Oh, wonderful!

Yeah. Do you have anyone with time to teach them? Or I can ask the other host, they'd probably be willing.

I am sure I can find someone who has the time.

Thanks.

He recommends her someone.

And the next day the kobolds go see them.

And this person is working very long hours because of the war but can take a break to teach reading.

Rána has better penmanship, but Tirinquo is the more enthusiastic learner; they learn most of the alphabet.

Good! They can keep practicing.

They do that; the bit where neither of them knows spoken Quenya (yes Rána is a Speaker but she's been busy, okay) isn't a significant hurdle yet. Rána writes some Animalperson words; Tirinquo tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to read the books at the library. They're back in a few days for the rest of the alphabet.

Which he will happily teach!

Excellent.

Now the hard part: actually learning Quenya. For this they really should go to the Ñolofinwëan camp; they're also busy, but not as busy, finding off-duty Quendi to sit and watch and listen to will be much easier there. Rána drops Tirinquo off at the wood shop and goes to ask about it.

Sure, there are some people over there who can do it.

This is going to take a while; even kobolds who're good with language aren't very good.

That's okay. It will be a change of pace for people.

Okay. Hug. I'll go see if they want to come now.

They don't, as it turns out, but the following day they're willing. One of Rána's friends is among the off-duty elves; she snuggles up next to them, with Tirinquo on her other side.

And her friend tries simple sentences in Quenya.

Rána picks up the language steadily - easily by kobold standards, not quite so impressive by Quendi ones. Tirinquo... it's hard to tell, without reading their mind; they repeat the words back readily enough, but don't try making new sentences or asking questions.

The Quendi think not being able to talk is horrible, but they refrain from saying so.

Rána notices anyway, and bristles slightly, but doesn't say anything either.

After most of an hour, Tirinquo sighs and snuggles up closer to her and stops repeating words.

Well, they can do more some other time.

Yup. They take a break to walk around and do some casting, and then Rána leads them back to the group, but Tirinquo is still uninterested in repeating words.

Maybe we'll just sit for a while - I'm not sure how they learn best, listening might help too.

So for their benefit everyone speaks aloud.

And the kobolds listen, and Tirinquo remains silent and cuddlesome.

When they go home that night, Rána writes out some of the words they heard over the course of the day, and those Tirinquo will say. Next she tries a question: Tirinquo okay?

Tirinquo reads that, too, and then looks confused.

"Tirinquo okay?" repeats Rána. "Yes, no?"

"...yes," says Tirinquo, and then writes down the words. "Yes okay."

Excellent.

She takes another fifteen minutes or so to write out more of the day's vocabulary, and then reports in with Maitimo. They're not going to be able to learn to talk - a few words, maybe, but probably not even that - but it looks like they're going to be able to read and understand people talking to them.