Efron averted his green eyes again, this time with guilt. “Sorry… I didn't mean to yell. But like you said earlier, bigger dragon types like us might prey on smaller ones like you, and while my grandpa is nice, he isn’t one to turn down easy bait.”
Gretel tensed, the wind hatchling suddenly aware of how tiny she was since she would have been used to lure in actual prey instead of being eaten herself. Then she got an idea and bounced to her paws excitedly. “Wait! What if I cooperated with you?”
“With… what? A new game?”
“No, silly,” she giggled. “What if I can be used as live bait?”
The juvenile revealer stared at her, eyes and mouth wide open with horror. “What–I mean, why would you even–”
“Why not?” she asked, puzzled. “I’m fast enough to outrun any predator, especially if they can’t fly after me, so I can lure them to you without the need to trap them with reveals! Everyone wins, that way!” Gretel gave another bounce, while the biped just stared at her, dumbfounded.
The violet yearling firmly shook his head. “Like I said, I’m too young to even hunt big prey right now. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt if a predator does catch you, anyway.”
“You’re little, but your grandpa isn’t,” she pointed out. “If I can just tell him I’m there to help him get prey, then he won't need to prey on me, so I’m sure he’ll let me stay and chat about your new cousin for you–”
“My grandpa isn’t the problem…!”
“Huh? But he’s the eldest! Doesn’t that make him the leader? If he’s as nice as you say, there’s no reason why he wouldn’t let me in if I can help–”
“He is nice–but that's part of the problem!” he cried, as if desperate for her trust that he knew better.
“Uhhh… How is being nice a problem…?”
“He’d rather send me off than correct his daughter! Doesn’t that say enough?!” Efron spat as his emotions boiled over, but his anger wasn’t directed toward Gretel. “Everyone saw how Mom treated me, but nobody dared to stop her. She–” He was starting to hyperventilate again.
The hatchling shrank. “I’m sorry, I was just trying to help… I promise you I won’t go, okay?”
Efron hesitated to give her an apologetic glance, but was visibly shaken. He tightly shut his eyes and the gemstone shone for just a second, but unlike before, it was dim and immediately faded. The young revealer panicked even more when it obviously didn’t work, then as a last resort, he turned his back to his friend and ran.
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“Efron?! Wait!” Gretel chased him on foot, not even needing to fly to catch up to the slower dragon type.
His ears pinned back as he heard her coming, and with no other option to gain speed, he then spread his wings and leapt, flapping them in a vain attempt at flying away. His small blue wings managed to let him hover for just two seconds before he crash-landed on the ground with an audible thud, where he helplessly curled up in a trembling heap.
Gretel reached him but was distracted by the light of his gemstones as they repeatedly dimmed yet he continued his futile attempts at drawing from them. They must be depleted, she figured. And his body must be out of energy to use conceals without it, too. Just how much has he been using this ability without help from the gemstones? If he doesn’t draw from them, I have no way of knowing when he’s using it, either… Why? Why is he so desperate not to feel certain emotions?
She didn’t have time to dwell on it. Instead she crouched beside her friend and stirred the existing air around them into a gentle embrace. Efron opened his eyes to see what it was, confused now on top of everything, but took a breath and relaxed slightly despite still clearly being in distress. After what felt like an eternity of them lying together in peaceful silence aside from the controlled breeze, he managed to calm down.
Gretel would have been relieved if her friend didn’t immediately seem overcome with regret. “You okay…?” she finally spoke.
He opened his mouth to answer, but all that came from it at first was a shaky breath. “Y-Yeah… I just… I mean…” Efron breathed again to compose himself enough to say, “I’m sorry… Are you okay? Again, I shouldn’t have yelled…”
She blinked, utterly perplexed by the contrition in his voice. Anyone would yell if they were upset like that! I could tell I wasn’t the one he was upset with, so why apologize? “Don’t worry about yelling around me! I’m a wind dragon; we communicate by yelling to hear each other–and even just to express ourselves if we’re too emotional to keep quiet!” she assured him with a laugh, adding, “Just like singing!”
With some effort, the juvenile revealer sat up, but didn’t meet her gaze, still clearly ashamed. He got that faraway look in his eyes again, but Gretel wasn’t sure if his ‘daydreams’ were a good thing after the last time he had panicked. Without thinking, she instinctively tried to snap him out of it.
“Efron?” she called, but he didn’t seem to hear her. “Efron!” she said again, a bit louder.
He started, coming to. “Huh?”
“What are you daydreaming about?”
The older dragon blinked, genuinely lost. “What?”
“What do you think about when you look like that?”
“Look like… what…?” Then he seemed to catch on, and winced. “I don’t know. I wasn’t really thinking about anything… I just…” He shook his head and looked away with that same remorse as he hugged his knees and folded his wings around the front of them; his Z-shaped tail unfurled to wrap around his clawed feet. In this pose, the bipedal yearling was almost as small as the wind type hatchling.
“Why do you keep feeling guilty for everything? And why keep using conceals, especially if they drain you?” she asked, more confused by his reactions than anything. “I told you yelling isn’t a problem, and you weren’t even mad at me when you did that! You didn’t do anything to feel bad about.”
Efron finally faced her, shock overriding him. “...What?”
“I just don’t understand you sometimes,” she admitted as a matter of fact.
He wiped his eyes and snorted, almost with relief. “Sometimes, I don’t understand myself, either,” he laughed half-heartedly.