Hanna had fallen asleep. So she was a little startled when she woke up to find a pair of strange faces staring at her through the bars of her cage. She recognized the grizzled animal keeper, but the woman was new. She wore a teacher's outfit with a worn brown scarf. Her outfit had seen better days. She had messy short brown hair that went down to her shoulders.
"Here you are, Professor Crow. Just like a I told ya. A real live female dragon," said the man.
"Fascinating. What a magnificent specimen," said the woman as she eyed Hanna. "Bring the cage to my classroom."
"I don't know, ma'am. She belongs to a student named Skye," said the man.
"Nonsense! I am sure the student wouldn't mind if I borrowed it for a class demonstration. Take it to my classroom at once," said the woman.
The man roughly lifted the cage and carried it in his arms. The other dragon ran in circles, clearly agitated by the loss of its companion.
"Quiet you!" said the man as he kicked the dragon's cage hard. The little dragon whimpered and retreated to the corner of its cage.
Hanna hissed loudly. She would make sure this brute was punished later, but it was the best she could do right now. She couldn't risk talking to him, much less yelling at him. He glared at her menacingly.
"You best mind your manners unless you want the same, " he threatened. "You are new, so I will cut you some slack. But you will learn to mind me, I promise."
Hanna shut her mouth. It was best to keep quiet. She was only going to be in his care for a short while (she hoped). Best to make it as pleasant as possible. The man smiled as she submitted to his request. Then he resumed his journey to the classroom.
Hanna felt uncomfortable as the brute carried her down the hallways. For one thing she was nude. True, she was a dragon now. But she was still not used to being seen without any clothes in public, especially by all of her classmates. The students ogled and stared at her as she passed by them. A few of them tried to stick their fingers into her cage, either to pet her or coax her to lick them. But the man angrily shooed them away. There seemed to be an endless number of students and they all seemed so big. Everything seemed big. Hanna began to feel nervous in spite of herself. Her little heart hammered away in her chest.
Hanna was brought into a large auditorium. Students were lined up on rows overlooking the floor. And every row was packed with students. The brute dropped her cage roughly on the desk of a very eager teacher. The professor gave the man a stern look, but he shrugged his shoulders and walked away. The teacher then happily clapped her hands as she looked over Hanna. Hanna noted that her left arm was damaged, marked with heavy scars. The hand had been replaced with some kind of mechanical substitute.
The classroom grew quiet as the teacher began to speak.
"Hello, I’m Professor Crow. I’m the Mythical Animal instructor.”
Professor Crow stopped for a moment and stared at the class. She cleared her throat and continued,” Yes, anyways there isn’t a critter out there that I don’t know. Most of them being the ones that I was too big to swallow.”
A couple of chuckles were scattered across the room. Even Hanna smiled a little bit.
"That’s how I lost my hand, ” continued Professor Crow. The smattering of laughter quickly died. But Professor Crow smiled and continued undaunted. ”Yes, it is a risk of the profession. One you must all accept if you chose this trade. I have no regrets. This wound is a reminder that you must treat all animals with care. And, of course, now I have this cool metal replacement Professor Henthral kindly made for me.”
Professor Crow rolled down her sleeve revealing a mechanical hand and she wiggled her fingers.
"Anyway, in this class you’ll learn about the different animals of myth. And you’ll see some, too, " said Professor Crow. "Today we have a very special treat. A very rare specimen. A young dragon...."
The class grew quiet. Hanna saw them practically leaning forward, on the edge of their seats. Professor Crow reached in with her right hand and curled her fingers, beckoning for Hanna to exit the cage.
"Come on, girl. No one will hurt you. We just want to get a better look at you," said Professor Crow reassuringly.
Hanna slowly and gingerly padded forward. She might as well get this over with. And Professor Crow seemed nice enough. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad...
Professor Crow tightly gripped Hanna and yanked her out of the cage. Her head spun as she was whisked to the middle of the teacher's desk. Her tail instinctually whipped back and forth as she struggled to get free. But Professor Crow's hands were like iron.
Hell, one of them might be iron, thought Hanna.
The class murmured loudly as they watched with excitement.
"Quiet, now, quiet!" said Professor Crow. "Even a juvenile can be dangerous if not handled properly. It's best not to make her even more nervous. Easy, girl, easy. Skye, can you give me a hand?"
