~Burdon~

Nasha wanted to see us as soon as we got to the Varden. We went to Nasha and talked with her about lots of things-it was very boring-after that we sparred a little, had dinner, and went to sleep. When we woke it wasn't a extremely exciting week, we pretty much did the same thing: Talk with Nasha and others, spar, eat and sleep-it is rather dull week. Nothing exciting this week. Maybe I should've crossed this out instead. Whatever.
I'll just say it was a very boring week here at the Varden. Wait! There's a 'little' surprise. Other than the 'little surprise' I talked about, I given up on making this sound exciting.

***

~Ava~

I just saw Aeri and Rain together. Ugh, since when does Rain the healer like Aeri? Then again he is a dragonrider; he's also rather attractive for a human. I don't like who's he's courting, I mean, come on, why Rain? I was feeling something inside me, a feeling I had never felt before, or at least not for a while. I hated how Rain gets his attention when I known him for longer, then again she is from Pak Island.
Every time I see Aeri and Rain together I wants to vomit and scratch my eyes out. Courting, out of all the girls in Anjustlia, he had to pick her to court. It's just ridiculous. I could've handle other less attractive girls courting Aeri, but not her. She's too pretty to be just a human-even for a elf she's too beautiful!
I got to stop-uh... what's the word that Aeri used?... Oh, now I remember it-'hanging out' with humans so much and try to spend time with my own species. It will make more sense if I do, and I will start acting like a elf should act.
Oh, what should I do? How do I try to make sense of this-without asking any of the humans, and without asking any Pak Islanders? And without making a fool out of myself for falling for the dragonrider Aeri when it should be the other way around-humans fall for elves far more than elves fall for humans.
I love him, and I can't stand the sight of him being with Rain! I hate this! My heart is totally playing with me, or at least I hope so. Still I love Aeri and I want to show him at we were meant to be together, and that he isn't meant to be together with Rain. I'm so confused. This love thing isn't working out for me very well. It is so confusing. How on earth will I ever understand this? Or how to stand what it's like to love someone who loves-or at least is attracted to-someone else? Wait... I got it! The human specialist, she knows a lot about humans, I'll go to her.
So I went to the human specialist-in case someone don't know what that means, it means a elf who study humans and their behavior, she doesn't stare at humans creepily and doesn't cut people open, she interact with them-and she would to know why Aeri was attracted to Rain. I knocked on the human specialist's tent pole.
"What?" asked the human specialist, from inside the tent.
"It's me, Ava."
"Come in," replied the human specialist. I walked through the flap of the tent, and sat down across from the human specialist. "Ava, what can I do for you?"
"Well, Lyia, what attracts a male human to a female human?" I asked, 'getting straight to the point' as Aeri would've said.
"Well, if they see a attractive female, and-strangely-their scent of smell."
"So, seeing something they like and their scent of smell?"
"Yes." I nodded my head, as if saying I understood what Lyia was saying. "Why?" asked Lyia.
"Uh..."
"Trying to attract a human or something?"
"Well... more like trying to understand why a this human would be attracted to this other human."
"Mmm... and who is this human?" asked Lyia. "
Aeri," I said, embarrassed.
"The dragonrider?" asked Lyia. I nodded. "Hmm, he's actually rather attractive for a human. Those Pak Islanders always are attractive, even for humans. I bet those Pak Islanders could even be mistaken for elves. I can see it now: the elf princess, Ava, and the dragonrider, Aeri. I like it!"
"There's one problem: he's attracted to another female human."
"That will be a major setback," said Lyia, rubbing her chin as if she was thinking. "What's the female's name?"
"Rain."
"Rain?! What kind of name is that?!" asked Lyia. I shrugged. "How attractive is she?" asked Lyia.
"She would be considered beautiful even for a elf," I admitted.
