A Lesson in Ancient Deities (Classroom thread open to all)

[Zora]

Noel listened quietly to his students talk among themselves. They seemed to be getting along with each other. The idea made him smile, he always liked to see people making positive connections. Looking down at his watch, he saw that there was still a minute and a half until the class actually started. Noel wasn't in a rush to begin, knowing that positive connections in life were sometimes more important than learning about ancient deities. And so he decided to wait a bit longer for more students to arrive.

 

[Dreams]

"That sounds lovely." Azalea smiled at the mention of having family near. "Our clan lives out in the forest on the island now, about a 40 minute bus ride and a 10 minute walk from the bus stop. The island government gave us a patch of land to settle on and we chose a clearing in the wilderness we could fill with gardens and flowering trees..."

"And we did! Or at least, the family did, we helped a little even though we were small. We call the place the Everblooming Glade, and most of our family is there or at least visits there regularly, including us when we can." Rose joined her sister in staring wistfully into the distance, thinking of home.

Rose and Azalea exchanged looks when they were asked about magic. Azalea then wordlessly fished around in her bag and procured a blue glass water bottle. She opened the cap and with a practiced flick of the wrist, caused a large "blob" of water to rise from the bottle, letting the floating ball of liquid water float a few inches above her hand, and then holding it towards Hal to see. Rose then touched the water with a single finger, and in an instant her entire body sparked and crackled as, in the space of less than second, she entirely transformed into a living mass of electricity, which immediately entered the water and raced around the undulating fluid mass, which Azalea was keeping in constant motion with internal currents inside the sphere, allowing Rose to travel in endless spiraling loops as electrical energy visibly arced on the edges of the water.

Azalea pointed at charged water blob, "That electrical current is my sister, racing around in there in constant motion. Our clan's lineage includes a few elementals of various types, so some of us inherited elemental forms. I can become a cloud of mist or a pool of living water."

 

[Wolfie]

"That sounds really great!" Hal exclaimed. He imagined that family was important to everyone, not just to him. It was nice that their family was in close proximity too, living together away from the rest of the world. It was very much like his home back in the Alps but now his clan and the twins were migrating onto the island.

Hal was not prepared for what was to follow. It filled him with so much awe and amazement that he couldn't help but have his mouth hang open a little at the sight. His eyes followed the swirling surge of electricity that encircled the orb of water. He had no powers as cool as that that he could show off and it made him a little side on the inside. Hal used to think that his half-dragon form was awesome and liked to show it off but after not getting any reaction at all in the community centre (in front of Liun especially), he no longer felt that way.

"That... is beautiful! Your powers are truly amazing." Hal continued to marvel at the sight as he continued to talk. "I have nothing that cool that I can show you. I can freeze stuff with my breath and turn into a cloud of snow, but that's nothing compared to you guys." His eyes drifted to the clock; the class was about to start any minute. He looked at Mr Sinterklaas and then at the empty room. Maybe it was just the three of them in his class today. He was alright with that.

 

[Dreams]

"Not at all! That sounds quite neat honestly. I can't be snow; I've only mastered liquid and vaporous water, not solid. In fact I enjoy meeting people with cold or frost related abilities because it's something I'd like to learn as an extension of my hydromancy, but haven't got the hang of it yet." Azalea balanced the ball of water above their hand a moment longer.

Rose then materialized first as a bolt of lightning going from the charged ball to Rose's chair, and then suddenly there was a person where the lightning bolt had been, reclining in her chair, and the charge was gone from the water. Rose turned to look Hal in the eye.

"By the way Hal, try not to let people get you down for being young. We have friends of all kinds of ages, and the oldest among them are not always the wisest. Think of it this way; if someone older than you is giving you a hard time just because of your age, how insecure must they be to have to resort to comparing how many winters you've weathered instead of actually giving an intelligent criticism of any sort? Best way you can spite them is to not give them the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of you. That drives them mad."
Rose stretched her arms out above her head and gave a contented sigh, satisfied with herself and feeling quite rested; coming back from disembodiement feeling something like waking up from a quick power nap.

Azalea chuckled and nodded in agreement with her sister as she guided the water back into her bottle, after which she took a long swig before capping the bottle.

