Chapter Twelve

Caravan - City of Trênt

At every passing hour Selena got more and more worried about Skye. "He might be strong but battling a dragon is just plain insane" she muttered to herself. Instead of not doing anything and worrying about Skye, she assumed a meditative pose while trying to breakthrough to the fourteenth realm. "Just a bit more and i'll reach fiteenth then sixteenth! I can't wait to use the ancient cultivation path, my grandmother gave me!" she exclaimed to herself. As a traditional spiritual mage, everything relies in her spiritual essence pool, so the way of her cultivation focuses on increasing her core's size to accomodate more essence unlike others who equally divides their cultivation to strengthening the body and increasing their essence pool. As she expected, she will have a slow start but once she reaches the thirtieth spiritual realm her cultivation will be much faster than regular cultivators. Not many traditional spiritual mages still chooses this path because it makes them vulnerable but their worth when properly protected can change a wide scale battle's situation. Just thinking about blasting her opponents to pieces was huge factor why she chose this path. While she was lost in her thoughts she didn't notice a spatial rift form in front of the caravan.

"Stand down!" shouted Skye as couple of guards surrounded them. The guards quickly sheated their swords and lowered their spears. The commander of the guards then made his way to the duo. "My Lord, please do not put yourself in harm's way in the future. Confronting a dragon is way too dangerous even for the Vjorns of Dragon. It is our duty to protect you and this caravan, let us do our job" the commander of the guards spoke. "I did not put myself in harm's way Commander. I simply scouted for any dangers that we might encounter. Besides here I am, alive and kicking" Skye replied playfully. "What I am saying my Lord is that you could have died trying to scout ahead of us. If you just left the task to us-". "You clearly wasn't up for the task when you heard the dragon's roar Commander"Skye interrupted "nor is your men. And if you did, you would have sent someone to check on the situation... Something you neglected to do even if I did command you to stand down. Which means that this discussion is pointless. I am alive and I do not blame you for your actions, so make it easy for both of us. Spare me from this childish scolding" Skye offered. "By the way we have a new companion joining us. His name is Kieran, show him the same respect you have for me. If that's everything, we are both tired and hungry, we will now retire to my carriage" Skye said dismissively as both of them made their way to Skye's carriage.

"Should I start calling you milord? I love roleplaying" Kieran joked and received a glare from Skye. "Dude, no need to be so serious. Now I know why you sound like an old man!" Kieran mused. As the two arrived at their carriage Selena was still cultivating and didn't seem to notice their arrival. "Is that the Selena babe? Dude, she's an elf! Who likes elves? They are pretentious creatures who pretends to like the forest whilst destroying it secretly!" Kieran almost growled while looking at Selena. "What?" Skye asked in shock. "Get her out of my sight or i'll burn her alive!" Kieran said angrily. Skye was not amused at how Kieran was acting but he knows that his new friend doesn't just judge people easily by their race. "There must be some reason why he hates elves so much" Skye thought to himself as he felt immense anger from the bond he shares with Kieran. "Look Kieran, I respect that you don't like elves in general but Selena is my friend. She's not just any elf, she's Selena. Whatever the reason you hate the elves for, Selena didn't or hasn't take part on it" Skye explained calmly. "Not every human is greedy, not all dragons are prideful. There is more to people than their race. Give her a chance.." Skye added "Please, if not for yourself then do it for me". Kieran hesitated for minutes while contemplating on Skye's mini-speech but gave up in the end. "Fine, but I still hate Elves!" he whined. Skye smiled at the indifferent Kieran while Selena started to stand up from her place. "Skye!" Selena almost shouted while rushing to Skye's side. "I was worried sick about you! I thought you died trying to fight that dragon off" she said while punching Skye's shoulder. "Ouch! My body still hurts. Take it easy on me" Skye chuckled "I'm sorry for making you worry" Skye added while making a genuine apologetic smile. Selena immediately look down to hide her now tomato red face. "Anyway, we have a new companion who will be joining us. Kieran, meet Selena. Selena, Kieran" Skye introduced. "Pleasure meeting you" Selena said gracefully while offering a hand. "Pleasure" Kieran shook her hand reluctantly. Selena sensed the reluctancy of the boy and wondered what the problem was but before she could even ask Skye already steered the conversation to something else. "I don't know about you but we're really hungry. Should we prepare dinner then?" Skye asked but was already pulling out the necessary equipments out of his interspatial ring. As the three prepared dinner, the awkwardness between Selena and Kieran became much more noticeable. "Is something wrong?" Selena finally asked Kieran as she can no longer stand the awkwardness. "Nothing, nothing. Right Kieran?" Skye said while eyeing Kieran. "Yeah, nothing" Kieran answered half-heartedly. "I know that there is something wrong. Go on then, spill the beans" Selena said. "You're the problem Long-ears. Your kind nearly killed the Lake of Origins! Do you know how much we suffered trying to revive the dying lake? Do you know how much sacrifice we have to make to restore the lake to it's original state?" Kieran growled angrily. Selena froze in place as she realized who she was talking to. "Your the dragon from earlier?" she asked in a shocked voice. "So what if i'm the dragon from earlier Elf?" Kieran mocked. Selena kneeled to both of her knees then prostrated herself in front of ther dragon. "I do not represent my kind, but please accept my deepest apologies from the actions my kind has taken against yours. It may not restore your loses but when I read the story from our texts centuries ago, I can't help but be sad about my predecessor's greed. If there is anything I can do, please let me know". Kieran was taken aback by the action the elf has shown him. Instead of letting her pride get the best of her, she prostrated and accepted the mistakes her predecessors has commited. The angry Kieran was now confused on what action to take. Meanwhile Skye is just silently watching from the sidelines, not knowing what they're talking about. After a minute of silence, Skye decided to interrupt the discussion. "I am sorry but can we discuss this later? Dinner will get cold if we just stare at each other". Kieran wanted to act mighty by not saying anything but his stomach betrayed him by growling loudly, garnering a chuckle from Skye. "I guess we could discuss this while eating" Kieran offered as he blushed bright red from embarassment.

