The problem would be to do everything without anyone seeing her, so that she did not have to give explanations.
There was no difficulty in passing the servants, since they could simply deduce that she was carrying out an order. But there would not be an excuse that was convincing enough for one of the Dragons.
Then she waited until the moment when the house was quieter and walked carefully to the kitchen. She did not want to be surprised like the night before, and to her relief none of them seemed to be inside the main house. There were also no servants in the kitchen as they were all mobilized to clean the roofs and the task could take a long time. Even so, she moved as fast as her unstable body allowed, so she could go back to the bedroom and be quiet until that passed.
— What are you doing?
Garo-lin let the glass fall to the floor and it bent twice before it crashed, spreading all the half-prepared syrup on the floor.
Everything was going perfectly too well for it to last long.
Desperate to have nowhere to run without cutting her feet, Garo-lin bent down to gather the shards of glass and thereby try to disguise her situation, while the Fire Dragon regarded the damage and filth in an accusing tone:
— Pretend you're not hungry not to eat what we send for kodorin and you are assaulting the kitchen behind our backs?!
Holding herself so as not to do the foolishness of facing the dragon again, since she had discovered the worst form that was not worth it, she appeared to be too concentrated in her hands, trying her best not to show how her nose was bothering.
— Is this how you thank who saved your life, vilashi? Ignoring?
Calling her debt that way, in that situation, was too much for her to listen to. She stood up and dumped everything she'd put together on the table along with the ingredients she was using and then she replied:
— As if I had asked to be saved by you! – and tried to leave the kitchen, passing boldly beside him.
However, the dragon did not seem to have given up on his attempt to make her life more miserable than it already was and closed the way, not letting her pass:
— Since when are you allowed to be ungrateful, vilashi? Why are you leaving? Are you going to leave things here just as they are?
Seeing that she could not cross, Garo-lin ducked into the other door leading to the courtyard. Unfortunately, she was feeling too heavy to be quick enough and the dragon again managed to bar her way.
— You will not run away this time! Don't forget your oath! I'm your mentor and you must obey me!
It was not enough that she had lost all sense of danger and punched his nose; it was not enough that she had almost drowned in her ridiculous attempt to escape; and it was not enough that she had been saved by him. Now the Fire Dragon needed to chase her down to simply hammer all this information into her head.
— I vowed to obey my mentor in an Assignment! – she sniffed, so she could continue. – This is not na Assignment!
— So run! – he laughed. – The mombelula is outside, waiting for some more uncontrolled maneuvers!
It had moved beyond the limits of Garo-lin. Her nose had entered an unbearable level of burning and her eyes began to sizzle. She realized what was coming and tried to somehow stop it, covering the lower half of her face, holding it tightly with both hands. But her lungs were already inflating and she knew there was no way back to the process.
— Hey! Are you crying? – Dul'Maojin seemed confused by her attitude.
Then, without even being able to warn, she sneezed.
Chapter 7 – The consequences of vilashi's sneeze
— It's just the scariest thing I've ever seen! – Sfairul commented, kicking a piece of what had been a moment ago the wall of the kitchen that had now been reduced to smoldering debris.
— It’s impossible! – Zawhart exclaimed the same phrase from the moment he arrived at the place. – It can’t be!
— But she’s so small! – the Metal Dragon was telling Dul'Maojin, taking an arm of Garo-lin, and showing how the vilashi was depleted compared to a healthy, well-fed almakin. – She couldn't have done all this damage! Are you sure it wasn't you?
— Of course not! – the Fire Dragon defended himself, while still unconfined with his charred robes, seeming not to mind the fact that the damage could have been worse if he had not instinctively deviated at the last instant.
Sitting in a chair, with Kidari at her side, being surrounded by the Dragons, who, for the first time, showed confusion before her, Garo-lin felt lost. She had been given a glass of hot tea and that had allayed the uncomfortable feeling in her nose, which was not necessarily a guarantee that she would not sneeze again.
— Sorry – it was all she could say, her voice shaken after she'd been standing for so long, held tightly, afraid to sneeze for the simple fact that she was breathing.
— Is that all you have to say, idiot? – Dul'Maojin asked in his typical rude form. – Would a "sorry" be enough if the absolute I had been burned?
Garo-lin noticed Kidari's mouth, silently silencing the word utterly and utterly confused as to its meaning and use.
— Krission, that’s not the point! – Zawhart finally came out of his state of rational shock and began to unravel the consequences and possibilities of what happened to friends. – Don't you realize that this useless almaki vilashi, which proceeds is not known of which family and which is only a shadow of almakin, used a potential of first order?
Garo-lin was offended by the first part of the speech, but the second made all her answers dissipate in her thoughts. How had she used a first-order potential?
