Perigor sometimes got outside of school, mostly to hang out with his friend, Teo. Teo had a family at home, an older sister and a mother. It meant that Teo got to do stuff that most Academy students didn’t get to do, like go to a science museum on the weekend. Of course, Teo had invited him along—he knew that Peri got ants in his pants (so to speak) sitting around all weekend. Peri, for his part, jumped at the chance to get out of school and to spend a day hanging out with his best friend. They headed out to the museum with the rest of Teo’s family (and Teo’s sister’s girlfriend) and enjoyed the sights. It was a sort of general, all-purpose science museum. It had a section on geology, and a section on astronomy, and a section about biology. Callessa, her girlfriend Eidil in tow, disappeared into that section nearly off the bat, with a wave and a promise to meet back up for lunch. Teo huffed, but Peri shrugged. It was more or less what he expected from the girls.“Would you like to see one of the demonstrations?” Teo’s mother, Elienne, asked. Peri shrugged again, but Teo smiled.
“Sure! When’s the next one?”
Elienne looked at the schedule. “There’s one in the hall of rocks in ten minutes. It says it’s going to be a chemistry demonstration? Well, that sounds fun.” She put the schedule away and lead the way.
Peri fell back with Teo. “Why do you want to go to a demonstration?” he asked. “It’s all going to be visual.”
Teo turned to him and gave him another one of his mysterious smiles. How did Teo do that?! It wasn’t as if he had ever seen a smile, how could he know what it meant?! A question for another time. “I think you’d enjoy it,” he said innocently. So when they got to the demonstration location, Teo led the way to the front row of seats, sitting Perigor at his side opposite Haint. Peri leaned back on his hands and waited. Teo gently pulled one of his hands away and held it in his own clawed hands.
The demonstration area had a table full of equipment out on it. The equipment looked weird, all glass beakers and jars and stuff. When the Litch leading the demonstration stepped out and introduced herself, there was mild applause. But then she did something special.
She lit a burner, then touched a piece of metal to a tray above the burner. Instantly, the tray WHOOMPHED into a ten-foot column of brilliant pink flame. Peri’s eyes grew wide. His hand tightened around Teo’s.
By the end of the demonstration, Peri’s eyes hadn’t gotten any narrower, and he was shaking all over. He rushed forward to talk to the demonstrator. “That was AMAZING!” he said. By the way she, Teo, and Haint all winced, he had said it really loud. “That was…so cool! Where did you learn to do all that stuff?!”
The adult Litch smiled. “I learned it Leviathan university. I take it you liked it?”
Peri nodded furiously. “Yes, ohmygosh yes! Wow, I have to try that now!”
“Easy there,” the demonstrator said, with a quirk of her eyebrows. “Do not try this at home.”
Peri snorted. “Eh, fine, fine.” But he couldn’t stop trembling on their way to lunch. Chemistry, eh? Methinks I’ve found a calling.
