Friendly Fledgling (with Fungus)
#66 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl gets Atlas a gift he didn't ask for. Is it a good gift? Probably not. Is it appreciated? Absolutely.
Back to the more mundane slice-of-life stories. (2,758 words)
Atlas was sitting quietly at his desk, just one young dragon out of a class of two dozen, all listening to their teacher as he droned on about the mathematics behind flight aerodynamics. Much as Atlas loved flying, practical classes were always more engaging than theory, and their teacher was straying into far deeper technical specifics than was necessary. Atlas was struggling to pay attention, and a good fraction of his classmates appeared to be dozing off.
A tap on the shoulder diverted his attention. Sitting beside him was one of his good friends--a green-scaled fledgling named Caden--and she handed him a folded slip of paper with his name written on it. "From Jarzyl."
"Oh?" Atlas took the note and unfolded it. He frowned, then glanced across the classroom to where Jarzyl was sitting. Normally she would have sat with him or Caden, but today she'd come into class at the last moment and the seats beside them had already been taken.
Jarzyl had been resting her head on her table, with her eyes half-lidded as she stared at the board. Noticing his attention, she made eye contact and casually winked at him. Atlas hesitated, but after a moment he winked back--this made Jarzyl grin, and her neck frill perked up.
Caden watched this quick exchange with an amused look. "What does that note say?" she asked.
"I have no idea." Atlas hesitated, then he let Caden see the paper. It was a torn-off page from a notebook, folded in two with... _something_written on the inside.
Like most dragons, Jarzyl used the prehensile tip of her tail as a writing implement, dipping it into an ink pot to make marks on paper. In large, messily scribbled text was written, "Do you want??" with two enthusiastic questions marks. Following that was a rough sketch of unclear subject matter--two parallel lines were drawn across the paper, ending in a rounded triangle that connected them.
Caden squinted at the drawing. "Is this some hidden code between you two? What's the arrow pointing at?"
"Oh. That's an arrow? I thought it looked like a mushroom." Atlas flipped the paper around to see if there was anything else written on the other side, but other than his name, there was nothing else except for the "Do you want??" question and the sketch of the mushroom/arrow. He shrugged. "I don't know."
Caden held back a laugh. She glanced at the front of the classroom, but their teacher was still deeply engrossed in explaining highly technical aerodynamic formulas that supposedly explained how a dragon's wings operated. "Is it a mushroom? Or is it an arrow?" Caden rotated the paper on Atlas's desk. "Maybe it's an arrow pointing at her, and she's asking whether you want...?"
"I don't think Jarz would ask that. I guess it's a mushroom? But why would Jarz ask if I want a mushroom?" Befuddled, Atlas stared at the note for a while more before he dipped his tail tip in his inkpot and wrote out a "sure?" in reply. He folded the note up and passed it back to Caden, who then passed it on to the next student, and the message made its way across the class and back to Jarzyl.
Jarzyl unfolded the note and read Atlas's response. She nodded approvingly and grinned at him, her expression saying--_good choice!_Sitting at her desk, with her tail curled around her body, the amber-coloured fledgling wrote something back in reply.
Once again the note went around the class until Atlas received the paper. Jarzyl had simply written, with no further explanation, "find me after class".
Caden was leaning over his shoulder to read the note too, and she snorted softly. "When you see her later, ask what the mushroom means."
Atlas folded the note up and slipped it into his writing pouch. He shook his head confusedly. "I don't understand Jarz sometimes."
Caden bit back a yawn, covering her mouth with her paw. "You understand her better than most."
After class ended, Jarzyl impatiently stuffed her writing materials and her textbooks into her flight harness, and she was the first fledgling to leave the classroom and go into the corridor outside. Atlas was the second. "Jarz!"
Jarzyl grinned at him. "Do you want to come with me?"
Atlas frowned. "Come with you for what? For lunch? I have a geography project meeting in half an hour." It was just after midday, and now was their lunch break, but Jarzyl shook her head.
"Oh, I'm busy too. I can't have lunch today. Now that I'm done with lessons for the day, I have to rush off to the airship docks. Walk with me to the roof?"
The two fledglings walked down the corridor. There were doors and windows to classrooms on both sides, but at one end of the corridor, at a corner, there was a stairwell for access upwards to the roof, where dragons could take off and land from (assuming they were at least fledglings, and not younger hatchlings who hadn't yet learned how to fly).
"So, what did you mean by your note?" Atlas asked.
Jarzyl had an excited skip in her step, but she moved slowly enough to let Atlas walk beside her with his limping gait. She made a very suspicious giggle. "Hehehe, I think you know exactly what I mean."
