CHAPTER 11
Ariel filed into another classroom. Lily was next to her, chattering about Ariel's dragon, Tanis, the platypi, Tanis, the food, Tanis, her homework, Tanis.
When Ariel had arrived back in her dormitory that morning, Revven had flown in with yet another set of instructions for the dracling. The milk that it was fed, apparently, had to be mixed first with cream and then with honey, to make it thicker and sweeter. Ariel could only feed a certain amount to the hatchling at a time, and only at meals, and the cream and honey had to be in proportion to the milk. Then there was the business of the bed, which she had to move the forty magic textbooks to make room for. It was round and padded, and there were rolled-up blankets on one side. Ariel was supposed to put him into the bed every night, and make sure he was a comfortable temperature. She was also to teach the dracling to use the laptop. The hatchling had to interact with other dragons, also, so for an hour or two in the evenings she went out into the Courtyard with an entry pass and sat and did homework, while the dracling played with the other dragons. The responsibilities were endless.
However, Ariel had a more immediate problem at that time. A thing stood at the front of the classroom. It looked like a platypus, except it was approximately five feet tall, and its bill was shorter than it should have been. There was an evil glint in its eyes, and it was gnawing on a bone, despite the foods of choice for a normal platypus. Behind the platypus stood a line of other platypi. Ariel noticed that Mopsie sat to the right of the platypus in front.
Someone giggled behind Ariel. The platypus whipped around and pointed at the person who had laughed - Valiarana Moonglow. "Your name," the platypus demanded in a squeaky, scratchy voice as two other platypi dragged her in front of the first platypus.
"Valiarana Moonglow," she said bravely. The platypus reached into a desk drawer and pulled out . spectacles. It jammed the glasses on its nose and peered at Valiarana. "Should you not have come with the previous class, then?"
"I, um," she faltered. A cheerful and all too familiar voice piped up from the back of the crowd. "She forgot to come," Tasslehoff Burrfoot said with a big grin. "Well, she didn't forget, exactly," he amended. "She just, sort of ignored it, because she was spying on Tanis, but he found her and made her come."
Tasslehoff Burffoot's recollection of events abruptly broke off as the kender began to talk about Ariel's dracling. The platypus motioned for all the students to sit. Juggling pens, pencils, books, notebook, laptop, and dracling with difficulty, Ariel sat down near the front. She flicked up the top of the computer, and turned it on, typing in her username and password - both related to Dragonlance, of course - and opened up a document, getting ready to type notes.
"I am Yclemprt," the platypus in front rumbled. "You will be taking a lot of notes in this class, so . those of you who don't have laptops are going to have some problems . which is not my fault, so I don't care! Those of you who do have laptops, I will want a printed version of your single- spaced, size-twelve notes that are at least twenty pages long by tomorrow. Those of you who don't have computers, take your notes and hook up to the ones in the library. Since I am so unspeakably nice, I will make it only eighteen pages for the minimum. Still single-spaced and size-twelve - so don't think you can get away with that."
Ariel had wondered why she had seen so many frenzied students furiously typing at the library computers earlier that day. She was, however, very glad she had brought a laptop. Lily, who had in the desk next to Ariel, was using her pink laptop. The dracling curled up on Ariel's desk and watched Yclemprt intently.
The other platypi behind Yclemprt left. Yclemprt began to speak again. "Some of you may have noticed that we are not included in most Dragonlance stories. This is only because of the authors' attempts to be concise. We are not relevant to the plot, which is the relevance of our existence."
Every student was typing or writing furiously, except for a few who sat smugly in their chairs. Apparently they had made arrangements to use the notes of other students.
"By the way," Yclemprt interrupted himself, "You cannot use someone else's notes. The library and dormitory dragons will tell me if you do . and then I will make up a nasssssty punishment for you, oh yes." Yclemprt's dark eyes momentarily glowed red. The dracling squeaked in alarm.
There was a flurry of notebooks and pens and more than a few muttered comments of "that's not fair!"
"Anyway, the platypi were invented by a great person. She is an elf, but we all know that she is really a platypus at heart. We even gave her an award for it, as I recall. We were created with the help of this person's sister, who is not her twin."
Ariel began to have some suspicious about the identity of the mysterious inventors, but chose not to mention them.
