Chapter 4 #2
Yuri’s expression softened. “What happened earlier that made you so upset?”
I hesitated. Just as I was about to give some lame excuse about work being hard or feeling tired, a big, fat snowflake landed on my nose. I went cross-eyed, staring at it in surprise, and Yuri actually chuckled.
We both looked up at the dark velvet sky to see the first few snowflakes of the season drifting lazily down around us. No wonder it felt so cold. I shivered, and Yuri’s arm tightened around me.
“Would you…like to go for a stroll with me?” I knew I shouldn’t be spending even more time with the ice dragon. I knew what my parents would say. But in that moment, I felt too tired and too lonely to care what anyone else thought.
“That is just what I was in the middle of doing.” Yuri turned and started walking, his arm slipping back to his side. “I wouldn’t mind the company.”
I matched him stride for stride as we moved down main street, past the illuminated windows of some of the other shops, like The Broom they would pass.
To my utter shock, Yuri executed a barrel roll in the air above me, tapping my back with the edge of his wingtip, and then went into a steep dive. I hadn’t played aerial tag since I was a hatchling!
And it wasn’t as if anyone would see us up here…
With a grin, I tucked my wings and dove, Yuri in my sights.
Like a missile, I homed in on him, and clipped his wing with mine as I plummeted past him.
When he raced after me, I snapped my wings out so that he rushed past, and laughed at the surprised and mildly offended look on his face as he pumped his wings to regain altitude.
“That was very sneaky of you!” he called out, huffing a bit.
“That’s what makes it fun!”
I waited until he was nearly upon me before I dove again, and teased him by pretending I was about to pull the same stunt again. So when he hesitated to dive, I ended up with quite the sizable head start. But despite his muffled cursing, I could hear him laughing, too.
We played a few rounds of tag, until our breath was short and our wings were weary. I didn’t even mind the thin layer of ice coating my wings—it soothed my inner fire like a cool rain on a hot summer’s day.
But before turning in for the night, we circled above Willowmere, enjoying one last look at the town before the snowflakes blocked it from view. And for the first time in ages, as we soared side-by-side, wingtips nearly touching, I finally felt free.