ARVOR’S
JONATHAN FERRIER ILLUSTRATED BY MATT ROWE
ARVOR’S
ARVOR’S
MEREO Cirencester
Published by Mereo
Mereo is an imprint of Memoirs Publishing
1A The Wool Market Cirencester Gloucestershire GL7 2PR info@memoirsbooks.co.uk www.memoirspublishing.com
AVOR’S SCHOOL DAYS All Rights Reserved. Copyright Š Jonathan Ferrier No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the copyright holder. The right of Jonathan Ferrier to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 sections 77 and 78.
The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
ISBN: 978-1-909544-82-6
Dedication In the first place this book is for my grandchildren – Joe, Daniel, Molly, Emily and Francis. Secondly it is for all children who find school difficult, in the hope that it gives them some encouragement, because you really don’t need to be good at everything. JFF September 2013
contents
Introduction Chapter 1
Arvor’s Medal
Page 1
Chapter 2
Schoolwork and Cheating
Page 10
Chapter 3
Arvor and the Egg
Page 36
Chapter 4
Percy and Pianos
Page 66
Chapter 5
Lies and the Bullies
Page 101
Chapter 6
Out of Bounds
Page 122
Chapter 7
The Egg Hunt
Page 152
Chapter 8
The Party
Page 185
INTRODUCTION
Arvor’s Schooldays
When Arvor Grendel was nine, his father, Colonel Grendel, put his name down for Caderbrith, the famous boarding school for dragons in West Wales. “It’s very nice that Auntie Betty can look after you when I am away with the army,” he said to Arvor, “but I think you need company of your own age, and you don’t get a chance to meet other dragon families out here where we live. You can start at the school next year when you are ten and I am sure you will like it there. It’s up on the side of the mountain, on Cader Idris, and it’s a wonderful place for dragons.”
Arvor looked a bit uncertain, so his father added, “I really enjoyed my time at Caderbrith and I don’t think it has changed. The headmaster is my old friend Cadwallader, (Mr Pendragon to you). He came to the school as a teacher when I was in my final year there as a boy. In fact it was he that persuaded me to go into the army and we have kept in touch ever since.” Arvor still looked doubtful. “I love going on holiday with you,” his father went on, “but I haven’t been able to spend as much time with you as I would have liked since your mother died.” Arvor nodded and then looked up at him. “What did happen to her?“ he asked. “I never really understood.” Col. Grendel sat down next to him. “Yes, it’s time you knew the full story. It was such a stupid, unnecessary accident, but these disasters usually are.” “You know that she was the chairwoman of the Dragon Ladies Guild and she was late for a meeting after
putting you to bed, so she flew off in a hurry. A few minutes after she had left, all the lights went out and I didn’t think much more about it at the time, but two hours later her best friend Elspeth called in to ask why she had not been at the meeting. Of course then I really got worried and I guessed that it might have something to do with the lights going out, so Elspeth stayed here to keep an eye on you while I went to look for her.” “When I got to the place where the electric power cables cross the valley, I found they were broken and then I found Mum’s body in the field below. She must have flown into the cables and had a massive electric shock.” He paused. “At least she could not have known anything about it: she would have gone unconscious immediately. Then as you know, I brought her back here and we had the funeral three days later.” Col Grendel went very quiet for a while. “I always regret that I didn’t insist on putting you to bed myself,” he said and blew his nose very loudly. A tear rolled down Arvor’s cheek and his father put an arm round his shoulder. “I know. It’s been five years since she.... she died, but we both still miss her very much.” *****
A week after he had sent off the forms to Caderbrith, they got a nice letter back from the headmaster saying that Arvor could start at the school the next January and how pleased he was that he would be seeing more of them. With the letter came a copy of the School Prospectus.
Prospectus Aims The aim of the school is to help young dragons develop into wellrounded citizens, who have experience in all aspects of Dragon life, and are able to play a responsible role in society.
School entry The principal school entry is at the start of the school year in January. However dragons can also join the school at the beginning of the other school terms in May and September.
Academic Standards It is well known throughout the world that the standard of education in the dragon schools of Wales is outstanding The Caderbrith governors are proud to announce that at a recent school inspection by the Department of Educational Affairs for Dragons, the school was found to be excellent even by the standards of Welsh Schools, placing it in the highest category of D.E.A.D. – Good.
Teaching and other Activities The school has a long tradition of academic and sporting excellence. The subjects taught in class to all students are English, Welsh, maths, science, history and geography. In their final two years students may also take a wide range of other subjects.
The physical fitness and well-being of all pupils is an important part of school life. Dragons have games periods four afternoons a week and matches at weekends against other schools. The principal organised team game is Egger. [Caderbrith has won the Welsh inter-schools cup for Egger for the past four years]. Instruction is given in flying, navigation, fire-breathing and swimming. However there is also ample free time at weekends and on half days, when dragons are encouraged to develop their own outside interests, supervised by members of the staff. (Camping, fishing, rock climbing, and cross-country flying are particularly popular).
