VL) Chapter 2 Part 3

Since I seemed to be the culprit in this ignoring fest, I decided to play it off as if I was sleeping. I groaned softly before letting my eyes flutter and letting out a light yawn. As I opened my eyes, I gave a little stretch with my arms out in front of me before slowly looking around.

“See, it seemed she was asleep.” Nina, good job! She really knows how to cover for me.

“Oh.” Elara gave me a suspicious gaze. I did my best not to look her straight in the eye. I felt like she would see right through me if I did. “Mom, she won’t look at me. I think she was faking it!”

“Elara, enough. Don’t tease her anymore. You know she is not used to all of this. And being questioned left and right will cause anyone to act that way.” Nina replied, getting me off the hook once more. I was starting to feel really bad. I mean, I had to live with Elara, and I did not wish to end up making enemies with her. I did get to live a good life like this for free. I really did not wish to give that up when it had only just started. Being honest might give me some brownie points… Whatever brownie points were…

So… I raised my hand. “Umm…. I was zoned out and was not paying attention. I thought I heard something… but the comfy couch caused me to go into a meltdown, and I had a hard time giving it up. Soooo… While I do think I heard her calling out to me, I was too in the zone.”

I scratched my cheek awkwardly before looking down at the ground. Hopefully, this will clear things up.

“Hehe…” I heard a giggle and then someone took my hands. I looked at the soft delicate hands in mine and then up to see Elara smiling at me. “You should have just said so! I thought I did something wrong, and you just hated me. It’s good to know that’s not the case! We will be living together and going to the academy together, so we have to look out for one another. I know!”

Elara suddenly let go of my hands and clapped hers together, “We can sleep together tonight and get to know one another!”

I really was not all that comfortable sleeping with someone else. I preferred to be by myself when I slept. It felt safer. Luckily, Nina also had this thought. Well, the no sleeping together part. “Elara, I would be careful. We still do not know what kind of player she is just yet. And if for some reason one of her skills goes off, you could end up hurt or dead.”

 “Oh…” Elara pursed her lips. She seemed like a cheery girl. Her blonde hair flowed to her waist and seemed to have a shimmer of silver to it. Her strikingly blue eyes were quite captivating. If it was not for her tail and ears twitching here and there, they could grab all your attention. She was very pretty to top it off, I felt slightly inferior. However, my dragon tail was quite cool. I liked. It’s just… I wish it was fluffy, too…

“Yeah… Umm… I am what’s called a poison dragon. I am not sure if I am toxic to others…” I suddenly felt like this should have been the first question that came out of Nina’s mouth. You just let a random person into your house, not knowing what kind of power they had. Yes, I did not have any skills with poison yet, but still. The fact was… I was a poison dragon! Yes… Very cool one at that.

“Don’t worry; all players are harmless to those around them. The only thing I worry about is one of your skills activating while you are sleeping. The same goes for Elara’s fox fire, which can burn one’s soul. I do not wish to rush anyone to the hospital in the middle of the night.” Yeah, that did not sound like fun. Having my soul burned was now on my not-to-do list.

Just thinking about it made me shiver. I could feel a slight ache in the pit of my being. Where that was, I do not know, but it was there. Somewhere around the middle of my eyebrows, maybe? Deep in my brain? Could just be a headache from forcing myself out of the pillowy goodness of the couch. I really did not want to get up. Although, it did make me wonder. If the couch is that comfortable, what about the bed? My tin can house was basically a bunch of cardboard and a crap load of plastic bags all inside the other to make a pillow. It was not bad. Except… the cardboard was not the best for the back.

“Alright, let’s have you girls sit down and eat. Alicia, please eat as much as you want.” Nina had only finished speaking when my stomach began to rumble. “

Gurrgle

And it was loud. “It seems we should hurry.”

I rubbed my belly. I was really hungry and the smell of food was getting to me. If I did not eat soon, I knew it would only get louder and louder. “Mm… let’s eat.”

“Let’s go!” Elara seemed to be very outgoing. She grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the table. I was not used to such skinship, but to be honest. I had a warm feeling in my chest when I saw the smiles on both Nina’s and Elara’s faces. They both really welcomed me here. I do not even remember the last time I was treated like this…