There's a Dragon in my Garden.... [ Antonio + Heracles + Matthew ]

Of course, it's a well known fact that home grown vegetables taste much better than store bought ones. For that reason, Antonio had requested some space on the grounds for his own personal garden. He liked to be sure he had only the freshest of food for his students to use in his class, not to mention for the meals he made for himself every day. That was why he spent most of his free time in his garden, tending to the vegetables with the utmost care.

At the moment, the Spaniard was outside, heading toward his garden. He was carrying a watering pail, which he hoped was filled enough as he really didn't want to go back inside for more water, a pair of gloves, and some tools. As soon as he arrived, he realised that something was slightly off. Some of his vegetables had been dug up! With an irritated huff, a small flame coming from his mouth, he squatted down to inspect the damage. "Ay, conejos estan muy molesto...." Though he wasn't actually sure that rabbits were the culprits, he decided to blame them anyway.

In the end, it didn't really matter who or what had done this. There was nothing he could do to fix it now. He just hoped that this wouldn't happen again. This garden was very important to Antonio, and this small amount of damage was already enough to have him blowing flames. In fact, he had to turn his head away every few moments just to be sure he wouldn't accidentally set the plants on fire. After disposing of the ruined vegetables, and refilling the holes that had been dug, he stood to water the surviving part of the garden.

Matthew was sitting in a tree by the lake when he just happened to spot one of his favourite teachers go by. Mr Fernandez... Oh! Was he heading to the garden? He did seem to be carrying some water. So he loved to garden! How fun! Matthew hopped off his perch to run after Antonio, to talk to him. This would be a tonne of fun, he was sure. "Mr Fernandez!" He called out, but the other didn't seem to hear him. Well, Matthew did have a surprisingly quiet voice...

The closer he got, the more he realised that Antonio was... Angry! Getting closer, he realised why, too... What were presumably Antonio's vegetables, had been dug up and lay scattered on the floor, some even with bitemarks in them! That wasn't good! Matthew covered his mouth. What could have done that? Obviously an animal. Or, maybe, an insane person. But what insane person ate vegetables?! ...Wait, that wasn't the point. There weren't any insane people in the school! So it must have been animals!

Scanning the area, he saw the culprit. A little ball of sleeping fluff was curled up underneath a bush, breathing softly. "Kumajirou..." Matthew whispered in anxiety. Why did it have to be his pet? Damnit, Kumajirou was too troublesome! Matthew sighed and shook his head slightly. "Mr Fernandez!" He called, louder this time in hopes of catching the other's attention. "I'm sorry to see what happened here... Can it be fixed?" He asked, one eye kept trained on the useless lump of a bear in case he woke up to cause more trouble. "Your face is kinda red... Are you sure you're ok?" He asked, reaching out to pat the other's shoulder.

In the corner of his eye, Kumajirou twitched slightly and woke up. If need be, Matthew would prevent him from doing anything too bad... He hoped...

(( Sorry for the long wait! I would have gotten it out sooner but... Internet is a meany. ;n; ))

Warm. It was warm outside. The entire reason he was going outside in the first place; inside it was colder and he disliked the cold. Which, when he thought about it, made working where he did a stupid idea but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Heracles shook his head as he walked outside and stopped at the first touch of sunlight against his skin, a smile stretching across his face at the warmth that spread across his skin. He closed his eyes to enjoy it before frowning and opening his eyes at the sound of one of the students calling out a teacher's name. It wasn't his name, but still.

He looked to see...a blond student he didn't know the name of running towards Antonio Fernandez, who looked...much angrier than Heracles had ever seen him look before. This, of course, put Heracles on edge for the soul fact that Antonio rarely if ever got angry and when he did it rarely ended well for anyone involved. The other teacher could and did breath fire when he was angry, and so Heracles stepped closer incase he was needed to put out a fire that grew too large.

