Ahri woke up feeling more rested than any of the nights she had spent with Leah's family. Despite Lana's hospitality, nothing could beat the healing properties of a warm volcanic cave. The flu wasn't gone, but she could feel her lungs filling up with half the effort she'd needed the day before.
She decided to resume her exploration of the cave, and with a smile of a mischievous child on her face, coursed a new path into unknown corridors. She was barely out of the chamber when she felt a presence behind her.
"Where are you going?" Skye's voice resonated on the stone around her. Ahri turned to face him and found his tall silhouette casting a shadow on the floor, blocking the little light from the torches on the wall.
"I'm hungry." She had prepared the excuse earlier, in case that undesired encounter happened.
"I could have brought food to your room."
"I didn't want to bother you." Or didn't want to feel like a prisoner in a place where there was so much to explore. Such an amazing cave shouldn't be the lair of an unappreciative dragon like him.
"You will get lost if you keep wandering off like that."
Ahri felt like rolling her eyes, but she knew it was wiser to school her expressions to avoid angering the man before her. It was easy to forget he wasn't a man at all, and his other form could rip her to shreds in a heartbeat.
"If you tell me where you don't want me to go, I can stay out of your way."
Skye didn't reply, but kept piercing her with suffocating pressure. She couldn't understand whether he was annoyed or curious about her actions, and her inability to read him was getting her agitated. She decided to try a more diplomatic approach, hoping to avoid being burnt by saying the wrong thing.
"Have you eaten already? Maybe we can break fasting together."
"Why?" How charming.
"I don't plan on staying long, but I don't want to bother you any further. Maybe we can discuss a few rules to make you comfortable during my brief passage."
Ahri put on her best innocent face, but was already envisioning spending the afternoon on that amazing hot spring. He just had to be reasonable, and the softening of his expression told her he was on his way to it.
Skye nodded and turned around slowly. She let out a relieved breath. At least she wouldn't be confined to eat alone in her room. In the meantime, her head was already coming up with a line of questions to better understand her host.
Ahri followed him to a room lit by candles, with a ceiling higher than most of the other natural chambers. A huge stone table filled the center of the room, where fresh fruit laid on a tray probably meant for her. She wondered why he went to such lengths to make her feel comfortable – with a nice mattress and neatly arranged food – when he didn't want her there. She thought about starting with that question, but she had to thread carefully to avoid offending him.
"So, Skye, what type of dragon are you?" Sounded safe. A good way to start, Ahri thought patting her own back for the choice.
"Are you serious?" Maybe not a great start, then. He didn't seem annoyed or anything, just… confused. He indicated his body with his hands, cocking his head to the side. "Can't you tell?"
"What is that supposed to mean? I'm not versed in the world of dragons."
A frown formed on his forehead, and his eyes trailed her movements as she grabbed a berry from the tray. This man had an awful ability to create uncomfortable silences, but Ahri wasn't willing to fill it this time.
She opted to analyze him instead, noticing how he blended in the space, with dark clothes and skin that merged into the stone background. He was so quiet, that even in that echoing cave all she could hear was her own movements.
So dangerous, yet so young. His stance was that of an older man, but his smooth face and impetuous strength betrayed his age. A few years older than her, probably. And then there was that sense of familiarity that she could almost grasp, but-
"I am a stone dragon," he replied, cutting her digression short.
"So all stone dragons live in nice caves like this one?" Maybe she could find herself a more welcoming host.
"No."
"God, you really have a way with words," she mumbled, rolling her eyes. A growl formed in the back of Skye's throat, and Ahri froze on the spot with a grape between her fingers.
"You ask too many questions. I'm not your mother, you can ask her instead."
"So you also know Eleanor." Another one of her secret dragon friends, apparently. She had assumed as much when Skye and Lana discussed her departure back at the forest, but now she had a confirmation. And perhaps she could pry for a little more information. "She didn't tell me much. Maybe you can fill in the void?"
"What do you mean, she didn't tell you much? How could she possibly fail to tell you how to identify a dragon?"
"By not telling me about dragons at all."
The frown in his forehead deepened even further, and the room became thick with the swirl of an unknown emotion. He held her in place with the sheer tension of his black eyes, and the rocks around her began to vibrate. The sound alone became deafening in the once silent room.
