The Touch Reader (#1 of the Elemental Originals Series)

Chapter Thirteen

A month has passed since the Headmaster told us about the Original quest we had to do.

Clara has grown even more. Where she was around the size of that golden dog, now she was as large as an average pony. The growth seems to have started slowing, but Jayden told me that she would be old enough to fly in about another month, give or take. There's not a distinct amount of time. It usually depends on the dragon itself.

While they might be siblings, Ignis grew a hell of a lot faster than his sister. He was already the size of a large horse. Next to him, my little chicklet, as I had taken to calling her, he was enormous. In fact, Flamma could technically already fly him, but she was waiting for Clara and Glacies to catch up to him. Although she never withholds from bragging.

And Glacies, while bigger than Clara, was smaller than Ignis. She was the size of a bit below average sized horse. Her spikes were more than razor sharp now, and she looked almost made of ice. Elegant and deadly, like a delicate blue rose with thorns made of ice.

The school had a memorial dedicated for those killed in the massacre. Because two teachers were killed, they had to be filled in by substitutes until the school found new teachers to replace them. They weren't bad, but because they weren't Mages or Riders, they didn't know much about how to use ice or light. We spent most of our class periods experimenting on different ways to control the ice and light.

Yesterday, though, Jayden idly mentioned how there were Dwarves living under the school in an entire underground city and how they make the most fascinating of things that only the Elves could rival.

I was, of course, pissed off that he didn't tell me about this before and demanded that we went there the next day, when we had no school. He had moaned and groaned, but I forced him, and now we were wandering through the Dwarven city, looking at everything on sale while Clara was busy strengthening her wings with the other dragons somewhere on the surface. She doesn't like caves.

"Why are we down here again?" Jayden asked, annoyed as I peered at a slim shield that was thin and yet somehow I knew it was a lot stronger than it looked.

I shot him an irritated look as I said a quiet goodbye to the salesdwarf and began to wander again. "Because you never told me about this place and I wanted to check it out. Besides, in my village we would hear about how Dwarves were amazing at metalworking and anything to do with things under the ground."

"But you can't even buy anything! You have no money!"

"So? Is it a crime to look and maybe buy later after money is earned in some way?" I offered.

"You're so weird," he groaned.

"Who's weird?" A voice asked, making the two of us turn around in surprise.

"Tessa! Hey, how are you?" I asked warmly.

Over the last month, we got closer as friends. She had to leave a week ago for her own classes, but we ended up having lunch together most days while Jayden sat uncomfortably on the other end of the table, watching us in perplexity that I wanted to wring his neck for.

"Hey, Nix! I'm good, just coming down here for some arrows. A few of mine broke during training, so I came here to replace them. What are you doing down here?"

"Oh, Jayden just told me about this yesterday, so I basically just told him that I was going with or without me, and I knew he wouldn't let me go alone, so now we're here."

She laughed, grinning at Jayden who rolled his eyes. "I'm literally supposed to watch you. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't come with you."

"God, I love you, Nix. You are literally my best friend."