The classroom was set for all of one student... a little girl named Tina. Her name tag was placed on the back of a chair set at a desk which faced the center of the room, opposite a window. In front of the window was a large desk and to the side was a chalkboard, opposite a wall shelf filled with books that could suppliment learning from the earliest school years through to the average high school age.

While Bri would no doubt serve to help teach much of the magical subjects, Sha'uri knew the girl would need more training then just that. So, she had placed these there shortly after Tina's arrival. Having every intention to teach her as much as she could in hopes to prepare her for the versatile living that RhyDin had always offered. Horse handling included as well as how to operate a shuttle craft, though these would be later on. Still, preparations for that had to begin now with the good 'ol fashioned reading, writing and arithmatic.

She moved to Tina's desk and placed the plush puppy there on top of the desk, right next to Tina's name tag in the corner. It was early and Sha'uri had heard the girl stirr in the middle of the night, so she would let her sleep in a bit. She hoped the girl wasn't sneaking out at night and going back to the Inn. She would hope the girl wouldn't go to the Inn at all, but that was something they would need to talk about. Now she would make breakfast..er.. lunch. No, Brunch.

After making an assortment of food for brunch, including strictly veggies for Tina, Sha'uri went to Tina's room and knocked.

"Tina? Rise and shine! There's food in the dining room just waiting for you. You also need to get ready for school. Yes, we will begin today. I will meet you in the dining area."

She moved down to the dining room and filled up her plate to eat and wait for Tina.

Sha'uri was about to say hello to Tina as she stumbled into the dining room, but something told her that Tina was not all there just yet. Something about walking right past her gave her hte clue that Tina just simply didn't see Sha'uri siting there in the dining room waiting on the girl to show up. Was the girl sleep walking?

Giving herself a mental shake, she remained quiet while she watched Tina get her food, eat it.. quietly followed Tina when she left the room to rummage through the other rooms and find paper and pencil... and then wander down the hallways as if she had blinders on. Obviously, Tina was not a morning person. Sha'uri knew they'd have to work on her powers of observation. She was cute, though, and she didn't want to startle the girl.

She gently cleared her throat from some distance behind the girl so as not to startle her. The warm smile was given, the hand extended and the soft voice called to the girl.

"Oh, there you are, Tina. I hope you got enough to eat. I see you have paper and pencil, very good. Class room is this way, hun."

She held out her hand for the girl to take, then walked her to the classroom to show Tina the room, her desk and the plushy puppy she was giving the girl.


"Have you ever been to school, Tina?"

"Yes you will! You will have class five days a week. They will last from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon. You'll get to have a couple of breaks and some time at lunch to play."

She smiled brightly to the girl, relieved to hear her speach clear, glad to see her enthusiasm and delighted to watch her take to the plush puppy. She'd have to tell Ty it was the one she'd won from him.

"But you must take care of that puppy. He's your learning buddy, okay? That means you have to name him and make sure you share what you know with him."

She leaned closer and made to cover the puppie's ears. Then she whispered,
"He needs extra help to learn because he's only a dog. So, I'm counting on you to help him through by explaining to him the things you are learning. That way, he hears it at least twice, which will really help him. Okay?"

She winked then moved over to a corner where there were books appropriate for her to learn how to read from and toys used in learning processes.

"okay, you're first lesson will be for you to look over the books on the bottom shelf, pick out a book you'd like me to read to you and then tell me what was so special about the book that made you want to choose it. Okay?"

"Ohhh... yes, this is a good one. It's called Cinderella and it 's about a girl, a very poorly treated girl, who.... well, you'll see."

A wink was given as she took the book and moved to the front of the desk, leaning up against it to make herself comfortable. As she waited for Tina to make herself comfortable, she gazed down at the book and fell silent as her memories... her mother's memories came to her with an unusual clarity.

