Eleazar Goodenough
and the Mystery of the Scrying Inkwell
by Jerry Grimes
Chapter 11 - Making Friends
The next day at breakfast, Jolly offered his
sweet roll to Darcy, who took it without even saying
"Thanks," but Jolly pretended not to notice. Darcy took
his breakfast over to the secluded table that he and his
tough-guy friends always used in the cafeteria. Everyone else
tried to stay away from that section for fear of being tripped,
or having a random bit of food flung at them. But today, Eleazer
entered the cafeteria a short time after Jolly, noticed Darcy
sitting with his friends, and went up to the table.
"How's your pendulum practice coming?"
Eleazar asked.
"OK, I guess," mumbled Darcy, eyeing
his friends nervously.
"Good enough, don't you
mean?" said one of the tough guys to Darcy and the others
snickered. Suddenly the tough guy started coughing and choking.
"A hairball?" asked Eleazar. "I
thought only cats did that. Anyway, here's a new gemstone for you
to try Darcy. This one will always lead you in the right
direction."
As the tough guy suddenly coughed up a hairball
onto the table, Eleazar dropped a large gem on a silver chain
into Darcy's hand.
"Try catnip tea for that cough," said
Eleazar to the tough guy before heading over to the table where
Jolly and Carmen were watching, mouths open.
"He never even thanked either one of
you," said Carmen in a low voice as Eleazar sat down.
"Thank-you's come later," said
Eleazar. "Remember, he's probably never had anyone to thank
for anything in all his short life."
They watched as they saw Professor Spellbinder
enter the cafeteria. He winked at his friends and then he, too,
headed over to the tough-guy table.
"There you are, Darcy," said Professor
Spellbinder. "I wonder if I might ask a favor of you. I need
a student to be leader of the First Year students on your floor,
a prefect, don't you know? You know the place better than anyone
and with all your experience, I thought you might be the perfect
prefect, if you get my meaning. You'd have to change your room,
though. You'd need to be closer to the stairs to notice if
students are sneaking out at night."
"You mean I'd get to take over Professor
Goodenough's room?" asked Darcy excitedly, pronouncing
Eleazar's last name correctly.
"Well, not exactly," said Professor
Spellbinder. "I can't give you another boy's room, but maybe
Professor Goodenough and Mr. Joliet Rodgers would be good enough
to share their room with you if you ask them."
"Three in a room?" asked Darcy in
amazement. "It's never been done before."
"Oh, certainly it has," said Professor
Spellbinder. "Back in 1863 we had a similar situation and
solved it by putting three boys in the same room. I believe it
was that very room, now that you mention it. It's bigger on the
inside than it appears, you know. Besides, it has its own private
bathroom now. Why don't you ask them and see what they say?"
Professor Spellbinder left the table and went
out of the cafeteria past Eleazar's table, giving them another
wink as he went by.
Carmen whispered, "Do you think he'll have
the nerve to ask you?"
"We'll see in a moment," said Eleazar.
"Here he comes now."
Darcy came over to the table shyly. Carmen
pushed out a chair for him so he could sit down if he wished, but
Darcy just put his hands on the back of the chair and said,
"Did you hear what Professor Spellbinder just said?"
"Why no, Darcy," said Eleazar.
"We were just talking about taking a hike on the mountain
this weekend if the weather is nice. Would you like to join us?
You could give your new pendulum a workout."
"Well, um, Professor Spellbinder just
appointed me prefect of the First Years and.."
"Congratulations, Darcy!" said Carmen
and Jolly together.
"I know you'll make a great prefect,"
said Carmen. "You know everything about the Academy."
Darcy blushed and sat down in the chair Carmen
had pushed towards him. "Well, that's not what I need to
ask," said Darcy. "You see, a prefect needs to be in
one of the rooms near the stairs and..."
"Hey, our room is near the stairs!"
said Jolly. "Why don't you move in with us? That would be OK
with you, wouldn't it Professor Goodenough?"
"I think that's a fine idea," said
Eleazar. "You're not allergic to dragons, are you,
Darcy?"
"Dragons?" said Darcy. "What do
you mean? There are no dragons around here, are there?"
"We see a little dragon from time to time
fluttering around outside our window," said Jolly.
