FSE

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** -S-**

My bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios tasted sour this morning. It could have been the milk. It could have been Necross sitting next to me acting like last night's events hadn't happened. It could have been both. Iris sat on the floor on my left side, happily swallowing down his sweet bread. Necross was chowing down on his egg omelet, bacon, and pancakes. I should state the fact that it was his third helping of the same foods. It didn't surprise me as Necross was a large dragon and needed more food to sustain his body than say I did. What did bother me was that he would intentionally draw a heart on his pancakes and make eye contact with me as he ate it. Was he trying to be flirtatious? I couldn't help but grin ever so slightly and shake my head, receiving a chuckle from him.

Kia and Jace seated themselves next to us, greeting us with warm smiles, "Good morning you two. Is there anything to report today Silnis?" Kia was munching on toast and bacon while Jace patiently waited for my response, all the while dressing his sunny-side up eggs.

"No, as far as I've been informed. Everything seems to be okay. Unless there's another attack, everyone's free to do what they want," I notified them.

"That's good. Jace and I were thinking of spending today together. Right big guy?" Kia said, nudging Jace with his elbow. He nodded in agreement. I found it so cute how Kia managed to charm Jace into a relationship with her. I knew that Jace had been reluctant at first due to their species difference, but later on grew to accept the fact he liked Kia as well. Now if only I could resolve my relationships so easily....

"Hey, Lance! How are you doing?" Jace questioned Lance, having just arrived. Something was off about him.... I could tell by his body language. Was something troubling him? Perhaps some of the Rafflesia poison caused some side effects. He sat down next to Necross, receiving a friendly pat on the back from his fellow dragon.

"You hungry Lance? Sophie cooks up a mean breakfast! Try it!" Necross suggested, pushing a full plate of his food in front of Lance. I was concerned when he didn't respond or even react. He just sat there...lost in thought. Necross tried to be funny and poke a piece of bacon into Lance's mouth, doing the same with a piece of his omelet.

"Necross, stop," I told him, standing from my chair and walking over to Lance, "Lance...is there something the matter?" Upon hearing my voice did he come back into reality.

"Oh...um...nothing's the matter. I just had a bad dream last night and it kind of startled me," he explained.

"It's okay Lance. We all have bad dreams from time to time. If it makes you feel any better, my bad dreams are mostly about crickets and grasshoppers," I said, puzzling him.

"Crickets and grasshoppers?" he asked.

"Yes...they-" I was about to say until Necross cut in.

"He's afraid of them. Or...should I say...deathly afraid?" he chuckled, reaching into his pants pocket. I quickly reacted and threw down a flash of light, blinding him and kicking him down. I pinned him down with a foot, glaring at him.

"Don't...you dare...," I warned. He chuckled, pulling his hands up to show me a slip of paper with that troll face meme printed on it. He burst out laughing, though muffled as my foot was blocking his throat.

"Damn it Necross!" I exclaimed, releasing him as he got up and laughed fully, "That's not funny!"

"Oh...your reactions are always so priceless!" he hooted. Ugh, that dragon, he can be so immature sometimes!

-L-

"Umm...," I managed to say after that little stunt from Silnis and Necross. Silnis looked annoyed and turned away from the still laughing Necross, waving the slip of paper around in the air.

"Silnis is has a certain fear towards crickets and grasshoppers. It's from a childhood experience he had," Jace whispered to me, chuckling a bit. Kia was amused as well, grinning widely.

"Ok...," I said, putting up a small smile, but my mind was still on the vision I had last night. Should I tell Silnis and everyone else? They should know right?! I-I should tell them. I will! "Umm...Silnis, I need to talk to you about my dream."

"Don't think about it Lance if it scares you that much. I know that from experience," He told me, glancing at Necross, "How about we take today to relax and let our minds get away from everything? It'll be a nice break for us."

"But-" I was about to interject.

"No buts! You're not going to get away from having a free day. Now come on. Let's get going before Necross decides to pull off anything else," He quickly rushed us out of the dining hall and through the portal, leaving me no choice but to follow. Great...now how was I going to tell Silnis? It was the perfect opportunity and I missed it. I couldn't tell him now. It'd ruin the rest of the day for him. I'll keep it to myself...for now.

Popping out of the portal, we arrived on the shores of a busy beach. No one seemed to freak out when we appeared out of nowhere, but I just had to assume Silnis' light magic was distorting the area to make us appear more naturally. The ocean scent hit my nose and it was pleasant. Families of all sizes lined up on the shore, enjoying the warm sun and cool waters. The joyful vibe got to me and I slowly stopped thinking about my vision.