It was of the day D'Shara met Briari. She was bruised with her clothes torn, having been beaten during a fight involving.... Draconians. At the time D'Shara didn't know the one who had stepped forward in the middle of battle to save her from certain death and transported her from her world into the town of RhyDin. She wandered the streets for hours until she was outside of town and found herself in front of a mansion and there was a party inside it. D'Shara was hungry and she went invisible to crash the party only with the intention of taking some food. She had no money. She had nothing and no one to turn to in this strange place called RhyDin. It was the master of the house that saw through her spell and approached her, healed her, changed her clothes and cleaned her all with the gentle touch and warmth of his magic. The two danced and it was magic between them, literally lifting them up spinning into the air for the whole party to see them. It was the day D'Shara fell in love with Briarius, though it really took some time for the two to figure it all out.

Sha'uri was pulled from the heartfelt reverie by the sense of an intent stare of enthusiasm from the young one. She chuckled and opened the book.

"Okay, I'm gonna ask that you don't interrupt. You won't need to repeat anything to Little Puppy because he just loves stories. So, okay, I hope you enjoy it. Now..." she opened the book and began to read.

"Once upon a time..."


And she read through the story of Cinderella with an animated presentation, changing her voice for the different characters, using facial expressions and body gestures to enhance the telling of a poorly treated girl who was found to be The Princess of a Prince's dreams and that no matter how hard someone tried to stop it, Love would win anyway. She used cantrips to add sounds and tinkling lights were it was appropriate to the story, just for animated effect.

"... and he swept her up in his arms and kissed her, and took her away from the cruel heartless step mother. They were married soon after and they lived happily ever after. The End."

She closed the book slowly.

In a way, she hated the ending knowing that life and love were never that easy. It certainly hadn't been for her mother and Bri and it certainly never had been at all for herself with anyone. She had to admit that her mother and Bri had to have been the closest anyone she's ever know had come to the story book version of love. Still, in the end, it was torn apart ... she was glad that she couldn't remember all the reasons for this. The memories had been so painful, Sha'uri had hidden them even from herself, though she couldn't erase the pain. Still for all the pain, that memory of their love served to heal and she smiled remembering once again that day they met in Castle Ravensheart. It gave her hope.

She glanced up at Tina.

"What did you like most about the story?"

She smiled gently.Of course she'd seen the tears, but she wasn't going to point them out and make her feel self conscious about it.

"I liked that part, too. I'm a sucker for a good love story."

She winked and handed the book back to Tina.

"Why don't you go put this away and we can begin on other studies, like teaching you to read. It'll take time, but once you get the hang of it, you'll find learning other things to be much easier. Then maybe you can read me some stories."

Sha'uri walked over to the shelf and picked up a book, *Learning is Magic*, and set it on Tina's desk.

"This book will help you learn, but you must practice. And it will take time. Now,"

she opened the book and it seemed to twinkle with a few sparkling lights and sounds like tinkling bells.

"Each one of these symbols first has a name and then has a sound it uses in words. When you put them together in different ways, you create words. This book will show you the symbols and you will hear their sounds when you touch the symbols. Actually, if you touch the little crown here at the beginning, it will play a song that tells you the name of the symbols and they will light up as they say the name of each symbol. Then if you touch the symbol will let you hear the sound they make in a word. Today, you work on the sounds and putting the sounds with the name of the symbols. We'll see how far you can get with this and then go from there. If you get tired of it, we'll find something else to learn about. I don't want you bored and there are a trillion gazillion different things to learn. Learning shouldn't be boring. So... you tell me What you want t learn and we'll work on it as best we can."

She smiled and waited to see her start using the book before she would move to her desk to sit and prepare other lessons.

"I'll be over here if you need me."

And thus, school began...

That little giggle was so precious, she snickered at Tina's reaction to the book mostly because she was tryin not to giggle herself. She pretended to be busy with things at her desk when she was really peeking at Tina. The girl was bright, no doubt about it and it was confirmed when she brought Sha'uri the sentence. She mused over the wisdom it took to figure out what she's done with what little she knew. She smiled widely with excitement and held out her arms.

