Several hours later, her anger had mostly died down. She had to admit, that, even if they hadn't won, it had been one sae of a good race.

Petra made her way out to the dragon stables attached to the inn they were all staying at. As competitors in the semifinals, they got their pick of any of the inns in the city, and they'd made sure to stay at one with a decent stable.

It was a deep-rooted habit for Petra to visit her dragon before she went to bed. The celebration of their almost-victory had been going on for hours, and she was tired out even though it really wasn't that late. Another time, maybe, she'd stay up and celebrate and get drunk out of her mind with Axel, but not that night.

Dragon-fire lamps lit the cobbled back path, though they were slightly dulled by the brilliant blind eye of the moon. Quiet snarls greeted her as she entered the stables, the dragons clearly displeased with being disturbed.

Rhys was in one of the larger stalls, towards the back of the building. Petra briefly greeted Ksuntis and Anoss as she passed them, and they gave her small friendly huffs in reply. Elan was already asleep when she glanced into the green dragon's stall, her beautiful emerald-scaled sides rising and falling as she breathed.

Rhys chirred happily as Petra stood in front of her stall and reached up to rub the sides of her face. The shimmering turquoise dragon was a lot more affectionate than most of the dragons Petra knew, constantly begging for pets and attention. She was like an enormous, over-friendly cat.

"We're gonna beat them tomorrow, girl. I know it." Petra whispered to her dragon. "We have to."

She was rewarded by a long purr from Rhys that was strangely comforting. She smiled and scratched Rhys's chin, right where the turquoise scales lightened to a pearly white. "You'll beat that little quicksilver problem; I just know you will." she crooned affectionately.

Petra didn't know what she'd do without Rhys. She'd raised her from a tiny dragonet, when she'd found the little beast wandering the edge of her hometown, starving and alone. Petra had only seen nine springs, and Rhys couldn't have been more than a week or two old.

Now, seventeen years later, Rhys was the best and most loyal friend she ever could've asked for. Every dragon rider had a bond with their mount, but theirs ran deeper than most.

It hurt her heart to know that she may not be able to take care of Rhys for much longer.

Rhys made another happy purring noise and turned away from Petra, settling down on the floor and tucking her tail over her spiny nose. Petra smiled. "Goodnight, girl."

She paid more attention to the other dragons as she slowly walked towards the stable doors. There were mounts in every possible colour, their gem-like scales shining in the faint lamplight. Most of them were settling down to sleep, but there were several that still seemed pretty alert.

Petra paused in front of a gloriously silver dragon that was horribly familiar. It made a strange sort of birdlike squeak noise, and she almost laughed at the oddness of it.

"Well, hello." she murmured. "So you're the one who's causing us all this trouble."

Lukas's silver mount was admittedly very beautiful. It had very small, close-set, smooth scales that shone like a polished weapon, and intelligent deep green eyes that were dark enough to almost look black. It had round ears and a primarily smooth head, lacking a lot of the thorny spines and horns that decorated most dragons. Two long horns jutted back from just above and behind its eyes, but that was it.

Petra couldn't figure out if it was male or female. It had an elegantly narrow face that seemed somewhat feminine, but was missing the ruff below the ears that most girl dragons had.

It squeak-chirped again and angled its head towards her. Petra snickered when she realized it was asking for pets.

She reached over and ran her hand down the dragon's metallic neck, and it purred happily. She grinned. "You're a funny thing, aren't you?"

"He likes you."

Petra gasped and whirled around at the sound of the new voice. She glanced around in a panic for a few moments before her eyes locked onto the blond man standing just inside the doors.

She sank into a glare as Lukas strode easily towards her. "I've gotta say, that's pretty unusual. Kicidian doesn't warm up that quickly to just anyone."

She crossed her arms as he leaned casually against the thick beam that separated the silver dragon's stall from the one beside it. She was several inches taller than him, but he possessed a powerful sort of tranquility that she didn't.

Strangely enough, he didn't even seem surprised to see her here, petting his dragon in the near middle of the night. He looked just as perfectly poised as he had earlier; hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers, pale hair perfectly tousled, blue eyes curious and calm.

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Petra turned back to stroke the dragon's nose again. "Fascinating." she said bitingly. "What are you doing here?"

He took a moment before he answered, watching her with those cryptic eyes. "Wanted to visit my dragon. Though I must admit, it's a sae of a stroke of luck to meet you here as well."

Petra snorted. "Luck? You think you're lucky to run into me?"

"I'd call it that, yeah. Saves me the bother of actually having to look for you." He said with an offhand shrug.

"And what if I decided to...get you out of the way, to save me the bother of racing again tomorrow?" she asked with a suggestive glare. She wasn't actually planning on hurting him in any way, but he didn't need to know that.

To her surprise, his mouth twisted into a wry smile. "Well, I can't say I'd blame you. But then you'd never hear what I have to say."

