"Cacopheny? Cacopheny, are you up yet?"

Sentio tried knocking again, and again got no response. He pressed one ear to the door, but he couldn't hear anything, either. Through their bond, blocked or not, he knew the room wasn't empty: he could sense the half-demon was in there, he just wasn't answering.

"Come on, Cacopheny, I know you're in there. We've got school!" Still nothing. Sentio sighed. "I'll come back after breakfast, okay? We can go then." He took the lack of response as a yes and crept off downstairs to the kitchen, where the head and lately only cook Mirabet, the second dragon employee and an Earth dragon, was fixing him something to eat to start the day.

Mirabet was really a very kind dragon, for all she was every bit as eccentric as everyone expected an Earth to be. She bullied her way around in the kitchen, as if she were some kind of queen and her human helpers her subjects, and whenever things were slow, which was often lately given how rarely anyone had been home, she enjoyed experimenting with dishes. When it came to Sentio, she was downright motherly, perhaps because she knew how much he missed his own mother. She operated under the double assumptions that growing boys needed their nourishment-- which was true, because Sentio could eat quite a bit-- and that starting the day off right with a big breakfast was important-- which Sentio didn't necessarily agree with-- and thus never stinted when making him his first meal of the day. Sentio figured he needed those walks to and from the bonding complex just to keep from turning into something resembling a pillow.

After gulping down the last of his orange juice-- Mirabet was also a great believer in particular types of food, especially citrus fruits, ignoring the fact that Sentio didn't particularly like citrus fruits-- and blurting a quick thanks for the meal, Sentio hurried back up the stairs. His and Cacopheny's rooms were on the third floor, another way for Sentio to work off Mirabet's big meals. He bounded down the hall and skidded to a stop, somewhat out of breath, before Cacopheny's still-closed door.

"Cacopheny?" he called, knocking again. "Are you ready yet?"

"Not koink," he heard faintly, muffled through the door and whatever space there was between the door and his bond.

"But Cacopheny, you didn't go yesterday, either!"

No answer.

"Come on, you've got to go. Lady Veshal isn't going to be happy that you missing two classes in a row!"

"I to not care," came the muffled response. Even through the door, Sentio could hear the stubborn surliness in Cacopheny's tone.

"How're you supposed to learn how to read if you never come to class?" he demanded. There was silence again, and Sentio resisted the urge to kick the door. "I'll-- I'll have the Lady-Professor come scold you if you don't come out!" he threatened. More silence; Cacopheny knew he wouldn't really do that. "Cacopheny, please, I'm going to be late-- just come out. At least come out and see me before I go."

There was a pause, and Sentio was about to give up, but then the door cracked open just a little. Beyond was darkness, but the light from the hallway illuminated Cacopheny's face and glittering black eyes up against the openning. Sentio tried to smile at him, and for a moment he thought Cacopheny tried to smile, back. His lips twitched, anyway, curving up just faintly before, suddenly, the door snapped shut again.

"Ssere. You ssssaw me."

"Cacopheny--"

"Koink to be rate. Ssait so yourssself."

"But--"

"Koink to be rate." A pause, then he corrected himself. "Late. Petter ko."

Sentio gave up with a sigh. "I'll see you when I get home, I guess." Silence answered him, and he turned and padded away down the hall.

He arrived with barely enough time to squeeze through the door on the heels of the last dragon-pair entering the classroom, which happened to be Akija and Chario, with Kenjista clinging to the latter's pack. They had been waiting for him-- him and Cacopheny-- like they usually did. "Where were you?" Chario asked in a whisper as Professor Mallocau drew down the map for the region they were covering that week. "You're never late!"

"I-- overslept."

"Liar," hissed Akija, though she smiled to take the sting out of the accusation. "Where's Coffee?"

"That's why I was late," Sentio admitted glumly. "He didn't want to come."

"That's th'third time this week!" Akija exclaimed, a bit too loudly, earning her a quelling glare from Mallocau. Sentio just rolled his shoulders in uncomfortable agreement and settled in to take notes, refusing to say more during class. Which meant, of course, that Akija would try to get her answers as soon as class ended. "How come he didn't want to come?" she demanded as soon as the teacher put away his map and stopped talking.

"He didn't say. He just refused to come out of his room."

"Sometimes I think it was a mistake, moving you two back to your place," Chario said with a slight frown. "He's only gotten worse since then."

"Three days this week, an' two last week," Akija counted, frowning even more. "Are you sure 'e didn't say what was wrong?"

"Yes," Sentio answered, rubbing at his eyes with a forepaw. "He hardly said anything, just that he wasn't going and that he didn't care if Lady Veshal would be angry with him for skipping again."

"There's gotta be some reason," Akija mused. "Is there anything at all you c'n think of that's been, you know, weirder than normal?" 

Shaking his head, but thinking, Sentio finally said, "He's been having a lot of nightmares. Does that count?" 

"Dunno. Maybe."

::Can we talk about something else?:: Kenjista complained. ::You're always going on about that stupid demon. It's getting boring.:: All three of them glared at her, and she shut up again, glaring at the ground, herself, and kneading her cushion like a cat.

"I'm going to go try an' talk to 'im," Akija announced into the lull that followed.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Chario asked Sentio's question, for him. "I mean, what if he's all-- all-- you know. Crazy. And that's why he's not coming."

"He won't hurt me." At both dragons' skeptical looks, she rolled her eyes. "Even if 'e would, I could always just drain enough power outta him that 'e couldn't. That make you happy?"

"Not as if we can stop you, anyway," Chario grumbled.

"Be careful," Sentio warned anxiously. "Should I come with you?"

"No, you don't have to; you've got class. I'm only here to hang out with you guys." She grinned at him. "Don't worry so much! Hones'ly, I'll be fine! An' so will he," she added, ruffling the fur on Sentio's nose before he could draw back.

"All right, all right," Sentio sighed. "But tell Chario if something goes wrong; he can tell me, and I'll call up Mirabet." They'd all met the burly Earth cook, and Sentio trusted her to handle any problem that rose, if just with pure brute strength.

"I won't need to--" Akija began to protest, but stopped and sighed with another rueful grin, "but I promise. Better run, Air-head up there looks like she's gettin' ready to start, and I'd hate to interrupt 'er. She might forget where she was an' start all over!" Just on principle, for insulting a professor, Sentio took a half-hearted swat her her, which she ducked expertly. She stuck her tongue out at him then darted for the door and away.

::Finally,:: Kenjista muttered. Both her bonds ignored her.