"I love the beach. It's always so fun and vibrant. The breeze is amazing, the waters are crystal clear, and the sunlight is pure and warm! There's no place that makes me feel any better than a nice beach!" Silnis commented, having changed clothes in the short amount of time we had traveled. He sported white plaid shorts, a white t-shirt with black trims, and a blue plaid shirt over it all. The breeze made his short silver hair blow back a bit and it was like I was gazing at a model on a magazine. My heart throbbed a bit and I couldn't help but blush just a little. Silnis was just so good at that.... I wonder if he does it on purpose?

"Where are we?" I had to ask.

"Florida of course, though this is one of the less crowded beaches," he clarified, bending down and scooping up a handful of white sand, "Beaches like these don't have much garbage on them so I like them better. I know Jace would have a fit if he even saw one trash bag on the beach. He's just like that." He gestured for me to walk with him as we strode down the beach, admiring the beautiful ocean view and Silnis, at least the latter in my case. It was hard to not stare at him. How could I not? I knew I undeniably had a crush on Silnis. I just hoped he wouldn't notice my constant staring at him as that would be very awkward to explain.

"So...Lance, tell me a bit about you. I want to get to know you more besides your name," Silnis asked, looking up at me with those silver eyes.

I jumped a bit, thinking he had seen me looking at him, but his question registered itself to my head, "Oh...well...there's not much that's interesting about myself," I quickly replied.

"Don't be ridiculous. Everyone has at least one thing that's interesting about them, even you. So...anything special about you?" he continued to ask me. I stood in silence for a minute, trying to think of at least one good thing about myself that was considered interesting. A glint of gold light caught my eye and I noticed that my scales were reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. That's right...my topaz scales.

"Well, I do have my topaz scales. If you look close enough you can see that they look almost like real topazes," I told him, extending an arm out for him to look at closer. One of his hands placed themselves into mine, sending a pleasant vibe up my arm, and the other held my arm as he examined my scales. A slight blush came to me as I turned my head away to avoid him seeing it.

"Amazing...they do look like real topazes!" Silnis exclaimed, running his finger over one of my scales, not realizing the pleasing effect it had on me. My scales may not look sensitive, but they actually were. I could feel every soft touch of Silnis' finger as he gently went over each individual scale with complete awe in his eyes. As much as I enjoyed this, we needed to do something else besides admiring my scales.

"Silnis, why don't we get some ice cream?" I suggested, getting his interest quickly.

"Where?" he inquired, letting go of my arm and looking around for an ice cream stand. I only came up with that excuse so that we wouldn't look awkward just standing there with him staring at my arm. Luckily, there happened to be one near us!

"Come on!" Silnis insisted, grabbing my hand and pulling me over there. "I'd like chocolate chip mint please." The vendor looked at me, awaiting my order of ice cream.

"Oh...uh...I'll have vanilla," I told her. She went to work scooping us our ice cream all the while I just realized--how was I going to pay her?

"That'll be $10.25 sir," she said, handing Silnis our ice cream as she looked at me again for payment. What was I going to do? Run for it? No, that'd be wrong and stupid. Plus Silnis would probably scold me for doing such a thing. I guess there was no choice but to tell her the truth.

"Umm...I don't have-," I was about to tell her until Necross appeared out of nowhere and tossed the money down in front of her.

"Here you go!" he exclaimed with a toothy smile on his face. His sudden appearance scared the both of us, but the vendor took the money anyways without question. Necross pushed us along while Silnis watched him warily and I a bit confused. First off, how did Necross know where in the world we were? And Secondly, why was he wearing swim trunks with nothing else besides a Hawaiian shirt? I know we were on the beach, but it's not like we were going swimming or anything. He was the only odd one out with Silnis and I being fully dressed.

"Necross...," Silnis grumbled, licking his ice cream and trying to keep his distance from the other dragon. Necross, however, was really chummy and kept Silnis and I in front of him at all times, using excessive hand contact.

"Man, it took me quite a few trips to find you guys! First, I was in Australia! Then, I was in Africa! And finally, after a few stops, I found you guys here in Florida! What have you two been up to? Trying to strike up a relationship without me?" he asked, making both Silnis and I blush.

"Necross!" Silnis exclaimed, turning to face him, "I'll have you know! Lance and I were just hanging out together as friends!" It was obvious Silnis was still ticked off about Necross' prank from earlier this morning.