".and I hope you shall all pay them the highest respect. If you don't, they do have a contingent of the Platy-Elite guards guarding them, so one of us will know."
Yclemprt paused momentarily to let the note-taking students catch up.
"To make your note-taking even harder," Yclemprt said with an evil grin (the dracling hissed), "I will now give you some dates . which you will later translate into ROMAN NUMERALS!"
The terrified dracling squirmed into the triangular space Ariel's elbow was making.
Yclemprt then proceeded to reel of a list of random dates that had special significance to the platypi - such as "Earth Year 1995, Agnargle Crmpeagen first joins Dragonlance Academy and begins laying evil plans," or "Earth Year 1984, Marvgsel Krankke develops first poisonous cream cheese".
After Yclemprt had related to them the tales of Agnargle, Marvgsel, and way too many others, he finally stopped and switched topics.
"There are many things that one must go through to become an evil platypi. For instance, take Mopsie here."
Mopsie was brought forward by a platypus, and a chorus of "awwww" went through the students. The dracling, perched on Ariel's arm by then, tilted its head quizzically.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yclemprt laughed - although it was a very weird laugh, Ariel thought. "You may THINK he is cute, but he is in fact . a KILLING MACHINE! HAHAHAHAHA! Ahem," he added, looking faintly embarrassed.
The dracling snorted a little puff of smoke and then jumped into Ariel's lap. Ariel stroked its head gently.
"Anyway, write me an essay on all this. If you leave something out . I will do something BAD to you. Here comes the bell, now."
The bell tolled.
As Ariel left the classroom, a familiar copper dragon flew in front of her. He then landed on her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, Ariel rearranged what she was carrying to accommodate laptop, school supplies, books, dracling, and dragon. When she got back to her dormitory (Lily opened the door) Ariel dropped everything she was carrying on the bed and sat down.
"Miss Kara, she's wanting to see you now," the dragon said. "Stand up, and we'll go."
Ariel stood and blinked once. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the same stone hallway. "Come," the dragon said, and flew into a door. Ariel winced at the thud that he made upon contact. Miss Kara opened the door and looked at Ariel, who gulped. She was very tall, Ariel noticed.
Miss Kara bent, picked up the unconscious copper dragon, and motioned Ariel inside the office. Ariel looked around as she entered. Nothing had changed: the room still held the two chairs, the single lamp, the desk, and the papers.
"I almost never close the door, you see," Miss Kara said with a slight smile. "I believe he expected it to be open."
Ariel grinned.
"It was cold outside," Miss Kara explained. Then she motioned to the other chair. "Please sit."
Ariel sat.
"Doubtlessly, you have been told - many times over - what your responsibilities with this dragon are." She touched the little dracling gently. "My comment, however, is slightly different. Lanth has come to me, with a request for him. It seems that his mother was named Zala, or something like that, so Lanth wants him to be named . Zanth."
Ariel stared.
"Yes," Miss Kara sighed, "I know. It's a family tradition, I think. By the way," she added, "I'm a professor on dragons here, as well as an administrator. If you have questions, the best thing is to come to me or to Liara and Kiara - we're the dragon experts for the school. If you need Liara or Kiara, they're easy enough to find, and if you need me, just say 'Cavri', that's my dragon, and he'll come."
Ariel nodded.
"Ah, one more thing," Miss Kara continued. "The Master says to warn you. You've been doing magic, so you should know not to use it, ever, outside of class, and the same goes for Zanth here . anyway, thank you for taking care of him." Miss Kara looked at her watch. "It's nearly five o' clock, you should be going out to the Courtyard."
"Thank you, Miss Kara," Ariel said as she stood to leave.
"You're welcome, dear. Have a nice evening!"
Ariel was going to say "same to you", but she didn't get the chance. The stone walls around her blurred, and she vanished.
*****~^-^-^~*****
I just realized that, throughout this fic, whenever I mean to have 3 dots (dot, dot, dot) it looks like one dot. Please know when a phrase says something like "(word) . (word)" the . is meant to be THREE dots.
Do not ask why I am obsessing over dots.
Reviewers so far: AngelDragonStar, Shade Burrfoot, Fenris, Shelly, Lyndraco, sarra, chickens, Lady Eowyn of Rohan and The Golden Dragon.