And then he saw what had gotten Antonio angry. And suddenly it all made much more sense why Antonio was red in the face and why the student was asking to help. Sadly, Heracles couldn't see how the student could help. The plants would still be destroyed and Antonio still wouldn't be able to use them for anything, so he would continue to be angry. He readied himself as the teen reached out to touch Antonio's shoulder, knowing that he had to intervene if he was needed. He inwardly sighed. So much for enjoying the warmth.

The annoyance didn't go away like he had hoped, and he was still having a hard time from keeping flames from coming out his mouth. He turned his head to blow another when he heard his name called. He looked at the source and saw that it was Matthew coming toward him. He offered a wave before turning to focus on watering his plants again. Although he didn't really acknowledge Matthew, the student continued to talk to him anyway. And, well, it would have been rude if he didn't respond, right? "Only by replanting them. I don't have any replacements at the moment, though."

Having no idea what his face looked like at the moment, Antonio took the boy's word that it was red. He rubbed his own cheek and could feel well enough that it was warm. "It's irritating. To do so much work only to have the plants destroyed. I'm, ah, just a bit angry." he said, simply the thought irritating him enough to have to spit another flame. He coughed a bit. "Of course, breathing fire keeps my face awfully warm. That could explain why it's so red."

It was at moments like these that he wished those wings on his back were just a bit longer. Then he could probably fan himself to cool down just a bit. But... if they did grow at all, that was never a good sign. Usually if they are any bigger than they were now, that would mean he was fairly close to transforming completely.... He wasn't angry enough for that. This was just a mild irritant. It would take much more to make him turn into a dragon.... most likely.

Matthew knelt down and peered at Kumajirou in his position underneath the bush, who'd woken up at some point due to the raised voices and fire breathing. "Yes, I understand, Mr Fernandez... Come on, Kumajirou. Come out and let's return to the castle." He looked back up at the teacher, taking vague note of the other approaching teacher behind him, and grimmaced. "I'm sorry, Mr Fernandez... It was my Kumajirou. I'm not sure why he did it. Usually he refuses to eat his vegetables..." He glanced back at Kumajirou who'd ambled out and blinked up at him, before promptly starting to foul his garden with bodily fluids. Matthew cringed. This was the pet who was supposed to represent him?! It was shameful.

"Oh... Kumajirou! That's impolight! And... Rather gross. Way to add insult to injiry, you lump. What did I tell you about doing that? You know where you're supposed to go, and it's not on top of the vegetable patch you destroyed!" He scolded the bear, frowning. Kumajirou blinked up at him with beady black eyes in return.

"Who? Who's patch? What patch?" The bear questioned him. Matthew sighed, running his fingers through his hair. How frustrating. Still, Kumajirou let the questions drop for now and instead tilted his furry face towards Mr Fernandez. "I... Smell predator. Bad predator! ...Dragon...!" The bear squeeled, before turning and advancing on Antonio, with the intent of hurt. Matthew had to stick his arm out and knock the bear back with a yell of "No! Bad!"... but he wasn't sure if the bear even heard him, while it was growling about dangers, and giving Antonio a downright evil look.

Heracles watched them carefully, tilting his head as the scent of urine filled the air. Why...oh god. Heracles cringed and took another step closer, knowing that Antonio was going to be rightfully and perhaps uncontrollably angry at this point. He frowned in the student's direction, silently urging him to pick up the white creature that had just defiled Antonio's garden and take the thing inside. Standing there like a guard between the fire breathing teacher and the growling bear was just going to get the teen hurt.

He eyed Antonio's wings, using them as an indicator of when to intervene. If they grew larger than they already were, Heracles would have to pull the teen out of there. If he didn't have to right now. But, while Heracles was insanely curious about what the teacher looked like in his other form, he wasn't stupid enough to step in front of an angry dragon for little reason.

