Ms. Elizabeth."

"Oh..."

Paul turned his head to look at John, who continued to focus on the sentence.

"Now, try it again."

"Thy garden is... is bluetiful?"

"Beautiful."

"B-Beautiful, Ms.... El... Eliza... Elizabeth."

Paul reached out and ran his hand across Johns fur, feeling just how soft it was.

"There. Now, do it in one go."

John turned to Paul, blink.

"But I got it right already. Is that not enough?"

"If you want to read flawlessly, then you have to practice. Now, read it in one go."

"Um... alright..."

John turned back to the page and focused on the line.

"Thy garden is... b-beautiful, Ms. E-Elizabeth."

Paul patted John on his back.

"There you go. That's a start."

John let out a nervous chuckle looking away from Paul.

"So... Am I done?"

"No. You need to do more than just one sentence."

John sighed heavily as he turned back to the page, looking at the next line.

"How many lines do I need to read?" he asked quietly.

"For the day, at least the entire page."

"W-what?"

Paul shook his head, pointing to the next line on the page.

"If you at least try to read one page per day, then eventually, you can finish one chapter in this book with no mistakes."

John gulped.

"I know, it is just... it has been so long since I read."

"Well, I usually play music in my spare time, but, if you ever get to live a normal live, then you need to know how to read, otherwise... you'll be frustrated."

Humming in response, John turned to Paul.

"How about thou show me how to play the guitar over there then?" He asked, pointing to the old guitar that rested against the cold fireplace.

Glancing over at it, Paul sighed.

"I would like too, but, for the time being, I think that this is more important."

"Alright..."

Reluctantly, John turned back to the page and focused on the next line.

"Whee-"

"Why."

"Why t-thank thou, Fred... F-Frederick?"

"That's right."

Paul smiled, bringing his hand up to feel the fur on top of John's head.

"You see? Much smoother this time. Now, next one."

"Frederick... placked his-"

"Placed."

"Oh... placed his hand on the... glass window..."

John breathed in, pausing.

"Frederick placed his hand on the glass window."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"There you go," Paul said as he closed the book, "now that wasn't too hard, now was it?"

"It was easier than I thought it would be," John said in amazement, watching as Paul placed it on the floor beside his chair.

"Now..." John started, pausing, "I... I guess I should expect it to be harder to learn how to play the guitar than that?"

Paul sighed, leaning back.

"Probably, seeing how there's no music sheet around here."

"Why would I need to have those?"

The bassist blinked.

"Uh... they show the music that you have to play, and you can create your own song on the same way. You can't just play it without any direction, if you want to become a professional guitar player anyway."

Slowly, Paul turned his head to stare at the seemingly infinite amount of books on the many bookshelves that decorated both the first and second floor of the library.

"I'm sure that there's a music book somewhere."

John raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. And uh, there is something that I hast been wanting to ask thou."

"What?" Paul asked, turning back to John.

"What is this... dialect that thou has been speaking in?"

It took Paul a moment to understand what he was asking.

He chuckled lightly.

"John, just like how the outside world has changed, language has changed overtime too."

"Oh... I apologize, hast thou been able to understand-"

"Don't worry, I can understand you and your friends," Paul said calmly.

"It's just that... people don't use the words Thou, thy, or hast anymore. And art has a different meaning nowadays."

John leaned back in his chair, sighing as he watched Paul stand up and go over to a bookshelf.

"It would be nice if these were organized based on their content... or organized in any way though," Paul stated quietly as he scanned over the first row of books.

John stood up.

"I will help thou in finding a music book, if thou does not mind."