"Nothing to worry about. If you want, we can go move your
things into our room right now before classes begin."
"Really?" said Darcy. "You don't
mind? I thought maybe... because of what I said..."
"Darcy, we never hold grudges," said
Eleazar. "Life is much too short for that. Let's go get your
things."
"What about this dragon?" said Darcy
as the two boys led him upstairs. "I had a run-in with a
dragon not too long ago."
"No, really?" asked Jolly. "It
couldn't be this same dragon... he's much too friendly for
that."
They went all the way down the hall to Darcy's
room and helped him load everything back into his trunk. Then
Darcy and Jolly carried the trunk back to the first room near the
stairs and opened the door. Naturally, the first thing that
caught Darcy's eye was Hareek, pacing back and forth in the
center of the room.
"That is the same dragon!"
shouted Darcy. "Get him out of here!"
"He couldn't be. Look how friendly he
is," said Eleazar, holding out a bit of sweet roll. "He
even has a name. We call him Hareek!"
Upon hearing his name, Hareek looked up, saw the
sweet roll morsel and flew up to gently land on Eleazar's arm
where the tiny dragon daintily grabbed up the sweet roll, toasted
it with his breath and began to nibble on it.
"It sounds a bit like he's purring when
he's happy," said Jolly, calling their attention to the
rumbling noises coming from, Hareek. "I guess that means he
likes you, Darcy!"
"Can I pet him?" said Darcy, putting
out a finger nervously.
"I'd wait a bit for that," said
Eleazar. "Let him come to you first. If he flies over and
lands on your shoulder, it would be quite safe to pet him."
Hareek finished the sweet roll and then went
looking up Eleazar's sleeve for more food.
"That's all I had, Hareek," said
Eleazar. "Sorry. Maybe Darcy or Jolly brought you
something."
Hareek flew up into the air like a hummingbird,
flapping his wings so fast that he hovered in one place. Then he
flew over in front of Jolly and made a squeaking noise.
"Sorry, Hareek, I forgot to bring you
anything," said Jolly.
Hareek next flew over to Darcy and made the same
squeaking noise.
"Wait a minute!" said Darcy. "I
have a piece of bubblegum in my pocket. Do you think he'd like
bubblegum?"
"Only one way to find out," said
Eleazar. "I'll just put your trunk on your bed."
Somehow, a third bed had appeared in the room and the room itself
had tripled in size since they had last seen it.
Darcy held out the bubble gum and Hareek flew
over and landed on his shoulder before taking the offered gum and
popping it into his mouth.
"He ate it, wrapper and all!" said
Darcy.
"Hareek has his own way of disposing of
wrappers," said Eleazar. "Just watch."
Sure enough, the little dragon removed the
wrapped candy when he tasted the paper, then blew flames on the
candy to burn the wrapper off. The heat also softened the bubble
gum which the dragon then began to chew noisily.
Darcy took a chance and patted Hareek on the
head with one finger. The little dragon purred back contentedly,
then surprised them all by blowing a pink bubble, which exploded
into flames when it burst.
"Neat!" said Darcy and Jolly and
Eleazar together, then they all laughed. Hareek immediately
started blowing a much larger bubble.
"You'd better move him into the bathroom if
he's going to keep this up," warned Eleazar. "You'll
need to be close to water if anything catches on fire!"
"We have to get ready to go to class,"
said Jolly. "Maybe I'd better let him outside so he can fly
to the lake and play with his fire bubbles safely."
"Good idea," said Eleazar. "See
if you can coax him over to the window, Darcy."
The little dragon needed no coaxing, since he
understood everything that was being said and the idea of scaring
birds by blowing fire bubbles at them made him anxious to try it,
so he flew over to his little trap door and let himself out. The
three boys watched him flying towards the lake, stopping every so
often to burst a fire bubble at a surprised sparrow.
"I don't have time to unpack my
trunk," said Darcy. "I have to get to your scrying
class right away, Professor Goodenough, and so do you!"
"Well, you're the prefect," said
Eleazar, "So you can unpack your trunk whenever you're
ready. By the way, now that we're roommates, you can just call me
Eleazar or E.G. when we're by ourselves. Let go to classes now or
we'll all be late."
© 2005, Imagineering Magic, All Rights
Reserved. www.magicnook.com