Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire- Chapter Four

Argh, I know I haven't written anything for a while!! I know what this chapter is gonna be about, I just haven't been on the computer for a couple weeks. All this week I had basketball camp, and that made me way too tired to even think of writing. Please don't hate me.

Here we have Playing with Fire chap. four, please enjoy and comment!

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No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my brain to shut down. Thoughts raced through my mind, keeping me from falling into a blissful sleep. What if someone caught me summoning my Dragon? Even with all the reassurances from Hayden and Yín sè, I couldn't shake the feeling that there would be trouble.

I must have eventually gotten to sleep, for soon I woke up when the creaking sound of my door caught my attention. My hands automatically went to the decorative swords placed above the mattress on which I slept until I remembered the plans that had been made the day before.

Hayden crept into my room, already dressed in his metallic red Apprentice robes. I rolled off of my mattress and into a crouch. This manoeuvre was something I'd trained myself to do, even through exhaustion, in case of danger. As a Dragon Master, I always had to be ready.

I rasied myself to my full height, straightening the form-fitting sleeping shorts that were positioned low on my hips.

"Good morning," I said wearily, stretching out my arms. My long hair had gotten messed up during the night and was now only half in the bun it had originally started as.

"C'mon, let's go," Hayden ordered impatiently, looking away from my exposed skin. "We don't want to dawdle and risk anybody waking up."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Whatever happened to nothing will happen and nobody has to know?" I motioned for him to turn around so I could slip out of my sleep clothes and into my robes.

"The whole point of nobody has to know is that we don't allow anybody to find out. It becomes void if we wake someone up because you take so long to get ready."

"Touche, Drake."

"Anytime, Minn." I walked up behind him and punched him lightly in the shoulder, fully clad in my robes. It always took a while to put the knee-length black hair in my signature four braids. Instead I'd opted for a simple twist that still kept it from distracting me.

It took longer than usual to travel from Gōnglǜ dǎo to Qīpiàn dǎo, due to the fact that we had to keep out of the light and constantly stop to check whether anyone was watching. Fortunately we made it to our little ledge without detection.

I sat down and crossed my legs, breathing evenly and focusing on taking Néngyuán from the nature around me. To be honest, I had no idea how difficult bringing Yín sè into the Substance World would be.

"Just relax," Hayden said, distracting me from finding the Běnzhí of my Dragon. I frowned.

"Not really helping, Hayden. Just keep quiet and let me figure this out." He obeyed, stepping away and letting me search the Other World. I could see the Néngyuán of everything around me. The pure white of the trees, the magical silvery-green of the stones in our cave, the bright red of Hayden.

I sucked in a deep breath, marvelling at the beauty of this vision. Looking in on the Other World was exhilarating. Where there was no Néngyuán it was empty. Not black, not white, just nothing. I looked around in this nothingness, trying to find some indication of my Dragon.

Far away, in the void, was a small kernel of pure silver, almost pulsating with power. I focused on it, expanding my consciousness and welcoming it. Again I felt a tugging at the back of my mind. Some sort of resistance, like running through water.