Sidetracked Study Session
#3 of Fledgling Study Group
The four students meet up for another study session, but this one doesn't go according to plan.
With a small skip, Knaster touched down smoothly on the building's balcony ledge, on the second highest level right below the roof. The dragon fledgling folded in his wings, then he strolled past the elevator lobby and the stairwell so he could head for the only doorway on this level, which led to the penthouse apartment.
Standing back on his haunches, the young adolescent drake pushed the doorbell button. While waiting, Knaster wondered who would answer the door--would it be Caden, or would it be one of her parents? Caden's parents were almost always busy working during the day, but several times Knaster had encountered one of the adult dragons opening up the door to let him in.
Within a few seconds of ringing the doorbell Knaster heard the sound of dragon claws clicking against floored tile, which lent weight to the possibility that it was one of Caden's parents. Caden herself liked to make Knaster wait at the door until he rung the doorbell a second or even a third time--perhaps out of laziness, but perhaps also from a lingering petty desire to make Knaster feel mildly unwelcome during these study sessions. Knaster didn't mind. Caden had initially been reluctant and doubtful about the benefits of having these study sessions, though by now they had been quickly become a routine for all the four young fledglings involved.
There was some clunking and clicking from the door's locking mechanism, and then the door was pulled open by... neither Caden nor her parents. Instead it was a skinny, scruffy dragon fledgling roughly similar in size to Knaster, but lacking Caden's leafy green hues or Knaster's own light grey colouration, and instead sporting scales of dark ashen grey with faint stripes of pale green on her sides. It was another participant in their biweekly study session--a fledgling named Reylin.
Reylin grinned, and she looked happy to see him. "Hello!"
"Greetings. Good to see you again." Knaster dipped his head in a courteous bow, which made Reylin's grin widen. She shifted her weight between her four paws to stand up straight before bowing back at him, then she stepped aside to let him enter.
"Good to see you too! I was watching the window and I saw you flying over from the east," Reylin said to him. "Why'd you land on the corridor ledge? Why not just land directly on the balcony?" she asked, nodding her head in the balcony window.
Knaster made an indifferent shrug of his wings. Apartment towers in the City of Wings were built by dragons, for dragons, and they almost universally featured external balcony ledges so that a dragon could land directly outside their home. Of course, there were still common shared corridors on every level that interconnected the various apartment front doors, and dragons could also land there. "I don't land on the apartment balcony except for my own home. It's just... more polite to go through the front door?"
Reylin frowned, and she shuffled her wings on her back. "Oh, really? Is It? I've been landing on balconies ever since I learned how to fly. Whoops..."
With a chuckle, Knaster shook his head. "Heh. Maybe polite isn't the right way to describe it. More like... formal? It's not that important. I'm sure Caden doesn't mind when you land on her balcony, even right on her bedroom's balcony. We're all friends here."
"It's nice to be friends," Reylin agreed.
Knaster and Reylin both went over to Caden's bedroom, where they found Caden herself, along with Glecion. Knaster was mildly surprised but still pleased to see that the two other fledglings had already started. They were both sitting around the table with their school notes out, and Caden was repeatedly glancing between two similar looking documents placed in front of her. Four floor cushions were placed around the square table, two of which were already occupied by Caden and Glecion.
"Good afternoon, Caden. Good afternoon, Glecion," Knaster said, and he bowed his head towards them in turn.
"Good afternoon!" Glecion casually waved a forepaw back--being blind, she couldn't see Knaster's bow, but waving a wing or paw was just as acceptable as a bow in terms of friendly gestures between friends.
In contrast, Caden couldn't be bother with any greeting. She impatiently gestured for Knaster to come over. "There you are. Come here! Look at this. Look at this! This is nonsense."
Knaster strolled over to see the nonsense. He sat at the side of the table beside Caden, and he stretched his neck to see what she was looking at. The two documents turned out to be quiz booklets for a science class, one of which was Caden's and the other of which was Glecion's. The booklets were flipped to one page and question in particular, which Glecion had gotten fully correct but which Caden had not. Since Glecion was blind, her quiz had been printed out of special paper and ink that created raised text, but it was the same question.
Caden impatiently tapped her quiz booklet. "Knaster, did you bring your quiz? Quiz number four--the one that Drak Beritae returned to us at the end of today's science class? Let me see."
"I think I did..." Knaster tried to reach over his shoulder and unclip the dorsal pouch of his flight harness, which was placed over his back and right between his wings. Reylin walked over and helped him to detach the pouch from the frame of his flight harness, and Knaster acknowledged this help with a nod. "Thanks, Reylin."
"You're welcome," Reylin replied.
Inside the large, flat, stiffened cargo pouch there were several textbooks, as well as a document binder to contain loose paperwork and other school handouts. Knaster flipped through his binder to find the document Caden was talking about, which was identical to the two already on the table--Caden and Knaster went to one school, while Reylin and Glecion went to another, but Education Division made sure that most notes, quizzes, and homework assignments were unified across schools.
Caden took Knaster's quiz booklet and flipped through it until she got to the page she had been looking at. Knaster had gotten the question fully correct as well, which made the green-scaled fledgling growl. "Ngrrrah. That's nonsense. Why did Drak Beritae mark me down? I wrote the exact same answer that you two did!" she exclaimed, gesturing towards across the quiz booklets.
Knaster looked over the quizzes, and it took him just a few seconds to see why Caden's answer to this quiz question had only earned partial credit. "You wrote the wrong measurement unit in your final answer. Technically your answer is wrong by a thousand. That's why you only got partial marks for your calculations, but not full marks for the complete answer."
Caden scoffed loudly. "Oh, please. That is nonsense. It was obvious that I knew the concept and I _knew_how to answer the question! I even calculated everything perfectly. Just because I made a small mistake and wrote the wrong unit in my final answer doesn't mean I should get this question wrong."
Reylin sat down next to Knaster, which meant she was sitting at the table directly opposite Caden. She took out her own science quiz booklet to compare, and then she grabbed her floor cushion and shifted closer to Knaster so she could also look at Caden's quiz booklet. "Unit error? I hate those. I make them all the time. Did they at least give you marks for your calculations?"
Caden's tail made a frustrated swish from side to side, but she reluctantly nodded affirmative. "Yes, I did get eight marks out of ten for that question... but it should be ten out of ten! I obviously know the concept."
"Two marks lost for being careless isn't unreasonable," Knaster said.
"I think it's unreasonable. And nonsense," Caden grumbled again.
