Word Count: 2002
Amber glanced at Alejandro, then Elijah, then back at Alejandro, and then at the path ahead of them. Alex waited for her to say something. She didn't.
"Hey...by the way, I don't think I ever apologized for...that thing with Joan. Like I'm sorry if I hurt you. And not just physically," Alex said as sincerely as he could.
"Oh, I'm over that. It's fine, I was more mad with Joan than I was with you, but we worked that out already," Amber explained. Alex waited for her to continue. She didn't.
"So..." Alex prompted.
"So..." Amber echoed. Alex rolled his eyes.
"You know what I'm getting at. Why do you keep looking at me funny?" Alex asked impatiently. Amber cleared her throat and looked at their feet as they walked.
"You won't be offended if I tell you?" Amber asked.
"No...? I guess it depends. But probably not," Alex replied vaguely. Amber sighed, looking back up at Elijah, who was walking ahead of them, listening intently as Evalyn talked animatedly to Joan and him.
"How are you guys friends?" Amber asked plainly.
"What?" Alex was caught off guard.
"Really. How are you guys friends. I mean—You're super booksmart, don't think I don't notice how you answer all of Joan's science and Earth questions. You think logically. Now...no offense—okay, maybe a little offense—but you're clueless when it comes to people skills. You comfort people like a pro, I've seen you do it, but you wouldn't have to comfort them so often if you didn't make them upset in the first place. Elijah, on the other hand...he's booksmart, but a normal amount booksmart. But emotionally? That kid is on another level. And I know that opposites attract, but you guys are...it just seems like you two have nothing in common. I mean, I get it. My older brother and I are the same way. He's super booksmart, I know how to read people. But we're siblings. We had to work through years of misunderstandings and arguments. But you guys are just friends; either one of you could dip out whenever you want. So how are you guys so close?" Amber asked, "And that's not to say I haven't seen tons of friends and couples who have the same dynamic, because I have. And they work really well. But you guys just seem...unlikely."
Alex let that sink in. How did he and Elijah work so well? They never really fought. There wasn't ever a whole lot to fight about. They had been fighting a lot recently, but they were also closer than ever.
"I...don't know. I may not know how to read people, or how to tell when people are getting uncomfortable and just trying to hide it, but I know how to comfort him, and that's a super rare thing, I guess. Like not a lot of people speak his language, so some people try to comfort him and they just make it worse. And he can read me pretty well, but sometimes I wish he couldn't. He knows when I'm lying, he knows when I'm upset, and he knows—...He just knows. There's pros and cons to everything. But I've known him since, like, preschool. We used to be neighbors, and our moms were friends, so we used to get rides to and from school from each-other's mom depending on the week. That happened until like second grade, and then he had to move, but he still went to school with me. Surprisingly, it was after he moved that we started getting closer. And we haven't really stopped being friends since," Alex replied thoughtfully. Then he paused, laughed, and continued, "That's not true, actually. He stopped talking to me for a whole month in the summer between seventh and eight grade. I thought he hated me, so I decided to ignore him when school started again. Turns out, he was grounded and didn't have access to his phone, so he thought I hated him when school started. That lead to one of our biggest fights ever, but it doesn't really count, because neither of us actually did anything intentionally...mean. It was a colossal misunderstanding, but it didn't take longer than like three days for us to get back on track after the fight."
Amber was silent. She was staring at Alex again.
"What?" Alex asked, like Amber had accused him of something.
"Nothing," Amber dismissed, looking down again, "It's just that you guys are literally perfect for each-other. Like. Soulmate-level perfect."
"Amber, how many times do I have to tell you we're not-"
"Okay, but still, I think you can have platonic soulmates. Even if you're never romantic with someone, you can still be soulmates. And you can have more than one. I think me and my dad are platonic soulmates. We just get each-other. I've always told him everything, he's always been real with me; some souls were meant to be with each-other in life, but that doesn't always mean romantically. That doesn't mean I don't believe in romantic soulmates, too—I think Evalyn is my romantic soulmate. We have something really special. And so do you and Elijah. Even if it's 'not romantic'," Amber elaborated (with finger quotes around the 'not romantic' part, which Alex elected to ignore).
"I guess that makes sense," Alex agreed. After all, 'mate', in a lot of the world, just means a partner. A pal. Someone you spend time with. Why did it have to be romantic? As intriguing as the idea of a romantic soulmate was to Alex (ever the romantic), he liked the sound of platonic soulmate. Or just an all-encompassing soulmate. Best friend and romantic partner! How cool would that be?
"Is Evalyn both, for you? Best friend and girlfriend?" Alex blurted.
"Oh. Absolutely," came Amber's immediate response, "I love her. Even if she broke up with me, I'd still want to be her friend."
"That's sweet," Alex grinned, and he left it at that.
"-and then he never talked to me again," Evalyn concluded.
"Wow. I mean, I don't blame you, I would have done the same thing," Elijah laughed.
"Yes, you definitely would have. You two are very similar," Joan concurred.
"We are?" Evalyn asked, quirking an eyebrow and glancing at Elijah, who shrugged.
"Yes. You're both very emotionally tuned, you have strong wits, and you're harder to read than most. Plus you're both short," Joan explained, grinning.