Dul'Maojin laughed, as if his friend were making a joke. But the Lighting Dragon was not exactly playful, and at the moment, his expression clearly stated that they were facing a very serious situation, which caused the leader to shut up.
Then the Fire Dragon looked at the debris, which now only let out a faint smoke, and said in his usual subtle tone:
— Hey, useless vilashi! Since when do you shed walls with sneezing?
Garo-lin gave him a loaded look, thinking that, yes, it would be the appropriate time for a sneeze. However, as the Dragon Leader realized before, they were dealing with something serious there, and this atmosphere made her speak:
— It was the first time I destroyed a wall.
— So you've never done that before? – the Lighting Dragon asked.
She stared at those interrogative glances, assessing if she should reveal something that she had hidden so long for them. However, she had destroyed the wall of the main house of the Dul'Maojin fortress and was not exactly in a position to refuse to give explanations. Even more so when they piously gave her this rare chance before they punished her.
— Yes – she started. – My mother said that they discovered that I had an almaki when I was still kid. I splashed on a night of Nanfan Storm. Until I went to the Institute, I must have done some... – she counted on the fingers. – I think about nine times.
— And at the Institute? – asked Gran'Otto, curious.
— They were few times and I never caused any damage. Over time, I learned to avoid colds.
— And can you? – Sfairul did not believe.
— Not always, but... – she stared at her feet and confessed in a lower tone: – Sneezing like this today only happens with a combination of factors.
— And what are they? – asked Zawhart, with the typical interest of a researcher.
— Several... – she left the answer loose, not wanting to speak of that part to the Dragons, but she could not help glancing at the Fire Dragon, giving a clue.
Seeing that she was not very willing to cooperate with his interest, Zawhart tried to address another part of the subject:
— And when you entered the Institute, did you inform the masters?
— Yes.
— And why did not they take action? An almaki like this can be dangerous for other students.
Garo-Lin stared at him for a while and smiled w
ryly.
How could they become disrespectful about it?
Then she answered in a tone she had never dared to use before some almakin:
— Is not it obvious, Lighting Dragon? I'm a vilashi.
Evidently, he was above even the master masters of the Dul'Maojin Institute and understood perfectly what she had said. The others did not seem to find that an enlightening answer. However, Zawhart did not wait for his friends to understand and was satisfied with the interrogation, saying:
— Very well... Kidari!
— Huh? – she answered promptly with the fright in her language.
— Go with her in the adjoining buildings and look for the butler. Ask them to come up with some medicine and tell them to fix it.
— Hey! – Dul'Maojin protested. – She broke, she repairs!
But Zawhart paid no attention to him and then told the others:
— We, Dragons, we need to have a meeting.
***
— She is amazing! – Gran'Otto exclaimed as soon as Gillion closed the fireplace door. – Neither Krission could make a hole in those with a sneeze!
— Kandara would get – Sfairul laughed.
— Shut up! – complained Dul'Maojin, throwing himself in the largest armchair anyway. – She was lucky and it was a combination of favors.
— Factors – Gillion corrected him.
— Did you understand!
— No need to be mad, Kris – the girl provoked.
— I’m not mad! – he growled, folding his arms.
— This is no time to be angry, Kris – Zawhart warned, using a counter tone from his friend and trying to make the matter not get lost in jokes.
— I already said that I'm not!
— Whatever – the Lighting Dragon waved his hand, making little of his friend's tantrum, and stood in the middle of the room, motioning for everyone to sit down. – We have to decide now what we are going to do with her.
— Decide what? That vilashi passed the limits and-
— Kris!
Faced with the fury of the Lighting Dragon, who visibly wanted to say something very important and could no longer tolerate being interrupted, Krission Dul'Maojin fell silent and pretended not to listen while the others were attentive.
— It is not only that she has a powerful almaki. She is not trained and will never be dependent on the Institute. It is up to us to decide what to do, since she is our responsibility.
— And why should we worry about it? – Sfairul asked incredulously. – It's just a vilashi.
— Exactly! – Zawhart agreed, pointing to his friend as he looked at the others. – Exactly because we have this kind of thinking is that the kitchen wall has exploded. Don't you see, Benar? It's simple to ignore someone like that and leave it to yourself, waiting for she to be quiet in her corner. But this vilashi has already shown that she is not the type to follow orders blindly. Look what she did with Kris' nose!
— She caught me off guard! – he justified himself.
Zawhart continued as if he had not been interrupted:
— We can't trust her and her sneezing. If she is not trained within rules and principles, soon she will learn a proper way to handle the fire. Imagine what they will think if they find out that a vilashi is capable of first-order power? – he cast a significant glance at the Fire Dragon, who pretended not to hear. – We can't let someone like her think of joining the pirates.
— You look like my mother talking – Dul'Maojin grumbled.
