Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

He was just about to sit down when frantic hissing interrupted him. He glanced to his left, watching his classmate whisper soothingly to the orange-red lizard in his lap. The animal was staring at him intently with its bright yellow eyes, nervously tasting the air with its tongue, but didn’t hiss again when Zorian carefully lowered himself into the chair.

«Sorry about that,» the boy said. «He’s still a little uneasy around strangers.»

«Don’t worry about it,» Zorian said, waving the apology away. He didn’t know Briam all that well, but he did know his family bred fire drakes for a living, so it wasn’t that unusual for him to have one. «I see your family has given you a fire drake of your own. Familiar?»

Briam nodded happily, scratching the lizard’s head absent-mindedly and causing the creature to close its eyes in contentment. «I bonded with him over the summer holidays,» he said. «Familiar bond is a little strange at first, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. At least I’ve managed to talk him out of breathing fire at people without permission, else I would have to put a fire-suppressant collar on him, and he hates that thing.»

«The school won’t bother you about bringing it to class?» Zorian asked curiously.

«Him,» Briam corrected. «And no, they won’t. You can bring a familiar to class if you’ve reported them to the academy and can get them to behave. And, of course, as long as they’re reasonably sized.»

«I hear fire drakes can get pretty big,» Zorian remarked speculatively.

«They do,» Briam agreed. «That’s why I wasn’t allowed to have one till now. In a few years he’ll get way too big to follow me into the classroom, but by that time I’ll already be finished with my education and back at the ranch.»

Satisfied the creature wouldn’t try to take a bite out of him during class, Zorian let his attention wander elsewhere. He mostly spent his time studying the girls as covertly as possible. He blamed Benisek for this, since he usually wasn’t in the habit of ogling his classmates. No matter how cute some of them were…

«Hot, isn’t she?»

Zorian jumped in surprise at the voice behind him and cursed himself for being caught so unawares.

«I don’t know what you’re talking about,» he said quickly, turning as calmly as possible in his seat to face Zach. The cheery, smiling face of his classmate told him he wasn’t fooling anyone.

«Don’t be so flustered,» Zach told him happily. «I don’t think there’s a single boy in class who doesn’t occasionally daydream about our resident red-headed goddess.»

Zorian snorted. Actually, he wasn’t looking at Raynie at all, but at the girl she was talking to. Not that he was going to correct Zach about that. Or anything, really — Zorian had mixed feelings about Zach. On the one hand the raven-haired boy was charming, confident, handsome, and popular — and thus reminded him uncomfortably of his brothers — but on the other hand he was never mean or inconsiderate to Zorian, and would often chat with him when everyone else was content to ignore him. As a result, Zorian was never quite sure how to act around him.

Besides, Zorian never discussed his tastes in women with other boys. The academy rumor mill breathed rumors about who liked who, and Zorian knew all too well how even relatively innocuous rumors could make your life miserable for years to come.

«From your wistful tone, I’m guessing she’s still immune to your charm,» Zorian said, trying to shift the focus of the conversation away from him.

«She’s tricky,» Zach agreed. «But I’ve got all the time in the world.»

Zorian raised an eyebrow at that, not sure what the other boy was implying. All the time in the world?

Thankfully, he was saved from further conversation when the door noisily opened and the teacher entered the classroom. Zorian was honestly surprised to see Ilsa walk into class with the huge green book that all teachers carried, though he really shouldn’t have been — he already knew Ilsa was a teacher at the academy, so there was nothing unusual about her teaching this class. She gave him a smile before setting the book down on her desk and clapping her hands together to silence those students who were too engrossed in their own conversations to notice the teacher in the room.

«Settle down everyone, the class has started,» Ilsa said, accepting the list of present students from Akoja, who remained standing beside Ilsa at attention, like a soldier in front of a superior officer.