They landed on the island and the play fighting of Mezu, and the two hatchlings stopped.

Mezu ran to my side and the two hatchlings ran to the dragons.

They were still in their humanoid forms and the two new dragons shifted forms into what seemed closer to elves than humans, but their eyes were still similar to their dragon forms.

“I’m surprised that there was someone able to play with them so well.” A female voice said, “Thank you for playing with these young ones, they had become quite the handful.”

I heard a ding and behind their heads the banner appeared announcing the floor’s completion and a countdown had started.

I stood up and smiled signing “It was no problem, I had fun.”

The male dragon laughed heartily, “what an interesting human, I think they will look forward to seeing you again.”

I didn’t understand why he spoke so surely of the idea we would meet again but I was teleported from the volcano.

I appeared in the grass outside of the house and the others had just arrived.

“Brick!”

Shezhyo tackled me squeezing me tightly. Despite her weight on me I felt a weight lift off of me. I had returned uninjured. I managed it. The slight ache that had always been in my throat seemed to dissipate a bit more.

When she let go and sat up, she checked me all over.

“I’m alright, I just made some friends with Fluffy” I signed.

“What happened to your shirt? And your weapons?” she signed hurriedly.

“Dodger get off of him. How is he supposed to answer you like that?” Kahzhaw asked.

She climbed off of me and I was able to sit up.

“Let’s go eat!” Lefty cheered running off.

"So, what happened to them?” she signed.

“Some fire got my shirt, and some lava got my weapons.”

It was a shame that they were gone, but we had a decent stockpile for me to get new ones from.

“You were in the volcano?!” she shouted.

I nodded.

It was Kahzhaw’s turn, he pushed Dodger aside and checked me all over.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

I put my finger under his chin and lifted his face so he could see me nod. Kahzhaw’s face turned completely red, and he got off of me quickly. My heart thumped in my chest.

“Good well we should hear everything over dinner,” he half sprinted to the door.

Dodger laughed loudly and signed, “mom was so red!”

Why did he blush like that?

She stood up “I’m going to go hit some dummies, I didn’t get to do anything that floor. Quartz, you better meet me downstairs once you stop bleeding.”

She headed inside as well.

I looked around and saw Mezu chomping on Quartz’s arm.

Quartz looked like he was distracted by something next to him as he wrapped up his open wound. I looked around but didn’t see anything. I thought I heard him mutter something, but I wasn’t sure. When he finished his messy wrap, he looked over at me.

“Uh, did anything weird happen, well other than you being alone in a volcano.”

Yeah, the lava manipulation would count as something weird.

I nodded and signed “explain later.”

It was something new we decided to teach since sometimes I wanted to say more than they would understand. Though I was surprised at how quickly Quartz seemed to be picking up a lot of my signs. He still wasn’t as fast as Kahzhaw who could now converse with me quite a bit with signs alone.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Okay, I hope Mezu behaved well.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Good. I’m going to go get some sparing in before dinner.”

He headed inside and Mezu came over to me grinning while sucking on the end of Quartz’s arm.

I smiled softly back and pet his head.

I wonder what that dragon meant by seeing them again. But if they did, I’m sure Mezu would be happy about it.

I went carried Mezu inside to wait for dinner. It probably would’ve been good to take a bath but with Quartz not having an arm I’d have to wash Mezu, and I don’t think he’d want to speed up his own meal just to wash himself.

Only Dot and Lefty were in the kitchen, of course, as the rest of us knew nothing about cooking.

“You should shower before eating.” Kahzhaw’s voice came from behind me, and I turned to look.

I pointed at Mezu who was only halfway done with the arm.

“You can get started I’ll bring him up when he’s done.”

I nodded in thanks, passing him over to him and left the kitchen. I had fully washed myself by the time Kahzhaw brought Mezu in.

He didn’t look happy about it, but Mezu sat still while I helped him get washed.

When done I dried us off and got dressed. I took him down and Kahzhaw took Mezu, drying his hair with magic before taking his time braiding his hair up and out of the way.

We sat in the kitchen and heard Shymgyen shout “If you don’t wash yourselves you can’t eat!”

It was followed by the footsteps of what I assumed was Quartz and awzhyo. Then Shymgyen came into the kitchen.

