Hawaiian Earth Spirit

After Classical Lit, Ami had to run across campus to Practical Applications.  She slipped into a desk in the middle of the room next to Grace and said “hello.”  Grace smiled and nodded, and then looked down intently at the syllabus.  Ami was curious enough to follow suit.  “Practical Applications of Folklore” was the official name on the sheet.  Ami was puzzled why that would be worth an hour course, but she read on. 

This is an informative class with personal study and lab work used for emphasis. 

                                Characteristics                     Talents                   Banes                     Tips for working with

Earth Spirits                          *                              *                              *                              *

Fairies/Fay                             *                              *                              *                              *

Water Spirits                        *                              *                              *                              *

Lycanthropes                         *                              *                              *                              *

Dragons                                  *                              *                              *                              *

Ami peaked over at Grace who was flipping the paper over trying to find more information.  Unfortunately, that was all there was.  Ami heard students exclaiming “you’ve gotta be kidding me” and “Is this a joke?”  One guy a couple rows up said “just you wait and see.”  He was about four feet tall and thin, with wild red hair and thick glasses.

Nalanie Cochran came in and stood in front of the teacher’s desk up front.  She was a beautiful, large Hawaiian woman with a warm smile.  She welcomed everyone in with open arms and asked that each student stand up and greet the class.  Ami swallowed hard and glanced at Grace.  She’d expected something embarrassing like this in her first hour and it hadn’t happened.  She needed to remember to thank Ms. Leveque for that.

The redhead called himself Zee, but a heckler told the class his name was Xavier Benedictus Norwood.  To avoid a similar fate, Ami gave her full name first and then her nickname.

After the class’s introductions, Nalanie introduced herself and then her TA, William Richmond.  Everyone looked back to see Will’s toothy grin at the back of the room.

“Lights please, Mr. Richmond.” Nalanie called.  “Let’s get this show on the road.”

The lights went out and a projector flicked on, showing a funny caricature of a four-inch tall gnome with a pointy red hat.  The class laughed out loud.  Ami wondered how this could possibly be practical.  The next slide was of the seven dwarves walking home from the mine.  The laughter this time was more subdued.  The third slide was a line drawing of a gorged, tusked monster in a loin cloth with a pick axe over his shoulder.  Reactions this time were mixed.  One of the guys a row up from Ami and Grace said it looked like Leon.  Ami tapped him on the shoulder and said, “No way, have you seen Boyd?  Now there’s an Ogre for you.”  He actually nodded at her in respect and passed on the joke.

When the class calmed a little, Nalanie cleared her throat.  “We’ve all grown up with different fairy tales and stories that we’ve learned, told by different people around the world, but how much did these stories actually teach us?  I think you will all be surprised at how much we can glean from the folklore of the past.  There is a great well of knowledge we can still use today.”

The slide changed again, and it was a photograph of Nalanie herself performing a Hula dance on a gorgeous sandy beach.  “Earth spirits are all around us whether or not we realize it.”  Suddenly the class was silent.