The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 26

Aura stood outside the entrance to the library, staring up at the grand old door in front of her.  She had been so excited to get to the library after her revelation in combat class and talk to Janson, but as soon as she'd gotten to the door the excitement had melted away and been replaced by dread.  Any other day she would have pulled open the door and gone right in, but she couldn't bring herself to do it that day.  She knew Janson was probably waiting for her on the other side of the door. When she'd promised to show him her secret at dinner it hadn't seemed like such a big deal, but now it did, because now she actually had to do it.  Showing Kasha and Salarah had been hard enough, and they didn't even have any loyalty to the dragon riders or reason to reveal her secret to anyone.  Janson though, he'd been with the dragon riders as one of their own for years, and even if he didn't agree with everything they did, he was still probably loyal to them.

"Well, are you just going to stand there staring all day, or are we going to go in?" Nirvana's voice demanded, breaking through Aura's thoughts.

"Just wait a minute, I mean, have we really thought this through? What if he tells someone, or brought someone else, or I don't know. But just think of all the ways this could go wrong," Aura said in a rambling voice,  "What if we just don't go? I could just send Janson a note saying I got sick, and we won't have to do this,"

"Great plan," Nirvana said with a roll of her eyes, "Except you haven't thought about what you'll do when you're not sick anymore.  You can't pretend to be sick forever and when you're done faking it you'll have to talk to him."

"Well....I can just develop a detailed understanding of everything he does and everywhere he goes and spend the rest of my days as a dragon rider avoiding him," Aura replied.

"Mhmmm, another great plan, really.  But I still don't know why we need a plan at all.  I thought you were ready to do this, and he seems like he can be trusted," Nirvana said.

"Right, he seems like he can be trusted, but can he?  What if he's fooling us, what if he really can't be trusted.  People trick you sometimes you know, and you never can tell who can be trusted," Aura said.

"And you'll never learn unless you give someone a chance," Nirvana said, and with that she hopped off Aura's shoulder and pushed the door open herself.

Sighing, Aura begrudgingly followed the dragon through the door, making sure to check that it closed behind her once she was inside.  Though she hated to admit it, Nirvana had a point.  And she did want to tell Janson about the library, she was just scared of the what ifs if he didn't turn out to be who she thought he was.  But, she also knew she'd never find out who he was if she didn't give him a chance and trust him.  So, after she had made sure the door was secure she found herself winding her way through the towering bookcases to the table in the back where she was sure Janson was waiting for her.  As she worked her way back, some of her excitement began to return.  She really was excited to begin trying to figure out her element, and Janson seemed like the best person to help with that.  When she rounded the final bookcase she stopped for a minute, fearful that she might turn and find a bunch of people waiting for her, ready to force her to take them to the secret library.  But all she found was Janson, sitting at the table with his head buried in a book, gently stroking Nirvana, who had possessed no hesitation about zooming right into the library  and finding Janson after she had opened the door.

"Hey," Aura said softly, as she approached the table, "I hope she's not been bothering you."

"Oh, hey Aura," Janson said, looking up from his book as Nirvana gave a displeased huff and glared at Aura through the side of her eye, "are you ready to begin looking?"

"Yeah," Aura replied, and then hesitated before adding, "Why don't you follow me?"

A/N: Sorry for the long wait and short update y'all.  I've really not been sure what to do with the story lately.  I'm going to try and get another chapter up or extend this chapter soon.  Thanks for sticking with me!

Bye for now, Kat

*PS - sorry for the typos