Tobias checked out the history volume and hurried back to his dorm,
thoughts whirling over what he had read.
There were two dorms on campus, one for females and one for males.
Both were three-storied L-shaped buildings around Mal'ur Academy, and
Tobias' dorm building, also known as Dragon Dorm, was located on the
north side of the academy.
He shouldered his book bag as he jogged up the stairs to the third
floor. Boys wandered the hallways, socializing and heading to their
rooms. Tobias kept his eyes down as he scooted to the last door on
the left. Boys both accidentally and purposefully shoved shoulders
with him on the way, and despite a few of the harder ones he
received, he didn't say a word.
Tobias heaved out a breath as he reached his room, and after he
closed the door he rubbed his bruised shoulders and glanced around.
There were four beds in each room, but only he and one other student,
the only other lupogryph at the academy, occupied this room. He
heard muffled clicking in the bathroom, and he bobbed his head into
the doorway.
The other male lupogryph stood at the counter running his claws
through his crest feathers and muttering something. He was also from
the tribe, but Tobias hadn't gotten to know him until they started
the school year. He was a year younger than Tobias, with
muddy-colored fur and feathers. His wing feathers had white tips,
and the top of his head had a splash of white as well.
“Hey
Toby,” Jurrash called, green eyes peering at Tobias through the
mirror.
“Hey
Jury,” Tobias said. He held up his bag. “Just back from some
light reading.”
“Light,”
he grunted, turning around and stretching. “All I need is a light
pillow to sleep on. Exercise ed today, and the prof drilled me
hard.” He stomped his legs and
flexed his arms. “'No wings,' he said. 'Don't even open them, kid,
or I'll dock a grade!' So while all the other bimbos stretched all
their limbs, I couldn't stretch all mine.”
“It
happens here,” Tobias sighed, going to their dresser. He pulled
out Conspicuous Events and
shoved the rest of his bag into the second drawer. “Guess who
wanted to stomp my face off
the island?”
“No,
don't tell me,” Jurrash said as he walked into the room. He fell
to the floor so he was on two hands and feet, and then flared his
wings partway. “Jodrick, right? 'Get out of my way, lupy,
or I'll make you change my
ungra.'”
He pawed the air with a fist.
“'I want the shoe painted pink this time, Tobias,'” Jurrash
continued in a rough, heavy voice. “'If you don't, I'll Banish you
and make you my slave, then you'll have to paint all my ungara
pink!'”
Tobias burst out laughing. He barked as Jurrash hopped across the
floor on all fours and chased Tobias onto his bed. They wagged their
tails, beaks hanging open in grins.
“'Get back down!'” Jurrash rumbled, rearing on the flats of his
feet and punching the air. “'I'm too fat to fly!'”
Tobias couldn't take it anymore. He crumpled onto the bed, laughing
with tears splashing from his eyes. Jurrash rolled back on the floor
also laughing, wrapping his wings around himself. They continued
laughing even as they heard some angry thumps on the door.
“Shut your beaks!” their visitor snapped. “Or I'll sick a
bouncer on you!”
Bouncer was another term for a prefect, and several of those lived on
the first floor.
“Ooooh
so scared!”
Jurrash snickered, stilled curled up in a feathery and furry ball as
he tried to catch his wind.
“Sorry!”
Tobias called automatically, stepping from the bed. “Well,
Jury, I guess we ought to study and call it a night.”
Jurrash
climbed onto his feet and began unbuttoning his uniform, still
shaking his head at their play. They
undressed, comfortable in just the cover of their fur and feathers,
and remained mostly quiet as they dove into their books. Jurrash
claimed the study for one of his larger class projects, and Tobias
settled himself comfortably on his bed with books piled to one side
of him.
Though
he didn't like going to school and being in a racist environment, he
loved reading. If he could, he would transport the school library to
his village and be content living out his remaining days reading
through the shelves. The knowledge he found was like wind
under his wings; they buoyed his mind and spirit high.
His
thoughts were still circling
on the information of
Chirik the Wise. Tobias
tried to read his required materials for his classes, but his eyes
kept wandering to the volume of Conspicuous Events he
had purposefully placed at the bottom of his book pile. He kept
telling himself he needed to read up on history for a
test that week, to study his
grammar, and to write a short report on his favorite plant in the
academy garden. But dragons and dragon-riders, and one rider in
particular, soared through his thoughts and left everything else
behind, no matter how hard he concentrated.
Tobias
managed to read and write his materials, but it was without heart.
He found his heart trying to take flight with the dragons and their
riders. Chirik the Wise was changing him already, and he hadn't even
met him.
After
lights out, Tobias lay belly down, beak resting on his pillow and
wings tucked against either side of him. He kept his eyes shut,
trying to sleep, but everything he had learned today wouldn't let his
mind go black and drift to dreams until midnight.
The
only way to settle his mind was to make a decision, and by the time
midnight rolled around, Tobias had an answer for Donna's suggestion.
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