Danger! Wizard at Work! Read Online Free Page B

himself. “They keep them in a little pouch.”
    Wiglaf couldn’t believe his ears, which were now only small holes on the sides of his head.
    “Third question,” said Professor Scales. “Say a dragon slayer is coming after you. What’s the best way to frighten him away? Taxi? Wild guess?”
    The black-and-yellow dragon shrugged. “Say ‘boo’?”
    “Petunias,” said Professor Scales. “One whiff of a petunia will knock a dragon slayer out cold.”
    “What?” cried Erica. She jumped to her feet.
    Wiglaf and Angus tried to pull her back down, but they were too late.
    “A slacker with a question,” said the professor. “My, my. What is it?”
    “Dragon slayers don’t eat gold,” Erica said. “They spend it.”
    Dragon students gasped. Wiglaf’s crest started flashing. He wished Erica would stop.
    “Dragon slayers don’t collect dragon teeth,” she said. “And no dragon slayer has ever fainted from smelling a petunia. Everything you said is wrong!”
    “Oh, really?” Professor Scales smiled. Then he shouted, “Clear your desks! Pop quiz!”
    “Oh, no!” cried all the dragon students.
    “Don’t blame me.” Professor Scales began slapping test papers down on their desks. “Blame the dragon in the back row. She thinks she knows all about dragon slayers.”
    Several of the dragon students turned around in their seats and shot Erica dirty looks.
    When Professor Scales got to the last row, he bent down close to Erica.
    “There’s something fishy about you, Silvershine,” he said. His eyes darted to Angus and Wiglaf. “And your little slacker friends, too. I’m going to find out what it is.”
    “I told the truth,” Erica whispered to her friends when class was finally over. “So what if Professor Scales didn’t like it? We aren’t going to be around here much longer. During lunch, when everyone’s in the cafeteria, we’ll summon Zelnoc. He’ll get us out of here.”
    Next was Flaming Class. Buckets of water and fire extinguishers were everywhere in the classroom. Wiglaf took a seat between Angus and Erica.
    “Velcome to Flaming Class!” said a swamp-green dragon with a burnt-orange horn atop his knobby head. “For you new slackers, I am Earl von Flambe, your instructor.”
    That name—von Flambe. Wiglaf had heard it before, but where?
    “Flaming is a dragon’s most vicked veapon,” Earl von Flambe went on. “It’s vhat dragons are known for. Vhy else vould folks call us ‘fire-breathers’?”
    Wiglaf nudged Erica. “I know that name from somewhere,” he said. “Von Flambe.”
    “Sshhh!” said Erica. “I want to hear what he says about flaming.”
    “Before ve practice flaming,” said Earl, “I vill get you all vorked up so your flames vill be vild and vonderful!” He grinned, showing a mouth full of mossy green teeth. “Vat vould you do if you met the vorld’s vorst dragon slayer?”
    “Run!” called Stickley.
    “Beg for mercy,” said Sissy.
    “Hand over all my gold,” said Taxi.
    “Use your vits, slackers,” Earl said. “Vhat vould you do if you met a really vicked dragon slayer? A dragon slayer who vanted to slay you?”
    “Uh...” said Taxi. “Try to talk him out of it?”
    “Vat are you saying?” said Earl. “You vould flame him! Bar-b-que him! Charcoal grill him! Ha! That vould vake him up!”
    Wiglaf thought Earl seemed way over-excited about this assignment.
    “Now, students,” Earl went on, “vat is the name of this dragon slayer? The most vicked dragon slayer, the vorst one in the whole vorld?”
    All together, the dragon students shouted out, “Wiglaf of Pinwick!”

Chapter 7
    W iglaf’s crest flashed. He felt his blood turn cold. He had never been so scared.
    Angus reached over and took one of Wiglaf’s claws. Erica held the other.
    What was Earl von Flambe talking about? Wiglaf wondered. How could he, Wiglaf of Pinwick, be the most wicked dragon slayer in the whole world?
    And suddenly, it hit him.
    “I know where I heard that