𝔏𝔢𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔗𝔢𝔯𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔩 ✓

Chapter 16: Lyra's Back

They had been looking for the dragons all day, but had no luck. They all had separated into partners to see if they could find something, but by now Elliot and Adri were just roaming around. Something that was on Elliot's mind was their new friends. Adri could see the obvious worry written on his face and spoke up.

"What's wrong?" she asked gently.

"Just thinking about our new friends," he shrugged. "I guess we don't know as much about them as we thought. They're practically strangers."

"We might not have known them for long, but I think it's safe to say we're all friends. If you're talking about Lyra, then that's different. She wasn't as outspoken about her feelings and we just interpreted them wrong."

"Kylian was quite mad with everyone, even himself."

"I've come to realize that he cares alot for her," she said. "We all have seen the way they look at each other. It's different than normal friends."

"Same way as us?" he asked. They had never really elaborated on their relationship. Both knew that it was never just a friendly kind, but were too shy to ever name it.

"No," she disagreed, shaking her head. Elliot felt his heart plummet before she turned and smiled.

"I don't think theirs has evolved to love yet," Adri added, leaving him in a shocked state.

He only moved when he saw her pick something up off the ground.

"It's the arrow we had," she commented. "This must have fallen out of your pocket on the way back."

"Let's take it to my dad," Elliot suggested. "I'm curious as to why this seems so important. I have a feeling that the substance on this arrow head is important."

And indeed it was. Elliot's dad was a miracle worker. He picked it up before saying, "It looks to be like some sort of poison."

"Poison?" Elliot repeated, looking at Adri. "Do you think it was used to kill the dragons?"

"That's a logical theory," the healer told his son. "This looks to be quite old, maybe 20 years. Crafters don't make these kind of arrows anymore either."

"What is the poison from then?"

"It's probably a mixture of different herbs or extracted out of something poisonous. It looks more like it had the consistency of a salve rather than a liquid and it probably could've easily killed a dragon, much less a human."

"Well we found out how the dragons were killed. I hope that this poison was forgotten of. I don't want our dragons to be killed by this stuff."

"I don't understand why someone would even want to kill dragons," Adri spoke up. However, before Elliot could say anything, a small boy ran straight passed him.

"Sissy!" he cried, flinging himself at the girl who just opened the front door. Lyra was looking at them however, as she hugged her brother.

"You look exhausted," Elliot's dad observed. "Come and sit down. I'll get you some water."

"It's alright sir," she assured. "I just came from the forest and didn't see you all so I figured you were back in town. I need to tell you something important."

After Elliot's dad decided to entertain Mino in a different room, all six of them were seated in the parlor.

"I visited your friend, the library owner, to talk to him about this whole quest," she started. "but I found out that he was the one who captured your dragons."

"That's impossible," Elliot stated. "He would never do that to us."

"Hey. I have no reason to lie to you," Lyra argued. "I came running right after I heard. Jacques was the one who stole them."

"I don't think she has any reason to lie," Adri told Elliot. "But I don't know why he would do such a thing either."

"He's your friend," Lyra shot. "And he knows that you are riders. He's still searching for the last one of the six friends."

"What do you mean? There are six of us here," Lilith asked.

"He doesn't even know I exist," she rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm not even a rider and he only has 4 dragons."

"I think that this situation is getting out of our hands," Holden murmured. "We don't even know where he put them."

"Elliot and I will go to Lycan's and see if he can help us," Adri decided. "We can trust him."

"Holden and I will go back to the library and see if we can find anything there," Lilith added.

"Oh and Lyra, it's good to have you back," Adri smiled. "Unless you were going to stay here."

"I've been apart of this since Kylian dragged me to Lycan's," she admitted. "And I'm sorry for leaving. I was just a little overwhelmed. I might have felt like the odd one out, but I've always considered all of you as friends."

"So have we," Adri assured before heading out. The only ones left were Kylian and Lyra. Mino came hurrying into the room and latched onto Kylian, making Lyra raise her eyebrows.

"We've bonded," he simply stated, shrugging as Lyra smiled at two people she cared about most.