Page 13 of Fire Dancing For Icey Dragons

Something within me squeezes in response. "Yes."

"Great. And I'll ask Yuri. She normally loves these things."

"Yes." My gaze slips to her friend and I start wondering whether it's a good idea for her friend to come too, but I want her to be comfortable, and this is a good way to achieve that.

"I'll see you there." She gives me a small smile and heads back to her friend, making me wonder exactly what I've gotten myself into.

Chapter 8

ZARA

I'm surprisingly nervous as I approach the campfire, which is definitely more of a bonfire considering how tall it is. I suppose that makes sense when there's at least one dragon involved in the set-up.

"Why are we invited again?" Yuri asks me as we approach.

I shrug. "Blaze said we should come."

"Blaze as in the guy you flirted with a bit when he came to teach us fire dancing?"

"I wasn't flirting," I mutter.

"Yeah, you were. And I haven't seen you do that since you became the captain. Why do you think I'm coming with you tonight?" She bumps her shoulder against mine.

"Maybe because you don't want me to get murdered by the fire dancing team or something like that," I respond.

"You do have the look of a sacrifice about you," Yuri jokes. "Hopefully they won't throw me onto the fire after you."

"Ha ha."

"I'm serious, I'm not fireproof," Yuri responds.

There are several people around the fire, reassuring me that this is some kind of friendly group hangout situation rather than just me, Yuri, and Blaze. Maybe I should have checked better about what to expect.

He notices us coming and gets to his feet, heading in our direction. "You came."

"I did," I respond. "This is Yuri, you might remember her from the fire dancing lesson you gave us."

"I think we met," Yuri says. "I should go introduce myself to your friends."

Blaze raises an eyebrow. "She's just going to leave us alone?"

"She seems to think I'm flirting with you," I respond.

"Aren't you?"

I consider denying it, but that would defeat the point of coming here. "A little bit."

"Then let's ignore my friends and find a good spot," he says.

"Good, because I don't want anyone to see what I've got." I pull a crinkly bag of marshmallows out of my bag.

Blaze chuckles. "The cheerleader who eats toasted marshmallows."

"Oh, not just marshmallows." I hand the packet to him and pull out a packet of chocolate digestives. "S'mores."

"Are they s'mores if the chocolate is already attached to the biscuit?" He guides me over to where a blanket is sitting a little further away from the closest one. That seems normal, and there are a few clusters of people around the fire, with Yuri having attached herself to a group of five who seem to be passing around a bottle of some kind.

"It's less messy with the chocolate like this," I tell him.

---