Entoma awoke in the morning still swaying from her web, and found Harold holding a dead bird. She couldn't smile on the outside, but on the inside, she was. She took it in hand and snacked down on it, the bird feathers went down smooth, but the bones crunched a little, but then it was all gone a moment later, her stomach growled a little.
"Harold?" She asked for his attention.
"Yesss?" He answered.
"Do you like me?" She asked as she hopped down off of her web.
"Yesss." He answered, when he nodded, most of his body moved with him.
"What do you like best about me?" Entoma asked.
Harold said nothing.
"Harold?" She asked again.
"Yesss?" He replied in his long drawn voice with its constant ending hiss.
"Did you hear me?" She asked, crouching down to look at the peculiar face.
"Yesss." He replied with a slow nod of his body.
"So what do you like about me?" Entoma asked and put her hand on top of his head, "You can tell me." She rubbed the top of his head with affection, and he did look up at her, but he said nothing.
Something nagged at Entoma.
Something she didn't like.
Something she immediately suppressed.
There was a knock at the door, and grateful for the distraction, she straightened up and left Harold behind to go out into the main room. Manaly was already there dressed in his black and white butler's uniform and bowing with the utmost courtesy to a warm faced Inta.
Inta's big, fangy grin was in place and he looked past the butler. "Entoma, hi, a shame about the other day but… what would you say about joining me this morning?"
"Joining you? Joining you for what?" Entoma asked, taking a step toward him.
"My class, you're new at teaching aren't you?" Inta asked while Manaly stood aside.
"Yes… I'm new, but you have a class today?" Entoma asked.
"Sort of, I'm filling in for someone, doing a tutoring session for a class of students rehashing some material they'd know already if they studied harder and drank less." Inta chuckled a bit at his humor.
"Right, ah…" Entoma looked over her shoulder, Harold had come into the room.
"Yes, if I can bring Harold." Entoma pressed, and Inta looked past her to the little purple golem.
"Sure, if you like." Inta shrugged, "I have class in an hour, so why don't we walk there together now? I'm guessing your golem-"
"Harold." Entoma pointed out.
"Harold… isn't exactly fast?" He inquired.
"Harold," Entoma looked back at the golem, "Can you walk as fast as the average human?"
"Noooo." He answered in a dry monotone.
"Then yes, let's walk there now." Entoma agreed, "Harold, follow me."
"Yesss." He answered from behind her and began his slow ambling pace, one round foot just barely ahead of the other, its stumpy arms swaying back and forth at its rounded sides.
Inta raised an eyebrow at the company of the golem, but said nothing, waiting patiently along with Entoma until Harold was close by and then offering her his arm.
Instead she reached down and took the stumpy fingered stone hand of Harold, leaving Inta to uncomfortably and slowly lower his arm straight at his side again.
"So… have you finished your lesson plan yet?" Inta asked as the silence stretched out.
"For the most part. I've been working on it while I build my Entomancy textbook, so that means both are slow going." Entoma replied.
"Oh. I could… you know, take a look for you, if you like?" Inta suggested.
Entoma cocked her head, "I didn't know you knew anything about Entomancy."
"I don't, not really." Inta admitted.
"Then you probably couldn't help with that, I don't think." Entoma remarked, and he snapped his mouth shut.
The silence held, but Inta quickened his pace just a tiny bit.
Entoma didn't, keeping her hand in Harold's grip, and he had to slow down again.
"So… that's true…" Inta pointed out, but then added, "But I could look at your lesson plan structure and offer a critique, even without knowing the material I could tell you if you're rushing your students a bit, or going too slow. I've taught a lot of classes here, while every group is different, a few standards seem to hold true and I'm fairly good at detecting a problem before it hits."
"I guess… but…" Entoma looked down at the golem, it responded to that by looking up at her, insomuch as it was able to, its glittering eyes reflected her pseudo face back at her. "I shouldn't stay too long at your class, I need to work more on my own material, you can stop by later of course."
"Oh, yeah I understand." He answered, his head bowed a tiny bit, but perked up at her remark permitting him to visit her office.
The rest of their walk passed in silence until they reached Inta's destination, a large open class that had, to Entoma's dismay, over a hundred students in it of varying races from zern and quagoa to human and half elf.
The students were dressed in clothing as varied as their races, some with flashy clothing and others in what amounted to suits. Most carried a sword or weapon on their bodies, and all of those had a symbol of their faith hanging around their necks on a silver chain.
They sat in a horseshoe pattern with varying levels of desks one beyond the other and growing wider as it went further toward the back of the room. Inta leaned down toward her and whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "There's an observer seat over there." He pointed toward a small desk a few paces from the door. "Meant for staff, so it's fine if you use it, have a seat until you have to go."
Entoma nodded and he straightened up. She walked Harold over and sat behind the rectangular desk while Harold stood still at her side and stared at nothing while he waited for Entoma to need something.
Inta however, focused on the class. The rumble of voices that had filled the room began to die down and distracted faces focused on the front. "Good morning, I'm Professor Inta, your usual instructor is out today so I'm filling in. Am I correct that you're currently handling Necromancy two zero one, unit two?"
"Yes." Several voices came up.
"Marvelous!" He clapped his hands together and the noise echoed off the walls. "As you can see, I know my way around a corpse…" He flashed his vampire fangs, and the class collectively laughed. "I'm the unlife of every party, so I should."
The class laughed a little more.
"So let's bite into this material and get to the heart of the matter, I've staked my reputation on giving you a good rundown of this subject." He said, and by the time he reached the third pun, the class groaned.
"Alright, good, now that I've got your attention…" He said and began his lecture.
Entoma watched as he worked without a book, he moved about the classroom rather than staying in one fixed position, his hands and arms moved about as he explained the most recent research in vampiric turning and the use of souls.
Entoma was quickly lost. 'Not knowing one zero one… oh well. They seem to be getting it.' She thought and watched the way he jabbed his hand out to point at a student and call on them to contribute. By randomly calling on students and asking them to share their thoughts, they began to come to answers on their own.
The answers he wanted them to find.
'He only really teaches about twenty percent of the material… all his engaging questions… he's leading them to the answers themselves… so this is teaching. I thought I'd just be up there talking. This might be harder than I thought it would be.' Entoma was forced to admit.
She found it hard to look away as he mixed his lesson up with real world examples and practical application.
She had to look away.
She stood up.
Slowly.
But she stood up.
She reached out to take Harold's hand.
His stone fingers closed over hers, and she looked down into his bright bejeweled eyes to see her own masked face again.
She looked away, toward the door through which she'd so recently come.
Harold imitated her.
She stepped toward it.
Harold stepped with her.
She came into his line of sight through the corner of his eye when she was near to the door.
He saw her, and she knew he did.
He continued the lecture.
Entoma continued to walk away.
She couldn't see his eyes on her.
She could feel his eyes on her back.
Entoma squeezed Harold's stumpy finger.
His hand squeezed a little back.
She then walked out the open door and found herself in the hallway.
With that, Entoma reached for the door and slowly pulled it away from the wall, then swung it closed as quietly as she could.
Inta was out of sight again.
"Come on, Harold, I have work to do in my office." She made her excuse, and left Inta to continue teaching in the classroom she was putting at her back as fast as Harold could walk away.