Gretel glanced toward the foxhole she assumed housed Efron. It was almost midnight, though, so she didn't want to disturb him. Remembering Valerie’s burrow, the wyvern got an idea; she moved to dig her own as best she could, through the pain in her back, then nestled inside it and shut her eyes, the entire day's events finally taking their toll on her as she succumbed to sleep.

  Gretel woke from a commotion nearby. She opened her eyes to see it was dawn, and a rabbit raced past her makeshift burrow a short distance away, followed a few seconds behind by Efron, who didn't seem to notice his friend. The violet yearling chased it for a few moments longer before bending to rest his clawed hands on his knees, panting.

  “I can't keep hunting without reveals,” he muttered to himself as he caught his breath, his green eyes focused on his fleeing target. He cringed when his stomach audibly growled, then allowed himself to fall backward where he sat there on the ground. He shook his head fiercely and Gretel felt a pang of concern when she saw his gemstone glow, as if he were trying to conceal his own starvation. It clearly didn't work.

  The wind type hatchling couldn't stand to see him like this. She silenced herself as she emerged, then approached him. “Efron? Uh, you okay?”

  The young revealer jolted and spun to face her. “G-Gretel?! What are you doing here so early? I'm fine; I was just–trying to hunt…” His sentence trailed off as his widening eyes noticed her bruised back. “Are you okay? Who did that to you…?!”

  Gretel exhaled. “It's a long story… I'll tell you later. But forget about me; why aren't you using your reveals to hunt?” she asked him directly.

  He recoiled. “I-I-I thought you didn't want me to,” he stammered in a panic.

  She shook her head. “I said I wouldn't eat your kills if that's how you lured them… I didn't say you couldn't,” the striped juvenile pointed out.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Efron took a step back from her. “S-Sorry… I just…” His gem glowed successfully this time and he looked away from her guiltily as he calmed himself.

  I thought he had finally been making progress yesterday when it came down to asserting himself… Was I wrong? Am I making things worse for him by being here, if he's just going to sacrifice his needs to appease me…? “Don't apologize. I don't care about any of that anymore, alright? So do whatever you need to.”

  Efron eyed her skeptically. “I mean… If you're truly okay with it, then…”

  She scowled. “Why does it matter so much to you what I think? What about you? What do you think?”

  Efron cowered from her expression alone. “I don't know… I'm sorry…”

  “Stop apologizing!” she exclaimed, exasperated. Her lack of proper sleep and the persistent aches of her body weren't helping her mood. “You didn't do anything wrong!”

  He opened his mouth as if to apologize again, then closed it and hugged his knees to his chest helplessly. “I don't get why you keep saying that when you're clearly mad at me…”

  “What?” Gretel took a breath to calm herself. “Sorry… I’m not mad at you; I just had a rough night,” she chuckled half-heartedly in an attempt to ease the tension.

  His tone rose slightly with desperation. “But you were so proud of me for catching the rabbit without reveals the other night… And now, you're… upset about it?”

  “Efron…”

  “I don't–I don't know what I'm supposed to do…” His eyes watered and he buried his face in his arms as if to hide that. The gemstone glinted but instantly dimmed, indicating it was depleted. That only added to his stress.

  “You're not supposed to do anything,” Gretel murmured. “You should be yourself, that's all.”

  He shrank even more upon hearing that. “Be myself…?” He let out a voiceless, somewhat hysterical laugh. “I don't even know who that is…!”

  The wind type was completely caught off guard by that response. She could tell just from his voice that he truly meant it. How much of himself has he spent his whole life concealing…?

  He futilely attempted to draw from his gemstones over and over as he obviously stifled sobs.

  Gretel finally moved to sit beside him. “You wanna know why my back is injured…? It's because I was looking for my own place in the world, and learned the hard way that I ended up at the wrong one... again,” she confessed. “So I'm still looking. We're all still learning. Maybe we can figure ourselves out together.”

  Chryssa's advice pays off.

  herself being the reason that prey was manipulated into being hunted via reveals.

  he didn't use a reveal when he hunted the rabbit for her, last time she had been unable to hunt for herself (due to overworking her abilities); and also why she accepted that rabbit happily.

  mistaken by him as positive reinforcement. As a revealer dragon, where females have a greater influence and authority (but Most commonly on her travels, she has come to understand that elders usually hold the most authority, so ).

  not risking her disapproval by using reveals (since before), and by hunting without reveals to keep her happy (after she had praised him for catching her rabbit without reveals).

  also plays a role in his decision not to risk doing anything that makes Gretel unhappy. His , even if it was over something trivial. But this severe of punishments/abuse isn't the norm for revealers; again, this is only the norm for his mother as an abusive individual. Efron knows Gretel isn't going to punish him, but he's traumatized from his mother and subconsciously fears Gretel would abandon him (the way his mother disowned him) if he made her unhappy.