Chapter 9

Literal Fauna

Bolt followed Swift to his Literature class with either Volteer or Aurora, slightly concerned about understanding Volteer. Whenever Volteer gets somewhat excited, he uses multiple words that have the same meaning or their scientific jargons. Bolt can understand most of what Volteer says, but only to a point. His main concern is being able to understand Saurtrinian the written language of dragons named after Suarandur, the language's creator. Bolt hadn't read his books yet and only knew what he got because Spyro and Cynder read the titles of the books for him. Once they've arrived at the class room Bolt and Swift separated as before as Bolt went inside the classroom. A few dragons were already inside, the walls on both sides of the room were lined with shelves filled with books from back to front top to bottom. Every desk was a writing desk with a dragon's writing tool on each of them. The writing tool was glove-like with the "index" claw designed like an old fashioned quill. Basically dragons wrote with their claws, but not directly, it would stain their claws too much with un-washable ink. Bolt decided to sit next to a dragoness near the front of the classroom. She had pearl white scales, yellow horns that curved inward, a crescent shaped tail blade, indigo underbelly, light blue eyes, slightly pointed snout, and pinkish translucent wing membranes.

"Hello my name is Bolt." He introduced himself,

"Hi, mine's Angel." she replied,

"Can I sit here?" he asked indicating the seat to Angel's left.

"Sure, go ahead."

"You're a light dragon right?"

"Yep, yourself?"

"Not a clue yet. Um can you read and write?" he asked awkwardly

"Yes," Angel chuckled, "I guess you need some help with it?"

Bolt nodded his head pitifully.

Angel laughed a bit harder "I'm sorry I shouldn't be laughing at someone with your problem. I'll be more than happy to help you out."

"Thanks."

As their classroom filled up, their teacher walked in. It was Volteer, Bolt braced his brain to translate "Volteerian".

"Please be seated everyone." said Volteer as he stepped behind his desk at the front of the classroom. "I'm quite certain that you are all very excited, thrilled, flabbergasted to begin the historical literary, composition, art form of our most prestigious culture in this meeting." [Translation; I sure everybody is very anxious to begin their first writing class today.] "We will begin our studies by…." And with that, Bolt listened to Volteer's electric tongue for the next hour and a half with Angel helping him every possible moment. [What did ya think I was going to make ya listen to Volteer yap on for most of the lecture? Think again!] Then the bell rang ending Volteer's class and signaling the students to change classes. "That will be all for today young ones. We will continue on from here tomorrow."

"See you later Angel and thanks for your help." said Bolt,

"No problem, shall we meet later so I can help you some more?" Angel asked,

"That would be great thanks." He said as he left the classroom to meet up with Swift for his next class.

"How was your class Bolt?" asked Swift

"In short, one big headache." He replied.

Swift chuckled as he led Bolt to his next class near the greenhouses at the back of the temple. By the time they arrived at the classroom area it was almost time for class. Once again Swift and Bolt parted ways as Bolt went inside. Most of the students were already there, which made it difficult for Bolt to find a seat right away. While Bolt was looking for a seat he tripped over something, he looked to see what he tripped over only to briefly see someone's tail slip back to where it should be. As he did, Bolt heard three dragons behind him laughing; he got up and turned his head around the other way to see who was laughing. The first dragon, was the one whom Bolt guessed was the one who tripped him, was a wood dragon with dark brown scales, pine green underside and wing membrane , thick horns pointed forward, like an animated bull's horns, a round snout that's somewhat stubby, yellow eyes, and a spiny tail blade. The second one was a water dragon with navy blue scales, aqua green underside, rounded snout, green eyes, long quill-like spines behind his head, a large spiny dorsal and tail fins, and an over-all bulky body. The last one was a metal dragon with large plates on his head instead of horns, red eyes, long pointed snout, steel grey scales, dark grey underside and wing membrane, long sharp talons on his wing joints, and an axe for a tail blade. The wood dragon was the first to speak over their little "prank",

"Now that was funny, right Abyss?" the wood dragon asked the water dragon next to him,

"Sure was Trent, how about you think Steel?" Abyss asked the metal dragon sitting next to him,

"Classic, pure classic Trent! Hahahaha!" Steel said as he laughed some more.

Bolt could tell that this trio was most likely amongst the "bully" crowed; fortunately he had some experience with bullies, but was unsure if his knowledge would help him here.

"Oh sure really funny, did you think of that yourself or did the birds nesting in your head give you the idea?" Bolt shot at Trent. The three dragon, who were larger than Bolt, were stunned by what they heard, Trent in particular.

"Well, now this pup has some spine under his scales, eh? What's your name anyways?" asked Trent.

"My name is Bolt, and don't think that I'll be an easy target for you over sized trolls to knock around."

Trent and his buddies growled at him, but before they could do anything their teacher walked in distracting Trent and his buddies. While they were distracted Bolt turned and found a seat away from the three dragons, Trent eyed him as he took the seat. The teacher took his place in front of the class and spoke;

"Greetings everyone, to our new comers my name is Pinarus. In today's lesson we will be discussing this type of creature." Pinarus turned to the cage that was being brought in by two moles. The creature was a variety of wolf from Bolt's initial guess. However, this was no regular wolf, it had stones covering its' back with parts of moss green fur peeking out from between the stones, a flat, round face very sharp-looking teeth and claws, and no visible tail. Bolt had a hunch that this creature might be able to curl into a ball and roll into its' prey.

"This is called a Gravos Hound. They live in mild climate plains and grasslands; they migrate to other areas when heavy rainfall is fast approaching. They hunt in packs and use their natural ability to curl into a ball to ambush their prey by looking like moss covered boulders. Sometimes they do crash into their prey or each other when they start rolling." explained Pinarus.

The Gravos shook its head and tried to bite the cage bars. When that didn't work it tried to ram to cage to break free.

"Now don't be alarmed, it can't escape that easily. Now can anyone what the Gravos might not be good at?" Pinarus asked his students.

A green earth dragoness raised her wing and guessed, "It's not good at swimming?"

"Correct, they do not possess the ability to swim very well for due to their mass for they are unable to remain afloat in the water for more than a few seconds. Can anyone notice something else about the Gravos?"

Bolt took a long hard look at the Gravos and noticed how short and stalky its legs were and decided to take a guess and raised his wing,

"They can't run very fast or very far normally?" Bolt guessed.

"Yes precisely correct young one! Due to their short legs they are unable to run very well at all so they normally roll after their prey instead of running and chasing after them. Additionally their eyesight, however, is very sharp and can see through dust storms as if it was broad daylight." Pinarus explained. "They have a unique toxin in their fangs that causes paralysis in their victims upon being bitten. The effects are only immediate upon where the victim was bitten and the effects are only temporary; therefore it takes several bites for the victim to be completely paralyzed for a period of time."

A fire dragon raised his wing and asked, "Is there a cure or treatment for the paralyzed victim?"

"There is in fact. The best cure for a paralyzed person by the Gravos' bite is the Fellvus plant which is the next part of this lesson." answered Pinarus as he turned his head the other way toward a potted vine. The vine itself was purple, but the leaves were red near the center and orange around the edges.

"This is the Fellvus vine; they grow in humid jungle environments. To administer the antidote for Gravos bite one must first crush the leaves of the Fellvus into a powdery form then add a certain amount of water and healing herbs to turn the powder into a slave then apply the slave onto the wound for minor paralysis. For full body paralysis the solution must be in a liquid form and poured into the victim's mouth for proper healing effects." Pinarus explained "It takes several minutes for the liquid medicine to take effect, but once it has the patient will experience stiffness and a pounding headache for a day or two."

The rest of the class session went on as thus; the first half went over a creature while the second half went over a plant(s) that counter-acted the creature's venom, if it had any, drove them away, or rendered them harmless. Once the class was dismissed Bolt turned to leave when Trent and his buddies blocked his path.

"You better watch your back Bolt, cuz if ya don't something bad just might happen. Not that we had a claw in it, but accidents do happen every now and then." said Trent,

"Yeah you never know what could happen as the day goes by." said Abyss.

"No idea at all." Steel added.

"Oh I'll be careful, careful to not fall for your boasts. You should be careful or you'll be kicked out of this academy bub." Bolt shot back as he pushed past Trent and the others. As he left he heard Trent growl behind him. Bolt had a feeling that Trent and his buddies might try and pull something. He was confident that he could avoid whatever they could try and do, after all of the pranks that his friend Teresa pulled, he was confident that he could handle anything those amateurs could pull. He met up with Swift outside the classroom and they left for Bolt's final class for the day.

[A/N: Hey Fanfiction readers and writers! Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, please R&R, and the next chapter will be posted soon!