Perils Pests

The Silent Observer

Peril arrived back at Jade mountain a little before the last lights of the day and before the rest of the academy students would be coming back to sleep. She didn't like crowds as she knew the slightest bump of another student would mean Clay would be on her back about it for days after or until the student recovered, it was nice that Clay was the herbs and healing teacher but it also meant that when there was an accident he would be all too aware of what had happened. He was never angry at her, at least not like Tsunami always was but she just didn't want to see him disappointed in her, the look of understanding he gave her always made her realise that he could understand others as well and that meant she was inadvertently hurting him though her victims as she could see the pain in his eyes every time he had to deal with another burned dragon.

But enough of that sulking, she had a plan to deal with that, or at least an idea. Heading to her sleeping cave she scrounged around the corners until she found exactly what she was looking for. A small rock, this would be here talking rock. She remembered how venting to that little scavenger had made her feel better so she thought, hey, why not have one here, its not like the scavenger is going to talk back and give her advice, so a rock was a pretty safe substitute and wont catch on fire and scream, a big plus.

Placing the rock on her only other bit of furniture, a low stone table opposite her bed, also a low stone table, but for sleeping. She placed it down and sat opposite it and stared.

And stared...

And stared...

And nothing came to mind.

"Oh common don't be shy now, go on about how horrible your past was and all the bad things that happened and..."

She started to wonder her gaze to the entrance of her room. Wondering if anyone was near enough to hear her talking to herself. She felt, exposed, judged by the invisible ghosts that stared at her from every corner.

"And all the terrible things you did... how you made others past horrible or just ended there and then. I wonder if any of them would have gone to Jade mountain? If I had known back then it was wrong...would I have seen them here..."

Her mind began to spiral back into the depth that she tried to avoid and the satisfaction of progress she felt back in her clearing didn't come back. As she tried to regain her thoughts back from the brink, blaming everyone from scarlet to her self to the world, she was only brought back to reality by the chattering voices of the students returning to their caves. She shot up her eyes quickly to the door where the chattering got closer and the shadows lengthened towards her. Quickly she swiped at the dumb rock she had been taking too as it shattered against the wall of her cave and with that crack her mind finally cleared enough to see, there was no shadows, no impending doom that filled her head, the voices had been far down the north side of the academy, they didn't come near here.

Why had she been so afraid of being caught by a bunch of dumb students, simply for talking to a rock, or perhaps just seeing her in this state. She was the most powerful creature on Pyrrhia, she had always told herself that whenever she walked down the halls of the sky palace whenever guards would shield their gaze or tremble when she stood too close for too long.

"Why do their opinions matter so much now? That they might think I'm some crazy fire dragon, they probably already think that, seeing me talk to a stupid rock isn't going to be a big surprise for them. Im not crazy anyway, I know that, well I was talking to a rock before...that is kinda crazy, but not in like the bad way or the really crazy way its just..."

She looked down at the empty table in front of her, feeling a mixture of sorrow, sadness, embarrassment and a little bit of resentment, too whom she didn't know.

"This really was crazy, thinking a rock could make me feel better about myself or figure out what Clay meant by 'good' and 'healthy' mind. Clay listens, but, he's so busy and if I keep pestering him with my own problems then perhaps he'll get sick of me. Clay doesn't even have problems of his own, he just talking about what he ate that day so its not like we can take turns, its just, 'trauma - cows - scarlet this - goat legs - regret - more cows'... Clay was right... cows are nice"

She smiled to herself as the thought crossed her mind and she decided to give it one more go. Walking out carefully she looked around to see if anyone was around, seeing the pace mostly empty she silently walked her way down the corridor towards Clay's room, she wasn't sure why she was being quiet or what she wanted to talk about but she always felt better after taking with Clay. Kinda like talking to that scavenger had made her feel, tho without the worry of saying something wrong, she had to still make sure she didn't say anything 'too' extreme around Clay, talking about how burning certain Icewings was her favourite during the arena was in hindsight a bad idea.

She made her way down and gradually to Clays room where she peered inside to see a grumbling Mudwing hunched over a table of scrolls with ink all over his claws. The grumbles made peril think that perhaps he wasn't in the best of moods and probably didn't want to see anyone, let alone her, the famously needy problem dragon. She began to think of all the times Clay must have hated her and all her problems until low and behold her least favourite dragon catches her eye.

She quickly ducks into the nearby cave as Tsunami trotted around, ending up at the entrance to Clays cave. Peril wasn't afraid of Tsunami, she just didn't want to deal with the aggressive blueberry right now, she might not be able to contain herself. She just listened as Tsunami entered Clays room and let out a disgruntled sigh.

"Common mud brain, you'll wake up the whole mountain with your snoring, and your getting ink EVERYWHERE".

She spat as peril heard her shake the table to stir Clay.

"HU? Wh, oh hey Tsunami whats going...oh oh no, the class assignments. There goes tomorrows classes. I knew that special cow food was a bad idea, it just smelt SO good. You know he called it steak, then he called it beef, that boy is confusing but he made it taste really good."

Clay started with an almost audible smile infecting his voice. Peril loved to hear him talk like that when he really enjoyed something she could feel the smiles in his voice and it was liked being warped in a warm hug of nose, sharing a little bit of the bliss he had felt.

"Yea well he's trouble. The last thing I expected was for him to put someone to sleep, tho you and your food comas are quite well known. Anyway I heard you from the other side of the mountain, you know you snore super loudly when your hunched over your desk, its not good for you, go get some sleep. The class can wait for tomorrow."

"Thanks Bluebe...oh sorry foods still on the mind. Thanks Tsunami, I feel like today really took it out of me anyway" Clay said with a hiccup in his voice as he staggered off slowly and cleaned off his claws.

"Your the only one that can get away with that, but don't let any other students hear you say that. Whoever named them was terrible at naming things, their not even blue, their purple..." 

Tsunami was unusually cheery in her tone, like Clays demeanour had rubbed off on her, that tended to happen a lot around with Clay. Tsunami walked back out of Clays cave and Peril made herself scarce once again as to now be caught eves dropping on them and listened as Tsunami walked back down to her own cave and Clays shuffling became more and more subdued as he laid down properly on his bed.

Peril wanted to go see Clay now, seeing as he wasn't angry but rather was asleep, but if he's so tired perhaps she should let him sleep and what did he mean the day had taken a lot out of him? Was it her? They did have their lessons today but she didn't think she had stressed him out that much, no one was set on fire or died, she wasn't a bad student was she? Was she doing this to Clay? Perhaps she should let him sleep, it wasn't important anyway.

As she walked back to her room she thought to herself once more, she wasn't sure weather or not she felt better after listening to Clay, on the one claw she liked to hear him speak when he's recently enjoyed himself. He always had that sparkle in his voice, but on the other claw she was worried that shes stressing Clay out too much.

Even Clay has problems, but he'd rather talk about it with Tsunami than her, I guess she wouldn't know what a food coma is anyway. As she laid down on her ashened bed she stared at the broken rock figurine she had tried to talk too, even broken it was still as exactly lifeless as when she had first started and all that could go though her head was the simple question.

"Whats a steak?"