"YOu did it! Yes that's it. Well, a little mispelled, but we'll go over those things later. But you got the idea. Very good, Tina. I'm so proud of you... Very proud. Hugs, hun. YOu did good!"

"But of course you can. One should never stop. Anyway, nothing wrong with taking a break though. I don't know about you but... um... I gotta.. ya know, use the bathroom. We'll meet outside in the back. A walk sounds good. Maybe we can find some things to bring back and learn about. I'll grab a couple of jars."

She got up and paused at the doorway.

"Maybe you can tell me more about you along the way."


She nodded and went to prepare for the walk and to meet Tina outside by the back door.

Two canning jars she found in the kitchen. She took a knife and stabbed the lids, creating small holes that would allow air to pass through but not big enough to allow most bugs to escape. She grabbed a third jar and lid just incase a holeless one would be handy. Then she went outside to sit near the back door and wait for Tina.

As she was waiting, she saw Bri and the aide outside and waved to the two. The aide was smiling and giggling. Sha'uri had to snicker over that. The aide was so bluntly infatuated it was a stark contrast to the Head Master's expression. She hoped Bri wasn't going to be a stick in the mud about it, knowing what a stubborn creature he could be.

And while it still bothered her to think about it, she knew he needed to get over her mother and move on with his life. She just wasn't sure how to help him do that. Perhaps she just shouldn't do anything.... except love him for the friend he was, for the family he is.

She handed Tina one of the jars with holes in it and explained the purpose.

"That's for carrying bugs. We might collect some and study them for a while so you can learn about them."

They started to walk towards the archery fielsds.

"We'll go to the fields where we can find some things to collect. As for things about you, Tell me about you. What's your favorite color? Favorite food? Are you allergice to anything? Where are you from? How and when did you become an orphan? Is there no family that might claim you? No aunts or uncles, cousins? Grandparents? I know those are probably some hard questions, but... I may really need to know the answers some day. And it might be extremely important."

"Oh hun, come here." said gently soothed as she put down her jar and came to hold Tina in her arms, sitting right there on the ground without a care.

"Shh.. it's okay. You're not there now. You're here with me. It's safe, Tina.. you're safe."

She stroked Tina's hair and held her until the sobs subsided before she started talking in soft soothing tones, changing the subject slightly to give Tina a chance to calm down and relax so she could talk again.

"I'm sorry. I know things in a past can be difficult to talk about. But it's important that I know as much about you as I can if I am to take care of you. And, sometimes it just helps to talk about them with someone you can trust. I hope you can trust me for I did not take you in as my ward on a whim. You needed someone and I am availiable and capable of raising a child."

She smiled gently, taking the opportunity to tell Tina a little bit about herself.

"I've got two sons who are all grown up. Alexander was my first born and do you know you've both got about the same color hair and eyes? It's true, Alex has a deep chestnut red hair and green eyes just like his father had. Alex likes to tinker with inventions, just like a gnome. He's very intelligent. Bryce, my last child, has hair and eyes like mine, but he looks so much like his father, same stance height and weight. He's the agile strong one."

She was quiet for a moment.

"I've never had a daughter, though."

"And that is something to think about."

She was thoughtful a moment while she lightly rubbed the girl's arms.

"It is something to think about. I certainly wouldn't mind having you as a daughter. However, it could be hard to make happen. Maybe one day I will adopt you, provided no one else can lay claim to you. That's the one thing that would make it hard to happen."

She was quiet again, thinking ... contemplating.

"Tina, when they left you at the orphanage, did anything else get left with you? Like.. a necklace or ring or note or anything that you know of?"

Master? Gambling debts? That was no orphanage. She would'n't be surprised to hear the Master even sold some of the children. Slavery irked her to no end. It stirred her blood almost ot a boiling point it angered her so much to hear. She had to take a moment to calm down, breathe... just breathe... and finally a deep cleansing breath.

"Can you remember the Master's name? or which orphanage? or town?"

"So you hid yourself in the crowd and got away."

She finished with the obvious scenario and then was quiet for several moments.

