"Oh, he won't!" Ariel said, after a wide-eyed moment at Jono's colorful word choice. "He was with me at the clothing shop all day and didn't even peck or tear or...anything else the whole time! Be good for Jono, okay, Mr. Bird? I'll be right back!"

And so she darted off, trying to be quick as she headed all the way up to the fifth floor of the dorms to retrieve her newest snarfblat (http://www.maxcelcat.com/pix/magritte-pipe-sm.jpg). It gave Jono probably plenty of awkward time with the unfortunate teacher turned plover, but she was back soon enough, brandishing it happily.

"See? Isn't it a nice one, too? I did warn you I wasn't very good at it, right?"