"Eleanor didn't tell you about us?" His voice was but a growl that came from a place of fire within his massive body. Anger coursed in each word as they reached her ears, and Ahri's breath got caught up in her throat. She shook her head, unable to get the words out.
With a swift yet silent move, Skye stood up and walked back through the path they came from. Ahri took a second to recover from the paralyzing scene that unfolded before her, but when she did, a swarm of possibilities flooded her mind. She followed him with swift steps, trying to compensate for his larger ones.
"Where are you going?" She asked once she caught up to the stomping figure.
"To talk to Eleanor."
Ahri had assumed as much, considering his words on the table, but now a sense of dread invaded her. Had she put her mother at risk with her careless words? She had to keep him occupied so she could come up with a plan to dissipate his rage.
"Why?"
"Because she is wrong," he groaned with such crippling emotion, that Ahri missed a step. She recovered quickly, understanding the man was acting on emotion and with no plan whatsoever. People without plans were dangerous, and she searched her brain for something that could at least make him stop walking so damn fast.
"And what are you going to do about it? Storm into Lightbridge to tell her?" Sarcasm and belittlement, a dangerous strategy on someone twice her size. But he halted, so it worked. He didn't turn around to face her, but at least he wasn't moving anymore.
"What if I do?"
"You won't get past the knights in the border."
A tug in the back of her mind told her it was odd how she felt no fear, nor any sense of self preservation. But then again, she was never that good at being careful. He scoffed and finally turned to face her.
Even in the dim light of the cave's corridors, she could see the drive in his eyes. It burnt hot as the fire that lived inside him. At that moment, she noticed how he stirred something inside her too. A will, almost envious of the one she saw in him. He made her feel-
"You don't know what you are talking about."
"Well, I know that in seventeen years living in Lightbridge, I have never seen a dragon in the sky. So I assume you don't have a free pass to reach my mother."
"Thirteen," he mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing. I'll find Dylan, then. He can get to her."
Dylan, the guy from the bar? Ahri recalled her odd interaction with the man, and Leah's words about him being a water dragon. She stored that information for later, and well as Skye's strange dismissal. Her mother was more important.
"I'll go with you."
"No, you won't."
His rising impatience told her he had noticed she was staling, and no good could come from it. She didn't have much time before he reached the entrance of the cave, and then he'd be gone for good.
As he resumed his walk, Ahri pushed her mind harder to find the path. She always did, she just needed a bit of time. Damn him. She had no leverage to stop him from walking away.
"Please, stop."
It was a last resort, begging. It shifted the power dynamics she was trying to sustain. Her throat constricted with the act, since lowering her head was never a choice for her. It was even worse because it was him, for some reason. As if she couldn't quite accept giving him all the power when they were meant to be-
Her weird line of thought was interrupted by a change in his expression she couldn't ignore. As if was eager to help yet determined to hide his will. His body was tilting forward, but his feet were planted on the ground. She frowned.
"What?"
"You are-" he stopped mid-sentence. "It's nothing. Memories," he replied more to himself than to her.
"How cryptic of you." She moved her hands before her face, mocking him. "Memories."
"I don't have time for this."
All she wanted was to divert his attention from her mother. He didn't seem as mad as when he left the room, thanks to her attempts to stop him, but he was still leaving. Was her mother supposed to tell her about dragons? Well, yes, in her opinion. But Skye wasn't affected by her infuriating secret, so why was he so outraged about it?
"Why do you care, anyway?" She spit the words out to his back, betraying her inner turmoil.
"She should have told you, Ahri." The way he said her name was sweet, almost caring. But it didn't matter – or it did, but only to make it worst.
"So what? You'll go up there and kill her because of it?"
"Kill her? What do you think I am?" The pressure of his gaze wasn't enough for her to stop this time.
"I don't know you. I have no idea what you are capable of." Her words held a threat she didn't know how she could muster. Maybe it would be her ending, handling a dragon and accusing him to his face. But his expression betrayed a sorrow she couldn't quite understand.
Skye turned to the exit once more, and Ahri knew there was no stopping him now. And just as she gave up hope, a large shadow blocked the light. Ahri was forced to take multiple steps back to avoid being crushed by the massive red dragon that landed before her.