INFERNAL - 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐲𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

NINE

"Do you have everything?" Lolo's green eyes gazed around the empty cavern, looking everywhere but at Ndete.

"Lolo." Her voice cracked with the emotion she was trying to contain.

Still Lolo would not meet her eyes. She looked down at the floor instead.

"It's not forever."

Lolo nodded. "I know."

"I will come back." She tried to sound forceful. "I have to."

"Okay."

There was a beat of silence.

"If I go back... you know, after..." There was a lump in her throat she was having a hard time talking around. She tried to swallow it down. "Will you come with me?"

Lolo's eyes finally lifted, finding hers. Ndete braced herself, not sure she wanted to know the answer if it was anything other than what she hoped. Lolo's green eyes were luminous, shining like a cave pool in the moonlight.

"You'd take me with you?"

She tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a sob. "Of course, Lolo. You are like a sister to me. I... I don't know what I would do without you."

She barely had time to finish when Lolo collided with her, wrapping her wings so tightly around her that any other words were impossible. When she finally let go, both of them were amazed to see tears on the other's face.

Ndete reached out to catch one.

"Dragon tears are rare," she whispered, the words of the old rhyme coming out almost without thought.

Lolo stretched out a talon, capturing another from Ndete.

"Water through the fire," she said the second line as she stared at the glistening drop hanging from one razor-sharp claw.

"Catch it in your hand."

They grinned and said the last line in unison. "Seal your heart's desire."

Lolo held out her arm, the drop quivering. Ndete brought hers up until they almost touched. Both gasped when the drops moved, stretching closer on their own. Ndete watched in wonder as the two beads of liquid wound together like vines, twisting and turning before finally blending together and disappearing.

They looked up, Ndete wondering if her smile as big as Lolo's.

"That," her green-eyed friend exhaled, "was incredible!"

"I've never seen anything like it." Ndete felt breathless, yet invigorated.

"Do you suppose we're bound together now? Our fates intertwined?"

"They always were, I think."

They laughed, all of the tension and worry erased.

"Fayal and Xian seem wonderful." Lolo's eyes sparkled. "You've chosen well."

"Do you think?" It felt right, but it was still good to hear her friend confirm what was in her heart.

"Remember every moment so that you can tell me all of it."

"I will."

They walked together out of the cavern and into the warren, threading through the rock halls. Ndete would only be gone for two moons, yet it felt as if she were on the precipice of something much bigger.

This was the beginning of the rest of her life.

The start of the story of Ndete.

Ndete and Fayal.

She liked the sound of that.

As if on cue, two sets of white wings appeared in the entrance ahead. Twin sapphires were the first to see her, eliciting a squeal of excitement from Xian as she ran to meet them.

"I can't believe you're coming home with us!"

Ndete grinned at the youngster's enthusiasm.

"I can't wait to see it," she answered with a smile, wrapping a wing around slender white shoulders.

"I'll show you everything!" Xian gushed. "There's a waterfall that's as tall as a mountain, and a place where the water bursts out of the ground and shoots nearly all the way back up! Oh, and there are creatures called bison! Have you seen them? I—"

"Daughter."

Xian stopped midsentence as the gray dragon appeared beside them. She looked up at Ndete for reassurance.

Ndete gave her another squeeze. "Why don't you tell Lolo some of the things you're going to show me in the north?"

Xian nodded, her blue eyes wide, but her chin lifted in brave resolution.

Good girl.

Ndete turned to face the golden eyes of her mother. "I didn't think you'd come."

Her mother's lips were pinched, cutting off the drips of smoke that tried to leak from them and curled from her nostrils instead.

"Your father tells me that you struck a silent bargain with him." She avoided Ndete's question smoothly. "That should you come back unsure, you will let him choose your mate. Is this true?"

Ndete kept her head high. "It is."

Her mother regarded her for a long moment, those golden eyes probing as if they could see into her soul. Finally, her mother let out a long sigh.

"I will not sway him then." Whether she meant by her choice or because he refused was unclear. "It is enough that you make this concession. And you will make it, daughter, should you not uphold this pairing."

"It won't come to that," Ndete let some of the acid in her heart color her voice, "but if it did I would stand by my word. Some things are more important than destiny."

Her mother's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing more.

Ndete turned to find a now familiar set of indigo eyes watching her, and with a smile she left her mother behind and walked toward Fayal.

Her suitor.

She could only hope that once he heard the rest of her plan he would still want to be her mate. What she had in mind was risky, and probably more than a little selfish, but she had to try. She needed her life to be more than what others had decided it would be. She needed to choose her own future.

It was now or never.