Becoming a Dragon (32 page)

"Hi, Crystal," Jenna said brightly as her cousin entered the classroom. "When did you get back?"

"Last night," Crystal replied, sitting down next to her. "We landed just before sunset. Mother was getting anxious that we wouldn't make it in time and kept on about how she should have carried me instead of letting me fly the whole way, but she was fussing over nothing. What about you?"

"The day before. I went to your house to see if you were back, but your maid said you hadn't arrived yet. I was a bit bored."

"No Arthur?" Crystal knew she hadn't been Jenna's first choice.

Jenna shrugged. "He was out all day. I hope he's not going off me. I would have thought he'd have visited as soon as I got back."

"I see Daisy left for school without him," Crystal commented, glancing over at where Daisy was sat chatting enthusiastically to John.

"Yes, I see that hasn't ended yet. I would have thought she would be bored of him by now. Look at her. Sickening, isn't she? She's hanging on every word he says."

"No worse than you with Arthur," Crystal countered. "Besides, I think it's nice. She seems much happier now. She always looked a little uncomfortable last term, as if she didn't feel like she fitted in."

"I only pretend to be interested in what Arthur says," Jenna argued. "I'm not listening to him half of the time. That silly girl is actually enthralled by every dull word that weirdo says. He'd send me to sleep in seconds. So, tell me, what did you do over the holidays? Did anything interesting happen?"

"We spent almost all of it in the country, at our other house. The weather was perfect, much warmer than it should be, and we did a lot of walking and swimming and picnics with my parents."

"Sounds very exciting," Jenna said drolly.

"Don't be like that. It was nice. You should come sometime; it's been ages since you've visited us there. I bet Arthur would love it."

Jenna brightened. "That is a good idea. Much better than camping again!" She frowned. "We'd have to invite
him
though. Arthur means Daisy, and Daisy means John. She won't allow us to exclude him this time. Do you think you could you stand it?"

Crystal laughed. "I told you, I've agreed to have tuition from him. I'll have to get used to standing him."

"Yes, although I still can't understand why you've agreed to that. I know you feel like you owe him, but this is taking it too far. Why Daisy allows it I don't know. Well, I do; it's because she's simple."

"Oh, leave her alone; here comes your Arthur."

Arthur and Seth had just walked into the classroom and sat down on the desks in front of them. Jenna was immediately transformed, smiling brightly and fluttering her eyes at Arthur.

"Good holiday, Crystal?" Seth asked.

"Lovely, thanks Seth," Crystal replied. "We spent it in the countryside to the east of the southern principality. My parents have a house there."

"Crystal was just telling me about it," Jenna gushed enthusiastically. "It sounds lovely. We could all go there for a weekend sometime. A change from camping."

Arthur shrugged. "Might be good fun, I guess. I'll talk to Daisy about it."

"Sit down, class," Professor Silver said loudly as he entered the room. Crystal and Seth quickly returned to their own desks. "I have a few announcements to make. Firstly, your new timetable is up on the notice board. A number of existing lessons have been rearranged, so you will be having history and flying this afternoon. You'll notice that ground combat has been added to your curriculum."

"Will John be teaching that as well, sir?" Seth asked.

"No, Bragon; he won't, and don't interrupt. Secondly, there is a history trip planned for the end of term. We will be going to Oldcastle for a whole week. It's a compulsory trip, so everyone will be going. We will give you more details as we get nearer to the time, but you should let your parents know now."

"Is this something new, sir?" Daisy asked. "No one has mentioned it before."

"Yes, it's a new trip. The headmaster would like you to experience what you're taught, to see the places you read about. There will be a fee of course, but I don't know the details yet."

"What about the poorer students among us?" Daniel asked with mock sympathy. "I'd hate to think they'd miss out just because they couldn't afford to come."

"Compulsory trip, Thorne; please don't make me repeat myself. As for affordability, that's really not my concern and I doubt that'll be an issue for most of you."

John said nothing but burned red at the snide comments. Daisy glared at Daniel, furious with him, and was about to respond but was silenced by a look from John.

"Why didn't you let me say anything?" she asked him as she walked with him, Seth and Crystal to their next class. "You shouldn't have to put up with comments like that. I know he's rude about me behind my back, but he wouldn't dare say anything to my face. He's from the West, remember? He wouldn't dare publicly insult me to my face. It would get back to his father very quickly, who would have to apologise to my grandfather."

"It would get back to your parents that you had defended me," John argued. "It wouldn't take them too long to work out why. But seriously, Daisy, Thorne doesn't bother me any more. And Silver won't last past the end of the year, so I don't care about him either."

"How do you know that?" Crystal asked. "Did the Headmaster tell you?"

John shrugged evasively, coming to a halt outside the tower. "I have to leave you here, I'm afraid. I'm no longer taking history."

Daisy frowned, looking a little surprised. "But it's compulsory; everyone takes it. Why aren't you taking it? You're still coming on the school trip, aren't you?"

John nodded. "It's a mutual agreement. The Professor hates me, I think he's worse than useless, and everyone else concerned thinks history lessons for someone who has read most of the books in the military library are a misuse of my time. The Keeper and the Headmaster discussed it, and they want me to spend my time reviewing our course books and helping to propose some changes for next year."

"Wow," Seth said with a chuckle. "Any chance you can get the rest of us out of the lesson too?"

"Doesn't the Professor mind?" Crystal asked. "I mean, isn't that his job?"

