Red Tail

Hey Everybody

We’re really sorry but Katie hasn’t been able to work on Redtails this weekend. She’s racing to complete a deadline she’s been grappling with for weeks now. She’s on the home stretch this week and should have everything wrapped up by the end of this week. Normal Redtails updates should resume (we even have a special announcement we’ll be making).

In the meantime the best I can offer at such short notice is a small piece I wrote to get a feel of our Professor R.O’Dent. I hope this can tide everyone over until the next comic hits next week.

Reginald O’Dent

Dear Mother

I have had the most wonderful day. The most splendid Royal Northchamberland College is everything Father had written it to be and so, so much more. I am writing this by candlelight because it is Nine O’clock and this has been the first time all day I’ve been able to sit still long enough for all the excitement I’ve had.

I am roomed in the Neophytes dormitory with seven other boys, two of whom are from Nothexshire like me. Their names are Thomas Halloways from Gofforde and Gerald Tharchard from Merrywater… Sorry Mother Thomas has just informed me that he is in fact from Merrywater and Gerald isn’t even from Nothexshire at all. He’s actually from Toblotown and it’s Charles who’s from Gofforde.

Now that that’s all sorted I’ve simply got to tell you about the school. Oh it’s just breathtaking, the beautiful gothic architecture of the grand hall and the vast expanse of the main courtyard and the library. Oh Mother I nearly fainted, it’s enormous, seven times the size of our little cottage and stocked with just about every book in the whole world.

And then there are the Professors, so many of them, each with their own field of study. This year, because I’m just a neophyte (that’s what the older students call us first years), I’ll be learning from a set curriculum of Mathematics, Geography, Classical Literature, Dance, Penmanship and Bug-Beetle riding.

I know I had that little accident on Flopsy all those years ago but fret not Mother , I shall not let my peers think ill of me and will endeavour to overcome my previous trepidation for beetles. The family name is at stake!

Next year I’m so looking forward to the chance of studying Anthropromophology, the study of animal societal movement and developments. Professor Bethke is the head of that field here at the college and even amongst the prestigious minds that staff our faculty he seems the wisest and most knowledgeable, even more so than High-Chancelor Dugray himself.

Well I simply must be going now Mother. The candle is reaching its end and I must be getting to bed. It’s my first day of class tomorrow. I don’t know how I’ll manage but I must get some sleep to be fresh and ready to face the day.

Your loving son

Reginald O’Dent