Mareng's mother had said goodbye at the playground. So had all the other mothers and some fathers. A Dragon Teacher supervised the playground. Mareng thought she looked a bit like Mum; similar in colour and age. When he looked around he saw many small boy and girl dragons of different colours. He also saw some human boys and girls. He had seen human children before, when he played in the woods. His parents had explained to him what they were.

After a few minutes a bell rang. The teacher signaled them all to come in. As they passed her, she shook paws and hands. The teacher said: "Welcome, my dear; can you tell me your name please? My name is Mrs. Dragonlake." All the children and young dragons gave their names and said hello.

Mrs. Dragonlake then guided the first year pupils to their classroom. There were twelve pupils in total. The classroom was bright with huge windows and there were four rows of small desks. Each desk had a pen holder and an inkwell. She said: "Go ahead and pick which desk you like. I prefer boys to sit with boys, and girls with girls, that is all. After they sat down, she told them what she would expect from them.

Mrs. Dragonlake explained that they were to stay at their desks at all times. "You have to be quiet during lessons, unless I ask a question'. The you can try to answer me one at a time. Every day you will have two short breaks to play in the playground. And you will have one hour lunch break. For those who live close enough,they will go home. The others will stay at school."

"Your lessons include arithmetic, writing and learning to play with other children and certain animals. As this is your first day, we will start a lesson about playing."

Mrs. Dragonhead took them all outside. As the school was also near the woods, she took them there. First she asked them if they knew what the game hide and seek was.
Most children said: "No, Mrs. Dragonlake. Could you please tell us about it?"
Mrs. Dragonlake said:"One of you will be picked by me. I will put a blindfold on him or her, so he or she can't see. The others will hide at different places, not too far away, but you can't be too difficult to find. Then I will remove the blindfold and this child will try to find the others as fast as he or she can. Once all are found, the first one that was found is the next one to be 'it' and be blindfolded. Mareng, would you like to start?"
Mareng: "Yes please, Mrs. Dragonlake. It sounds fun and I don't mind the dark one little bit."
All the children went off to find a good hiding place. The teacher took the blindfold off and Mareng went off as quickly as he could. He found a small dragon girl first ( her name was: Mara) and in the next twenty minutes he managed to find all the rest.
Mrs. Dragonlake: "Well done, Mareng. Now it is Mara's turn."
They played till nearly lunch time. Then they went back to the classroom. Some had already made friends together. Mareng was closest to Mara. He liked her being a dragon too and with a nice orange-green colour and brown shining eyes.

Mareng went home during the lunch break, as their house was so nearby, that he could easily manage this. He told his parents all about the game they had played and about this nice dragon girl: Mara. He was so happy about his first morning. They ate their dragon breads. He had to go back to be in time that afternoon rather quickly. Mum and Dad told him they were pleased he liked it so much.

During the afternoon they sat at their desks apart from the break. After they all sat, Mrs. Dragonlake explained what the afternoon was about. She brought in a small animal and told them this is a cat.
"I will tell you what you have to do. We make two different groups for this: human children and dragon children. The humans can come over and carefully stroke this lovely cat one by one. You, dragon children, need some extra exercise before you can go near the cat. I will teach you how to use flames that can't hurt or burn the cat. It is similar to what you already learned from your parents, but slightly different."
Mareng and some other dragon children: "How do you mean different Mrs., Dragonlake?"
Mrs. Dragonlake: "I will teach you how to blow colder,harmless flames. They will be a lighter colour than you are used to or even grey sometimes; and no smoke coming of them."
Using some other speech exercises they all learned this speedily.

Then Mrs. Dragonlake took all the children one at a time to the cat. The first human kid stroked the cat and the cat started purring. Then Mareng used a light purple flame and the cat liked it as well: purring AND not burned at all. Apart from the small break this took the whole afternoon. All the children were thrilled. Just before the end of the afternoon the teacher told them not to try to do this yet without her being there. Then the bell went, signaling the end of their first school day. Mareng waved bye to all and went straight home. When he came home he was so tired that he went straight to bed. Mareng did not even tell Mum or Dad the story till later at dinner time. His parents were nearly as thrilled as he was.