Lyia continued to rub her chin. Then she snapped her fingers and turned around, looking for something. Lyia pulled out a book out of one of her trunks. I saw Lyia flip flew the book, looking for something. When Lyia finally found the page she needed, she looked like she was looking for something on one of the pages. "Yes! I found it!" said Lyia-when she, obviously, found what she wanted.
"What?" I asked.
"I knew there had to be know on the Pak Islanders, and I was right! The scent they find irresistible is lavender. The women, apparently, wears-or smells like-lavender to attract one of the males." Lyia quickly finished reading the page before saying, "It doesn't really say what attract a Pak Islanders besides: being attractive, scent of lavender, women that are: smart, honest, kind, generous, modest, confident, and that's pretty much it."
"That's it?" I asked.
"Wait, I skipped over something. They prefer you to be part of their faith, but you don't have to be in order to get married, assuming if you want to get married to a Pak Islander." "What?!" I asked, leaning down to read that-to make sure she didn't make a mistake. Lyia pointed to the spot on the page, saying, "Yep. Apparently it doesn't matter what your background is as long as your apart of their faith-or go by their standards-even the royal family goes by that."
"Great," I said, sarcastically.
"Yeah, I won't go for a Pak Islander, even if they are attractive."
"Why does Aeri have to be a Pak Islander?" I murmured to myself.
Lyia, apparently, heard me and she shrugged. "Do you know what I noticed?" asked Lyia.
"What?" I asked.
"Pak Islanders, whenever they say "my apology," they have a accent and it sounds so cute they way they do it." There was a knock on the front of the tent. "Do you mind?" asked Lyia. "No," I said.
"Come in," said Lyia.
I was so surprised and so embarrassed when the person who came into the tent was Aeri. He was smirking, but not exactly like a smirk, it looks like he's ready to laugh. "My apologies if I interrupted you," said Aeri, with a accent when he said 'my apologies.'
Lyia was right they sound so cute when they say that, I thought.
"No, I believe we were almost finished when you knocked on the tent," said Lyia.
"Oh, good, I'll just wait outside until your done," said Aeri, turning to leave.
"No, I can't dishonor a dragonrider like that," said Lyia.
Why not?! I thought, wanting to know why she couldn't make him leave-even if she didn't want to dishonor a dragonrider. I am so embarrassed that I can't even explain how embarrassed I am.
"Okay," said Aeri, shrugging his shoulders and he sat down.
"What did you come here for?" asked Lyia.
"I heard there was a human specialist in the Varden, who's an elf, and I wanted to see if she's any good."
"I'll come back later," I said, standing up.
"Okay. I'm sorry we didn't get to finish," apologized Lyia.
"It's okay, bye," I said.
"Bye," said Lyia and Aeri.
I left the tent. Right outside the tent I saw Rain. Rain turned towards me. "Why didn't you go inside with Aeri?" I asked.
"I'm surprised you asked that since you like him," said Rain all of the sudden.
"How do you know that?" I demanded.
"Aeri and I were waiting out here when we heard you say it," said Rain, as if it was obvious.
"You were eavesdropping on my conversation with Lyia?"
"Well, there's a thin piece of fabric called a tent that isn't soundproof. And we were standing right here, so yeah it was kinda hard not to hear your conversation. Same goes for the inside of the tent; they can probably hear us right now if they stopped talking, and vice versa."
"Why can't you just say, "I apologize for eavesdropping" and walk away?" I snapped.
"I'm waiting for Aeri," said Rain, stubbornly.
"How do you know if he even likes you? What if he's just using you to get what he wants?"
"And what would that be?" asked Rain, challengingly.
"I don't think Aeri ever courted anyone before. You're probably just an experiment, after he's done with you, he'll won't even care about you after you even him what he wants." Right after I said that, Rain slapped me on the face, hard. I stumbled backwards and fell on my butt, my hand on my face.
"Let me make this clear for you to understand since you don't seem to use your brain very much: the Pak Islanders men respect women, their wishes, and won't use them as experiments, then cast them aside. I don't know how it is over where your from, but the men on Pak Island never would do that," Rain snarled, defensively. I, quickly, got up and ran away after Rain said that.