"What makes you think I care about what you have to say?" she snapped.

Again, it was a few moments before he answered. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what he thought he was gaining by studying her the way he was. "Maybe you don't. But..."

He sighed and glanced down at the floor, shifting his weight. "I know you're not happy with me. I've noticed that you don't like me much, and I'm sure the whole mess with the tie today didn't exactly assuage that."

She let out another noise of disapproval. He continued, apparently undeterred. "But I'm hoping that if we both take some time to talk- and I mean actually talk, not just me talking and you grumbling -we can find some kind of middle ground. I don't want you to think of me as an enemy."

Petra crossed her arms. "You really think that you can just talk me out of hating you?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"

"Do I what?" she returned, nonplussed.

"Hate me. Do you actually hate me?" Lukas asked calmly.

"Yes." Petra immediately snapped. He gave her an appraising sort of look.

"I'm being serious. Do you actually, really, hate everything about me?"

She paused, then shook her head. "No. I don't hate you. I hate that you're arrogant and you smug at me all the time, and I hate the people you spend time with. I hate how handsome and unruffled you are, and I really hate that because of you and your freaking bullet-dragon, I'm going to be scrounging for stupid jobs to get enough money to keep myself and Rhys going for who knows how long."

He replied to all of this with a brazen grin. "You think I'm handsome?"

She scowled at him, and clenched her fists as she fought down the urge to punch him. "That's not the point, you trick. Did I or did I not just say that I highly disliked your attractiveness?"

"Yes, but you noticed." Lukas commented, still with that same smile. Petra made an exasperated gesture with her right hand.

"Yeah, you're good-looking! And you know that you are, which makes you twice as insufferable! How are you so entirely missing what I'm trying to say here?"

The grin shrank into something more tolerable. "I'm not missing it. I'm just..."

"Reveling in the glory of how dreefing obnoxious you are?" Petra snarked.

He shook his head slowly, still smiling at her. "Forgive me, but am I not allowed to enjoy the fact that a beautiful woman just called me handsome?"

"IT WASN'T A- oh, you know what, I'm not even gonna." She started to shout, then collected herself, stubbornly crossing her arms again. "What do you want from me, Lukas? And I swear to god, if you don't give me an actual answer this time, you might lose some blood."

He exhaled and straightened his stance, planting his feet firmly on the ground instead of casually leaning as he had earlier. "I want to talk, honest. A simple conversation, and nothing more. I just want to understand your motives, where you're coming from, and I want to at least try to make you understand me too."

She glared. "Where I'm coming from? Where is this coming from? Since when are you even remotely interested in me or my motivations?"

Lukas tipped his head to the side, giving her a thoughtful sort of half-frown. "I've been interested in you for a long time, Petra. I haven't tried to talk to you much since I'm so afraid of stirring up drama, but I figure that now, with all the mess from our tie today, there isn't much more tea to be spilt. I just. Want. To talk."

"We're talking right now. Is this not good enough for you?" she muttered. He gave her an I'm-being-serious sort of look, and she sighed, dropping her arms by her sides. "Fine, okay. Talking. Serious adult conversation with someone I've never gotten along with. Fantastic."

"Fantastic!" Lukas echoed, smiling again. He stepped forward and she moved back, ready to literally shove him into the ground if he tried anything. But he wasn't paying any attention to her. He swiftly undid the complicated latch that locked the silver dragon's stall, reaching for the blackrope bridle hanging next to the door.

"Wait. What are you doing?" she inquired.

He looped the leadrope over the dragon's neck, holding up the bridle for the beautiful silver beast to slide its nose into. "Getting Kicidian. Come on, you can't have heavy conversations in a dragon stable. The walls have ears."

Petra glanced back at where her own dragon was most likely already asleep. "We can't go flying, I don't wanna wake Rhys up. She needs her rest, what with our big race tomorrow."

Lukas shrugged, already leading his dragon out of the stall. "So we'll both ride Kicidian. He's strong enough. Trust me, it's plenty safe. He and I are experts at flying at night." he assured her, misinterpreting the unenthusiastic look on her face.

She trailed behind as the silver dragon followed him out of the stable. She really didn't know what to do here. He didn't seem to have malicious intentions, but why should she trust him? They didn't exactly have many positive points in their past.

But on the other hand, what did she have to lose?

Most girls would probably have second thoughts about getting onto a dragon with a relative stranger whom they had a fairly bad history with, but Petra wasn't most girls. She knew she could handle him if he tried anything suspicious, and she was interested in his cryptic words despite her original protests.

Lukas was already sitting bareback on Kicidian when she emerged from the stable. He stretched out a hand to her. "Come on. Just a quick flight, and a brief talk, and then you can go back to not-actually-hating me in peace."

His words weren't overly comforting, but something about his earnest voice and calm eyes drew her in nonetheless.

She let out another small sigh and grabbed his hand, pulling herself upbehind him. "Where are we headed?"