A Sign of Something

Despite Ava's act of goodwill, things once again returned to how they were. Ava made no special efforts to go out of her way to seek Jin out, despite how Jin had hoped she might. Finally, Jin came to the conclusion she wouldn't. If Jin wanted Ava's time and company, he would have to put the effort in to befriend her. It was a wrong assumption on his part to think that she would suddenly pursue a friendship with him just because they were on friendly terms. He was honestly at a bit of a loss on how to achieve such a thing, he'd never had to put thought towards such things with a position like his. There were none who hadn't tripped on themselves to get closer to him, it always paid to have good relations with the royal family. He decided eventually that he would… simply invite her out. It shouldn't be that hard. Only, he could never seem to find the elusive princess. This time, he started out by asking one of the palace staff instead of checking each of her hiding places in turn, only to be told that Ava was currently in a different wing of the grounds, teaching a class. He recalled approving the request in passing, Ava wanted to teach a sign language class for nobility, and interestingly enough, for palace staff too. One of the palace rooms had been converted into a classroom for her and she had been already begun hosting lessons regularly. Jin had been curious of them and it would give him the chance to see Avaline, but there was the issue of the work he had this afternoon… He called over one of his attending servants.

—

Ava entered into her personal classroom at the usual time, Mila and Covin by her side as usual, carrying small soft backed books in their arms. She hadn't expected the surprise of finding Prince Jin sitting at one of the desks near the front of the room, her expression quickly filling with delight.

"Prince Jin, will you be joining our class today?"

He gave a small smile as he nodded. "I will be. I happened to have some time today and I wanted to learn." Actually, he had rearranged his schedule to find the time to attend but he thought it was better not to mention this, she might shoo him to go work after all.

Ava smiled to herself privately, not calling him on his lie despite the fact that she received an update on his daily schedule every evening.

"It's a pleasure to have you," Ava said quite geniunely, taking one of the books from her servants arms to pass one to Prince Jin while Covin and Mila handed out the rest to the handful of nobles and the occasional guard or high ranking servant who were scattered about the tables of the room. There was tea and biscuits or delicate cakes laid out for many of them, with a few palace servants and personal servants standing to the ready at the sides. Ava's gaze passed over them, offering a gentle and polite smile.

"Since you've joined us, I'll begin today by going over the basics and providing a quick overview of last week's lesson before I continue. Does anyone have any concerns?" Ava paused for any objections and only started when met with nothing but polite smiles and nods. "Shall we begin with greetings then? Would anyone be willing to assist me with demonstrating a morning greeting?"

And so Ava's lesson in sign language began. Most of Ava's students seemed engaged in her lesson, some of whom had originally only come seeking favour but had ended up finding they enjoyed the classes. A few of the nobles still look obviously disinterested, how ridiculous they found the classes clear on their faces but even they hadn't found anything to criticise and gossip about as of yet, Ava, although seemingly polite and soft spoken, was quite a good teacher with a lively teaching style. The most interested and involved of her students, although also the most initially hesitant to demonstrate or discuss, were the guards and servants, particularly Marl. Even the servants who had only been brought into the room to serve their masters couldn't help watching along with the lesson. Some of them couldn't have dreamed of partaking in such a class, let alone one taught by the princess herself.

Ava would write topics and keywords on a board behind her as she spoke and gestured. She would use examples and talk of experiences as she went through her points, as well as using either the students, or Mila and Covin, to provide demonstrations. She also provided regular opportunities for questions, answers and engagement. Even her lesson content was well organised, following from one point to another in a way that made sense and was easy to follow. In addition, the booklets in front of each person had clear illustrations and summaries of each gesture Ava explained. Prince Jin found that he was entirely immersed in the lesson, to the point where he was caught a bit off guard when Ava suddenly stopped speaking. She paused, turning to look toward the door.

"Avaline? Is something the matter?" He asked, seeing the odd look she wore.

"Oh, nothing is the matter. Thank you for your concern Prince Jin. I was just wondering what that sound was is all."

Prince Jin looked a bit confused. He hadn't heard anything. It seemed Ava's other students felt the same until the sound came a bit closer, became a bit louder. It sounded like a scraping noise, a bit like… something dragging across the polished floors of the hallway beyond the door. Everyone turned their gazes to the door and before long, a familiar furry grey dog could be seen dragging a rather large stick along with him, taking a few attempts to get both himself and the stick through the doorway to the room.

"Oh, it was you Rodney. Do you have a present for me?" Ava asked lightly, as casual as ever. Her students looked on, dumbstruck, while Covin and Mila only seemed mildly interested, already fairly used to scenes like this. Rodney wagged his tail as he brought the stick even closer and Ava had to take half a step back to avoid the skirts of her dress being caught. She reached out to take the large stick from him, her brows furrowing the moment she did. She set the stick aside on an empty desk nearby, taking the cloth Mila passed her to wipe the saliva, loose bark debris and dirt from her hand. She then looked up from the dog standing by her feet, who stared up at her with his tail wagging about, to her room of students. Many held bewildered expressions, yet some of the nobles had not even hidden their looks of distaste for this royal pooch who dragged sticks around the palace. Prince Jin only looked a bit surprised but he'd long adjusted and fallen soft for the pampered pet of the princess, so he raised no complaints, leaving the others forced to stew in their displeasure, unable to say anything.

"Dogs can also learn hand gestures," She began, smoothly easing into a new topic to cover. "Rodney is trained such, however, he is trained using the sign language of Eden which differs in some ways to the one of Yandil."