She got the table set before sitting in her seat next to Kahzhaw.

“I hope yours was more entertaining than ours.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Good, we’ll share ours first then, since it’ll be quick.”

When dinner was ready, Quartz and Shezhyo came down from the baths, both of their hair was still wet. Kahzhaw threw a gust of air at them as they entered throwing all the water off.

They both helped bring the food to the table and we started eating.

“It was so utterly annoying, what kind of challenge is it to tell us to deal with politics and then the floor was cleared, and we hadn’t gotten anywhere.”

I looked at Kahzhaw confused.

“We were sent to a kingdom and were tasked with trying to get the people to evacuate. But it wasn’t more than trying to stop the arguing between nobles who had two completely different and irreconcilable opinions on what to do. Neither of them budged an inch and it felt like they weren’t even listening to a word we said. By the time we even managed to get one noble on our side we were teleported.”

No wonder Shezhyo and Quartz were so bored. Neither of them was good with words. And neither of them particularly enjoyed talking to people anyway.

“So please tell us why the floor was cleared.”

I recounted my side of things and told them about the lava. Out of the corner of my eye while Shezhyo was finishing my last sentence I saw Quartz swat at the air next to him looking slightly annoyed before continuing to eat.

“I’ve never heard of someone able to manipulate lava before, you’ve got to show me later!” Dot seemed particularly interested.

“I’ve only ever heard of mixed elemental-kin being able to do that. But you’re human…” Shymgyen said.

“Mixed elemental kin?” I signed.

“Yes, Elemental-kin are restricted to one element however there are examples of them intermixing. I’ve heard that there are those who can manipulate lava, mud, ice, and something they called scorch but not any of the individual elements. However, I’ve never heard nor read about it being possible for a human to do.” Kahzhaw explained eagerly.

“Is it the same for you? You can’t do the other elements. It’s simply lava?”

I nodded.

“That’s very interesting. I wish we were on the library floor, I’m sure we would’ve been able to look for something about it. I mean when we mix mana its more about doing different things with each element in order to increase the effect of another. It is not about using them intermixed. So, you being able to manipulate lava, which is essentially melted rock is so interesting. I’m very interested in the possible applications.”

“I was wondering about if you could feel the differences between the mana you have. Like the mana you can manipulate versus the mana you can’t?”

Shezhyo was too intent on eating that she didn’t translate.

“Yes, and each time I learned a new time I felt the weight of the unknown mana lessen. But it’s still there. Since you can only manipulate lava, can you only feel the lava?”

I nodded “I can’t even do the physical augmentation manipulation anymore.”

“Interesting. The applications of lava alone are something to look into, I mean within the case of fighting-“

“Not just that, but do you know how useful it would be with crafting! If only I had some tools, I could actually get the right heat to melt some of the materials I’ve got stored with me for a rainy day!” Dot said eagerly.

“It’s not just that, but the fact that we can actually train together we’ll have to develop a whole new fighting method for you. Dot is much more proficient in earth manipulation, so we’ll have to work together.”

“Us? What do you mean? You think your knowledge of fire would even be useful?”

“They’re the founding elements of course they’d be useful. But given its liquid qualities I was thinking more about water manipulation.”

They continued arguing, and as much as I knew, Dot and Kahzhaw knew infinitely more. I couldn’t keep up with their conversation. But I enjoyed listening to it.

Aside from the gift I seem to have been given. There was something about the fact that I was the only one that was separated from the group.

Why was it just me? Was it only this floor?

The question was answered when we started floor thirty-four the next day.

This time it was everyone but Shezhyo and Mezu.

I heard Quartz mutter “So it’s Brick’s turn now?”

I wasn’t able to question him about it at the moment. I always knew there was a lot he was hiding. After all that wasn’t the first time, I had caught him speaking to something that wasn’t there. The fact that Mezu seemed to look to the exact same spot on some occasions led me to believe that there was something there, and that he wasn’t talking to himself.

Aside from that there was a lot he was hiding, even about his past. The fact that Kayden got us to climb when he arrived was questionable. Quartz seemed to tell us things when they mattered. And I couldn’t fault someone hiding bits of themselves when me and Shezhyo were doing the same thing.

This separating of the party though, this was a separate issue and he seemed to be expecting it… I hoped he’d answer sooner than later.