Atlas shook his head. "No? You were asking if I wanted... what exactly? I don't understand."
Jarzyl laughed. "Oh, was my drawing that bad? It's a mushroom. And I'll get you one, don't worry. I'll get as many as I can, hopefully. Hahahe." She chuckled, and bumped her shoulder against Atlas's, making his sway in his steps.
Atlas was unimpressed. "Care to explain yourself properly? Why are you flying off to the airship docks?"
"Because there's an airship that will be arriving soon. Have you ever heard of the Mintaka Highwinder?"
"I have not. But I assume it's an airship belonging to your clan?"
"Correct. Highwinder is the newest vessel of the Mintaka merchant fleet, and its first official voyage concludes today when it docks back here in the city, from a trading run across the southern Outer Colonies. To celebrate, they're giving out some of the cargo to Mintaka clan members (such as myself) who come see the airship return."
"I see. And the cargo of this airship is... mushrooms?"
Jarzyl bobbed her head happily. "Yes, among other things! But they'll have fresh wild mushrooms from the Fungal Forest. My father says if I get him a few, he'll cook them into a cream soup for dinner tonight. Lovely, lovely! Or maybe fried? Or roasted? I like mushrooms, they are tasty. Hehe, I'll get you one too."
Atlas didn't know how to respond. "Uh... thanks?"
"You're welcome. You'll still be here in school for your geography project? I'll come find you later." By now the two fledglings had come to the end of the corridor where it turned round a corner to more classroom, but Jarzyl pushed her way through the side door and into the stairwell. Whereas the corridors had been filled with other young dragons who had just finished their classes, this stairwell was deserted because it only had access up towards the roof, and most of the other students were going to the ground level to get lunch at the cafeteria.
The rooftop was one level up, but Jarzyl paused rather than continuing up the stairs. The air here was a little stale, and the door made a loud thump that echoed off the walls as it swung shut behind them. Jarzyl glanced around just to check, but they were all alone in the stairwell, and even the footsteps in the corridor didn't sound close. "When you asked me about the note I sent you, I thought you were asking why I wanted you to find me after class."
Atlas let out a soft chuckle. "To discuss mushrooms?"
"There's not much to discuss about mushrooms." Turning suddenly, Jarzyl pushed him backwards, making Atlas sit back on his hindlegs. The wall felt dusty against his tail and wings, and he felt the worn-out paint crumble slightly as his horns bumped against the surface. Then she leaned forward--one of her wings resting against the wall, her body against his, and her paws resting on his chest. "I have to fly off soon. But not too soon," Jarzyl murmured. Her casual grin faded, but her pupils widened and her neck frill perked up. "Atlas."
Her snout was very close to his. Atlas opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't get the words out, muffled by a moan. "Mmh...!"
When Atlas stepped back out of the stairwell door, Caden happened to be walking down the corridor with two more of their classmates and friends--a fledgling named Pyxis, and another named Nerlin. They all nodded a quick hello to Atlas. "Oh, Atlas, there you are. Have you had lunch? We're going to the cafeteria. Join us?"
"Sure."
Nerlin and Pyxis walked in front, while Caden dropped back behind them to stroll beside Atlas. She peered at him with an intrigued look. "Why do are you look so happy all of a sudden?"
Atlas realized that he'd been grinning. "Just... I'm just happy to have gotten that math quiz over with. And relieved to be done with classes for the day." He cleared his throat, and he wiped his mouth with his wing.
"Ah. Yeah, me too." Caden nodded in agreement. "Did you manage to find Jarzyl? What did she mean by her mushroom drawing?"
"She meant exactly that. She was asking if I wanted a... a mushroom," Atlas replied. "It sounds weird when I say it, but yes, that's it."
Caden snorted. "Jarzyl does what Jarzyl wants."
Atlas dipped his head in a nod. "You're quite right about that."
Later in the day, four dragon fledglings sat in the school garden--different types of plants were in the ground or in pots, arranged in rough rows. Most of the plants were edible fruit or vegetable species, but there were also herbs for medicinal use, and a trellis with winding vines that were useful as fibre.
Of the four young dragons, two of them were actively involved in digging new holes in an empty patch of the garden, but with differing styles. Flicher was digging manually, enthusiastically throwing dirt between his hindlegs with alternate shovelling movements of his front two paws. In contrast, Exilion had recently gotten her magic, and she was showing it off--she had rock affinity, and sharp motions of her paws sent glowing bursts of magical energy into the ground, making the soil rise out of the trench in perfect, careful circles. Despite not having magic, Flicher was making faster progress simply by furiously digging with his paws--possibly because he was trying to impress Exilion, but also possibly because he just enjoyed digging holes.
