The Falling Rider

Chapter 12

Once we get to the forest, we land as quietly as we can.
"Adira! You're finally here! You weren't at the stables today. We were worried!" Skyrah greets me. I get off of Storm and take Li off of him as well.
"Sorry guys, I fell asleep." I say as I feel someone hug me from behind.
"I missed you." Leo says, holding me tighter.
"I missed you too, Leo." I chuckle as turn around and wrap my arms around his neck. He pulls away and kisses me passionately. We pull away, breaking the kiss, when we needed to breath. He stares at me with eyes full of lust. I smile and kiss his nose. As I pull away from the hug, he pulls me back in and kisses me lustfully, his arms tightly holding my waist. My hands find their way into his hair as the kiss deepens. We pull away from each other, completely out of breath. We lean our foreheads together and the only thing I hear is our heavy breathing until I hear a loud squeal. Oops, kinda forget they were here. My eyes widen as I turn around to face my bestie who is bouncing up and down and Darius smirking at us.
"Uhh.. Anyways we should get started with the blast." I say awkwardly, not wanting to talk about what just happened. I walked over to Storm who smirked at me, but had a weird look in his eyes.
"What? What is it?" I ask him.
"Nothing." He says as he rests his head on my shoulder, sighing. Now I know something's wrong with him.
"I know something's wrong, Storm. What is it?" I ask, hugging his neck tightly.
"It's just... I miss Rain." He says, sadly.
"That's it. We're staying." I say.
"No. It's fine. Besides, us dragons know how to find each other again. We can meet up, but I won't tell her where we're staying." He says and my guilt fades a bit.
"Ok, but let me know if you ever wanna come back here." I say. He sighs and chuckles.
"Alright. Now let's get this blast started!" He shouts with enthusiasm as he pulls away from me and roars quietly. I smile at him as Leo and Lightning walk over to us.
"Alright guys, this is it. Do you need anything at all before you start the blast?" I ask them. They both shake their heads as they smile at us. I smile back and nod my head as Leo and I take a few steps back. Our dragons turn towards each other and Leo grabs my hand, holding it tightly. I turn my head towards him as he stares at me. I quickly peck him on the lips before turning back to our dragons. I watch intently as they shoot a blast of water and lightning between them. The blast rotates as it gets stronger and our dragons fly into the sky in a spiral, the blast still rotating. The blast illuminates the dark night sky as it gets stronger. The blast gets to its strongest and our dragons shoot it at the sky, right above the kingdom. The sky immediately roars with thunder and lightning as a large storm starts above the kingdom I once called home. Our dragons land at our side and nudge us.
"You guys did great! You're amazing!" I shout at them, hugging Storm's neck.
"Thank you two so much! Love you, bro!" He shouts at Lightning.
"Alright guys! Let's go!" Skyrah shouts as she gets on her dragon. I pick Li up and put her on Storm. Then, I get on him and we start flying away to a land we've never traveled to before.

After flying for hours, our dragons are absolutely exhausted. We spot an island and land quickly. It looks beautiful, but looks can be deceiving. Well, who cares right now. I'm tired and so is everyone else. Skyrah's dragon makes a fire and we all sit around it, the dragons making a protective circle around us and laying down. I look to my left to see Skyrah and Darius sleeping in each other's arms. Leo scoots next to me, holding my hand tightly in his.
"We did it." I say as I lean against his shoulder.
"We sure did. Adira, I'm so happy that we escaped safely." He said.
"So am I, Leo." I say, resting my eyes and yawning. I hear Leo chuckle and feel a soft kiss planted on my forehead right before I drift off to sleep.

