Born Hero. Fire Dragon's Revenge - Dragon Slaying School 1

Author: Kate McMullan (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Soon, a helmeted head appeared at the window. "Pull hard, little ones!" Sir Mortimer gasped for breath. "One, two, three, ho!" Everyone pulled together, dragging him inside the window. Clunk! Sir Mortimer fell heavily onto the classroom floor. Grognak looked at him. This knight was fully armed, clad in armor, no wonder he was so heavy! "Tracking a dragon isn't an easy task," Sir Mortimer clanked along to the podium. "Even from miles away, a dragon can hear your footsteps. Especially when you're wearing boots, clank-clank-clank—it's terrible."
"Sir Mortimer," Akka asked loudly, "how is a dragon's sense of smell?"
"Oh, their smell is mostly quite pleasant," Sir Mortimer seemed not to understand Akka's question. "Like cheese that's been left out for a few days. Once I killed a dragon, and it smelled exactly like my woolen socks, because they had been worn for so long they had grown moldy."
"I mean, can dragons smell the smell of dragon slayers?" Akka asked again.
"Aha! Good question!" Sir Mortimer exclaimed. "That's exactly what you need to learn, little ones! Learn to ask questions!" With that, he glanced around the classroom. "Any other questions?"
A tall boy raised his hand, his voice trembling. "How close do we need to be to a dragon to be in danger?"
"He's the dragon mentioned in the recruitment ad, Grognak—Torbreid the Worrywart, also known as Flatterer," Andy whispered to Grognak.
"How close?" Sir Mortimer called out. "Brilliant question! Too brilliant! You'll do well, boy! Next question!"
Akka raised his hand again. "Yesterday you said that tracking different dragons requires different methods. Can you give us an example?" Akka thought, "Akka really loves to show off."
"Of course," Sir Mortimer smiled and nodded. "Easy." Everyone's eyes widened, waiting to hear the next part. But Sir Mortimer just kept nodding and smiling.
"Sir Mortimer?" Akka couldn't stand it anymore. "Can you tell us what you mean?"
"Good idea!" Sir Mortimer clanked to the center of the classroom. "Let's take cave dragons, for example. Their hearing is very sharp, so you must use very stealthy tracking methods. The method I use is called 'Slippery.'"