"Tina, this really complicates things. If you were supposed to be sold, then he's probably looking for you. I don't think it's a good idea that you go to the Inn, or any other place in RhyDin, without having someone with you that you can trust protect you or that you know I call friend like Wyheree or Icer. I'm sure they would extend protection to you. Promise me you'll heed my word?"

Oportunities were nonexistent, barring Sha'uri to obtain knowledge of Tina's walk in the state of mind known as sleep walking. Her gaze was solid beneath furrowed brows.

"Not if I get to him first. Still, I don't want to scare you but it is possible he could find you. Every time you go out in RhyDin, especially by yourself, you put yourself in a position that might allow him to find you easier. You need to understand this. You are much safer if you are with someone. Safer if you are here."

She hugged Tina close and rocked her ever so slightly.

"I don't anyting to happen to you. I'll try to find this guy and deal with the sitatuion, though that will take time. Maybe he's not looking and maybe he doesn't care if he sees you again or not. It is also possible that I worry for nothing. Still, you should always try to understand what possibilities there are likely to be for whatever situation there is. It'll help you be prepared to deal with them."

She grinned with a mischevious glint.

"And I know we have enough bugs in the jars and that if we stay here too much longer, we are gonna miss out on Angel food cake with strawberries and whipcream. Race you back to the kitchen! Last one there has to feed the bugs!"

Bubbling laughter spilled from her throat as she watched the girl run for the kitchen. She put the jars in a pack and slipped her arms through the straps and then waited until the girl was almost to the kitchen before she hiked up her dress and made a run for it. Her form appeared as a blur of motion while she came up behind the girl. Of course, she'd let Tina win. And as the girl turned to look for Sha'uri it was as if this blurring motion grew and then suddenly Sha'uri just appeared right there behind her. She picked Tina up and set her on her shoulders laughing and dancing round in circles.

"You win! I get to feed bugs but you get to serve the cake!"

She set her down to the ground and brought a footstool to the sink.

"Okay, now wash your hands and I'll get the stuff out so you can put it on plates."

She washed her hands quickly before she pulled the spongy white cake closer for Tina to serve. It was already cut into slices. Plates were gotten and then the cut strawberries in a sugary sauce and the whipcream were placed near Tina for her to serve up.


While Tina did this, Sha'uri dealt with the bugs, getting dirt and bits of crumbs for the ants in the sealed jar and grass with some other bugs for the praying mantis. She set those on the table to view. Sabre must've thought that was her call to come and be nosey, for the cat jumped up on the table to inspect the new *pets* that were invading her house.

"Sabre! Bad kitty!"

The grey, brown and black stripped tiger cat mewed and purred, jumpng down to wrap herself round Sha'uri's legs. She cooed and soothed as if speaking to a baby.

"Oh, we're going to be nice today, hm? You little thing from hell, it's okay. Be nice... goood girl. Say hello to Tina and be nice about it or I'll revoke your fish for a week."


Oddly enough that cat seemed to comply.

Sabre lifted her nose, sniffing Tina's fingers with a lick of her course sandpaper tongue to steel the remnants of excessive whip cream. Yes, Sabre was a real thief. She mewed sweetly, walking round to rub against the girls legs, a few steps taken onward only to circle an about face swiftly to come back again as if changing her mind on the direction. She just wanted more of that cream.

"Oh yeah, you've got a friend there. I guess she likes whipcream."

Sha'uri laughed and brought the two plates, lathered with whipcream, to the table for the two of them, which had Sabre following on Sha'uri's legs as if threatening to trip her.

"Not for you Sabre. Why don't you go find Snowflake? Harass her for a while. Go on, get."


Sabre pulled her ears back, shifting to look at Sha'Uri as if she were mad. Then darted off with a hiss only to pause by the door purring and rubbing against the frame. Sha'uri just laughed and sat down to eat her whipcream with a little cake and strawberry... just the way she liked it, lots of whipcream!

