230 Rising Emotions

Seeing Dygo again send a wave of memories rushing through her mind. All of the memories of him in her mind, especially the embarrassing ones. Her cheeks were flushed pink just thinking about it. 

Lycster, who saw it from where he was seated, had to look away to stifle his laughter. His sister's face was just too perfect. Vy quickly turned to Aether. 

"I don't think you've met-" before Vy could finish introducing Aether, he had already slithered over to Dygo. 

The winged serpent Familiar circled around Dygo with a keen eye. 

"-Aether, my Familiar." Vy continued as she watched Aether circling Dygo. 

-It's good to meet you, Dygo.- Aether hissed at him. 

Caught off guard by the serpent, Dygo still remained as calm as he could. 

"It's good to meet you too," he replied. 

A long silence followed the exchange of pleasantries. Unsure of what to make of it, Vy focused on other things to clear up her mind. With the fish that Aether and Vy had caught, there was more than enough for all of them. 

Using her Kyu form's fire powers, she placed her palm on the fish to defrost them. Using wooden sticks, she pierced them through the fish and stuck them up right next to the fire to cook. From her spatial storage, she brought out a bottle of grounded spices, oil and a brush. 

As she peppered the grounded spices onto each fish, she also brushed each of them with a layer of oil. Lycster went over to help his sister with the fish. 

"Seems like you managed to catch quite a few, sis," Lycster commented with a grin. 

Seeing no response from her, he knew she was deep in her own thoughts. But he could not help himself, it was his job as her younger brother to tease her, right?

"Did you know we had a guest coming?" Lycster probed. 

Vy turned to look at him with a face of guilt. 

"What… no, I did not, I was telling Aether…" Vy put the pieces together and turned over the glare at Aether instead. 

"You knew?!" she exclaimed at him. 

Aether turned over to look at Vy. If a serpent could grin, Aether was grinning right now. 

-I don't know what you're talking about.- Aether said as he slithered away from Dygo and coiled himself next to the fire. 

Vy was lost for words, uncertain of what to say next. So she chose to remain quiet as she continued to tend to the fish that were grilling by the fire. 

Dygo had trudged through the blizzard. When he arrived at the cave entrance, Lycster had already stirred awake. Lycster saw the mysterious figure walking towards the cave from a distance. 

With the uncomfortable silence hanging over them, Lycster decided to bite the bullet and end it. 

"So Dygo, what brings you here?"

Dygo looked up at the boy for a moment before he replied, "I am on a mission."

"A mission?" Lycster asked. 

Dygo nodded, "I was sent to retrieve an artifact. But the blizzard has clouded my vision and slowed my progress."

Lycster soon ran out of questions to ask, so he quietened down and walked over to help his sister with the grilling of fish. After a while, Dygo came over and offered to help out as well. Vy politely declined his offer, stating that Lycster and her were able to manage. 

Rejected, Dygo went back to sit by the fire. Aether, who was coiled up on the opposite side of the fire, was keeping an eye on Dygo the entire time. He knew the serpent was looking at him and it was getting extremely uncomfortable. 

Dygo turned over to the serpent and asked, "Why do you keep staring at me, snake?"

Aether perked up immediately and hissed. -Snake?!- 

He was insulted by Dygo's words. How dare he compare him to that of a lowly cold-blooded worm that wiggled around in the dirt. He was fae kin! A winged serpent no less! He unfurled his wings and keeled his scales defensively. 

-For your information, bone head, I am a winged serpent! Not some slithering worm in the dirt!- 

Vy could hear the anger in his voice, feel his rising emotions. She had never seen Aether so worked up about anything before. And was he really going to argue with Dygo on this? Aether might be a winged serpent, but he too slithered around. 

Unknowingly, a grin formed on Vy's lips as she thought about it even more. Aether, who could hear Vy's thoughts, wanted to give her a lecture on the differences but before he could do so, Dygo interrupted his thoughts. 

"Did you just call me bone head?" he asked in a chilling voice. 

Aether eyed him from the side. If he had arms, they would be crossed right now. -So what if I did?-

"Why-"

"The fish are ready!" Vy cut through Dygo's words swiftly. 

Vy handed Lycster some sticks of fish which he promptly brought over to Dygo and Aether. Vy took one for herself and started to dig into the meat of the fish. The seasoning and oil did a good job of adding a layer of flavour to the freshly grilled fish. 

-If only I had some lime for the fish, it would be perfect.- Vy thought to herself as she continued to enjoy hers. 

Vy did not want things to be awkward between her and Dygo. She did not want Aether and him to get into a fight either. 

"So what's this artifact you're looking for?" Vy asked casually. 

"Oh it's umm," to be honest, Dygo did not know what the artifact looked like either. 

All he knew was that he needed to get to the Frost Tundra by cutting through the Bleak Lands. Once there, he would have to complete the Trial of the Snow Elephant Tribe to retrieve the required artifact. 

-Do you not know what you're looking for?- Aether sniggered.