Jay Valus's Story

At the morning dawn, Jay was standing right at Raina's doorstep, nervously rubbing his arm. He was unsure of what to do, other than the whole knocking bit. Three years was a long time in like a tiny community like theirs and, to be honest, he was pretty sure that she knew what he did. With her as a dragon caretaker and him as a ... hunter, how could he make this ... not awkward.

Of course, he wasn't an actual hunter ... kind of. Sure he was trained to take down dragons and locate them, but his speciality came from the intelligence side of hunting. He was the strategist that helped take down dragons as efficiently as possible with out the cost of losses. Better yet, he tried to do the same for the dragons, though that tended to have less success. Most of the men had a side to them that enjoyed hurting the dragons, and while Jay may have had a bad experience, he wasn't one to actively search out and thirst for their blood. Control, that was all that was needed, on both man and beast alike.

Gathering himself, he knocked on the door and letting fate decide what to do with him.

The hour was early, but Raina's mother and father sat at the small wooden table in the kitchen enjoying breakfast. They were surprised when there was a knock on the door, but her mother got up to see who it was anyway. When she opened the door the face of her daughter's best friend was staring back at her. She greeted him with a smile and said the three vows of their people--love, valor, harmony--out of habit. She stepped aside to let him in and offered him some quail eggs and toast.

Jay gave a nervous smile and shook his head. He was a bit too nervous to eat at the moment. He tried to avoid looking directly at both their eyes.

"I-is, Raina here?"

Jay gulped as he waited for Raina, still holding his arm and the pendent on his neck.

Raina's mother and father went back to their breakfast and whispered quietly amongst themselves. It had been a few months since Jay had stopped by, so they had thought the two childhood friends had gotten into some sort of argument. In her room, Raina was just starting to stir. She was used to getting up early out of habit and her body couldn't seem to let her get even a few minutes of extra sleep. Her long brown hair was in a messy side braid as she left her room in the clothes she had been wearing the day before. Her eyes were closed as she let out a huge yawn. When she opened them, Jay was staring back at her and she nearly jumped with fright.

"What are you doing here so early, Jay?" she asked a little harsher than she intended. He had stayed away for so long she didn't know how to react.

Raina's hard response gave Jay a slight scare. Truthfully, he had been expecting a venomous response, but he didn't expect it to be this rough. On instinct, he began rubbing at his necklace, but pulled his hand back when he remembered how silly it was. He had always done this when he was nervous, mostly because the necklace had come from Raina and how the necklace always reminded him of her. Obviously, the rubbing wasn't helping him at the moment.

"H-hey," Jay bit his bottom lip, "Long time no see . . ."

"Because of you..." Raina mumbled more to herself than him. She grabbed his arm and tried to head for the door. Her parents were staring at them with maniacal grins on their faces and it was annoying her to no end. "Come on. Let's get out of here so we can have some privacy."

"W-wha-" Jay was blushing as she pulled him out. Being terribely self conscious, both Raina's comment about being alone and her parents smiles had turned him into a sputtering mess.

However, once the door closed, Jay shut his mouth shut as he looked at Raina. He looked depressed and he certainly felt that way, but it was more of guilt than anything else