Spurs (Creda)

[Gleam]

The bright smile tattooed into his skin, Cael dropped into the desk beside his newest partner and bent his neck low in an aristocratic half-bow. "Miss, it seems as if you've been assigned the unfortunate task of being my partner." Cael chirped, and whisked the project assignment sheet out upon her desk. "I have most sincere hopes that we both survive the experience."

He leaned back into his chair, crossing his legs at the ankles. "But at least it isn't complicated, just a translation sheet from a randomly-generated language. And Mrs. Juliette was even kind enough to provide an alphabet - presuming there aren't any bizarre, unspoken grammar conventions, such as in English, this shouldn't be much of a problem."

[Creda Shields]

This was going to test her patience.

Ms Juliette had seen it prudent to organise paired homework for the first lesson end. With all the power scouting she had been doing throughout the class, it had been easy to forget that first and foremost, this island was an Academy, not a place where wars could be won overnight. It was for learning and growth, not for power struggles and epic sagas. The reality was rather mundane, despite the fantastical people who inhabited it.

And with school, comes homework. Paired homework. With this boy. Joy.

Tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear, Creda Shields took a look at the sheet, determined to get this over with sooner rather than later. Her gaze briefly flickered to her "partner".

"My hopes are somewhat less drastic than yours." she started, quite seriously. "But if we are supposed to be together for this task, then we must." It's all part of Fate's plan, Creda. Another test, nothing more. "And you're right. It does not seem that difficult to complete this. Why pair us up for it? It doesn't make much sense at all."

There has to be a reason for it.

Studying the sheet further, the tattooed girl realised that if she were to keep up the social conventions and find out more information on the island's inhabitants, she would be forced to...socialise.

"My name is Creda Shields." she briefly introduced herself, eyes not leaving the paper.

[Gleam]

"Well I presume because this isn't a Western-based language at all." Cael said, glancing over the paper. "And I'm seeing lots and lots of little dots over the letters and no spacing breaks, so this probably designates punctuation and breaths through them. Which means this is going to be a pain to decipher."

Cael shrugged helplessly and reattached his smile. "Cael Edan Tadgh. Senior of the island, and student representative. If you have any questions, ask, because I can answer most of them."

[Creda Shields]

"That does seem like it is the case. It's not a language I am familiar with however."Creda muttered, not giving the newly introduced Cael the time of day. Her eyes looked to the second sheet, the alphabet.

"And, as expected, she hasn't told us what language we are meant to be deciphering. This complicates matters although I suspect that was her intention."

She finally looked at her "partner".

"You sound very sure you can answer my questions..."

[Gleam]

"Offhand I'd suspect it's a language no one here would have even the slightest chance of knowing, or language isolates, like Bacque or Taushiro or Lemerig." Cael commented offhand, folding his arms upon the table as he stares down at the first sheet. "So trying to make links with other, more common languages isn't going to work."

He turned to quirk a friendly eyebrow at Creda. "Pretty sure I can." he said, totally confident. "I mean, I'm not a supergenius, so if you ask me the maximum dive depth of an Oahklahoma-class nuclear submarine, I'm probably just going to stare at you. But questions relevant to the island and the Academy, I can handle those."

He taps the paper. "Let's go through and find vowels first. That's always the first thing to work out."

[Creda Shields]

Creda just gave Cael a slightly exasperated stare, then returned her eyes to the paper.

"Yes, taking an extremely obscure language seems to be Miss Juliette's idea of 'fun', I must admit." the raven haired girl agreed with her partner. "And judging by a few of the selections on the language sheets she gave us at the beginning of the class, I would offer a guess at it being one of those towards the bottom."

Fishing in her satchel, Creda brought out a spare copy of the "Tick Which Languages You Know! <3" sheet that their teacher had supplied for them. She didn't know it was possible to apply a heart stamp after a fairly serious title like that.

"And if we search letter by letter, then surely the most common graphic would stand for the letter E? Or would that be considered jumping to conclusions?"

I shall ask him later a few questions about the island. For now, I would prefer to get this task at least half way complete, if only to sate my curiosity.