The Promise Path

~ Chapter Twelve ~

"Woah." Lucy says once Avery is done with her explanation.

"Crazy, huh?" Avery replies with a soft smile.

"Yeah." Lucy agrees, then it registers in her mind that she is still clinging to Avery like a monkey. Her face and neck become tinged with pink as she feels embarrassment at the fact that she is in a sort of intimate position with her best friend who (she believes) doesn't like her back. Lucy decides to say, "You know, Avery, you don't have to hold me anymore."

"Yes I do." Avery counters, much to Lucy's surprise. Her blush darkens as she gulps and asks nervously,

"And why is that?"

"I kind of charred the ground. It might be too warm for you." Avery informs her friend. She decided to leave out the fact that she really, really enjoys having Lucy in her arms. It'd probably scare Lucy off. Avery is looked down upon for being so many things. She doesn't want the fact that she only is attracted to girls to be one of those reasons too.

"Oh." Lucy says in a soft voice as she looks at the blackened earth beneath Avery's feet and surrounding them in a large circle. She wants to try and heal the earth, but she's not sure how to do so without actually touching the earth. Lucy decides to try and use Avery as a conduit for her earth powers. She has no idea if it'll work, but she can at least try.

Lucy focuses on her affinity for the earth and pictures it as a dark green light in her that she can send places. She imagines it going from her into Avery through her fingers, then Lucy pictures it traveling through Avery's body until it goes out through Avery's feet into the damaged ground around her.

After a few minutes of Lucy concentrating on trying to send her powers through Avery to the ground, she opens her eyes and looks down at the ground, astounded to now see grass, flowers and healthy, normal dirt where there one was charred earth. She gasps while Avery, still tingling from having earth flow through her, stares in awe at Lucy. She has always known that Lucy was powerful and had a deep connection to the earth, but she never knew she could do things like heal damaged ground. It astounds Avery and makes her even prouder of Lucy, and somehow, even more deeply in love with her best friend.

"That was amazing, Lucy." Avery murmurs in utter awe, gazing at the repaired earth around her. Lucy blushes as she says,

"Thanks."

"We should return to the others before Cassius sends one of the other dragons after us." Agni tells Avery mentally. She agrees,

"Alright. Let's get going." Avery then returns her consciousness to focusing on the world around her instead of communicating with Agni and gently places Lucy on the ground since there's no risk f her getting burned from it. Lucy realizes that when Avery is speaking to Agni through their bond, Avery's eyes become red like Agni's eyes and his eyes become brown like Avery's. She finds it quite interesting.

"Avery? What's up?" Lucy asks, looking up at her friend and watching as her eyes slowly fade from red back to the natural deep brown colour.

"Agni said we should head back before Cassius sends one of the dragons to come fetch us." Avery tells her, getting angry again just at the thought of Cassius and his unfair control over the dragons. She huffs and shakes her head slightly. She can't do anything about it right now, since Cassius will be on guard and protecting the jewels too fiercely for Avery to take them undetected. As much as the thought pains her, she'll have to wait a little bit to retrieve them and return the jewels to the dragons.

"Okay then. Let's go." Lucy replies. She starts walking forward, Avery soon joining her with Agni strolling behind them protectively. He keeps all of his senses focused on their surroundings so he will know if someone, or something, gets near them. As they walk through the forest, growing closer and closer to the clearing in the center of the Maleficus Quadratum, Avery and Agni both grow angrier with each step. Their fiery tempers gradually build, reaching their maximum when both of them spot Cassius exactly at the same time.

Cassius notices the three dragons still around him turn their head to look into the forest in the direction that Avery, Lucy and Agni disappeared. He tenses up and starts to sweat slightly when he feels two glares practically burning holes through his body. He can't help but gulp as he sees Avery standing there with her arms crossed and her massive, intimidating dragon standing behind her. Instinctually, Cassius nearly lowers his head under Avery's stare but he manages to keep his head up. However, he can't hold her gaze. It's too powerful and too filled with rage.

"Good, you have returned." Cassius speaks, hoping they don't notice the slight tremor in his voice that he can't help from happening when in the frightening presence of Avery and her dragon.

"Not willingly." Avery mutters under her breath without realising.

"What was that?" At Cassius' words, Avery practically jumps. Her eyes widen in fear and she takes a step back, closer to Agni in order to feel safer. She says,

"Nothing." Cassius narrows his eyes slightly at Avery, trying to figure her out. One minute she is filled with rage and is confident, the next she is afraid and self conscious. Avery makes no sense to Cassius. He sighs and says,

"Are you all ready to depart? It's about time that we leave on the quest to find the necklace."

"Yes." The other three teenagers all chorus, with Avery's response softer than Lucy's and Daniel's.

"Good." Cassius replies, following up the word with an order, "All of you, strap your bag to your dragon so we can get going."

The four 16 year olds follow the instruction, with occasional grumbles from Daniel and Lucy, then they all get on their dragons. Avery gets on easily and settles into the saddle quite quickly. She strangely already feels comfortable. Lucy, Daniel and Cassius all squirm around slightly while they try to find the most comfortable position to sit in with little success. Once they are all situated, Lucy questions,

"So where are we flying first? Are we going straight over the ocean or are we flying down a bit?"

"We're going to fly straight to Gibraltar at the southernmost part of Spain and rest there for the night before flying over the Atlantic Ocean in the morning." Cassius answers.

"Are we stopping at all during the fly to Gibraltar?" Daniel asks. Cassius sighs frustratedly and says,

"No, we are not! So get comfortable now." He looks between the other three teens, asking with annoyance in his tone, "Any more questions?" Avery stays still, not responding at all. She is fighting to keep control of her anger, and she also doesn't like Cassius. He still slightly frightens her but also really pisses her off. Daniel shakes his head in response to Cassius while Lucy replies,

"Nope."

"Good. Let's start heading to Gibraltar now." Cassius commands, then puts his right hand into his pocket to order Arno to start flying to Gibraltar high in the air and out of the sight of anyone looking up. He wants to be high enough so if they do get seen, at most, all they'll see is a dark, indistinguishable shape in the air. They'll most definitely brush it off as a bird.

The other dragons follow suit, lifting up into the air after Arno. Agni is the last to lift off, since he wants to be as far away from the water dragon and the Water Warlock as he can be. As they start to fly through the blue, cloudy sky, Avery's nervousness grows. She hopes this quest will be quick and easy, but something in her is saying that it'll be the exact opposite.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Author's Note:
Hey guys! This is actually the shortest chapter I've written in awhile. The past few weeks I was able to at the chapter to around 3,000 words long but for this one, I got to a point and thought it was a good place to stop. Also, then the first part of their quest (which is filled with A LOT of drama by the way) can maybe be written all into one chapter! It depends on how long the chapter gets and how evil I'm feeling. So, basically, we'll see.

Also, I just gotta point out the parallel between how this chapter started and how the previous chapter started. I just love it! Avery goes from walking over to Cassius kinda nervously to stomping over to him. It wasn't intentional, it was just something I noticed after I wrote the beginning to this chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

~Nia and Sophia