My father had been obsessed by the Madlings, so this part was easy—Auren and I had learned the bloody history of our kingdom’s greatest fight at his knee.
Next came a long fable about a fox and a hare written in the Ancient Tongue that I had to read and summarize in the Common Tongue. That took me a bit longer—I confess my Ancient Tongue was rusty. But the more I read, the more the words just seemed to flow for me and when it came time to write the summary, I had no difficulty at all.
It was right after I finished writing my summary that I realized Chud Larson was trying to cheat off me.
I was so engrossed in taking the test that I wouldn’t even have noticed if it hadn’t been for the low sound of a wooden desk leg scraping against the stone floor behind me.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Larson leaning forward in his desk, craning his neck to get a look at my parchment. He was obviously reading my translation—which was unfortunately very legible since Auren’s tutor had insisted on neat handwriting.
Quickly, I turned my head and covered my writing with my arm but then I heard a low, angry growl. Looking over my shoulder again, I saw Larson snarling at me like a rabid dog. He made a quick, violent motion with his ink pencil which clearly meant, “lower your arm!”
My stomach knotted with a mixture of fear and anger. Did he really just expect me to let him cheat? And where was the professor while all this was going on?
A look to the front of the classroom showed that Professor Griven had his head down and was completely immersed in a thick, leather-bound book entitled Drakes and their Ways. Wonderful—no help there. But even if Griven had looked up, he might have assumed I was in on the cheating.
There was nothing to do but try to ignore Larson and go on with the test. I certainly wasn’t going to let him cheat and risk my own spot at the Academy. And hopefully, if I passed with flying colors and he failed, we would be in different classes, and I wouldn’t have to see him much. I would just have to work extra hard to avoid him and hope he never caught me.
It was hard to put the snarling upperclassman behind me out of my mind, but I did my best. I put my head down and worked harder than ever, going on to the next part of the test which was all about Dragon anatomy.
After that there were a few easy questions again.
State the Drake’s Ratio, read Problem 75.
A dragon's wingspan should never be less than three times its body length, I wrote.
I kept going, rapidly answering questions. I was thinking I might finish before anyone else, but then things got tricky again.
Problem 88
The Quartermaster must prepare enough meat for a three-day emergency deployment. Each dragon consumes 2.5% of its body weight in food per day while on campaign.
Using the Academy's official Dragon Size Chart below, determine:
How many pounds of meat are required to feed:
— 4 Brown Dragons
— 3 Green Dragons
— 2 Bronze-wings
— 1 Silver-wing
— 1 Gold-wing
If the Quartermaster has only 4,000 pounds of preserved meat available, how many additional pounds must be acquired before the expedition can depart?
DRAGON SIZE CHART: DRAGON TYPE
Brown/ common small
Length: 18–22 ft
Shoulder height: 7–8 ft
Wingspan: 35–40 ft
Weight: 3,000–4,000 lbs
