"I think it might be good for you."

"Okay, Dara is over there. I will wave her over," Felix says while waving for, presumably, Dara to come closer.

Dara is a blond woman in the typical uniform and leather armor that they have around.

The elemental retreats most of the way inside the mecha, but that's probably not an indictment of the woman more than the elemental being unsure of everything and everyone.

"Dara, this is our new - currently unnamed - friend. He wants to learn how to read. Are you free?"

"Sure. Hi?"

Head: reappears out the side of the mecha. "...Hi?"

"Hi!" She says at the cute fire critter. "Do you want to read?"

"I- I think so yes?"

"Do you know anything how is it done?" She says pulling a book seemingly out of nowhere and crouching to his eye level.

He shakes his head. "I- I'm sorry. I don't-"

"No, it's okay... really. The idea is that the symbols combine to mean different sounds."

He nods, and pays rapt attention to her.

She walks him through the alphabet and different sounds each symbol represents. Showing how her own name is written.

He's attentive, and a perhaps surprisingly quick study.

She notices and tells him as much. What a good student!

After a while. "Do you mind if we leave for a while? There is some more scouting that we need to do."

"Oh- I- no, not at all- I'm sorry- I shouldn't have kept you-"

"It's okay. You didn't keep us. We have been waiting for some towers to get ready." She points at a tower that has just finished completion.

"Oh." He regards the tower for a moment. "I see."

"But it was nice watching you learn!"

That gets a slightly shy shuffling. "I- I liked it?"

"You can keep going? Until you want to do something else or Dara gets tired. You can ask for something else to do then, no problem."

"I- If Ms Dara doesn't mind?"

"I don't. You're a good student," Dara says.

"She likes to teach," Felix informs.

"Then please?"

In that case they can continue teaching and Dara can show him how to write a few simple things in the dirt.

He continues to be an attentive student, and perches on the feet of the mecha so that he can copy the shape of the letters into the dirt.