Chapter 301: Chapter 316: Fed Up

After all the chaos my body never calmed down, the summer heat making me run a fever, instead of being able to relax. My dragon's blood quickly burned away any sickness I would have caught… But it still compounded, making me feel pretty miserable, despite being healed.

I only slept for about 3 hours, having a vivid dream That involved me and my teacher Kal… It wasn’t anything too crazy, but it made me wish I got an answer as to who exactly applied the medicine to my legs… It woke me up so fast I sat up straight, my whole body feeling piping hot. After catching my breath I went outside and washed my face in the river to cool off. ‘What is wrong me… I’ve never had a dream like that before…’ I paused trying to recall what exactly even happened in the dream, the details quickly fading but my body remaining flush. “Burned my legs… More like fried my brain…”

“You doing alright?”

I jumped backward, falling down on my butt and completely losing my balance, still feeling feverish. I tried my best not to scream, letting out an awkward squeak instead that only brought him to stare at me.

‘Of all the people… Of course it’s Kal…’

My teacher calmly held a fishing rod, sitting close by and relaxing under the bright stars. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

I suddenly hiccuped, chills running through my body as I covered my mouth and tried to pretend that too was a dream, in hopes of at least feeling a bit less embarrassed.

He slowly turned back towards the river. “I heard stories that dragon blood glowed, but I never thought it would be so faint you could only tell in the dark. Then again, it might just be your eyes that are glowing, not your face. Or it could be both. I guess it could also just be that the moons love you, and shine off of your skin.

Another wave of chills ran over me as my face heated up so much that I could see even the tip of my nose had turned bright red. I was holding my breath, but after a short pause, I hiccuped again, only making it worse. ‘I can breathe fire but I can’t stop myself from having the hiccups! This is stupid!’

After a while, he sighed, still not having received an answer. “Am I that pleasant to stare at? You couldn’t care less during class.”

I could tell he was just trying to make a joke… But it wasn’t exactly helping… At some point, be it because I was angry with myself, or just sick of feeling so uncomfortable, most of that embarrassment turned into a dull annoyance. ‘That dream was bad enough… Now I have to deal with this…’ I leaned forward, relaxing my shoulders and letting out a sigh. “You shouldn’t say things like that to girls… They’ll get the wrong idea…” ‘The moons love me… Well, I’m sure the Lonely Moon does at least… I’ve never thought about it but that is the closest anyone ever said to they love me…’ I sighed again. ‘I’d just leave… But where would I go? It’s too hot to sleep… And half my body is covered in sweat or this gross mucus… Is it because I got burned?’

His face started to finally show how awkward he was beginning to feel. “If you can’t sleep then come over here, stare at the night sky with me while we ki–” His words stopped abruptly as his face took on a wide grin and he started to reel in a fish.

‘Ki… WHAT WAS HE ABOUT TO SAY!’ I closed my eyes and stood up with a deep breath. ‘Well… Whatever it was, it’s better than being yelled at.’ I lightly placed a hand over my chest, looking down and feeling my heart beating faster, and yet my body somehow felt calm. ‘I should just cool off and go to bed.’ Walking over to the river, I dunked my whole head underwater, holding it there until my mind finally started to clear. It was surprisingly meditative.

‘If I just take a step back for a second. He was probably about to say kick back and relax, or something which is what he was doing. Nothing else even remotely makes sense…’ I let my mind go blank, feeling the cool water slowly move my hair in the current. ‘This feels so ni–’ Before I could finish my thought a sharp yank on my collar made me struggle and splash before being pulled out and thrown flat on my back.

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“Hey, hey… Are you alright?”

He leaned over me, bringing his face close and I reflexively brought my arms up to push him away. “That really hurt you know…”

He placed a hand on my forehead, only getting closer and easily overpowering me since I wasn’t using magic. “Did you faint?”

“I said I’m fine… Back off.” I closed my eyes for a moment, adjusting to the sudden jerk and starting to push myself up only to be held down, my eyes shooting open wide as he pinned me to the ground effortlessly with one hand on my chest.

“You shouldn’t move around yet, let–”

“I said back off!” Gritting my teeth I finally reinforced my body with magic, yanking on his arm and smashing our foreheads together with a jerk. Only… I did it so fast that I ended up knocking him out. When he fell unconscious he landed right on top of me. ‘WHAT DID I JUST DO!’

