It's not every day you find out that you are a rider of dragons.
Especially if you had spent almost half of your life in an oppressive orphanage, doing chores, working like a slave and trying to survive crazy children and evil housekeepers.
For year...
"I loved the stars well before I knew they were only beautiful because of the dark."
― Gemma Troy
"Now, shall we start again?" she asked, an evil glint in her orange eyes.
This time it was both Lily and Zack the ones who groaned loudly.
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"This is sooo good" said Emma sinking deeper into the warm water, leaving only the head up with a messy red bun.
Her eyes were closed and, under them, heavy dark circles that slightly disturbed her figure. Her usual tanned skin in fact, usually decorated with many freckles, was more pale than ever and it shined with the feeble light of the distant torches as the result of the hard work of the day.
"Hmmm" hummed in agreement Lily, also with closed eyes. She turned a little her head that was resting on a rock, searching for a better position to rest her weary neck. All her body felt heavy as a rock, and brooding on the warm water seemed to easy a little the fatigue and the heaviness in her muscles.
"I feel like someone had sucked away all my energies" said David, grimacing as he tried to lift his arms "And that I will never have them back" he said as he brought them down, making a little splash.
"Me too" said Mattia with a sigh, thinking of the training that hadn't stopped until dinner.
The squad was all there, leaning heavily on the rocks on a shore, their bodies under the water of the lake that was warm thanks to the old volcano behind them, letting it relax their tired muscles and body. Riders and Dragons had trained almost all they, trying to understand better how to call their magic and getting quite irritated when, after the first attempt, almost no one managed to get the same results as the first time, probably for impatience.
Alyce, before departing, had said that, even if the first time it's fantastic, mastering in that art was extremely difficult and painful considering that magic drains a lot of energies.
So now they were all relaxing together at the lake, on a little natural swimming pool circled by huge rocks, and a little hidden from view, so they could rest in peace. Fortunately, all of them have had the brain to bring a swim sweat with them from the Academy, except David who had decided to simply wear a pair of shorts.
In the end, even if they were totally drained, they had followed the director and Arya to the feast as they had been invited by their host, and declining would have been rude like the older rider had said.
It was called Pars Aestas, or Summer feast, and it seemed that the entire village had decided to participate, which meant thousands of daemons. Lily didn't even think there were so many at Bhàs, it had seemed smaller.
A lot of torches illuminated the sides of the lake, giving it almost a surreal look and making the atmosphere warm and cozy. Near the shores there were big banquets filled with strange snacks of meat and strange vegetables, both extremely delicious.
Then there were banquets with all types of local wines and beer and also some from Amot, the land of elves. Near them, a lot of drunken daemons were happily chatting and laughing with their deep voices at silly jokes. The ones who weren't intoxicated or weren't eating, were taking a swim on the lake with the children.
