Page 88 of To Fight and To Fold

Thea coughed out a chuckle as Aaryn sputtered, eventually spilling into a laugh.

"I heard you had questions?"

Aaryn fell into step with her, and Thea hung back, finding herself beside Starspark. He glared at her, and Thea stuck her tongue out at him.

Vaelen's steps were quick, always in a hurry, not enough time in the day—but she was making an effort to slow. Starspark lifted his head in the air, nose sniffing.

Aaryn glanced around them as if she were about to share a secret. "I have more questions than I know how to ask."

"Go on," Vaelen urged.

She puffed out a breath. "When I was separated from Starspark," Aaryn began, and Thea buried a wince, glad she could hide momentarily. "I had a few… I've been calling them visions, but they're similar to dreams in that I'm asleep when I see them."

"I wondered if that was the case," Vaelen mused.

"What? Why?"

"We suspected, because you seemed to be more… aware of Starspark than usual. Tell me how they work for you."

For you? Thea wondered.

"Well—it's like I'm Starspark in the dreams. I see and hear and feel what he senses, which so far hasn't been so scary… until last night."

Thea watched Vaelen, curious now that something beyond good leadership and hospitality lay in her interest. Even her steps slowed.

"What happened last night?"

"I was Starspark again, but unlike my other visions, this one was… in the past. I saw how—" She swallowed sharply, expression darkening, and Thea heard her scream echo in her head all over again. "I saw how they used him to find me. For the lottery." Before Thea could reach out—with what? an inadequate hand on her shoulder?—Starspark shuffled a little closer, bumping Aaryn with his snout as if to reassure her he was alright. See? Starspark knew exactly what she needed.

A small smile curled her lips, and to Vaelen, the interaction did not go unnoticed. Vaelen finally paused before a line of shrubbery and flowers and young trees. Steady thumps sounded from the other side.

"You were seeing the past, as opposed to…"

Aaryn's lips parted once, twice, before she answered. "I guess… the present? I saw Thea a few times." Thea snapped to attention as her worries came to fruition. "Felt Starspark when he was hungry but didn't want to eat." Thea’s worried excitement was cut short by guilt, and Starspark's smug green eyes. “And I felt his… anger. His irritation and frustration.”

Vaelen hummed in consideration. "Did you tell anyone what you saw?" Vaelen asked the question a little sharply.

Oh. Right. Had Aaryn run to the prince and told him? Thea was worried about herself when Vaelen was worried about their people. Would the prince be able to parse their whereabouts from her descriptions? Thea glanced around, viewing their surroundings through the gaze of someone who was unfamiliar. It could be… anywhere. Just nature and trees and rocks and ponds. And dragons. Lots of dragons. Big dragons.

Thea's breath went taut; tension thrummed through her as her mind raced. If the prince knew where they were, then everyone was in danger because⁠—

"No. The prince... no. I didn't tell him," Aaryn answered softly, and Thea released a silent sigh of relief. As well as something like satisfaction. How long had Aaryn already known, even subconsciously, that she didn't belong in Evergale?

"Good," Vaelen said, nodding in approval. "These visions are how your connection with Starspark is manifesting. You come from a place where the Tethered are the closest one can be to a dragon. But now that you're here, I'd like you to know that the connection runs much, much deeper than Evergale allows."

Vaelen let Aaryn's brow dip in confusion before she stepped around the corner of the natural barrier. She motioned to what they called the Playground. Nature had been grown with chaos, all sharp turns and tall peaks, twisting vines and low limbs left in the wake of the magic. A perfect challenge for the dragons and their Awakened. Dispersed between them were small fields, like the one before them.

A light-colored dragon's scales caught the blush of the early morning as she flew up into the air, straight as an arrow leased from a bow.

…Similar to the one on the dragon's back, held artfully between the hands of a competent bowman. The dragon reached her summit far above and flared her wings, twisting into a nosedive. She seemed weightless in the sky, and as the bow stretched, the nocked arrow was steady.

Thea was familiar with this drill, and turned her gaze to Aaryn as she witnessed the kind of synchronicity that could only come from a connection with a dragon. Her hand stilled on Starspark's nose. Her brows rose, eyes wide, as the twang sounded. The Awakened had hit her target. Then again. And a third time.

With each thump of success, Aaryn's mouth parted, and she leaned forward, entranced, her hand slipping along Starpark's snout.

The pale dragon landed soft as a feather, and the rider dismounted, offering an affectionate stroke of her scales.

"I hope that you'll let us show you there is no better person on a dragon's back than the one with the most natural connection to them: their Awakened."