NOVEL NEXT Chapter 215: Strangers
Once again I found myself holding back a slight sense of tears forming as I felt… Maybe a little homesick… Or maybe just anxious to be around so many strangers. Either way, the feeling quickly faded. I slowly lifted a hand over the fire in my chest where my soul still radiated a faint heat. ‘If dragons feel everything so deeply, then I actually feel pretty bad… Keigan had to kill one to make the potion… I mean, the ingredients were apparently dragon eyes, heart, and who knows what else.’ I suddenly started to feel sick, as if I were imagining my own heart and eyes being pulled from my body. My eyes began to burn as a singular flash of a distant memory flooded through me. I was flying above the clouds, basking in the glow of the sunset. Little ones hung onto my wings smiling and laughing. I was talking with them, although I couldn’t understand what I was saying.
I slowly put down my food and covered my face as the burning spread more fiercely than before. ‘Keigan… What exactly did you do to make this potion… No, I guess I already know that much don’t I… So the dragon he killed was a loving father… Ironic…’ Along with the memory came the emotions it must have felt at its death. Somehow I knew that the little dragons were old enough to take care of themselves, but the lingering regret of not being able to watch them grow up, and the overwhelming sadness of them no longer having a caretaker at such a young age both outweighed any security that gave me. ‘No wonder the dragon is so mad… It’s probably trying to burn me to death from the inside… After all, It’s not too much of a stretch to say I’m the reason it suffered…’
I gripped tighter over my chest as the burning feeling lessened, but spread through my whole body. ‘I guess sorry doesn’t quite cut it for this kind of thing…’
The fire inside me finally bellowed down until I felt truly normal again for maybe the first time since I had used the strange potion. A small cloud of steam exited my mouth as I let out a deep breath and with it any pent-up emotions I had seemed to go into hibernation.
As I opened my eyes the strange golden orange tint had vanished and everything was perfectly clear and bright again.
No one seemed to notice anything was wrong, but when my eyes finally tracked over to the person I only knew as Gramma, she stared back at me silently. Our eyes locked and neither one of us dared to look away, like two wolves about to fight.
‘Her hair is a bit of a darker silver, but she really does look like mom… Although… She’s a bit bigger… And leaner… There’s no way this lady is a grandma’ Despite her menacing gaze, I felt the intimidation brush right off me like it wasn’t even there as my mind got completely sidetracked. ‘Wait, Bhaltair is like what 18? My parents were in their 20s or something when they settled down, so assuming she was around that age as well… But Mara isn’t even the oldest. So wait… She’s like… over 60? She might even be in her 70s’
I looked closer and for once my eyes responded in a way that helped, instead of disorienting me, only zooming in slightly. “She has a few scars, but no wrinkles or anything. She does look older somehow though, or maybe she just gives off that kind of aura?’
As we continued to stare at each other, eventually we began attracting the eyes of the others. “Siya,” Lu whispered. “You didn’t make her mad did you?”
“I don’t think so…” I whispered back, my eyes unmoving. “Does she look mad?”
She let out an uncomfortable groan. “She looks like she’s getting excited… She might try to fight you if you keep this up. You should probably look away now.”
“What? But then I’d lose right?”
“Lose what?”
“Neither of us have blinked yet.” I stared deeper into her eyes and just like the others I could see a sliver of her soul. She certainly wasn’t as soft as her husband, but she wasn’t nearly as scary as Lu made her out to be either. Despite appearances, it seemed like she was just playing a game.
“Are you serious…” She paused. “Well, do you think you can win?”
I leaned slightly closer to her. “I literally don’t need to blink anymore since I have dragon eyes now. I’m pretty sure I could keep this up for days.”
“Speaking of which, why did they change color again? They're white now?”
‘My eyes did? I wonder what that means…’
Across the table, our gramma suddenly blinked several times and rubbed her eyes.
“I win,” I whispered, trying to hide my smile. My appetite had returned, so I took more servings and ate my fill.
When we were all done I stepped out into the garden to get some peace and quiet away from all the chatter. After watching her for a little while it became clear pretty quickly that Lu was comfortable around all of them, despite how she acted before, of course, Airsidh was just Airsidh. ‘And I guess… I’m just me.’ I felt the cold air enter my lungs, sitting down on a bench under a much smaller version of the same tree that was in Nayana’s center. The flowers were all in full bloom and the gentle breeze blew some of the petals through the air, carrying and mixing the different scents. My eyes were one thing, but my sense of smell was incredibly heightened as well. ‘It’s strange, isn’t it? I almost feel like fighting for my life is easier than being around these people… At least in a fight, I know what I’m supposed to do. In a conversation, I’m even more awkward now than I was in my past life… Although, I guess that makes sense. I have been relatively isolated for the past 15 years or so. No, that’s not it either… If I had a goal in mind when talking to them I could probably get through just fine, making the conversation flow systematically, that’s the problem… I have no real goal when speaking to them, and their goal would most likely be to learn more about me… Which I have to not let them do…’
I took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. ‘Strength means everything here right? So… If I can beat my teachers in a fistfight, does that mean I don’t have to go to class? I’m already getting sick of people again…’
“That’s quite the sigh for a little girl.”
I slowly turned my head to see my grama walking up from the side and quickly sat up, moving to one side of the bench instead of sprawling out in the center like I was before. “The weight of a person's breath isn’t determined by their size…” I muttered, nervously speaking my first words to yet another stranger.
“Yeah? Mara must have had fun raising you…”
I felt a chill run down my arms. ‘What’s that supposed to mean? Like… Seriously, was she being literal or saying I’m boring? Did I come off as a brat after only saying one sentence?’ I turned back to the garden and leaned over onto the bench's armrest. ‘This is why I hate meeting new people…’