So...You Want To Be A Teacher?-Redwall Log
RW Abbey: Recorder's Room
This is a moderately sized room. A small bed sits in the corner; it
is nothing special and has obviously been repaired once or twice.
The mattress is comfortable, but not particularly thick. The sheets
are standard and one blanket is folded up at the bottom of the bed.
There is a small desk in one corner, which is covered in parchments,
some stacked and blank and others scattered and used. Next to the
desk, a low bookshelf lines the wall. It is filled with old-looking
tomes, no doubt records past bound and ordered. A small trunk sits
at the foot of the bed, and it is locked. There is a single window,
no more than a slit of a thing, six inches wide at most, and it
spills a sliver of light into the room during the day. A flowerpot
sits on the narrow windowsill.
Exits: [Hall]way
Zinnia is looking over her recent journal entry before she closes it to put it away. A lot has been happening and updated, there may be a couple things she doesn't know of yet but when and if she learns of them she can write them down as well. She yawns and stands to stretch some.
Meanwhile, little did the badger know that her path was about to cross with destiny...or rather Rascal's.
Being the only vermin in a team of all woodlander gardeners was not always easy. There was much razing and teasing in the early days...not to mention the fact that the closest Rascal ever came to taking care of plants was eating parsley on his steak.
It was...not a good mix from the gamblers point of view. He woke up early, worked all day, and generally tried not to injure himself with manual labor around the abbey grounds.
Despite all this the fox found it...peaceful. Tranquil. There was no hustle and bustle of busy city life. Nothing to over complicate him and stress him out. Not to mention that he was in better shape now than when he first came to the abbey.
He was...at peace.
That of course didn't stop the gardening fox from bolting across the grounds and through the abbey when he caught the slightest bit of movement in the recorder’s office. He practically throws himself at the door, "ZINNIA! Zin-" He manages before colliding with the door and quite literally rolling into the room, falling face first onto the floor. "Ow..."
Zinnia jumps and spins around to see Rascal onto the floor in front of her. She has an ink bottle in her paw that she slowly lowers and sits it back on the desk. She keeps some writing supplies in here and some in the book binding room of the library when she is in there. She looks down at him as she finally speaks "Can I..help you with something?"
The fox looks, different. His fur a bit more unkempt, and wearing a light green tunic and straw hat.
He begins to laugh, slowly at first but it crescendos with an almost maniacal quality. "Help me? Oh I hope so. I so dearly hope so." He practically bounds to his feet, clapping his paws together, "Oh thank all that is holy that you are back! You're back! Yes! Back! Yes you are!" He wipes a tear from his eye, "You won't believe how long I've waited for you guys to get back from Sala!"
All that extra sun may have fried the poor fox's brain...however much was there to begin with...
Zinnia blinks "Well, yes we came back a little earlier than planned it seems but all is fairly well now and I have just finished fully updating the abbey logs, which is good seeing as I need to get some ink and new quill pens soon"
The fox raises an eyebrow, "You came back early? H-ho-how long have you been here?" Shaking his head he continues, "Never mind that. The point is that you are here now and that means I can say good bye to gardening! Hello teaching!" He tosses his straw hat across the room. "See Zin, here is the thing. Benar told me I had to earn my keep here. He gave me a choice on jobs, either gardening or school teaching. But he would only sign on teaching if you and Oz say it's ok. And you were...well...gone." He rubs the back of his neck.
Zinnia is listening as the fox speaks, she watches as the hat lands on the bed and folds her arms over her chest, "And what did Uncle Oz say about it? Least I am guessing you spoke to him and if you did not you need to and if it's been a while you need to again. And what is wrong with gardening? Even I helped a little with that yesterday morning for about an hour."
The fox pauses in mid reply, face scrunching for a moment. Right, talking with Oz. Riiiiight. He knew he was forgetting something. "Well, Oz didn't say I /couldn't/ be a teacher..." Technically not a lie. "And it's not that there is anything wrong with gardening it's just...that /I/ am wrong for gardening..."
The fox leans forward, paws cupped together as if begging, "Please! All I need is a chance! I can teach the little scamps, you'll see! I can teach all sorts of things, like like, numbers! You need to know numbers to count cards! And...other things of course..."
