Knowledge and Power: Reborn into a society that only values strength.

"Are you ready?"

Rune timidly nodded, still embarrassed that she failed to take a shower. Even more than that though she seemed scared of trying to take another one, like she was afraid something was going to come out of the faucet and bite her… "Yeah…" She muttered, shutting her eyes tightly closed and scrunching up her whole face.

I turned the water on and as soon as it hit her she let out a loud high-pitched yelp, flexing every muscle in her body and jumping to the wall, staying on her toes and gluing herself to it.

'Oh… I think I see the problem here…' "Rune when Bear filled the bathtub for you… Was the water hot?" I turned the faucet off again.

"Y-yeah… Always…"

'Her body runs hotter than normal persons too, so she's probably even more sensitive to the cold than others. It could be because she's basically part wolf… But, she doesn't really have any fur at all compared to an actual dog… Not to mention… Most children would probably react that way to a surge of cold water hitting them like needles…' I sighed, Normally we heated up the pipes with a small fire that we would put in the other room… But no one was around. So I just walked outside and used magic to get it done quickly, then I came back and turned the faucet back on, making her flinch almost just as badly before finally testing it with a hand and starting to relax.

"You shouldn't feel bad about anything... You're just a little sensitive to the cold. I was too for a long… LONG time."

Before long she was practically falling asleep, swaying back and forth just like her tail, peacefully closing her eyes. It was almost hard to get her to leave, but after standing for long enough she almost fell down again, her muscles still recovering from being sick for so long. Of course, I caught her. She was embarrassed about needing help before, but she ended up being so tired that I ended up drying her off and dressing her as she fell half asleep before we even made it back to the bed. After how stressful and embarrassing my class was, and how stressful and painful my magic training was, I decided to just join her for her nap… She wouldn't let go of me anyway.

…

A knock came on the door, making one of Rune's ears twitch as she rolled into me, pulling my arm over her and mistaking it for the corner of the blanket, still passed out with the biggest grin on her face as my mind quickly woke up, as if I was only resting and had never actually fallen asleep.

"Siya?" Isy hesitantly poked her head through the door before getting shoved inside by Mo.

"HEY!"

I shushed her loudly. And she quickly shut up, quietly walking over and kneeling next to my bed. "Awe… She's so cute when she's sleeping."

I rolled my eyes. "You say that like she's not cute when she's awake too." She reached out, about to poke her but I swatted away her hand. "Don't mess with a sleeping child, that's just mean…"

She sighed. "Sorry… Hey… How are you doing? You didn't come out from under your desk that whole lecture…"

I sighed, staring up at the bunk above me. "He taught that lecture just to mess with me. I'd almost think he was trying to get me not to come back…"

"Was it really that big a deal?"

My eyes narrowed as I looked back at her, focusing again. 'I guess I never actually told her what happened…'

Mo started changing and grabbed her pajamas, neatly putting them on the bathroom counter and thankfully acting surprisingly unbothered, as if everything really was normal. "Isy, I'm going to take a shower, can you go get us dinner?"

She groaned loudly but quickly covered her mouth when Rune started to move again. "Fine…" She muttered quietly.

I grabbed her hand as she started to turn and stand up. "Oh, get a bunch of Bison meat. I promised Run we would get some."

"Fine…" She muttered again before walking out the door.

Right when she left Mo came over as well and scratched Rune's head making her stretch slightly towards her hand and almost purr like a cat. "Does it have something to do with why you're so embarrassed every time you look at him? If you keep acting like that people will get the wrong idea. It could cause problems."

"Yeah, I know… But It's not like I can help it… It should get better with time."

"If it helps, just pretend like you're pretending to be me again. I don't know what happened, but I'm sure it wouldn't bother me."

'Would that actually work? Wait… Would it really not bother her?' "I know you're not sensitive to this kind of thing, but…" We stared blankly into each other's eyes for a moment. "I don't know about that…"

"Ok, well what happened?"

"This was your plan to get me to talk from the beginning wasn't it…"

"Maybe."

