Work Text:
Yun chewed on the inside of his lip as he concentrated on peeling the apple in his hands. The peel glided off expertly into the little squirrel's waiting hands. Ao was always there to pick up whatever he had dropped or any leftovers. Nothing really went to waste. He had a book propped up on the little stone he had found as an impromptu stand. He was reading a new medical book they had managed to by for him in the last town.
He registered Yona and Hak training in the background. Zeno was laying on his bedroll watching them train together. Yun had asked Kija to go get firewood and Shin-Ah was hovering.
"What do you need, Shin-Ah," Yun asked as another slice of apple skin fell off into the eternal void of Ao's mouth.
"Can you teach me," Shin-Ah sat down next to him.
"To what," that broke his attention from his multitasking.
"Teach me to read," Shin-Ah said.
Yun blinked a couple of times. Then closed the book and nodded, "What letters do you know?"
"None," Shin-Ah said.
"Then let's start at the beginning," Yun said with no hesitation. He grabbed his notepad and handed Shin-Ah a small brush. Yun grabbed his jar of ink and took the cork out with his teeth, spitting it back into his bag for him to complain about finding later.
Yun started with how to hold the brush, "The stylus will go in your hand and you will use your pointer finger, middle finger, and thumb to hold it."
Shin-Ah nodded and was able to replicate the hold that Yun had showed him. Yun walked him through the correct way to dip the ink and wrote four letters at the top of the page, "Can you copy these?"
Shin-Ah nodded. The blue dragon studied the way Yun moved his hand with the brush strokes, focusing on moving his hand the exact same way and eerily almost had Yun's handwriting down by the end of the line of characters.
"Okay, to read you do need to know what sound each of the characters say," Yun pointed to the first letter and had Shin-Ah repeat after him, working so he could know what they were without needing a hint.
"Good job," Yun smiled.
"Yes! Greta job Shin-Ah," Yona cheered for him. The princess and thunder beast had wandered over for a snack. Yun sighed and said, "Let me get lunch started."
"Zeno can help you while the lad finishes the food," Zeno offered.
"Me too," Jae-ha hummed, walking over and sitting down to help, "Although, my handwriting isn't the best."
"Neither is Zeno's," He said, "It was once pretty nice, but Zeno's fallen out of practice with it. Lost the patience to take the time to make it nice, plus the shape of the letters change so much."
"The shape..." Shin-Ah asked.
"Yeah the shapes of characters will change and Zeno uses an old version of it or they will make up completely new ones," Zeno complained.
Yun blinked, "Really? You'll have to show me sometime how words have changed."
Zeno smiled, "Zeno can't guarantee he'll remember."
"That's okay," Shin-Ah smiled, going back to practicing the sounds and letters.