The next day (at the same time as Daathr saw a glow in the underwater cave), the Musée de Zoologie in Liège also housed part of the university, the zoology section.

The students were unusually excited, and were out in force for this session.

All the surrounding parking lots were busy, and the sandwich shops were in full swing. Some had even redone their signs: "Sandwicherie du Dragon", friterire: "Au souffle du dragon" and there were even red flags with a black dragon inside and the opposite on a white background.

Liège wasn't called the Burning City for nothing.

Usually, all the students hung out on the big steps outside the unique Roman/Greek Empire-style building facing the river Meuse and close to the heliport.

In the park behind, trees were being trimmed to accommodate a new kind of helicopter.

This one was named Emilie...

The students were all seated in a semi-circle in the auditorium in advance, and there was a special silence.

Then, softly, specific clacking sounds arrived and, with the sound of claws clacking on the marble floor, an almost human-sized dragon dressed in veils and necklaces came through the double doors.

All the students froze and stood up to greet their new zoology teacher.

Mademoiselle Emilie!

It adopted a bipedal posture, humanized in a way.

The students had before them a mixture of humanoid, velociraptor and dragon.

She wore a mouth veil, a bit like the sword dancers of the Arabian Nights tales, and she had a lot of charm.

Her aura (and pheromones) attracted the attention of the male students.

"Good morning, Anthropology and Zoology students. Not so long ago, I was on the other side of the window, following the lectures by sticking my head out"...

Laughs...

"Yes, it's comical, but at the time I had it very hard and my fight remains the same. But it will take time".

A student raises his hand to ask for the floor

"Yes, Thomas?"

He was amazed that the dragoness had memorized all her students' names.

"So you experienced what the former natives went through?"

"Excellent question, Thomas, yes, exactly. Even if the arborigenic tribes and if we go further back in time, like the American Indians and further back with the Indo-European tribes, discrimination is strongly rooted in our way of life.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Not so long ago, people were even trafficked, or arborigens were simply placed in integration centers, or others kidnapped to serve as laborers in the mines. But that's all in the program, and I'll tell you about my expedition to New Guinea".

Other students wanted to ask questions and one of them asked:

"Madame the dragoness?"

Emilie: "Yes, Mr. human male?"

Everyone laughed at the student, realizing the absurdity of the question.

"Excuse me, Professor Emilie.."

"Yes, I like that better... "

Marc: "Are you single?"

"MARC!!!" and she made big eyes, irritated.

"Pardon, Mademoiselle..but.." he began to blush."

"It's not that I wouldn't like to go out, but a lot of people are wondering, because we think you're lovely."

Steam rose from Emilie's ears and she lowered her head, tears coming to her eyes.

Then she shook her head, as if to discreetly wipe away her tears.

The students realized that she was as sensitive as any human.

"Dear students..." but she was cut off by the male students who threw hundreds of flowers at her, which they had hidden in the office.

They all stood up and went to hug the teacher level.

Everyone loved Emilie, especially after her heroic exploits.

After a few moments, they reached the bleachers and Emilie was crying with joy, full of little bouquets of flowers laid at the foot of the dais.

"At lunchtime, fetch me some buckets for the flowers and we'll try to save them and replant them in the courtyard."

"Today, we're going to talk about the flora in New Guinea and our European flora, and we're going to compare the environments. And we're going to try to understand why certain plants do better over there than they do here!"

The debate was long but very participative. The students loved to hear the dragoness's typical accent and to see her serpentine tongue naturally and unconsciously slip in and out.

Many laughed, but Emilie didn't mind, it made her laugh too, and she was happy to find herself surrounded by "adorable students" who were young like her and, like her, only thought of having fun.

Emilie had suffered greatly from the loss of her human parents, her uncle and adoptive father and, despite everything, she had bitter-sweet feelings towards her dragon mother, who was also a victim of Tiamat's mad influence. She adored her grandmother Tiamat, but she had been manipulated, drugged and, above all, betrayed and deceived, just like her little brother and sister. They now live together as a family, but they all miss Luc. For her, his absence marks the end of an innocent childhood.

Her old teacher Chardon, mentor and godfather, entered the auditorium to greet Emilie on her first day as a teacher.

They hugged for a moment, and she said to him in front of everyone: "Merci... Thank you... without you... I'd probably just be a hunted beast..."

Chardon "No, I'm sure you wouldn't, because you've got a heart of gold, my little one.."

Everyone applauded, and the students rushed into the building in search of buckets and potatoes.

Thistle: "Are you going to do magic?

Emilie: "Hardly, but I want these flowers to last.

Then he pointed to his chest with his finger: "This is where the flowers should be, in your heart, a good memory...".

Technically, Professor Chardon was the only member of the dragonslayers' secret society left, and officially, he was the one who had to authorize Emilie to work magic. There was no longer anyone to stop Emilie from doing magic, but she was a reasonable adult. She avoided it as much as possible, as she had been taught to do so by her mother and, through her, Tiamat. For her, it was a dangerous, even cursed art. And the less she did, the less human jealousy she aroused. Even the press didn't talk about it, because Emilie wasn't used to doing it. The only thing that became public knowledge was her reduction in size and her bipedal posture, which was now becoming the norm again.

She would revert to her dragon form to fly home at weekends.