Somewhere deep in Elkay’s new library, Kohra could hear crying. Akusasiiri had heard the crying first, but she was in the middle of a meeting with Elkay and some patrons, working out how to add an art gallery to the library. Kohra didn’t have anything to add to that meeting, so Elkay had sent Kohra off to find the source, after he’d finished his homework.
Luckily, Spasts had good hearing. Not as good as Athrens, but still good enough. And Kohra had quickly tracked down the source. The crying was coming from a back room, which only seemed to contain cleaning equipment. The door was also locked, but from the outside, so Kohra wasn’t sure how anyone had gotten inside.
The door wasn’t an obstacle for Kohra though. While he did hate shapeshifting his whole body, turning one of his fingers into a key to unlock the door wasn’t any trouble at all. However, Kohra didn’t open the door straight away. He knocked first, letting whoever was inside know he was there before actually unlocking the door. And, immediately, the crying stopped.
“Hey, whoever’s there, are you okay?”
Sniffles could be heard, followed by rummaging around. Someone staggered to their feet, then made their way over to the door. They tugged at the handle but seemed unable to open the door from their side. Kohra decided to just unlock the door and see who was there.
“Oh… Hello, Litvir!” Kohra smiled as he opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
Litvir rubbed their eyes, then sniffed again. “I… I thought… I thought no one could hear me crying in here…”
“Akusasiiri is here, she heard you. But she’s busy right now, so I came to check on you…” Kohra paused briefly. “How did you get in here if the door was locked?”
“If I concentrate funny, I can walk through things.”
“Ah, I see… So, Litvir, what’s up?”
It took Litvir a moment to calm down and talk. “I… I… I failed a test and I feel very bad…”
Kohra glanced at Litvir, then inspected them a bit. Normally, Litvir wore a purple cape and silver armour, but right now, they were only wearing a purple loin cloth and stomach wrap. The rest of their armour and clothing had been thrown into a pile. Nearby was a bag of books, some sheets of paper and Litvir’s digital work book. The rest of the room consisted of boxes filled with dictionaries, for some reason, and Litvir had somewhat made a little nest for themselves.
“Have you been in here long?” Kohra asked.
“I… I do not know…” Litvir whimpered. “I failed a test… Am stupid baby again.”
Kohra thought for a moment. He’d failed tests before, but, while sure, he’d been sad, he wasn’t as distraught as Litvir was currently.
“It’s okay, Litvir. There are always more tests that you can do better on! It’s not the end of the world or the end of the universe.”
Litvir stepped back into the small room and sat back down. “I failed very bad. Might lose my gold coin. Everyone else will think I am a stupid baby too. Well, more than they already do.”
Kohra hesitated, then sat down next to Litvir, pulling the door shut. It occurred to Kohra that Litvir was literally double his height.
“Hey, you’re being mean to yourself!” Kohra frowned. “You’re not a stupid baby, you just failed one test. What was the test about anyway?”
Litvir sniffed a few times, wiping their snout with the back of their hand. “Was a history test. I missed the previous lesson because of stupid metal meanies. Meant I did not know anything on the test… Did lots of guessing. I am bad at guessing.”
“What sort of history?”
“Old history. Very old. How Rethans separated from Skyans. It was sad and bad and stuff. But I did not know. It is all new to me. Always thought Rethans and Skyans were friends. Everyone is friends with everyone now. But I did not know for the test. Am stupid.”
Kohra didn’t really know how to make Litvir feel better. “Can you, just… do the test again? I messed up one of my university projects but I did good enough in all the other projects. Good enough to cover up the bad project.”
“What project?” Litvir asked. “Like, library project Kyr Elkay is doing?”
“No, no, a project for my university studies. One assessment required me to do a project on my own, designing an application for a fictional taxi service, misread the assignment and made a generic taxi tracker thing rather than something a company would use.”
Litvir didn’t quite understand. “You failed because of that?”
“Nah, it just lowered my overall assessment scores!” Kohra remained chirpy. “And I’m sure it’s the same for you! One bad exam won’t hurt that bad at the end of the day.”
“But… I do not want to lose my gold coin.”
“What’s your gold coin?”
Litvir got up and picked up a belt from their pile of doffed armour. It was a thin, yellow belt with a small gold medallion attached to it. “This coin. Shows that I am smart. Smartest in class. Not any more though…”
“I’m sure it’s fine! But right now, do you have the marked exam? So we can look over it and see where you went wrong?”
Litvir sighed. They put their belt away, then rummaged through the pile of paper next to Litvir’s pile of armour. They quickly found what they were looking for and handed five sheets of paper to Kohra.
“Is this the marked test?” Kohra asked.
“Yes.”
Kohra inspected the first sheet of paper. Litvir’s handwriting wasn’t very good, but that was understandable, since Litvir was very, very young. At the top of the sheet was a score.
“You sure this is the test?”
Litvir nodded.
“Uh, you do realise that a D is a passing grade, yes?”
“Wait… what?” Litvir immediately stared at Kohra. “I… I thought… anything below C was bad!”
Kohra shrugged. “I mean, a D isn’t good, but it’s also not as bad as you think. I’m pretty sure that Rethan schools, or whatever you call them, they use the same marking scores as everyone else.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh…” Litvir fell silent for a bit, then quietly tidied up their stuff.
“Are you okay, Litvir?” Kohra asked again.
“Not really. Thought I was stupid baby. Turns out I am stupid baby in a different way.”
“You need to be a bit less harsh than yourself. It’s okay to get things wrong, it’s okay that you don’t always get good scores. Considering you missed the lesson before this pop quiz and you still passed, that means you’re smarter than you think.”
“I am?”
Kohra got up and patted Litvir on the shoulder. “Yeah. You’re doing fine.”
“I still feel stupid though.”
Kohra nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I know. I get that as well. We’re both kids, we have a lot to learn. As long as we don’t become ignorant or lazy, we’ll be fine.”
Litvir took a deep breath and slowly started to settle down.
“I understand now.”
“Good. See, you’re still learning!”
The conversation was interrupted by an alarm going off. Litvir glanced down at their wristband, then started gathering all their belongings.
“I have to go. Patrol time.”
“No worries. See you soon?”
Litvir frowned briefly, then nodded. “Yes. See you soon. Thank you.”
With a final sigh, Litvir turned invisible, then disappeared completely. Kohra sighed as well, then headed back to work himself.