My first week at Fafnir is already coming to an end, one week down and eighteen weeks to go. Saxon almost died because he decided to poke the bear, the bear being Lyle. I feel my skin getting warmer and turning more red than pink, I probably received a sunburn while we were training outside; my cheeks are slightly tender. Flopping down on my bed with a wince, I sighed looking to the right and out the window. I really don't want to be here, I miss my kingdom; the falling snow from the cloudy sky, white foxes pouncing in the snow fields. My mother and Knox. What if I fail? Or what if I succeed? What power will I have? What if…what if Lyle succeeds? I never even thought about the possibility of him succeeding, I've only been worried about him dying or showing the Royals that he can't be one of us. And I hate that.
Lyle sat down at my desk looking over at me, "Why do you spare him? He mocks you."
Taking in a deep breath I released it slowly, steadying myself, "I know, and to be honest I don't know why I want him to live. Maybe it's because it's the first day, or maybe it's because I am too good of a person to let him die like that."
He nodded slowly and straightened his back, "He would've let someone kill you, but I respect your wish. I'm not happy about it seeing as I could've gotten rid of him today and made one less person get a prize but you said no. So it's a no."
What? That's ridiculous, "All because I said no? That's absurd," I sat up and looked at him. Undoing my braid and letting my curls fall to my shoulders and down my back.
His eyes trailed to my falling locks, "Not absurd, I see you as my lifeline and I need to follow you. For now."
"I am not your lifeline. You are a grown man who can kill anyone as you please, and yet you follow my word because I am in your Court? Doubtful." I didn't necessarily believe him, but deep down there is some part of me that does. I am the only one here that doesn't want to kill him nor am I trying to jump his bones to see what he's like. Cue Addison.
Lyle rolled his eyes and sat up taking one long stride towards me towering over me, "Blake, I need you to listen. I am in your Court. I am…yours to tell what to do. I follow you, but like I said, only for now."
He is mine? That seems a little far fetched if you ask me, "So, why don't we make an alliance? You protect me and I protect you. I mean, we are in the same Court. It only makes sense."
He shook his head and kneeled down to my level grabbing my hand, sending tingles up my arm, "I need more."
"Alright, fine. If you protect me and follow my word…then you can stay."
"Stay? No, I need more," he smirked. God, how much more does this man need? I'm already making a deal to let him stay in my Court, and I'm not even the Queen. Jeez, man.
Rolling my eyes playfully I shifted, "Okay. If you do what I say, protect me, and stay…" I have only one more option and I really can't believe I'm about to say this, "I'll let you marry me." The words fall out of my mouth faster than a dragon will burst you into flames.
His eyes widened with surprise at my statement, "You'll let me marry you?" He released my hand and pointed to himself. Lord have mercy.
Taking my hand back I wiped it down my pants and shrugged, "I mean, why not? No one will expect it. It could even be a way to reunite our Kingdoms?" I highly doubt this will, but hey it's worth a shot.
Lyle stood up outstretching his hand, "Alright. Deal." He grabs my hand, more tingles flow from my palms and up my arm, then we shake on it.
What have I done? I just signed my life away to a man. Not just a man, but a Human man at that. Oh my mother would kill me. She didn't say to do this. Nor did she say to not do it. I'm probably the worst daughter right now. I already didn't want to come to Fafnir and to not get a dragon because of what my father did, and now I gave my life away to a Human. Oh my Welun. I'm screwed.
"Well, get out then. I have to shower, and so do you. You stink." Getting up from the bed I push him by the shoulders out of my door. He stops on the outside with a roll of his eyes.
Lyle laughed, a deep sounding laugh that came from within his chest and made my heart warm. Strange. His laugh makes my heart warm, when he stares at me from across the room I feel tingles across my neck or my back. His touch sends a tingle, a spark up my spine that settles happily in my mind. He backed away and went for his door, turning the door handle, "I'll see you later, Princess."
"Doubt it, Lyle." He opened the door to his room and stepped inside, shutting the door. What the fuck was all of that? Was he flirting with me? Was I flirting back? Falling back to my bed my hands fly to my face and I rub it harshly with a groan. What the fuck did I do?
Trying to suppress a yawn early in the morning is not the best idea, neither was getting out of the bed, half asleep to get dressed in another pair of leathers. I yelp, flying down to the floor with a thud. Damn. Shrugging the rest of the leathers over my hips I tie them and sit on the vanity by the bed. My crazy curls were in full on psycho mode, lovely. Rolling my eyes I grab the oil my mother uses for it, and I run my fingers through my hair; my fingers getting caught along the way. Learning to do my hair while I am here is going to be the highlight of my time away from home. Braiding my hair into two sections, on the left and right side of my head, I smile at how it looks. Still kind of crazy, but tame. A knock sounded at the door and I knew that was Lyle. He opened the door and waltzed inside, "So, I was thinking about last night."
"Okay?" Where is he going with this?
"What if…" he paused. His eyes boring into mine, "What if we faked dated?"
I turn around quickly, surveying his face. Oh, he was serious, "Fake date? I don't know…could be suspicious, right?"
He kneeled down to me and grabbed my hands. Tingles, "No, it wouldn't be. Then, whenever we get our dragons and we make a nice home in our Court, whenever we get married it would make sense."
