The Children of Destiny

Chapter 11 - The Tour

Scout dragged me towards a building nearby and smiled proudly.

"This is the local workshop," he announced. "People come here to invent stuff, request ideas for inventions, or just to hang out with fellow inventors and engineers."

I looked at the stains on Scout's face again. Now that he mentioned engineering, the black substance all over him kind of looked like either motor oil or ink.

"I'm guessing it's one of your favorite places to visit?" I tried.

Scout nodded. "How did you know?" he asked. "Are you some sort of psychic? Can you see into my future?"

I decided to burst his bubble before he got too excited.

"You've got something right here," I interrupted, wiping some of the oil off his face with my finger and wiping it off onto my shirt.

"Oh," Scout said simply.

He then walked towards another building with books and scrolls on display right outside of the entrance and dragged me along with him.

"Anyway," he began. "This is the library, my second favorite place to go. I probably don't have to explain why people come here, though."

"Why is it your second favorite place to go?" I asked curiously.

"I like reading about other inventors," Scout said. "It gives me inspiration for what I want to make next."

"I'm guessing the gears in your head are always turning, huh?" I joked.

"Yeah, yeah," Scout rolled his eyes and continued showing me around.

"This is the schoolhouse," Scout said. "I'm sure I won't have to explain the purpose of this building either. I usually come here for art, history, science, reading, and writing classes. There are only a few other kids my age that go to these classes, and a few other kids my age in the village, so I'm forced to be friends with people who are much older than I am."

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about," I said, a bit embarrassed. "What is the purpose of the schoolhouse, and what the heck are 'classes'?"

Scout's eyes widened in pure confusion.

"You've never been to school, human?" he asked, sounding concerned.

"I told you before," I said, shaking my head. "I've never met any other humans. I didn't grow up with my tribe. I was literally raised by flying snake-tailed lions."

"Really?" Scout seemed even more surprised and concerned now. "Interesting..."

He went on to explain that school was kind of like the training my mother gave me. But, along with combat skills and hunting, these "schools" taught people how to read and write and also how to do other things, like math (Which sounds really complicated, if you ask me). Not only did school teach people to do things, it also taught about important events in history or how things like gravity and 'chemical reactions'; whatever those are; work in science. I asked him about art class and he told me he did that to improve his art skills. It took me a while to understand, but I finally got it.

"So, you're telling me that school is like combat training, but way more torturous and the people that go here aren't as nice?" I asked, hoping I'd gotten the point.

Scout nodded and took me to an open clearing lined with strange-looking wooden stands. Elves swarmed the clearing, some seemed to be having friendly chats with each other while others were speaking more professionally. Occasionally, I'd see one elf screeching angrily at another elf that was standing in one of the stands and felt kind of bad for the one being yelled at.