Foreign Travel In recent years, parties from the school have taken part in foreign exchanges with dragon schools in Scotland, Montenegro and Romania.
Nutrition A balanced diet is provided for the students with a wide range of fresh vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beans, etc), fish (caught by the school’s fishing club), and meats (wild boar, goats, poultry and beef).
Relations with other Animal Species Young dragons are encouraged to show respect for all other animal species. In particular the school staff expect the students to maintain the customary discretion towards humans, remaining out of sight where possible and being polite when contact is made.
The dragons of today keep a very different profile from the “Black Ages� of a thousand years ago when human knights tried to slaughter dragons, and some of our people considered it acceptable to frighten the human population. The governors are very aware that there are still some humans who are scared of dragons even though it has been seven hundred years since there were any serious incidents between our two species. It is the aim of the school to continue our present good relations with humans.
CHAPTER ONE
Arvor’s Medal Easter, Year 2
It has to be said that Arvor was a great disappointment to his father. He was terribly clumsy and he was always falling over things, and if there was nothing in his way, he fell over his own feet. Not only was he very clumsy, but he was also one of the smaller dragons in his year. Altogether he didn’t fit in very well at his school, Caderbrith, the well known school for dragons on Cader Idris, a mountain in the west of Wales.
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CHAPTER ONE
Arvor didn’t really mind falling over, but he did hate it when all the other dragons laughed at him. In school he was bad at every subject, particularly spelling, and absolutely hopeless at the thing that is the most important of all for dragons to learn – firebreathing. He never took a big enough breath and he could never produce a spark at just the right moment by grinding his teeth. On the other hand, Arvor’s father, Colonel Grendel, was a senior officer in the Army of the Welsh Dragons. He was very fit, very good at flying and exceptionally good at firebreathing. In his youth he had been the fire-breathing champion for six years in a row – a record that had never been beaten. He loved Arvor dearly, but it irritated him that a son of his should be so bad at a skill in which he was the champion.
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ARVOR’S MEDAL
One time when Arvor had been learning to breathe fire for a whole two terms, he tried to cook a chicken. Arvor crept up on the chicken from behind and when he was only two metres away, he blew out his best breath. This should have burnt its feathers off and roasted it instantly. Instead, his breath didn’t light and he merely blew off a few of its tail-feathers without burning it at all. The chicken looked round very crossly, and then it just walked off. After the disaster with the chicken, Arvor was so ashamed that he went off quietly to practise firebreathing on his own in a wood where nobody could see. He would dig up a few potatoes from a field and take them into the wood, stand them on a tree stump and blow at them. Sometimes he could get his breath to light by grinding his teeth, and sometimes he couldn’t. When he succeeded, he had roast potatoes to eat, but when he didn’t he had nothing. Arvor didn’t tell anyone about it, but slowly he got better at fire-breathing so that he could cook potatoes almost every day. The only thing that Arvor was good at was being nice, which isn’t the sort of quality that people admire
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in dragons. He got on well with the younger dragons, and would go for walks with them round the hills and farms of west Wales – mainly because he had nothing else to do. He was so clumsy that the other dragons of his age didn’t want him on their side when they played games, and although they liked him, they wouldn’t let him join in. One day Arvor was out walking across a big field with a first year dragon called Bryn who was very shy and nervous. As they got to the middle of the field, they came over the brow of a hill, and there in front of them was a big bull. Although full-grown dragons are usually much bigger than bulls, this was a very big bull and he was at least twice the size of Arvor and four times the size of Bryn. The bull was called ‘Big Business’ and he was feeling extremely cross that day because the farmer had just taken away his lady friends, the cows, while he was asleep and he’d been left all alone in the big field. The bull took one look at Arvor and Bryn and began to charge at them. “Run!” shouted Arvor and he started to gallop towards the gate at the side of the field. But Bryn was rooted to the spot with fear, and it was at this moment that Arvor made the most important decision of his life. He knew he couldn’t leave little Bryn to be trampled on or tossed in the air
4
ARVOR’S MEDAL
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CHAPTER ONE
by the bull, so he ran back and stood between Big Business and Bryn. Faster and faster the bull bore down on them. The ground began to shake with the thunder of his hooves, steam was coming from his nostrils and his head was lowered with his fearful great horns pointing towards them. Arvor was terrified, but he did the only thing he could. He took an enormous breath and when Big Business was only ten metres away, he roared it out with all his strength. For once his sparking worked perfectly, and because he was so frightened he had taken a much bigger breath than he’d ever done before. A wonderful fireball shot out, straight into the face of Big Business. The bull was temporarily blinded and absolutely astounded that so small a dragon could produce such a fireball. Big Business was going far too fast to stop and he veered off to the side and straight through the gate, shattering it into matchwood as he went. Then he crashed into a pond on the other side of the hedge with a tremendous splash! The pond at least cooled off Big Business’s scorched head, so he sat there for a short while. When he waded out he was covered in mud and pondweed, and feeling rather stupid. Meanwhile Arvor took Bryn by the claw and led him calmly back home. Now the story might have ended there. Arvor didn’t mention it to anyone because he was
