Midnight Dawn: Guiding Light

Chapter 5

"I can't believe you fell for that!" Ayri cried as the two of them set off. Jasper would have been upset, but the sound of his new-found travel partner laughing was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. It was a good thing for Jasper that there were currently no obstacles in their path because it was impossible to look away from the man next to him.

Jasper noted the wrinkles around Ayri's eyes as they closed in between bouts of laughter and breathing. The scrunch of the redhead's nose highlighted his freckles.

Cute, Jasper thought. In that moment, Ayri no longer felt like a threatening mystery. Jasper felt a smile pull at the corner of his lips as he quickly realized that he had never been so happy to find out he was wrong. If Red Dragons had really been a thing of legend, then this intriguing man beside him would never exist.

Ayri caught his breath as he noticed Jasper staring.

"I didn't mean to scare you. I was just messing around."

"You didn't scare me," Jasper found himself responding immediately. Ayri felt the breath leave his lungs at the sheer confidence of the once-bumbling knight. Jasper had been staring, but apparently it had not been out of fear. The fact in and of itself could not make sense to Ayri. He was a dragon, a creature born to send a chill into his enemies' hearts. Or so he had been told by any other human he had ever encountered.

"I just," Ayri chuckled as he tried his best to hide the flush that was quickly spreading from his cheeks to his ears, "I haven't laughed like that in my entire life."

"Is being dramatic a Red Dragon trait?" Jasper asked.

"What?" Ayri scoffed. "Are you asking this seriously?"

Jasper nodded without taking his eyes off of Ayri.

"You haven't ever laughed with that much joy before? Your laughter..." Jasper finally looked in the direction they were walking, away from Ayri and down at the ground. A sudden shyness stopped him from meeting the dazzling amber. "Your laughter is lovely."

Ayri stopped walking and examined Jasper's face in an attempt to search for any hint of ulterior motives. There was a gentle innocence looking back at Ayri through soft, sparkling blues.

"Lovely, huh? That's a new one." The burning sensation on Ayri's face was not going away.

"What do you mean?" Jasper tilted his head, and stray strands of black fell into his face. Ayri shrugged and sighed.

"I've never been called 'lovely' before. And I was being serious when I said I have never laughed so hard in my twenty-one years of life."

"Well, that's a shame."

"What?"

"That you've never been called lovely before."

Ayri took a step toward Jasper, a man who was becoming increasingly more of an enigma than he previously thought upon first meeting him. He tilted his head off to the side and leaned closer to Jasper, this time in far more curiosity than intimidation.

Rather than lean away like he had done before, Jasper stayed put and let Ayri get closer. Jasper's breath hitched as he felt the shimmering amber eyes pierce his soul.

Just then, Ayri heard a rustling sound coming from the treeline to their left. Judging by the lack of movement near them, Ayri had a feeling whoever or whatever was following them was still quite a distance away. Jasper did not seem bothered in the slightest, but that made sense to Ayri. There was no way Jasper's human ears would be able to pick up on the sounds that were a great distance away.

"Wait here," Ayri said suddenly. Before Jasper could say anything, Ayri went sprinting through the lush forest that bordered the path they were taking. Jasper blinked a few times in disbelief, more at the sheer speed in which Ayri took off running.