A dragon explores space, finds Amenta.
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None of them pick it up as quickly as Bloom did. Picking letters based on sounds seems deeply weird!

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"Fluent readers pay more attention to the whole shape of a familiar word anyway," the tutor assures them.

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Longfeather wanders away after it proves to be a significant effort. Two other students decide there's nothing better to do since Bloom is somewhere else, though.

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The tutor is slightly annoyed but doesn't say anything about it when Longfeather leaves.

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The Draak don't seem to even notice the annoyance. They're making reasonable if slow-ish progress.

 

About an hour in, all three Draak twitch at once, feathers fluffing out and heads perking up.

Bloom will be angry- Star begins.

-I will deal with it. Replies Ink. Apologies, o teacher, but I must go. She slinks off surprisingly quickly.

...One of us is bothering Bloom's pets, Star explains. Idiot.

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"...why are they doing that?"

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I don't know. Overwhelmed by city smell and bored and tense?

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"They don't have... coping mechanisms?"

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Getting bitey is a coping mechanism. So is staring at your Treasure but we're all young except for Ink and Bloom and don't have that much of it.

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"What is Ink going to do?"

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In increasing order of probability of success, the quiet one called Sleeper suddenly pipes up, Logic, intimidation, and violence.

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"...mmm."

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We're not Amentans.

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"I know."

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Ink comes back out.

I made him understand that annoying his teacher is a bad idea. And annoying a bear with magic powers is also a bad idea. Back to the lesson?

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Back to the lesson!

Ruan arranges a visit with the Harank Recursive Orange Academy.

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Star is delighted! He stares around curiously on the way there and settles with his wings folded up small and claws pinned under his central body once there.

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Out come a troop of assortedly sized orange children from their school, eight in all.

"You're not as big as I thought you were gonna be," says a two year old peevishly.

"Neb! That's not nice!" scolds a three year old.

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I'm only twelve! I'll get bigger in time. Hello! I am called Star. My full name is a lot longer. I'm excited to meet oranges because Draak don't do child care.

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"Don't your babies miss their parents?" says the other two year old. "Babies need attention like all the time."

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Eggs need someone to protect them and teach them things, but not hatchlings. I remember being new-hatched. I was alone, but didn't feel lonely. Draak like being alone most of the time.

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"That's not good for people," says a four year old, "if they don't talk to anybody they wind up too weird to make friends later."

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His tail wobbles. I'm pretty sure Draak work differently, but that's interesting. Do you know why?

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"They don't learn any social skills. Those need practice like riding a bike or playing an instrument."

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I bet I don't have many of those. I was horribly rude the first time I met another Draak. Tail-wobble. We talk to animals a lot, but they're very simple in comparison.

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