Alterations

Tension

My first thought was,
Wow, that was easy.
But I had the nagging thought in my head debating if he was telling the truth.
As I went to question Kellan, Emmett quickly spoke up.
"How do we know that you are not lying to us?"
Both Emmett and Kyden's faces were set into a slight scowl with their eyes narrowed.
At first Kellan seemed confused, but began to smile.
"I can assure you that I speak nothing but the truth. In daylight I will show you proof that we are who we say we are, if you would like me to."
Emmett just responded to him with a grunt.
I lost interest in the conversation at this point. I looked over to see Emerson and Kindle conversing. Emerson had a slight blush on her face as she laughed at something he said. I then diverted my attention to Luna, who was staring up at one of the griffons in awe. The other man that aided us, I believe was Nathaniel, smiling brightly at her while petting the griffon's leg.
Both of the griffon's coloring was breath taking, but the dragon was beautiful in its own unique way. The griffon that Luna was admiring was pure black, but when the moonlight hit its wings just the right way, a vibrant violet became noticeable. The other griffon was also black, but the violet was replaced with a royal blue color.
"That griffon that your blonde friend is staring at is named Cadmar. He is twins with the other griffon over there. That one is named Magnar. "
I jumped at the deep voice that spoke behind me, and turned to see Kellan looking down at me. He just smiled and began to speak again while gesturing to the dragon that was sleeping.
"This beautiful creature here is Valda."
The silver dragon grumbled and opened her eyes. To say she was large would be an understatement. She was easily twice the size of the griffons.
I was dumbstruck. I looked to Kellan and asked,
"So she can understand you?"
Valda let out a noise that sounded like a snicker. Kellan found my question funny as well and responded
"Of course, how would we be able to communicate effectively if she couldn't. She and I have a bond. Along with the others and their griffons. We can share thoughts, images, and conversation in our head. Valda's hearing is extremely sensitive, so any conversation can pretty much be heard within a certain distance. Almost everyone, even small children know this."
He was speaking to me as if I was a child and due to embarrassment, my face began to turn a beet root color. Valda saw my embarrassment and glared at Kellan. His eyes went from me to her, then his mouth fell into a frown.
His eyes made their way to mine and I got lost in their beautiful chocolate brown color. I looked down to his full lips and was thinking about how it would feel if they were on my own. It was at that point that I noticed that he just finished speaking to me.
I looked down to my feet quickly and mumbled,
"I'm sorry, do you mind repeating yourself?" My face blushed red yet again.
"Sure," he brought his hand up to my chin and nudged my chin back up so I was looking at him.
"I want to apologize for making you feel embarrassed. We were told that you and your friends might not know anything about our world. I should not hold that against you. Again, I am very sorry."
I took notice of him saying that he was told by someone else, but was unable to ask about who told him that information because I heard a small yelp and beating wings.
I quickly turn around to see Luna, Nathaniel, and the griffon spring up into the air. All I could feel was adrenaline coursing through me as I watched them take off into the air.
"What the hell are they doing?" Emerson yells frantically at the same time, I blurted out
"I want to do that! It looks so cool!"
Kellan's head whipped around as he gave me a confused look.
"You would enjoy flying?"
"Yes!" I grinned up at him, noticing at how he took a step closer to me. Kellan had a grin of his own when he responded,
"How about now? Valda wouldn't mind too much." We both moved our eyes to Valda. She was already looking at us with her reptilian eyes. She moved her head in nodding motion, confirming that a flight would be okay.
Before I could respond, both Kyden and Emmett intervened.
"No" they both said at the same time with the same unimpressed look from earlier.
"She is not getting on a dragon at the moment. She is hurt, she is tired, and quite frankly there is not enough trust established yet. We, as in you and I, can discuss our travel option tomorrow once everyone has rested." Kyden growled at Kellan.
"Can you please get Luna back on the ground now?" Emmett clenched his jaw, a look of pure jealousy on his face.
Kellan looked stunned. Emerson and Kindle were behind Emmett with shocked looks on their faces as well. Both Emmett and Kyden were coming of as extremely hostile.
"I'm sorry, Nathaniel and I were not trying to be inconsiderate of all of your conditions. Of course, I will have Valda let them know to land as soon as possible." Kellan placed his hand on his heart and bowed his head slightly to show he was truly sorry.
He glance at Valda, who was already looking in the air at where Luna, Nathaniel, and Cadmar, were flying.
I did not realize I was staring at Kellan, until Emerson nudged her elbow in to my ribs. I jumped slightly, because I was sore, but before I could say anything to her the ground shook. Cadmar, Luna, and Nathaniel landed. After Nathaniel helped Luna down, the group gathered yet again to decide sleeping arrangements.
"The willow tree provided us enough privacy before, would it be possible to use it once again? Also, should we fear another attack?" Luna asked quietly. Tiredness evident in her voice.
Nathaniel was quick to respond to her inquiry.
"The tree will do! We can go ahead and set up camp if you wish? We..."
"We will sleep outside of the tree. The girls can have under the tree to themselves for privacy."
Emmett took a large step to be next to Luna and put his arm around her in a protective manner. Everyone in the group could see that he was jealous of Nathaniel. Luna's face scrunched up into a scowl as she roughly pushed Emmett's arm off of her. Normally, she would had blushed profusely and kept quiet if Emmett shown any affection for her, but since her small flight with Nathaniel she has been more put off my Emmett's protectiveness.
"Over there, now!" She stretched up and grabbed Emmett's ear in a motherly manner and dragged him away from the group to have a "private" yelling match.
The rest of the group tried not to eavesdrop, the key word being tried.
WE were not able to catch everything, but there were a few phrases we caught from the angry Luna.
"Stop treating me like... relationship... you always... little sister..."
Emmett's response was too low to catch, but from the way Luna's face flared red, it was not good.
Luna stomped on the ground like a two year old and walked back to the group. She grabbed both mine and Emerson's arms and proceeded to pull us under the tree. We said a quick good night over our shoulder to the men and started to try and prepare to rest for a few hours.