Iron and Fire

"She's checking you out again." Ceto barely lifted his head as he listened across the cafeteria. Arin had always found girls in this university that was checking Ceto out. But Ceto tried to ignore each one.

"I doubt she is. And why should I care about it?" Ceto heard a group of girls off to his right giggling and shook his head slightly. "Taunting the blind is not the smartest move, Arin." He took a bite of his fish and chips, trying not to focus his ears for the girl's voice. "Besides," Ceto commented between bites, "Why would she look toward the blind kid?"

Arin must have made a gesture, a shrug maybe, because all that Ceto got was silence for a bit. Arin must have remembered for he quickly chimed back into the conversation.

"I don't know. But she keeps looking up at you and then turning away. She's still new to the school." Ceto sighed softly. "Why don't you try talking to her?"

Ceto gave Arin a look, his eyes turning slightly reptilian. "I have a very good reason not to. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to eat the rest of this lunch in peace."

Arin sighed and Ceto heard the creak of Arin's chair going and leaning back. "Come now, Ceto. We should at least do something fun."

"Oh yeah. We are going to have fun. We only have an hour before our next class. And we are suppose to be laying low."

Arin was always the troublemaker of the dragons. The elders had told them to lay low because of the Knighthood had shown up again. Ceto had heard stories that made his own blood boil. They had killed a lot of the original dragons and quite a few of the dwimmerlakes. There was a small population of less than 50 dragons left. Why the Knighthood started to get the idea to destroy all dragons, Ceto didn't know or understand. But it was angering that they were killing for no true reason. He didn't really know their reason and didn't know of any dragons causing trouble.

"Don't even think about it Arin." He heard a bit of string moving.

"Ah. You and your Knocker ears." Arin quoted, putting the rubberband away.

Ceto sighed a sigh of relief. One disaster avoided. Ceto tried to focus on his food. It was abrupt when Arin made a noise. A chortle if ever Ceto had heard one.

"Arin, just say it, or stay silent." Ceto looked at Arin's general direction. The one problem that Ceto found problematic about Arin other than being a troublemaker is that he could also see the future.

"That girl is going to crash into you on the way to class." Ceto rolled his eyes and let out a huff. "You could easily avoid it."

"If it is meant to happen, we'll let it happen." Ceto took a sip of his water. Arin chuckled, almost darkly. "You are the reason for it, huh?"

"Possibly. But then again, nothing is set in stone. You and I both know this." Ceto looked up at the ceiling.

"Well, we shouldn't tempt fate, should we?" Ceto smiled softly, finishing off the food.

"Well, well Ceto. Usually you never want to know what is going on." Arin must have shrugged as Ceto grabbed the tray.

"Let's start heading to class." Arin got up to follow, directing Ceto by taps on his elbow.

When to turn, when to stop, Arin had been there to guide him. Arin had been a childhood friend and became a "seeing-eye dragon." There had been times that Arin had walked him into a pole once in a while, but otherwise, he had been the one to guide Ceto completely and loyally. Arin quickly directed Ceto to a trash bin to toss the contents on his tray. He put the tray away and Arin guided him though the tables toward the exit of the cafeteria. Ceto knew that Arin was probably the cause of the little incident that is about to ensue.

"You know Arin," Ceto said after a few short moments that went by, thinking back to Arin's vision, "You are one cocky dragon."

Arin tapped his arm and Ceto crashed into a wall. Ceto let out a slight growl, rubbing his forehead.

"You forget I'm cocky for a good reason. I'm the one that leads you around. And visions just come to me." Ceto was quick as he grabbed his friend's shoulder and pulled him into a headlock. He started to give Arin a quick ruffle through the hair as Arin flailed to get out of his grip.

"And you, my friend, forget how quick and accurate I can be." He let Arin go and started to walk down the hallway as they started towards class.

Sometimes, that was how they messed with each other. It seemed harsh, but growing up, Arin and Ceto had always gotten rough on each other. Though, that was misleading because they were mostly dragons for those times. But that was centuries ago. And this was now. Society was so different from when he and Arin were young hatchlings.

Ceto started to hear Arin start a count down. "Three...Two...One..."

Crash! Ceto collided with another person when Ceto was about to turn around and ask Arin what he was counting about. Ceto listened as books and papers fell and shifted on the floor.

"Oomph!" A female voice answered back. "I'm sorry."

Ceto had already started to lean down to help gather her stuff. "It's alright. I wasn't really paying attention. My apologies."

There was a snicker from behind Ceto that caused him to send a glare back at his friend. Ceto let his nimble fingers trail on the floor to find the papers and books to pile up. There was silence from the girl for a a long while before he heard the words he had heard for a long while.

"You're blind?"

How is it that everyone notices? Usually Ceto's dark hair covered his blank, white eyes. Ceto piled up the books for her as she hurriedly tried to gather the books.

"I"m so sorry... Um..." Ceto held up his other hand.

"Don't worry about it." He stood up slowly with the books in hand and offered his hand to her to help her up. "The name's Ceto."

Ceto felt her hand grab his and felt a sting on his palm. Not like a static sting, but a sting that they were taught as hatchlings to fear. Iron. It was a small amount, but man, did it sting. His face went blank as he tried to figure out how she had iron.

"It's nice to meet you Ceto. My name is Rose." Ceto gently handed her her books and bowed his head.

"Pleasure to meet you Rose." There was the silence again. The one thing that Ceto hated most of the time. The awkwardness kind of lasted a lot longer than Ceto was hoping. Rose had gently taken the books.

"Thank you." The sound of an alarm going off caught Ceto off guard. "Oh crap. Going to be late to class." Rose's footsteps started to retreat off in the distance and her voice echoed down the hallway. "Nice to meet you! Hope to see you around!"

Ceto waved. "Yeah. Hopefully..." He whispered the second part quietly. Iron...

Ceto tried to reason why a girl would have a bit of iron on her. He knew that the jewelry industry didn't really help as they mixed non-pure metals together. Iron he didn't think would be so big. The new girl was intriguing by her voice. Though the way that she said "You're blind?" sounded like she was surprised by it. Hmm....

He was pulled back to reality when Arin clapped his shoulder. "You sly Lindworm!" Arin chuckled. Where was he when the awkward silence kicked in? He didn't really think about it, but something on his face must have warned Arin because the mood shifted. "What is it, Ceto?"

"I don't know... A curiosity I guess. Did you notice anything on her hands?" Ceto could feel Arin's hard gaze.

"No. Why?"

Was it just my imagination? Ceto thought that he had felt something. But he guessed not. "It's nothing."

Arin grabbed Ceto's shoulder tighter. "Ceto..." Arin's voice was harsh in his ear, but Ceto wasn't going to budge.

If it happened again, he would ask Arin to notice it. That there was something that was about this girl. But she was intriguing to him. The surprise in her voice, and the way that she seemed to wanted to say more, when most girls would mostly mumble embarrassingly to him while they ran back to their girlfriends and hope they hadn't embarrassed themselves in the process. As a dragon, a girl like Rose was hard to come by. A girl able to stand to be in the presence of a dragon and not completely feel it. Or act on it. It was almost... Normal.

"It's nothing Arin. Let's get to class before we are late. You know how Ms. Dillard is about being late." Ceto gently pried Arin's hand off his shoulder. "Let's go then." Arin grabbed his arm gently.

"Is it important?" Arin pestered.

"She's interesting. Let's leave it at that. We'll speak about it later." Ceto started to pick up speed down the hallway, causing Arin to have to catch up.