Volume 1 Chapter 6: Gaelia Sage Valerian

Entering through the front door, Gaelia Sage Valerian enters. She is currently not in her dragon form as she could not possibly fit in the embassy without a transformation. Her current form is of a slightly tanned human. Her hair is a light shade of green and her eyes are brown. As she enters the room, she stands tall and orderly, but as she takes several steps in, her stature melts into exhaustion and soreness. They greet her as the door closes behind her.

"Hello mother."

"Hey Gaelia."

"Hello you two."

Noriko calls out to her jokingly,

"Had a nice day?"

Looking over at her, Gaelia looks at her with a look of fatigue.

"So I'm assuming not great."

"Not really. I just scouted the surrounding wild lands and checked on the roaming herds in the safe sector alone."

Aldrich speaks up,

"Did you see anything interesting out there?"

Gaelia replies,

"Uhhh…."

She closes her eyes to think about it before saying,

"Nope, nothing interesting."

Noriko chimes in,

"Well you're home now, so let's eat."

Gaelia puts down her baggage and washes up before joining the other two. When they finally are together, Gaelia sits next to Aldrich as they unveil the covered food. Still warm, the smell of the Azure rice wraps and Kiiroi eggs. Getting up, Noriko heads over to the kitchen before asking Gaelia,

"Which type of tea do you want?"

"What kind of tea do we still have?"

"I'm heading out to buy some more tomorrow with Aldrich, but we have Blue Flame petals and Dew Catcher leaves."

"I'll take Blue Flame please."

"What about you Aldrich?"

"Ummm could you make Dew Catcher?"

"Sure, with honey?"

"Yes please."

Noriko quickly brews the teas by casting a quick "water" spell into a teapot and then boiling it on the stove. Gaelia looks her son and thinks,

"I should ask him something about today. Noriko remarked that he has been lonely ever since I've been assigned to long mission types."

Opening her mouth, she attempts to says something before closing it hesitantly. She opens it up again and says,

"Aldrich."

He replies

"Yes mother."

"What did you do today?"

Aldrich, excited that his mother finally asked about his activities, responded with glee.

"Today me and my friends went fishing at the beach."

Aldrich goes on to talk about the rest of his activities before his lessons as Gaelia listens. To her, his adventurous life was interesting to hear but not exactly what she wanted to know. Still she listened to her son's stories until he calmed down. She then responds with,

"I see."

Looking at him with seriousness, she questions,

"Did you perform well at the lessons today?"

Aldrich, realizing that she did not want to talk about Aldrich was saddened. He expected that she would respond with something else or with more interest, but instead it was about his lessons. He felt a little frustrated. Perhaps she was just tired and didn't seek to ask him about the rest of his day or perhaps it didn't interest her much. Still he had hoped it would garner something from her.

"I did my upmost best."

"What did Noriko teach you?"

"She taught me about layered magic and how it works."

"But you already knew how it worked and how to use it did you not?"

"Yes. Noriko taught me how it worked several months ago."

"Did you have any progress with storage magic?"

"Yes I've been able to cast the spell fluently."

Hearing this, Gaelia makes a small smile at her child for the first time in the conversation. She figured that even though she was tired, she would smile once he was done talking.

"Great, work hard Aldrich."

This gave Aldrich a sense of satisfaction as she smiled, but it was only to his lessons rather than about anything else, or at least that's what he believed.

Noriko comes back with the tea, two blue colored tea for Gaelia and herself along with a yellow one for Aldrich. When she sits down, the three start to eat the now mostly warm dinner. They eat in silence before Noriko asked Gaelia,

"So how's the dinner?"

Gaelia finishes chewing before sipping down some tea and then replying,

"It tasted quite soft and warm. Kiiroi products are quite good."

"That's great to hear. Aldrich and I are planning to head to the market tomorrow early in the morning to get some more ingredients. Do you want to come with us?"

Gaelia thinks for a bit before stating,

"Sure, my assignments have been completed for the week."

This makes Aldrich happy as his mother will be joining them in a very long time, probably as long as since he was a month old. Considering he is merely almost a single year old, this makes it quite the long time since they've been together outside of home, which is rare in itself that Gaelia was home.

Happily he announces,

"Yay, mother is coming."

