𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒

𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐬

If Isolde were asked to find a word to explain the relief she felt that night as she slept, she would have to tell them it was an impossible question for them to ask of her as she feared the correct word hadn't been invented yet. The dark, pluming clouds wisped around outside, and she couldn't care less about the slight ache in her neck as it was just that, a slight ache.

She was able to toss and turn to her hearts content, without feeling like her neck was going to rot right off of her. So instead of waking up due to the agonising pain, she woke up to the feeling of something solid hitting her forehead. Grumbling, Isolde opened her eyes just as Xaden was about to knock against her forehead once again, with his knuckles.

"Lovely to see how put together you are in the morning Aritia. The dried drool in the corner of your mouth is really doing something for me." She lifted her not-yet-injured arm and used it to shove him away, and then wipe off the drool she could feel drying up by her mouth. "Because you're such a picture when you wake up." Xaden smiled smugly back at her. "Never had any complaints from my previous overnight guests."

Suddenly, her arm had no pain in it at all as she attempted, rather futilely, to throw a punch at Xaden's arm. Annoyingly, he caught it with ease and placed it back down onto the bed gently. "Is that any way to treat your nurse?" Isolde just stared at him as she pulled the bed sheets up and around her upper body, making sure to leave her wound on display so that he was able to get to work.

"What time do we having flying lessons?" Xaden asked her as he started to clean up her injury. "Seven o'clock. You nervous?" He shook his head before peeling off the stickers attached to her self-adhesive bandage. "Are you?" Isolde nodded. "Have you seen the size of Tairn? How am I supposed to stay on him for hours at a time?" Xaden's shoulders shook slightly as a laugh fell out of him. "I suppose there is only one way to find out."

***

"I've never done this before aside from last night, but I believe that communication is useful." Isolde more or less screamed at Tairn. "You have received your instruction. All you are required to do is hold on and you shall be fine." It seemed that everybody wished to dance on her nerves recently. "It would be an easy instruction to follow if you didn't insist on making the task harder. Everyone else is doing simple straight flight so why on earth are you adding rolls?" Tairn flipped over once again, making her hold on even tighter.

"Why should I not challenge your progression? Are you only capable of simple flight? I do not pick useless riders to bond. Do not insult me by making such assumptions." A scream tore out into the air in front of them; Isolde just about managed to make out the sight of Talia, a blonde girl from Fourth Wing's third section, before she fell from view, her dragon making no effort to chase after her.

"Gleann always choses poorly. He will bond again next year and the cadet will di; it seems to be a yearly cycle that he never learns from." Tairn grumbled out before going down into a steep dive. This time Isolde could hear him chortle in her mind as she realised that the spiel about furthering her progression may actually have just been a ploy for him to wind her up, which he was successfully doing.