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ARVOR’S MEDAL
embarrassed that he had taken Bryn into a field with a bull in it, and Bryn didn’t mention it to anyone because Arvor had asked him not to, and because he was ashamed of being so frightened that he couldn’t even run when he needed to. However, as luck would have it, Cadwallader Penhaligon Pendragon, the headmaster of the dragon school, had been snoozing in his favourite spot on top of a hill that overlooks the valley where it all took place. He had woken up at the noise of Big Business’s thundering hooves, and had seen everything that had happened. He had seen Arvor start towards the gate, and then turn back to stand in front of Bryn. He had seen Big Business charging towards them, and above all he had seen Arvor’s wonderful fireball which made Big Business end up in the pond. Cadwallader was far too wise to go telling other people about it at that time. He waited until the day of the school prize-giving at the end of term, when all the dragons in the school were there and all their parents, and all the school staff. After Cadwallader had given out all the prizes, he said, “And now I want to tell you a story …” So he told the whole story, without mentioning any names, and all the dragons wondered who he was talking about, except Arvor who suddenly realised that it was his story he was hearing. Arvor became more and more embarrassed and he went quite pink,
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but nobody else noticed. In fact Arvor started to get terribly worried that he was going to get a special public telling-off for being so stupid that he took Bryn into a field where there was a fierce bull, so he closed his eyes and tried to make himself look even smaller than he already was. When Cadwallader Penhaligon Pendragon had finished the story, he said, “And now I want to talk to you about courage… there is the sort of courage of a brave dragon who has no fear and who does brave deeds, but there is also the courage of a dragon who is very frightened, and still does a brave thing because he knows it is the right thing to do; and who could run away but doesn’t.” Cadwallader looked around the room. “I think the dragon in my story showed that second sort of courage and I am very proud that he is a member of our school. I have talked with the school governors and we have decided to award a special medal to this dragon.We want to award it to…” and here he paused, “Arvor! So would Arvor please come up to receive his medal.” There was a gasp of surprise from everyone in the hall and then a great storm of clapping and cheers, because although the other dragons teased Arvor, he 8
ARVOR’S MEDAL
was such a nice dragon that everybody liked him and they were really pleased that he’d been given a medal.
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CHAPTER TWO
Schoolwork and Cheating Spring, Year 2
“Aaah! Ye g-g-g-gods and little fishes,” bellowed Nautilus Pringlefish, the English master. He rose from his desk holding an exercise book. “Arvor! W-
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SCHOOLWORK AND CHEATING
w-w-what is the m-m-m-meaning of this r-r-rrubbish? Can’t you even sp-sp-spell the word ‘they’?” Nautilus Pringlefish was a short, fat dragon, with a terrible stutter, and all the young dragons were terrified of him – particularly when he lost his temper, which seemed to happen in every lesson when Arvor was there. “And why do you always write ‘B’ as a c-c-ccapital letter?” he went on. “W-w-w-when do you use a capital letter?” he demanded looking at Arvor. “Er, at the beginning of sentences, Sir.” Arvor was fairly sure he knew that one, but Nautilus Pringlefish was not satisfied. “And… And…?” Arvor looked at the ceiling. He knew he was going to have to guess and he knew the guess was going to be wrong. “For long words?” he tried. There was a snigger from behind him, but the teacher swung round and glared at the offender. “S-s-s-so, Reuben.You find Arvor’s w-w-w-woeful ignorance amusing. In that case, you can s-s-s-supply us with the answer.” “For names, sir,” replied Reuben promptly, with a self-satisfied grin. “Which are more correctly called?” It was Reuben’s turn to look bewildered. After allowing a pause for Reuben to prove his
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CHAPTER TWO
ignorance, Mr Pringlefish thundered, “P-p-p-proper nouns, you numbskull!� and he returned to his desk. At the end of the lesson, Mr Pringlefish called Arvor to see him.
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JONATHAN FERRIER
ARVOR’S
Arvor is a dragon - a very nice dragon - but he has problems at school. He is bad at spelling, bad at games, bad at flying, and terrible at fire-breathing. The teachers get cross with him, his school-friends don’t want him on their team, but... Follow Arvor in his trials and triumphs with his friends at Caderbrith, the boarding school for dragons on a mountain in Wales.
The critics say:An enthralling glimpse into life in one of the leading boarding schools for dragons...Dragon Times Ed Supp Top Dragon school exposed...Dragon Mirror High jinks & bullying in Welsh Dragon School...Dragon Sunday News I was so engrossed in the world of Arvor and his friends, I hatched an egg without even noticing...Araminta Scrope, Dragon Women’s World
ISBN 978-1-909544-82-6 Published by Mereo 1A The Wool Market Cirencester Gloucestershire GL7 2PR
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