"What? I am not short," Elijah argued.
"Well how tall are you?" Joan asked. Elijah rolled his eyes.
"No, really. How tall are you?" Joan repeated.
"Five-foot-four," Elijah mumbled, "But it's not like you're super tall. You're hardly taller than Amber."
"That may be true, but Amber and I are both average height. Really, though, you shouldn't be upset. What you lack in height, you make up for in attitude," Joan quipped. Evalyn laughed, and Elijah couldn't help but snigger a bit with her.
"Fine. Okay. I'm short. But you're-" Elijah's words died in his throat when Joan shot him a sideways glance.
"That's what I thought," Joan said smugly.
"Whatever. I'm changing the subject; how much longer do we have to walk before we reach some sort of checkpoint or rest stop or something?" Elijah asked.
Joan looked around thoughtfully, his pace slowing.
"I'm not exactly sure. If I'm correct, we're close to Pyron," Joan provided.
"We're crossing through Pyron?! No one told me that!" Evalyn exclaimed.
"What's Pyron?" Eli asked, though he got the feeling he didn't want to know.
"The fire territory. In this world you've got the forests, the fire territory, the rock lands, the plains, the seas, and the kingdom. There are places that certain things cross over, like how we've got rainforests. But the fire territory is one of the biggest," Joan elaborated.
"I knew it was getting warmer," Evalyn mumbled.
"So we started in the rock lands?" Elijah asked.
"Lythendor. And yes, that's where the portal brought you," Joan confirmed.
"And now we're headed to-"
"Pyron," Joan reminded.
"Pyron. Right. So is the whole place surrounded by fire or what? Can't Amber control fire?" Elijah continued.
"Eli, Amber and I might be high level, but there are still some things we can't control. For example, Pyron has a lot of volcanoes that are constantly erupting. Amber can't stop that," Evalyn interjected.
"Oh," Eli replied lamely.
"Yeah. Plus, none of us are dragon trainers," Evalyn added.
"Dragon trainers? Why would we...? Oh," Elijah said in realization.
"Yeah. Dragons," Evalyn nodded.
"That breathe fire and everything?" Elijah asked.
"Yup," Evalyn nodded again, popping the 'p.'
"Well, technically, there are dragons in every realm, but each type of dragon is different," Joan said. Elijah waited for him to continue.
"Are you gonna elaborate?" Elijah asked.
"Amber, Elijah wants to know about dragons," Joan called.
"Ooooh what about them? What do you wanna know?" Amber asked, jogging to catch up. (Alex followed suit.)
"Umm...Everything?" Elijah said.
"So there's five main types of dragons. First, you've got your Pyron dragons; fire dragons. The stereotypical fairytale creatures. They're vicious, they have fireproof scales, they're huge, they have big, sharp teeth, they breathe fire, etcetera. They're carnivores, they're un-tameable, and they will rip you to shreds. Then you've got your Arbran dragons; earth dragons. They live under hills and mountains and things like that. They're generally pretty tame, they like just hanging around their caves, they're generally pretty small, at least compared to the other dragons, and they're herbivores. They don't breathe fire, but their waste is actually super good for soil. It's basically fertilizer. Then there's Lythendor dragons; healing dragons. They're colossal, but they're super sweet. They're herbivores, and they have healing—this is gonna sound weird—but they have healing tongues. So if you want something healed, you have to trust the dragon enough to let its' mouth near you. A lot of people don't know they're herbivores, so they get too scared to let the dragons' mouth anywhere near them. I guess I don't blame them—having a dragon lick you would probably be terrifying," Amber trailed off, glancing to make sure Elijah was still listening.
"But anyway," she continued, "they live in Lythendor because of all the gems and rocks. On Earth, believing that rocks have healing powers is frowned upon. Here, it's common knowledge that rocks have healing powers, but it's also super difficult to activate their powers, so most opt not to. So yeah, that's the Lythendor dragons. There's also Campis dragons; they live in the plains. They're omnivorous. They're on the smaller side, but they have massive wings. You'll hardly ever catch them on the ground; they're always flying. They mostly eat birds and stuff. And last but not least, you've got the Nympheron dragons. The water dragons are really long, and instead of wings, they've got wing-like fins, so to speak. They're omnivorous, and a lot like dolphins. Playful and generally pretty harmless to human players. There's a ton more info I could give you sometime-"
"Nope! That was way more than I expected, as it is. You really like dragons, huh?" Elijah joked.
"You have no idea, kid," Amber replied teasingly.
"On a more serious note..." Alex chimed in, "That means we're entering the area with vicious man-eating dragons everywhere?"
"Yes. Also the area with constantly erupting volcanoes, deadly hot springs, and many other dangers," Joan confirmed. Alex's expression soured considerably.
"Good to know," he replied bitterly.
"Come on now, Alejandro. Video games rarely want to kill their players. What would be the point in adding a level that no player can get past? Well, besides the boss level, of course," Joan said soothingly. Alex grumbled, folding his arms over his chest.
"That's right. There is no point. So just keep your wits about you, make sure you watch where you step, and use those reflexes of yours," Joan instructed assuringly.