And now we're officially in season 2. Fair warning, I have a hard time writing Lori, so her appearances are minor. Also, today is a double post!
Shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!
Fact #10: Dragons are fascinating to study.
Season: Early Season 2
"Why are we here, again?"
"What?"
"No, not what. Why. Why are we here?"
"Because Lori needed to take this class."
"I understand that part. She's new to the island so she's required to take it. But why are we here?"
"Because the new Governor thought that we needed a refresher, too."
"Gentlemen, if you please," Miss Kalawai'a crossed her arms over her chest and stared at them, like the first-grade teacher that had finally had enough with the class clown.
"Sorry, ma'am," Steve apologized, sighing in relief when she continued with her lecture instead of kicking him and Danny out.
Chin shot them a glance over his shoulder from the table in front of them where he was sat with their new hire, or babysitter as Steve had first said. Steve and Danny shared the third table back from the front of the room. Behind them sat two young, fresh out of the academy HPD officers while two older HPD officers sat in the table in front of Chin and Lori. The four tables to their right held officers and agents from the Big Island as well as the mainland.
Danny fidgeted in his seat. "I just took a class like this when I first moved to the island. I'm not due for a refresher for another six months."
"It'll be the first one I've taken since I got kicked off the force," Chin said.
"It's been a while for me, too," Lori had just finished scribbling a sentence on a piece of paper.
"We had to take courses every year in the Navy," Steve said.
"But I had to tell Grace that I wouldn't be able to pick her up from school and that I would have to get her from Rachel's house later," Danny tapped his pencil on the notebook in front of him.
"Sorry, bud, it's the only one they're teaching for a while," Steve shrugged. "The Governor told me it wasn't a suggestion."
"I'll tell you what I'd like to tell the Governor-"
"Since the pair of you back there seem to be so chatty, maybe you can answer the question," Miss Kalawai'a said loudly.
Just like high school, Danny thought miserably as almost every person turned to look at him and his partner. That's what he got for not paying attention. At least Steve was in hot water with him, too.
The instructor smirked, something that looked smug and a bit cruel on the stern Hawaiian woman's face. "Would you like me to repeat the question?"
"Sorry, ma'am, I was trying to explain something to my partner here," Steve said. "You see, he has a short attention span."
Danny sat back in his chair and laughed. "Me? This animal can't go two minutes without blowing something up or thinking about blowing something up."
"The Governor warned me that his Five-0 Taskforce was going to be taking my class. He tells me that you're good people, but a little unorthodox," Miss Kalawai'a swept her eyes across the rest of the class. "What do you think? Should I repeat the question and see if this famous team is as good as they claim to be? Or maybe they won't hold up under scrutiny."
This woman was nuts. Danny wasn't sure if he admired her take no prisoners attitude or was irritated that it was being directed at them and that she had made them the center of attention. The two young rookies behind them were snickering at their discomfort while the two older officers shook their heads. The off-islanders seemed confused as to why this was so interesting to the others.
"If you had been paying attention, we were discussing why it's important to be able to differentiate between all of the dragon types. The scenario I gave was that you're in the field and your perp pulls a complete and total shift on you. Now, your intel says that he was known to be Amphibious, so you're prepared to take on an Amphibian. This is what's staring you down," Miss Kalawai'a held up a photo that appeared to have been taken from a bodycam. "What do you do?"
"First off, I wouldn't go with whatever I was going to use to fight and contain an Amphibian," Steve said. "You may have been able to herd him away from the water to prevent a quick getaway, but you need to keep him away from trees and buildings. I would personally dump whoever gave me my intel because that is an Arboreal dragon."
"Very good, Commander," Miss Kalawai'a nodded. "Most officers have a difficult time telling the two apart."
"Arboreals have gliding wings while Amphibians just have fins," Steve pointed out, sounding like the one student that had actually done the homework.
One of the rookies behind them spoke up. "Would a normal firearm be enough to stop an Amphibian or an Arboreal, or would you need something bigger and more specialized?"
"Excellent question, Lee," Miss Kalawai'a stalked towards the desk placed at the front of the room as she talked. "We will get into what weapons are effective against all of the types later this afternoon and examine some ballistics and crime scene photos, but right now we're going to start going over anatomy."
