hear him.
“With paper and pen,” Airlia replied.
“I’d like to know how we’re supposed to present them,” Adrian said when they were farther away from the fairy’s classroom. “When during the meeting will we have time to do that?”
“I guess now that I think about it, the fourth years never do win the scavenger hunt. Part of their list must include stumbling through their poems or maybe they don’t even get to do the scavenger hunt.”
“That would be a bummer. I actually like doing that. So, what do you have after math?” he asked as they walked into the classroom.
“Besides lunch?” Lucian teased.
“Yeah, besides that.”
“Part one of fencing. After that spell breaking and then dragon fighting.”
“Hit Dronecus good and hard for me will you?”
Lucian nodded as Marius began their lesson. Even though he usually kept Draconus’ snide comments to himself, some of the other boys were quick to let Kaelen and Adrian know that the dragon had not forgotten them though they were no longer in the class. Lucian wasn’t quite sure why the boys bothered to do that. It wasn’t like Kaelen or Adrian could do anything about the dragon. Really none of them could do anything about it. Draconus remained undefeated in their classes; though Lucian knew he was getting close to finding the dragon’s weakness. George was getting pretty good too. The two of them often hit the dragon, even if they didn’t get close to the “death strike” Vulcan had taught them in class.
As the boys went to lunch following their math class, they saw Kaelen looking over a piece of paper. “What’s that?” George asked as they sat down at the table with him.
“My new schedule,” he replied.
“New schedule?” Jacobi repeated. “Why do you need a new schedule?”
“I don’t really know, but I’ve got some real delightful ones now,” Kaelen said. He handed Lucian the schedule and then slowly began picking at the food on his tray.
“Wrestling, double botany, double fencing, portrait painting, double spell breaking, and of course all the regular stuff; triple etiquette? What’s that all about?”
“You tell me. I can’t do half that stuff. I mean, wrestling? Who am I going to wrestle? Even Adrian is puny compared to me. No offense.”
“None taken,” Adrian said. “Besides, it seems I’m getting shorter every time I turn around.”
“I’m more confused about the triple etiquette. Last time you only had it twice and I know some of that was to help you with your coordination,” Jacobi said. “Why on earth do you need it three times?”
“Maybe two isn’t enough,” Kaelen retorted. “I guess the double botany isn’t too bad, I’ve been doing double botany, but the time on one of them changed, so I’m guessing that’s different then what I have been doing. And the double spell breaking and double fencing aren’t really different. And then portrait painting? I’ve got to be the worst artist in our class and I can’t even hold a paintbrush right now.”
“I guess you’ll be using jumbo-sized brushes and in your third etiquette class, Gelasia will help you learn how to hold a regular-sized brush,” George said.
“That doesn’t help with the artistic ability. Art in general is hard enough but portraits? That means I have to paint people. People!” Kaelen repeated. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I’m never, ever doing it again.”
“It looks like your next class is the first part of spell breaking, so that shouldn’t be too bad, right?” Lucian said, handing him the schedule.
“I guess not,” Kaelen replied. “Oh well, maybe things will turn out better than I think right now. Who knows? Maybe they’ll hire me to paint the new portraits for the castle.”
While Adrian and Kaelen were in spellbreaking, Lucian was surprised to see George walking to the fencing hall as well. “Are you in fencing right now too?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’ve always had it at this time,” George replied.
As they walked into the room, Raphael turned his attention to them. “Alright, lads, you’ve both improved enough that it’s time you began working with another student at your own level. We’ll flip a coin to see which hand we use first. George, heads or tails?”
“Um, tails?”
Raphael flipped the coin. “Sorry, George, it’s heads. That means that today we’ll start left-handed. Halfway through class we’ll switch and work right-handed. Any questions?” The boys shook their heads. “Very well, get your protective gear and your rapiers and we’ll begin.”
