She picked the book up and tried to return it to the bottom of the bookshelf, but the book kept jumping off the shelf.
‘What now?’ she said, exasperated.
‘You have to return it to where you got it from,’ said the Elp with a small smile, mischief dancing in his eyes. Successfully returning the book to its original place on the top shelf of the bookcase, she tossed her bag over her shoulder, put on her hat and went down the many stairs. On reaching the reception desk, she hesitated. Where to next? Glimpsing the field through the open back door, she made her way to it to get a quick peek outside.
* * *
Pausing just outside the back door of the Learning Tree, Deelind looked out over the school playing field, taking in the mountains which extended high above her. She walked towards the forest at the far end of the field and turned to look back at the Learning Tree. It was strange to think she had just been sitting in one of those huge branches as though it was the most normal thing in the world to do. She blinked, feeling dazed. There were many moments when her new life just felt so surreal. Next to the Learning Tree was a large, flat-topped tree with smoke coming out of one of its branches, much like a chimney. She guessed that this was the Dining Tree.
‘Behind you,’ said the helpful Elpling who had appeared next to her ear. She turned around to see Tom coming out of the forest.
‘Hi, Tom! Where have you been?’
‘Just playing in the forest,’ said Tom with a broad smile. ‘Come, it is lunchtime and I am hungry.’
She had a feeling that Tom was trying to distract her from why he was in the forest, but willingly let him take her hand and pull her towards the Dining Tree. Inside the tree were rows of wooden tables and benches and a table in front with piles of food on it. On each table were ten Elps cleaning up the mess and helping younger children with their food. Taking the opportunity to study the Elps more closely she saw they were all shapes and sizes and had slightly different shades of brown and green bodies. Some were missing arms and legs, although they appeared to be growing back.
‘The browner they are, the older they are. If they are grey with cracks in their bark, they are particularly old, like Elp Brown. You are lucky to have him teaching you, he knows so much,’ said her Elp. ‘I’m so green you can bend me in half, and I will not break nor will my belly knot crack but the older Elps will completely snap in half.’
Tom pulled her to the table with food and, taking a plate, started to fill it. She did the same. They went to another table and sat down to eat. All the Elps on their table took one look at Deelind and fled the table, screaming. Tom chortled.
She stared after them, perplexed. ‘I must have the bravest Elp of them all!’ Out of the corner of her eye she saw her Elp had the biggest smile on his face and she couldn’t help beaming back at him.
Deelind saw more children come running in. It appeared that classes finished at different times. They formed a long queue to get food. There were no adults around, but all the children seemed to behave themselves, with the older children looking after the younger ones. Mug arrived late and did not bother to queue for food, but instead came over and sat with Deelind and Tom.
‘Not eating?’ she said.
‘Hate queues. Hey! A prefect badge!’ he said, pointing at her collar.
Flushing, she replied, ‘Elp Brown gave it to me this morning because of the role model I represent as a featherlite. Is there a head girl or boy?’
‘No, just a couple of prefects, mainly to help keep order and make sure the school runs properly. The prefects can give out punishment or send someone to the Time Out Tree but mostly the older kids look after and manage the younger ones.’
‘What is the Time Out Tree?’
‘It is like the naughty step, but the tree decides how to help a child when they get themselves into trouble. One boy got so angry, he was hitting all the other children, and the Time Out Tree gave him a punching bag to release his anger. Now anytime he feels angry he can go down to the Time Out Tree and the punching bag. Others just seem to sit and talk to the Time Out Tree and when they come back, they are much nicer and calmer.’
‘I must go,’ said Deelind standing with her empty plate. ‘I don’t want to be late for featherlite training.’
‘I will come with you,’ said Tom, standing. He carried his plate to the washing-up area and she followed. There were about thirty Elps washing the dishes, and when she saw one lift a plate by itself and place it on the drying rack it was clear that they were strong for their size. The children she passed stopped talking and watched her until she had gone by. It hadn’t taken long for the news of the Elps running screaming from her table to get around.
