JONATHAN FERRIERILLUSTRATED BY MATT ROWE

ARVOR’S

ARVOR’S

ARVOR’S

MEREOCirencester

1A The Wool Market Cirencester Gloucestershire GL7 2PRinfo@memoirsbooks.co.uk www.memoirspublishing.com

AVOR’S SCHOOL DAYS

All Rights Reserved. Copyright © Jonathan Ferrier

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form orby any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage orretrieval system, without the permission in writing from the copyrightholder. 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 donot necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher

hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-909544-82-6

Published by Mereo

Mereo is an imprint of Memoirs Publishing

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 schooldifficult, in the hope that it gives them some

encouragement, because you really don’t need to be good at everything.

JFF September 2013

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

contents

INTRODUCTION

Arvor’sSchooldays

When Arvor Grendel wasnine, his father, ColonelGrendel, put his namedown for Caderbrith, thefamous boarding school fordragons in West Wales.

“It’s very nice thatAuntie Betty can look afteryou when I am away with

the army,” he said to Arvor, “but I think you needcompany of your own age, and you don’t get a chanceto meet other dragon families out here where we live.You can start at the school next year when you areten and I am sure you will like it there. It’s up on theside of the mountain, on Cader Idris, and it’s awonderful place for dragons.”

Arvor looked a bit uncertain, so his father added,“I really enjoyed my time at Caderbrith and I don’tthink it has changed. The headmaster is my old friendCadwallader, (Mr Pendragon to you). He came to theschool as a teacher when I was in my final year thereas a boy. In fact it was he that persuaded me to gointo 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 timewith you as I would have liked since your mother died.”

Arvor nodded and then looked up at him. “Whatdid happen to her?“ he asked. “I never reallyunderstood.”

Col. Grendel satdown next to him.

“Yes, it’s time youknew the full story. Itwas such a stupid,unnecessary accident,but these disastersusually are.”

“You know that shewas the chairwomanof the Dragon LadiesGuild and she was latefor a meeting after

putting you to bed, so she flew off in a hurry. A fewminutes after she had left, all the lights went out andI didn’t think much more about it at the time, buttwo hours later her best friend Elspeth called in toask why she had not been at the meeting. Of coursethen I really got worried and I guessed that it mighthave something to do with the lights going out, soElspeth stayed here to keep an eye on you while Iwent to look for her.”

“When I got to the place where the electric powercables cross the valley, I found they were broken andthen I found Mum’s body in the field below. Shemust have flown into the cables and had a massiveelectric shock.” He paused. “At least she could nothave known anything about it: she would have goneunconscious immediately. Then as you know, Ibrought her back here and we had the funeral threedays later.”

Col Grendel went very quiet for a while. “I alwaysregret that I didn’t insist on putting you to bedmyself,” he said and blew his nose very loudly.

A tear rolled down Arvor’s cheek and his father putan arm round his shoulder. “I know. It’s been fiveyears since she.... she died, but we both still miss hervery much.”

*****

A week after he had sent off the forms to Caderbrith,they got a nice letter back from the headmaster sayingthat Arvor could start at the school the next Januaryand how pleased he was that he would be seeing moreof them.

With the letter came a copy of the SchoolProspectus.

Prospectus

AimsThe aim of the school is to help young dragons develop into well-

rounded citizens, who have experience in all aspects of Dragon life,

and are able to play a responsible role in society.

School entryThe 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 StandardsIt 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 ActivitiesThe 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 TravelIn recent years, parties from the school have taken part in foreign

exchanges with dragon schools in Scotland, Montenegro and

Romania.

NutritionA 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 SpeciesYoung 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 MedalEaster, Year 2

It has to be said that Arvor was a greatdisappointment to his father. He was terribly clumsyand he was always falling over things, and if there wasnothing in his way, he fell over his own feet. Not onlywas he very clumsy, but he was also one of the smallerdragons in his year. Altogether he didn’t fit in verywell at his school, Caderbrith, the well known schoolfor dragons on Cader Idris, a mountain in the westof Wales.

