Dragon Rider

Chapter 19

Six weeks later, I am home, done with my two Internships, and I have four weeks before school starts back up. I want to take this time to think over my two Career choices, and I want to have my decision made by the end of the summer break.

"Larken, can I talk to you for a moment, please?" Laria requests while softly knocking on my partially opened bedroom door.

"Sure," I shrug, placing my sketching pencil down on the desk next to the sketch pad.

Laria enters the room, chewing on her lower lip, looking either nervous or worried over something. She sits down on the edge of my bed, her head bent down slightly, staring at the carpet in front of her for several seconds before looking up at me with watery eyes.

"Do you hate me for basically taking daddy's side when you were hurt during your Saber practice, and the system glitched?" she whispers, and a tear slips down her right cheek.

"No, Laria, I do not hate you," I reply, turning the desk chair to fully face her with a small frown. "Did that upset me? Yes, but we are over, and past the incident."

She silently nods with a sniffle; "Do you hate daddy?"

Staring at her in silence for a moment before replying; "No, I do not hate Afra, but I am still processing what was said to me when we came home on our first holiday from school this year."

"If you do not hate him, then why do you call him by his first name instead of dad?" she whispers, her tone sounds almost hurt.

Letting out a soft sigh, saying; "Laria, I understand if you are hurt by me calling him by his first name. Please try to understand where I am coming from in this situation. He is your biological father like papa is for you, but he is not mine, and he decided to throw that into my face when he thought I goofed on my Saber program. He has treated us differently, and I honestly thought this was because we are different genders. Not because he is not my biological father, too. He and I are mending our hurt, I promise."

"Okay," she murmurs with a tiny nod of her head, and she does not look fully convinced of my answer.

"Laria, please try to understand where I am coming from on this," I beg her, feeling almost exhausted by the conversation, and everything I have going on in my head at the moment. "We all need time to process all of this."

She silently nods before changing the topic which I appreciate; "What are you drawing?"

Picking up the sketch pad from the desk to show her the picture of Tiamet that I am working on currently.

"That is really good, Larken," she murmurs with a fond smile. "You are very good at drawing realistically."

"Thank you, I appreciate the praise," I murmur with pink tinted cheeks.

"Daddy and papa's wedding anniversary is soon," she says, and I wonder where she is going with this comment. "Have you thought of doing a drawing of them for their anniversary?"

I had not thought about doing that for them, I honestly was going to purchase a gift and dinner for them for that day.

"Thank you, Laria, I really like that idea," I reply with a small smile. "If you find me a picture you like of papa and Afra together, we can have the drawing be from the both of us."

"Really? You would really do that just because I suggested this?" she asks for clarification with a silly smile as if I am joking with her.

Nodding with a larger smile; "Yes, really."

"Sweet! I will have the picture to you by tonight," she cheers softly, bouncing in her seat. "Thanks, Larken!"
Softly laughing at this; "You are welcome, Laria."

"I am goon go find the picture now," she softly exclaims, rushing from the room before I can reply.

Shaking my head fondly at her excitement, I turn back to my drawing to finish this before starting the picture for our parent's anniversary.

"Son?" Afra tentatively questions a few hours later, knocking on my now open bedroom door as I finish the drawing of Tiamet.

"Yes?" I reply, looking over at him as I stand, stretching my arms over my head to rid myself of any stiff muscles from sitting in one spot for too long.

"Can we talk for a moment, please?" he asks, his tone softer than I have ever heard from him before.

"Sure," I nervously reply, several worse case scenarios rolling through my mind almost instantly.

Afra comes into the room to lean his right side of his body against the desk with his hands stuffed into his pockets as he studies my expression. He does this for several intense seconds before he decides to talk.

"I, uh, am curious if you are willing to start calling me dad again? No rush on this though, I am just curious," he tentatively asks with pink tinted cheeks.

Raising my left eyebrow at him; "Um, I am not sure, really. I am having a hard time calling you dad again at the moment, but I promise I am trying to work through this."