Dragonfire: Celestia

Chapter 15: A Strange Encounter

Classes had just ended. Chichi-Chichi almost slept through them again, but he had barely managed to keep himself awake. He left the classroom to look for Kaede. To his surprise, she was right outside of his! “Yo! How’s it going?!” She asked, “Uh…good…” He answered, “You mentioned a friend who has a mom in the guard, right?! Let’s go to his house!” She exclaimed, smiling brightly, “Well…I’ll ask him to see if he lets us come over…we don’t wanna just show up unannounced.” He replied, “Oh…is that something people do?” She asked, “What do you mean?” He asked, “Asking to go to their house. People do that?” She asked, “Uh…yeah…” He answered, “Well, let’s go and see him!” She exclaimed! He nodded, and they began looking for him. “Is this girl inept, insane, or both?” He thought to himself. After a few minutes of searching, they found his friend outside. He had shorter spiked back brown hair, with brown eyes and lighter skin. He was a bit taller than both of them. Like everyone else, he wore the school uniform. He noticed them approaching, and looked between the two of them.

“Hey, what’s up Chichi?” He asked, “How’s it going, Ely?” Chichi-Chichi asked. Ely’s voice was medium pitched, with a relaxed tone to it. As they got closer, it became apparent that he was rather fit. He was in the athletics club, and exercised quite a bit accordingly. “So…I was wondering if we could come over to your house and hang out? You know…if it isn’t a bad time, of course.” Chichi-Chichi said, “Huh? Uh…sure. If you guys want to, I don’t have any plans anyway. But I think my mom is gonna be home today…” He responded, “Oh, that’s fine! She’s in the Celestial Guard, right? She must be busy all the time…” Chichi-Chichi said, “Oh, that was ages ago. She wanted to buy the barracks so she became a Guard to get in good with the Captain. She owns the building though. She’s usually busy managing her businesses, but she gets off early today.” Ely responded, “That’s fine! Can my friend Kaede here come along?” Chichi-Chichi asked, “Sure. Is that your girlfriend?” Ely asked, “No, no, she’s a really good friend though.” Chichi-Chichi answered. Ely nodded. Chichi-Chichi didn’t want to tell him that they just met yesterday, so he withheld that information.

Ely began leading them towards his house, and Chichi-Chichi leaned over to whisper to Kaede. “Sorry, I guess this is gonna be a bust…but we can try to ask her some stuff anyway…” He whispered. Kaede nodded. “She might be willing to share some information, especially since she isn’t a Guard anymore.” She whispered back. A short while later, they were at his house! He lived closeby, so it wasn’t too far of a walk. And it was quite the home he lived in. It was a huge mansion, with a giant fence around it. There was a large plaque with their House name on it. It read “House Dracos.” Kaede seemed nervous about the location. She wasn’t expecting it to be a mansion. Surprisingly, neither did Chichi-Chichi. They entered, and relaxed in the living room, sitting on a couch that felt like it costed a million gold. This couch was red, with two red chairs opposite it. There was a dark wooden table between them. The table sat low, which allowed those seated to easily grab things off it. There were bookshelves around the living room, filled with rare titles. It likely costed more for one of these books than Chichi-Chichi’s entire living room.

The floor was made of equally expensive brown tiling. It felt like they were walking on money, somehow. The walls and roof were painted white. But not just any white. The most expensive color of white that money could buy! Because some whites were more expensive…even though they all looked nearly identical. There were paintings of…”questionable quality” on the walls. Such as a painting that had three colors going down it, red, blue, and yellow. Each painting had a plaque engraved on the wall beneath it, detailing the information and price. Each one had an absurd price, with some being upwards of one million gold! The living room was right next to a mini kitchen, with only a bar separating the two. Oh…but surely you didn’t think it was an ordinary bar? No…nothing in this house was ordinary. This bar had a marble top that also had an absurd cost, with the latest and most expensive cooking products all throughout the kitchen. Both the kitchen and living room were massive. They were easily larger in their combined nature than some houses. There was a door between the kitchen and the living room, on the same side as the living room from the bar.