The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 155: Flying Fish Village

You're here already?! But what about the school? I blurted out. Not that I'm not happy to see you again, but did you just abandon your students? Again?

Floridiana's eyes flew so wide that I could have sworn I heard a thunk of eyebrows slamming into hairline. "You're happy to see me again?"

Ugh, had I really just said that out loud? How irredeemably sentimental of me.

King Densissimus Imber, Dragon King of Caltrop Pond, shook himself off like a wet dog. Water flew everywhere, spraying everyone in the room. "Of course she's happy to see you again, Flori! She wouldn't have invited you if she didn't want to see you again, would she?"

Don't get sidetracked, Den, I reprimanded the maybe-not-quite-so-little-anymore dragon. Floridiana, what kind of headmistress runs off and abandons her students at the first hint of adventure?

Folding her arms and sticking her jaw out so far that she actually resembled Den, the wayward schoolteacher informed me, "The academy is fine. If you must know, I'm giving the students a spring break."

A "spring break"? What's that supposed to be?

A vacation for the students while their teacher runs off to the ends of the Earth, Stripey whispered, not very quietly.

Den strangled a chortle.

Floridiana shot both of them a glare, which meant that Stripey had nailed it. "It is precisely what I called it – a short recess in classes in the early spring after the students have worked hard all winter so that they can come back to their lessons with fresh minds."

Or empty ones, said Stripey, who was way too sanguine about a very serious educational vacuum in the Claymouth Barony.

Dusty stuck his long nose over Floridiana's shoulder to take a stab at convincing me next. "Don't worry, Baron Claymouth's daughter said she'd take over classes if we don't return in time."

The daughter of an aristocrat? Teaching a passel of farmers' and shopkeepers' children their three R's?

The daughter who became a judge or whatever they call it these days? What higher noble did she offend?

My question did not improve Floridiana's mood. "Are you suggesting that becoming a teacher is a punishment?"

Well, about that....

If she's doing it because she was forced to "retire" – I made air quotes with my wingtips – from a political post, then it's a punishment. On the other hand, if she's doing it because she used to be a traveling mage, then it's a promotion.

Dusty blinked. Den stopped wringing out the soggy strands of his mane. And Steelfang started backing away from the mage, tail pinned between his hind legs.

"Oh no! Ssshe's okay, isssn't ssshe? Nothing bad happened to her?" cried one particular snake who could not for the life of her read the room.

Dusty's snort sent papers flying off the desk. Since they weren't Floridiana's, she didn't scold him. "Nah, she's fine. They're all fine. It's one of the Baron's younger daughters. She didn't want to marry the dude her parents picked for her, so she convinced them that staying in Claymouth to raise the prestige of the barony via its academy was more important than making a political marriage."