Chapter 25-Zander

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We all ran towards the smoke. Althaea looked like she had been knocked over and was resting back on her elbows glancing up towards the sky. She was looking up at the sky with a mix of fear and shock on her face. In the sky, Scymitar was hovering with his eyes closed. He appeared to be freaking out. He was breathing blue fire and green acid everywhere.

Stor burst through the foliage of the oasis and when Scymitar tried to breathe fire again, it was cut off by an invisible barrier. I guess Stor must have made a protective bubble around Scymitar. The tiny dragon kept writhing about in the bubble, flapping his wings furiously. Enialis helped Althaea up. She was still staring at Scymitar with fear in her eyes.

The poor dragon was still panicking but he still had his eyes closed. What was wrong with him? We wouldn't be able to tell if it was a wodasheus attack unless we could see his eyes. But I doubt it would happen to a dragon. They have powerful minds. I mean for starters they just barge into peoples' heads to talk to them. They can control them too. To be fair, Scymitar is still a young dragon. And he'd probably be too lazy to fight it anyway.

He finally calmed down and opened his eyes. They were their normal orange-amber shade. Stor set him down very gently, the protective bubble dropping away. He looked around.

What's wrong? He frowned. If someone ate all of the food, I swear it wasn't me.

"What is it with you and food?" I said, shaking my head. "So you have no idea what just happened?"

Nope! I was dreaming about some delicious rabbit meat and someone took it from me. So I told them to give it back and they didn't. It was horrible! I tried and tried but they wouldn't give it back! He sobbed.

Althaea and Kathra exchanged a glance before they burst into fits of laughter. Stor and Enialis also started to chuckle. I finally joined in. We all guffawed at the tiny dragon's ridiculousness.

What happened?

We were all still laughing so hard that when Althaea tried to say something we just started laughing again. I bit my lip trying to hold back my laughs. My eyes connected with Kathra's. She was also trying very hard to calm down. But as soon as our eyes caught each other's, we burst out in laughter again.

Hey, wait! Scymitar said, turning to point accusingly at Enialis. You were the one that stole my rabbit from me! You were the one in my dream!

Enialis's eyes went wide as Scymitar pounced on him, his teeth bared. I caught him by the tail before he could sink his teeth in Enialis's leg.

Let me at him! Let me at him!

"For the love of the stars, Scymitar!" Kathra exclaimed. "What's gotten into you?"

He stole my rabbit!

"No, he didn't," Althaea said gently. "It must have just been a bad dream."

I could've sworn it was real!

"Maybe you should just have something to eat," I offered. "Who's making dinner?"

"I'll do it," Enialis said. "Althaea, care to help?"

He looked as if he expected her to say no.

"Sure."

He lit up immediately, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips. I sat down and Scymitar plopped down beside me with a forlorn look on his face as Althaea and Enialis went off to prepare supper. Kathra sat down across from me and stared out at the desert landscape. Stor went off alone into the light of the slowly setting suns, out into the evening and into the desert. I watched Kathra as she watched Stor leave.

"Did you know he was a ritskilionoso?" I asked. "You seem to have known him for a long time."

"He's my dad's best friend," she smiled. "I've known him forever. My sister and I consider him our Okur," her smile faltered and faded altogether. "I didn't know he was a ritskilionoso until my sister was taken by the abarif."

"Yeah?"

"I just thought I could trust him, you know?" she shook her head. "He was the only person I thought I could trust and he lied to me."

"Did he? Not to call you out but, did you ever ask him about his past? Did you ever question him about powers or how old he was?"

"Come to think of it, no. I just assumed he didn't have that exciting of a past. I mean he told us all kinds of stories but I never assumed he was actually there or alive. To me, he was just my uncle."

"How old is he anyway?"

"At least over 3000," she laughed. "I never thought about how old he might actually be!"

"He could be 10 000 years old for all you know!"

"Actually," Stor said coming back from the desert, "you were quite close. I am 10 819 years old."

I don't know if we were shocked more by his sudden appearance or his actual age, but Kathra and I were stunned to the point of speechlessness. She raised her eyebrows at me and gave me a look that said: "Ummmm, ok?" I just shrugged.

"Ok old man, no need to brag," I said.

"Yeah," Kathra joined in, "I get that we might seem young to you but we still have feelings."

We both burst out laughing. Stor just shook his head and sat down with us. We talked a little longer. Scymitar snapped out of his sort of trance, the smell of food perking him up. Althaea and Enialis appeared a few moments later with the rest of the aquatic bird meat from earlier and some freshly picked fruit. Scym devoured it quickly before asking for more and proceeding to scarf that down as well.

As the evening went on, Enialis built up a fire and lit it first shot. I had offered to help, but I just couldn't get the fire lit, much less coax a spark from the flint. Althaea turned in early, claiming to have a headache, Scymitar following her faithfully. Enialis stalked off wordlessly and Stor just straight up disappeared, leaving without a trace except for the sense of power receding with him. Kathra and I were the only ones left and we found ourselves laying on our backs in the sand, staring at the stars and sharing favourite stories and memories.

"You see that constellation there," she said, pointing at the sky.

"Yeah? The Pirate Captain, always pointing north with her sword tip?"

"That's the one. The story of Faen, the ritskilionoso captain of the pirates in the Frae Isles. It was Mei's favourite story."

"You must miss her a lot."

"I do and I don't, you know?" she said turning to me.

"Not really. My sister and I are, well, we were really close."

"Oh," she turned back to the sky. "Well, I feel like I have to miss her because she was my sister. But I don't want to miss her because I want my parents to pay more attention to me. It's really selfish, isn't it?"

"In a way, but, your sister was spoiled more than you right? You feel like you two should be treated equally."

"Yeah, my parents babied her for sure."

"And you want the same?"

"No I don't," she snapped, suddenly angry. She sat up and stalked off. I stood up and thought about going after her, but I didn't want to make her angrier than she already was with me.

"I'm sorry..." I sighed.

That came out wrong. I thought she wanted to be treated the same as her sister. But I guess I was wrong about that. She just wanted the same amount of attention.

"What are you doing Zander?" I asked myself out loud, shaking my head. "The first pretty girl you meet since you were 9 and you mess it all up after the second night!"

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