fragile time

~chapter 1~

I spotted Emily sitting on the floor, surrounded by bottles of ingredients for our potion. A small, empty sack laid on the floor next to her. She held a bag of dust with one hand, and a container filled with mermaid scales in the other. A purple liquid bubbled in a bottle, magically hovering over three candles. How? I wasn't sure. Emily's golden eyes studied a large, open book on the ground. "Fancy seeing you here." I started, "You know keeping an open book by the fire is hazardous, right?"

She looked up as a strand of her pale blonde hair fell from behind her ear. Emily stood and eyed me skeptically. She whispered, "Summers, My prince. Did you get it?"

I whispered back, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because it's a dragon fang?"

"It's really not hard to take something from Taylor, Emily."

"Of course. She has a dragon. How did you convince her?"

"Who said I convinced her?"

"Stealing is against the law," She raised an eyebrow, "Looks like I'm going to have to arrest you."

I rolled my eyes and walked over to her. We joked around with this kind of stuff a lot, and I knew she would never get me in trouble. I trusted her, and she trusted me. "I dare you," A smirk played on my lips, "..I dare you to arrest me."

Emily put down the two ingredients in her hands on the floor as she sat. "Micheal Summers of The Barrier wants to challenge me?" She absently teased.

I glanced down at the potion, of which her thoughts were completely taken by, "Later. Right now, we have a potion to finish."

I took the dragon fang out of my pocket and handed it to her. "Dragons are hard to handle, Summers," she said as she studied it, "I'm impressed."

"Really?"

"Of course not."

We continued making the potion, Emily adding the ingredients and me reading off the book she got. This continued on for a while, until the last ingredient. She looked at me, "The fang?"

"I handed it to you five seconds ago."

Emily looked back down to the fang she put behind her. She took it in her toughened hand and glared at me. "I was testing you."

She quickly plopped it in the bubbling potion. A few drops landed on her and she muttered a string of rude remarks.

"You got a little..," My voice trailed off as I wiped some of the few potion droplets off the ground.

"Thanks," Emily opened the cloth bag in her hand, "I was about to do that, though."

"That's what friends are for," I said as I peeked over her shoulder at the contents of the small bag.

It was filled with dust. My eyes trailed back to the potion right as the dragon fang dissolved into part of the potion. Took it long enough. Most of the other ingredients crumbled immediately when it hit. I didn't notice Emily dump all the dust in her bag into the potion. This time, the potion was the one to disappear when the powder sucked it up. A puff of smoke came out of the little container, signaling we had created 'sleep dust.' I looked to Emily again, who was now putting out the candles. The faint smell of smoke filled the area. I took the sack off the floor- Emily's- and started to put all the ingredients inside. Once we finished cleaning in companionable silence, she spoke again, "What do you plan to do with this?"

I rolled my eyes. "We test it out," I said like it was obvious, "of course."

"On..?"

This was going to be fun. I looked around the room for the perfect subject when I suddenly remembered Mrs. Zapp. Of course, I would have book-sorting duties in the library for months- maybe even years- but it would be worth it. Then again, I've been alive for a little over 200 years, so they weren't long to me. A smug smirk appeared on my face as I stood up. Emily's eyes narrowed, "Are you s—"