Behind the two of them was a fledgling named Indry, and he carefully lifted a small bushy plant covered in red berries out from its pot, so he could drop it into one of the holes that had already been dug. The geography project was relatively simple--they were measuring how putting plants in close proximity with each other affected their growth rate, particularly whether it would affect the number of berries that these bushes would produce.
As the fourth and final member of the project group, Atlas walked ahead, carrying a long ruler in his jaws. He used the ruler to measure out distances on the ground, and then he marked the location for more holes to be dug. Once all the locations had been marked, he went back and checked the holes already dug, making sure that they were properly spaced out and had adequate depth for Indry to drop the berry bushes into.
Given that he had only three legs, Atlas was less able to assist with the physical effort of digging holes or carrying plants. Instead he was taking the lead in drafting their project report, which the other three fledglings seemed to think was arguably harder than digging holes.
Along with Indry, Atlas used his tail to sweep the dug-up dirt back into the hole, covering the first berry bush's roots. "And that's the first one."
Indry let out a satisfied huff. "Excellent! Let me go get the next bush." He strolled off to go fetch the next potted plant.
Atlas used the ruler to check the depth of the next hole, but then he was interrupted by the sound of flapping wings, and an orange-scaled female fledgling dropped out of the sky right beside him--Jarzyl Mintaka.
"Why, hello, friends!" Jarzyl cheerily declared. "Look at all of you, hard at work! Digging holes? Very nice, yes, excellent. Good holes you've got there."
Indry came back, half-dragging, half-carrying a potted bush with his paws, but he stopped when he saw Jarzyl. "Eh?"
Atlas blinked. Jarzyl was looking unusual. She was wearing her normal flight harness, the same one she'd been wearing earlier today, but strapped across her back, right between her wings, there were what looked like a bundle of large white sticks tied to her harness--then he got a better look, and realized that what he had seen as sticks were instead the long white stalks for a half-dozen huge skinny mushrooms, with the pointy brown caps all facing the other direction.
Atlas nodded approvingly. "Wow. You've got mushrooms."
"I've got mushrooms! Heheehe!" Jarzyl let out a devious cackle, and she ecstatically hopped up and down on the spot.
"I'm impressed."
"I know, right? Amazing!" Jarzyl reached back over her shoulder and grabbed one of the mushrooms off her back. "Delivered fresh from the Outer Colonies! And these are considered the small mushrooms, because the bigger ones won't even fit on the transport airship. Can you imagine what the Fungus Forest must look like? I hope we get a training hunt excursion to that place soon!"
Hopping forward, Jarzyl passed the huge mushroom to Atlas, making him take it in his jaws. The stalk was almost twice as long as his shoulders were wide, and the rounded brown cap was bigger than his head. It had a mildly earthy smell, with a faint hint of nuttiness.
"Here you go. That one's for you. It's nice and long, with a good thick stem." Jarzyl grinned at him, then at the other three fledglings, who were all watching her with expressions ranging from confusion to amusement. She made a dramatic little wave of her paw. "Atlas reserved one, but the rest are mine! No more for sale. Sorry!"
Indry let out a bark of laughter. "Those are from the Fungus Forest? That's interesting! How much did Atlas pay you for that mushroom? Two hexes? Three?"
"No, he didn't pay me in gold. He paid in a different way." Jarzyl threw a sly grin at Atlas, with a knowing smile crossing her snout.
Indry frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means exactly what you think it means," Jarzyl said smugly.
Indry just looked confused. "You mean like a favour? Oh, I know--I bet he let you copy his math assignment work."
Jarzyl nodded innocently. "Yeah, he did."
Indry glanced at Atlas. Atlas responded by tilting his head from side to side, rocking the mushroom that he was holding in his jaws. The stalk flexed and the mushroom wobbled, making a small cloud of white, mist-like spores emanate from the cap.
Jarzyl laughed gleefully. She patted Atlas on the back with her wing. "Hah. Enjoy your mushroom! It goes great blended into a soup, or fried with some meat. Byeeee!" Throwing open her wings, she flapped her way back into the air, briefly leaving behind a faint cloud of mushroom spores before the wind swept it away.
Atlas took the mushroom out of his mouth and looked up and down at its length. Then he turned his gaze to the air, at the departing sight of his friend. He didn't say anything, but he did grin.
The other three fledglings stared at Atlas's mushroom. It was large enough to shade his head from the sun. "That... is a large mushroom," Exilion noted.
"It certainly is," Flicher drily agreed.
Indry nodded. "Jarzyl sure is weird, isn't she?"
Atlas just smiled. He hefted the mushroom onto his shoulder, but then paused. "Now how do I keep this thing attached to my flight harness?"
END