The sparks in a dragon

Chapter 23: Hunter gatherers

"You are going to learn how to hunt for food and how to distinguish which berries are poisonous or not," the camp counselor said as she paced back and forth with her hands behind her back.

I looked over to Sky, who had a huge smile on his face and his eyes had this weird sparkle as if he was really excited to go hunting. He looked to the side where Tyson, Riven and Brandon had the exact same dazed look on their faces.

"You can go to the weapons shack or grab baskets..." the counselor said and I zoned her out, an amused smile forming in my face when I saw that Sky was practically bouncing with excitement as the counselor said weapons. As soon as she dismissed us with her customary flick of the wrist, the four guys flew towards the weapons shack.

All of them had disappointed faces and they looked severely depressed when they came out with stick spears. I let out a bark of laughter as Sky made his way towards me with a grimace on his face. "Not. Funny," he stated, planting himself in front of me. I laughed harder and slapped my knee. "You guys... looked hilarious when you came out... you were so depressed! Pfaha!" I gasped in between fits of laughter and broke off into more laughter.

"Ha ha ha, soo funny," Sky said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. I walked past him and took a basket from a girl who was handing them out, finally calming down from my laughing fit. After giving her a small thanks, I walked back at Sky who was still eyeing his wooden spear with disgust.

"You just can't get over the fact that this is a nature made weapon right?" I chuckled at him.

"No, I cannot," he responded.

"Well, at least get a better one than that. Maybe a bow and arrow?" I suggested.

"Yeah, you're right. I guess I just got excited when I saw the pointy top; I thought it was a cool sword or something like that..." he muttered before turning around and heading to the shack. I waited for him while holding the basket with my two hands as he kneeled down in the shack, looking for a bow and arrow in the little weapons box inside.

He finally stood up with a small bow and three little arrows on his hands. The bow was made of sticks and a piece of flexible vine; the arrows being little sticks with their heads sharpened.

"Well, let's try to hunt," He sighed warily as he walked to my side, his gaze never leaving the small bow and arrows.

"Yes because it is tragic to hunt with a bow and arrow that you can make yourself," I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes as we walked towards the forest.

"It actually is. I've never hunted with anything but a real weapon," he said as we walked deeper inside, the trees hovering over us and seldom letting rays of sunshine in.

"Now that I think about it, how did you learn how to hunt?" I asked, looking up to his profile.

He sighed. "My dad, he... is a man of many talents if we put it that way. He always wanted to be the best, he always wanted to be admired and apparently he decided that his son should follow in his footsteps. Although- " He stopped and rapidly stretched the vine, bringing his hand near his mouth as the other arm held the bow towards the trees. After a few seconds, he let go of the arrow and it fled towards the trees; a loud ruffling of leaves and a thud ensuing. "-knowing how to hunt and the art of swordsmanship is a mega bonus," he finished as he walked over to where a big bird was thrown on the floor with an arrow on its shoulder.

"You know how to use a sword?" I asked in bewilderment as I stared at the twitching, dying bird on the floor.

"Yup," he grunted as he pulled out the arrow from the bird. "Gross..." he muttered, shaking the blood out of the arrow. "Pretty old school but cool nevertheless," he said, grabbing the now dead bird by its neck. "Voila. We got meat. Now all we need is your berries and we're done," he said, glancing at my empty basket.

"Oh, right," I said. "Well, my mother owns a flower shop and my dad is a firefighter so there's not much they could teach me but about flowers and fire," I chuckled, dipping my head and letting my hair curtain my face.

"That's good. At least, in the future, when you are getting married, the venue will be full of beautiful flowers," he said. "And a beautiful fireplace behind the altar," he added, grinning at me.

"That is true," I laughed as we approached a nearby bush. I looked down at the berries and picked one up, examining it closely.

"I wouldn't take that if I were you. These are known as fire-berries; they are extremely hot and give you really really really really weird symptoms," he said, taking the berry out of my hand and throwing it back to the bush.

"So I take it you also know how to pick berries?" I asked.

"Tsk-tsk-tsk. Bloom, I think I've told you I'm a man of many talents," he said, shaking his head at me.

"Well, I didn't think you were that serious about it," I muttered. I looked around and noticed that it was sunset, and the big mess of trees around us made it seem even darker. I wasn't scared, though; we were walking down a path that led straight back to camp. We reached another bush and I inspected its berries, looking at Sky for affirmation.

"Yeah, these are safe," he said, reaching over and picking the berries. I followed him and in one quick minute, the basket was full of berries.

"Well this was fast," Sky said as we walked back in the direction of the camp

"I know, it was," I responded, turning to face him. Just as I was going to face him, my foot tripped on a root and I spiraled in his direction. His hands rapidly caught my waist and I was now merely feet away from the ground. He held me in a dip. I looked up to his eyes, breathing heavily as I did so. His eyes traveled all over my face and they landed on my necklace, immediately darkening as they did so. His eyes went back to my own and I felt my breath hitch at the intensity of his gaze.

"Yo Sky! Bro!" a voice asked in the distance, breaking the very short trance we were in. Sky blinked a couple of times, his eyes returning back to their normal color. He lifted me from the dip he had me on and sighed. He turned around and pasted a smile on his face as Brandon walked towards us, a skimpy girl with a short dress at his side.

"Hey bro," Sky responded, taking Brandon's hand and pulling him to a guy hug. After patting each other's backs, Brandon spoke up with a smile on his face. "Miranda and I were walking by when I saw you over here. I haven't seen you in a while man!" he said, punching his shoulder slightly.

Sky rolled his eyes. "You saw me this morning," he retorted.

"Well, of course, but we haven't hung out or something. You know what I mean," Brandon responded.

"I know what you mean, c'mon, let's go back to the camp," Sky said, though I swore I heard him sigh wistfully.

***Trix's POV***

The witches stared, baffled, at the crystal ball in front of them. With their jaw unhinged, they were at a loss of words, simply astonished at what had just happened.

Icy turned to Darcy. "How in the world did you do that?" she asked.

Darcy smirked. "Impressive Huh? I made the root appear and of course, the necklace did its job," She said smugly, proud of what her creation had done.

"It's only a matter of time before these two fools fall helplessly in love with each other. And then, we'll take out the big guns. Bloom will never know what's coming at her," Icy chuckled evilly, her ice cold eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Oh yes, imagine it. We'll defeat her and that dragon of hers will be ours once and for all, it will be where it belonged in the first place!" Stormy exclaimed as they all laughed.

And they laughed for all the merciless things they'd do to Bloom.

They couldn't wait to take the power from her and destroy her life.