"Are those two marks that important to you?" Knaster asked. Taking Caden's quiz booklet, he flipped it back to the front cover to check her score, and what he saw made his neck frill perk up. "Oh, those were the only two marks you lost for the whole quiz. Wow. Well done."
"Nice work, Caden! Great job!" Glecion chirped, and she leaned over licked the side of Caden's neck, using her tongue to clean the scales there. Caden still looked sullen, albeit less so under Glecion's sustained affection.
"Thanks. It was... If only I had been just a tad more careful with checking my work, I could have gotten a perfect score. What a shame," Caden sighed.
"You still did really well," Knaster pointed out. "Remember when we first started holding these study sessions and you were barely passing your quizzes?"
Caden smiled, looking slightly embarrassed. "It's not the same! The science topics at the start of the semester were harder, and these few are easier now. Drak Beritae said that." Picking up the quiz booklets belonging to the other fledglings, Caden compared all their marks. "See? All of you did pretty well too. It's just that this quiz was easy."
"Or maybe we're all just improving after all our hard work studying?" Knaster suggested with a smile. "It's not just science. Your other grades are mostly doing better too."
"Everyone's grades are doing better. This is study session... fifteen? Or twenty?" Reylin said. "I've just lost count. The days, they fly by..."
"It has been a journey. I hate to admit it, but you're right, Knaster," Caden said. "I remember being so annoyed with having to do even one single study session, but I find it tolerable now! You three are great. We do homework together and chat and study for the next quiz, and that should be an awful experience but it's not." Caden grinned. "And it is nice to get decent marks... it makes me feel smart."
"Yeah. I'm going to miss these sessions when we finally stop," Knaster said.
"Stop?" Reylin's eyes widened. "We're stopping?"
"Uh... After the exams, I mean," Knaster explained. "Exams are coming up in just a few weeks, but after that we'll be on break and we won't have anything to study in our study session. Not until the next year."
Caden rolled her eyes. "That doesn't mean we have to stop, Knaster. Our study sessions can be... relax sessions or whatever. We'll find something to do--chat, or play games, or sports, or listen to music, or something." Turned to Glecion, Caden nudged the blind fledgling's side. "Maybe not sports. That one might not be fair."
"Not fair for you, maybe. I'll have you know I currently hold the air speed record for fastest dragon alive," Glecion joked, and she flapped her wings about uncoordinatedly, making the three other fledglings laugh.
"Haha." Knaster grinned, and he nodded. "Ok, but seriously... yes, I guess you're right! We don't have to stop meeting just because the school holidays are coming up."
"No use letting a good set of friendships go neglected," Caden agreed.
"Study sessions are still study sessions for now, though," Reylin said. She gestured to her textbook, which she had taken out from her flight harness. "Exams are coming up soon! There won't be any relaxing till those are over. I'm so stressed already..."
"Let's get started," Knaster said. "Today our schedule was to study, ah, science. Since we got our quizzes back, how about we go through those first to see what mistakes we each made..."
It had been a slow, gradual process, Knaster reflected, but their biweekly study sessions had become an expected routine, and the results spoke for themselves. All four fledglings were doing better with homework and quizzes in at least some of the subjects that they revised together. Aside from that, they'd become friends, and Knaster decided that he valued that even more than just a minor bump in results.
About an hour after the study session had begun, Caden went off to the kitchen and brought back a circular metal box which she opened up to reveal contained an assortment of various cookies. All four fledglings started snacking on the cookies even as they kept studying.
However, while Glecion and Caden just took one or two cookies, Knaster noticed that Reylin snapped up quite a few more of the cookies in quick succession. "You like these cookies, don't you? Are they your favourite flavour?" Knaster asked her.
Reylin had been midway through biting another cookie, but she looked slightly embarrassed. "Uh. They do taste nice! I like raisins. Also, I just haven't had a lot to eat today since I skipped lunch," she casually admitted.
"Wait, what?" Knaster and Caden both exchanged concerned looks, though Glecion didn't seem as surprised or bothered.
"Oh. I thought you ate lunch at school before you picked me up after class?" Glecion asked.
"No. My geography lesson ended late, so there wasn't much time for me to eat. I just came straight to find you so we could come to Caden's place on time," Reylin explained. She held a cookie with one paw and munched on it, using the inked, prehensile tip of her tail to write a few more lines in her writing assignment. Then she glanced up and noticed Knaster and Caden's concerned expressions. "What?"
"Wait, wait, wait. You haven't eaten lunch?" Knaster asked. He fished out his pocket watch from his flight harness, which indicated that it was well past midday and about halfway between afternoon and evening. "Aren't you hungry?"
Reylin shrugged her wings. "Slightly, but I'm used to it. I just drink more water and that helps me feel not hungry."
"When was the last time you ate?" Caden asked.
"Breakfast this morning. Maybe eight hours ago?" Reylin glanced between Glecion and Knaster. "Why are you two looking at me like that? Don't you... don't you do that sometimes? Just... skip a meal?"
"No? No, I do not," Caden replied. "I can't recall the last time I've skipped a meal, willingly or unwillingly. You mean you do this often?"
"No, not often," Reylin insisted. "I only do that approximately... once a week? That's not that often. I'm just too busy sometimes and need to rush to a class or finish up some coursework, so I might skip lunch recess just to get more free time. But I usually always find time to at least eat breakfast and dinner."
Knaster shook his head. "Reylin, why didn't you just tell us you hadn't eaten? You didn't have to rush here. Food and eating is a... an important thing. It's literally a basic survival need."
"I'm not going to _die_just because I have to skip a meal every now and then..." Reylin muttered.
"You should eat," Knaster insisted. "You should not skip meals. That's.... not normal. And not healthy."
Caden nudged Glecion's side. "You ate lunch, I hope?"
Glecion nodded her head. "I did. I ate at the school cafeteria."
"Ok so at least we only have one dragon starving herself..." Knaster murmured. "Did you at least have a good, large breakfast?" he asked Reylin.
Reylin didn't reply immediately, but Glecion did. "It was porridge. The clanless shelter usually serves us chicken porridge for breakfast. It wasn't a large portion, but it did taste alright. They've mastered the art of making the food taste... slightly less cheap than it really is. Still, Reylin, maybe Knaster and Caden are right--you should have eaten lunch, or at least told us you hadn't eaten."
"I'm fine!" Reylin insisted. She sheepishly finished off the cookie she'd been holding. "I'm used to being hungry, so it doesn't bother me. And I can just eat a few of these cookies to tide me over until dinner. These do taste good, Caden."