***

~Burdon~

After I finished with the human specialist, Lyia, I went outside. I found Rain standing outside, she looked pretty angry. She also look like she didn't want to talk about it, so I didn't push her to tell me what happened, yet. We walked back to my tent that I shared with my family and Ryderr. I sat on my bed, Rain sat on the bed across from me. "Anything you want to tell me?" I asked.
"No," said Rain.
"Let me rephrase that: anything you should or need to tell me?"
"Ava and I got in a cat-fight," Rain.
"What happened?" I asked, curiously.
"She insulted you, and I slapped her, she ran away after that."
"That's it? No clawing each other, pulling each hair, or anything like that?" I asked, in a kinda teasing, but serious, way.
Rain shook her head. "No, there probably would've been if she didn't run away."
I nodded, agreeing with her, obviously. "I'm going to sleep, you can leave now," I said, inviting her to leave. Rain left. I laid down on my bed and just thought about what just happened. Ava said she liked me. Did I like her back? I'm not exactly sure if I do or not. Having two girls like you at the same time is so complicated-you just don't know which you should pick or which one you truly like. There was a knock on the tent-the front of the tent had a pole to hold up the tent, and people used that to knock on-I groaned. "What?" I asked.
"It's me," said Ava.
"Come in," I said. Ava came into the tent, obviously. I stood up.
"Aeri, I think there may have been confusion about what you may of heard."
"How so?" I asked.
"Well..." I noticed that she stopped herself.
"You said you like me, there really nothing confusing about that." Ava, noticeably, bit her lip. She obviously was embarrassed that I had overheard her saying she liked me.
"Well, it would create some confusion and..." Ava paused, looking for the right word. "Cat-fights," I suggested. Ava tilted her head to the side as if she didn't understand. "It will cause some cat-fights, which are fights between typically between two women," I explained. "Oh, yes, it will cause cat-fights," said Ava.
"And we don't want to do that now do we?" I asked.
Ava giggled. "No, we do not," said Ava, shaking her head-with a smile on her face. "Well then, how do we fix this problem?" I asked.
"I could back off and find someone else," suggested Ava.
I was like 'nope' went I heard when her say that. I'm just irked me to see Ava with another man, I thought. "Or just back off," I suggested.
"Okay, I'll just back off," said Ava, then she left the tent. I laid back down on my bed. Just thinking about random things, mostly about which girl to pick. It's really confusing. Really confusing to choose. And 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe' doesn't work in this situation-it's a rather delicate situation, so it won't work.

Arrrgh! I screamed in the my mind, holding my head in my hands, while sitting in a chair. I must be going mad! I just can't stop thinking about her! Why can't I stop?!
'And not have to think about her?' asked a little voice in the back of my mind. 'About how cute she laughs? How she smells of the forest?'
With that, I was hit with a wave of pine, lemony smell, and lavender. And it took over my senses.
Hmm, I hummed, taking in the scent. Then I realized what was going on and I mentally yelled, Ahh! I threw my head back, gripping my hair as hard as I can-almost on the verge of pulling my hair out. Why can't I think about anything other than her?! Because, honestly, I would give almost anything to not think about her for one second.
'Anything?' inquired the voice.
'No, not anything.' I paused momentarily. 'And why am I even talking with you?! Who are you?'
Silence.
But after nearly a minute, the voice spoke again, 'I'm basically everyone's subconsciousness.'
'Lovely, I can talk to my subconsciousness now.'
"Evlât! Snap out of it!" shouted a voice.
And I did. Well... I did after pain flared across my cheek.
I flew opened to see I was still in the same white-padded wall room and in the same chair. But what was different was that Lysende was standing in front of me. And her slender hands on my shoulders, as if worried that I would fall over.
"You okay?" questioned Lysende, concern painted all across her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I muttered. I attempted to stand, but with Lysende's hands on my shoulder, I couldn't exactly do just that. Unless half standing, half squatting-an inch over the chair-counts as standing.
"What are you doing?!" demanded Lysende as she pressed down on my shoulders, which caused to park my bottom down in the chair again. "You shouldn't be getting up!"
"Lysende," I said, reassuringly, "I'm okay." She gave me a skeptical look. "Really, there's no need to worry about me."
Guilt flashed across her face-so quickly that I almost missed it-before she muttered, "No, it's not that."
I raised a eyebrow in question, a tad bit confused. "Then what?"
"It's just that-" And she halted in her speech to scoff-looking to the right, as if there was something that wasn't white in this room. "Never mind." Her face closed off again-like a statue, emotionless. And regained her serious composure. "Please forgot that I said anything about it."
All of the sudden it seemed like someone went into my brain, and snatched out this particular conversation. Somewhat like a hacker would do when stealing information from a computer, I couldn't remember what I just had occurred.
I glanced around the completely white room; and I stared at Lysende, bemused. "What just happened?"
Kneeling down in front of me-a sad expression on her face-she asked me, "You don't remember?"
That angered me quite a bit. "Would I have asked if I did?" I snapped.
"I guess not."
"Then why did you even ask?"
"Never mind," mumbled Lysende.
I grunted in response, still confused about what just had occurred. And that got me mad; I couldn't figure out what happened like a minute ago-it really annoyed me that I couldn't remember what we were talking about before just now!
Oh, I wish, I hoped mentally, That I can eventually remember what had transpired.

