1 Who Is She?

"SwordMaster's HP below 10%, War Skills can no longer be used, Mount level depleted" The system message popped up on the top of the screen.

'Brother, must you do this huh?' Steven, casually ran his fingers through his blonde hair barely being able to hide his frustration, being lost in the video game for the nth time, and the more frustrating thing was that his brother would wait until the very last moment and then come up with some special wicked move of dispersing all previous hopes. Another reason other than annoying Steven was that in this way the game time was pretty much used up only in one single game.

Two brothers were having a good time playing video games from early morning. The personal game room, which was most of the time occupied by Steven, was everything a gamer would dream of. The room had a V shaped ceiling on which a spherical bulb was fixed. It was emitting soft blue light evenly. The 3d projection game screen was levitating as two charecters could be seen competing against each other with various war and magic skills. The ShapeShifter character elegantly attacked with a spell as the SwordMaster charcter's rest HP bar crashed down completely.

"You lost lil brother, now go and get ready for practice." The second prince, donned in a Black suit, spoke nonchalantly as he casually got up from his customized seat and turned off the projection controller. Both of them chose their favourite dragons from the dragonstable. They were already pretty much late for the practice session.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Surely being the royal princes, they were provided with the best of everything and no wonder led a lavish lifestyle. However they also had to be the best in every skill to survive and take care of the common people regardless of the situation. The higher one is on the pyramid of social ranking the less stable and safe one is.

It was already mid Zhinsao, the time of snowfall. The sky-highway was covered with snow whereas both sides of the sky-highway were filled with Pink Teitei plants that bloomed in the cold. They rode over their respective dragons, Eliott and Remiel. It didn't take them more than a moment to quickly pick up their pace while enjoying the cool air and snowfall.

Steven thought of the incident a few hours ago when another female warrior came up to his brother to confess but got rejected just like the other female admirers in the past. "Hey brother, sister Meili's face after you told her that you were taken…..oh god I wish I had clicked a picture.'' Steven roared in laughter. His rein slipped away for a moment. "Focus Steven." Ziran's pupils diluted as he noticed Eliott, the carrier dragon of Steven slipping to another direction, all thanks to his lack of concentration.

However Eliott did nothing but steadied itself with a proud posture as if asking for compliments from the two riders, a bit befuddled Ziran looked at the direction where Steven was staring at speechlessly. Riwansa, Steven's practice mate was lying on the bush sideways with another unfamiliar girl indicating she would be now be burnt to ashes if not for Eliott's quick reflex. Ziran strangely felt as if she was familiar. He gave a quick pat on Elliott's head showing his appreciation. To which it let out a slight purr rubbing itself against his cufflinks.

"Gooooooooodness can't you see where you are going huh?" Riwansa shouted at Steven in protest.

"Oh, hello madam, not even the racing arena king could stop in time if brainless people start strolling around the track as if it's their flower garden." Steven blurted out with a mocking expression on his face without paying any attention to Riwansa's dangerous expression.

Although it seemed quite adorable rather than scary he dared not take a risk of offending this all time useful childhood friend. "Ok ok fine, my fault for not being skillful enough to dodge…..brainless people.'' The last two words were almost inaudible, never the less the girl standing opposite to him had hearing sense keen enough to catch it.

Meanwhile Ziran was simply standing next to Eliott while riding on Remiel as the three of them were bored. He took a look at the watch which made him realise it was impossible to attend the session today. Not that he needed it but it wouldn't do much good to his reputation. This banter of two grown-ups acting as five year old children was an extremely occasional event, not surprisingly sometimes this could exceed the time limit of lectures of various scholars on Royal history.

As he looked around to find any traces of a Xuraox with emeralds passing by, since he perceived a surging wave of sharp energy. His eyes suddenly fell on the petite body standing near the Red inko flower bush trying her best to minimize her presence. Her head was bent downwards so much resembling a harmless child who has done something wrong and was waiting to be punished. Something about her made him feel so weird. His heart beat palpitated. His eyes locked on her miniature stature. His gaze was burning. Probably sensing his deep stare at her, she turned sideways to look into his eyes.

She immediately felt a sense of deja-vu. Some blurry scenes clouded her mind before fading away. She quickly looked away unable to bear the pressure.

Riwansa snapped from the argument as she recalled the fact that XiXi was also there. She gave a final glare at Steven who simply rolled his eyes before walking away to approach Xi Xiao.

"They are....." She stopped midway getting the hint from Riwansa.

"Ziran, she is new over here. I apologise for not looking after her. I request you to not hold her responsible if she mistakenly showed disrespect to you." Riwansa toned down her voice since even after knowing him for more than ten years she dared not be frivolous around him. It was all due to Steven's realtionship with her that she could even approach him.

"It's fine." Ziran replied softly, his eyes still lingering over Xi Xiao. Riwansa was astonished to hear such a soft tone from him.

"What are you star struck by my brother?" Steven threw a question at Riwansa, jealousy evident in his voice.

Riwansa scoffed slightly and bowed to Ziran before taking her leave along with Xi Xiao.

Steven flew over to Ziran, noticing how he was in a daze, unlike his usual self.

"Brother? We are late...Brother?" Steven was about to shake Ziran, when he finally tore away his gaze from a faraway point and looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Steven I hope you don't concern yourself with topics you are not supposed to be concerned about." There was an underlying stern warning in his voice.

Steven was befuddled for a moment before he understood. "Did you take probably take a fancy towards her?" He could barely hold his curiousity.

Ziran ignored his question and slowly uttered, "The southern zone prince is about to be introduced to Riwansa."

After a slight pause, he said again, "No need to attend the practice session today."

Ziran flew in the opposite direction leaving Steven alone on the sky-way pondering over the statement.