In Part 2 (Ch. 6-17), Emilie found out what it means to be a true dragon, at least physically and magically. Keeping this a secret from her friends and society is something of a challenge, but she’s doing her best.
That—was—I’m panting as Al and I trudge back in for breakfast. I am very glad that he helped me.
“Done already?” Dad asks when he sees us.
I let Al speak for both of us. “Yeah. The ice melted pretty quick once we got the snow off.”
Well, I helped. Not that I’d tell him that.
Between the ice and my failed attempt to melt the snow, I might’ve used a quarter of my total magic, if that much. But the Mymoir says it takes the same amount of magic to freeze something as to thaw it, so I guess making snow from fog is out. But I can keep snow from melting or help it melt.
According to the clock on the wall, the chore took a little over an hour. There’s still plenty of time to go sledding on the east hill. Or, well, I say “hill,” but… this is Blacksburg. We live in the mountains.
Shannon has complained more than once about how not-flat our town is, and it just gets worse outside the walls. Especially to the east, where there’s a hill probably a mile long and really steep. It’s the sledding hill in the winter, but Jess said the DF cleared the whole hill of trees because it was so hard to tell if beasts were coming from over there. The path to the park is practically flat by comparison, including the cliffside outlooks.
It's New Year’s Day, so we have a special breakfast, but I really am looking forward to going sledding, so I eat quickly. And as soon as the table is cleared and I have permission, I’m out the door, grabbing my plastic sled for the trek. And Al is right behind me.
Despite my excitement, the trek is rather long. West to the gate, then outside the walls for about half the width of Blacksburg before walking as far up the hill as I care to sled from. And as much as the snow ahead of us has been tamped down—we’re far from the first to walk this way today—walking in snow isn’t easy.
There are enough people here that it takes me a bit of time to spot Jess’s coat. Once my sled stops against the pile of snow that someone built to keep people from slamming into the wall, I call out to her. “Jess!” She doesn’t react, so I call again. “Jess!”
Then she turns around, peering in my direction. “Emilie?” I can see on her lips. She’s stopped walking, so I quickly catch up.
Panting, I greet her, “Hey. How’s it—going?”
She takes a step back a little… startled? Why? “I’m—uh—Are you okay? You’ve been avoiding me…”
Oh. I blink. I… completely forgot. It—It’s fine. I glance away, no excuse ready. “I’m—getting better. Can we—be friends again?” I respond haltingly.
Jess wipes her eyes. I hadn’t realized I’d hurt her that much. “Sure,” she responds after a few seconds. “What—why—?”
I cut her off with a hand wave, smiling slightly under my scarf. As I learned while biking, heat magic doesn’t help much when you’re going fast; I need the scarf so I can stay warm while sledding. “I said ‘better.’ I’m not ready to explain that yet. But I think I’m ready to talk with my friends again.”
Jess takes a moment, then nods. “Okay.”
While Jess can use a flight wand to get to the top of the hill, she can’t carry me while doing that. We tried, years ago; it’s too much for the spell. So instead, she walks with me back up the hill. She doesn’t have to carry a sled, though, because there are wands to make those, too. “Want to join me on my sled?” she offers. “There’s a bigger version.” We were kinda running out of room last year.
“Sure!”
A few minutes later, we reach the launch point maybe halfway up the hill, and Jess makes her sled. I can just tow my empty one behind us. But as I reach for the glowing, bright green sled—it’s gonna vanish if I touch it, isn’t it? I stop and take a step back. “What’s wrong?” Jess asks. But my eyes are already closed as I search the Mymoir.
Is there a way to touch a created item without it disappearing?
No results. Although I guess that was too specific. How about… can I interact with Aspect magic?
There are a few articles I’ve read before, testing the limits of a Dragon’s magic immunity, but… there. «Warning: this spell does not check the difference between desired and undesired effects. Use with caution.» I skim the rest. I don’t quite understand how it works, but it basically turns off my magic immunity. Which sounds useful. Though I might not want to use it all the time. It looks like it takes a lot of my own magic.
“Akiko’s Resistance Canceler,” I mutter before opening my eyes.
Jess is standing really close, so I quickly step away and almost fall over backwards! “Woah!” Jess exclaims, catching me by my wrists. “You okay?”
I get my feet under me again, careful not to trip on the unpacked snow. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.”
“You were taking so long, I wanted to make sure you weren’t frozen.”
I laugh and shake my head. “No, I’m fine. Just… thinking. We can go now, right?”
“Sure,” Jess responds, placing the sled down again. It’s definitely large enough for both of us. Three people might be pushing it. Being magic, I’m sure it’s practically weightless, although it’s probably awkward to carry. Mine comes with a rope. Jess’s sled doesn’t sink into the snow at all until she hops on, pulling me with her. And—you know what, I bet—I melt the snow directly under Jess just a little bit so that our sled pitches forward. It starts down the hill and I smile. Much less effort than a push, and I doubt anyone could have noticed.
Shannon and Alex were waiting for us at the bottom of the hill. “How’d you spot us?” Jess asks the moment she catches her breath.
“Your sled glows,” Shannon states as though Jess was the only person here with a magic sled.
“And you were up there for a while, and I know what your coats look like,” Alex clarifies. “Is everything okay again?”
Shannon and Jess both look to me. “Mostly?” I answer. “Things might change, but I won’t leave again.”
I don’t know how those two will react. Hopefully they’ll take it better than Shannon initially did, but telling Alex is basically the same as telling the whole town, so that might not happen for a while.
And then Alex once again proves her powers of observation. “Why’d you recolor your eyes?”
I take a deep breath before answering, and Shannon is now looking at me as though she’d never noticed. “Not my choice.” If I’d had a choice, just for color reasons, I’d have picked something a little further from my hair color.
“Oh.” Alex takes it in stride. “Well, they’re pretty!”
I take a second to respond, a bit surprised. “Thanks.”
As fun as it is to sled, it is eventually tiring. And I’m getting hungry. I don’t feel magically exhausted, but Jess seems to be getting there, and Alex got there a while ago when she decided to borrow Jess’s smaller sled wand for a bit. Of course, the Mymoir also says that Dragons are more efficient with magic, so I probably could outlast a lot of Mages. Or a few Wizards. Not that our magic is the same anyway.
As usual, Alex is the first to speak up. “I… I think I wanna go eat lunch. See you later?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m done too. But if I don’t see you again before then, I’ll see you in school.”
Alex nods. “Great!”
Jess and Shannon follow as we head back to the gate, and I drop Akiko’s spell. Then I move towards the back of the group so I can whisper to Shannon. Meanwhile, Jess moves forward and starts chatting with Alex. “About Saturday…” I start.
“Yes?” Shannon whispers back.
“Melting the snow with magic is out. If the road is clear, we can still go, but that’s up to the weather.”
“That’s fine. I’m not finished at the wand shop yet. I’ll still show up to check if you like.”
I nod. “See you then.”