Talented (On Hold)

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Kaolin worked in the art room. It wasn’t class time, but her teacher, Ms. Dove, always had the room open for those who wanted to work, especially those who’s talent was connected to art. The project she was working on was a dragon, a thoughtful expression on it’s face. As she worked, she thought about the events of that day. Alina had saved a girl’s life, with Connor’s help, and Gage had transformed into a gryphon. She had just watched, unable to help. Sometimes she felt like her talent was useless. She couldn’t even make something with a mind of its own, not since the wolf. She poured her frustration into the dragon, kinking its tail slightly as if it was irritated.

The door opened quietly, and Zack walked in. “Kay?”

“Leave me alone.” Kaolin said, not looking up from her dragon. She lifted its wings a bit as if it was about to take flight.

“Kay, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have helped Connor break into the records room. I just thought it would be fun, an adventure. I’m such an idiot.”

“Yes, you are.” Kaolin lifted the dragon’s head slightly to make it look more proud.

“Alina’s forgiven me. Why won’t you?”

“Because I trusted you!” Kaolin yelled, forcing herself to calm down as she gave the dragon a fierce-looking pair of horns and spikes on its tail. When she was a bit calmer, she continued. “I trusted you. Connor…the reason I’m not as mad at him is because I would expect him to do something like that. He’s bossy, nosey, and not very empathetic. But you? You like pranks, but I never expected you to do something as mean as that!” She sharpened the dragon’s teeth, though it’s expression stayed thoughtful.

Zack sat down beside her and grabbed a piece of clay. “I’m going to make a cat.” He said. He rolled the clay into cylinder, added another roughly round piece as the head, two pointed bits for the ears, a thin piece for the tail, and four more cylinders for the legs. “There.” He said. He looked proud of himself. Despite herself, Kaolin laughed.

“You have to score-and-slip.” She told him. Taking the cat from him, she demonstrated. When he finished that, she looked the cat over with a critical eye. “Its body’s too thin. It looks like a ferret.”

Zack dramatically put a hand to his heart. “I’m wounded.” He fixed it. “Better, oh Queen of Clay?”

Kaolin laughed again. “Its face is too long and its legs are too skinny. Oh, and it has no feet.”

Zack fixed it again. “Good now, Your Majesty?”

“Yes.” Kaolin tapped it on the head. The cat stood up and wobbled around. It drifted slightly to one side, and it nearly walked off the table. She tapped it again and it froze. “One of its legs is longer than all the rest, and you forgot to give it eyes or a mouth.”

Zack did what she said. “Now it’s perfect.”

Kaolin tapped it again. Now it could walk straight and see. She tapped it one last time and picked it up. “Now it has to be baked.”

“Baked!” Zack exclaimed in an exaggerated voice. “No one will eat my dear Fluffums!”

“In the kiln, stupid, not the oven. And Fluffums? Really?” Kaolin asked, shaking with laughter.

Zack blushed. “That was the name of my cat back home. My little sister named it.”

Now Kaolin remembered why she had missed Zack so much. He was the only one that could make her laugh that hard!

Zack suddenly got serious. “Am I forgiven? I never meant to hurt anyone.”

“Sure.” Kaolin said, smiling. She straightened out the dragon’s tail and curved it into a happy question mark.

******

Two days later, Kaolin and Zack went to get their pottery from the art room. Zack quickly found his cat on the shelf, but Kaolin’s was nowhere to be found.

“I guess it broke in the kiln.” Kaolin said sadly. Sometimes if a piece of pottery had an air bubble inside of it, the bubble would expand in in the kiln and break the piece.

“No, I don’t think so.” Said Ms. Dove, coming up behind her. “I swear I put it on that shelf. It was a dragon, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.” Kaolin said, still scanning the shelves.

“Are you sure it didn’t, you know, walk away?” Zack asked.

“It couldn’t have. I didn’t animate it yet.”

“But before you came to Cliffwood you used to animate things all the time by mistake.” Zack pointed out.

“Yeah, but that hasn’t happened since I got here.”

At that moment Alina walked in. “They want you in the library.” She said.

“Why?” Kaolin asked, confused.

“Something about, as the librarian put it, ‘another one of your infernal statues’.”

Zack grinned at Kaolin. “Seems we found the dragon. “

*******

It was definitely the dragon. The minute Kaolin entered the huge, wood-paneled library it hurtled out of one of the massive bookshelves and landed on her shoulder, baring its tiny fangs at the librarian, who was waving a broom at it.

“Dreadful, horrid creature! Stay away from my books or I’ll roast you alive!” It was common knowledge that Mrs. Smith, despite being a pyrokinetic, had been unable to create even a small flame since she had turned fifty, though she still liked to threaten people (and apparently, clay dragons) with it. “Girl, keep your dirty monsters away from my precious texts!”

The dragon wrapped it’s tail around Kaolin’s neck and hissed “I am not dirty.”

Kaolin was shocked. None of her earlier creations had been able to speak! “Did you here that?” She asked Alina.

“What?”

She turned to the dragon. “Did you say something?”

“Yes.” The dragon’s voice sounded like water rushing over stones.

“Why can’t they hear you?”

“I do not know. Perhaps I do not want them to. Now tell that bloody git that calls herself a librarian that I was not harming her texts and am not dirty.”  

Kaolin laughed. “The dragon wants me to tell you that she was not harming your books.”

“Wait, the dragon can talk?”Zack said.

“Yes, apparently.” Kaolin said. She turned to the dragon. “Where did you learn those words?”

“One of those books. The one about magic.”

“Harry Potter?” Kaolin guessed.

“Yes, I believe that was the name.”

“Kaolin, you realize that it looks really weird when you have a one-way conversation with the dragon, right?” Alina said.

“Sorry.” Kaolin turned back to the librarian. “It didn’t hurt any of your books, did it?”

“No, but…” Mrs. Smith grumbled.

“Then it’s fine if she stays.”

“Fine, but if she wrecks even one of my books…”

“We know.” The dragon gave a shrill cry of triumph that everyone could hear.

“Come on. I’ll show you around.” Kaolin said. She turned to walk out, her friends following. When they were halfway out the door the dragon hissed something at the librarian.

“Why you little…” Mrs. Smith shrieked. Kaolin picked up pace.

“What did you say to her?” She asked the dragon.

“Something I do not regret.”