Hanna turned and saw a very pale Skye and Jade sitting in the crowd.
"Me, Miss?" asked Skye.
"Yes, you. This is your familiar, is it not?" asked Professor Crow.
Skye nodded.
"Then you best learn how to manage it. No time like the present. Now step down and be lively," she said.
Skye practically ran down the auditorium steps to join Professor Crow on the stage. She positioned Skye's hands around Hanna then relaxed her own grip. Professor Crow stroked the underside of Hanna's neck and belly. She felt herself relax uncontrollably, her tail slowing down.
"There now, I knew you were a good girl," cooed Professor Crow.
Skye began to loosen his grip, but Professor Crow forced him to hold Hanna tighter, giving him a cross look. Satisfied that Skye had a good hold of Hanna she continued her lecture.
"What you see before you is a typical 'western' dragon, the same kind said to pillage small towns in fairy tales. In mythology, western dragons are typically depicted as 'evil' and so most uneducated peasants view them as such. In truth, they are no different than any other carnivore. They must eat to survive and kill to eat. Would you view a tiger or lion as 'evil' for killing a gazelle? Of course not! They are just obeying their natural instincts," said Professor Crow.
"Anyway, this is not an ethics course. Let's look more at the anatomy of this magnificent creature. Dragons have very muscular body structures. The increased density of muscle fibers compared to most animals allow them to have enhanced strength without being too bulky to be practical."
Professor Crow yanked Hanna's wings open, stretching them to the limit.
"The wings on this juvenile are small, too small for flight at this age. But as she gets older they will get longer, disproportionately longer, till it has a wingspan roughly twice the size of its body," said Professor Crow. She released Hanna's wings and they snapped back into place, almost indistinguishable from the scales on her back.
Hanna hadn't even known she had wings. Then again, it wasn't easy to look at your back. Of course, with her new long neck maybe she could....
Professor Crow suddenly tightly gripped Hanna's tail and lifted it high in the air. She motioned to Skye and he turned Hanna so that her ass was facing the crowd. Professor Crow put her hand on Hanna's pelvis.
"Now dragons share similar characteristics to reptiles. Both males and female have a cloacae which houses their reproductive organs, " said Professor Crow. She ran her fingers along Hanna's groin, teasing them against the scales, till she found a small flap. Beneath it was a small pink hole. Hanna had never been more embarrassed in her whole life.
"Now, much like insect colonies, there is usually only one breeding female in a dragon brood. The female dragon will lay several eggs, but the majority of her offspring will be male. The female dragon can mate with many males, but they will eventually bond with one male and form a monogamous relationship with them, excluding all others and devoting themselves to just one. How they choose their mate and the physiology behind this bonding process is still under study. The libido of dragons are incredibly high. If we had a fertile male in the room with this young lady they would probably put on quite the show for us!"
The class laughed loudly. It took some time for Professor Crow to quiet the rowdy crowd. Hanna was mortified and her anger at being treated with such indignation grew.
"Now, now. Let's be mature and act like adults. Onto the female role in reproduction. The female dragon can lay as many as 2 -3 clutches of eggs per year, but typically only lays once per year, usually in the summer. The number of eggs can vary from as few as 2 - 3 to as many as a hundred! The result depends on the number of fertilized eggs. Each time a female dragon mates, a small percentage of her eggs are fertilized. Obviously a female dragon is capable of multiple gestations. Thus, the more often a female copulates, the larger her clutch of eggs will be when she lays them, " said Professor Crow.
Professor Crow began to run her fingers along Hanna's cloacae, then shoved them in and began to root around. Hanna was appalled at first. But as the teacher continued to probe, she began to get more and more aroused.
"This is a young juvenile, but she is still capable of producing eggs. It's impossible to tell externally, but she might have a few inside ready to be laid. They won't be fertilized of course. Not unless she has mated. You haven't mated her yet, have you, Skye?"
Skye looked deathly pale, mortified at the actions of his professor but unable to stop her.
"No, she's a virgin," said Skye.
"Ah, that would explain why she is so responsive. Dragons are very sensitive to stimulation. And the longer the period of time between mating, the more sensitive they get. It's believed to be some type of evolutionary mechanism designed to entice them to mate," said Professor Crow.
