The Promise Path

~ Chapter Eleven ~

"Agni, the dragon either can't hear me or isn't listening to me. Do you think you could ask him to come to the surface so we can talk?" Avery mentally requests. Agni responds,

"I will try my best, my little fire. But sadly, the water dragon and I do not get along very well."

"Is it because he's connected to water and you're connected to fire, or is it much more complicated than just element-based tensions?" Avery questions, her curiosity pushing her again.

"It is a bit of both, actually. It started off as a small feeling of intolerance towards each other due to our opposing elements and opposing personalities, but a lot has happened in the hundreds of years that we've been alive." Agni says. Avery wonders what happened but since Agni is being vague, she assumes that he doesn't want to talk about it and decides to leave it alone. When she's closer with Agni, she might trying to ask again, or maybe he will become comfortable enough to talk about it and tell her on his own. Whatever the situation is, Avery is content to wait.

"Well I hope one day you two will be able to solve your differences and become friends." Avery tells Agni. He chuckles lightly and says,

"Thank you for your hopeful and bright attitude, little fire, but we will have to wait a long time for me and him to become anything close to friends. For now, let's focus on our work in getting him out of this lake." Avery smiles slightly somberly and agrees,

"Indeed. It is time for action." She pauses, "Also, do you know what I should call him?"

"I do not know. You will have to ask him that yourself." Agni tells Avery, then disappears from the forefront of her mind. She sighs at the loss of Agni's presence but she knows she can't stay in her mind talking o Agni constantly. She has a life to live, even if it's a shitty one. Avery looks over the water and despite her discomfort and slight fear, she sits by the water's edge and keeps her hand constantly in the water, trying desperately to send positive vibes to the water dragon. She has absolutely no clue about whether or not it is actually working, but she is staying hopeful. She can't help but be a bit of an optimist with Lucy as her best friend, since Lucy is such a positive person.

After about 15 minutes, Avery's hope dwindles and she is about to pull her hand out from the water when suddenly, the water dragon bursts straight out of the lake. It flies in the air for a bit with Avery watching from the ground in awe before swooping down above Avery. He picks her up by her shirt with his front left leg and carries her above the forest while Avery tightly closes her eyes and fights the instinct to scream since she knows it'd just attract attention to her.

She instead reaches slowly up to put her hand on the dragon's leg. She concentrates as best as she can over the sound of the wind whipping past them while the dragon carrying her flies through the forest at an incredible speed and sends her typical message of introducing herself and speaking positively about the rider, but this time, Avery doesn't really have anything to say about Cassius. So, instead, she just pleads with the dragon for him to join them on their quest. She hopes it will help them, but if not, she can't force it (and wouldn't even if she could). Cassius, however, can and will force this dragon to do his bidding, which is just cruel.

Eventually, the water dragon flies over to the part of the forest where Agni has been anxiously pacing and burning the forest floor due to his concern for Avery's safety. The dragon drops Avery not too high off of the ground and when she hits the ground, she rolls to absorb the impact and is perfectly fine. The dragon lands behind her and after checking that Avery isn't injured, Agni snarls at the water dragon. They start to circle around Avery and make weird growling like noises. Avery is guessing that they are yelling at each other in their dragon tongue, and Avery soon gets sick of it.