Lessons

This was my entry for the story contest, and I've decided to re-post it here since I never posted it in the contest thread but PM'd it directly to Gilgamesh. That said, if you've read the .RTF file in the contest voting thread, this is exactly the same; no editing or changes.

For the curious, the character of Tobi is the property of Tobiwanz on FurAffinity; this started out as a gift for him.

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(Rhiannon as shi appears in Chapter One)

Lessons

(c) 2011 GingerM

Prelude

"Miss Rhiannon!" Hir head snapped up as the wooden ruler cracked on hir desk. Wide-eyed, shi jolted back in hir seat, hir ears swivelling back of their own accord from hir fright. Other students snickered. "If it's not too much trouble, would you deign to grace us with the last part of the witches' speech?"

"Um... 'Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and hair of dog' -" shi blurted out desperately. I hate this, shi thought, staring down at the desk as the English mistress harrumphed and the other girls laughed.

"No, no... not only the wrong place, but incorrect. 'Tongue of dog', not 'hair of dog'." She turned to select another student. "Miss Sophia, please." She paused to rest her hand lightly on Sophie's sun-kissed head, then swung back. "And you will remain behind, Miss Rhiannon," she added. "It's plain that you need extra attention, young lady."

Sophia got it right, picking up at 'Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf', and finished the speech, just as the end-of-the-day-bell rang. The classroom suddenly transformed from neat rows of quiet students to a giggling mass as they stampeded out the door, leaving Rhiannon behind, sitting in hir seat. Hir school uniform itched and the tie seemed to be choking hir.

Miss Hunterdon-Farnsworth went to the door and turned the key in the lock, then returned to rummage in a desk drawer, then pointed to a spot in front of her desk. "Come here." Rhiannon stood and slowly paced toward the front of the classroom. "Don't dawdle," the teacher said, sneering. "Are you being deliberately stupid, miss? I realize you can't possibly be as intelligent as a real person, but surely even an animal must have some understanding."

Rhiannon looked at the floor, shame smouldering in hir. "I don't think it's fair," shi mumbled. "I didn't ask to be made this way." Hir ears lay back through hir windblown auburn hair and beneath the fine chestnut hairs on hir cheeks shi felt hir skin heating.

"I certainly didn't ask to have some half-breed mix of human and horse foisted on my class. At your age, however, I expect you ought to be able to pay attention and at least try to stretch your mind to something resembling human intellect!" She sighed. "It appears that reasoning with you is too much to ask," she went on. "Well, if you won't learn, I suppose I must treat you as an animal and train you, instead. Perhaps you need to be broken like a