Hanna could hardly contain herself. She gritted her teeth and ground her claws into the table. The pleasure was intense, almost overwhelming. But she needed release, she needed something more. She whined loudly.
"Sorry, girl, just a little bit more," said Professor Crow as she rammed her fingers deep inside Hanna. Hanna roared as she finally had an orgasm. Professor Crow removed her fingers and shook the vaginal liquids off them. Hanna's cloaca continued to twitch and leak even more fluid.
"Well, it looks like you don't have any eggs yet," said Professor Crow, gently patting her back.
Hanna snarled and turned her head, trying to bite the teacher's fingers. Hanna was not satisfied. She was still horny and the fool had only made the need even greater.
The crowd gasped and Hanna's rational mind overcame her animal instincts. She couldn't believe what she had been thinking, what she had been doing. She lowered her head in shame. Professor Crow raised up her hands in supplication.
"Now, now. I deserve that. These animals must be treated with the proper respect. I may have been a bit too rough with her. I apologize, my dear," said Professor Crow, gently running her hand on Hanna's neck. Then she resumed her lecture without missing a beat.
"Because the testes and penis of male dragons are hidden in their cloacae, it can be hard for the layman to identify their gender, " said Professor Crow. "But there are subtle differences. The female dragon typically has a leaner frame rather than the bulky musculature seen on the male. The adult female dragon is larger than the male. This an example of sexual size dimorphism, a phenomenon common among many animal species, including reptiles. Larger females offer an advantage in fertility, since the physiological demands of reproduction are limiting in females. Juvenile male and females are roughly the same size. This difference is not really apparent until they are a little older. It might be hard to believe but even at her current size, this young lady still has a lot of growing to do. Like other reptiles such as snakes and alligators, dragons continue to slowly grow larger as long as they live. The growth is very slow, but dragons have been reported to live for thousands of years. You can imagine how much bigger this one would get if it lived that long!"
I wish I were bigger, thought Hanna. Then I could bite off your head, you pervert!
"I think we have put this nice young lady through enough for today. Let's put her back in the cage and let her get some rest," said Professor Crow. "Class dismissed!"
Skye tried to ease Hanna back into her cage. She gave him a dirty look. Skye mouthed the words 'Sorry' and 'Please'. Hanna slowly and proudly walked back into her cage, her head held high. Professor Crow walked up to Skye as the other students filed out.
"That really is a very unique specimen. Did you purchase it?" asked Professor Crow.
"No, I summoned it. All by myself," said Skye proudly.
Hanna snorted loudly but they paid no attention to her.
"Really? That takes some skill. I was wondering if I could talk to you about something...."
Professor Crow and Skye walked out of earshot, but by the way they kept glancing at Hanna she could tell they were talking about her. And she didn't like the excited look on Skye's face. Nor the sly look he was giving her...
"Hey, Hanna. How are you? That was pretty wild, " said Jade as she plopped down next to her cage.
"I don't want to talk about it," said Hanna gruffly, not bothering to turn around.
"Sorry, Hanna. But that really wasn't out fault. I mean, it's not like we volunteered you for that demonstration. And we didn't make you fall into the summoning circle...."
Hanna turned around and glared at her.
"Are you saying this is MY fault?" Hanna asked coldly.
"No, no, that's not what I meant," said Jade.
"Whatever. When are you guys going to fix me?" asked Hanna.
"Right after school. I promise," said Jade.
"After school? I can't stay like this all day!" whined Hanna. "Why don't you do it at lunch?"
"Well, Skye still needs to do some reading. You know, to figure out what he needs to do. But we will have it all sorted out after school," said Jade.
"You better. Because if you guys don't have me back to normal by nightfall, I might start talking. A lot. To anybody who will listen. And something tells me that if the right person hears about this, you both might get expelled," said Hanna.
"Hey, there's no reason to threaten..."
"Come on, Jade. We have to go," said Skye, grabbing her by the arm.
Jade scowled and looked like she was about to say something else, but Professor Crow suddenly appeared and offered Hanna a treat for her help.
Hanna saw Jade talking animatedly to Skye, occasionally glancing over her to shoulder to look at Hanna, as they left the classroom. As the gruff animal handler lifted her cage and carried her back to the basement, she began to think it had been a bad idea to threaten Jade and Skye.