The trio ate dinner silently while watching their campfire dance in the darkness. The sound of the firewood crackling in the silent night was soothing to the ears as hundreds of crickets joined the harmony. "So are we gonna talk about it?" asked Skye breaking the silence between them. "What is the Lake of Origins by the way?" he added."It is a major secret of Elves. Something that should never be released in the public"answered Selena but then Kieran started telling a story "The Lake of Origins is sacred grounds for dragons. It is akin to a Medical Bay of humans. Amethra the Overseer of the Lake has healed a million dragons before due to the mystical properties of the Lake. No one understood why but Amethtra fancied the Elves. She loves them so much she decided to allow an Elven Settlement around the Lake and shared with them the gift that was exclusively for the dragons the mystical wates of the Lake. Amethra like any other dragon was aging and became weaker and weaker each passing year, what she didn't expect was that people she loved would betray her and seize the Lake for themselves. Amethra was killed in cold-blood not even resisting her killers. She just cried as she was being murdered by the same people she loved dearly. What the Elves didn't know was that unless Amethra found another dragon who could inherit her Title, the Lake will slowly die. Dragons heard the news but couldn't seize the Lake as the Elves made fortresses around the Lake. Making it near impossible to invade unless all of the Factions unite. But as we all know, draconic pride is famous for a reason. Years later the Elves noticed that the Lake was dying and decided that it was worthless. They abandoned the Lake to die. The dragons on the other hand cannot just abandon one of our sanctuaries and decided to revive it to it's former state, something unspeakable needs to be done to do so. Something I would never forget. Not until I die" Kieran finished as he glared at the elf.Selena just stared at the ground, not knowing how to compensate for the sins her predecessors have done to the ancient dragons. "But you are not your predecessors" Kieran stated softly and you already apologized for something you have not done. Something I would never do". Skye chuckled in the sidelines. "What?" Kieran asked angrily. "Nothing. I just learn more and more about you, it's cool" Skye smiled innocently while Kieran blushed at the comment. Normally he would not let anyone get the last say in a discussion but this time he let Skye have his mini-victory at teasing him. "Long-ears, I only accepted you because you're Skye's friend, do not even think I have forgiven your kind" Kieran said while making a grumpy face. "Yes, Kieran" Selena smiled. "Hmmph" Kieran grunted. "By the way Kieran, how long do you plan sticking with me?" Skye asked. "What? You're tired of me already? You've hurt my feelings" Kieran said whie mustering all the seriousness in the world. And immitated sobbing sounds while walkinh away. "Wait! Kieran" he said while following his friend. "I'm sorry, I was just asking ,really, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings" Skye said oblivious to Kieran's obvious acting. "No, it's okay. I know I hurt your girlfriend's feeling, so I should go now" Kieran said while trying his best to suppress his laughter and trying to make sobbing sounds. "She's not my girlfriend and I understand why you hate her kind. But I want to atleast hang out with you until you arrive at your next destination" Skye said honestly. Kieran couldn't help but laugh at Skye's seriousness. "Skye you're too innocent. Sorry, I can't help but tease you". "You piece of crap, I was genuinely worried about your feelings" he said while kicking Kieran but soon enough he joined Kieran in laughing. "So seriously, how long will you stick with me?" Skye asked. "Until Winter Wolves" Kieran replied. Skye grinned to himself as he was about to repay his friend's favor. "A prank for a prank" he said to himself.