It's National Potato Day in Yankee Land! I'd blow on a noise maker, but I'm a bit busy typing this sentence! Anyways, here's a story about 'the deftest potato peeler' (whatever the heck that means), Lon'qu!
"Hiii-YA!" The sound of shattering ceramic reverberated throughout the small room as the jar on the podium shattered into tiny shards, all clattering to the already wet floor of the training room with a distinctive sound that was getting quite irritating. "Urgghh...", Lon'qu groaned as he slumped his shoulders in defeat. He'd been at this since lunch and, with the autumn sun now beginning to dip across the horizon, it was clear he wasn't going to reach his goal anytime today.
'Why can't I do this right?", he thought as he looked at the thousands of ceramic fragments scattered across the room. Each failure to slice a jar clean through was a blow to his self-worth, and lately, he felt like a total screw up in every part of his life. 'Perhaps I should just give up on being Khan and become a spud peeler inste-'
"No luck today either, huh?"
Knocked from his thoughts, Lon'qu instinctively spun around and assumed a defensive stance, holding his blade across the width of his body in preparation of the inevitable strike of the intru-Oh, it was just Nah.
"Geez Father", the Manakete started, unfazed in the slightest by the sudden flash of steel. Dressed in her usual clothing, but carrying a small suitcase-like handbag instead of her usual heart-shaped purse, Nah gave Lon'qu an upsettingly adorable pout that showed her dissatisfaction-though not with what one would have expected at the sight of a man preparing to trade blows with his own unarmed daughter. "I've been in here for like a whole minute and you only now notice me? Please tell me you're not slipping!"
Lon'qu flinched at her words slightly. She was right, after all. No one had ever managed to sneak into a room without him noticing before...well, Kellam, but he didn't count. "W-well, I was trying to focus, so-"
"Relax, Father.", Nah giggled. He really was too tense lately. Luckily, she was here to change that. "I'm just teasing."
"R-right...", he stuttered. All this time and he still wasn't quite sure how to handle his family's humour-or Basilio's. "A-anyway, what are you doing here?", he prodded carefully. Normally when his daughter came to him while he was training, it meant she was in trouble with someone (usually lumberjacks), but, from the sheer excitement he could see shining in her deep violet eyes, he knew something was up, probably something to do with the bag she was holding.
Nah's distinctive pointed ears perked up as she broke into a wide, blinding-white grin. "I wrote a book!", she proudly declared, her entire body glowing with anticipation.
"Oh? Is that so?", Lon'qu smiled softly as he at last sheathed his sword and approached his daughter.
"Mm-hmm!", Nah nodded. "It's still just a rough draft, but it should be done by the start of the Solstice Festival!", she continued as she opened the bag and pulled out a hefty bundle of paper, tightly bound by red twine. Lon'qu was amazed by the size of the stack-it looked too big for his diminutive daughter to hold (even if she was part dragon), let alone fit in the bag she simply let fall to the thoroughly soaked floor.
"What's it about?", he asked as he knelt down to pick up the (expensive looking and probably Nowi's) bag.
"It's a love story based off you and Mother!", she beamed. Lon'qu froze.
"Y...you...b-but...HUH?!", he stammered as he looked up at her with a look of pure horror. "You wrote about-about that?!" The tale of his courtship with his wife wasn't exactly a good basis for any kind of story, let alone a romantic one!
"Not the house thing, Father!", Nah reassured him with a calm smile. She knew her Father didn't like that story getting around. "The whole 'lonely, serious human falls in love with lonely, childish manakete while fighting against evil' part."
Lon'qu breathed out a sigh of relief as he picked up the bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Well, I hope it goes well...sweetie.", he forced out. Pet names were another part of his life he still couldn't get the hang of. "But...why bring it to me?"
If she had been asked that by someone else, it would have sounded dismissive, but thankfully, Nah knew exactly what he meant-it was just a rough draft after all, why not tell him when it was ready to actually be presented to a reader? "Because, well, um, you've been spending a lot of time in here...so...", she sheepishly looked away, making Lon'qu feel like he'd neglected her once more. He knew his daughter ached for his attention, but was always afraid to pull him from his training-they were both Feroxian, after all. "...so I thought, well, you could read the rough draft first and tell me what you think?", she pleaded, her excitement once again shining through her eyes.
Lon'qu froze once again, longer than ever before. This was a moment he knew had been coming for a long time; he'd been dreading it for years.
Nah didn't need her unusual sense of smell to pick up on his hesitance. Breaking her gazes as her eyes dimmed and her ears drooped, she quickly fell back on her usual coping mechanism for disappointment-blaming herself. "S-sorry Father, I didn't mean to disturb you", she muttered, "I'll leave you to you training..." With all her enthusiasm drained away, she turned for the door...
...Only for Lon'qu to wrap his arms around her, spinning her around and pulling her into a close embrace.
"F-father?"
"No, I'm sorry Nah.", he said, stroking her hair softly. After what he'd put her through in the past, seeing her upset in the slightest was enough to make him feel like he'd failed her again. "I wish I could, but, I...I just can't..."
"Why not?", she asked as she pulled out of his embrace, the irritation in her voice clear. Why did he always seem to make thing difficult? "It'll only take you a few-"
"I can't read.", Lon'qu said bluntly. He never did have much tact. "I'm completely illiterate."
This time it was Nah who froze for what seemed like forever. Jaw dropping and her arms dangling limply at her sides, holding her 'book' just off the wet floor by the twine, it was about three minutes before Nah recovered...loudly. "WHAT?!"
"I can't read your book because I can't read, Nah.", he said as he knelt down to eye level. Nah obviously had thought better of him. 'Just another expectation of hers I can't live up too...'
"But, wha...how?!"
"I'm was a homeless orphan, Nah.", he reminded her. "A homeless orphan in Regna Ferox. I was too busy trying to avoid blizzards and bandits to learn how to read." 'Among other things...'
"Oh...", she muttered weakly, dropping her gaze. "That explains a lot, actually..." She glanced towards the stack of paper dangling from her hand, her mind playing back some rather confusing memories that seemed to make perfect sense now.
For what felt like the millionth time since this morning, he felt like a total failure. 'All she wants is my attention, and I can't even give her THAT. Gods...why can't I seem to get anything right with her?' Even now, with Nah's mood thoroughly ruined by his own shortcomings, he was completely at a loss at what to do. 'Some Father I turned out to-'
"Well then...", Nah suddenly perked up, pulling him from his self-destructive train of thought, grabbing his arm with all her draconian strength and dragging him out of the room. "To the library!"
Wait, what? "Nah-"
"No excuses!", she snapped, making it clear that her mind was made up. "I refuse to let my Father go down in history as 'Khan Lon'qu the Illiterate!'"
Lon'qu would have explained that there was already a past Khan with that epithet when the fatherly part of his mind suddenly spoke up.
'Don't throw this chance away.'
With that sobering thought came acceptance. This was a chance to connect with his daughter on a whole new level, and he knew he needed as many of those chances as he could get in the coming years.
Batting away that thought before it Nah could sniff it out, Lon'qu picked up his feet and walked with her towards the palace library with a slight smile. If he was going to give her the perfect life she deserved, he needed to be a perfect father, and that was something he'd never give up on.
Always felt Lon'qu had self-esteem issues. Well, see you on Leif Erikson Day! Hinga-dinga-durgan!