Heart Of Dragons

...9...

Back at our room the atmosphere was interesting. There was Joreid who was really happy and supportive towards me, congratulating me on not fearing others. Then there was Aerinmus who was pretty quite all the way back. And there was Hlif and Gnupa who still were in awe I could master something 'that amazing' in their words. But there was also Bolverk who was the first one to bombard one of his accusing questions at me, "Did you befriend it even before we went to the lesson???"

I think it pretty obvious who's jealous here.

"Even if I did, how would I do that? I was here all the time." I asked back.

"I don't know. Maybe you bribed our teacher?"

"Since I got here I was always in your sight." I looked at him not believing he actually is that stupid. "How is that even possible? Maybe you really don't have a brain after all."

"I- I..." He was frustrated "Maybe you did it before the ceremony!?"

"Quit it Bolverk!" Joreid told him. "You're just jealous because you weren't able to do that."

"That's not true!" his face was red from embarrassment. It's true - he had tried to do the same but failed miserably as he ran off the stage burning and searching for something to blow out the fire. It was a funny sight to see. Served him right.

"Girls!" Aerinmus raised his voice at us not having it at the moment. "Leave him alone."

I looked at him not happy with the fact that he is protecting Bolverk. "Again? Really?" I went out of the room not thinking. When I closed the door quite harshly I heard him ask others "What did I do?"

What did he do? How could you not know?

You're again defending your kind. That's what you did. Of course you couldn't have told Bolverk to stop accusing me. Noooo - you just had to do That.

"Skur!" I turned around and saw a panting Joreid catching her breath after running after me. "Wait for me. I'll come with you."

I turned back and continued my pace slower than before as a sign of waiting for her.

"Where are you going?" She asked curiously finally catching up with me.

"For a walk." I said obviously not in the mood to talk.

I was thinking of going to forest that was near the campus. I had the need to explore it because I am so found of them, plus it was a win since I was mad and desperately needed some time alone. I love outdoors, specially forests, just as much as I love dragons, so a walk with the fresh forest smell present might be exactly just what I need.

The rest of the walk between me and Joreid was silent. When we had reached the forest I felt my mind clearing of bad thoughts and relaxing. I didn't even try to hide the smile that was forming on my face.

Joreid took a deep breath. I looked at her and saw that she was trying her best to start talking. "Skur?" I hummed. "Why did you get mad at him?"

"Whats with the question?" I raised an eyebrow at her but at the same time didn't like the mention of what happened back there.

"I asked first."

"Okay, okay. You see... Aerinmus protects only Bolverk and Gnupa in our group. When we are making them uncomfortable, specially Bolverk since Gnupa doesn't annoy us, he takes the toll and makes us shut up. But when it's the other way around he doesn't even bat an eye. You were there yourself. He was there while Bolverk came with the questions. But he decided to step in only when we were starting to respond. And the fact that he did that only then made me mad. The same was at the class." I huffed, "At times he doesn't even acknowledge us as members of our team. To be honest I even think that he thinks that we lower the chances of winning." I sighed.

"You don't get it, Skur." She said to me softly. "He just doesn't know what to do about you. That's actually what I wanted to talk about."

"What do you mean?" I looked at her interested.

"It's just that..." she slowly whispered.

"Just what?"

"I have noticed that..."

"Noticed what?"

"Ummm..."

"Just tell me already, J!" I was getting impatient.

"J?"

"Don't go away from the topic." I looked her in the eye.

"Fine." She looked nervous. But why? She wanted to talk about it herself. "I have noticed that Aerinmus behaves differently around you.." 

She took my silence as a hint to continue. "Like he looks more nervous, he stutters at times, doesn't know what to do or say making him look like a total fool or in your case - pissing you off."

"What are you saying? I haven't noticed any of that."

"Really? It's really visible."

"Get to the point already. I don't get it."

"How? You're not joking?" She asked me as she didn't believe me.

"No, I'm not."

"I think that... he likes you."

All I was thinking at that moment was WHAT? And most importantly How the hell?