∞

Eventually I got of my bed and had dinner. At dinner there was someone who ate alone, I sat down by him. The man, who was sitting alone-obviously-looked up as if surprised that there was someone sitting across from him. "Hi, what's your name?" I asked.
"My name is...Xero."
"Nice to meet you Xero, I'm Aeri," I said, putting my hand out for Xero to shake. He shook it. "Are you any good with a sword?" I asked. Xero, noticeably, hesitated then shook his head.
"You hesitated, why?" I asked, suspiciously. Xero just shrugged. "You're a excellent swordsmen aren't you?" Xero just shrugged again. "I want to see how good you are. Meet me at the training area as soon as you're done eating," I said, giving no time for him to object, and I walked away.
Malhaw and I went to the training area, just like we always do after dinner to spar. We fought for a while before someone came up to them. "I would like to spar with the dragonrider Aeri, please?" asked someone.
I looked behind me, and saw that it was Xero. "Okay," I said. Malhaw went to spar with someone else who's from Alaëa Island. "So you actually came?"
"I couldn't dishonor a dragonrider by refusing his request to see me fight." I smiled.
Xero charged at me, I blocked with my sword.
'Something seems familiar about this fight, even though I had many sparing duels with many people, this one just seemed familiar.'
I blocked every single move that Xero made and made a attack of my own. I slashed at Xero's wrist as if to cut his hand off, but I stopped as soon as my sword got close. Xero looked so surprised, and bunch of other expressions. Xero then swiped at at my head, I ducked. I slashed my sword at Xero's feet, to knock him off his feet, it worked.
Xero was now on his back, his sword out of reach. I rise my sword to Xero's neck. "Do you surrender?" I asked. Xero shook his head no. "Then get up," I said, removing my sword from Xero's neck.
He jumped to his feet.
"You got three seconds to get your sword before the fight restarts," I warned.
Xero lunged for his sword.
"One. Two," I counted, slowly.
He almost got his sword.
"Three..." I counted even more slowly.
Xero just barely got his hand around the hilt of his sword when I charged. Just barely he managed to block my blow.
I removed my sword and stepped away. "Good job," I congratulated, and I walked away. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"That's it?" asked Xero.
"Yes. I was just testing how good you were," I said, without turning around.
"And..."
"You're a good swordsmen," I said, walking away. I walked back to my tent, I laid down on my bed. I heard a paper being crushed underneath him. I got up and saw a letter that had something written on it. I read it.

Dear Aeri,
Since you obviously decided to be with Rain, I decided to be with someone else. Hopefully this will please you. If you ever change your mind you know where to find me. I hope we still will be friends by the time this war is over.