John shook his head. "He's not staying next year. I'm not sure whether that's his idea or the headmaster's, but this will be his last year. He made some complaints about me to the headmaster and made the mistake of giving some specific examples of how I had questioned his authority on a topic. This came back to haunt him, as it highlighted a number of things that he had got very wrong. I can't say the headmaster was too impressed."

"Oh, well done!" Daisy said. "What things had he got wrong? Can you tell us?"

"Sure, I can tell you sometime, but not now or you'll be late. I don't want you getting in trouble due to me. I'll see you at flying lessons."

"This is my favourite part!" Crystal snapped out of her daydream and saw Daisy standing next to her in the changing room.

"Sorry, Daisy, what were you saying?"

"This is my favourite part about being a dragon. Transforming! I used to be really shy about my body, but it's different when I change into a dragon. We're all the same then, aren't we?"

Crystal quickly looked away in embarrassment as Daisy shed her clothes, her inhibitions appearing to have vanished completely. Crystal replied while looking away. "But we're not all the same are we? I know we don't look that different, but I can recognize everyone I know when they're a dragon without having to think about it."

"You're right," Daisy agreed. "But I would have never believed it before. I could never tell even my mother and father apart when they were dragons. But now, it's so easy."

"I could recognise my mother by her screech alone," Crystal replied. "Somehow it sounded just like 'Crystal!'"

Daisy giggled. "Were you very naughty as a child then?"

"I suppose so. Not as bad as Jenna though. I expect you were very well behaved."

Crystal caught a glimpse of Daisy nodding. "I was too scared to misbehave. I used to cry if mother or father shouted at me. They didn't do it very often though. Arthur would often take the blame for me if I had done something wrong, and Gerald would always stand up for me. I used to cry even more when Arthur was punished for something I did though so I ended up always doing my best not to misbehave. I expect I must sound like I was a very dull child. Come on, shall we transform? I love watching the scales form."

Crystal turned to see Daisy standing completely naked in front of her and looked away again. She couldn't help thinking to herself that she wouldn't feel so self-conscious either if she had Daisy's figure. Daisy transformed quite quickly, and screeched excitedly as soon as she was finished. She gave a last look at Crystal, urging her to follow, before rushing through the doors to the outside. Left alone in the changing room, Crystal removed her own clothes and began her transformation.

Welcome students,
John began, his voice sounding warmly in everyone's minds as they gathered around him, all one-hundred-and-twenty-four young dragons, sat patiently waiting for the lesson to start
. This term, we will be moving onto learning some basic aerial combat. We will begin with the use of fire.

Oh, John, do we have to?
It was Neil, a boy from the south who sat behind Daisy in class. He was a loud but likable student, who was clearly unimpressed by this choice.
It's completely pointless.

John gazed at him for a moment.
Care to expand on that, Neil?

John couldn't intimidate anyone of the students in the class, who all still saw him as one of their peers, so he didn't even try. Neil answered without hesitation.

Yes, we can't hurt each other with fire, and our enemies are not vulnerable to our fire either. The Rhino Dragons are completely fireproof, and the Blue Dragons are hardly affected at all. It's a complete waste of time, and there's no practical use for it. Not as a weapon anyway.

There were murmurs of ascent throughout the class. John paused before replying.
I see you are not alone in your opinions, Neil. Thank you for sharing. Perhaps you would be willing to back up your words and put them to the test?

Neil hesitated, not quite so confident now.
What sort of test?
he asked cautiously, tipping his scaly head to one side.

John turned away from the class, peering over the edge of the amphitheatre with his long neck.
Just a test of whether there is any practical use for fire. You see, although I am bound by the syllabus, and have to teach you this anyway, I actually agree with the decision to include fire, so I can't agree with your view. Perhaps I can persuade you to side with me. Do you agree to participate in a little test?

Alright,
Neil replied reluctantly.
I'll do it.

Excellent. Now, some of what you said is true, if you limit it to our fire. Rhino Dragons are indeed completely unaffected by it, and I suspect that they may even enjoy the gentle warming. But ours is far from the hottest, and there are dragons that could incinerate a Rhino Dragon in seconds, given the opportunity.

What rubbish!
Jenna was outraged, little wisps of flame streaming involuntarily from her nostrils.
There's no such dragon! We'd have heard of it.

I'll thank you not to interrupt my class, Jenna, unless you wish to spend an evening in detention. There is such a dragon, although so rare, that you are not likely to ever meet it, their number thankfully being very low.

Who does he think he is?
Jenna said softly to Crystal, fuming angrily at his rebuke.

Moving on to our little test
, John continued.
Last term Professor Stone taught you a number of basic manoeuvres, which you all managed to perform admirably by the end of term.

John took off and glided to the bottom of the amphitheatre, landing on a perch he had set up while the class had been transforming. The class advanced forwards to the edge of the grass at the top of the amphitheatre to see what he was doing. The amphitheatre had been set up for an exercise that they had mastered some weeks before the end of term; picking up one of a number of objects and then landing on a narrow perch, using just their rear legs to land while still grasping the object in their front legs.

Do you all remember this task?
John asked, still seated on the perch. The class responded with a vague confirmation.
Excellent,
John replied, ignoring their complete lack of enthusiasm.
You'll see that I have two perches set up. I'll sit on this one while you perform the task. Neil, I'd like you to glide down, pick up that metal crate, and then land on the other perch. Do you think you can manage that?

Of course,
Neil replied confidently.
Why are we doing this again? It's hardly difficult.

Took you long enough the first time, fat boy,
Joel muttered.

Enough!
John commanded.
Neil, begin!