"You know, I think Ms. Miliscent Coldstone is turning a bit soft," I told Aine as we walked to the training grounds which were just outside the central building.

She scoffed, "In all my nineteen years of life I haven't seen that woman any less as cold or hard as her last name, and I'd stake Astoria's life on it!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Any reason in particular why it's Astoria's life?"

"No, no reason at all," she said, keeping a straight face.

I examined her reaction carefully, her eyebrows raised a bit when she replied and her eyes seemed to be wary...she was definitely lying. Don't get me wrong, Aine's a really good liar, but I'm even better at reading people. I blurted, "You're lying!"

"What? Why would I lie?" Aine asked.

"Hmmm, don't tell me, she's your new best friend? I'm hurt! You've only known her for three years! You've known me for thirteen! I feel betrayed!" I said in an overdramatic voice, trying very hard not to giggle.

She laughed and punched my arm, "Nah, no worries little Ashie, you'll always be my lil sister."

"Wait-so you do think of her as more than a sister? Like maybe a crush?" I mischievously suggested. You might be wondering why I'm not surprised that she liked a girl, but Aine already told me that she was pansexual, most dragons are.

"Of course not! She's too much of a walking encyclopaedia and way too responsible, just like the Coldstone she is," Aine defensively replied.

"Uh huh, we're not done talking about this but more importantly, you never told me she was related to Ms. Miliscent!" I exclaimed.

"You didn't know? I thought it was obvious that she was Ms. Coldstone's little sister! Same hair? Same cheekbones? Same uptightnesss?" she questioned.

"Huh, I never noticed. Besides, Astoria's not that uptight and being responsible isn't a bad thing when you're ambitious. I'm sure it's hard to be in your older sister's shadow all the time," I reasoned.

"Whatever, what made you think that Ms. Miliscent was going soft anyway?" Aine asked.

"I was late by five minutes for my last archery class with her and she didn't make me do punishment!" I remembered.

"She probably didn't notice because she was organising her list of punishment suggestions for my teacher in her brain," Aine scoffed.

"Yeah, sure, this is where Cynth's meeting me, see you later!" I declared as I sat under the tree, waiting for my cousin/Queen/Commander/Teacher to show up.

"Alright, the grumpy old dragon wants me too meet him further in the forest, he insisted that I hunt game with him as a sort of practice while nobody's teaching me to fight in my pathetic human form, and yes, those were his exact words," Aine recounted as she disappeared through the thicket.

I snickered then continued to wait in silence until Cynth showed up. I'd rather not recount that lesson, but I can tell you that I was drenched in lake water many, many times. After my lesson was over, I met up with Aine and the rest except for Luna who was having fun with her friends who were now fully grown cats in the kitchen. After we all got our dinner, we sat down and Kit excitedly demanded, "I want to join your slumber party later!"

"What? How do you even know what a sleepover is?" I inquired.

"I may have mentioned that the nuns let me sleep over in your room when it's your birthday...and told her all about what Earth people do in a slumber party..." Aine admitted.

I laughed and decided, "Why not? It'll be more fun! Why don't you two join too? The more the merrier!"

Wilde replied, "You see, I have more important things to do like planning my best prank on Ms.Miliscent yet, so I won't be able to go to this slumber party of yours."

"What a great and caring friend," I muttered sarcastically.

"Of course, I always am!" he said with a smirk.

Astoria declined, "Sorry, I'm brushing up on my battle tactics in the war room later."

Aine snickered, "Classic Coldstone."

I rolled my eyes and whispered, "Y'know you probably shouldn't make it look like you hate her, that'll make your chances with her even smaller than Wilde's chances with me."

"Yeah, like I don't hate her, and Wilde has a pretty good chance with you so that's wouldn't really bother me if I did like her," Aine whispered back.

I spit out my drink, "What even, Aine?"

She laughed so hard at my reaction that she couldn't even breathe.