Antonio's eyes narrowed at Matthew's words. Unhappy as he was about finding out just who had caused this mess, he couldn't be mad when the boy sounded sincerely sorry. Even if it really wasn't his fault, but.... 'It's alright. So long as it doesn't happen aga-" the words weren't even out of his mouth before the bear was defiling his garden again. He just stared in disbelief, unable to control the flames that were seeping from his mouth now.

His hands clenched into fists as he came to, giving the bear a look of pure hatred. "¿¡Como te atreves!?" he yelled, switching to his native tongue. He could see the bear was angry which only further increased Antonio's own anger. What did the bear have to be upset about!? No one had destroyed and pissed on his garden! He hissed, taking a step closer to the bear. He hardly noticed Matthew still standing there, and had no idea that Heracles was nearby. His focus was completely on Kumajirou. He wasn't even aware that his wings were larger now, or that the flames kept growing.

The signs of his transformation were slowly becoming obvious. His eye color had changed from green to a dark red, and if one looked closely they would find that his tongue had become snakelike, thin and forked. His wings, even, had come to the point of merging onto his back and shoulders, continuing to grow until his arms and wings would eventually be one. By now he had completely forgotten himself, not even caring that he was changing. He was too far gone for it to stop.

(( 'Como te atreves?' = 'How dare you?', just so ya know~ And one of these days, I'll have to draw dragon!Toni. Because I can't find a picture that looks how I imagine him.... ))

Matthew quivered and stood in front of Kumajirou. "P-Please don't get angry! I-Isn't...that stuff... supposed to be good for the soil?" He tried to reason but his little voice was probably not heard over the crackle of the intimidating and quite unnerving flames spitting from his mouth. The yell in spanish, he didn't understand, but he could tell the teacher was just furious, so it obviously wouldn't be anything good. Matthew nudged Kumajirou backwards to make sure he didn't get burnt, and the small bear lumbered backwards several paces, very frightened by the hot flames, his anger overshadowed by Mr Fernandez's.

His eyes flicked momentarily to Mr Karpusi, a little surprised to see him there. But now wasn't the time to be asking questions about that... No, now felt like the time to run. Only... Matthew couldn't! His legs were still, he was frozen with fear. Mr Fernandez appeared to be, well, transforming... A forked tongue, almost hidden behind the flames, and very large... very scary... wings spreading and almost merging into his arms... But this was a well recognised transformation for Matthew. He'd seen it many times in his text and story books. It was the most feared creature between the nymphs.

So, Matthew's natural instinct kicked in and he took a step back, putting up a magical defence barrier. Unfortunately, his magic was week and poorely developed, as most nymphs' were, and it would be easily shattered by sharp teeth or claws. And he glowed a deep blue, rather than his happy light blue, and trembled. Turning a dark blue was Matthew's way of warning other creatures away from the danger, but it also made him a very easy target. "P-P-Please, M-Mr F-Fernandez! S-Stop tr-transform-m-ming! I-I-I'm a n-nymph, see, a-a-and I don't th-think the h-head teacher will a-appreciate it i-i-if you h-harmed a... " His voice was getting quieter every moment until it trailed off into silent horror.

Oh shit. He stared with wide eyes as Antonio started to transform, frozen to his spot. He had always wanted to see Antonio transform, though he knew that saying so to the other man was practically suicide for their friendship. And to actually see him transform...it was fascinating in a terrifying way. He wanted to run - everything in him was screaming for him to run - but his damn curiousity kept him standing there in the face of almost certain death.

He couldn't tell what was going on with Antonio's face, but the terrified look on the student's face told him that it couldn't be anything good. Normally he would be yelling at the kid to run, but when even he was frozen in place - with misplaced curiousity even, which was terrible of him - he couldn't really do so.

It was only when the kid started talking and he realized just how much trouble all of them would be in if Antonio got his hands on the student that his feet decided to move. He ran over to them and first picked up the bear, then grabbed the kid's hand and practically dragged him back towards the school. The more room he could put between them and Antonio the better.