From,

Ava

What?! I was so shocked and confused. I got off my bed to look for Ava. I couldn't find her anywhere. I searched for her for the past few minutes. Then I spotted her. I ran to her. She seemed surprised to see me.
"Aeri, what are you doing here?" asked Ava.
"I wanted to why you gave me this letter," I said, letter in hand.
"You obviously wanted Rain, so I backed off."
"Rain and I stopped courting each other, a while ago," I explained.
"Oh," said Ava, surprised. "So, we can do it?"
"Yes, but I prefer-"
"You can't marry someone out of your faith."
"We can, but we prefer to marry within our faith," I explained.
"I understand," said Ava. "Can I at least court you?"
"Yes, but we have to go by my standards," I said, and I'm pretty sure I'm the one who has the higher standards here, no offense to the Elves'.
"Okay," said Ava, ecstatic. Then put her arms around my neck and lean in to kiss me. "Ava, don't-" started I, but Ava kissed me before I could finish. It was only a few seconds before Ava pulled away, but it left me speechless. I was beyond stunned. My lips were numb, but not in a bad way.
"See that wasn't so bad now was it?" asked Ava.
I said nothing, my lips were still numb, and I was still shocked.
"That's what it's like to kiss a elf." I just nodded, stupidly. "You are so lucky you're cute." I just stood there, dumbfounded. "I got to go now, bye," said Ava, as she messed up my hair again, and she left.
It took a few minutes for me to regain my senses and I walk away. I went to back to my tent and laid back on my bed. I was still shocked from the kiss. I licked my lips, they tasted just like... lavender. But it didn't cloud my senses the way when She did it, Ava just put little bit on. I fell asleep, right then.
"Aeri, get up!" yelled someone. When I didn't stirred the person yelled again, "Get up!" That someone was shaking me, trying to wake me up. I opened my eyes and saw Father standing over me, shaking him.
"I'm up, I'm up," I said. My father stopped shaking him. I sat up onto the edge of the bed. "What happened? Is Empire's solders here to fight us?" I asked, sleepily.
"No, but one of the Empire's spy got in somehow and captured someone."
"Who?" I asked, wide awake now.
"Ava."
"What?!" I demanded, surprised.
"I'm so sorry, Aeri," actually apologized my Father.
"It's not your fault," I said. I began packing my stuff.
"What are you doing?" asked Father.
"Packing, so I can save Ava."
"Aeri. They probably captured her so you would go after her, and they want you to do that," warned Father.
But I wasn't listening. My Father's warning fell on deaf's ears. "I don't care," I said, still packing.
"I know you liked her, but rushing in won't save her-it would only make matters worse." "I don't care," I said, placing the bag on my back.
My Father grabbed my arm. "Aeri, don't do this! Rushing in could get her killed."
Now that got my attention. "How do you know?" I asked.
"Because that is how your I lost your mother," admitted my Father.
"My mother?" I asked. I blinked, surprised. He never talks about her. EVER.
"Yes. I rushed things, and she ended up dying because of it."
"I'm still going to save her," I said, and I shrugged off my Father's hand. I left and put on Licá's armor on, and got up in the saddle.
"Stop, I'm coming with you," said Father, and he got up on Licá. Licá stretched out her wings and took flight.

***

~Ava~

I opened my eyes, but all I could see was darkness. What's going on? What happened? I wondered. I was so sleepy. Why is it so dark? Why can't I see anything? Even in nighttime I could see just fine, but I can't see at all in this kind of darkness. This kind of darkness seemed different than the normal kind of darkness.
I closed my eyes again, but this time I felt something over my eyes. A blindfold, of course. I then realized my hands and feet were bound. Ugh, I'm captured, this is beyond humiliating. One minute I was on my way to my tent, the next I am tied up and a captive.
I feel like I'm moving. Suddenly I stop moving and I get shoved off of whatever I was on, and I falls on what feels like the ground. My captor made me sit up in siting position. My captor took off my blindfold and guess who it is?
It was a young man. A young man that I have no idea who he is.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The young man hesitated, then said, "My name is Massenet."
I have never heard of you before. And I have never met you before.
"Why did you bring me here?" I demanded.
"Are you not courting the enemy dragonrider Aeri?" asked Massenet. I didn't say anything for fear of what would happen.
Should I say yes, or no? I don't know which one I should choose. Which one would make Aeri safer? Which one would keep us both safe? I wondered, mind whirling. "He is not here with me right now, as you can see. So why don't you just untie me and let me go," I said, showing as much confidence as I could.
"No, you will get the dragonrider to come here. All in have to do is capture him," said Massenet, pleased with himself.
"Please he's not easily to capture," I warned.
"I know, that why I have you," said Massenet.
"Even with me he won't be easy to capture," I snapped.
"I have a secret weapon that will make him very easy to be captured," said Massenet, smirking. I glared at him. "Did you know that the men of Pak Island are very protective of their women, even if they can defend themselves. That they are also very territorial of their women?" "Doesn't matter," I said.
"Oh, but it does. And you'll see soon enough that it does," said Massenet, smirking. I just glared at him.
I wanted to punch him in the face so badly that it seem to illegal to want to punch him this badly. But, sadly, my hands were tied. So I couldn't. Such a shame. I really wanted to punch him in face, stomach, or where it really counts.'
"Good night," Massenet as he put the blindfold over her eyes, again.

