Dragon Deep

Chapter 3 - The bead

The next few days were a pure torture for me. It was hard to walk around without a familiar, while everyone else were walking about, showing off their familiars.

Olyrir was no exception. His Egyptian Lion was exactly like him, in terms of character. It too, loved to show off, often purring and proudly raising its head and walking along with Olyrir. Stares and gasps followed. Those who didn’t know what kind of familiar that was all stared, at the sight of an exotic and different familiar. Those that knew what familiar that was, all their eyes widened and jaws dropped to the floor.

Olyrir’s constant smirk could not be wiped off his face. Did I forget to mention? All day, almost every hour, I had to tolerate his story-tellings of his Egyptian Lion, which he had named Solarie, it was a she, after all. Me? I would nod and smile, or rather, pretend to smile. I would, deep in my heart, feel jealous and dwell in self-pity, for I didn’t have a familiar.

“Oh, wow, good for you.” I said quite flatly.

“Oh, and you know, when I went with Sol to the lake, I bumped into Dragonkeeper Aaron!!?? He was so amazing.”

My ears twitched when I heard the name ‘Aaron’. I finally looked up and paid attention for the first time in almost forty minutes.

“So what happened?”

“He actually praised Sol, and said he envied me!!!” Olyrir held a gleeful smile. His head was raised slightly, showing that he was much more superior than me.

That kinda made a ripple in my heart, drawing out the depths of my misery and making jealousy dig straight into my soul. I bit my lip. No! I couldn’t feel that way. I should be feeling happy for them all. I should be feeling happy, for those two, Olyrir and Sol, or Solarie.

It was so hard, to feel happy for people when I was breaking within. I wished Olyrir could be a tiny bit more sensitive towards me, but he wasn’t. He was oblivious. I didn’t even have the heart to blame him, he was my best friend after all. He was merely excited over having a familiar, like everyone would be.

Thinking that way, I forced myself to smile, just to relax my facial muscles. I did feel better, slightly.

“Are you listening, Aria?” I snapped myself back to reality.

“Yeah, yeah.” I responded, nodding.

“Okay, so I was saying…”

I sighed mentally, bracing myself for yet another story of him and Sol.

“So I’m going to the Feline Academy, for cat familiars.”

“What? When are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Wh-what??” A chill ran down my spine. He was leaving me? He was leaving??? But…

“Uhm…Yeah…I wanted to tell you earlier, but I just couldn’t. I mean, I…didn’t want to leave you alone here…”

I didn’t know how to react. My facial expression wrote nothing but shock. I kept blinking, even shaking my head. Realization dawned on me. Yes, he was going and there was nothing I can do. I opened my mouth to say something, but I found nothing.

I gulped. My breath was shortened and had transformed into tiny gasps.

“You’re…You-You’re leaving?” I didn’t want to accept it. He couldn’t… He was my only friend. If he left…I would be so alone…

“I’m…sorry… I don’t have a choice. I would really stay here too…”

It was obvious Olyrir didn’t really want to leave either. He didn’t meet my gaze, probably unable to do so. I saw him swallow.