“You’re joining us outside?” She knew that she probably looked stupid, staring at Avyr all surprised like that in the middle of the hall but— “you haven’t eaten outside since we got back from the Dragonspine range though!”
Avyr huffed softly, giving her an annoyed— more exasperated than anything— sort of look as he slipped past her. “For good reason. It’s cold out there. They don’t make jackets in my size, for reasons you can probably imagine if you put your mind to it.”
“Hey! I’m not that dumb. Obviously I get why you didn’t come out, but— why now? It’s not like it’s all that much warmer than it was last week.”
Avyr just gave her a smug look, flicking his tail dismissively as they continued towards the cafeteria. “I figured something out.” Infuriatingly, he didn’t explain any more, no matter how much she badgered him to reveal—
It turned out not to be necessary.
The moment they stepped outside, she could feel it— a faint but present warmth, hearty and bright against her from Avyr’s direction. He looked the same, but she could see the way the air around him twisted and shimmered, a faint haze borne from water evaporating and refreezing around whatever… zone of warmth he was producing. She bit back a squeal of excitement. “Is that a qi technique?”
“Say that a bit louder, maybe the rest of East Saffron will be able to hear.”
“Sorry, sorry—” but she was bouncing on her feet the rest of the short walk to her usual spot, off by the big willow tree and the sheltered little bit of open ground, already awash with late winter blooms. A little bench rested beneath the outstretched canopy, kept free from snow by the arched branches spilling out overhead, replete with an overflowing abundance of vibrant spring buds. She couldn’t wait to—
A startled yelp wrenched her out of her thoughts, as Mimi and her friend whom she didn’t bother to remember the name of both tumbled off their seats at their arrival. For a moment the four of them stared at each other in awkward silence… before Mimi picked herself up, glaring Avyr’s way. “Don’t just sneak up on us like that! One day you’re going to scare someone half to death.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I… wasn’t sneaking.”
“Then why didn’t I hear you coming?”
Avyr paused for a second, then repeated— “Lily wasn’t sneaking.”
Mimi’s friend snickered. “He’s got you there. If you couldn’t hear Lily, then you deserve everything you got.”
“You fell too!”
“No—” she brushed some snow off her jacket, looking for a moment the very image of the prim and proper East Saffron young lady— “I was startled off my seat by the surprised shout of someone less than a foot away from my ear.”
Mimi stared at the other girl for a moment in awe at the audacity of her, speechless. “That— no— that’s the same thing! You’re just being pedantic— there’s no difference between fell off because you were startled by Avyr and fell off because you were startled by me!”
“I’d say that there’s a great difference between the two of them, clearly—”
“Either way your rear end ended up in the snow, so—”
“Mimi. Tongjing.” Avyr’s soft mewl cut through their argument like a soft knife through argument-flavored butter. “This is pointless.” He stalked lithely forward, curling about the area with a feline’s purposeful movement, inspecting their little alcove for a moment before he brushed off the bench and sat down opposite them. “It’s nice here. Do you usually eat with Lily?”
Mimi shrugged casually. “Not really. Maybe… one out of three days? It’s really easy to get homework answers off her if you give her food.” Lily flushed— that was not true! It wasn’t her fault that the remuneration they gave was not proportional to the amount of work— one simple calculus problem per dumpling was an absolute steal, and she wouldn’t hear otherwise…
Avyr’s look was… very knowing.
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