"You can trust her word on that; Rose was a consummate rebel in our adolescence."

"Hah!" Rose spat back, "as if you weren't too?"

Azalea only grinned in response.

 

[Wolfie]

"I'm sure you will get the hang of it." His smile grew at the mention that his powers were considered 'quite neat'. He was proud of his dragon form, already larger than some members of his family, yet he was disappointed that he lacked some of the abilities members of his clan had. It seemed like everyone had ice manipulation and all he could do was chill a bottle of water or become a flurry of snow. However, that meant that he would have to be more cunning when it came to fights - an often tradition among the dragons of his clan.

Hal's expression changed as they tried to make him feel better about himself. "Oh, no. There is no malicious intent behind what they say. They just underestimate me because of my age and don't think I could beat them in a fight. It's annoying but it isn't some form of bullying." Hal felt kind of embarrassed that he made people view members in his clan in that way. It was only a misinterpretation but he hated the idea that the twins had formed an opinion about his relatives already, despite not meeting them.

"I'll show them, though. My cousin, Liun, is going to teach me how to spar. Then I will be able to finally ruffle his hair like he does to me." Determination flamed in his eyes at the thought of showing his worth. "Oh, and he said he will teach me how to dance too," he added, a sense of excitement and admiration in his voice as he spoke.

 

[Dreams]

"Ah, my apologies...I didn't mean to suggest they were bad people. I just find it can be cathartic to vent frustrations, even with loved ones." Rose dipped her head as if in apology.

"Especially with loved ones, you mean?" Azalea giggled a little, and got Rose laughing too, covering her mouth so as not to be overly loud in the classroom.

"Ahhh...we have an enormous family, and there's an even more enormous amount of love between us all. It's simply that...with long lived species, I think, there's a great deal of time for small annoyances to build up, and it's normal and healthy to laugh at ourselves and playfully prod each other all in good fun, you know?"
Rose leaned back as she spoke and reached into her messenger bag, pulling out a pair of mechanical pencils and spiral-bound notebooks from the school bookstore, handing one of each to her sister as they got ready to take notes whenever class started, low though attendance might be.

 

[Zora]

Seeing it was time to finally start the class, Noel got to his feet, and moved to the front of the classroom.

"Good day, students. Today, we are going to be talking about Mesopotamian gods. Mainly the Triad of Heaven and the Primordial Beings." he explained as he gestured to the blackboard behind him.

"Who they were? Or are? And the myths or stories around them at that time." Noel smiled here since it was very possible that a few were still out there, hanging around, just doing their own things.

"Does anyone here know the names of any of the members of the Triad of Heaven or the Primordial Beings?" he asked them.

 

[Wolfie]

Hal smiled as the sisters talked about their family. It was nice to see people happy and even nicer to see that people weren't alone. Loneliness was a terrible thing; something that Hal suffered from at times but would never admit. Not lonely because there was no one around, he was surrounded by family, but lonely in a crowd sort of way.

As they finished talking, Mr Sinterklaas spoke up. Hal liked to read up a little before his lessons so that he had more of a grasp on the subject. He wouldn't read in-depth otherwise there would be no reason to attend the lesson but it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a little bit of knowledge. Raising his hand, Hal answered the question. "I think the names of the Triad of Heaven were An, Enlil and Enki," he began, not sounding like he knew for certain. He didn't want to come across as arrogant or a know it all. "Though I think they are sometimes called by other names." There wasn't much more that he had read up on and was interested in whether what he scanned over was correct or not. It seemed to be an interesting topic and he was eager to learn more.

 

[Zora]

At the young man's answer, Noel smiled. He had obviously brushed up on the subject. "That's correct, Mr. Rukt'In," he said with an approving nod.

"An is considered the supreme, creator god. Enlil is believed to be the god of wind, air, earth, and storms, and the chief of all the gods, while Enki - or Ea, is the god of oceans, texts say freshwater oceans,"Noel explained, "But that is perhaps a misconception... or mistranslation."

"Enki is also associated with wisdom, magic, and the arts. Some say, he was the son of An, others that he was the brother of Ishkur - the god of storms and rain." Noel stopped, a natural pause to see if there were any questions.