Our Court? Although he, unfortunately, does have a point. It would be weird if we got married and didn't have a past from before. But, how does this benefit me? This arrangement only benefits him, "How would this benefit me? This arrangement helps you more than anything."
He clicks his tongue and waggles his finger at me, "True. What do you want?"
What do I want? Hell, I don't even know what I want. What would help me? I'm not really in danger or anything. My Court strives on information and secrets, but how does this arrangement give me anything? Wait…I just said the answer I needed; information. The war, the Humans knowing dragons, and even more. The humans have to have a library or something with books on what happened, "I want the information your kingdom has."
"Information?" his face contorts with confusion, and he is possibly thinking that I'm crazy for just wanting information for letting him marry me. But, I could possibly be labeled as a traitor and outcasted to the Human kingdom or even kicked out of our land completely.
"Yes. I want the knowledge Humans have, everything you have at your Kingdom." The words fall from me before I can even catch up.
He stays silent. I count the seconds until he agrees, one…Two…Three… "Deal."
I smiled getting up and grabbing his hand, "Well, then we need to look the part, huh? Let's go to magic training."
He groaned rolling his eyes, "You're going to be insufferable aren't you, Princess?"
Shaking my head I tugged him along, "Absolutely not, but what's a fake date without roleplaying?"
"Something that's possibly more enjoyable."
Stopping in my tracks, I sigh heavily, "Lyle?"
"Yes, Princess?" His steps faltered beside me, and he turned his head towards me.
"You brought up this arrangement. I need you to act the part," I want what he has. It could change everything, or it could confirm what my people did hundreds of years ago.
He looked down at me. After a few seconds his lips upturned into a smirk, "Is what I'm picturing not enjoyable and acting the part?"
I raised my hands and swatted his shoulder, "You're insufferable."
We walked our way to our magic training in the field and surprisingly we were the first ones there. Big boulders sat in a half circle in the field, and Lyle and I stood behind one for each of us. The Professor stood still with his arms crossed looking out to the floating island above us. Its dangling vines were just a touch too high to jump up and grab. Maybe if you had a botanical skill you could make those grow and easily grab one, letting it lift you to the next island.
The Professor squints at me, his eyes hold nothing but suspiciousness, "Hello, Blake. Happier today?"
"Depends on the topic of discussion for today," I said curtly.
The Professor's white hair shines from the sun that's high in the sky bouncing off of his head, "Like I said yesterday, you have to control your temper or it will get the best of you." His words seethe through his teeth.
Lyle's muscles tense next to me, but I squeeze his hand, hoping to reassure him, "I'm sure I can manage, thank you Professor."
The rest of our gang starts to arrive. Someone is missing. Wait, two are missing. I look around and I finally noticed, it's Quincy and Addison, "I'm sure you guys can tell, but there are two missing from our lecture today. Quincy died yesterday, and Addison is taking the day in mourning."
Quincy died? Quincy is Addison's twin, they have stayed around each other since they came out of the womb. I looked up to Lyle and he was stone faced. I wonder if he knows anything, and I know for a fact he wouldn't have killed Quincy, but there was blood on his shirt yesterday. But in all honesty, it sounds like something Landon would do. Slowly I looked over to Landon who was smirking, of course it was him. Landon is one of the most dishonest and giant piles of dragon shit I've ever met in my life.
"Moving on," the Professor cleared his throat, waving his hands in the air, "So, after assessing your skills from yesterday I have decided that we will move several lessons ahead. We will start with basic fighting maneuvers which will mostly include movements and how to flow your body with your magic."
He moved his feet about shoulders width apart and put his hands in front of him, "So, we're going to start with Earth today. Earth fighting styles are blocky, hard-hitting and rooting stances. Your feet mostly stay on the ground to connect with the Earth. The only time you swing your feet is if your opponent is close range, other than that you use your hands to send the Earth flying towards your opponent. Understand?"
Great. Earth is not my strong suit, and I have a feeling that I won't be the best at today's lesson but it doesn't hurt to get the experience. Everyone murmured their yes' and it was time to get to work. Everyone started their routines on how the Professor showed us. I set my feet apart, like he did with them being a shoulder width apart.
"Now, what you're going to do is once you feel strength in your legs and feet, you will grab the Earth and throw it," he paused, his head moving to look over his shoulders and with a shrug he says, "I'd say around ten feet but just to be sure," his feet were strongly planted and putting his palms towards the Earth he ripped a chunk of the ground out. Swinging his upper body around he tossed the Earth behind him, "Around there is fine."
Professor moved out of the way and we all started with our routines. Biting my lip I planted my feet firmly to the ground and turned my palms towards the Earth. Feeling the steady, rocky energy course through my veins, my muscles felt as hard as rocks. I pushed the energy from my feet, to my core, and finally feeling it flud my arms and towards my palms, I grabbed the rock that sat in front of me. A bead of sweat flowed down from my temple and I grit my teeth, my muscles screaming to be released. This is a workout. My feet wanted to move, dared to move to step forward to throw the Earth across the field but I couldn't. Ticking my head to the right, I hold the energy in my muscles and the boulder slowly starts to lift from the Earth. Splaying out my fingers I raised my arms above me and the boulder to be above my head. God, please don't fall on me and kill me. A groan falls from my lip, I bend my arms back and throw them forward, tossing it across the field with a scream; ending up short. Welun!
"Mmm… could've been better, Blake," the Professor noted sharply. Asshole.