THANK YOU!! -Alexa
Ariel filed into another classroom. Lily was next to her, chattering about Ariel's dragon, Tanis, the platypi, Tanis, the food, Tanis, her homework, Tanis.
When Ariel had arrived back in her dormitory that morning, Revven had flown in with yet another set of instructions for the dracling. The milk that it was fed, apparently, had to be mixed first with cream and then with honey, to make it thicker and sweeter. Ariel could only feed a certain amount to the hatchling at a time, and only at meals, and the cream and honey had to be in proportion to the milk. Then there was the business of the bed, which she had to move the forty magic textbooks to make room for. It was round and padded, and there were rolled-up blankets on one side. Ariel was supposed to put him into the bed every night, and make sure he was a comfortable temperature. She was also to teach the dracling to use the laptop. The hatchling had to interact with other dragons, also, so for an hour or two in the evenings she went out into the Courtyard with an entry pass and sat and did homework, while the dracling played with the other dragons. The responsibilities were endless.
However, Ariel had a more immediate problem at that time. A thing stood at the front of the classroom. It looked like a platypus, except it was approximately five feet tall, and its bill was shorter than it should have been. There was an evil glint in its eyes, and it was gnawing on a bone, despite the foods of choice for a normal platypus. Behind the platypus stood a line of other platypi. Ariel noticed that Mopsie sat to the right of the platypus in front.
Someone giggled behind Ariel. The platypus whipped around and pointed at the person who had laughed - Valiarana Moonglow. "Your name," the platypus demanded in a squeaky, scratchy voice as two other platypi dragged her in front of the first platypus.
"Valiarana Moonglow," she said bravely. The platypus reached into a desk drawer and pulled out . spectacles. It jammed the glasses on its nose and peered at Valiarana. "Should you not have come with the previous class, then?"
"I, um," she faltered. A cheerful and all too familiar voice piped up from the back of the crowd. "She forgot to come," Tasslehoff Burrfoot said with a big grin. "Well, she didn't forget, exactly," he amended. "She just, sort of ignored it, because she was spying on Tanis, but he found her and made her come."
Tasslehoff Burffoot's recollection of events abruptly broke off as the kender began to talk about Ariel's dracling. The platypus motioned for all the students to sit. Juggling pens, pencils, books, notebook, laptop, and dracling with difficulty, Ariel sat down near the front. She flicked up the top of the computer, and turned it on, typing in her username and password - both related to Dragonlance, of course - and opened up a document, getting ready to type notes.
"I am Yclemprt," the platypus in front rumbled. "You will be taking a lot of notes in this class, so . those of you who don't have laptops are going to have some problems . which is not my fault, so I don't care! Those of you who do have laptops, I will want a printed version of your single- spaced, size-twelve notes that are at least twenty pages long by tomorrow. Those of you who don't have computers, take your notes and hook up to the ones in the library. Since I am so unspeakably nice, I will make it only eighteen pages for the minimum. Still single-spaced and size-twelve - so don't think you can get away with that."
Ariel had wondered why she had seen so many frenzied students furiously typing at the library computers earlier that day. She was, however, very glad she had brought a laptop. Lily, who had in the desk next to Ariel, was using her pink laptop. The dracling curled up on Ariel's desk and watched Yclemprt intently.
The other platypi behind Yclemprt left. Yclemprt began to speak again. "Some of you may have noticed that we are not included in most Dragonlance stories. This is only because of the authors' attempts to be concise. We are not relevant to the plot, which is the relevance of our existence."
Every student was typing or writing furiously, except for a few who sat smugly in their chairs. Apparently they had made arrangements to use the notes of other students.
"By the way," Yclemprt interrupted himself, "You cannot use someone else's notes. The library and dormitory dragons will tell me if you do . and then I will make up a nasssssty punishment for you, oh yes." Yclemprt's dark eyes momentarily glowed red. The dracling squeaked in alarm.
There was a flurry of notebooks and pens and more than a few muttered comments of "that's not fair!"
"Anyway, the platypi were invented by a great person. She is an elf, but we all know that she is really a platypus at heart. We even gave her an award for it, as I recall. We were created with the help of this person's sister, who is not her twin."
Ariel began to have some suspicious about the identity of the mysterious inventors, but chose not to mention them.