Leaving the Dining Tree, she made her way to the Upper house and changed into her featherlite uniform. Corporal Lucy set her some reading work and left Deelind to it. Deelind walked to the two statues and sat down in front of them dangling her feet over the cliff face that looked out over Brakenhill Valley.
‘Hi, Deelind! I see you’ve found the best spot in the place,’ called out a deep voice.
Turning to the sound, she grinned and waved at the Dragonknight who was walking across the field towards the barracks. She didn’t know his name, but they all knew hers and several had already greeted her in the short time since she had arrived at the Upper house that afternoon.
Turning back to the wonderful view, she took out her textbook on Introduction to Becoming a Featherlite and started to read. Towards the end of the afternoon, she closed her book and stared out over the valley, watching the sun slowly set.
* * *
The first Wednesday afternoon after starting at the Learning Tree, Deelind quickly headed to the Upper house. Standing in the middle of the field were lots and lots of small children. Poor Corporal Lucy seemed beside herself trying to line up the children in squads of ten.
‘Help!’ said Corporal Lucy, spotting her arrival. ‘Since you’ve become a featherlite so many children have signed up for Dragon Quest Junior Training. It seems they all aspire to becoming featherlites regardless of whether there are dragons to meld with or not. They feel that if you can do it, so can they. I have only just managed to get them out onto the field. Please help get them into squads and then we can start them marching for the afternoon. You’ve just been promoted to my assistant!’
Spotting Deelind, the children swarmed around her, full of questions. It seemed she was something of a celebrity. She was exhausted by the end of the afternoon and Corporal Lucy didn’t seem to have fared much better. Marching was not her favourite activity and the addition of the children had made it hard work. ‘Left, right, left right,’ sang in her head all the way home.
Deelind was so busy in the days that followed that the weeks started to blur as Spring rolled into Summer and she formed a daily routine of school in the morning and featherlite training in the afternoon. Some of the children at school steered clear of her, while others stopped her at every opportunity either with questions or to ask her to go dragon. Surprisingly, she was enjoying her studies, she had so much to learn about this new world and burying herself in her studies helped distract her from the frustration of not being able to talk to Zara.
One bright day she found she had the morning to herself because Elp Brown was away on school business. Blowing her hair out of her face, she stood and stretched. Perhaps it was time to take a break from this particularly complicated section of Arnethland Law, one of her least favourite subjects. She sat back and looked out of the window. Hearing a noise outside the room, she and her Elp, who was standing on the windowsill, turned to see April charge into the room. April grabbed a chair, straddled it and said, ‘We need to talk.’
‘We do?’ Deelind said, eyes wide.
‘Yes. Elps aren’t represented on the council you know, and they should be!’ The Elpling hopped from the windowsill onto Deelind’s shoulder and leaned forward to hear more.
‘You’ll have to bear with me. I don’t know much about Elps and my Elp is so y
oung himself that he can’t tell me either. There is so little written about them. I’m sure we’d both love to hear what you know.’ Deelind’s little Elp nodded his head eagerly.
‘Exactly! The lack of knowledge on Elps is shocking, yet they help us every day. They should at least be covered in one of our subjects. I’ve taken it upon myself to represent all Elps and get them representation on the council. With you being a featherlite, you can tell the council to appoint an Elp. It shouldn’t be too hard. Elps are fundamental to our existence.’
‘How so?’
‘They were one of the first elements Princess Lee’s ancestors brought to earth. They are Mother Nature, you know. All plant life comes from Elemental Life Plants originally. The Elder Elp Tree was planted at the same time as Oakman but everyone only notices Oakman.
‘You see, the Elder Elp Tree is where all Elps come from. Each branch on the Elder Elp Tree grows Elplings. When the Elplings have turned twig brown they have become Elps. The branch shakes them off to go out and start living in the forest as a family or tribe. Their job is to look after all the plants and trees. They work closely with the molers who look after the soil.
