Professor serpent and the Twilight Academy Book 1 the first year

Chapter 8: Rye Makes a Massive Mistake

As the next month rolled around, it was getting warmer outside and some leaves started to grow on the trees.
Waking up on the first weekend of the month, I yawned and went to stretch my arms, although I quickly found I could only stretch one.

“Morning is what people say, right?”
Del was sitting a few feet away. My prosthetic arm was gone and replaced by her tail going into my arm socket.
“I discovered I can go out of your arm, although not far, but even so it is nice seeing outside.’’

I looked over at her. She was very curved like a woman. She even had lady-like fingers and nail-like claws.

She quickly slithered over to me, took my hand, and touched my face.

“What are you doing?”
“I'm just touching you in that place where we speak in your mind. I am physical, but you are not in there. You are only a reflection of your soul in that place.”’
I started to feel a little nervous. I've never had a woman touch my face before. She later grabbed my arm looking it over.
“So human-like. It’s cute.”
She later grabbed my tail which made me jump.
“‘It's so soft and fluffy.”

When she reached for my toes, I took my only physical hand at the moment and touched her cheek.

She froze on the spot, looking me over.
“Your touch is so warm. It’s so comforting.”

She pulled me close and embraced me. Seconds later I thought I heard her crying.

“Thank you”
In a flash of shadow, she turned back into my prosthetic arm. It felt weird but weirdly comforting.
I got up and decided to head for breakfast. Little did I know things would get interesting this day and many others.
On campus the students would place orders and the cooks would make these requests happen, although some foods would be hard to come by and only be available for one person or two.
Rye snuck into the ice box. Normally they would put the requested food into an icebox out in the main mess hall.
“This is the professor's favorite food so I'll mess with him by eating it.”
Sneaking back to the mess hall, he sat down where Hayley sat usually with Jade.
As he started eating, he started to get a taste for the crab salad. He never really tried seafood but this was really good.
Hayley came over with a smile.

“Hey Rye, what you-” she gasped.
“What are you eating?”
“Crab salad, why?”
“Did you request it?”

“No, I took it out of the back kitchen. Isn’t it the professor's favorite?”
“No, he likes salmon and that’s Gruff’s crab salad!”
Rye spat out the salad.
“What!??”
Just then Hayley looked over and ran away.
Rye turned to Gruff coming this way with the professor.

“Oh great, here he comes.”
The professor parted ways with Gruff and went to get a tray of salmon and took it to eat beside Aspen and Pretzel.
“Hey there, Rye.”
Rye rose nervously.
“G-Gruff,” he stuttered.
Gruff eyed the plate of half-eaten crab salad.
He leered at Rye.
“I, uh, it was a simple mistake! It was just an- agh!” He covered himself with his arms.
“It’s ok, I get it.”

Rye uncovered himself.
“What?”
“I'm still going to freak out. You're just not going to know when.” He left the room winking at him.

Rye felt on edge after that.

During art class two days later, Rye felt Gruff eye him down.

Hayley had kept her distance lately, which disappointed him.

"Professor? May I ask you something?"
Pretzel got up and approached Professor Skye.

"Yes?"
"I was wondering if you'd pose as a model for us to draw. Capture your posture, your look, and everything."

While they talked the bell rang, ending classes for the day.
Gruff got up and stretched.

"Ahhhh, I feel good. Now onto my first activity."

He picked up a huge book off of the shelf and darted at Rye.

"YOU ATE MY CRAB SALAD!!!"

Rye backed away, making a run for it.
"IT WAS A SIMPLE MISTAKE!"
"YOU ATE MY CRAB SALAD!!!"

They ran out of the room.

Jade chuckled. "It is always a surprise."
Hayley sighed while getting her stuff.

Everyone walked together out of the class.

They found Rye up a tree and Gruff hitting the tree with his fists.

"You gotta come down sometime!"

Rye eyed the others.
"Help?"

Everyone walked away.

"That was interesting," Skye said.

"Oh you don't know half of it," Aspen said.

"Last year Pretzel accidentally took the last cream bread at the local bakery and Gruff had pestered them to save him one," Hayley said with a grin.

Pretzel shuttered.
"Don't remind me. I hid in a merchant's barrel in a wagon and he tore off all the wheels out of all the carts in the entire school trying to find me.

"And the knights had a real problem getting him to stop," Jade said, picking at a loose feather.

"Least he hasn't gotten his shirt off yet. Boy things did get wild then," Hayley added.

Skye felt anxious as the week went on.
As did Rye.

He started to be afraid to leave his dorms in the morning.

It didn't help that Gruff was next door.

Alina passed by, saying hi to Gruff just as he was leaving his room.

"Nice how she's not getting verbally assaulted!" Rye thought.

While they were doing art class, Skye kept an eye on Rye since he would be Gruff’s target for who knows long?
Still, this week had been a little boring.
Pretzel came out last to the training hall. He was strumming his bow thread like a harp.
Alina was trying to sort the arrows in her quiver.
Hayley was practicing with her sword  while Aspen was giving an ax a good swing on a training dummy.
Rye started to feel relaxed, casting fire out of his fingers and hitting the dummies with them, but then he heard Gruff come by.

He pulled out a sword out of the blade rack and lifted it, aiming it in Rye’s direction.
“YOU ATE MY CRAB SALAD!”
“COME ON, I THOUGHT WE WERE OVER THIS! IT WAS A WEEK AGO!”

They ran in circles around the hall. Other students from the classes came to watch.

Skye this time stepped up.

“Hayley, go now!”
She ran in front of Gruff, who stopped in his tracks.

“He…he ate my crab-”

“Shh shh. I know, Gruffy. Come here.”

He bent his head down and she scratched him behind the ear.

He closed his eyes. As she scratched, his tail even wagged like a pup.
“Good dragon. Now go drink some milk and calm down. I’ll go with you.”
“Ok…”
They both left the hall.

Rye approached Skye shocked.

“I’d never thought I’d say this out loud, but thank you, professor.”

“It was no big deal. He might not be done with the crab salad thing though. Just keep your guard up, OK?”

Rye actually smiled and nodded.

Skye went to put back the sword Gruff dropped when Hayley calmed him down.
Suddenly there was a loud clanking noise followed by Gruff screaming.
Everyone jumped at the noise and looked toward the entrance as Haley  re-entered.
She had a fearful and serious look in her eyes, carrying a large dented milk pail in her arms.
“Professor, we need more milk!”
Skye quickly ran out of the entrance with her urgently.

Rye quickly hid behind Alina.

“Hide me!”