Cordyceps Twenty-Five
Cordyceps Twenty-Five
Maths that afternoon was easy, so easy that I found my mind wandering the entire time.
I spent some time thinking about the letter I’d received, but a bigger part of my mind was distracted by a certain Troll.
That little shit Harbin needed to be taught a lesson.
I wasn’t going to kill him, which actually made it so much harder.
I did have a few ideas, though, but they’d require some planning, so the moment Maths class was done, I zipped out, and then begged off spending time with Montgomery. He followed me anyway, but then I told him that I had to help Sir Nibbles with something, secretly, and he nodded along and gave me a conspiratorial wink.
Montgomery was a good kid, but I wasn’t sure how good he’d be at keeping that secret. Still, I didn’t have much of a choice there.
I did get back to the dorms in a hurry and did pick up Sir Nibbles, hiding the panbadger under a coat which he always seemed to enjoy. Either because it was nice and warm, or because it allowed him to bite me with relative ease.
We snuck back out of the dorm, but I noticed Mister Drake in the main corridor, fortunately before he saw me. I straightened my back, pushed my [Unnoticeable] skill to the max, and walked past him as if I was just minding my own business with just a nod in passing. The man barely noticed me. I circled around back, then into the basement.
“Here you go,” I said to Sir Nibbles as I set him down. “Have fun. Don’t shit in the well.”
The panbadger cackled, then took off running through the darkness without a care in the world. I saw him reach the end of the room, then spin around to run back the other way.
Did panbadgers get zoomies?
Well, whatever, he could use the exercise, and this was a good place for it. I moved over to the boiler and balled up the second half of my letter and tossed it in. it caught fire and disappeared soon enough, which let me return to my little mushroom cultivation in the corner.
It was coming along. The air might have been a pinch too dry, which was unfortunate, but it was dark and I could work on raising the humidity in the corner with a bit of effort. I had a few spores for some of my water-gourd mushrooms, that’d absorb some of the water out of the air most of the time, but if I let their mycelium grow into the cistern, then they’d fill by pulling the water out from there, then when they inevitably started to leak, water could be spread out further from the corner with the cistern.
It was far from perfect, but it might increase the air’s humidity by a tiny fraction, and that would help already.
While I was there, I collected some spores from the [Dead Man’s Cough] I had growing, then I started working on something special for my best pal Harbin.
I left the basement an hour or so later, with Sir Nibbles tired out from his running around and sniffing at everything in sight. He’d sleep well tonight, at least, which was nice. He tended to bite me in my sleep if he was bored overnight.
I... wasn’t sure if Panbadgers were nocturnal or not naturally. Maybe they were like cats? He certainly had some cat-like behaviours.
Making a note to check out the Academy’s library later, I dropped him off in our room, then headed out to get something to eat. It was around dinner time, and when I arrived in the cafeteria, plenty of students were already in line while the brusque lady behind the counter set up for the evening.
“Hey, you’re back,” Montgomery said. He stared at me, then reached up to my head and pulled off a bit of cobweb. “Where’d you get this?” he asked.
“Ah, oops,” I said. “I don’t know. Must have brushed past something.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“The cleaning people here should work harder,” he said with a shake of his head.
I didn’t have much to say about that. We grabbed some food, and Montgomery subtly asked me what kind of stuff Sir Nibbles liked best. “Meats, mostly, but he’ll eat anything, up to and including trash or bugs.”
“That’s kind of gross,” he said. “I can’t imagine having a diet like that is good for his coat. I’ll try to get some extra for him.”
We ate, laughed at a few jokes from the other Dragons, and I listened to the others complaining about mundane things and spreading rumours around. The recent death was yesterday’s news, and the rumour mill had moved on already.
Then we returned to the dorms. We did have a bit of homework from maths class, and I didn’t want to leave that off until much later. I did let Montgomery feed Sir Nibbles, and the boy only came out of it with a few bitemarks to show for his efforts.
Once I was done for the night, I settled in for an early night, and hugged Sir Nibbles close under the blankets while he idly chewed on my fingers without breaking skin.
The next morning came quickly and suddenly, and I rushed to grab a quick shower before anyone else and get dressed. We had maths again, and I expected another couple of hours of tedium and daydreaming.
But that tedium wasn’t entirely wasted. It gave me time to think, which was, on occasion, somewhat precious.
The class right after maths was Introduction to Herbology and Botany. A class that, notably, I had with Harbin and a few of his pals. That would be the ideal time to deploy my little gift, but I had to do it in a way that he wouldn’t notice and that couldn’t be pinned on me, which was quite tricky.
Maths class finished, and I hadn’t found a quick and easy solution yet, though I had an idea or two.
I said goodbye to Montgomery, then joined Milo in heading to the greenhouses on the east end of campus. We arrived long before the Trolls did, but fortunately, Mister Moss was in one of the greenhouses already and the doors had been left open to let us in.
“Take a seat,” he said with a gesture to a few stools. The greenhouse was too warm and too humid for comfort. The corner we were in was cleared of plants, however, and there was a blackboard on wheels nearby that the professor was writing some notes on.
“What will we be doing today, sir?” I asked.
“Plant anatomy,” he said. “From root to stem. Mostly we’ll be going over terminology in the first half of class, then we’ll be dissecting some plants, breaking them down manually so that you can get a feel for what each plant is made of, ah, you’re all here.” The Trolls had finally arrived, and he gestured them towards some stools. “Sit, please, we might as well start early and finish early. I’m sure you’d appreciate an early lunch.”
The first half of the class was exactly as he said. He drew, with surprising artistry, some plants on the blackboard and named each individual part of them, explaining what their functions were in broad terms.
It was mostly, I suspected, so that we’d all be on the same page, because I was quite certain that everyone here knew what a leaf was.
Harbin spent the entire class grinning at me, and sometimes making rude gestures when Professor Moss’ back was turned.
The second half of class was a little more hands-on, which seemed par for the course with this teacher. He brought out small planters, one for each of us, and we were told to remove the plant within (simple daffodils) and dissect it. Each part needed to be placed on a page, glued into place and labelled.
The class got to work, and it wasn’t long before I saw my opportunity to act.
Harbin and one of his pals decided to jostle one of the quieter Dragons as they passed by, and they dropped their flower pot.
It crashed apart, little bits of pottery flying everywhere.
“Mister Harbin,” the professor snapped. “Do help Mister Andrew clean that up. I don’t need someone stepping on a piece of pottery and having to visit the nurses’ office.”
The professor’s attention was soon back on a book he was reading, and Harbin was on the ground, grumbling as he picked up pieces of the flower pot.
I pushed my stealth skills and slipped over to Harbin’s project. Then, with two fingers pinching some dust within my jacket, I sprinkled a small dusting of spores onto his project before darting back to my seat.
I had to restrain myself from smiling as Harbin returned to work, especially as a minute or two later, I noticed him picking at his nose.
Ah, the revenge was going to be so beautiful.
***