‘All Elps who live long enough return to the Elder Elp Tree, where they climb up the trunk and grow into a new branch, sharing their life’s knowledge with the main tree and the Elplings growing on the tree. The branch will then grow its own new Elplings and when these Elplings are old enough they are shaken or blown off the branch. This is how the Elder Elp Tree grows bigger, stronger and wiser. Some Elps don’t return to the Elder Elp Tree and instead they go off and grow into a tree and start new forests.
‘On rare occasions, a single green Elpling will grow out of the main trunk of the Elder Elp Tree. This Elpling is rejected by the tree and is shed. Normally too young and green they don’t survive. My guess is our little friend here is one of these Elplings.’
The little Elp snapped his knot in fear. Deelind turned to her Elp with a grin. ‘You snapped your knot!’
His fear forgotten, the Elpling was now jumping about in excitement. ‘I’ve been practising!’ he said, looking immensely proud.
‘That is exciting! It’s not easy for an Elpling to crack his knot, you know,’ said April with a broad smile. ‘Snapping your knot is exactly why a group of Elps is called a snap of Elps. But you mustn’t fear. You look strong and healthy to me and you have found Deelind. She’ll look out for you now. It’s no small thing for an Elp to have a featherlite for a friend. It looks like our Elpling here is courageous and I think a little bit of a rascal because, of course, an Elp’s greatest fear is fire. Normally, Elps stay far away from featherlites.’
Understanding filled Deelind’s mind. Now she knew why none of the Elps wanted to be near her. She looked at her Elp with new eyes. Spotting her gaze, her Elp gave her a cheeky little smile, making her grin broadly at him.
‘Where is your Elp?’ she asked April.
‘Oh, she’s out putting up notices for our campaign to get an Elp representative on the council,’ said April.
‘How come none of the adults have Elps?’
‘The Elps are only assigned to children and when the children have finished school, the Elp chooses to be reassigned or it can return to the forests for a while to rest. On rare occasions you will see an adult with an Elp. They have such a tight bond that the Elp does not leave when the schooling is over.
‘It is lunchtime,’ said April suddenly and, as if on cue, Deelind’s stomach let out an almighty rumble. ‘We must never let a featherlite get hungry,’ April said, unravelling herself from her chair. Deelind was grateful for the distraction. She couldn’t see how she could help April or the Elps at this point. For now, the best she could do was to look after her little Elp. Besides, she was pretty sure that as a featherlite she was the last person the Elps wanted help from anyway.
Standing, she followed April to the Dining Tree where they joined Mug and Tom. Sitting next to Mug, April put her head on his shoulder. Deelind pressed her lips together in stifled mirth, Mug was looking distinctly uncomfortable. He tried to pull away, but April just tucked her arm into his, trapping him next to her.
‘You silly molers can be so shy,’ she said. ‘Oh well, I must run.’ Giving the reluctant Mug a hug, she headed out of the Dining Tree. Mug blew out a big sigh of relief.
‘I… I see you know her,’ stammered Mug. ‘She is too clever for her own good and is mad as a box of frogs.’
‘Mug and April sitting in a tree,’ sang Tom, reciting the first line of a popular schoolyard rhyme. Deelind choked back a laugh at Tom’s antics.
‘Exams are coming up,’ said Mug glumly, ignoring Tom. ‘I normally just scrape through.’
‘What are the exams like?’ she asked, thinking back to her old school where she had to sit a three-hour exam for each subject.
‘Elp Brown or the head teacher sets a test towards the end of each term, then at the end of the year we write level exams. If we pass, we move to the next level. We write the exam in the classroom using our Elps. They ensure that we do not cheat. The exam is written using an Elp and on school paper.’
‘How can our Elps stop us cheating?’
‘Easily,’ said Mug. ‘Your Elp simply cannot write if you have cheated. It only works on official school papers, though. If you use your own paper, Elp Brown tears it up and makes you rewrite a new exam and deducts twenty percent. When he was small, Ivan once tried to use an Elp from the forest, and it just kept snapping and screaming “Cheat!” It messed all over his hand, staining it red for weeks. Everyone just had to look at him to know what he had done.
