Kaara put her hands behind her back as she watched one of the smaller oak trees near camp topple over. At least they didn’t have to worry about timber tonight. She wondered if the person who had been thrown through it was okay.

Her and Amaro turned to see Tadios, “Aw cmon, you were runnin’ your mouth earlier, what happened? Scared?” he said pacing towards the semi-conscious noble he’d thrown. All the snow in his path evaporated into steam, covering him in a thick billowing cloud where only the magical red glow of his eyes pierced through, “Next time I catch you harassin’ one of our refugees like that I’m gonna make you build a brick wall so I can toss you through it.” He broke from the steam, his horns wreathed in blue fire. The noble kid tried to run, but Tadios caught him by the tail, “You ever grab a lady by her tail like that again I’ll be rippin’ yours off.

The noble screamed, sending a stone-covered heel kick into Tadios’s temple, “Shut your mouth, scum! Don’t get cocky just because you got lucky!”

The noble might as well have kicked a statue. Tadios had not flinched, in fact, that kick had only made him grin more.

Kaara knew the noble had screwed up. He should’ve just kept trying to run. She grabbed Amaro by his shoulders and guided him to move, “Right here should be fine…” She said to herself.

Amaro looked at her with bewilderment, “What’s happening?”

“You’ll see.”

Tadios used the noble as a skipping stone, sending him tumbling past in a chaotic array of mud and snow.

But as fast as Tadios had thrown him, Tadios was faster. He caught the noble by their tail, and flung them into the other direction. He played catch with himself, pinballing the noble along before smashing him into the ground right where Amaro had been standing.

“Howdy Avalanche.”

“Howdy Etsai.”

“Etsai? Avalanche?” Amaro said.

Tadios picked the unconscious noble up by his shirt and slung him over his shoulder, “This fella treatin’ you right, Avalanche?”

Kaara nodded, “Mhm, no issues here yet. What did that guy do?”

“This fella got a bit too handsy with one of our refugees, thinkin’ he was entitled to her time among other unsavory things. Guess he thought he could do whatever he wanted to a Noxa.”

“There’s at least one every year, huh?”

“Unfortunately. Oh, by the way, you participatin’ this year?”

Kaara nodded, “Oh yeah, actually me and Amaro just joined the enemy team.” She felt Amaro stiffen up behind her.

“Wait, Kaara should we really be telling him-”

Tadios laughed, patting Kaara’s head, “Well come and get me when you’re ready. It’s always more fun when you’re on the other team.”

“Rorik and Arik are on the other team too.”

Tadios raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms, “Really now? Couldn’t have left me with at least one, Avalanche? ”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Kaara stuck out her tongue, pulling her eyelid down with her index finger, “You get way stronger every year, we gotta keep challenging you somehow or you’ll get bored, right?”

Tadios sighed, scratching his head, “Well you’re definitely makin’ me work for it this year. Between you, The Prince, the Xirxus, and all the rest of the nobles I’ve got my hands full. Might ask if some of those Noxa wanna join up. They seemed like good folk.” He spanked the unconscious noble on his shoulder, “This one had a whole entourage with ‘im, but a few of the girl’s friends stood up for her before I got there. It was a brawl, lemme tell you.”

“Oh! This would be the first time we had Noxa join in a while!” Kaara said.

“Be seein’ you Avalanche. We still gonna have dinner tonight?”

“Yeah!” Kaara said with a wag of her tail.

The two of them watched Tadios leave, Amaro letting out something between a gasp and a squeak out of his throat.

“What’s wrong?” Kaara said.

“Well, it’s just… I suppose I wasn’t expecting him to be on such good terms with you after you mentioned joining the other side.”

“Well, since we see it every year, we think of it as more of a game than nobles do, I guess. Even if we’re fighting that doesn’t mean we can’t sit down and share a meal together at the end of the day, right?”

“I suppose you’re right. If anything it’s refreshing to see, I was worried this whole debacle might cause a rift between you and your people.”

Kaara smiled, “Nah, we’re all on the same side when the Malaki come anyways, so why hold a grudge?”

“Deka wasn’t kidding when he said he was strong, though. I doubt I could beat him as I am now. It’s no wonder even The Prince himself has to recognize his power.”

“I like to think of Tadios as the big brother to our camp. He’s real protective, straightforward, and strong, but he’s also not immortal.” She put her thumb on her lip in thought, “Now that I think about it, he might be the reason me Rorik and Arik know how to use Ux. I wonder if that was intentional.”

“A worthy adversary no matter how you look at it,” Amaro said, “I’ve got someone to impress, though, so even if he’s stronger than me I won’t lose.”

Kaara giggled, “Oh? What happened to not living up to other people’s expectations?”

Amaro smirked, “I think the one I’m trying to impress doesn’t have very high expectations of me. I’ve got a future I wanna make, so these are my expectations, not anyone else’s.”

Kaara nodded, “I think I can understand that. Good luck.”

“Thank you. Shall we tell the others the news?”

“Mhm!”

The two of them walked in silence. Kaara wondered why he was so quiet now. He must have had a lot on his mind. It was strange to have someone like him in camp. Kaara knew his heart was in the right place for the most part, but Amaro was still insecure and prideful. The way he ran his mouth without a care as if his opinion was always the most important was something that got on Kaara’s nerves from time to time.

She always got a sense that he did things for the sake of looking good as much as he claimed to not care about other people’s opinions of him. He was always putting on some sort of front. Always trying to mask his intentions in some way. Kaara did not blame him for that. Most people did that anyway.

She did not know how he might react if she told him how she really felt about him. Though he had not confessed to her directly, it was blatantly obvious to Kaara what his intentions were. Perhaps he thought himself sly and sneaky with the way he worded things?

Her mother had told her to make friends with the nobles, and Kaara was certain she was on the right track. It did make her anxious, though, to know that they wanted something more from her that she couldn’t return.

She remembered the dinner they had not long ago, sitting around the table sharing food and laughing together after the most humiliating series of events any of them had ever endured. She thought of the caves, and of how boastful he was.

Then she thought of how he acted when defending Rorik. She thought of the look on his face whenever one of his family members were in danger. She could see the apathy vanish from his eyes whenever someone dared to insult or threaten his siblings.

And those eyes were not blind to the flaws of his siblings either. He really was a big brother to them in the same way Tadios was.

Still, it might be best if he kept his feelings to himself for now. If Kaara was asked to return them in the moment, she knew what her answer would be. The one thing she did not know, however, was how she would answer him in the future.