Zinnia lets Rascal speak before she has some questions "And do you know how to count? Do you know how to read? In order to teach you need to know these things. I mainly teach the ones around 5 and 6 seasons old and a couple 4 season olds. Uncle Oz and Sister Ginny teach ones 4 seasons and younger.”
Thank all that is holy, thinks the fox. Taking care of infants is NOT how he pictured himself dying. "Zinnia, please," Rascal gives the badger a sly smile despite leaning backwards from her questions. "I AM an educated beast. I can count past my paws and I know how to spell. How hard can this be?" He says before he can stop himself.
Zinnia frowns “You can count to 2 or 10 and it's important to know things in order to teach properly or the dibbuns will learn nothing. There is a system and some dibbuns learn faster than others, and some slower than others. Dibbuns get restless also, even older ones and I have learned JUST how restless they can be since I have an almost 4 season old I care for now who seems to have this love to climb trees.." She frowns "And other things"
"Zin, I can call you Zin right?" The fox folds his paws behind his back, "Zin, Zin Zin Zin, rest your weary little head. My papa was a magistrate back in our home village. He made sure me and my siblings grew up with a proper education." It would be nice to finally /use/ that education for once...
"And I'm no stranger to adversity. I mean, you should see some of the beasts I've had to wrangle in my day. I'm pretty sure if I can survive a tribe of blood thirsty shrews I can handle a room full of kits."
...yeah, he has no idea what he is getting into.
Zinnia just stands there and then she starts to chuckle softly and then it gets a little louder, "Handle...then?" She says threw a grin “Gee which ones? The younger ones or the older ones? Someone called Oz braver than the Champion one day for handling a group of dibbuns and making it so easy. It’s not so easy really. Yeah they mind him, maybe not all the time."
The fox's ears flatten at the laughter. It is not a very joyous laughter. "You think I can't do the job?" The fox crosses his arms in defiance, then his shoulders begin to droop. "You wouldn't be the first..." He says offhandedly, "I mean, I just, want to be useful at /something/ and I really, just...just really am not cut out for landscaping..." He says with a small whine.
Zinnia asks, "Then what are you good at? Everyone has skills they are good at or things they do well or maybe want to learn to do well"
The fox rubs the back of his neck, "A beast said I was good at surviving one time. Admittedly it was with more of a question, like, 'WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU!' with more expletives and ax swinging." Rascal steeples his paws, "I'm good with creativity, and talking. I love to talk. I can talk until my face turns blue. I'm also good with math..." Without warning Rascal falls upon his knees and pleads with Zinnia in a most undignified manner. "Please Zin! You are my only hope! I...I can't go on as a landscaper for the rest of my life! I'll fall to pieces! Please! I'll do anything!"
Zinnia backs up a couple steps "I..don't know. I do not think there has been a vermin species in a teaching position, very few vermin species are even in the abbey, well to live...mainly you, Flick and his wife and child and there may be a ferret . I might just ask Benar about this as you said he mentioned it and I can make sure you’re not lying about that. Plus you need to talk to Oz and then maybe him, me and the abbot can have a meeting, and yeah that’s another way to see what was said to who and when and thoughts on the matter"
The fox's head snaps up, "You mean...you will talk about it?" His face lights up with a wide grin. He lunges at the badger, overjoyed at the prospect that this /may/ work out. "OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" He says while trying to engulf Zinnia in a tight bear hug. "You won't regret it! I swear!"
Zinnia was not expecting a hug, so one is given to her but she has yet to give one back as she frowns "It’s not a fer sure, it’s a maybe. I will talk with Abbot Benar I promise, but you also need to talk to Oz and I will talk with Oz as well and that’s a promise too...in fact if you’re so serious on this I give you till dinner to speak with Uncle Oz on this matter as I will talk him tomorrow and see what was discussed"
The fox's tail wags happily at the prospect of 'maybe'. His life of manual labor is almost over! "Y-you won’t regret it! I /promise/!" He turns for the door and trips over his own tail landing flat on his face. He lays there for a moment before bounding to his feet and out the door.
Zinnia sighs as she watches him go, she is serious on him speaking with Oz and even more serious on how she will make sure he really did or not. "Well....we will see, we will see."