‘I had to pass Moler level 5 to become a moler. Until I pass Moler level 10 I will not be allowed to graduate. I guess if you do not pass level 10, you will not be allowed to join the royal guard and partake in the battles. For tree growers, they would not be allowed to grow tree houses. They would be stuck growing saplings in the greenhouses,’ Mug explained. She got the picture. No progression if you did not graduate.
Like every other day, when they finished their lunch Mug went to the pit and she made her way to the Upper house while Tom disappeared into the forest.
By the evening she was exhausted. Every evening seemed to follow the same routine of long study sessions, which she normally enjoyed but not tonight. On entering her bedroom, she fell onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. After a few minutes, she tugged at the choker again. When the plaster cast was removed everyone would expect her to transform. She needed to talk to Princess Lee. Frustrated, she reluctantly sat on her bed to continue her studies. Tonight her left arm in the plaster cast itched and she wiggled her fingers some way down the cast to give the arm a good scratch. She turned her attention back to reading the history of Brakenhill. Her eyes grew heavy and she drifted into sleep.
* * *
Exams arrived before Deelind could believe it. It turned out to be a long and exhausting week and her poor Elpling was looking rather scruffy and worn-down. At the end of the last exam he crawled into the bag and was asleep before she had slung her bag over her shoulder. She was pleased with herself. Her hard work had paid off. She had passed Arnethland Law, Moler, History and Scouting & Camouflage for levels 1 to 4. Corporal Lucy shrugged off any mention about a featherlite exam, saying that in a few months Deelind would easily be at level 5 anyway. Deelind wandered down to the Dining Tree to meet Mug. Arriving at the same time, they slumped into their chairs.
‘I hate exams. To make it worse we aren’t going to Mole City for the summer holidays this year because of Blackthorn. Dad and Ivan can’t leave Brakenhill,’ said Mug gloomily. Deelind had never seen him looking so disappointed and grumpy.
‘Don’t feel too bad. It’s summer holidays for you now but not for me. Elp Brown has told me I am to study through the holidays for my DKC exams.’
‘Hard luck!’ said Mug, looking at her in horror. ‘I guess I will be stuck in the pit, no summer for me either. I’m still trying to get my navigation right.’ There was no ge
tting Mug out of his mood, so she made her excuses and left him to mope on his own.
CHAPTER 11
REUNITED
At breakfast the next morning Miss Tibi told Deelind, ‘Your arm has been in the plaster cast now for five months. You need to go and see Nurse Amy to get it removed. I’m sure you’ll be relieved to have it off.’
‘It is rather smelly and itchy,’ Deelind said, wrinkling her nose, ‘but this choker is even more annoying.’ She tugged at her dress collar which still hid the choker.
Miss Tibi nodded in sympathy. ‘As soon as Princess Lee is out of the pod, I am sure she will take it off for you.’
Deelind’s heart lurched with excitement and fear. She really wanted the plaster cast off. The trouble was that when it was off, everyone would expect to see her transform and that wasn’t going to happen until the choker was removed. So far, no one had noticed it hidden beneath her clothing. The only exception was her Elp who couldn’t help but notice since he stood on her shoulder regularly, but he was far too discreet and loyal to say anything. The discomfort and resentment she had felt about the choker were minor compared to the push she was getting from her new predator instincts. The inability to transform was a weakness her dragon side did not want revealed to others.
She had to get it off and soon but how? Researching everything that she could find both at school and in the Upper house about featherlites had revealed nothing. Her efforts meant that she was on top of her studies but not one book mentioned a dragon choker.
As it was Saturday and there was no school, perhaps she would go and find Mug to see if he could help, but before she could leave Miss Tibi came bustling into the dining room and said, ‘Sergeant Sam wants you to report to the Upper house for guard duty.’
She groaned. What could she do about the choker if she had to stand guard duty? She left the table and quickly went to change into her featherlite uniform. Not needing her bag for guard duty, she decided to leave it undisturbed on her dressing table with the exhausted Elpling still sound asleep in it.
Deelind and The Icefire Page 16