Flury was not happy, to say the least. He had spent the last few hours staring at the barstool that was Wizard Wermacht, trying to force him to become a human again. Maybe he really was a barstool. Flury couldn't be sure, and Querida had made it clear to him that Wermacht's family was not happy with their new barstool relative. Flury sighed and pressed again at the vaguely conscious barstool. No luck.
Flury stretched his mud-brown wings irritably and left the bar. The lovely golden Elda and her group of friends were all sitting at the vacant pedestal where Wizard Policant's statue had once stood. Wizard Policant himself crossed the courtyard of the University toting a large pile of books, and Elda's group became quiet and respectful, save for the dwarf Ruskin, who continued talking in his grinding voice.
"Like I said, Elda, it doesn't do any good to be sad about it. Don was bound to marry eventually," the dwarf boomed. Policant entered the main building.
"Yes, but that makes four of my sisters and brothers. Callette, Lydda, Shona, and now Don," the golden griffin said sadly, ticking her siblings off on her talon.
"But he had such a big fan club. He was bound to like one of them, you know." Claudia said, putting an arm around Elda's fluffy neck. "You don't need to be so depressed."
"It's just that all the griffins got married on the other continent, and didn't tell me till afterwards. It's depressing."
"Look at it this way Elda," Lukin said, "you can get married too someday, and then you can make all of them feel bad." Elda simply crouched and looked sullen. Flury took wing suddenly, and the six students watched him soar over the various buildings of the University and out of sight.
Elda was depressed? Flury was the one who was depressed. She never seemed to spare a second glance for him, and only took time to ask him for help with her essays and whatnot. But that was only because he was a fellow griffin, not someone she was in love with. Yes, now that was depressing. He tossed his head and turned towards Derkholm, flapping laboriously because he hadn't flown in at least two weeks. As he flew over the rolling hills and valleys that had been restored by Querida, he thought about what he had to live up to. Elda was the sister of Kit, a famously renowned griffin wizard, and Don, the most perfect griffin to ever emerge upon the world. Yes, living up to those two would take some work. But as he thought about it, he realized that he was a renowned wizard too. The great Wizard Flurian Atreck, champion of the griffin magic users. Sure. Like he was a champion of anyone. The title simply depressed the already depressed griffin further, and he noticed that he was flying off course. As he veered further in the right direction, he saw that he was not flying alone. Another griffin shape was approaching him; Kit probably.
"Flury!" Kit shouted, swerving towards Flury. "Any luck with that sister of mine?"
"Not really. I think she detests me, personally."
"She doesn't detest you." Kit shouted back. "Elda acts like that towards all the teachers, doesn't she?"
"Yes, but I'm not really your traditional teacher, Kit."
"Elda can be quite stupid about her feelings Flury, so don't look so depressed."
"That's what Blade keeps telling me, too, you know. He's not having much luck with Claudia either, though." Flury told Kit. He did not think the Kit was going to be much help.
"Blade's tactless, that's why. He's like Elda: he doesn't express his feelings very well." Kit said, nodding. They were approaching Derkholm now, and a small herd of sheep was gathered around the stables. "Maybe you're just not open enough to her about your feelings, Flury. Drop hints, or something."
"It could be. But that would be terribly embarrassing for a world renowned wizard to be in love with one of his students; or at least for people to know about it."
"You're not that famous, Flury," Kit said grinning. "Nor do you have much tact when it comes to ladies." Derkholm's enormous veranda approached, its magical guard spell shimmering in the sunlight. The two griffins landed together, and Blade and Derk came running out to greet them.
Blade grinned. "Come for more advice on my sister, Flury?"
"Not today. I need to talk to your father, though." Flury said, embarrassed. He became about the size of Elda, rather than the large griffin that he really was.
Kit looked at him through one eye. "Don't get small like that. There's no need to be embarrassed. Blade consults quite often with Titus about Claudia, you know."
"I do, don't I?" Blade said, rubbing the back of his head. Flury felt even more pathetic.
"I'm NOT consulting anyone except Derk!" Flury said, becoming medium-sized.
"Don't get so defensive, Flury!" Derk laughed. The all took a place on Derkholm's enlarged terrace, and had a long conversation: about Elda, then Luteria, then Flury's new genetics lesson that Derk could help with, then Querida, and a whole host of other things. A lot of time passed, and afternoon phased into evening.
