Chapter 85: Day 84

Day 84,

The tapping was still going when I woke up this morning.  Or maybe the sprite could tell I was going to wake up and started again.

 

Back into the familiar routine of riding into the Village with Cass’s family on market day.  This time I knew they were getting close on the road because the tapping stopped before I heard the cart.

Knowing that the rainy season will be on us before long, and with it my duties as a teacher, Cass and I finally caved and went to Pat for advice on teaching small children.  Having met them both now, I assume that it was Pat rather than Theo who took on that particular role during their joint stint as interim archivists.  And besides, if anyone has experience dealing with people much younger than themselves it’s the Village elder.

Pat, as ever, was happy to oblige.  Most of the advice seemed common-sense enough, but he brought up some points I hadn’t thought of for keeping both the younger and older children engaged at the same time (I’d likely be dealing with mixed classes covering a roughly five year range of ages) and had some specific book suggestions.  And then there was the matter of tablets.  

Apparently most of writing the teaching and practice is done on erasable wax tablets to save on paper.  When I asked why I hadn’t seen any in the archive, Pat told us that the wax on most of the tablets was getting dried out and brittle and so had been sent off to get fresh coats of wax shortly before I arrived.  The beekeeper/wax-maker lives in the farther outskirts and will probably be bringing them back sometime after the equinox, just in time for the rainy season to start.

This mention, of course, led to questions about the equinox and its festival.  In brief, there’s a tradition in the morning with villagers dressing as shades that goes until all the shadows disappear at noon, and then the rest of the day is a lot of dancing and games and generally reveling in being outdoors before the rains come in a week or two.  Then in the evening there’s some manner of gathering with ceremonies and speeches and storytelling.

I’d go into more detail but that infernal tapping is making it hard to concentrate.  

Seriously, I think I preferred the jump scares and crabs in strange places.

Only other interesting thing today was after leaving Pat’s I asked Cass why she let me waste all that paper on writing practice when wax tablets were a thing that people had.  She just shrugged and said she figured I knew what I was doing.  Cheeky child.

 

If it’s the nature sprite making the tapping, why am I hearing it now?  I’m spending the night in the archive.  Sure, I’m only hearing it when I’m alone, but the nature sprite’s always left me alone in the Village.

You are reading story The Archivist’s Journal at novel35.com

You can find story with these keywords: The Archivist’s Journal, Read The Archivist’s Journal, The Archivist’s Journal novel, The Archivist’s Journal book, The Archivist’s Journal story, The Archivist’s Journal full, The Archivist’s Journal Latest Chapter