The Morphling's Gem

Chapter 7

Sunlight filtered through the silken tool curtains, washing Brielle's face with warm light. She grumbled, rolled over, and tucked the duvet up over her shoulders. A sharp knock sounded on the door. Brielle didn't budge.
Someone knocked again. She rolled over, and swung her legs out of bed.
Brielle crossed the room and opened the door. She immediately recognized Nick's flaming head of red hair standing before her.
  "Uh... Hi?" Brielle stammered.
  The boy fixed her with a stern look. "C'mon. Everyone's already down at the arena waiting." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room.
  "Nick! Wait! I haven't even changed yet!" Brielle called after him.
  He met her eyes and sighed. "Fine. You have two minutes."

  Brielle met Nick outside again, now that she was dressed and ready. He whooshed her down the hall quickly, passing several rooms along the way.
  Brielle noticed they had passed the library again, and also a large room that had tables and chairs, obviously a dining area. It wasn't long before sunlight blinded Brielle as she stepped out onto the training arena sands.
  When her eyes had adjusted, Brielle looked around. The arena seemed to be larger than it was yesterday, but now there were several other people in the space. A few were dragons, a few were humans. She spotted a an elegant looking dragon with scales the color of emeralds soaring above the arena. It swooped closer, until the dragon got close enough to see it had beautiful gems embellished along areas of its scales. Brielle watch the dragon land in front of them, turning its deep Aqua eyes upon Brielle. This dragon was definitely a beautiful specimen.
  Suddenly, the dragon shifted, and a girl with blonde- almost white- hair and  the bluest eyes Brielle had ever seen stood in front of her. "Hi!" She said, smiling a beautiful smile. "You must be Brielle! It's so nice to meet you!"
  The girl wrapped her in a warm hug. Brielle was a little startled, and she could tell Nick was a bit annoyed when he shoved the girl off of her.
  The girl stepped back, laughing a little. "Oh, sorry. I'm Fluer, by the way. You'll have to forgive me and my warm welcomes. Certain other idiots here don't believe in such a thing," she said heatedly, glaring at Nick.
  "N-nice to meet you, Fluer," Brielle said awkwardly. She examined the girl, noticing that Fluer was about her height and had a cute little round face that blushed often. Brielle also noticed that her name kept reminding her of a flower.
  From behind Brielle, Nick snorted. "Anyway, I see that Fluer's already greeted you. Thanks for that, Fluer." Nick grabbed Brielle's arm and led her towards the center of the arena.
  "She seems nice," Brielle noted.
  "Yeah, she just tries a little to hard to be nice." Nick let out an exasperated sigh.
  Brielle frowned at him. "Your not the happiest cloud in the sky, are you?"
  "Nope, it's just that everyone here except for Anna is too talkative," Nick said simply.
  "What power does Fluer have?" Brielle asked.
  " Fluer's a healer," he said. "She has healing abilities that allows her to cure any wound or sickness. It's very useful, actually. I guess that's the only thing I don't mind about her."
  Brielle rolled her eyes. "You dislike a lot of things about people, don't you?"
  Nick smirked. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

  Suddenly, a relatively small dragon with amethyst colored scales landed elegantly in front of them. She flared a ruff of blue-green tipped scales as she saw Brielle, and dipped her curled horns.
  Nick smiled as he saw the dragon. "Hey Anna." 
  The dragon had shifted, leaving the young girl with perfectly straight, shoulder length brown hair standing next to Nick. She didn't take her eyes off of Brielle. "Hello, Nick, Brielle."
  "So, um...." Brielle was always a bit awkward around Anna. She hasn't smiled once since Brielle met her, and spoke plainly. It made her uncomfortable.
  Nick cleared his throat and placed a hand on Brielle's shoulder. "Sorry to bother your training, Anna." He said to her. "Just introducing Brielle to the gang."
  Anna nodded, and swept off, again a dragon soaring in the sky. She opened her jaws and shot a beam of invisible energy at a target on the ground.     Amazingly, pillars of spiky crystal protruded from the ground, puncturing the target where she had aimed.       "Wow," Brielle breathed, one of the countless times she had said that since she had been here.
  She watched Nick's expression as he stared up at her. It was a mixture of awe, pride, and a hint of something else she couldn't detect...?
  Then suddenly it hit her. That missing expression was love.