“What are you guys doing out here?” Jim asked.
Gill pointed down the path. “There’s a spot up ahead where I like to meditate. I was going to try to teach Brath how to calm his spirit and see deeper into his center.”
Jim got down on one knee so he could be face-to-face with Brath. “I don’t think I’ve met you yet either. My name’s Jim, but my friends call me Jaws.”
Brath slapped away Jim’s hand and spat on the ground. “Three things. One, don’t ever kneel to look a gnome in the eye. It’s rude. We know we’re shorter than you. Two, we aren’t friends, human. I can hardly tolerate your kind. Three, you keep trying that nice human crap, I’m going to knock that smile off your face, you got me?”
Jim stood up, looking like he had just bitten into a lemon. “Okay, I guess. Nice to meet you, too,” he muttered.
Brath pushed past Jim and walked past Alex, stopping for a moment. “Good to see you too, Boundless. Hope you two had a good walk, but a word of advice. You two probably shouldn’t mate. You would have hideous children. I’m talking goblin-ugly.”
Gill shook his head as he walked after Brath. “I don’t believe in apologizing for friends, but I think we can all see that Brath might benefit from meditating. It was nice running into you two. See you around.”
Gill and Brath disappeared into the forest, leaving Alex and Jim standing in awkward silence. There was a lot for Alex to take in. The easiest one was Brath’s change of attitude to her. He didn’t seem friendly in the least, but he did seem like he respected her. She could say the same about him.
Next was Gill. He was so cordial and outgoing to Jim. Did he suspect something? Was there a reason for him to, or had he just started to come out of his shell a little bit? Alex didn’t know anything about drow or their personalities, and she did very much want to get to know Gill.
Which brought her to the next point, rounding out the topics she could obsess over for the next few days—Jim. Not the baby part. She couldn’t care less what their kids would look like. She was more concerned with what their faces would look like if they were mashed together.
Jim cleared his throat as he awkwardly kicked a rock next to him. “What’re you thinking about?” he asked.
“Huh? Oh, nothing. Nothing. Just lunch. Getting kinda hungry, right? I think I’m going to head back. All this exercise has got me famished. I’ll catch you around.”
Alex headed back toward the Nest as fast as she could, only realizing later how rude she must have seemed, running away from Jim after he’d asked her to go on a walk. It didn’t matter, though. She knew things were going to get weirder soon enough. Might as well be the one to get it started.
Chapter Two
Alex was making her way back to her dorm room through the Nest when she felt something tugging on the back of her mind. It was like having a word on the tip of your tongue; you knew it was there, but you didn’t know why or how.
She had a rough idea of what that feeling was. She had felt it a couple of times since she’d arrived at the Nest. It wasn’t something she usually had time to focus on, but it had continued happening. It was similar to how she felt when she was close to Chine.
Alex decided she would go to her room later. She would head to the stables now instead.
It didn’t take long for Alex to find the stables, even with the Nest’s halls constantly shifting and changing. Sometimes Alex wondered if the Nest was trying to make her life easier or harder. She still hadn’t gotten lost, so maybe it didn’t matter.
Alex stood before the entrance to the stables. She held out her hand, and the crystals provided her with the datapad. She pressed her hand to it and the doors split open, revealing the stables.
The lights instantly came on when Alex stepped into the room. This was the first time she had been in there by herself. Obviously, it wasn’t a big deal since her credentials had worked without a problem. Alex made a mental note to start stopping by here more often. When everyone was gone, the stables were pretty calming.
Alex walked up and down the rows of dragon-outfitting stations. From what she had seen the last time she was here, the dragons used the areas above their stations as beds. The ceiling of the stables opened to the sky, so the dragons could come and go as they pleased.
There weren’t any signs on the outfitting stations saying which dragon used which one. Maybe they were all interchangeable, or maybe the dragons didn’t need to be told what to do.
Alex reached out to Chine with her mind. Hey, Chine, are you in here?
The response hit Alex like a truck. This was probably the first time that she heard Chine alone before. Usually, they were surrounded by others. That probably did something to dampen the effect of Chine’s psychic abilities.
You heard me calling!
Yeah, I heard you from halfway across the Nest.
I do have a loud voice, but I wanted to speak to you. Continue on your path and you will find me.
Alex did as she was instructed and followed the winding path until she came to a station she knew Chine was in. His tail curled around him and his wings relaxed, Chine was lying on what looked like a bed of leaves and flowers.
Chine looked at Alex, his eyes sharp and bright. You should come up here.
Alex didn’t need to be asked twice. She climbed onto the platform and stood near the wall, uncertain of how close she should get to the dragon. Even though she had ridden Chine a handful of times, this felt very
