Nox, after embarrassingly screaming for a couple of seconds, finally managed to get a hold of himself.
When he imagined himself riding a dragon, an embarrassing scream was the last thing that came to mind.
He had very much missed the opportunity to look cool, and any attempt right now would just be embarrassing.
Maybe Ayla didn’t notice.
He slowly turned towards her only to realize that she was looking directly at him.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
Yep, she definitely heard his scream. Nox peeked over the edge, seeing how far away from the ground they were.
Thinking about it, the ground did look pretty solid today, maybe he should jump off and check ?
"We’re close," Ayla interrupted his thoughts as she pointed towards a glowing barrier that they were quickly approaching.
Nox sat up straight before letting out a sigh.
Slowly, he took off his mask and his looks immediately reverted to his previous self, after all, he wouldn’t want anyone knowing him as the Grey Warden.
His white hair reverted to their normal black and the combat clothes turned into the casual ones he had on.
He was back to being very much unassuming, save for the fact that he had a rarely seen golden eyes.
But not everyone would pay mind to that.
"Should we land this just outside the barrier?" He asked as the barrier got bigger, the closer they got, "to avoid causing panic."
...
Was what he suggested, but what she did was the complete opposite.
She had the dragon fly directly above the barrier, casting a shadow below and definitely causing panic.
She then sent it back to her shadow, causing them to drop from a couple hundred feet in the air.
Though unexpected, Nox didn’t embarrass himself this time. Instead, the moment they got close enough to the barrier, Nox and Ayla activated their Solar energy and Umbra energy respectively before disappearing.
Below the barrier, the citizens of Solara Prime were left confused.
Just a moment ago, they had seen a dragon like Eclipsed and the next second, it disappeared?
Was this some kind of prank?
The duo appeared on the top of a building inside the city and they immediately registered all the sounds below them.
Nox sat properly on the edge as he looked down at the people who were calming themselves before turning to Ayla who was also sitting there, but a bit further from the edge.
"You almost caused them a heart attack," Nox said with a chuckle as he watched a few people let out a sigh of relief before going about their day.
"Hmm," Ayla simply nodded before adding, "it was fun."
Nox simply looked at her before shaking his head, her definition of fun was definitely different from the people below, but even he had to admit,
The dragon ride was fun, well, forgetting the part where he screamed in fear... no, not a scream of fear, it was just a lapse in judgement which lead to a scream of surprise.
Nothing else.
After a while of just sitting there, Nox turned to Ayla and asked, "do you miss them?"
"Hmm?" She turned to him, a bit confused so he clarified.
"Your parents," he knew it wasn’t his place to ask, but he did, "do you ever miss them?"
Ayla was silent for a short while which made him panick a bit before waving his hand before him, "you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to."
There was silence between the two, before it was suddenly broken by Ayla, who finally replied.
"No," she shook her head, "they abandoned me, so no, I don’t feel anything towards them."
She was right, she felt neither hate, nor longing or anger towards them, just a cold indifference.
Now, Nox didn’t know why he asked, maybe he was just a bit curious or maybe it was because he had no impression of his parents.
Maybe Ayla’s and his situation were similar?
Did they also abandon him because he was abnormal? Without even noticing, he had taken the necklace tucked under his shirt and was absentmindedly playing with it.
He lifted it to eye level before asking, "what are you?"
Of course no answer would come from a necklace, so he just put it back under his shirt and continued looking down.
"The sun is setting," Ayla reminded and he looked up, indeed noticing that the artificial sun was going down.
"Let’s go," he muttered, standing up and Ayla nodded, before the duo teleported again.
Nox landed lightly close to the gate of the academy with Ayla beside him, her umbra neatly suppressed as if nothing unusual had just happened.
To anyone looking now, they were just two students who had returned a little late from an assignment.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the knights rushing toward them.
A squad skidded to a halt several meters away from the Academy’s gate, they seemed to have been sent by the kingdom and had come to the academy for a couple of reinforcements due to what they just sensed.
At their center stood a captain, his eyes sharp and alert.
"What was that presence?" he demanded since the two seemed to have just come from outside the barrier.
"We detected a massive umbra spike directly above the barrier."
Nox opened his mouth, already prepared to lie through his teeth.
Before he could speak, Ayla calmly said, "Residual interference from a collapsing rift outside the settlement."
"One that takes the form of a dragon?" The captain asked clearly suspicious.
"Yes," Ayla simply nodded, her expression making it hard for one to know if she was lying or not.
The captain hesitated, clearly weighing whether to press further but before he could, another presence approached, one that made every one of them straighten instantly.
The headmistress.
She walked forward with measured steps and a small kind smile on his face. Despite that, the pressure she exuded was unmistakable.
"I sensed it too," she said calmly. "Ayla is correct."
That settled it.
The captain lowered his weapon and bowed slightly. "Understood, Headmistress."
She turned her head toward Ayla. "Are you injured?"
"No," Ayla replied.
"And you?" her gaze shifted toward Nox.
He slowly shook his head. "All good, ma’am."
"Good," she said. "You’re both dismissed. Report later."
She paused just before turning and added, "there’s someone who’d like to meet you two tomorrow, especially you Nox, I hope you’ll make yourself available."
Nox was a bit confused but he just nodded, since this was a request from the headmistress, there was no way he would deny it.
With that, she turned and left, the knights parting before her without a word.
"See you later," Ayla said calmly, about to walk behind the headmistress but stopped when Nox spoke.
"Um, would you like to grab some cookies together?" He asked hesitantly and she looked at him for a while before shaking her head, "tired."
With that, she turned and walked behind the headmistress, though Nox could tell that she really was tired...or maybe she was mad because he asked a question he shouldn’t have?
"I guess you got rejected," Astra though, not so much, "are you going to drown in sadness?"
"No," Nox shook his head as he turned to his newly arrived teacher, "I’m also a bit tired, so I’ll also get some rest."
With that, he tried escaping but his collar was firmly grabbed by her, "not so fast lab rat."
There was a small smile on her face as sweat ran down his back, "didn’t we have something planned today?"