Alric
Voice softening a bit, Alric said, “Best try, kid, your teachers won't care about excuses if you fall asleep in class, trust me.” Turning, he quickly walked down the hall. Tellingly, he was so eager to get out of there that be didn't even correct the girl on his rank.
~~~
He hadn't had much sleep the night before, and now he was being asked to fill in and teach a class. The natural sciences was a subject he knew well, having devoted much of his time in Mayene to their study. Since coming to the Tower, he had rediscovered his love of the so subject. That however didn't mean he wanted to teach a class on it, especially when it was the first class of the day. That said, Alric wasn't a man of half measures and corner cutting. In the little time he had he went over the lesson plan and made sure to cover the key parts while doing his best not to be totally boring.
When the time came, Alric strode into the classroom with a text book under his arm, sword at his hip, and boots shined to a milky finish. He was ready to teach this class.
It took a surprising amount of effort to keep the oath from his lips. The girl from earlier, the one who had seen him in the Novice Quarters was sitting in the front row. Trying not to linger in her, he began the lesson.
“According to Melinda Sedai’s lesson plan, you're learning about birds of prey, in particular, owls….”
As a former officer, he well knew presentations could be boring. He did his best to keep the class engaged, going as far as to use light weaving to create larger versions of the diagrams and sketches from their text book.
“From observation in the wild as well as careful autopsy, scholars have worked hard to determine the mechanics behind, and the reason for the owl’s ability to rotate it's head to such a degree.”
“But why, Dedicated?” asked an Andoran Soldier sitting near the window, “Why do scientists care about such a silly thing as opposed to making crops grow or making a better plow?”
“Because it's bloody fascinating, Mathis,” Alric said propping himself on the front of the teacher's desk. “Sure this probably won't feed people, but wouldn't you like to know more about the world around you? Whether you believe in a Creator or not, this world is amazing. That's why we study it. Maybe in the process we'll learn about ourselves.”
The bell sounded and the students began scrambling to pack. Normally, Alric would have ordered the class to remain seated until he released them, but he as just as eager to be out of there as the rest of them. Once out in the hall, he found himself swept along in a sea of black and white uniforms. That wouldn’t have been a problem if people weren’t bottlenecked at the stairs, or if he wasn’t stuck beside the same bloody girl from this morning. Alric casually ignored her as he waited for the congested hallway to clear.