"They didn't teach anatomy at the last class I was in," Lori said quietly. "Only basic defensive maneuvers and identifying types."
"This is like high school human physiology all over again," Danny cringed.
"Couldn't cut the grades?" Steve teased and nudged his knee under the table.
"No, I did fine, thank you. The teacher was awful. I don't know how many times I had to reprint papers and rewrite homework because he 'lost' them," Danny made air quotes with his index fingers. "I almost got kicked off the baseball team because he misplaced an essay I knew that I had turned in."
"Detective Williams," Miss Kalawai'a called from where she stood behind the desk.
Danny ran a hand down his face and firmly stomped on his partner's foot when he started to laugh. "Yes, Miss?"
"Can you tell me what this is?" she held up a specimen jar.
He squinted and took a risk. "A jar of pickled beets?"
A few other students chuckled and then got quiet as Miss Kalawai'a leveled them with a glare. She was definitely evoking the first-grade teacher on her last nerve now.
"Sorry for that, I couldn't help it. It reminded me of when my ma tried canning for the first time and let's just say that, yeesh, it didn't look too pretty," Danny earned a few more chuckles. "That is actually a jar of pickled tongue."
"From what? The elusive Root Vegetable dragon?" one of the agents from the right side of the room suggested. A few more laughs.
"Drake," Danny corrected. "None of the other types have that deep red color on their tongues."
Miss Kalawai'a exhaled slowly. "If you're all done joking, we can pass around these jars and get an up-close look. And before anyone asks, all of the organs and bones we will be looking at were collected from people that had donated their bodies to science."
There were ten jars in total, though it appeared that at least three of them had non-dragon tongues in them. Probably had human, dog, and lizard or creatures close to that to make a comparison with. Their instructor placed five of the jars on the front left table and the other five on the front right table.
"You ever meet any dragons in the field, Lori?" Steve asked, since now seemed to be an okay time to talk. At least, several others were talking so maybe they wouldn't get singled out again.
Lori nodded. "One of those kidnapping cases that I told you about. It went south because we didn't know that the kidnapper was a dragon. We found a location and went there to get the girl, but it went sideways as soon as we stepped foot on the property."
"What happened?" Danny asked. The three Five-0 members leaned in, eager to learn anything about this new hire that had been forced on them.
"He shifted when he saw us and the girl was killed in the crossfire. I'll never forget his face, though," Lori said. She glanced at the jars making their way towards them, brows lowering. "Or his tongue. All long and slimy and blue."
"A tree climber?" Chin asked.
"Dunno. I think the ME determined he was a crossbreed, but we couldn't locate any family to confirm or deny that," she said.
Chin handed back one of the jars after he and Lori had seen it. Danny held the jar between him and Steve. He made a face at the rounded and pale fleshy colored tongue inside. It was easily twice the size of his palm, originally having been smooth but was now wrinkled with preservatives. It had been in the mouth of an Amphibious dragon at one point.
"Is this what you meant when you've threatened to cut off my tongue?" he jabbed a finger at the jar.
"Hey, if I ever cut your tongue off I'll keep it in a jar on my desk if it'll make you happy," Steve said with a grin.
"Animal," he passed the jar to the rookies behind them.
Steve leaned in closer to him, whispering, "You think Lori's a bit creeped out by dragon tongues?"
"Steven, what did we talk about? Don't get the new girl shot, stabbed, or blown up, and definitely don't make her pull a taser on you because you thought you were being funny," Danny murmured.
"Catherine doesn't seem to mind," Steve laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his chair, smirking a classic McGarrett smirk at him.
Danny stuck his tongue out at him and for a brief moment Steve was sure the tip was forked and tinged with a scorched blue, but his partner turned his attention to the next jar set on their table before any prying eyes could notice.
"Admit it. This is a pretty interesting class," Steve sat forward again.
Danny snorted. "Well, any help I can get to learn how to make you listen to reason is welcome at this point."
The partners shared a look and a grin before joining in on Chin and Lori's conversation. This certainly was going to be an interesting class.
Well, I would like to take a dragon class. Seems like there would be some interesting things to learn, don't you think?
Tune in Thursday on "Dragons", where someone takes a shot at killing Five-0, but their dragonish nature leads to complications.
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