Classy, Controlled Chaos - The STEAM Team Adventures

🦋 Metamorphosis [1/7] 🦋

Tia's POV:

Blast, swing, sweep.

Blast, swing, sweep.

Blast...

UGH.

It's not the same without Arthur by my side.

Everhallow training feels so wrong.

I'm demonstrating my skills in a sparring arena against other soldiers that I'm designated to fight alongside.

In the depths of the deep caves, miles below the surface, these soldiers were snakes and dragons conditioned for the dark, humid environment.

I could withstand the humidity, but the darkness was too difficult for me to adapt to.

Everywhere I turned on the field, I would either sprint straight into the wall or collapse against a stalagmite on the ground in front of me.

Arthur sent me a letter involving something about seeing if I could use echolocation, but even the thought of that hurts my brain.

Also, it's physically impossible for me to make new friends.

The most I can do is give them a grin to acknowledge them, which ends up looking like a menacing snarl.

Speaking of snarling, these dragon-serpent-whatever people don't have the muscles in their throats to let them roar.

Instead, they hiss at their opponents like a fuse on a stick of dynamite.

Scary to some, annoying to me.

Especially if you know that they're always gonna pull off the same moves.

The soldiers, which were a mass of snakes curled up on top of each other, slinked around the iced-over arena, eyeing me from the shadows.

Yeah, that's right. Think that there's something wrong with me.

Of course there's something wrong with me, I have an orca tail, for Heaven's sake.

Weeks have gone by without seeing Arthur, anyways. Hopefully I look menacing enough to drive them away.

Weeks spent rotting in this terrible, hole-of-an-excuse for a proper home.

I missed Northwynd's open grounds... I'm clearly not meant to be bound to a stone cage filled with winged lizards for the rest of my life.

Was this hell? Because it surely felt like it.

I threw myself across the ground, blasting a jet of frostbreath into the nearest stalagmite.

Stupid treaty.

Stupid royal snakes.

Stupid dragon kingdom.

As bratty as I sound, I'm just desperate to see someone familiar again... Even if it's Addison.

That book-loving sorcerer still hates me for being close to Arthur, even though she's always fawning over Marshall.

Hypocrite.

None of us bat an eye at her platonic relationship with him, but the moment I even fist bump my mentor, everyone goes nuts.

Whatever, I can sculpt the world the way I want it to look with sheer force and my bare hands.