The Witch, The Wizard, & the Dragon Ch. 02

The second chapter. Comment, favorite, you know the drill. Here you go.

Chapter 2:

Jace got to the cafeteria first and Bella was next. They exchanged glances and Bella felt shy with just the two of them standing there. Jace felt the awkward tension in the air then he walked over to her.

"Bella." Jace said to her in a soft, gentle tone.

"Y..yes Jace?" Jace hugged her without warning and she just froze. Bella stayed frozen then slowly hugged him back, enjoying the warmth coming from his body.

She stayed quiet then whispered almost inaudibly. "Thank you."

There was a long silence in which they hugged. Jace heard someone coming so he let go of her, not wanting anyone to get the wrong idea. But when he did, she held onto him a second longer. When she finally let go she ran her hands along his sides, being hesitant to let go.

"So you guys ready to go?" Asked Janice as Seth, Janice, and Star walked into the cafeteria and towards them.

"Yep, all set." Jace said as he looked away from Bella and towards the other three.

Jace walked towards them and Bella followed a little bit behind, like usual. Jace wondered what had made Bella cling to him like that. Shrugging it off Jace walked up to Star and walked beside her.

Seth and Janice were chatting about their class and Bella was looking at Jace as she followed them. Her eyes kept getting glued to his butt and it was almost entrancing her. After a few moments of looking she realized she was looking at his butt and blushed, looking at the ground again and letting her hood cover her cheeks. Bella asked herself why she was feeling like this but came up with nothing.

They arrived at the festival in a group. Seth and Janice walking in the front, Bella and Jace walking behind them, and Star off to the right a little bit between the two groups. As they came up to the ticket booth they all bought the entrance ticket since it was a festival at the Academy.

"Oh, Does anyone know if they are doing the magic battles again? I wanted to do that last year but I didn't trust my knowledge of earth magic enough," asked Seth to the others.

"Oh, uhm... I heard they are giving you a choice of dueling one on one and dueling two on two. I'm not sure yet though, why don't we go find out? It should be around here somewhere." Jace replied.

"Well let's not waste much time then, lets go find out." Star pitched in.

Chuckling, Jace said "Well I guess we know where we are going first off. Lets get going then." As he said that everyone started walking and they walked in the same formation as they did before, it's mostly how they walked. It was either Star or Bella walking off to the right, usually Bella walked off to the side.

"Well well, it's the group of trouble makers," said a farmiliar voice behind them. "Off to the battle grounds so soon?"

They stopped and turned around, seeing it was their principal/Elder. He was around six feet tall and he was surprisingly beefy for a three hundred year old Water Mage. Elder Quan was the most skilled Mage at the Academy, which was why he was the Elder. Though most mages try using two magics, Elder Quan has given up a long time ago about the other magics and focused on Water magic. Most Water magic users can't conjure up water from thin air but because of his skill Elder Quan is able to. He resembled Seth in physical build but had added body fat that hid it. His attire usually consisted of a long blue robe. He wore clothing underneath but no one ever saw it as his robe his his underclothing. There was speculation that he wore nothing underneath his robe in some of the younger, more childish years.

"Hello, Elder Quan. How did you know that's where we were headed?" Janice asked puzzled.

"It's not too big of a challenge to guess where the five of you are headed." Said Elder Quan with a smile. "After all, it is the place you frequent when we have this festival."

They all agreed with a nod and Bella stayed quiet. She wasn't fond of having someone of higher authority nearby but still tried being respectful to him.

"Bella? Well my stars. I never thought I'd see you at this festival. You are usually keeping to yourself." He said once he noticed she was with them. "I guess your friends must have finally convinced you to come your last year at the Academy. I'm glad you decided to go, even if it is your final year here." He added in his usual happy, upbeat tone.

Bella turned her head away and nodded slightly. "Yes sir." Her eyes became glued to the ground and she spoke as if she was being scolded by her father, quiet and submissive. It wasn't normal for her and Jace noticed.

"Well I'll stop bothering you all so you can go have your fun. Have fun today and if you have any questions the teachers are posted at each activity so feel free to ask them," Elder Quan said in his upbeat tone to the group. But as he turned to leave his gaze rested on Bella for a few short seconds. In that time he noticed her uneasiness with his presence and made a mental note to speak with Jace about it at a later date.

The group quickly recovered their previous chatty state but Jace was silent. He wondered why Bella had gotten like that. She had never once been even the slightest bit submissive her entire time being at the Academy that he knew of.

When the group set off walking again Seth and Janice took the lead like normal. But this time Jace was a good couple paces behind even Bella. His gaze was set on the ground and his eyes revealed he was deep in thought.

Everyone in the group noticed almost immediatly that Jace was falling a little behind and they immediatly got worried. Seth stopped first, followed by Janice and Star, then Bella stopped. Almost in-sync they all turned to look at him.

"Hey Jace, are you okay?" Seth asked with his genuinely concerned tone.

Jace took a few seconds to register that anyone was speaking to him then shook his head a little to clear his head. A smile replaced his thoughtful look as he spoke. "Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine. Sorry to make you guys worry." His tone almost completely normal as he had a lot of practice hiding his emotions.

Buying it completely, Seth and Janice nodded. "Alright, then lets go." Seth said as he turned around to continue walking. Star, however, was a bit harder to convince but decided it was best to not confront him here as to make a scene so she just turned around and kept walking.

Bella knew he was lying because she was partially linked to Jace's thoughts from her sessions with him about his nightmares. She knew he was worried about her and thinking about her. It made her smile a little on the inside from his conern.

Jace started walking again as soon as Bella turned around and he walked beside her. He wasn't sure what had made her act that way but after today was over he would pull her aside and find out, whatever it took.

~End of chapter 2.