Page 9 of The Witch & the Dragon

“Dude,” he said when she mentioned the disappointment about her own powers, “I still would want to swap mine with yours.”

“You’re crazy. You literally can breathe fire and do fire stuff. You can turn into a dragon. You don’t want this lukewarm crap; you won’t ever get anything exciting out of my powers!”

“I think you grievously underestimate how cool your powers are.”

At this, she thumped a fist on the table, unable to quite quell his grin. “You’re completely biased. Just because I happened to be around, so you didn’t launch yourself off a balcony, doesn’t mean my powers are therefore awesome.”

She worried for a second that saying that might be considered offensive to him, but he laughed uproariously. “Uh, duh. That’s exactly why I think they’re awesome. It’s not every day someone comes running at you waving their hands telling you to stop.” The smile was wry, his eyes twinkling. “It’s not always easy, this old life. What some of us wouldn’t give for a guardian angel swooping in.”

“I’m no guardian angel,” she said, blushing, and he simply grinned.

At that point, someone glided in with their own tray, placing it next to him. “All right, Tiran?” Another older guy, probably the same year as Tiran. “Is this her?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah, so you’re the oracle chick who helped our friend.” The guy grinned so wide that the corners of his lips seemed close to touching his ears. That was a wide smile. “He’s been going on about you, you know. Said he was hoping to run into you again and thank you and everything, isn’t that right?”

“Right,” Tiran said, going oddly red from his friend’s blithe words. “And do you really have to be here? Right now?”

“Oh, you don’t want me to be around? That’s hurtful, man,” he said, but it was clear he knew exactly what he was doing and was taking far too much delight in Tiran’s reactions. “Have you asked her out on a date yet?”

“Silas,” Tiran said between clenched teeth. “I am this close to seriously murdering you right now!”

“Oh, you haven’t asked her out yet. Okay. I bet he was being all polite and awkward, wasn’t he?”

Chloe felt she had some responsibility to salvage…whatever this was before Tiran completely burned up in embarrassment. She felt a little pink herself from those pointed, blunt words, but seeing Tiran placed on the spot helped keep her cool enough to stand up and say, “I think we were both just leaving now. I’m sure you’re an amazing company, but we had something to discuss, didn’t we, Tiran?”

He nodded desperately, and they both abandoned the roguishly smirking Silas behind, handing in their trays and exiting the dining hall.

“Your friend… is he usually like that?”

“A freaking asshole? Yes, yes, he is. He can be all right, sometimes, but he has this overwhelming urge to be an absolute dick when he sees any of his friends talking with people of the opposite gender.” He then let out a small groan. “That was not how I was planning… anything.”

“You were planning something?” she asked, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Uh… would it be bad if I said I wanted to try and find an excuse to hang out with you?”

Some of the pinkness returned. He was so… She rubbed the back of her neck. He was so… human. Not some almighty dragon shifter that could transform into some giant reptilian, fire-breathing murder machine. Just a normal person. Who got flustered, who had annoying friends, who wanted to reach out and talk but didn’t always know the best way to do it.

Somehow, that made her feel warm inside. “I’m sure we can meet up again if you want. Let me give you my number…”

They exchanged numbers, both of them beaming in a rather silly way, then took a little walk around the Triscor gardens. Dreadmor Academy had immaculately well-kept gardens on the main grounds, with gardeners and sculptors tending to everything daily. The stone statues in Triscor, the fountain, the pathways dotted by a myriad of colorful flowers, and the artfully carved benches that took up some of the space there as well – were many a student’s favorite walk. Perhaps not the best place for privacy since most students tended to have the same idea.

Other parts of the Dreadmor grounds had their own appeal, too – there was even a collection of small fairy huts in the back, other paths, other benches – it was just clear of the gardens and the main spectacle within the grounds themselves.

A part of Chloe found it difficult to comprehend that someone like Tiran actually wanted to hang out with her – and actually liked being in her company. It was easy, sometimes, to have a poor opinion of yourself. Then, when you saw someone looking at you like you were simply so awesome, it… Chloe really didn’t know what to make of it. All she really knew was that she didn’t want to do anything to discourage the company.

When they eventually parted with smiles and waves, she gushed about the whole thing to her friends in separate chats and got the expected reactions from all of them. Kati, with her millions of exclamation marks and caps and overbearing excitement, as if she were a dog somehow in human form, Harrow with her, are you sure he doesn’t have some ulterior motive suspicion, Holly with her light, polite encouragement, and recommendation to visit the village that was a short walk away from the academy, and Skyla offering to curse him if he turned out to be shady.

Chloe did some research later as well, based on the wildland fae that had granted their more mundane human and part fae subjects boons and gifts. Almost as many of them gave gifts as they did curses; she checked specifically about dryad blessing, making sure that any sort of dryad actually wanted to gift her and not just screech and chase her out of the territory like a lot of protective fae.

Some quick searching suggested that most of their magic and enchantments were nature-based, but nothing that led her to really know what to expect from a dryad. She searched for things that dryads like as the last rabbit hole of pages before sleep beckoned and the new day arrived.

Chapter Four – Tiran

He’d actually done it. He’d spoken to the oracle girl and even walked off with her number. Maybe his approach could have been better. He’d wanted to start casually, trying that smile his mother insisted was a charming one.

Instead, he’d just… blathered about something highly deep and personal from the start. It was a damn miracle she hadn’t run away screaming. He really needed to work on that sort of thing, at least if he actually intended to be around people.

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