She wrote again on the board behind her. "Just like how Eden and Yandil have similar spoken languages but their written languages differ. You would write 'Good morning' like so in Yandil." She then wrote something else. "And you would write it like this in Eden."

"This is just like how you would use this gesture to say good morning in Yandil's sign language." She demonstrated as she spoke, pausing as her gaze passed by her students to assess their expressions for confusion, but since they had already gone over greetings, everyone was following. "And you would use this-" She demonstrated again as she spoke, "-gesture in Eden. However, although the general meaning of this gesture is the same, it is technically more close to saying 'good day'."

"So Rodney's commands will look familiar in some ways to gestures you already know but mostly it will be unfamiliar."

Ava then turned to her loyal companion who had unknowingly ended up becoming a demonstration. She performed her first gesture and Rodney immediately planted his bottom on the ground. "This is sit. However, if you wanted to invite another person to sit, it would look like this in Eden, and it would look like this is Yandil," She gestured slowly and clearly as she spoke, addressing her students.

"Down would look like so. Roll. Sit up. Speak." She would first gesture, Rodney would perform the action, then she would verbally state the command to show that Rodney was indeed responding to the gesture and not the verbal cue. At her final gesture, Rodney began to excitedly bark but this was particularly loud as he was a little too eager, startling many of those in the room. Ava only clicked her tongue, smiling gently.

"Rodney does however know one word in Eden's sign language. Jin." At first Prince Jin had thought Ava was addressing him, so he tilted his head slightly, unsure of what she wanted from him. But he quickly realised this wasn't the case when the dog bounded on over, planting himself beside Jin, barking a couple times before looking at Jin expectantly, tail swishing back and forth on the ground, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Prince Jin gazed at the dog for a moment but he couldn't help reaching out to give the dog a scratch on the head. But it seemed that wasn't enough as Rodney stood up, turning around to present his backside to Jin for scratchies. Jin smiled helplessly as he conceded, Rodney letting out a happy groan in response.

"When did you teach him that?" Jin asked curiously.

"Oh well…" Ava put on a slightly shy look as she smiled softly to him in a way that anyone would believe if they didn't know any more about Ava. "The first week I was here."

"Truly? That's rather impressive." Jin felt a bit pleased that in her first week here, she had taught her dog his name. Surely that meant she had thought it was important Rodney knew him? Poor Jin didn't know it was actually for tracking purposes, Ava even used it to avoid him when need be.

Ava gently waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss the compliment. "Hardly, Your Highness. I'm unworthy of such a compliment. Rodney is a quick learner. He can grasp a new word rather quickly." She then turned to Covin, gesturing toward the stick. "Take him to play, would you Covin?"

Covin bowed his head in acknowledgement, stepping forward to take the oversized stick, giving a short whistle to summon Rodney. The dog happily leapt up to run past him and out the door, barking a few times in his excitement. Ava then easily turned back to her class, writing the word 'play' on the board. "If you wanted to invite someone to play, whether it be a game, hunt or strategy," she spoke, her gaze on the nobles before she turned to the servants or guards "or perhaps to go drinking, you would use this set of gestures, starting with the one for 'invite' or 'question'." She continued her lesson seamlessly, as if they had never been interrupted at all.

When the lesson concluded, Avaline excused herself and slipping into one of the side gardens to avoid the nobles who would attempt to socialise with her. Following after her as she left came many thanks, most loudly from the back of the room where the palace staff had been sitting in on her lesson. Jin followed her out, the notebook he had been given in hand. "So, how did you find it, Your Highness?"

"Quite good actually. I'd dare say you'd pass the standard to be a royal tutor yourself. You have impressive teaching skills."

Ava brightened at the compliment, lips curling up. "Thank you. I should hope my skills are good, otherwise my teachers would be disappointed." She would hate to disappoint Yoseph like that.

Jin glanced at Ava out of the side of his eyes as they continued to walk along in the spotted afternoon sunshine.

"Something on your mind, Your Highness?"

"Yes, actually. I wanted to ask something."

Ava gestured for him to go ahead, pausing their walk to respectfully give him her full attention.

He stopped as well, his hands clasped properly behind him. He gazed at Ava a moment longer before inspecting a flower off to the side. "I wanted to know how you would sign the word 'beautiful'."

Ava seemed to have been surprised by the question, her brows raising gently. "I see. Are you trying to impress someone, Your Highness?"

Jin half smiled, responding vaguely as his gaze returned to Ava. "You could say that."

Ava only smiled in return. "You would sign it like this." She demonstrated for him and Jin tried to mimic the movement, but he couldn't quite understand the finger movement he had observed. Ava reached out without a word, adjusting his fingers for him and guiding him through the movement. He was caught off guard by suddenly being touched without a prior request for permission, but it wasn't the first time Ava had done so, and her position allowed her too. It wasn't that he was bothered but for some reason, his thoughts seemed to have been caught on the feeling of her hand over his.

"Like this. That's much better, very good Your Highness." She pulled her hand away and gave him an encouraging smile. Jin slowly repeated the movement, his gaze lifting from his hand to his 'teacher' who gave a light clap. "Perfect."

Jin let his hand fall away. "Avaline, I wanted to ask if you would attend the lunch event tomorrow." He asked suddenly.

Avaline looked a bit confused, her head tilting to one side and one of her curls slipping over her shoulder. "I didn't think I was required to attend that."

"You aren't. Its simply that… I find it more pleasant when you're attending with me."

"Oh?" She hummed lightly as she thought. "I'll attend then. I'll be seeing you then, Your Highness." She pulled her skirts in a delicate courtesy before she turned to continue on her way.

Jin smiled warmly, nodding. "Alright. Tomorrow then…"