Draeyer Academy (Rewrite)

Chapter 10-Raised Well

It took nearly two weeks before they could finally leave. Gael and his companions, including Alec, had continued to track the thief before the trail finally disappeared near the mountain range between the country of Friosan and Arkadin. Unfortunately, before they could look for more clues, a blizzard blew by, wiping away any signs of the bastard.

Gael ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. Before he could lie on his bed, he heard the satisfied growls and purrs coming from outside the window of their inn. When he looked, he found Alec wiping down the black scales of his drae, Asher. Iris, Kreis' white drae, stood to the side patiently waiting her turn. Gael smiled at the serious look in Alec's light blue eyes as he meticulously cleaned the gaps between Asher's scale.

After Crimson's death, Alec had mostly kept to himself at first, only interacting with them when it had something to do with searching for the thief. But over the last three days, the two draes had managed to coax the young man into interacting with him and the others. He was still mostly quiet though.

But Gael was starting to think that the silence was because he found some kind of entertainment in watching Gael and Kreis' interactions. He even overheard Alec asking Kreis' subordinates if he and Kreis were a married couple. Gael nearly spat out his precious coffee. Never in a million years would he marry Kreis. Blazen would freeze over before that happened.

He sent a solemn thanks to the Almighty Kosmos that Kreis had not been present then. If Kreis had heard, Alec would have received an hour-long lecture on how he couldn not be in a relationship with anyone because the love of his life existed. And by extension, Gael would have had to listen to it too. He was sick and tired of Kreis going "Meolie this! Meolie that"

Just ask her on a date already, moron. You've been pining for her for nearly a decade now.

Thinking of Kreis, Gael recalled the conversation they had a two weeks ago.

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"What were you thinking?" Kreis said as he barged into Gael's inn room. "Skilled or not, Alec is too young to be involved in this. He nearly died!"

Gael remained calm and answered his question with another question. "If I hadn't agreed, what do you think Alec would have done?"

Kreis thought about it for a moment, before a look of realization came to him. "He would've gone after the bastard all by himself and...." Kreis paused and turned to look him in the eye. "I see."

Gael raised a brow, silently asking Kreis what he meant by that.

"From the fierce personality we've seen so far, you thought this was the best way to protect him. Getting him involved allows us to limit the danger he might place himself in when hunting the thief. But that's not all there is to it, is there?" Kreis said.

Gael sighed. "I don't want to leave this kid here by himself. I just can't. He...reminds me too much of myself when I was younger. The anger, pain, and...loneliness. I just..."

"Can't turn your back on him, because it would feel like you're turning your back on your past self?"

"I promised myself, that I won't let anyone go through what I did if I could help it."

Silence fell between them as Kreis contemplated his words. It was soon broken by Kreis as he let out a sigh.

"First of all, Alec seems much more level-headed and capable than you were at that age, so doubt he'll need help often," Kreis said.

Gael chuckled, nodding his head in agreement.

"Second of all, if you want to help this kid, I'm sure he'll cause you headaches. That is unless he warms up to you by some kind of miracle."