Air Kingdom

Chapter 29-Andra

When the all the natural sunlight disappeared, Serena and I headed down before the darkness could disorder our bearings. She effortlessly flew down, as if she climbed the tree hundreds of times. I flew down, dodging branches just like her until a snowball hit my face.

It hit my eyes, making me slam into a branch that I was about to duck. I fell down the rest of the way, landing face-first into a pile of snow. I instantly lifted my head to glower at my group of friends, who were a few feet away, surrounding a blazing fire. I focused my glare at Ellia, who had an innocent mask on.

"Ellia..." I said, getting up from my pile of snow.

She shrugged, acting as if nothing was wrong. "What? It's not my fault you're blind."

I glared at her again as I stood up, patting the snow off of me. I walked over to the fire to warm myself up. The camp was already created and two large tents were up. Fortunately, Natalie had a spare tent with her, similar to the one Ellia had. I was still sharing with the wizards while all Seiro got stuck with girls in another tent. He didn't complain though, just like always. Rodas and Natalie had strangely insisted on both of them sleeping with me and that at least one of them should be on patrol with me.

I didn't go down without a fight. As expected, we spent almost an hour of bickering. They argued that as a princess, I should have protection at all times.

I responded that I was fine on my own and it doesn't have to be them. One of my actual friends could do it as well as them, like Seiro who was my actual bodyguard. Naturally, I was overruled and that's how I was sitting in a warm heated tent with two wizards, two hours later.

I took out my sleeping bag and necessities, setting up my area. A plain gray air mattress was beside me and a bright blue sleeping bag was on the other side. Natalie was already fast asleep, her tiny and gentle snores being made as soon as her head touched the pillow.

I wrapped my scarf around tighter and went out to face the extreme cold. It was already freezing during the day,  but at night, the temperature seemed to drop by multiple of intervals. I shivered as I trekked across the snow to join Rodas by the fire. He was constantly scanning our surroundings as if a Krey could pop up any moment.

We didn't talk much, and the only noises we heard were from our sleeping friends, or the crackles from the flames when I would shoot my Fire Arrow at it. Sick of the silence, I decided to strike up a conversation.

"What was your mother like?"

My question seemed to startle Rodas and he quickly regained his composure. I bet that he didn't talk about his mother much or people would ask him about it.

"My mother, or as most people call her, Andra, was one of the kindest and bravest people I ever knew," he said fondly, his eyes lighting up when he talked about her.

"She always put others her, even before she died." His eyes darken a bit at the mention of her death.

I decided to take a risk and ask the next question. "How did she die?"

Rodas didn't respond, and he stared off into the dark woods, his eyes not really focusing on anything. I thought the conversation was over and when I was about to change the topic, he responded.

"We had a fight that day. I had recently broken up with Natalie because of a personal reason I'd rather not get into," he said, taking a deep breath before he continued.

"I was considering getting back with Natalie after the countless apology letters she sent me. My mother was trying to convince me that she wasn't right for me and that she could only ever be a friend."