“What? There’s a simulator?” My father had never mentioned anything like that.
“’Course there is—how else to you think you get practice riding a dragon until the one you Impress is big enough to ride?” Toady asked. He followed this question with a smacking of his lips as he ate a big bite of lamb stew.
“Anyway, Leaper here wanted to get on the Flight Simulator so badly—“ Jorn-o started
“That he leaped right onto its back!” Bugs continued.
“And then I fell off and onto the net,” Leaper said, rolling his eyes. “Big deal—lots of people fall the first time they try to mount.”
“Yeah, but not everyone jumps from the observation balcony,” Jorn-o pointed out. “It’s twenty feet above the simulator,” he added, speaking to me.
It sounded to me like Leaper’s nickname should have been “fearless” or maybe “foolhardy” but I didn’t say it out loud. I just nodded and put another spoonful of lamb stew in my mouth. It was the best thing I’d ever eaten, and it was hard to pay attention to the conversation around me when I was so hungry and the food was so good.
“Who’s you’re new friend, anyway, Jorn-o?” Leaper asked, looking me up and down.
“Oh, this is Auri.” Jorn-o nodded at me. “He’s a Lysandra,” he added.
“Huh. Looks more like a runt to me,” Toady remarked.
“Yeah, Runt—that fits him,” Bugs said and Leaper laughed.
And that was how I got my second nickname.
Again, I thought about protesting, but unlike when Chud Larson had called me the same name, there didn’t seem to be any harmful intent. And all the rest of them had nicknames, except for Jorn-o, and I was the smallest one at the table. At any of the tables, unfortunately. I was probably going to be called worse than “Runt” before my time at the Academy was over. I was just going to have to grow thicker skin and get over it.
So I just grunted in what I hoped was a masculine way and kept shoveling food into my face.
I ate so fast I didn’t realize how full I was getting until I saw that the only thing left on my plate was the bowl of golden Dragon Custard.
“Look—he got the custard!” Toady elbowed Leaper as I picked up the bowl.
“Lucky son-of-a-bitch,” Bugs muttered. “Why does Runt get it when the rest of us don’t?”
“Yeah—my father flies a Bronze-wing, but I didn’t get any,” Leaper muttered rebelliously. “I have Noble blood in my House—they should have given me a bowl too, not just Runt.”
“The kitchen ladies gave Auri a bowl of the Dragon Custard because he’s a runt,” Jorn-o said. He shot me an apologetic look. “No offense, Auri.”
“None taken,” I said, shrugging in what I hoped was a manly way. “I know I’m small.”
“The Dragon Custard doesn’t have any kind of magical properties, you know,” Jorn-o went on. “I know—I’ve seen the kitchen ladies make it. It’s just got a lot of stuff to build you up and make you strong. To make you…” He hesitated and cast another glance at me. “To make you gain weight. They probably thought Auri needed it.”
“Why don’t we all eat it,” I suggested, seeing what I hoped was an opportunity to make friends. “Come on—everybody try a bite. I’m really full,” I added. “I can’t finish it by myself.”
Everyone hesitated, as though I had suggested breaking an important but unwritten rule.
“I don’t know,” Jorn-o hedged. “I have hardly any Noble blood at all in my House. Same with Bugs and Toady.”
“Come on—one bite,” I urged him. “I won’t tell.”
“Well…I have always wondered what it tasted like,” he admitted.
“There should be enough for one spoonful each,” I told him. “We should all try it.”
I picked up my spoon, took a small amount, and then held out the bowl to the boys sitting around me.
Leaper was the first to take a spoonful and after him, Toady, then Bugs. Jorn-o was last, but he took a spoonful like the rest. By silent but mutual consent none of us ate until everyone had some of the Dragon Custard on their spoon.
“To Runt,” Leaper said, raising his spoon to his mouth.
