Hunted

Chapter 8 - A Dragon's Biology

I walked in late to Biology class. It wasn't my fault, though. I stayed with Jace when he was taken to the medical center, even though he was unconscious.

The Asian looking girl from before walked in with me. She'd been with Jace too. I wondered if they used to be friends. Or maybe she was his girlfriend. I couldn't help the spark of jealousy that thought shot through me.

The Asian girl was pretty, as I was learning all Hunters were. She had fairly large eyes, that were dark and lined with short eyelashes. She had a small mouth, but her smile was sweet. She had pale skin and a small nose.

I found myself hoping again that she wasn't Jace's girlfriend.

There was a man standing at the front of the classroom we walked into. He was about fifty-five or sixty years old, if I had to guess. He wore glasses and he had a goatee. He was missing the hair on top of his head. He looked up at us when we walked into the room.

"Miss Murdock... and this must be Miss Swan. Welcome to Biology of Paranormals. Unfortunately, you are a few minutes late, so I will have to write you up." He make a tsk-tsk sound with his mouth. "Shame. And on your very first day, Miss Swan. Not a very good first impression."

I hated teachers like this. They look calm, and they are passive and mean at the same time. In a way, these types of teachers were worse than teachers like Mr. Slater. At least Mr. Slater doesn't pretend to be nice and clam.

I gritted my teeth and walked to a desk at the back. All of the students eyes were on me.

"Thank you so much for that interruption, Miss Swan. Now may I go back to educating?" Mean Teacher Man glared at me, before turning his back and kept writing on the blackboard.

I turned my attention to what he was writing. His name was up in the corner of the blackboard: Mr. Goodman.

Well that was ironic.

He was still writing on the board, but his body was covering what he was writing. When he finally moved, I could see that he had drawn a diagram of a dragon. Yeah, a dragon. This is how my life works.

In case anyone forgot, I'm a friggin dragon shifter. So forgive me for my sudden intake of breath when I saw the diagram. A few students turned around to look at me.

But I was staring at the board. The dragon was drawn so you could see all the parts. Mr. Goodman glared at me.

"Can anybody tell me what the names of any of these parts? Then tell me what the beast uses them for, and how we can use each of them to our advantage."

I really shouldn't raise my hand. I'll draw attention to myself. On the other hand, it'll show this stupid Hunter that I know things. Besides, this is my thing. The topic I know best.

I raise my hand. Of course.

"Nobody? Really? What a shame." Mr. Goodman deliberately ignored my clearly raised hand.

For another ten seconds or so, he searched the small class for another raised hand, but there wasn't one. He sighed.

"Miss Swan. Share your immense wealth of knowledge with us. Name this part for me, which specific species of dragon has this particular part, and what it is used for. Identify another part of the dragon that is specific to this particular species of dragon, and then name the Latin and English name for this dragon. Identify whether it is a male or female. Gauge if you can approach it, and which weapon would be best used."

Oh, jeez. He really didn't like me. Admittedly, I didn't know the answers to some of those questions. Like, how would I know what weapons to approach a dragon with? Why would I approach myself with weapons? This was stupid.

But I still began to answer his questions. Luckily, this was my dragon form. I was an Apollo Starling dragon, which is what this specific dragon was, too. "That's where they emit the gas that they then light on fire using an electrical current generated in their throat. They then are able to breathe out this gas, which has been ignited. This allows them to breathe fire."

"The dragon that uses this particular ability is called the Apollo Starling dragon, named after the Greek god of the sun: Apollo. Or the Latin name for it is Apollo Sturni. This species also has the ability to change its appearance to match its surroundings, rendering it almost invisible, at times. Based on its body size and claw shape and size, I would guess it was a female."

"Females are usually a bit smaller than males, and their claws are usually less curved. Their scales are also usually shinier and more brightly colored than the males. Uh... yeah." I cleared my throat.

I was aware that I'd completely skipped two of his questions: if you should approach it and with what. How should I know that?

"Unacceptable! You completely disregarded at least half of the questions. You did not go into enough detail. I want a two thousand word essay on my desk tomorrow morning about this species. And that's for the whole class! You will all pay for Miss Swan's mistake. Good day." We were dismissed.

The whole class groaned. One student purposely bumped into me on his way out. The Asian-looking girl whose last name was Murdock came up to me.

"Don't worry. He's mean to everyone, but I guess he just doesn't like that you missed part of the year. I thought your answer was good. How do you know so much about dragons?" she said.

"Uh..." How should I answer her? How would a Hunter know so much about dragons? "My... parents. Specialized in dragon hunting. Over a hundred kills between them." I cringed at my answer. I hated hearing myself say that lie.

"Whoa! Really? But aren't dragons, like, impossible to kill?" she asked, eyes wide.

"Well, yeah, but I guess they had a special weapon or something." I said. "I never caught your name. I'm Rayna, by the way."

"Gemma Murdock. My family specializes more on shifters, especially werewolves. Disgusting creatures. They deserve to die, every one of them." Her normally beautiful, sweet face contorted into a grimace as she thought about her natural enemies.

"Uh... yeah. I agree. That's how I feel about dragons. And all Paranormals, obviously. But dragons in particular, I mean, they're so... well they...ahem." I cleared my throat. Turns out, I wasn't the best liar when it comes to criticizing my race.

Gemma didn't seem suspicious though. She just nodded. "How about we walk to lunch together. What Cafeteria are you in?"

"Three, I think." I answered, glad we had moved off the topic of dragons.

"Oh, that's too bad. I'm in Two. Well, I guess I'll see you in Training, then." she walked away, towards Cafeteria Two.

I turned around and headed towards Cafeteria Three, glad to get away from the girl. She was a reminder of how everyone here would murder me, if they knew what I truly was.