I dove quickly towards the source of the fire, feeling the heat wash over me as I descended. Fyrlia was encased in its light, turning her snow white scales to gold while her naturally golden horns gleamed even more radiantly than usual.

It was like the first time I had seen her all over again. Her beauty was just as astounding, and I could still feel the danger and power emanating from her, though now I knew why. She controlled her element with such ease — especially for a Beginner —, swirling the light she had harnessed above the fire in a circular motion. With each orbit it grew brighter and brighter until it was burning into my eye. Just as I was about to look away, the light erupted into hundreds of tiny sparks, all slowly drifting back to the flame they had came from.

She must be really close to becoming a Novice if she can manipulate that many different fragments without losing control.

Completing my descent, I touched down just outside the ring of light.

“That was impressive. Remind me to never make you upset.”

She jumped slightly and snapped her head toward me, as if startled by my presence.

“I didn’t realize you were here.”

“I just got back.”

We both stood staring at eachother in increasingly awkward silence until she finally spoke again.

“If you haven’t eaten yet there’s some extra over there.” She gestured with her tail toward a small cluster of shrubs, under which I assumed were the remains of some animal.

I nodded stiffly in thanks before making my way over. The distance felt painfully long even though it couldn’t have been more than two wing lengths away, likely because I could feel her gaze trained on my back as I walked past.

Even eating was uncomfortable, she kept sneaking glances at me while she was practicing with her element when she thought I couldn’t see her. In the short time it took me to finish my small meal she had looked over at least twenty times, maybe more when she was in my blind spot.

What is her problem? Did I do something wrong or am I just paranoid?

Walking closer, I settled down right on the edge of the outermost ring of light, ensuring both the dark and fire were close.

That’s probably another influence from my element, normally I’d sit closer.

The warmth of the fire was still able to reach me and I purred deep in my throat while I relaxed, finally content with food in my belly and no angry cats attacking me.

“What happened?”

I cracked open my eyelid and mumbled lazily, “What?”

“When you went hunting, what took you so long? What happened with Cryhn?”

Is that why she kept staring at me? All she had to do was ask.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position with a groan, my muscles sore from being pushed over earlier like a hatchling in the wind.

“There were no animals out there, not until I found a Falinthian panther which I was planning on turning into dinner.”

At Fyrlia’s shocked look I quickly elaborated, “Not intentionally, I didn’t realize it was a Falinthian yet.”

Her look faded and she nodded for me to go on, so I continued, “Her mate, a tiger, showed up and was probably about to rip my throat out until Cryhn got him off of me. He stayed behind to deal with the Falinthians and told me to come back here.”

“So you got beat up by a cat?” She chuckled heartily while I glared daggers at her.

“You try fighting two of them and see how it goes. Especially the tiger, it felt like I’d been squashed by a mountain when he had me pinned.”

“You’re well versed in combat, if you can beat dragons than two cats should have been easy. After all, you even beat me during the trial and no one’s ever beaten me before.”

I glowed internally at the praise. She was right, I had trained for years to become the best in combat and eventually had — even the instructors were frequently impressed by my performance — yet the second I encountered a real threat all my training had deserted me.

“I guess I’m just used to fighting dragons, not other creatures. It’s never life or death situations either, and I’ve always had two eyes. Maybe with some more practice I’ll be able to figure everything out.”

She frowned slightly at my response. “It can’t happen again, or else you might end up dead.”

I sighed defeatedly. “I know. I’ll work on it with Cryhn, he said he’d train me before we reached Estryai.”

“Well in that case, you should come practice your element with me.”

At my uncertain look she added, “You’ll have to practice at some point. Besides, you never know when it’ll come in handy. It might save you in a situation where normal combat isn’t enough.”

Misreading my uncertainty she said, “If you’re worried about not being able to summon it, then don’t. You did just fine in the Dwarves dungeon, and that was with much less fire available.”

“Well yeah, but I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

I was frantically rummaging through my brain for a good reason to dissuade her when Cryhn arrived, once more my saving grace.

Getting straight to the point, Cryhn announced, “They weren’t all to happy with you Rylar but they accepted your attack as an honest mistake and are willing to let us pass through.”

I scoffed. “Willing? They don’t have a choice.”

He gave me a severe glance, and I shrunk slightly under his gaze.

“They very much do have a choice. Their clan would take a heavy hit, but they could potentially take all three of us if they managed to ground us.”

“Clan? How many of them are there? I thought they were travelers and didn’t stick together anymore,” Fyrlia said.

“Recently, yes, Falinthians are constantly on the move, but it wasn’t always that way. They used to live in a singular clan until the war broke out among them and caused them to split off from each other. Then just families lived together, but more recently humans have been picking them off, so they’re mainly solitary now. These particular Falinthians have grown weary of the constant travel and have made this they’re territory. They’re making their stand here, and there’s at least forty from what I could garner.”

“Forty?”

Both Fyrlia and myself were shocked. Falinthians hadn’t been in a clan that large in over a hundred years.

“Yes. So, when first light comes, we are leaving. I do not wish to risk their wrath.”

We nodded in agreement, and, with the conversation concluded, Fyrlia promptly returned to her elemental practice.

No wonder why she’s so good, she’s probably been practicing for hours.

Spotting me watching her, Cryhn questioned, “Why don’t you practice as well?”

I shot him a wide eyed warning glance. My eye flicking from him to Fyrlia.

She doesn’t know! What in the world do you think you’re doing?

As if he had read my mind, which wouldn’t be to impressive of a feat —my rapidly oscillating eye was probably a dead giveaway to my thoughts —, Cryhn said, “She will find out at some point, it might as well be now.”

Now Fyrlia had turned to me, her interest likely having been piqued, leaving myself with no way out of my predicament. I shot Cryhn a nasty glare, or as nasty of one I could manage with one eye, and sighed in defeat.

Here goes…