Caden grinned faintly. "They're slightly stale, and they probably only taste good to you because you're so hungry. And who even likes raisin cookies?"
Knaster had heard enough. He wiped his tail tip clean of ink and he stood up. "This shouldn't be a problem. We're not like our ancient prehistoric ancestors who had to roam for hours to hunt wild prey--getting food is not difficult in modern civilization. This is a very easy problem to solve."
"I don't want to be a bother," Reylin said.
"You're not a bother. You're a friend, and there's no reason why you should be going hungry." Knaster strolled out of the room, and he beckoned for the others to follow him. "Come on. Let's fix this. We'll find you something to eat from the kitchen."
Reylin looked hesitant, but Glecion leaned over and nudged her sister until she moved. Reylin followed Knaster out of Caden's bedroom and down the corridor, until they came to the apartment's kitchen.
"Let's get you something to eat!" Knaster said to Reylin. He turned to Caden, who had just entered the kitchen with Glecion beside her. "Caden, what can Reylin eat?"
Caden shrugged. "I don't know. Why are you asking me?"
"Because this is your kitchen? In your house?" Knaster spread his wings, gesturing around the kitchen.
"Technically it's my parents' house, as they are often prone to reminding me. Which would make it their kitchen, not mine," Caden said.
Knaster resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, but you still live here! Surely you know where the pantry is?"
Caden pointed to one specific cupboard. "The pantry is there, but there isn't much in it."
Knaster briskly strolled over to the pantry and pulled open the cupboard door, revealing a sparse series of shelves only containing a few packets of nuts, dried fruit, preserved meat strips, or other such snacks. There were several tins of canned vegetables and meat, but those mostly turned out to be years past their use-by date. Knaster pushed the pantry door shut and went over to the icebox to check that instead. Wispy tendrils of frost magic washed over his scales as he glanced into the chilled compartment, but it was similarly sparse with only a collection of drinks including cartons of juice, several jugs of water, and a large selection of wines. "What am I seeing? How is this possible? Caden, what does your family even eat?"
Caden shrugged again. "My parents can't cook, and neither can I. We just eat outside in restaurants, mostly, or sometimes take-away food."
Knaster slid the icebox's lid back shut again. Glancing around at the kitchen, he realized that it was clean--too clean. The kitchen was large, well-furnished, and stylishly decorated just like the rest of the penthouse apartment, but there was no fresh food anywhere to be seen. There were no dishes in the sink or the drying rack, which both looked too pristine to have been used much, and the stove looked like it had never even been turned on before. "Seriously?" Knaster asked aloud.
Reylin walked over to the pantry and opened the door again. "There's another box of cookies here. I could eat those?" she suggested.
"No snacks. We're getting you a proper meal," Knaster insisted.
Caden chuckled. "Haha. If you want a proper meal, there's no food in this house. You'll have to find it somewhere else. There's a café just down the street, although I don't think they serve food at this time in the afternoon..." Caden paused to think, and then she bumped her shoulder against Glecion, who was still standing beside her with her wing resting over Caden's shoulder. "Glecion, are you hungry?"
Glecion shook her head. "Nope. Why do you ask?"
"Because I'm not hungry either." Caden gestured to both Knaster and Reylin. "Knaster, why don't you take Reylin out to a restaurant somewhere in the sector? Glecion and I will stay here."
"Yes, that makes sense," Glecion agreed. "Since I've already eaten, there's no need for me to come along--I'll just slow you down if we had to walk. You two can go fly somewhere and find food."
Reylin glanced to Knaster. "Um..."
Knaster nodded. "Ok, that sounds like a good idea. And I suppose you two will keep studying hard while we're gone?"
"Bahahaahah!" Caden and Glecion both burst into laughter together, which made Reylin chuckle too, and even Knaster couldn't help but smile. "Sure, since I love studying. We'll study so hard," Caden replied, with sarcasm laden through her tone.
Glecion perked up as an idea occurred to her. "Oh! Caden you could do some more painting."
Caden nodded happily. "What a great idea! And since my paintings are part of my portfolio for art class, it even counts as schoolwork. Haha, yes. Let's do that. Come, come." With Glecion's wing over her shoulder, Caden turned and headed back out the corridor, guiding Glecion with her.
"See you two later! Take your time eating," Glecion said.
Left alone in the kitchen, Reylin nervously shifted her weight between her paws. "So..."
Knaster walked over to the nearest balcony and stepped out, pausing only to glance back at Reylin. "Let's get you some lunch. Come on."
"I... uh..." Reylin normally acted so confident, so sure of what she was doing, but she hesitated for a moment. Then she grinned and scampered forward. She squinted out at the bright outdoors, then lowered her pair of dark googles over her eyes, protecting her sensitive nocturnal vision from the blinding light of day. "Ok, sure. Where are we going?"
"We'll figure it out on the way. Let's go!" Knaster said, and then he stepped sideways off the balcony and into the open air, throwing his wings open to drop smoothly into flight. Reylin was right behind him, and she flapped her wings hard catch up and fly right beside him.
"What do you feel like eating?" Knaster asked, glancing at Reylin as she flew right beside her.
Reylin briefly rocked her wings, rolling her flight path from side to side in a drakken gesture that indicated greetings, or in this case, acknowledgment. "I don't know. Anything. I'm not too familiar with sector one. Why don't you choose, since we're in your clan's territory here?"
"Ok..." Knaster thought through the various eateries he knew were nearby, and then he made a snap decision. "Follow me," he said to Reylin, and then he adjusted his flight course to head towards a shopping plaza nearby, comprised of rows of shophouses that smoothly integrated into the surrounding housing district, spread out over various streets. Being the middle of the afternoon, the area wasn't crowded. There were still dragons strolling around and going in or out of the rows of shops, but at this time there were no queues.
Knaster landed in the middle of the street, right in front of the restaurant he'd been aiming for. This eatery had a decent variety of food items available--including appetizers, meals, and desserts for the choosing. Knaster waited for Reylin to land, then he gestured towards the menu, which was printed out as a poster stuck beside the entrance. "Here? The food here is pretty good, so I'd recommend it. Is this ok with you or would you prefer somewhere else?"
Reylin trotted up beside him and peered at the menu. "It's... not cheap..."
Knaster waved aside this concern. "It's on Taslin territory, so I get a discount as a clan member. Don't worry about the price. Just decide whether this is the sort of food you feel like eating."