"Oh dear. The sun's setting, and I have to get back to the University." Flury stretched and flapped his wings a bit. He hoped that Elda would not get wind of his visit to Derkholm, either.
"Come back soon Flury. I'll have all sorts of things to talk to you about." Derk said. Flury did not doubt it.
"All of us'll have something to say to you, don't worry." Blade said, yawning.
"See you, Flury." Kit said. Flury nodded and took off in a flurry of brown feathers, waving a talon at the three famous wizards. Kit was right, Flury had no standing in this place when it came to fame.
In the hour it took to reach the University, Flury had not stopped thinking about Elda: the sappy thoughts that seemed to occupy his mind rather often lately. However, every so often a vision of Elda looking absolutely disgusted also entered his mind. He knew he should be thinking about teacher-ly things, but he just couldn't get her off his mind. However, he'd be teaching his students Dragonlore tomorrow, and he'd give them notes on Deucalion and all of the other famous dragons, and he could try and impress Elda with his knowledge. But he knew that that sort of thing didn't impress Elda, and that Elda already knew quite a bit about Deucalion anyway. She knew him personally, in fact.
He looked into the distance, and spotted a dragon winging through the sky. It was quite big, and gleamed golden and white in the setting sun. It was quite far away, but it still spotted Flury speeding through the sky towards the University. It swerved gracefully towards him, and looked at him quizzically.
"You're a pretty big cat-bird." The female dragon boomed. Flury could see now that it was female: it looked slender and serpent-like. Flury immediately made himself smaller.
"No need to be frightened! I was just curious. The cat-bird that I see flying all the time is so very small." She said craning her neck to look at him. "What kind of peculiar wizard are you? I can sense a lot of strong magic coming from you. It's very dtrange magic, though."
"My name is Flurian Atreck. I'm from the other continent, where the griffins live. Why do you call me a cat-bird?" he asked, meeting her gaze with one eagle eye.
"I've heard of a Wizard Flurian, but I'd no idea you were a cat-bird!" she laughed, "I call you that because it's what you strange creatures look like."
"I suppose so. You dragons are big enough to know that you can get away with calling us anything you want," he said irritably.
"I wasn't trying to offend you, wizard! How serious you are!" she said. She seemed carefree.
"Yes, well…" Flury trailed off. The University was fast approaching.
"By the way, I'm called Bolero. I'd like to talk to a wizard like you again." She pointed a huge claw at a nearby valley. "I live over there. Come visit sometime."
"I'll try," Flury sighed. He began to land in the courtyard, and Bolero swept over him in a huge black shadow and a gust of wind. He clacked to a halt on the cobblestones, and saw that Wizard Finn was rushing across to meet him.
"What is it, Finn?" Flury growled.
"That dragon," the wizard replied, pointing towards the sky, "it stole a large amount of gold from a passing caravan today!"
"What of it?" Flury said, looking at Finn. He wanted to go rest in peace and think about Elda. "Dragons steal gold. It's not anything new. I'm going to bed." He was surprised at his own daring in being angry. He did not usually have outbursts like this.
"I just thought you should know! Querida's not going be happy: the gold was payment to the University from the Emir!" Finn shouted back. Flury turned back and simply glared at him.
"It's not my problem, Finn. Go to bed." With that, Flury turned and went to his room, which had once been a row of inaccessible stables. He collapsed onto the huge pile of cushions he used for a bed, and checked his lesson plans briefly.
His head snapped up as he heard a great bellow from the sky. He stretched his wings again and ran outside. Elda was in the middle of the air, in a fighting match with a young dragon. She had no chance against a dragon; even with her magical abilities, Flury knew. He took of in great sweeping circles and rose towards the fight. He summoned as much magic as he could find, knocked Elda out the way, and unleashed a burst of ice at the dragon. Elda fell and tried to get away, but the half-frozen dragon stretched a talon and grabbed her, flying away and blocking Flury's magic as it went.
Flury plummeted towards the ground as the physical force of the dragon's magic hit him, and fell in a heap on the dark cobblestones.
"Flury!" Finn and Umberto shouted as they huffed and puffed towards him. Flury lifted his head in a daze, and then collapsed into unconsciousness.