He took the piece of paper and stared at it. "That's all fine," he said. "But how do I start to learn how those make up—" he struggled to grasp the concept, "the meaning?"

So far his way of writing and reading was relegated to recognizing the shapes of words by their first and last letters and vaguely their length. He knew what an 'and' looked like in most styles of writing, as did he recognize a number of words by memory. As soon as he was met with something new it was no use, and he had no idea how to get around that. He could not possibly memorize all the words there were in this language?

He looked hopelessly at Violetta's enthusiastic face.

Leonard took the practice sheet and started tracing the first letter.

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