Reylin tilted her head to the side and made a noncommittal nod. "Umm... I... Ok? It looks fine to me. Anything is fine with me as long as you're fine with it too?"
Knaster nodded, and he turned to the waiter who had just come up to greet them. "Table for two, please."
Reylin tried not to look too wide-eyed, but she couldn't help but glance around curiously as the waiter took them over to a table and sat them down. He placed a pair of menus in front of them, rattled off a clearly practiced list of promotions and recommendations, before dipping his head in a short bow and stepping away to let them ponder what they would eat.
It was all very unlike the sort of place Reylin normally ate at. The vast majority of her meals were eaten at home, at the clanless shelter where she and her sister lived (along with other clanless young dragons, along with a few adult drakken who acted as foster guardians). And besides eating at home, she mostly only ate at school in the cafeteria.
This restaurant was a clear step above all that. The tables and floors were all immaculately clean, and the floor cushion Reylin was now seated upon felt softer and more comfortable than her bed. The restaurant was well lit with plentiful daylight shining in through the broad front windows, and there was soft music playing out from a sound box placed at the side of the room. Unlike the often crowded common eating spaces at the school cafeteria or at the sheltered home, this place was sparsely occupied, with just a couple of other patrons occupying tables out of the several dozen that filled the interior.
It wasn't that Reylin always ate at school or home--on certain occasions she might muster together the free time to go out with other friends, and they might grab a meal from vendors selling food in markets or on the street--but always the objective was to get food that was cheap and quickly available, in that order of priority.
Unlike Reylin's usual fare, this wasn't a place where food was cooked in huge batches to be doled out to an eager line of waiting fledglings. It was more than just a quick place to sit and scarf down a meal to fill the stomach. It wasn't even merely about the opportunity to socialize and chat with friends, as meals often were. No, here was a place where the eating of food was an experience to be enjoyed in and of itself. Reylin caught a glimpse of the sort of food being served to some of the other restaurant patrons, and it looked nice.
Reylin snapped her gaze back to Knaster, who had been casually glancing over a seasonal promotion menu. "This place is so fancy..." she murmured, curling her tail forward to wrap its tip around her wrist.
Knaster raised an eye ridge as he glanced back at her. "Is it? It's not. This is just a normal sort of restaurant."
"You come here frequently?" Reylin asked.
"Sometimes. I come here with my parents about... maybe... once a fortnight on average? The food is good, the prices are reasonable, and it's nearby in clan territory," Knaster replied.
Looking over her menu, Reylin couldn't help but notice the prices. Food at this restaurant was easily twice as expensive as the subsidized prices available in the school cafeteria or even compared to dirt-cheap street food. That didn't seem reasonable to her, though perhaps they became more affordable since Knaster had a discount from his clan. But then Reylin saw the fine print at the bottom of the page, which specified the exact magnitude of this discount--ten percent off for Taslin, Hasilt and all related dominion and banner alliance clans.
Reylin felt her neck frill twitch. She looked up and down the prices on the page and mentally applied a ten percent reduction to each one, which didn't bring them into reasonable range. Something like a half price discount would have brought them within her daily budget, but for just a single one-off meal some splurging could be permitted. The young female fledgling resisted the urge to check her flight harness pouches to see if she had even brought enough money to pay. She probably had enough. Probably. "What's the cheapest thing I can order?" she wondered aloud.
Knaster chuckled, and with a shake of his head he picked up another menu and put it down on top of Reylin's menu, covering the side which had all the prices. "Reylin, stop worrying about the price. If it was just about getting the cheapest thing possible, we could have simply eaten all those stale cookies from Caden's pantry. Just consider this my treat and get whatever you feel like eating. I'll pay for it."
"Oh. You will? Uh, thanks!" Reylin said. She again considered the menu, trying now to look only at the pictures and descriptions, and not to think about all those nasty prices. Was Knaster being generous, or did his clan simply give him a bigger living allowance? Probably both. The common practice in drakken society was for fledglings to receive an allowance every week from their clan which could be topped up or adjusted by their parents, meant for spending on food, stationary, and the other miscellaneous expenses of being a student. Since Reylin had neither clan nor parents, she instead received an allowance from the clanless shelter, which functioned very much like a real clan despite lacking almost every right and privilege which a real clan would have held.
Reylin held in a sigh. She really had to get into a clan. Having more money to spend on food was just the smallest of the advantages to be had from being in a good clan--it was more about future job opportunities, preferable placement in higher education, access to clan resources like community facilities, services, and housing, as well as having a proper social support network of clanmates, and so much more.
Reylin started to think back on the dozens of recruitment applications she'd submitted in the past few months, trying to get any clan to notice her. It was so stressful to read through clan admission requirements and see all their lists of preferred qualities and traits, and Reylin had found it even more stressful to have to create a resume for herself that listed out all her achievements in school, along with explicitly detailing every aspect of her personality, mindset, skills, and hopes for the future to explain just why any clan ought to even consider her at all.
Dragon clans most commonly recruited new members from other clans, be that a permanent transfer, a temporary exchange, or even a sharing arrangement where a dragon could hold multiple clan memberships at once. Being clanless was not a common state, because clans would usually do their best to hold onto their members, and individual dragons would not be expelled from their clan except for cases of serious crime or transgression. Except Reylin had been hatched with no clan wanting to claim her, which meant that the stigma of being clanless clung to her despite the fact that she had done nothing to earn it.
Most clans outright rejected the clanless, and even those clans that did consider the clanless would reject fledglings, but Reylin didn't want to wait until she had her magic and was legally an adult drakken to then find a clan. Her general impatience at the thought of a life taken slow outweighed her anxiety over clan recruitment. But what a stressful process it was, and that was on top of all the other stress that came from school, with so much homework to do, so many quizzes to study for, so many projects coming due at the end of the semester, and greatest of all was that dark, looming, overwhelming threat of _final examinations_coming up next month...
"Eih!" Reylin squeaked, and she jerked as Knaster tapped her paw with his.
"Are you alright? You zoned out for a moment there," he asked.
"Fine. Totally fine. I'm fine," Reylin insisted.
"Are you?" Knaster asked.
A shiver went down Reylin's back, but she tried her best not to let it show. "Just mildly stressed. I'm fine."
Knaster nodded--Reylin wasn't quite sure if he believed her, but he didn't push it. "I was asking--Are you ready to order?"
"Ok. Could you give me a recommendation? Do you know what's good to eat here?" Reylin asked.
Knaster turned his menu to the first page and showed it to her. "I normally like to get the set meal, which has a main course with a drink and a dessert. I'm getting that now, actually. Fish and fries set."
Reylin nodded. "I'll get a set too, then. The, uh, the chicken sandwich set."
"Sounds like a plan." Knaster unfurled his wing and raised it up until the waiter noticed and came over to take their order. He was also pushing along a small trolley, from which he unloaded a pair of glasses and filled them up from a water jug. Once the waiter had taken their orders and gone off to get them prepared in the kitchen, Knaster glanced at Reylin again. "You must be hungry," he said to her.
Reylin shrugged. "Not really. It's easy to ignore being hungry because I've got so many other things to worry about. I'm just so busy."
Knaster looked concerned, which made Reylin worry about that too. Should she not have said that? It had been an honest response, but had it been the right response? She didn't want Knaster to think she was weird. Unless he already thought she was weird, which was just another thing to be stressed about. What did she even want Knaster to think of her?
"With how many different classes you take in school, of course you're busy," Knaster said. "But you should at least take the time to eat. Your brain needs energy to keep running."
"True, but I'm just... I'm always running out of time. I have to keep up in school and there's so much work I need to do. Even now I should be studying, since this is supposed to have been a study session."
Reylin reached into one of the pouches of her flight harness and pulled out some more notes--she had left most of her study material back at Caden's home, but there was always more to be studied and more homework to be done. She took out her inkwell, uncapped it, and dipped her tail in it to write. Her inkwell was almost empty, and she had to twirl around the tip of her tail inside the small container to pick up enough ink to leave a consistent mark on her paper. How troublesome. Remembering to go to a stationery store to buy more ink was yet another thing she would have to worry about until it was done.
"Is that math assignment 5?" Knaster asked. "I did that already, yesterday."
"Ok, good. You can help me with it, then." Reylin patted the floor cushion right beside her, and at her prompting Knaster switched seat so that he was sitting beside her instead of opposite her. "Please help."
"It's a tricky assignment, but it's a manageable length," Knaster explained. He checked his flight harness pouches to see if he had brought his assignment sheet, but apparently he hadn't, so he just gave her some verbal pointers. "The first few questions are just straightforward and in the same format as the examples in the textbook, but on page two they have some..."
Sitting side by side, the two fledglings resumed their study session, working together as they waited to eat.
Reylin liked Knaster. He was clearly clever from how easily he seemed to pick up lessons and understand them, but rarer than that was the fact that he took studying seriously, unlike most of Reylin's schoolmates, friends, and even her own sister. Knaster seemed to understand--without them ever explicitly discussing it, he understood why Reylin had to take so many subjects and try so hard at them, and during their biweekly study sessions he happily helped her with her homework and studying. There was a certain familiarity that had been forged between them, since often Caden and Glecion would finish their studying earlier, and it would end up just being Reylin and Knaster studying together as just the two of them.
Beyond Knaster just being smart and understanding, his willingness and desire to help was a trait that Reylin admired. It was nice to have someone trustworthy to rely on. With Knaster's assistance, Reylin quickly powered her way through her math homework. Within about ten minutes she had finished most of the questions, but then the waiter returned, pushing along his trolley with their meals.
Reylin was still busy with her assignment. Unfortunately, as much as she tried to stay focused on her schoolwork, the sight of a plate laden with food presented an intense distraction in her peripheral vision. She only had one last question to do and would have preferred to finish it immediately, yet it was all but impossible not to get lured away by the enticing sight.
Reylin let her concentration slip and she glanced at the food. It looked delicious. Her plate had a chicken sandwich with grilled meat squeezed between an assortment of vegetables and sauce surrounded a pair of bread buns, escorted by a side of more random vegetables and fried potato chips. Knaster moved the plates over, and Reylin could even smell the warm, undoubtedly tasty food. It was enough to make her salivate. Despite all her previous assurances about not being hungry, seeing and smelling delicious food made her fully aware of just how near empty her stomach was. The higher satisfaction of having this piece of schoolwork fully completed seemed increasingly inadequate compared to the simple need to eat.
"You can finish your assignment after you've eaten," Knaster suggested, and that made her decision for her.
Reylin carefully put aside her math homework and her inkwell, and then she took her plate from Knaster. "Thanks..."
"Enjoy your lunch. You must be hungry," Knaster said, but Reylin's only reply was a nod because she was taking a big bite into her sandwich. The food tasted just as good as it had looked, or possibly even better.
"Mhmm. Thanks. This is good." Reylin ate her food quickly--partially because she was so hungry, partially because it tasted great, and partially because she wanted to get back to doing her homework. Knaster ate his food more slowly, and though he looked mildly amused by Reylin's ravenous devouring of her lunch, he didn't comment on it. He didn't even force a conversation, and instead the two dragons just sat together in a mutual, comfortable silence. With how quickly Reylin was eating, it wasn't like she could talk much with her mouth so otherwise occupied.
As soon as Reylin was done and she had cleaned every last edible morsel from her plate, she went back to doing her assignment. Having her hunger sated did make her feel much better than before, though it didn't fully alleviate the stress that otherwise occupied her mind. The only thing that could resolve that would be having all her homework assignments finished, and possibly also having all her school projects completed, and of course her stress wouldn't end until examination season had come and gone, and then after that the only thing left to cause her stress would be the ever present worry about getting a clan, yet that was perhaps the most stressful thing of all...
Reylin tried to stop worrying. Her mind had always worked like that, thinking fast and analysing the world with great speed, but also finding things to worry and stress about. Choosing to continue her schoolwork, Reylin put aside her plate and took her math assignment again, but when she tried to grab her inkwell she accidentally bumped the small jar and tipped it over. "Oh!" Making a panicked sound, the young dragon immediately snatched at her inkwell to right it before much of the ink spilled, except that nothing had spilled out onto the table since her inkwell was already nearly empty.
"Careful," Knaster said.
"This is... I..." Any relief which Reylin felt flashed back into worried stress when she tried to dip her tail tip into the inkwell, only to find that it was completely empty. After she'd started her assignment earlier, she had forgotten to cap the inkwell and what little ink had remained was all dried up now, leaving her nothing with which to complete her assignment. Her tail tip was still stained black from her earlier writing, but it wasn't wet enough and she could do no more. This should have been just a simple inconvenience easily overcome, but Reylin felt utterly defeated. "I'm out of ink. I... I forgot to cap my inkwell earlier. It all just dried out and I... I can't even finish my assignment."
Sitting beside her, Knaster had finished his food by now, and he reached for one of the pouches of his own harness. "You could just use my inkwell," he offered.
"It's not just about the ink. It's... just... everything. There's so much I have to study and be stressed about. I'm just so tired..." murmured Reylin. The dragon fledgling slowly lay down on all fours on the floor cushion, put her head on the table, and closed her eyes.
It was so tiring to exist, let alone to think and act, with so much to worry about. Even with eyes closed, Reylin could help but think about all the things she still had to do, or plan, or be stressed about.
"Don't worry. You'll be fine," Knaster said, and then he patted her on the shoulder, then once on the head.
"Eeek!" Reylin let out a shocked, mewling squeak, and she flinched back upright in an instant. Knaster's touch had felt like electricity against her scales, as unexpected as it had been.
"Oh. Sorry--" Knaster began to say, before Reylin interrupted him.
"Could you... could you do that again?" Reylin asked. And then she shifted closer and hesitantly lowered her head.
Knaster appeared both surprised and amused, but he grinned and obliged her with more pets on the head. Someone else might have questioned her, made a joke about it, or even just refused, but not Knaster. "Don't worry so much. You always seem so stressed and nervous, but you don't need to worry because everything is going to be alright!" he murmured, feeding her calming compliments even as he patted her on the head.
Reylin wasn't sure if she ought to be embarrassed how much she liked this. None of the restaurant's other patrons were within line of sight, and the waiter had disappeared into the kitchen. There was no one around to judge except Knaster, but Reylin hoped that they were good enough friends where he wouldn't judge. "Keep going...?" she prompted, and Knaster did.
In addition to his one paw patting her head, he used his other paw to rub her under the chin. His touch was warm, gentle, and thoroughly reassuring in a way which was unlike anything else Reylin had ever felt before. "Don't be stressed. Everything is going to be alright. You're a smart, hardworking, fantastic person who deserves to relax and to have a good life."
Reylin felt like she was melting. It felt like every thought and worry was sliding out of her mind, replaced by just a comforting peace. Without even realizing what she was doing, her eyes went half-lidded and rolled back in her head, and she leaned into Knaster's touch. "Don't stop."
Knaster sounded amused, but he didn't mock her or even comment. Instead he just kept going--patting her head, rubbing her chin, and muttering all those encouraging, reassuring remarks. "You're really such a great person, Reylin. Don't be sad. Be happy. You're going to do absolutely great, and you've got the rest of your life to look forward to."
Then Knaster flipped open a wing and wrapped it around her shoulders to pull her into a hug, and at that point Reylin just couldn't help herself. It had been far too long since she'd had a good hug. A soft, contented, rumbling purr found its way out of her throat, and her forelegs trembled, barely keeping her upright as Knaster kept patting and rubbing her head. "Ohhhhmmrrr..." She was just so cosy.
"Good Reylin, nice Reylin. You're a good dragon, you know that?" Knaster murmured. Reylin's neck frill was perking up, but Knaster massaged it back down. And then using his half-extended claws he scratched her right behind the ears, and at that point Reylin just went completely limp. Her body trembled all over and then she slumped down, falling out of the hold of Knaster's wing to land half on her own cushion and half on his, right in front of her friend.
Knaster laughed, but it was in an earnest, warm, hearty manner that lacked even the slightest trace of scorn. "Hahaha. Reylin, are you alright?"
"Mhhm mhna..." Reylin mumbled. "I'm fine. I'm always fine. Actually that's not true. But I am better now."
Knaster used his paw to pat her on the head one last time, but then he stopped. "The waiter's coming with dessert."
Reylin pushed herself back up to a normal sitting position back on her own cushion, and then she shook herself all over, making her scales rustle against each other. "Dessert? Oh, ice cream. Nice."
The two fledglings didn't talk about what happened, but they probably didn't need to. Instead the conversation just restarted as if nothing had even occurred. Even as Knaster took one of the two small bowls of ice cream served by the waiter, Reylin grabbed her math assignment again. "What was I doing? Ah, right. Can I borrow your inkwell?"
"Of course," Knaster replied. He passed her a capped inkwell that he took from his flight harness pouches. "You can just keep that. I've got plenty of spares at home."
"Thanks!" Reylin took the inkwell and uncapped it. She gently dipped her tail into the pot and dabbed off the excess ink, before making sure to remember to recap the inkwell this time. Then she was about to start writing when another thought occurred to her. "Am I using you? First I got you to pay for lunch, and now I've stolen your inkwell. I feel like I owe you now."
"Ahahaha!" Knaster laughed again, this time hard enough that he had to cover his snout with a wing. He looked genuinely amused. "Helping each other out is what friends do. And those are just small things, Reylin. Small, insignificant things."
"They're not small to me. Thank you. I appreciate all the help you've given me--not just today, but over the past few months and all our study sessions with how much you've helped me to study," Reylin said.
Knaster nodded calmly. "It's a mutual benefit. We all learned more from studying with each other. So thanks to you too, for helping me study."
Reylin started working on the last question of her assignment. It only took a couple of minutes for her to figure out the solution, but she had to fight off the distraction of Knaster eating his ice cream, slowly licking it right out of the bowl with his tongue--he didn't appear impatient, but instead seemed to be deliberately distracting.
"Mhhm. Dessert. So delicious. Cold and creamy, but yours is melting. Are you sure you don't want to eat dessert first and finish your math assignment later?" he asked.
Reylin giggled and shook her head insistently. "Hehe. I'm finishing this assignment now!" As amusing as it was, this was a new side of Knaster she was seeing--normal he always acted proper, serious, honourable, and fully focused on getting the studying done during their study session, but here he was being playful and teasing. "Are you trying to distract me?"
Knaster licked his lips clean, and he put down his half eaten bowl of ice cream. "Yes, I'm absolutely trying to distract you. You study so much, Reylin! You take so many subjects and spend so much time studying, and apparently it has reached the point where you are beginning to skip meals because you're so busy and stressed, and that's not right. So I'm just trying to remind you to relax and enjoy yourself some time."
"I'll relax when I'm dead," Reylin quipped. Knaster threw another concerned glare her way, which made Reylin hurriedly add, "That was a joke."
Knaster tilted his head. "I know it was a joke. But just make sure you don't skip meals. And don't let the stress get to you."
"I'll relax after the exams when the school term is over. Or after I've gotten a clan and my future is secure. Or maybe I'll really only just get to relax when I'm dead. Haha." Reylin glanced back at her assignment and finished writing her final statement. "Anyway, I'm done with this assignment."
"I'm not saying throw away your ambition. I'm just saying maybe don't study so much that you forget to eat." Knaster slid Reylin's small bowl of ice cream over to her. "It is good ice cream, though."
Reylin picked up a spoon and started eating. "It is good!" she agreed.
Reylin had assumed that once they'd finished eating, they would just leave immediately and go back to Caden's house to resume studying. However as they were eating dessert, she found herself lured into a conversation just after making a simple remark. "You know, when I was young I used to think that snow was the same thing as ice cream."
"Did you?" Knaster was still sitting beside her, and now he met her gaze.
Reylin nodded. "Snow looks similar to ice cream, doesn't it? Whenever the city flew through icy weather and it snowed, I always saw it piling up on the storm shields high above, and I just had this mistaken belief that snow was natural ice cream and ice cream was artificial snow. And I always wondered why we never gathered it up as a food source--that seemed easier than running so many farms and setting up supply chains to the city."
Knaster grinned. "You never just tried tasting snow? It's not very tasty or filling, unlike ice cream."
"I never even touched snow until... maybe a year ago?" Reylin admitted. "We usually don't get snow here in the city because they always raise the storm shields."
"You never visited the countryside?" Knaster asked.
"Clanless hatchlings don't get vacations. Though I suppose we did have school field trips every semester, but almost always it was to visit places within the city. The power core, the museums, central logistics depot, the ballast reservoir--places like that." Reylin licked the last remnants of her ice cream and then she put down her bowl and spoon. "Did you... did your school take you on field trips out of the city?"
Knaster shook his head. "No, I think it was the same as how your school did it. We never left the city, but that was because we were hatchlings. Now that we've all learned how to fly..." Unfurling his wings, Knaster flapped them down once for emphasis. "Now that we're fledglings, I've heard that starting next semester we'll be doing more activities that involve leaving the city. Training hunts and flight school have already started, along with field trips to leave the city and visit the Outer Colonies like Maringe Harbour or Diracore Quarry. Just a few months ago we already went for a big field trip to the floating mountains. Was your school involved in that? I knew it was lots of different schools, not just District Central."
Reylin's neck frill drooped slightly. "My school was on that field trip too, and Glecion told me all about the mountains of Mizalin-on-Sky. I didn't get the chance to go for that. I was busy."
"Busy? That's a shame. The floating mountains were spectacular. What were you so busy with that you missed out on that field trip?"
Reylin let a faint grin cross her snout. "Clan recruitment interviews."
"Oh. Right." Knaster looked unsure about what to say. "I guess those would be pretty important. Which clans did you apply for?"
"All the big clans, of course--Mintaka, Hasilt, Dirak, Kirn, and your clan, Taslin. Plenty of the medium-sized ones too. Nern, Jeminus, Hitel, Ikalato..." Reylin shrugged. "I'll see how it goes. I don't have much hope for any success. Most clans will throw out recruitment applications from clanless dragons of any age, and even those that will consider the clanless don't want young dragons, but I just thought... since I'm a fledgling now, I do at least have a chance. I hope."
"You'll get a clan sooner or later. You're too smart and hardworking for it not to happen," Knaster said.
"Thanks. That's nice of you to say." Reylin sighed quietly, but she moved on. "But anyway, that's just... that's a silly old thing I used to believe, thinking snow was the same thing as ice cream. I know better now." Pushing aside her now empty bowl, she enjoyed the quiet, relaxing ambience for a moment. It was nice to have someone to talk to.
When Reylin and Knaster returned to the apartment, they found the other two fledglings still busy with artwork. Caden was sitting by the side of the living room, with her easel placed in front of her and her palette filled with various paints. Her tail tip was stained with colour as she painted.
Caden's subject was, of course, Glecion, who was lying on a large, square floor cushion in the middle of the living room. Glecion was lying on her side with all four paws facing the same direction, and she had one wing unfurled and draped around her body, partially but not quite covering the faint pale green stripes that ran down her sides. Her head was tilted to the side and slightly lowered. Most intriguingly, the blind fledgling was also carrying a red flower stalk with her jaws, holding it sideways by the green stem. Glecion had been remaining still, but her ears flicked when Reylin and Knaster landed on the balcony and strolled in through the open doors.
Reylin's neck frill perked up, and she grinned widely at the sight of her sister. "Glecion, wow. You look... haha. Wow."
Still holding her position and not letting the flower drop from her mouth, Glecion said, "Don't you judge me! The pose and the prop were Caden's ideas."
"Yes, and they were fantastic ideas. Glecion, you are beautiful and in a most fetching pose and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Clearly your sister doesn't appreciate artistic flair," Caden said. Then she made a few more strokes with the tip of her tail, spreading more colour across her painting.
Reylin and Knaster both walked over and stood on both sides of Caden to watch her paint. "You really are great with painting," Knaster commented.
"Why, thank you," Caden murmured, without taking her eyes off her work.
"Where did you even get a flower?" Reylin wondered.
"I bought it," Caden replied.
"You went out to buy a flower just now?"
"No, I bought that flower yesterday to give to Glecion."
"So the flower was just for your art paintings, or was it an unrelated gift that you are now also using in your art?" Knaster asked.
Neither Caden nor Glecion answered that question, though Reylin thought she saw a faint smile on both of their faces.
They watched Caden continue to paint for a while more, then Knaster glanced at Reylin. "Hey, Reylin, have you ever thought about how this painting of Glecion could actually have been a painting of you, if all Caden did was change the blindfold part?"
Reylin's neck frill perked up. "No, I hadn't thought of that. It is true, though. I now know exactly how I would look if I did that pose and held a flower in my mouth. Hahaheha." Reylin giggled, which made Glecion snort a few times as she tried not to laugh too.
Caden hummed softly even as she kept considering her painting. "Hmmm. Now that you mention it, I suppose any of my paintings of Glecion could have been paintings of Reylin just wearing a blindfold. Except for that one particularly intimate portrait where... I don't think Reylin would have let me get as up close and personal as my lovely Glecion did."
Glecion barely suppressed a bark of laughter, and she nearly dropped the flower from her mouth. "Hah... Caden!" she hissed.
"What? I meant that portrait of your face," Caden casually replied, though she was clearly grinning.
Reylin's neck frill twitched, and she glanced away from the other two female fledglings, instead looking embarrassedly at Knaster. "You two are funny, aren't you? I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear any of that. We'll leave you to it then. Knaster, let's get back to our study session," Reylin decided, and then she stood up and headed back to Caden's room. Knaster followed her without question.
Sitting herself down at the table again, Reylin glanced over her schoolwork. "We got work to do," she muttered, tapping her paws against some of her textbooks and lecture notes. Normally she would have rushed straight into more studying and schoolwork, but now she let out a contented sigh. "Huuh. I feel so pleasantly full after that meal. Thanks for that, Knaster. You're the best."
Knaster sat down at the table beside her. "You're welcome," he replied with a nod of his head.
"You were right about what you said earlier--I shouldn't have skipped lunch. I feel so much better now that I've had some food."
"Eating is a basic need. You definitely should meet it and all the other basic needs."
"I do! I'm not dead. I obviously meet all my basic needs," Reylin insisted. "Hunger and thirst are sated from lunch. What else is there? Warmth? Caden's house is warm. I'm not freezing."
Knaster thought for a moment. "How are you doing on... sleep?" he suggested.
"I..." Reylin's voice trailed off for a moment. "I'm doing completely fine on sleep. I get adequate rest," she declared, though her tone lacked conviction.
Knaster didn't look convinced either. "Do you? How much sleep did you get last night?"
"Uh, last night was six hours of sleep--which I know isn't great, but it's not the worst. I had to stay up late to finish up on some essay work for my writing class. But I am a nocturnal, which means I'm more immune to sleep deprivation," Reylin said.
Knaster still looked unconvinced. "I thought being a nocturnal dragon just meant that you can adjust your sleep cycle more quickly, and take naps at any time to make up for sleep loss?"
As a subspecies of the general drakken population, nocturnal dragons were adapted to function best at night, with their darker scales, quieter wingbeats, sensitive eyes, and as was the point of discussion here, they naturally would sleep during the day and be awake during the night. Of course, in the City of Wings, nocturnal dragons usually would sleep during the night to follow the majority of dragons, who were diurnal. In this case, Knaster was correct--nocturnal dragons like Reylin did have better ability to catch up on sleep loss by napping whenever they wanted, but overall they still needed the same amount of rest.
Except Reylin couldn't rest now--there was work to be done. "Anyway, we need to get back to studying now," she insisted. Reylin glanced down at her schoolwork and resisted the urge to sigh. As necessary as it was, it wasn't likely to be much fun to keep studying.
Yawning widely, Knaster plopped down onto his side, dropping onto his floor cushion in a dramatic, exaggerated manner. Resting his head on his paws and lying sideways, he glanced up at Reylin as if to imply, "Are you sure you get enough rest?"
Reylin bared her teeth and pretended to growl at him. "Grr... I thought you were a good influence! You always acted so disciplined before. What's all this now? Napping instead of studying? It's like something Caden would suggest. I can't believe this." Jumping to her feet, Reylin strolled over and playfully nudged Knaster by the shoulder a few times to try and get him back up, before she gave up and slumped down against his side, dropping into a sitting position. "I remind you that this is supposed to be a study session. This afternoon we've spent as much time _eating_as we have been studying, and now you think we should waste time napping instead of studying?"
"Your brain does need sleep and rest to be productive. And I do believe you said earlier, 'I'm just so tired...', if I'm quoting that correctly?" Knaster said with an amused smile.
Reylin was still leaning against Knaster, and she gave him another shove. She growled again, but not with any actual anger. "Rrrr! Don't you quote me! I meant mentally tired, not physically tired."
"Sleep is for mental tiredness too, not just physical." And then Knaster patted her on the head again, ruffling her neck frill. The contact made Reylin shiver. From a position sitting on all fours, she slid slowly down into a sideways lying position, leaning closer to Knaster. "Mmh. You really like that, don't you?" Knaster murmured. This time he didn't keep going for as long, to Reylin's silent disappointment, and he pulled back his paw after just a few seconds.
A rumbling sound came from Reylin's chest, but this time it was closer to a purr than a growl. "Rrr... No, don't you try and distract me with my only weakness--headpats. Knaster, I thought you were a disciplined student who had their priorities right, but clearly not..." Reylin shook her head, feigning disgust, but she couldn't help but grin. She pulled over her floor cushion and made herself comfortable, still leaning against Knaster. "There's no way I could possibly even nap now. I'm fully awake and we should be studying. "
Knaster yawned again, and this time it looked genuine instead of being an act. "How about a short ten minutes spent resting your eyes and digesting lunch?"
"I'm not sleepy," Reylin insisted, but Knaster's yawn was contagious and she found herself yawning too. "I won't nap. I'll show you." Lying on her side, with her wings brushing against Knaster's, Reylin closed her eyes. She didn't expect to actually fall asleep, but things were unexpectedly far more comfortable than she'd anticipated, and before she even knew what was happening she had dozed off.
When Reylin next stirred, the sun was low enough in the sky to be casting long rays of yellowy-orange in through the open balconies doors, lighting up the whole room with the waning light of day. Reylin felt simultaneously well-rested yet still lethargic, with sleep inertia holding her down and making her mind sluggish.
The sunlight was warm and pleasant against her scales. Shifting her position slightly, Reylin felt an even greater source of warm reassurance against her back--Knaster was still resting beside her, and the two fledglings were lying back to back--that simple contact felt oddly comfortable. Knaster still appeared to be asleep and Reylin was sorely tempted to put her head back down again, but responsibilities called. Apparently she had been asleep for hours, and she did still have much schoolwork to do.
Then Reylin turned her head to look at the other side of the room, and she discovered that they weren't alone. Caden was sitting just inside of the doorway, looking at Reylin and Knaster and painting on her easel. Glecion was sitting beside and behind her, resting her head on Caden's shoulder.
Reylin shook her head to wake herself up fully, and she squinted at Caden. "What are you painting?"
"Just a quick sketch. The lighting and the colour of this scene are simply delightful, and you two look so cute sleeping together," Caden murmured.
"No, we don't. Or maybe just I don't." Reylin glanced at Knaster again. "I suppose you could say Knaster does look cute when he's napping."
Knaster blinked his eyes open. "What did you just say?"
"Uh, nothing." Glancing away, Reylin pushed into a stand, dragged herself closer to the table, and slumped down to stare at her schoolwork again. "Back to work! Homework isn't going to do itself."
Knaster did stand up and return to the table, and he flipped through his own notes. "Back to work, then," he agreed.
Caden just kept painting, and she chuckled softly. "You two are just something, aren't you?"
TO BE CONTINUED
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