Church Boy nearly dropped him. But didn't. Not even when he bit him, though he did open his palm to give Aubrey a little breathing room before he started babbling. The babbling was odd enough: Aubrey never had understood quite how dumb people were with animals, 'til he'd become one. He might be able to understand them (perfectly), but it was asking a lot of actual animals to answer bloody inane questions like how long do hedgehogs live in the midst of a battle scene.

Well, thank you for all your preaching, Church Boy, Aubrey thought manically, as he prepared his exit while the boy had successfully distracted himself. Excellent. Here went nothing.

Should've left me under the couch, sucker! I'm going to live forever! Aubrey yelled, as he barrelled off the boy's hand like he was doing a cannonball off a cliff. Lucky for him, he was pretty adept at cannonballing: he leant forwards in midair, tucking his body up into a hedgehog ball to prepare himself for the landing. Three, two, one - CONTACT! Aubrey hit the stone floor, his shield of prickles absorbing the worst of it, and continued rolling in a frenzy; rolling, rolling, rolling until he was free, and away, right out of the common room door.

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