I quickly sat up, shocked and panting in fear. I looked around myself frantically, finding myself in my room with my bed covers in a tangled mess at my feet. Movement caught my eye and I turned to see Alec watching me looking concerned. I let out a breath of relief at his familiar face and pulled him into a hug for comfort. Memories of the dream started coming to mind again and tears fell from my eyes once more. Alec rubbed my back slowly, trying to comfort me. Eventually, exhausted from crying, I fell back asleep. This time, no dreams came.

When I opened my eyes again, the room was empty. The only thing that accompanied me was a slim beam of sunlight. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up slowly and let out a groan of pain. My whole body was sore. This kind of sore you feel after being hit by a truck five times.

“I know it hurts, but it will get better with time.” A rumbling female voice spoke. Startled, I jumped out of bed looking around frantically. I closed my eyes to try and calm down and then I saw it. 

“Excuse me, I am not an it!” The dragon exclaimed. It was a beautiful dragon. She was covered in millions of small scales. The main majority of scales were black. So black they look like a void, trying to trick the eyes into thinking that nothing was there. Scattered throughout the scales were silver scales. It made her body look like a star filled sky. There was a large scar over her right eye, just like my scar, scales missing from the line crossing from above her eye to her cheekbone. Her tail flicked back and forth impatiently. It took me a moment to remember last night.

“Alora?” I asked slowly.

“Finally! Good morning! Sorry for the bad dream, but I feel like you should know what is going on. I can’t stand not doing anything to help in the war. And I can’t imagine that it is over either.” Alora said.

“So…” I dragged on the o. “What happens now?”

“Well, now we need to finish the school year, get that done. Then have Oliver teach us to fight. We will have to figure out flying for ourselves though.”

“Who is Oliver?” I asked in confusion.

“Mr. Marson. Now that you have matured though, you are technically the queen, it would be insulting to Oliver if you kept referring to him as Mr. Marson.” Alora explained.

“Okay.” I said, nodding as I started pacing from my bed to my door. “So what? We just go back to school like nothing happened?”

“Well, yes, We only have a few more months left anyway, why not?” Alora questioned.

“It just seems like it is going to be weird.”

“Only if you make it weird. Just don’t expect me to help you with any of your homework.” Alora laughed. I laughed as well, opening my door to head down stairs. As I swung my door open, Alec fell to my feet, sprawling into a starfish position to try, and fail, at stopping himself from falling. I burst into laughter as he looked up at me sleepily. Confusion flashed on his face before shock, then joy, relief, then embarrassment.

“Hi.” He said awkwardly.

Laughing still, I said. “Well hello to you too.” After taking my hand that I offered to him, Alec stood chuckling at his fall.

After wiped off his pants, most likely in embarrassment as there was nothing on them, he spoke. “You look a lot better than last night. How are you? What were you dreaming about that was so bad? Are you okay now?”

“That’s a lot at once.” I laughed. “Yes I am better, thank you. Alora showed me what happened when my mom died. I’m fine now, a little overwhelmed, but fine. Want to head downstairs for breakfast?”

“Um… sure. Who is Alora?”

“Oh, Alora is…”

“I am basically your dragon side. There is not much else to call me.” Alora said in my mind.

“My dragon side, apparently.” I finished responding.

“Sweet! We will have to let Valdraxris and Alora talk to each other some time.” Alec said while looking like a happy puppy.

A happy puppy? Did I seriously just think that?

“Yes, yes you did.” Alora cackled.

Feeling my face heat as I started to blush, I walked past Alec and started going down the stairs, calling out to a confused Alec, “Come on! Let’s get that breakfast!”

Once we reached the kitchen, I started pulling stuff out to make breakfast. After starting the hashbrown and eggs, I glanced up to see Alec looking at his phone looking bored. “So…” I started saying. “Is Valdraxris your… dragonside?”

Alec looked up and stared at me blankly for a second before quickly saying, “oh! Yes, yes he is. He is a bit of a brat. He always acts like he knows everything, though he is right most of the time.”

Mr. Marson walked into the kitchen halfway through Alec's response and took a seat at the kitchen island next to Alec. “Good morning Ms, Amaya, Alec. What are you two talking about?” He asked.

“Good morning, Mr. Marson.” They both replied.

“Ms. Amaya, please, just call me Oliver.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. I’ve called him Mr. Marson since the first day I remember meeting him as a child.

“Yes. It is perfectly fine. I would not ask it unless I was sure.” He confirmed with a smile.

“Okay… Oliver.” I said hesitantly. “We were just talking about Alora and Valdraxis, our dragons.” 

“Oh! Alora is finally here huh? That’s wonderful! Now we can start you training!” Oliver said, very excitedly.

“What training?” Alec asked.

“Your training to fly and work with your dragons of course! It’s been so long since I’ve taught anyone though. This is going to be fun!” 

“I never knew you could sound so excited Oliver.” I said with an amused smile.

With a faint blush, Oliver cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. Sorry about that. I hope you’ll forgive me. I just know you're going to love flying so much.”

“Hahaha, don’t worry, I didn’t mean to make you worry. I’m just happy that I can see you feeling more emotions other than worry.”

“Well, let’s plan for this weekend? Saturday and/or Sunday?” Oliver and I both looked over at Alec.

“Works for me.” He said simply.

“Umm… Don’t you have to check with your parents or something?” I asked. I didn’t know much about Alec, His family life included. I still don’t know what his relationship with his parents is. I’m pretty sure that I heard he has a half brother that is older than him though.

“They can die a thousand deaths and rot in their graves for all I care!” Alec’s voice dripped with venom, the hate in his voice evident. His brows were pulled together as he glared at the wall, seeing something we could not.

“Before you go cursing your family, you should at least figure out how to get stronger to protect those you love.” Oliver said, looking at him pointedly.

“Oooh, do you have a crush?” I asked teasingly, looking at Alec expectantly. Alec froze, slowly turning towards me. Suddenly, as though he only just heard what I asked, his face turned redder than a tomato. “Oh my goodness! You do!” I started laughing almost hysterically. After all, who knew the cold Alec Fireheart (talk about irony) would get so embarrassed about something so childish? “Oh my goodness, yo-you should see your fa-face right now! Hahahaha! It’s so red! That’s adorable!” I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

Chuckling, Oliver said, “Okay, okay, stop teasing him.”

“Yes, please” Alec mumbled, still blushing.