1

Arvor didn’t really mind falling over, but he didhate it when all the other dragons laughed at him. Inschool he was bad at every subject, particularlyspelling, and absolutely hopeless at the thing that isthe most important of all for dragons to learn – fire-breathing. He never took a big enough breath and hecould never produce a spark at justthe right moment by grinding histeeth.

On the other hand, Arvor’sfather, Colonel Grendel, was asenior officer in the Army of theWelsh Dragons. He was very fit,very good at flying andexceptionally good at fire-breathing. In his youth he had been the fire-breathingchampion for six years in a row – a record that hadnever been beaten. He loved Arvor dearly, but itirritated him that a son of his should be so bad at askill in which he was the champion.

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CHAPTER ONE

One time when Arvor had been learning tobreathe fire for a whole two terms, he tried to cook achicken. Arvor crept up on the chicken from behindand when he was only two metres away, he blew outhis best breath. This should have burnt its feathersoff and roasted it instantly. Instead, his breath didn’tlight and he merely blew off a few of its tail-featherswithout burning it at all.The chicken looked roundvery crossly, and then itjust walked off.

After the disaster withthe chicken, Arvor was soashamed that he went offquietly to practise fire-breathing on his own in awood where nobody could see. He would dig up afew potatoes from a field and take them into thewood, stand them on a tree stump and blow at them.Sometimes he could get his breath to light bygrinding his teeth, and sometimes he couldn’t. Whenhe succeeded, he had roast potatoes to eat, but whenhe didn’t he had nothing. Arvor didn’t tell anyoneabout it, but slowly he got better at fire-breathing sothat he could cook potatoes almost every day.

The only thing that Arvor was good at was beingnice, which isn’t the sort of quality that people admire

ARVOR’S MEDAL

3

in dragons. He got on well with the younger dragons,and would go for walks with them round the hills andfarms of west Wales – mainly because he had nothingelse to do. He was so clumsy that the other dragonsof his age didn’t want him on their side when theyplayed games, and although they liked him, theywouldn’t let him join in.

One day Arvor was out walking across a big fieldwith a first year dragon called Bryn who was very shyand nervous. As they got to the middle of the field,they came over the brow of a hill, and there in frontof them was a big bull. Although full-grown dragonsare usually much bigger than bulls, this was a verybig bull and he was at least twice the size of Arvorand four times the size of Bryn. The bull was called‘Big Business’ and he was feeling extremely cross thatday because the farmer had just taken away his ladyfriends, the cows, while he was asleep and he’d beenleft all alone in the big field.

The bull took one look at Arvor and Bryn andbegan to charge at them.

“Run!” shouted Arvor and he started to galloptowards the gate at the side of the field.

But Bryn was rooted to the spot with fear, and itwas at this moment that Arvor made the mostimportant decision of his life. He knew he couldn’tleave little Bryn to be trampled on or tossed in the air

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CHAPTER ONE

5

ARVOR’S MEDAL

by the bull, so he ran back and stood between BigBusiness and Bryn.

Faster and faster the bull bore down on them. Theground began to shake with the thunder of his hooves,steam was coming from his nostrils and his head waslowered with his fearful great horns pointing towardsthem.

Arvor was terrified, but he did the only thing hecould. He took an enormous breath and when BigBusiness was only ten metres away, he roared it out withall his strength. For once his sparking worked perfectly,and because he was so frightened he had taken a muchbigger breath than he’d ever done before.

A wonderful fireball shot out, straight into the faceof Big Business. The bull was temporarily blinded andabsolutely astounded that so small a dragon couldproduce such a fireball. Big Business was going far toofast to stop and he veered off to the side and straightthrough the gate, shattering it into matchwood as hewent. Then he crashed into a pond on the other sideof the hedge with a tremendous splash!

The pond at least cooled off Big Business’sscorched head, so he sat there for a short while. Whenhe waded out he was covered in mud and pondweed,and feeling rather stupid. Meanwhile Arvor took Brynby the claw and led him calmly back home.

Now the story might have ended there. Arvordidn’t mention it to anyone because he was

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CHAPTER ONE

embarrassed that he had taken Bryn into a field witha bull in it, and Bryn didn’t mention it to anyonebecause Arvor had asked him not to, and because hewas ashamed of being so frightened that he couldn’teven run when he needed to.