— I agree with you, Vinshu – the girl appeared, raising her hand as if she were standing in front of one of her masters and needing authorization to speak. – But don't you think you're rushing? She is the only vilashi with almaki in all the Almakia.
— Yeah... as far as we know. She may well be the only discovery by the Institute. What if there's more like her? Will they have the same power? What about those outside the Realm? How many more foreigners with almaki like this Kidari Chanboni can come in here and steal our Secrets under the facade of maintaining good relations with the other Realms?
— Vinshu, Almakia is the largest Realm that exists – Sfairul said, casting a meaningful glance at him and indicating the Fire Dragon. – It would take all the other Realms to come together if they wanted to defeat us, and conflicts like this haven't happened for centuries. Almakins are needed everywhere and no one will go against us.
Zawhart stared at his friends for a while, probably arranging the ideas that should have popped into his head at that moment, and then nodded:
— No one against us... okay, I might be taking things to an extreme. But I think it would not be wise to leave a vilashi with this power to walk for Almakia thinking that it is at the level of a dragon just because it impressed us. She should be kept under surveillance. And since our masters have already been negligent for the simple fact that they don't know about the power of her almaki, we will have to take that forward. We are the Dragons and we have authority for this decision.
— What decision? – Sfairul asked.
— Train her properly.
— What?! – the exclamation came from the four at the same time.
— Or rather, Krission must train her.
— What?! – the leader of the Dragons repeated the question, shocked, as if this were the most baseless thing he had ever heard in his life.
***
— What?! – Garo-lin asked, shocked, as if this were the most baseless thing she had ever heard in her life.
— How do you want me to train someone who doesn't even understand something as simple as that? – the Fire Dragon replied to his friends, pointing uneducated to his protégé.
After deciding what to do, Garo-lin and Kidari were summoned to the fireplace room, where they were to receive their sentences.
— Kidari too? – she asked, pointing to her face to indicate herself.
— Her too! – Dul'Maojin spoke specifically to Kodorin's mentor, as if reinforcing what had already been said.
Zawhart sighed and folded his arms, counting reluctantly:
— I made a deal with Kris and, if he's really going to be his mentor, I too must fulfill my role.
— Kidari use almaki? – the kodorin asked softly to Garo-lin, seeming that only this fact was already good enough for her to accept.
— Wait! How will he train me? – Garo-lin tried to sort out her thoughts. – Okay, he should be supervising me. But I have already received training at the Institute and I'm not allowed to use my almaki outside of what is ordered.
— A dragon will order you, isn't enough? – Zawhart asked, showing that his plan was perfect.
— But it's him! – she indicated Dul'Maojin, wanting with that simple gesture the clever dragon to understand that of all the souls of Almakia, he was not qualified for anything else, but to think that all owed him full devotion.
— Hey! You can't talk to me like that! – the dragon leader understood enough to classify that reaction as offensive.
— I don't want it! – Garo-lin stated.
— I didn't say? – Sfairul murmured to Gran'Otto.
— She will accept – the girl replied, not missing any moment of the scene.
The Royal Dragon next to her smiled slightly and did not seem concerned about the outcome of that discussion.
— You'll accept! – Dul’Maojin asked. – It's an order!
Garo-lin looked at her mentor and held herself so that she could not go any further, since she still did not feel well enough to avoid another sneeze, and then left the room snorting, hoping that this would make her opinion clear.
— See?! – the Fire Dragon exclaimed to his friend. – She doesn't want!
— And you? – Zawhart asked Kidari, staring at her as if the whole weight of the decision now rested on the foreigner.
And all Kidari was able to do was shrink and look at the floor, hoping that with that to spare.
***
Garo-lin climbed the tallest gazebo in the fortress and sa
t on the edge of it, hanging her legs out and resting her arms on the wooden eaves. All she saw was the dark, misshapen mass of the forest and the feeble reflection of the night lights on the mirrored surface of the lake, which gave her room to imagine herself far from all her troubles.
She would not scream, but she could just stand there, giving the Dragons time to think about how absurd this idea was. Maybe the reason would speak louder inside their heads and come to the conclusion that it was too late to put an end to that false assignment and go back to the Institute, where both she and they no longer needed to support each other.
— Why do they have to get complicated? – she sighed, putting her face in her hands.
— It's not complicated.
She almost fell back with the fright and turned in time to see, even in the dim light, the Royal Dragon sitting next to her, smiling in that his quiet manner forever.
Why did he have this habit of appearing suddenly and always doing her scare?
At the same time, she thought it was not exactly a bad thing. Having the only dragon with whom to hold a conversation was perhaps a good thing. So she could ask what had been stuck in her throat for some time:
Almakia_The vilashi and the Dragons Page 9