Ancient Pasts - Tbate

Birthday

Tessia Eralith Pov

"Haaaaaaaaaa... " I let out an exaggerated sigh, looking out the window from my room. My hands were getting numb from leaning my head on it for so long, but I didn't want to move as I only grew more annoyed.

How dare he! Stupid Art! Finally willing myself to get up, I let out my pent-up frustration by kicking the wall. "Ouch!"

Stupid Art! My pain is his fault too! Cradling my aching foot, I wiped the tears that had welled up in my eyes, unsure of whether it was from the pain of my foot or my loneliness.

I had just gotten back from Grandma Rinia's home. It was hard, but I was finally able to guilt-trip her into letting me spy—I mean, make sure that Art was doing okay. I should be happy that he's with his family and everything. But doesn't he miss me?

He looked too happy! And who's that girl? Wasn't Art acting a little too nice to her? That cunning girl even got Art to teach her how to manipulate mana! He never taught me! That Arthur, when I get my hands on him, I'm going to give him a piece of my haa. Who am I kidding? I only want to see him.

It'd been a few months since he had left after getting so used to seeing him every day. Those months had felt like years.

"Maybe I should've treated him more nicely while he was here," I muttered aloud.

I couldn't help but cringe, remembering all of the times I had physically abused him, just as an excuse to touch him. But that wasn't my fault! It's his fault for being such a thick-headed idiot!

Mama and Papa were quite proud that Feyrith, the noble brat who messed with Art, and his sister were able to place in the top five during the trial competition they had with the humans, but I couldn't care less. It was just a show to boast our strength to the humans and dwarves anyway.

Grandpa had mentioned. That the actual Continental Tournament—which was what the humans decided to call it—would happen every five years from now on. Did that mean I would have to wait five years to see Art? Five whole years?

"Uuu..." It sucked. The only thing that kept my mind off of Art was training.

My goal was to become stronger than Arthur. The next time we meet. I wanted to surprise him with how much I'd grown. Maybe then he'd see me in a different light, stupid Arthur. I repeated. He always treated me like a kid.

I held up the water-filled orb that Granny Rinia gave to me as a present. She was able to capture a scene and integrate it inside of the crystal. So it would constantly show an image of Arthur's face.

"Dummy!" I cursed at the bubble, poking the sphere where the image of Arthur's cheek was.

Suddenly, the door flung open. "Young one, I have good—"

"Grandpa! What did I say about knocking?!" I squealed, quickly trying to hide the orb behind me. However, by the sly grin on his face, I knew that he had already noticed.

"I see you're using that orb well," he snickered as his stern expression was replaced by that of a wily fox.

"Stupid Grandpa!" I reached for my pillow nearby and flung it at him before he could see how red my face had turned.

"Don't mind, don't mind! I would rather enjoy having Arthur as my grandson-in-law, anyhow! But isn't it a little too early for that now? You only kissed him a few months ago." He roared out in laughter as he continued teasing me.

Whipping my head away from Grandpa, I did my best to hide my embarrassment, unable to let out anything other than a frustrated grumble in response to his ridicule.