Saving Neba

𝐗𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈: Red, blue, green, yellow

Crypta was in his training room, thankfully, because I was in no mood for tittle-tattles, shakes and banters. There was someone with him, a chunk of black curly hair, the first curly hair I'd seen in Neba.

I would have cared if I didn't have something more disturbing on my mind. I didn't know what I thought of Crypta, but I appeared right in front of him when he and chunk-of-curly-hair were in the middle of a sparring session.

"Emerald." Crypta's voice was teasingly too sweet. "You're earlier than I expected."

"What did you do to me?" I stared at the exceptional tall handsome man, now standing sweat-clad, hair messy, blue eyes dark. His lips, however, wore a positive beam.

He stopped the session with a simple show of his palm. I growled, unconsciously, holding onto the last bit of patience. "Don't avoid eye contact with me. Answer the question."

"Theik mitvyii sikewah?" [Is she always like this?]

"Don't even think about talking about me!" I snapped at the other guy, now taking in his golden-green eyes. "Crypta?"

"Herald is my childhood friend, Emerald. He's from Elakki," Crypta explained and took off the bandage around his palms. He walked over to his ledge, grabbed a bottle and threw it to me.

I caught it effortlessly, wide-eyed, my heart still beating. There was liquid in it. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Drink it. It'll calm your heart rate."

"So you do know what I'm talking about." But I opened the blue bottle, stared at the familiar red drink for a few seconds, and then downed it. The familiar papery sugar-grape taste passed down my tongue, instantly having me close my eyes. It was chilled and soothing too. "Pegrazh?" I asked, taking in more.

"How did you know?" Crypta cocked an eyebrow. I shrugged and threw the now-empty bottle back to him.

"I had breakfast with your family once," I said, hoping I was explaining something. Herald was standing patiently, observing, not saying a thing.

"I didn't tell you the name."

"Everything I know doesn't have to be you telling me." I rolled my eyes. He sighed in defeat, not like Crypta was the one to accept defeat in the first place. "How do you manage him?" I turned to Herald.

"Heik-a-yera'elma," he responded. [He's a good man]

"Don't talk to me like that."

"Ecna tunel tart-ethigif dir-ethab, tun grat ik-un sredrun cirile-hi." His golden eyes were innocent and teasing. He walked towards the bench and sat on it, taking out his own bottle from under it and drinking from the bottle. "Pegrazh-ik rylvach, sa? So delicious." [If you'll be fighting this battle, you should know about Cirile. . . Pegrazh is delicious, no?]

I glared at him.

"Fän?" He shrugged. [What?]

"Stop it." I faced Crypta, giving up on trying to have a conversation with Herald. "You need to see this."

That got his attention. I sighed and stood in the middle of the circular mark where Crypta and I had our indoor routine. Shutting my eyes, I tried to think of those things that frustrated me. . .Josh, for example.

My thoughts settled on Neba, the dragon, coming in my direction, a line of fire escaping his mouth as he flew closer to me.

I breathed out with my mouth and put my hands together. Against my will, Kimberly's body appeared. She was lying on a white bed, eyes closed, her right hand on her stomach, breathing slowly and deeply.