2nd of Ashan 721
Kalortah began the class, by making the cadouri students begin going through their scales. Trying to get them to do so in unison, so that his ears weren't unduly offended was like herding cats... almost literally since half of them were cat-like in appearance, at least. But more than that, Kal had to content with the roughness of their voices.
Finally, he had them stop, and had to demonstrate the scales for them. Starting with a simple octave, one that even the least flexible vocal type could emulate. Then he led them through it, proceeding to take it one student at a time, for the sake of his own sanity. The lessons proceeded for a few breaks, during which Kalortah was relieved to see some marked improvement on the singers' part. They were getting somewhere, at least, even if Kal wasn't a great teacher, at least he could show them the right way to do things.
Nevertheless, the lesson did come to an end mercifully at the three break mark. The cacophony that assaulted Kalortah's ears for the past, oh, three breaks were coming to a close, as the poor ignorant Cadouri wore out their welcome. Through their terribly raw canting and shrill singing, they'd managed to wear Kalortah's patience to a razor's edge. He was done. This would be the last class he taught at this school if he had a say in it. And he surely did. He could not maintain his patience for such degradation of the art of Singing and bardic performance. While sure, there was a chance any one of them might come out of this a fine singer. Kalortah himself had not always been the magnificent vocalist that stood before packed audiences and won contest after contest, and award after award, entrancing everyone with his beautiful voice.
So he cleaned his palate by singing and listening to his own voice. With every inhale and exhale, he sang an old song in Lorien, about glorious avriel hunting prey animals. It soothed his soul to recall the noble savagery of his own people and bygone hunting arcs. This calmed him down considerably, but he was still pestered by the echo of the Cadouri's unskilled attempts at singing choral melodies.
Yet, he could not deal with this. He was in over his head. So as the Cadouri cleared the classroom, Kalortah sat at his desk, rubbing his temples, and accepting the papers that slid over his desk, as one of his assignments had come due. He remained to rub his temples for a few more moments before he realized there was a figure standing in front of him. He lifted his eyes to look and saw Stella, the cat-looking cadouri woman that was one of his favorite students. Not for her voice, of course, that was horrible by his standard, but her excellent grasp of lyricism and rhyme. He squinted at her, "What is it, Stella? Class is over."
"I was wondering, Mister Satravial, if you..." She stuttered for a moment, and then recovered, "If you would still like to take a look at my rhyme book? With all of my songs and syntax for constructing songs?"
Kalortah nodded, remembering his promise to his 'teacher's pet'. She was a good girl, and certainly deserved his time for the respect she showed to him. "Yes of course. Leave it with me? I'll give some feedback on the morrow."
She beamed happily, and then slinked out of the classroom, her tail bobbing in the air as she swept out into the halls of Saoire's Dream. Kalortah, meanwhile, looked at the book she'd left him. He sighed. Well, may as well make a profitable exercise of this. He took out his own songbook, the enchanted one he'd found in the Scholar's Nook, and readied himself to record what he saw in Stella's book if it was any good.
The pages, to his surprise, on Stella's book, were so neatly written, far better than his own penmanship. He felt a sudden pang of envy, but it passed as soon as it came. What did he care about penmanship anyways? He let his tongue do the speaking for him, not a feather and ink pot. That said, he took out his quill and ink pot and readied himself to record the first of the rhyming scheme that was recorded in her book.