His feet dangling from his chair swing back and forth wildly and his tail's tip wiggles.

Looking at her happy child, Gaelia smiles once more, but quickly dissolves she assigns him a mission.

"After we go though, you are to join up with the volunteer defense group and help out with the other children."

"I know, Leah had been talking about it since last week and I've already signed up."

"Good, it is your duty as a dragon to participate in the community. This will look good on your record when you apply to the dragon academy."

Hearing about what accomplishment that he will receive made Aldrich less willing to go. After all, it seemed as if he was only there for merely the merit. His true goal was to hang out with his friends for much longer and hunt. In any case, he acknowledged his mother's comment.

Finishing up with their dinner, the trio begin to head to bed. Heading to the bathroom one after another, they quickly shower and clean their teeth before saying their good nights and heading to their respective rooms. Entering his room, Aldrich seems a relatively simple and small room with a wooden bed that is magically attached to the room. He also sees his shelf and bed table. On it are several articles of souvenirs. Looking over them, he recalls the various of incidents that associate with the article. A seashell from the beach, a slingshot rock during one of the militia training days, and various others. Most of these events were surrounded with various of friends and neighbors. Crawling onto his bed, he rests for a little bit, letting his body relax and get comfortable before closing his eyes. Although it was tired, his body still had energy so Aldrich stayed awake. Failing to fall asleep right away, he reopened his eyes. Raising his claws, Aldrich activates "draw" before practicing the spells he had learned today, although without activating them. After some time, he became sleepy and stopped. He then opened his spacial storage and examines the spirit bracket that he received from Gokin. Recalling information on faes and spirits, Aldrich remembers that faes are beings of pure magic, often constructed by gods in different shapes and sizes to serve for a multitude of reasons. Creating a new folder in the UI window, he places the bracelet inside it before closing his eyes.

Landing on her bed, Gaelia exhales an exhausted breath. Her foremost thought at the moment was about the meal. She should have said something good about the meal or thanked Aldrich and Noriko or something at least. Instead she merely commented on the food. She knew that they took time everyday to make something for her even though dragons don't really need to eat. She knew it was for comfort but still she didn't say anything. Lamenting on the subject, she turned her thoughts to something else, Noriko. She loved Noriko. One of friends from the dragon academy, she was surprised to see her at the village where she had settled. Being pregnant, she had decided to settle in a village and raise her child there. Her mate, a heir of a prestigious family, was recalled back to his household after they had eloped together, leaving her alone to raise her egg. He had promised to return, but she knew that he won't be able to come back. He also couldn't take her. The reason they left in the first place was because her spouse's parents didn't accept her. They claimed that she was weak, undisciplined, and lacking in the ability to raise a child for for their family, all of which hit to close to her heart. Her own parents weren't much better. She loved them, but couldn't bring it upon herself to shame them and even face them after their falling out. Left with dwindling money, she signed up with the local Dragon Guardians. They agreed to help her pay for her initial leave for pregnancy but get a reduced pay for a certain time after she renters the force. Still it was a great deal considering that she was out of options and they would take care of her needs. She was provided this apartment in the dragon embassy for a very low upkeep price and the other dragons often lend a hand in the form of favors and gifts for her newborn. Still out of all of them, Noriko proved to sacrifice the most. Noriko worked as both tutor and caretaker to Aldrich. Noriko's pay was average without growth and she no longer lived with her parents and grandparents, to which Gaelia regretted doing to her, but she didn't complain. Noriko also didn't have any spouse or lovers, which caused Gaelia to feel guilty about her friend's lack of love. She had spent the last year entirely with Aldrich. While she felt guilty about having Noriko monitor her son for pretty much all day, everyday, she also was jealous of her. She wished she spent more time with Aldrich, but her job as the scout for the Dragon Guardians keep her far away from home. Her son had bonded with Noriko much more than she had, which is to be expected, but still it hurt to be so detached from her own son. Noriko was also incredibly smart, a genius almost at every field. Talented with any and all weapons and magic types, she could have found employment anywhere, but instead she settled with teaching Aldrich. This frustrated Gaelia as she compared herself to Noriko. Shaking her head, Gaelia breaths out again before trying to find good thoughts before succumbing to sleep.