About half an hour before class would end, Raphael had them go ahead and put away their things. “I want to talk with you boys for a while before we get going too far into the semester,” he said. “Each of you has been working with your weaker arm for the better part of a year and a half now. The purpose is to give you a distinct advantage in an actual fight. I will grant you that your weak arm will never be as easy to work with as the one you are used to fighting with; nor will it ever feel as natural. However, having the skill to use either hand gives you an advantage over your adversary. As he becomes tired, you can switch hands and continue fresh. Do you have any questions or concerns for me?”
“No sir,” the boys replied.
“Alright then, I know we’re still a bit early, but why don’t you two run along now? You’ve done a magnificent job. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Raphael said, opening the door to the fencing hall so they could go leave.
The two boys walked down the hall to the dragon fighting classroom. They knew class was still going on inside. “I sure hope Draconus is in a better mood than he was before we left,” George said as they were waiting outside.
“I don’t know that I would count on it,” Lucian replied. “He was like this last winter too. Maybe the cold makes him grumpier than normal.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like his dinner cold.”
“That could be. Although for someone who eats everything raw, he really shouldn’t complain. He doesn’t know how nice a warm meal is.”
“You’ve got it Lucian! I can just see him, wishing there were a way to warm his meal. All he’d have to do is breathe on it. But, he’s jealous because we get something warm for just about every meal and his is always shivering.”
Still laughing Lucian retorted, “Well then he should learn to kill it first. Then at least the shivering would stop.”
The boys’ conversation was cut short as the last class exited the room and they were able to go inside. Draconus was curled in the middle of the pit, his tail flicking back and forth. “Well, well, here a bit early aren’t we?” he hissed as the two headed for seats. “Couldn’t wait to be beaten again, eh?”
The boys ignored him and sat waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. As boys filed in, Draconus continued to dole out snide comments. Lucian and George looked at each other. Obviously, Draconus wasn’t in any better a mood now than he had been at the end of last semester. If anything, he seemed worse. Once the last of the boys entered the room, he began a long lecture on where they were lacking from last semester. “If you boys have any dreams of defeating a dragon on your quest, you’d best shape up,” Draconus snarled. “Some of you wouldn’t last a full minute were one of my brothers to find you. Others of you are becoming lazy. This is not child’s play, princelings. You need to be at the top of your wits, what little you have, every time you come to class. Only two of you seem to have shown any improvement at all. Though perhaps that’s just luck,” he added with a sneer towards Lucian and George. He continued his rant until class was over. His parting shot was, “I want a ten page essay on the skills of dragon fighting due to Vulcan by oh, let’s be generous, Friday afternoon. Until that time, you’ll be sitting in lecture.”
“So, that’s how it feels to get raked over the coals,” George muttered as they left the room.
“I wish we’d had that before fencing,” Lucian added. “What little feel-good we had from that class was totally blown away back there.”
“Don’t fret,
boys,” Vulcan’s voice came from behind them, startling them both. “Draconus is always this way with his fourth year students. I don’t think any of you are doing horribly, although a good wake-up call is sometimes just the thing you boys need to get yourselves motivated. He is right in saying that some of you have become very lazy in that class.”
As Vulcan disappeared, George asked, “Was that supposed to make us feel better?”
The following day was the first with some of the major changes made to Kaelen’s schedule, beginning with portrait painting. He went into the art classroom and was completely depressed to find that he was the only student in the room. Stefanos was standing near an easel, holding his paintbrush up as though measuring something in the distance. For a while, he didn’t even notice that Kaelen had entered the room until he cleared his throat. Stefanos started and turned. “Oh, is it class time already?” he asked. “I must have gotten carried away with my work. That happens sometimes.” He smiled and motioned for Kaelen to have a seat before putting his brushes and paints into a small wooden box next to his easel.
Kaelen looked at the painting Stefanos was working on and thought, I sure hope he doesn’t expect me to ever be that good. The painting showed the forest behind the castle as though the painting were actually a window to the outside. Everything looked exactly as it did in real life. Even the tiny flecks of white that were