"And you asked Isy to leave to make it easier to talk about?"

"Maybe…"

I sighed again, pulling the blanket tight over Rune and giving her a pillow to hold onto instead of me while I got up. I don't know how exactly, but I managed to make it through the whole story, at least what I remembered. By the end of it, even she was blushing slightly for the first time I could remember, one arm locked straight, pushing against her lap, and the other held tight to her chest just under her chin. "So you… Ripped his shirt off, and your body was all hot and tingly? And you nibbled on him?"

"D-don't say it like that!" I shouted as loud as I could while still whispering. "But… Yes, technically… See, even you're embarrassed… And I bit him… There's… Ugh, forget it…"

She shifted her weight, picking up her hands and leaning forward on the small table we had moved to. "I'm not embarrassed… I'm feeling… Something else. But that's not important. It was your body, but it wasn't even you doing it right? It was the dragon, and it's not like he even saw you naked. Or did you rip your own clothes off too?"

I sighed, just the thought of it made me shudder. "I didn't… I mean… You're not wrong… But why would he let me bite him so many times?"

"Maybe you pinned him down and… You know…"

"Assuming I know something in this context was your first mistake…"

"Maybe he liked it?"

"That is so much worse…"

She grinned, giving me chills from how unexpected it was. It was a little scary, but thankfully her expression returned to normal after only a moment of thought. "Well… If you weren't biting that hard it is possible he was asleep for most of it, right? Or maybe he was just hoping it would last longer."

My brain suddenly crashed as I became still as a statue until she waved her hand in front of my face and woke me back up.

"Don't put thoughts like that in my head… Especially when nothing else makes sense. I thought about it a lot… There's no way I should have been able to overpower him, I mean, as soon as I came too he literally lifted my whole body into the air and effortlessly moved me to the side…"

"Uh… I was joking though…"

"Ah…Haha… So, what do you think the actuall reason is?"

She leaned back and stretched her arms out, closing her eyes and sinking into her chair, "I don't care enough to guess…" She said softly. "Does it even matter? Maybe he was so shocked he thought he was dreaming and his brain shut down. Anyway, you think he was messing with you just because of all the talk about how dragons mate and bite each other right, completely losing control because of their strong desires?"

"That's…For the record… I can control myself just fine… The reason I went wild was because something else took control from me, it wasn't me at all…"

"But… He doesn't know that which is why you're embarrassed. It's because you actually like him don't you?"

"N-no! Maybe…" I sighed, taking a deep breath and calming down, admittedly a bit flustered by the sudden question. "No, I don't think so… I could have ended up like that with anyone and it would probably still be just as horrifying… It's just that sense I knew him it's mostly embarrassing, instead of traumatic… Though still horrifying."

"Ok." She stood up and slowly stretched her legs. "That's good to know."

'Why is that good to know… And is it just me, or did she really loosen up? Did the pellets suppress her personality too?' "Where are you going?"

"To go tell Teacher everything you just said to me."

"WHAT!" my voice cracked before I quickly covered my mouth, accidentally yelling. "I'll die from embarrassment if you do that…"

"Hm… It seems like the most effective solution though. Don't you usually take that route when solving a problem?"

"I just don't see how this will fix anything…" I grabbed her sleeve, leaning back as she kept walking, only stopping as I continued to hold on.

"He was clearly embarrassed too, answering his questions and making him less embarrassed will help him to answer your questions, and then you can both move on… Better this than me getting a letter to investigate whether or not you are sleeping together and kill you both…"

I let out another groan. "Oh please… Like you could kill me, we're practically family."

She slowly looked back at me at me with cold eyes.

My face fell flat as I raised an eyebrow. "And I can beat you in a fight…"

She slowly turned away, lifting a hand to her chin as if something was wrong.

"What is it? Did you decide not to-"

"I was just wondering if this was normal… For friends."

I suddenly let go, having to stop myself from jumping back and quickly turning to the side. "You can't say stuff like that out of the blue…"

At the feeling of a sudden rush of wind, I raised my eyes back to where she was… But she was gone…