The Others

Chapter Eighteen

When we arrive back at the others, the king instantly leaves with Mart towards the black tent. My eyes cross Jonathan’s, but when I say his name, he walks away. It’s obvious that he’s still pissed off with me. A part of me is angry with him too, for trying to ditch me with the king. A different part of me is just hurt and wants to go to him to cry and apologize.

I walk back towards my tent and hear Isla running to me. ‘And what is he like?’ she asks me excitedly. ‘We were so far away, I could barely even see him. Was he everything we want, and more?’

I smile at her. ‘He’s amazing’, I say. And I mean it, something I never would have guessed. ‘He’s incredibly friendly, and humble for someone that’s been raised with the throne.’

Isla looks at me with big, interested eyes. Once again, I’m blown away with her beauty. ‘You’re so lucky’, she says. ‘First you get a dragon for an Other – no offense to my significant other- and afterwards the king takes you in personally.’

‘Not personally, he’s going to send his nephew’, I tell her. ‘Do you know who’s the king’s nephew?’

Isla shrugs. ‘I have no idea, to be fair. You could ask Jonathan, or Mart. They might know more of the king and his family.’ The moment she mentions Jonathan’s name, I bite my lip. She notices. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asks me.

‘Well, Jonathan and I got into a big fight. You know he only recently came back, and he tried to pretend like he never even left. And just now he asked the king if he could stop training me. Right in front of my face.’

Isla clacks her tongue, like Jonathan does on a daily base. ‘Ouch’, she says. ‘Is that why he assigned you to his nephew?’

I shrug. ‘It sounded like he already did. He also refused Jonathan’s request.’

A big frown appears on Isla’s face. ‘So, both Jonathan, and his nephew, have to train you together?’ I nod.

‘I guess’, I say. The frown remains on her face.

‘Well, keep me updated’, she says, before she runs away. Lynn following her.

Before I get the chance to question why she ran away so quick, I see Jonathan. He has his arms crossed and looks at me angry. ‘Well,’, he says. ‘I’m sick and tired of all this drama. Are you ready to accept that we’re not together, and that we have work to do?’

I snort and try to smile. ‘Wouldn’t change it, even if I could’, I defend myself.

It’s only early in the morning, when I hear her voice. “Maya”, she says. I open one of my eyes, and stare right into Lilly’s face. She seems pretty excited. ‘Hmm?’ I moan. I notice that it’s still dark outside. “I want to fly”, she says. I’m instantly awake.

‘You want to fly?’ She nods her beautiful little head. ‘Are you sure that you’re ready?’ she nods again. “I saw the bids. I want to be a bird.”

I laugh and get out of bed. ‘Let’s go outside, so you can fly.’ Together we leave the camp, while going towards the field where the birds train in the afternoon. It seems like a logical place for her to be a bird, as she said herself.

The moment we arrive, she opens up her wings. For the first time I get to look at them. The first light of the rising sun, shines through the thin skin in-between her spines. I can see bloodred veins, like the roots of a tree. It’s mesmerizing.

She sinks through her knees, and I see she tries to move her wings. No success. I hear her grumble, while she tries a second time. And a third.

‘I wish I could help you’, I say when I walk over to her. I rest my hand on her nose, and pet her under her chin. She’s getting so big, so fast. She has the size of a horse already, and I’m pretty curious how big she will be, when she is fully grown.

Once again, she completely opens up her wings. From one end, to the other, she’s at least four, maybe even five meters long. Slowly she tries flapping her wings, but it’s not working.

“I do not know what I am doing wrong”, I hear her cry inside my head. “I do what the birds do.”

‘I know’, I whisper out loud.

A soft roar makes me look behind me. Thalia walks up to us. She tilts her head to Lilly, who does the same. Are they communicating?

I see Thalia moving her body right next to Lilly’s, and she bends her front legs. Lilly does the same.

‘Try to keep your wings a bit flatter’, I hear Jonathan say, and I instantly look at him. I did not hear him come to us.

Lilly looks up, and I take a step away from her, making space for Jonathan. He opens his arms and stands in front of the dragon. ‘Try to angle them, to make space for the wind.’ I see Lilly does what he asks of her.

That’s when he closes his eyes, and his mumbling starts. He rubs his hands together, like he always does when he charges his magic. He pulls his arms close to his body and pushes them towards Lilly. Air follows his movement, and I see Lilly’s wings start flapping.

The dragon bends through her front legs, like Thalia next to her, and jumps up. Jonathan’s mumbling becomes louder, while he pushes more, and more. A bright blue light manifests from his palms, and I hear Lilly roar when her feet leave the earth.

‘Now flap’, I yell at her. Jonathan’s magic is causing a pretty big flow of wind, which comes hand-in-hand with a lot of noise. I hope she can hear me. ‘Be a bird’, I repeat her wishes.

Slowly she starts flapping her wings, and the noise around me becomes even louder. She gets higher, and higher, until at one point Jonathan drops his arms, and the wind disappears. For a second Lilly seems anxious, but she finds herself pretty quick as she soars higher up the sky. All by herself.

I clap my hands and jump up. I scream of victory and see her set off. It seems incredibly majestic, to see the dragon fly through the sky like that. I run to Jonathan, ready to jump him, but stop right in front of him, when I realize what I’m about to do. I quickly take a step back and turn back at Lilly. She’s already pretty far away from us, enjoying her freedom.

‘Hey’, Jonathan says. I look up at him. ‘Congratulations.’ His smile is beautiful. The look in his eyes is sincere. I feel my heart beat faster and faster, with every second that his eyes cross mine.

‘Thanks’, I say relieved. ‘Are we okay?’

Jonathan winks at me. ‘More than okay. I’m sorry for everything.’

I smile back at him. ‘Bygones’, I say.