However, as luck would have it, CadwalladerPenhaligon Pendragon, the headmaster of the dragonschool, had been snoozing in his favourite spot on topof a hill that overlooks the valley where it all tookplace. He had woken up at the noise of Big Business’sthundering hooves, and had seen everything that hadhappened. He had seen Arvor start towards the gate,and then turn back to stand in front of Bryn. He hadseen Big Business charging towards them, and aboveall he had seen Arvor’s wonderful fireball which madeBig Business end up in the pond.

Cadwallader was far too wise to go telling otherpeople about it at that time. He waited until the dayof the school prize-giving at the end of term, when allthe dragons in the school were there and all theirparents, and all the school staff. After Cadwalladerhad given out all the prizes, he said, “And now I wantto tell you a story …”

So he told the whole story, without mentioning anynames, and all the dragons wondered who he wastalking about, except Arvor who suddenly realisedthat it was his story he was hearing. Arvor becamemore and more embarrassed and he went quite pink,

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ARVOR’S MEDAL

but nobody else noticed. In fact Arvor started to getterribly worried that he was going to get a specialpublic telling-off for being so stupid that he took Bryninto a field where there was a fierce bull, so he closedhis eyes and tried to make himself look even smallerthan he already was.

When Cadwallader Penhaligon Pendragon hadfinished the story, he said, “And now I want to talk toyou about courage… there is the sort of courage of abrave dragon who has no fear and who does bravedeeds, but there is also the courage of a dragon whois very frightened, and still does a brave thing becausehe knows it is the right thing to do; and who couldrun away but doesn’t.” Cadwallader looked aroundthe room.

“I think the dragon in my storyshowed that second sort of courage

and I am very proud that he is amember of our school. I havetalked with the schoolgovernors and we have decidedto award a special medal to this

dragon. We want to award it to…”and here he paused, “Arvor! So

would Arvor please come up toreceive his medal.”

There was a gasp of surprise from everyone in thehall and then a great storm of clapping and cheers,because although the other dragons teased Arvor, he

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CHAPTER ONE

was such a nice dragon that everybody liked him andthey were really pleased that he’d been given a medal.

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ARVOR’S MEDAL

CHAPTER TWO

Schoolwork and Cheating

Spring, Year 2

“Aaah! Ye g-g-g-gods and little fishes,” bellowedNautilus Pringlefish, the English master. He rosefrom his desk holding an exercise book. “Arvor! W-

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w-w-what is the m-m-m-meaning of this r-r-r-rubbish? Can’t you even sp-sp-spell the word ‘they’?”

Nautilus Pringlefish was a short, fat dragon, witha terrible stutter, and all the young dragons wereterrified of him – particularly when he lost histemper, which seemed to happen in every lessonwhen Arvor was there.

“And why do you always write ‘B’ as a c-c-c-capital letter?” he went on. “W-w-w-when do you usea capital letter?” he demanded looking at Arvor.

“Er, at the beginning of sentences, Sir.” Arvor wasfairly sure he knew that one, but Nautilus Pringlefishwas not satisfied. “And… And…?”

Arvor looked at the ceiling. He knew he was goingto have to guess and he knew the guess was going tobe wrong.

“For long words?” he tried. There was a sniggerfrom behind him, but the teacher swung round andglared at the offender.

“S-s-s-so, Reuben. You find Arvor’s w-w-w-woefulignorance amusing. In that case, you can s-s-s-supplyus with the answer.”

“For names, sir,” replied Reuben promptly, witha 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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SCHOOLWORK AND CHEATING

ignorance, Mr Pringlefish thundered, “P-p-p-propernouns, you numbskull!” and he returned to his desk.

At the end of the lesson, Mr Pringlefish calledArvor to see him.

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CHAPTER TWO

9 781909 544826

ISBN 978-1-909544-82-6

Published by Mereo1A The Wool Market Cirencester

Gloucestershire GL7 2PR

Tel: 01285 640485 Email: info@memoirsbooks.co.uk www.memoirspublishing.com

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 fordragons...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 eggwithout even noticing...Araminta Scrope, Dragon Women’s World