"She's a funny little cat. Unpredictable sometimes, definitely not like other cats. You have to watch her. But if she gets nasty simply shove her away but good and she will go. She can get rough sometimes if you play with her. I know she's bitten me a couple of times, even drew blood because she was so quick to strike. But that is par for the course. She is, after all, a predator with instincts. Gotta respect 'em. Anyway, Have you met Snowflake yet? It's the white cat, like a fluffy ball of cotton. Long haired, too. She's Briari's cat."

Her face beamed with smiles watching Tina eat that angelfood cake.
Finishing her own bite quickly, she got up and fixed another plate of that cake.

"That is very thoughtful of you, Tina. When we are done eating we'll take one to his office. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. In fact, we could take him some lunch. Some for the aide, too. We should probably each Lunch."

Especially before Bri comes in and chews me out for letting her eat desert first... is what she was thinking as she got up and fixed a few sandwiches, three chicken ones - for her, Bri and the aide- and a veggie one for Tina. Eh well, life's short, eat desert first.

She set the two sandwiches and two cakes, complete with strawberries and whip cream, onto a tray and included some raspberry iced tea. Then she sat down and ate her food just enjoying this first day of school. She watched Tina to see how well she was hanging in there, watching to see if a nap time was in order for her. She was thinking she could use one herself.

"I'm sure he will, hun. Come on, let's go take it to him."

Casting a levitate spell, the tray floated beside her. She took Tina's hand and walked her to the office, holding the tray with her other hand. The aide was there at her desk and gave Sha'uri a strange smile while eyeing that tray. The door to Briari's office was slightly ajar.

"Hi Melody....er, Mistress Hearthsglen. We brought you and Bri some lunch .. I mean the Headmaster. It was Tina's idea. And I give up on formalities. Bri will just have to shoot me later."

She winked at Melody and turned to Tina.

"Tina, why don't you take the tray and put it on her desk. She'll take care of it from there. Careful, though, it is floating and will move very easily. Just gently, slowly pull it over to her desk and then pull it down to the table top. It'll stay there by itself. And then I know a few sheep just waiting to be counted. Wanna help me with that then?"

:: Smiling gleefully she lightly pulls the tray along to Master Briarius's office feeling very good about making the suggestion..when she reaches the door she lightly knocks and when she hears the words come in she carefully opens the door and bringing the tray along she goes over to his desk::

Master Briarius sir...we umm...brought you some lunch..if thats ok?

:: smiling she sets the tray down and waits to see if he likes it or not::

The Headmaster looks up from his paperwork and smiles at the little girl.

"Mistress Storms, how very thoughtful."

He takes a bit of the food and eats it.

"...and very well prepared. You are a joy and ray of sunshine in this old elf's life."

Meanwhile, Melody smiles a bit, but seems a bit morose.

"He doesn't even notice me. All he ever does is paperwork and study from his books. I don't know what happened to him, but he seems to have lost any connection to humanity."

She sighed gently and moved back to whisper to Melody agian.

"It's a long story but lets just say he's still getting over a lost love, A very deep love ... and other things. I'll leave it at that for it is up to him to speak further of it if he wishes. It would be wise not to push him too much. He didn't lose humanity, Melody. Trust me on that one. He's just .. hurt and well..needs some time and understanding and a lot of love his way. He needs loving friends in his life right now, not a lover. He'll come round to love deeper again when he's ready. I'm sure of it, though only time will tell who that will be with."

Grins,
"Now, you really should go in there and claim your food before he eats it all up. Trust me, when that elf gets hungry he can pack it away. It's just hard to tell when that will happen. So... shew! Move it! or lose it!"

She laughed and gently nudged Melody in towards Bri's office, yes, moving her in there as she once again paused at the door, peering inside with a smile in time to see the precious hug. She could see how Tina felt about Bri. She knew she'd have to have a private chat with him, soon.

Picking up Tina, she yawned.
"Well, if you'll excuse us, we've some sheep to count."

And the two moved out of the room and up to bed to count those sheep.

"Bingo!"