".and I hope you shall all pay them the highest respect. If you don't, they do have a contingent of the Platy-Elite guards guarding them, so one of us will know."
Yclemprt paused momentarily to let the note-taking students catch up.
"To make your note-taking even harder," Yclemprt said with an evil grin (the dracling hissed), "I will now give you some dates . which you will later translate into ROMAN NUMERALS!"
The terrified dracling squirmed into the triangular space Ariel's elbow was making.
Yclemprt then proceeded to reel of a list of random dates that had special significance to the platypi - such as "Earth Year 1995, Agnargle Crmpeagen first joins Dragonlance Academy and begins laying evil plans," or "Earth Year 1984, Marvgsel Krankke develops first poisonous cream cheese".
After Yclemprt had related to them the tales of Agnargle, Marvgsel, and way too many others, he finally stopped and switched topics.
"There are many things that one must go through to become an evil platypi. For instance, take Mopsie here."
Mopsie was brought forward by a platypus, and a chorus of "awwww" went through the students. The dracling, perched on Ariel's arm by then, tilted its head quizzically.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yclemprt laughed - although it was a very weird laugh, Ariel thought. "You may THINK he is cute, but he is in fact . a KILLING MACHINE! HAHAHAHAHA! Ahem," he added, looking faintly embarrassed.
The dracling snorted a little puff of smoke and then jumped into Ariel's lap. Ariel stroked its head gently.
"Anyway, write me an essay on all this. If you leave something out . I will do something BAD to you. Here comes the bell, now."
The bell tolled.
As Ariel left the classroom, a familiar copper dragon flew in front of her. He then landed on her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, Ariel rearranged what she was carrying to accommodate laptop, school supplies, books, dracling, and dragon. When she got back to her dormitory (Lily opened the door) Ariel dropped everything she was carrying on the bed and sat down.
"Miss Kara, she's wanting to see you now," the dragon said. "Stand up, and we'll go."
Ariel stood and blinked once. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the same stone hallway. "Come," the dragon said, and flew into a door. Ariel winced at the thud that he made upon contact. Miss Kara opened the door and looked at Ariel, who gulped. She was very tall, Ariel noticed.
Miss Kara bent, picked up the unconscious copper dragon, and motioned Ariel inside the office. Ariel looked around as she entered. Nothing had changed: the room still held the two chairs, the single lamp, the desk, and the papers.
"I almost never close the door, you see," Miss Kara said with a slight smile. "I believe he expected it to be open."
Ariel grinned.
"It was cold outside," Miss Kara explained. Then she motioned to the other chair. "Please sit."
Ariel sat.
"Doubtlessly, you have been told - many times over - what your responsibilities with this dragon are." She touched the little dracling gently. "My comment, however, is slightly different. Lanth has come to me, with a request for him. It seems that his mother was named Zala, or something like that, so Lanth wants him to be named . Zanth."
Ariel stared.
"Yes," Miss Kara sighed, "I know. It's a family tradition, I think. By the way," she added, "I'm a professor on dragons here, as well as an administrator. If you have questions, the best thing is to come to me or to Liara and Kiara - we're the dragon experts for the school. If you need Liara or Kiara, they're easy enough to find, and if you need me, just say 'Cavri', that's my dragon, and he'll come."
Ariel nodded.
"Ah, one more thing," Miss Kara continued. "The Master says to warn you. You've been doing magic, so you should know not to use it, ever, outside of class, and the same goes for Zanth here . anyway, thank you for taking care of him." Miss Kara looked at her watch. "It's nearly five o' clock, you should be going out to the Courtyard."
"Thank you, Miss Kara," Ariel said as she stood to leave.
"You're welcome, dear. Have a nice evening!"
Ariel was going to say "same to you", but she didn't get the chance. The stone walls around her blurred, and she vanished.
*****~^-^-^~*****
I just realized that, throughout this fic, whenever I mean to have 3 dots (dot, dot, dot) it looks like one dot. Please know when a phrase says something like "(word) . (word)" the . is meant to be THREE dots.
Do not ask why I am obsessing over dots.
Reviewers so far: AngelDragonStar, Shade Burrfoot, Fenris, Shelly, Lyndraco, sarra, chickens, Lady Eowyn of Rohan and The Golden Dragon.
THANK YOU!! -Alexa