***

~Burdon~

As Licá flew I searched everywhere for Ava. I looked for any signs of where Ava might be; I hoped that Ava wasn't all ready at the capital of the Empire. Ugh! Why?! Or why did they have to take Ava?! I thought, angrily-growling. It bothered me that Ava is in someone else hands. It did not made me, or my wolf, happy that Ava is in someone else hands. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Calm yourself, or you'll shift," ordered My Father.
Breathing in and out, I eventually got myself calmed down.
"That's better. Remember you cannot shift at all while we're here. I know your instincts are telling you otherwise, but you cannot, no matter what happens," ordered my Father.
I nodded, saying, "Yes, Father."
The longer Ava was in danger, the more angrier I got. By the time we found a scent that matched Ava's, I nearly was about to exploded. We tracked her scent for a while. It been days since Ava was captured, but I wasn't giving up-Ava was mine, after all.
I then saw a horse traveling with two passengers. One of the passengers had the same color, and style, of Ava; and it was a girl. The second passenger also was tossed along the side of a horse-that helped catch my eye, and it was the one who was Ava. I told Licá to drop in front of them. Almost immediately, Licá dropped in on the right in front of the horse, and I told the rider to halt. The rider stopped his horse. Ava's captor is a young man and that didn't sit well with me. The rider dismounted his horse, leaving Ava on the horse. And I dismounted from Licá. The rider walked right up to me.
"You're the dragonrider Aeri? But you're so young, how are you a dragonrider?" asked Ava's captor.
"I'll answer that once you give me Ava."
"No. Now that I think, I, actually, don't really care how you're a dragonrider."
"What do you want then?" I asked.
"To capture you," said Ava's captor, as if it was obvious.
"Why?"
"So I can get rewarded."
"Oh please," I said, rolling my eyes. "Don't you realize that Jazer won't reward you? And if he does, either he'll kill you or just use you, then throw you away like a useless piece of junk." Ava's captor just shrugged. "My name is Massenet, by the way."
"Well, Massenet, release Ava now," I ordered.
"Nah, I'll pass," said Massenet, mocking me. I caught Massenet on the jaw. He deserves it for taking my Ava from me. While Massenet was stunned, I untied Ava, brought her to Licá, and put her in the saddle. Everyone was on Licá by the time Massenet came to. Licá took off before Massenet could do anything about it. We flew for a while, making sure that Massenet wasn't following them. It was a while before we landed, Massenet was no longer following us. Everyone got off of Licá, and went to hunt for food and supplies we desperately needed.
Both Ava and I made it back to the campsite, after we gathered all of our supplies that we needed, but my father was nowhere to be found. I was about to call out to him-to see if he was near-when something thing hit me in the middle of my chest and I went flying. I landed in a lake, right next to where their campsite was. I tired to swim up to the surface, but my arms and legs wouldn't obey my commands. I was suffocating; I need air. I tried to get to my arms and legs to obey me, but they wouldn't obey me. Then, I felt someone grab me, right before I fell unconscious.

-
Question(s) of the chapter:
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