My mind went completely blank, but after a moment I started to at least be conscious enough to keep panicking. ‘He’s not dead, right? How do I check if he’s still alive? No, no way he’s dead, I can feel his heartbeat… I can… Ok… So he’s not dead… That’s good… I should probably push him off… Or… Move… My body won’t move… Am I really that exhausted from using so little magic? Yeah… Let’s go with that…’ I let out a heavy sigh. ‘I actually knocked him out… One hit? It was easier than I thought… Does this make me a tsundere? No, that would imply I’m in love with him… But… Wait, isn't denying your feelings part of the trope? Wait… More importantly… Does this count as beating him in a fight?’ “Hey… Sense I knocked you out can I graduate early?”

He started to stir and all I could do was stare wide-eyed at him as he slowly pushed himself up with his hands, looking down at me before jumping up like a rocket and turning around, quickly falling several steps back and facing the other direction.

‘How did things end up like this… If he gets skittish too things will just become impossible… So annoying…’ Finally able to move freely again I covered my face and let out a long groan. “Why did you pull me out…” I asked softly forcing myself to say something to try and ease the tension in the air. ‘The water felt so nice…’

“I thought you were drowning…”

“I was trying to cool off my head because I was embarrassed… Well, also it’s just really hot… Now, I’m just embarrassed and wet…” Another wave of chills ran over me. “MY HAIR… I mean, that is… I’m embarrassed and my hair is wet again…” ‘I want to die… Maybe I should just walk into the river and see where it takes me? Sure, I can’t swim, but I can hold my breath for a really long time…’ I slowly turned my eyes back towards the current.

After another awkward silence, I stood up and wrung out the hem of my shirt, walking towards the river again,

“Lady Siya… I think… It would be best… If you went back now and dried yourself off…”

‘What? Why… I still feel like I’m overheating… There's no way I’m going to be able to fall asleep again…’ “Fine… After I cool off in the water. I have another change of clothes they gave me, so getting these wet should be fine.” ‘My shirt’s already soaked anyway…’ I took another step toward the river, getting my feet wet before I felt another tug on my collar from behind. This time it almost lifted my shirt clean off of me because of the oversized neck hole.

I quickly ducked down with a yelp, curling into a ball.

“What are you doing…”

“I’m trying to cool off! Got a problem!”

“You can’t swim…”

‘Oh… That…’ “I-I’ll be fine… I won’t go in that far…” I mumbled nervously.

“Considering you almost just drowned in 2 inches of water I’m not sure the depth matters… You don’t seem to be thinking straight right now…”

I felt a rumbling in my chest as I growled and my eyes turned orange. My voice lowered slightly but remained calm. “I didn’t almost drown… I can hold my breath a long time…”

He sighed walking back over to where he was. “If you go change I’ll give you half this fish.”

I stood up and turned to look and see how big the fish was. ‘It’s actually pretty big, that’s not bad… And I have lost a bit of weight with how much recovery magic I’ve been using… Hm… But then he’d win… Wait… Win what?’

He lifted the fish slightly towards me, looking to the side as he waited for an answer.

‘This guy…’ “The way I see it, you owe me half the fish anyway, since I let you have some of my dire wolf meat… AND WHY DO YOU KEEP LOOKING AWAY!”

“Well… That shirt may be a bit big on you… But it still clings pretty tight when it’s wet like that.”

I flinched back slightly, resisting the urge to curl up into a ball again. “I have eyes you can look at too you know…” I growled.

“Well… It would still be in my periphery, so it seems like it would be better to just look away, wouldn’t it?”

“Just don’t look at my shirt and it’s fine… Besides… It’s not like it’s a thin fabric.”

“That’s like asking the person you're fighting not to cut you where you don’t have armor.”

“So you’re assaulting me now?”

“No! That’s not… Ugh… That was a bad example, I’m sorry…”

I moved my hands threw my wet hair and flung some of the water out, bunching it together. ‘Well, communication has now broken down… Although this whole time… I’m the only one that’s raised my voice… I really am such a child…’ “I’m going to change now…” I waited for a moment, and when he didn’t respond I clunkily walked back to my tint, using my soaked shirt as a cloth to wipe down my skin to at least get all the grime off me before changing.