Chapter 354: The Kind of Person I Hated.
"Tch, you seriously have a messed-up head, you know that, you overgrown lizard."
Alden snapped at Aemirya as he dropped back onto the ground, staring at the pile of charcoal that had once been his food.
His hair was still puffed up from the heat and his second-to-last set of clothes had turned to dust as well.
Now he was down to his final pair.
"Look what you have done." He pointed accusingly at the ruined meal. "Where am I supposed to find another nice dragon willing to donate his clothes before we eliminate him? And one whose clothes actually fit me, too. Tsk."
Aemirya remained silent.
She sat a short distance away with her back facing him, arms folded across her chest and a faint pout on her face.
"It was your fault for being stupid and not listening to what I was saying." Her voice was cold. "Blame yourself."
Alden narrowed his eyes.
"What was the point of listening to your useless depressive thoughts anyway?" He waved his hand dismissively. "They are strong. He is strong. She is strong."
His voice turned mocking.
"In the end, we have to defeat them anyway, so what’s the point of crying about it?"
He had always been annoyed by how serious she became whenever they discussed other dragons.
Strong dragon, dangerous dragon, talented dragon, special dragon, this dragon, that dragon. Alden was tired of listening to the same thing again and again.
"At this point, I am annoyed as hell, you know." He muttered under his breath. "It would’ve been better if I were alone. At least I wouldn’t have to listen to your nagging."
Then, without thinking, he continued.
"That’s probably why you don’t have any friends and that’s probably why everyone hates you."
The words left his mouth before he could stop them.
Truthfully, Alden was frustrated as hell.
He was stranded in some prehistoric era and even if he didn’t show it, worry constantly gnawed at his mind.
What happened to Nyx after she fell into that tunnel with him?
What happened to Amyra after he disappeared while the demon attack was still ongoing?
What happened to Kyun, who had been scouting the arena?
What happened to Cipher? Why had she betrayed him?
What happened to his other friends?
Where was he going to find the fragment of his bloodline in this vast world? How would he go back to his timeline?
Those questions never left his mind and coupled with his body refusing to respond properly to his will and his painfully slow progress in mastering his power, he had been stretched to his limit for weeks.
Even while eating earlier, his mind had been racing, thinking about a way to become stronger, a way to find Nyx and a way back home.
Slowly, he raised his head and looked toward the dragon princess.
Aemirya had gone completely still, her head lowered and the faint pout gone. Alden stared at her for several seconds and then his eyes widened.
Oh... Damn.
Did I go too far?
The realization hit him almost immediately. None of that frustration had been directed at her but he had dumped it on her anyway and somehow, out of everything he could have said...
He had chosen the one thing that would hurt the most.
"Hey... Aemirya, I didn’t mean—"
Before he could finish apologizing, she transformed. Scales spread across her body as she shifted into her hybrid dragon form. Two draconic wings burst from her back before unfurling to their full span and then she took off without a single word leaving her mouth.
As she prepared to fly into the sky, Alden caught a glimpse of her face and for the first time since he had met her... he saw a strange expression on her face which he couldn’t quite describe.
"Aemirya!"
He pushed himself forward, intending to chase after her but it was already too late.
Boom.
The ground beneath her shattered as she accelerated and a violent shockwave exploded through the clearing, kicking up dirt, leaves and dust in every direction.
By the time Alden shielded his eyes and looked up again, she was already a distant silhouette disappearing into the horizon.
The dust cloud slowly settled around him, leaving him standing alone in a ruin of their makeshift camp near the lake and feeling far worse than he had a few moments ago.
***
A day passed just like that.
Alden waited for Aemirya to return to their usual spot but she never did. He knew he had messed up badly.
She was his ticket out of this forest, his ally against the dragons who would inevitably begin converging on one another as the ceremony neared its end.
And he had pushed her away.
Still, more than losing someone useful, he felt awful about the way he had acted.
Over the last two months, he had gotten to know her better than anyone else in this strange place.
She was always nagging him, always calling him a pervert, always trying to compete with him over the smallest things but despite all that, she wasn’t a bad person.
Behind that cold expression and sharp tongue was someone painfully lonely, someone who felt like a stranger even within her own family, someone who wanted acknowledgement of their presence.
And for some reason...
That reminded him of himself.
Back when he lived with the Draven family, back when people mocked him, bullied him and talked behind his back, he had hated those people with everything he had.
Alden lowered his head.
But this time, he had acted no different from those people. He had taken his frustration out on someone who didn’t deserve it, the same way others had once done to him and somehow, that realization felt worse than being stranded in this forest.
Because for a brief moment...
He had become the kind of person he used to hate.
I have to find her.
The thought appeared in Alden’s mind as he pushed himself off the ground. He was just about to head in the direction she had flown when a strange presence entered his sensory domain.
His body immediately tensed because it was someone strong.
Alden snapped his head toward the source of the presence and for a brief moment, he mistook it for Aemirya because the aura felt too similar to hers but when he finally saw the owner of that presence, his expression stiffened.
A young boy stood among the trees.
He possessed reptilian violet eyes and a pair of dark horns that curled from the sides of his head, an amused smile rested on his face as he casually stroked his chin.
"Oh ho, what do we have here...?" His gaze slowly swept across the clearing before settling on Alden. "A human with a strange presence infiltrating our sacred lands?!"
"I was trying to find someone else... and I found something else entirely. It’s my lucky day, I guess."
The smile on his face widened.
"Answer me human, have you perhaps seen a certain half-breed dragon with a single horn around this area?" There was no hostility in his tone as he narrowed his eyes. "If you answer honestly, I might grant you a less painful death."