"Hey...relax Silnis. I'm completely unarmed right now. Don't need to get all agitated. Well...you are kind of cute when you're angry. Shall I feed that fire?" Necross leaned his head right in towards Silnis' and I thought for a second he was going to kiss him. But that thought was quickly diminished as Necross stopped a few inches short and used his lengthy tongue to lick off a single drop of ice cream on the side of Silnis' mouth. Silnis stood in complete shock for a few seconds before twitching and giving Necross such a dirty look.

What transpired next was terrifying, to put it bluntly. In a split second, Silnis threw Necross to the side of him and sent out an explosion of light that sent him sailing towards the ocean. He skipped the water a few times before finally sinking, resurfacing with a dazed look on his face. I looked over at Silnis, continuing to eat his ice cream with a satisfied grin on his face. Note to self...never get on Silnis' bad side. I was relieved to find that there wasn't anyone else nearby at the time. That would have been one heck of a situation to explain.

"Is he going to be all right?" I asked Silnis, happily munching away at his ice cream cone. He licked the ice cream off his fingers before smiling devilishly at the wading Necross.

"He'll be fine. He's taken worse blows than that before," he commented before walking away. I glanced back at Necross, who was incoherently mumbling about something with a wonky look. Well...he was in no danger of drowning. I guess he would be okay if Silnis says so. I followed after Silnis, walking besides him for a few paces before a burning question came to me.

"Hey...Silnis...what was your life like...before you became a champion?" I asked him, curious. He stopped walking abruptly and got a sudden distant look in his eyes. Something already told that I shouldn't have asked him that question, "I-I'm sorry Silnis. You don't have to answer." If I end up like Necross, then I deserved it if I hit a touchy spot for Silnis. He turned to look at me and I was certain that I was going to get blasted into the ocean too, but Silnis sighed deeply before taking a seat on the sand.

"No...it's all right. I've grown used to people asking me that question. It's just...difficult to recall it when it's always at the back of my mind," he explained, resting his head on his hands. I sat next to him, closer than is usually allowed for personal space, but I didn't notice at the moment.

"Well...you don't have to go into great detail. I'm fine with just the gist of it," I clarified for him.

"Thanks...that'll save me a lot of stress," he smiled warmly at me, meaning it, "Let's see...well...my life started fine when I was little. Everything was perfect and I was fine with having it like that. It wasn't until I moved to a different state and transferred schools. I was unfamiliar with change and didn't know what to do. Some kids tried making friends with me, but I was left alone after a while. I've never experienced that before...isolation. I've always had a friend to keep me smiling and happy, but this new exposure was toxic to my heart. Over the years I grew anti-social and depressed. I didn't show it to anyone though, not that they cared anyways. When I started high school, I got picked on. Again...it was another exposure that I wasn't familiar about. I started to have...dark thoughts. No one cared for me. No one noticed me. I was just a ghost wasting his time in this world. It eventually came to one night when I was about to end my life. I was tired of being alone and rejected. If no one really cared about me then they wouldn't miss me if I was gone. I went to the nearby lake, about to drown myself until a soft voice called out to me. A lone firefly, with an unusual white light, led me to Pacema's hall and there she gave me the strength to create my own light. She made me realize that I was too dependent on others to shape my future and who I was. I had to take things into my own hands and make my own life. All I ever wanted then was to be seen and heard. But, I'm glad that I have friends now that can see and hear me." He ended it there, having a melancholy look in his eyes, but also a faint smile.

Silnis...he was so alone back then. He didn't have any friends to support him. Funny...it sounded a lot like...me. I looked over at Silnis, seeing in him the same person I was back then. I don't what came over me, but I wrapped my arms around Silnis and held him tightly against me. He gasped in shock at first, but I didn't feel him try to push me off. His reaction shocked me as well as he wrapped his arms around my neck and embraced me as well. He had his eyes closed, head resting against my chest, and smiling peacefully. I did the same, enjoying the tender moment we shared. It wasn't anything romantic. We were just two friends who had something in common.

I was enjoying the moment when Silnis suddenly gasped out loud in shock, pushing away from me as I was worried something was wrong. I was about to ask when images of Penelope and her warriors defending their Element--Ventus. The images disappeared when Silnis grabbed my hand, running us towards a portal that had opened up nearby. I noticed he had changed into his battle armor. My armor appeared in the usual burst of flames and I was set to go. Just as we were about to enter the portal, one last image appeared in my head and it was of one person--Penelope.