𝔏𝔢𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔗𝔢𝔯𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔩 ✓

Chapter 13: Missing

Lyra smiled as she watched the five friends talking across from her. Kylian had made the notion of staying the night. The dragons were mostly all snuggled up in the cave while their riders had started a fire and sat around it.

Adri and Elliot were having their own conversation together, probably something of importance to the quest, Lyra thought. They were always talking about something serious that could help others. It's just how they bonded.

Lilith and Holden sat right next to each other, their legs touching. Lyra noticed how their relationship was more about caring for each other and they had always been in love, but left it alone. She figured that they were probably joking around or teasing each other.

Speaking of teasing..."Hey tsundere," Kylian greeted, sitting next to her.

"Hi," she said softly, not taking her eyes off of the others.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the strange look on her face. It was a mix of worry and admiration, something that she always got when she was overwhelmed.

"Thank you for that talk earlier," Kylian smiled. "I don't feel left out anymore. I'm more grateful that they found them and can now bond over it."

Repeating her words made her even more depressed. She never really had anything to bond with in the first place, but Kylian had his personality that was shared by all of the others.

"No problem," she murmured, not forgetting about her own feeling of being left out. What she had thought earlier was still true. Lyra needed a break just to sort out all these new emotions.

"Just look at them," he continued gleefully. "They are over the moon about everything. I understand the joy you feel when you see your friends happy."

"I might have lied about that," Lyra admitted.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his face falling.

"I've never had a friend," she told him. "I feel joy when I see anyone happy. None of them have ever been my friend."

He let out a huge smile. "You realize that saying that makes you an even better person?"

"I just said I lied to you," she responded, confused, but he didn't respond.

Soon it was time to sleep and Lyra waited until everyone else finally went to the cave, which took a long time because Kylian kept arguing about leaving her alone. He finally went and Lyra grinned when she saw him curled against one of the dragons.

"Thank you for everything Kylian," she whispered. "But this isn't my quest."

And with her parting statement, she left the sleeping riders.

Lilith woke up to a shout from both Kylian and Holden at the same time.

"What's wrong?" she asked groggily.

"I can't find Lyra anywhere," he managed to say, completely out of breath.

"She's probably just out finding food or something," Lilith said hopefully, but it was obvious that they all knew it wasn't true.

"Was it because of our conversation?" Holden wondered aloud.

"What conversation?" Kylian repeated, almost threateningly.

"I just said hi and we had an awkward moment of silence," he mumbled. "It really wasn't a big deal."

"But it might have been a big deal to her!" he exploded. "Did you think that maybe she left because you all weren't welcoming? You ignored her the whole journey!"

"She wasn't exactly welcoming to us either," Elliot replied. "And don't yell at him about one awkward silence. We've all had them."

"I was busy ranting about my problems that I didn't even consider what she thought about all of this," Kylian sighed. "Lyra probably thought that we weren't friendly enough."

"So we all made a mistake by not including Lyra," Adri replied calmly. "Let's not get upset."

"I'm already upset!" he yelled, looking extremely frustrated. "You guys drove off the one girl that I felt a connection with besides Lilith. The one girl I was beginning to understand who understood me."

"She didn't even want to befriend us," Holden defended. Kylian rolled his eyes.

"Are you all too absorbed in your own friend group to realize that she cared for you all and that she really did want to be your friends?"

"What do you mean?" Adri asked. "Lyra was always on her own."

"Because she doesn't know how to start the conversation," Kylian responded. "And you guys didn't help her. I bonded with Lyra because I started it and when she said she didn't like it I still kept talking until I realized she does want to be around us. Adri and Elliot, she's cared for you even before you knew of her."

"And Lyra just told me last night that she never had friends. She always cared for people who didn't even know who she was, specifically Adri and Elliot."

Now Kylian seemed worn out about his rant and just looked exasperated. "I don't know why she left, but I can only assume it's because you guys didn't treat her like she was apart of the quest and I didn't figure out her feelings about it."

"Well right now we have a bigger problem," Holden responded. "Our dragons are missing."

Listening to Kylian speak had made Lilith forget all about their new friends and they realized that Holden was right: they weren't in the cave anymore.

"Let's split up and find them," Adri suggested. "We can go down the different paths again. Kylian, if you want to go to the water-"

"No," he sad sharply. "The fact that you care more about the dragons you just found than Lyra, someone who at least I consider a friend, is too selfish for me to be apart of. Besides, you were the ones who lost the YOUR dragons, not me."

"You sound jealous Kylian," Holden commented.

"I'm not jealous of you," he responded. "But apparently only Lyra could see that."

He finally walked out of the cave, leaving his friends disheartened.

"Alright. It's clear that rightfully so, Kylian is upset about Lyra's disappearance," Adri started. "So what we're going to do is talk with him. He seems more depressed than mad. Lyra is smart and I'm sure she found her way home, so after we reassure him about that we'll split up to look for the dragons and bring back Lyra."

Now that they had a plan in mind, the four friends went out to look for Kylian. If they were going to complete this quest they were going to do it together, not as the four riders or even the five friends, but as the six companions.