I wake up to birds chirping and warm arms wrapped tightly around my body. I open my eyes and look up at Leo who's sleeping peacefully. I carefully try to break free of his grip, but he tightens his arms around me. He groans, but keeps his eyes closed.
"No... Five more minutes..." He mumbles. I giggle and kiss his nose. His eyes open in surprise as he looks at me. He smirks and leans in quickly, kissing me passionately. My eyes widen in shock and I finally respond. I feel his smirk against my lips as we kiss. He deepens the kiss and grips my waist tightly. My hands find their way to his hair and play with it as we kiss. I hear someone cough and we quickly separate, looking towards the person who coughed. Darius was watching us with Skyrah silently sleeping in his arms. He had a smirk on his face and my cheeks burned as I got up quickly. I carefully maneuvered my way through the sleeping dragons and towards a nearby pond. I sat down near it and splashed water on my face. I started to think about the kingdom. Would they notice we were gone? Well, my parents probably won't. They wouldn't care if they did notice. I guess the only other person I can think of is... Gallagher. Why exactly am I thinking about him? I shouldn't be. I've escaped that damned kingdom. I don't have a reason to think about him and his soft brown hair or his perfect blue eyes... Wait, what?! What am I thinking?! No! Th-think about Leo... His blonde hair a-and green eyes... Oh God. Gallagher. I can't stop thinking about him. Whenever I picture Leo in my mind, it quickly changes back to Gallagher. I quickly splash my face with water and try to clear my mind. Ok, ok. Calm down, Adira. You're alright. Just calm down. And for the love of God, please stop thinking about- Shit. Gallagher. Ugh! Why won't he leave my mind! I need to ignore this...
"No, you don't Adira." Storm says, walking up behind me. I quickly turn around. We were alone since the pond was a few yards away from where the rest of our friends were.
"What do you mean?" I ask him.
"You don't need to ignore this feeling. In fact, you shouldn't ignore it. You like Gallagher." He says and my eyes widen. Do I? No. Maybe...
"I don't know what you're talking about! I don't like Gallagher. He's just a, uh, friend." I say. He chuckles and walks over to me, sitting in front of my now standing form, and staring at me with knowing eyes.
"Adira. You know you can't fool me. Our minds and hearts are connected. And right now, you're heart is saying that you like Gallagher." He proves me wrong.
"I like Leo." I say.
"Uh huh. Suuure." He says, knowing I'm lying. Ugh... Wait, lying?
"Either way, I'm ignoring it. I've moved on from the kingdom. It's time to start my new life. With you, my best friends, my little sister, and Leo." I say. He sighs and rests his head on my shoulder. I wrap my arms around his neck and sigh.
"Don't worry, Adira. Whatever you choose to do, I'll support you." Storm comforts as he wraps his wings around me.
"Thanks, Storm." I thank him.
"No problem, Adira." He says, unwrapping his wings and lifting his head up.
"Now, let's get back and make some breakfast before we start flying again." He says, standing up. We start walking back to the group. I see Li just waking up.
"Morning, Li!" I say and she turns towards me. She runs over to me and hugs me. I hug her back and hear her stomach rumble. I pull away from her and stand back up.
"Sorry. I'm hungry. What's for breakfast?" She asked. I was about to answer when Darius and Skyrah walked up to us with tons of fish. Mostly for our dragons I'm guessing. Storm licked his lips and waited patiently.
"Fish." Darius answered.
"Ember! Come light a fire for us pleeeeeaaaasse!" Skyrah shouts at her dragon who's still sleeping. I'm actually really surprised that Skyrah's awake. Heck, I'm surprised that I'm awake! We're usually the lazy ones in the group. One time, I had to drag Skyrah out of bed when we were having a sleepover. I literally had to drag her. I picked her up by her arms and pulled her out of her bed. Anyway, since Skyrah's pretty lazy, so is Ember. Ember wakes up with a jolt and glares at Skyrah.
"Oh, come on! Pleeeeaaaaase?" Skyrah asks. Ember shoots fire at the circle of rocks quickly, surprising Skyrah.
"Thank you!!!" She shouts at her dragon. Darius and Leo chuckle at her enthusiasm. They lay out some fish for the dragons and leave out four fish for us. We cook the fish and I share mine with Li. I watched as we all talked and laughed about random things. Being with my best friends in the entire world is amazing. I could get used to this place.

Gallagher's POV:

The storm. It was one of the worst I'd ever seen. A mixture of rain, lightning, thunder, and hail. Adira's parents told me to stay in my room. Adira. I need to check on her! She might be hurt or worse! When I opened the door to my room, I bumped into a guard that was standing outside of my door. Creep.
"Sir Gallagher! You must stay inside of your room. We don't want you or your parents getting hurt in any way." He informs me.
"Please. I just need to check on Princess Adira." I beg. He looks at me sadly.
"I'm sorry sir, but you're not allowed to. I assure you she is fine." He says. I nod and close my door. How does he know?

After the storm is over, I'm finally allowed to leave my room. It's morning by now and I decided to check on Adira. I rush out of my room and knock on her door... No answer.
"Adira?" I ask loudly. I take a deep breath and open the door. The bed isn't made, things seem to be kind of scattered, and a few things are missing. I check every single area of her room and even her bathroom. She's gone. Where could she have gone?!
"Adira?!" I call. Did someone take her? Away from me?! No one would dare. Except... Leo. My blood boils as I walk outside to her balcony and call Rain. She flies at full speed towards me, halting right before she hits the balcony and lands.
"Gallagher! You're okay!" Rain says, nuzzling me. She notices my anger and looks at me in confusion.
"It's Adira. She's gone." I say sadly.
"Oh, Gallagher. I'm so sorry." She apologizes.
"I think she was taken by Leo." I say and she growls. Don't worry Adira. I will find you.

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Hey guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter!