The tree of the exposed
Dan scooped up more chicken strips from the pan with the piada. He made a kind of roll and stuffed it all in his mouth.
Four bites and then swallowed the mouthfull. However, he still felt a hole in his stomach and the smell of sage-flavored meat continued to tickle his nose.
He grabbed two more buns and began to grease them in the oily sauce left on the edges. There weren't many morsels of meat left.
"You're disgusting," Runo said. She was not yet halfway through her dinner, which she nibbled with just two fingers.
Probably she was used to eating with twenty different cutlery.
"Workout makes me hungry," he muttered, the bite still in his mouth.
The girl wrinkled her nose in a grimace of disgust. "You could also eat without gorging yourself."
Daniel picked up the last few strips of chicken from the pan and double-wrapped the buns. He could barely close his mouth. He chewed for a while and then swallowed the bolus with a defiant expression.
"A ten-year-old boy would be more mature than you," Runo retorted.
"No. It is you who are used to buildings full of powdered nobility".
A head of the table, Joe snorted amused. "You look like an old married couple."
Daniel winked at the girl, raising his eyebrows, and blew a kiss towards her.
Runo rolled her eyes "Not in my life."
Always the same little princess.
He turned to look at their bakugan, lying comfortably on the black, grainy sand watching the lava falls.
The sun had now sunk and streams of liquid fire glowed orange against the obsidian cliff. Large air bubbles burst with a pop and a gush of sparks, while the lava slid down towards the Shining Sea. The water sizzled, raising clouds of blue vapor.
Daniel deeply inhaled the smell of sulfur mixed with ocean salt. A smell that tasted of home, of his land ...
"You don't have such shows in Luxa, do you Runo?" Joe said, with a certain pride in his voice.
She wiped her lips with a napkin and smiled. "Actually no, but we have the alpenglow."
Dan frowned. "What kind of disease is it?"
Runo raised her forefinger with an angry look. A blinding white light flared before Daniel's eyes. It seemed that a needle had been stuck in his pupil. "Ouch!"
"The alpenglow is a phenomenon that occurs at sunrise and sunset in the Pale Mountains," she continued, as if he hadn't heard it. "The rays of the low sun reflect on the snow of the glaciers and on the crystals of the mountains, tinging them with pink, orange and purple. One day you might come and see it. "
Joe gave a half smile. "If the heart stops throwing tantrums ..."
Runo took his hand and squeezed it. The litany of phrases that Daniel had always heard repeated by Joe's healers began: "Never lose hope", "There is always an alternative" ...
Why did they always have to end up talking about that?
Joe's straw-colored hair had dropped to his eyebrows. The gray eyes looked dull.
The air became heavy, thick with melancholy.
Daniel snorted and shouted at the bakugan: "Hey, Tigrerra! About what we were talking about today… Uh… Have you ever seen a white bakugan? Do you know how they are born and why? "
The huge tiger whipped the air with her tail, as if to chase away a fly.
Beside her, Draco rolled his eyes. "Excuse him. Education has never been his strong point. Right, Daniel? "
Why? What had he said wrong?
"It's fine, Draco, I was just about to talk to you about it." She approached the three boys. Her paws, the size of a shield, sank quietly into the sand, flashing their golden claws. She sat down behind her partner and began to tell.
"All bakugans are white at the time of their conception. As they develop in the mother's womb or in their egg, they begin to absorb the energy of an element. This is why we females, when we are expecting, cannot move from one realm to another: the little ones could absorb the energy of two elements and die. "
A sea breeze lifted a cloud of sand and volcanic ash. They would have to move soon.
"And when a youngling does not absorb the element of the parents it is born still white, right?" Draco said.
"Exactly. Only once did I see a bakugan in this condition: a small white-feathered Roc in the land of Anemos. He was much more frail and sickly than his peers, but at least he was still with his parents" continued Tigrerra.
Joe frowned. "Why? What usually happens to the Elementless? "
The shining tiger let out a soft sigh. A streak of sadness appeared in his quiet voice. "Nobody ever talks about it openly, but in the Sacred Land, half a league north of the Three Spiers, there is a huge willow tree known as the Tree of the Exposed. That's where white bakugans usually end up, entrusted to the mercy of the Eternals. "
"Condemned to death, you mean". Joe's voice cracked: "As if they chose to be born this way."
Runo opened his mouth to say something, but Draco preceded her: "So yesterday we didn't see an intruder. Perhaps the Sacred Land is the only home she has known so far. "
Daniel felt the dragon's guilt, a weight that hung on his shoulders like a lead cloak. "And maybe she's been living alone all this time," he continued.
Joe drummed his fingers against the pot. "It must not have been easy… Perhaps, it's good that you didn't mention her in the report. The council would certainly have accused her of sacrilege. "
Draco began to mull over. Dan could almost feel the lump of thoughts bubbling in his head. A wave of frustration ran through their bond.
"Guys, what the heck, calm down!" he snapped. "On the next patrol we will look for the willow and maybe we will try to talk to her! Maybe we could convince the board to ... "
A sudden cold gust caressed the back of his neck. Two huge bat wings obscured the light from the lava falls.
Helios landed behind them with a thud. Grains of dark sand leapt into the air for a moment.
"Kuso," Keith greeted from his saddle. Blond locks obscured half of his face. "What a surprise."
"Yeah, it was a beautiful evening up until a moment ago."
The newly arrived dragon growled from of his throat. In the dim beach light, its blood-colored scales looked almost black.
"It's fine, Helios" said the knight, in a flat voice. "Danny is just a little nervous. As before every tournament. "
The boy twitched his jaw. The hands became hot. That washed-out blonde hair would have been a perfect wick.
He felt Draco's presence beside him. It emanated calm through their bond. "It has been a long day. We could…"
"Oh yes, I heard!" chuckled Helios. "A mysterious intruder resisted your warrior charm, huh Draco?"
Daniel felt all the hair on his body stand up. An icy shiver radiated from his companion.
Joe mumbled a few words. "We ... here ... we thought ..."
"Don't worry, we won't tattle". A sly spark lit up in the red eyes of Helios. "Comrades must watch each other back, right?"
"Get to the point," Daniel snapped.
"If I were you I wouldn't be in such a hurry, Kuso," Keith said. "For now, keep looking for your elementless dragoness. Then we will let you know. "
Author's note: Hello everyone! Here is the fifth chapter and I've finally introduced Helios and Spectra. Do you like them? I swear that I'll give them more space in the future but for now enjoy the last lines of this chapter!
Unfortunately, I won't be able to add another chapter next Friday. But in the meanwhile you can leave a review and tell me what do you like or don't like of the story so far. Your opinion is very important for me!