Everlynh sat in the new room that Mrs. Envel had prepared for her, and looked around. She was rather bored, but not nearly as much as she was used to. Compared to her quarters on board the Ironside, this room was not only enormous, but fit for a queen. There was an actual bed, for one thing, and shelf after shelf laden with books, sewing supplies, and a few carved toys.
Everlynh's eyes wandered to rest on one of the bookshelves, then on one particularly thick volume. The runes adorning the spine were slightly different from the ones she'd been - rather un-extensively - taught on Ironside, but still similar enough for their meaning to be guessed, and then pieced together. It wasn't exactly easy, but it wasn't difficult, either. The title was I Am _wing. After a moment, she got up, and took it from the shelf. Making herself comfortable on her bed, she cracked open the book and began to read.
Whether I Am _wing was a study or a story, Everlynh couldn't tell. The introduction said it was about. . . something. The word used was long, and the only part that Everlynh could decipher was the second half, which read "wing". She finished the introduction, but by then she was so annoyed with only being able to read part of the word that she put it down, and resolved to ask Mrs. Envel about it later, or Miss Kint, if she could.
0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0
About a half an hour after dinner, Everlynh found her opportunity to approach Mrs. Envel, and asked her about the book.
"Oh, I Am Lycanwing?" Mrs. Envel said, taking the book in her hands. "Miss Kint's had it for years. Mrs. Kint - her grandmother - was given it when she decided to take Miss Kint, who was only a toddler at the time, in. Levia Ingerman gave it to her, I think, and she - Mrs. Kint - gave it to Miss Kint for her thirteenth birthday. I didn't know she still had it."
"What's it about? The runes it's written in are different from the ones I was taught, if only a little, and I can't read it well."
"It's a book of legends. Ghost stories. Myths. We call them Lycanwings. If you're curious about the legends and lore of New Berk, I recommend you read it. This particular volume is written by an Ingerman named Flitt."
"Can you show me how to read these runes?" Everlynh asked. "I want to read it for myself, and you probably don't have time to read it to me anyway."
"Very well," Mrs. Envel said. "I'll help you decipher them. Teach them to you too, when I have time. What kind of runes did you learn to read?"
Everlynh showed her on a piece of paper, and Mrs. Envel said that it would be easy enough to use what she already knew to help her learn to read the more common kind.
"Why the men on that ship, if they were going to teach you to read at all, had to pick such a rare alphabet is beyond me," Mrs. Envel wondered aloud, shaking her head. "Our kind is almost universal. You're lucky I'm able to help you at all; my father was obsessed with learning all the different methods of writing, and the runes of different tribes, and insisted that I learn at least one in addition to what's used here on New Berk."