Chapter 10

I just lay down on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Pernas walked in.

"Hey man." Pernas said as he walked in, as though nothing had happened. "Hey, why don't you put on one of the records?"

"Why don't you do it yourself?" I asked.

"I might scratch the records, and I don't want to blemish the quality of the sound." He said. "Now put on that record."

I reluctantly got up from my bed and walked over to the phonograph. Why, oh why did Pernas insist on bringing that thing? I took the record and placed it onto the device, placing the needle at the start. I walked back to my bed as the music started, and that baritone sang,

"Let beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,

Beauty awake from rest!

Let beauty awake for beauty's sake

In the hour when the birds awake in the brake

And the stars are bright in the west!"

"'Let beauty awake for beauty's sake?'" I asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What's wrong with beauty?" Pernas asked.

"Nothin'." I said. "It's just, well… beauty for beauty's sake? That kinda sounds shallow."

"Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,

Awake in the crimson eve!

In the day's dusk end

When the shades ascend,

Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend

To render again and receive!"

"That's not the point, though." Pernas said. "Beauty in this is an ideal. A perfect ideal. And the thing about ideals, is, well…" he stopped. "Sometimes they're the only things worth living for." He said at length, putting his head down. I sat up a bit, looking at him oddly. That didn't sound like him.

There was a knock at the door. "Justin?" said a voice. "Loryn wants to see you."

"Oh, wonderful." I said, walking out the door to go to her office. I get mad and I get in trouble, is that how it works?

Then I get to her office and it turns out that she isn't there. Great. Why tell me to come if you aren't there? Just to take up my time.

Then I spotted something on her desk. I walked over to it.

It was a comic book. It showed a man in black armor and a face-mask, titled "The Man in the Iron Mask."

An elf who reads comics? Really? That struck me as odd.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Loryn said, entering. She spotted me holding the comic book. "You read comics?"

"No." I said, putting it down. "Never been interested."

"Oh." She said. "Please, sit down."

"Just surprised me," I said, sitting down, "wouldn't expect an elf to-"

"We aren't a bunch of snobs." She said, her temperament becoming more serious. "We don't all subscribe to stereotypes."

"Uh-huh." I said, nodding. She looked at me with that 'you're not getting it' impression.

"Your outburst at dinner today wasn't very called for." Loryn said, getting to terms she thought I could follow. "It was rude."

"They were rude to me." I said indignantly. "I might not be that extraordinary, but I don't like being talked about like that. I don't like being talked down to."

"Justin…" Loryn said. "You should be better behaved than that. You're an adult."

"Well, you're not treating me like one." I said, folding my arms.

"You're not acting like one." Loryn said coolly.

"See how easy it is for you when you're dragon is out to drive you insane and you're being referred to as a monkey."

Loryn opened her mouth, but I continued talking.

"And it's not even that you're just condescending to me, I'm just here like a zoo exhibit _________________________________" I couldn't speak. I tried, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Justin, will you please let me talk?" She asked. I glared. "You're here for an assignment, and whatever Pernas does, we can't help that. If he refuses to be disciplined, there is only so much we can do. But that does not excuse him. Nor does it excuse you."

I simply ask to be treated with decency. I thought loudly.

"We haven't treated you with any lack of decency." She said. She smiled, trying to be nice. "If they were mean, it was only because they were joking."

I didn't say anything.

"And the dragons in the colony, you have to understand, you're their first human. They're bound to have all kinds of conceptions. You had conceptions, too, about elves and dragons?"

I guess. I said.

"You can talk now," Loryn reminded me. "I think we'd both rather I didn't need to use telepathy."

"Thank you." I said, glad I could speak again.

"Now, I understand things might be awkward, but you have to understand. Many of the dragons here have never met a human. Some of the elves, even, haven't met a human. But you have to be better than shouting at the dinner table. Do you understand?"

"I guess." I said, unconvinced.

She laughed quietly. "You may go now."

I got up and went back to my room.

Pernas looked up and asked, "so how much trouble are you in?"