Chapter 86: Kael’s teasing
Noah gripped his head with both hands, his fingers digging into his white hair as he stared at the floor in disbelief.
His heart was still hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird, and the silence of the room felt louder than any explosion.
’I don’t know what came over me...’ he thought to himself, his face still burning with a lingering heat.
He had faced down death in the forest and stood firm against a shadow assassin, yet he had nearly lost all composure to a single moment of quiet intimacy.
This wouldn’t be the first time they would be together.
They had spent countless hours tucked away in the academy library or walking the outskirts of the town, sharing dreams and frustrations in the shade of the old trees.
But it was certainly the first time something like this had happened.
The air between them had always been comfortable, a safe haven from the cruelty of the world, but today it had shifted into something far more volatile and electric.
He slowly raised a hand and touched his lips, the phantom sensation of her breath still ghosting over his skin.
’We would have...’ he thought, the sentence trailing off in his mind.
The realization that they were only a fraction of an inch away from a kiss made his stomach do a nervous flip.
He felt a strange mixture of regret and relief that she had bolted.
Suddenly, the door of his room swung open with a sharp creak, and Kael came flying outside into the sitting room.
Noah’s eyes widened as he stared at the dragon, his romantic confusion instantly replaced by a surge of protective alarm.
He sat up straight on the sofa, his hands dropping from his head as he watched the black-and-gold blur streak through the air.
"K-Kael...?" he stammered, his voice hushed but firm. "I told you to stay inside! What if someone was still here?"
Kael completely ignored his words, his small, obsidian-scaled body cutting through the air with a grace that shouldn’t have been possible.
He began flying around Noah in circles, his wings flapping with a rhythmic, powerful hum that filled the small space.
He wasn’t just hovering; he was performing aerial maneuvers, diving and rising with an excitement that made his golden-lined wings shimmer like a trail of sparks in the dim light.
Noah’s brows shot up, and he thought to himself, ’Wait... when could he fly like this?’
He vividly remembered the scene from merely minutes ago when Kael first tried to fly.
The hatchling had only managed to lift a few inches off the bed before his strength gave out, causing him to drop toward the ground like a stone.
Noah had been forced to catch him to prevent a nasty fall.
That same dragon, who could barely flap his wings earlier, was now flying around him with the confidence of a predator that had owned the sky for years.
The rate of growth was staggering. Noah watched the creature, wondering if the mana exchange they had shared earlier was still fueling Kael’s rapid development.
The dragon’s muscles seemed more coordinated, and the way he caught the air currents in the cramped sitting room showed a natural, instinctive mastery over flight that defied all biological logic.
Through the bond between them, Noah could also sense the emotions flowing through the dragon as it flew around him.
The connection was vibrant and loud, pulsing with a frequency that matched Kael’s rapid wingbeats.
Noah’s brows furrowed slightly as he processed the specific "flavor" of the emotion coming through the link. It wasn’t just joy or the thrill of flight.
’It’s... teasing me?’ he thought to himself, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
The dragon suddenly stopped his frantic circling for a minute, simply hovering in the air directly in front of Noah’s face.
His wings moved in a steady, effortless blur, keeping him perfectly stationary at eye level.
At that moment, Noah caught sight of a weird expression in Kael’s golden eyes—a look of ancient, knowing amusement.
There was a clearly cheeky smile on the dragon’s small lips, his head tilted to the side as if he had witnessed the entire awkward encounter with Emily from behind the door.
The hatchling let out a soft, vibrating chirrup that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, his golden eyes sparkling with a mischievous light that told Noah exactly what he was thinking.
Noah’s eyes widened at the sudden, stinging realization of the depth of the bond they shared.
He stared at the hovering dragon, his heart still recovering from Emily’s departure, and felt a new kind of panic rising in his throat. It wasn’t just that Kael had been listening through the thin wooden door; it was far more intimate than that.
Since they both shared a profound spiritual bond, Kael could also sense the raw, unfiltered emotions flowing through Noah’s mind when Emily was here.
The dragon had felt the spike in Noah’s pulse, the sudden warmth in his chest, and the sheer, stumbling confusion that had paralyzed him when their lips were about to touch.
Every flicker of Noah’s embarrassment had been broadcasted directly to the hatchling like a vivid mental image.
The young dragon simply found the entire situation amusing.
Through the mental tether, Noah could feel a wave of lighthearted mockery and playful glee.
Kael wasn’t just being active; he had consciously decided to come outside to tease his master about his romantic ineptitude.
The dragon chirped again, a sound that Noah was now certain was a draconic snicker, and tilted its head as if to mock the way Noah had frozen up just moments prior.
Noah frowned slightly, and his cheeks reddened in a fresh wave of deep embarrassment.
The heat of the blush was almost physical, making his white hair stand out even more against his flushed skin. It was bad enough that Emily had seen him like that, but now he was being judged by a creature that wasn’t even an hour old.
"Come here... you dragon..." Noah muttered, his voice a mix of frustration and affection.
He stretched his hand out toward the hovering creature, moving with the calculated precision of a Master Magus.
He intended to snag the hatchling by its midsection and bring it back down to earth, literally and figuratively.
However, the moment his fingers were about to close around the dark, silken scales, the dragon gave a single, powerful flick of its golden-lined wings.
Kael darted upward, causing Noah to grab nothing but empty air.
The dragon hovered in the air again, just out of reach, flapping its small, beautiful wings with effortless ease.
The golden lines on its wings traced shimmering arcs in the dim light of the sitting room, making it look like a floating jewel.
Kael’s eyes had that same teasing smile again—that sharp, knowing glint that further embarrassed Noah.
Every time he looked at those golden eyes, he was reminded of what had happened between him and Emily, and the dragon seemed to be playing the memory back to him through their bond.
Noah gnashed his teeth, the competitive side of him taking over. He wasn’t about to be outmaneuvered in his own home.
He lunged at the dragon again, his body blurring with a burst of speed that would have left any normal human gasping. He reached out with both hands this time, attempting to cage the dragon against the wall.
But Kael escaped him once more. The creature performed a tight barrel roll in mid-air, slipping through the gap between Noah’s fingers with the fluidity of water.
He floated around Noah, circling his head just out of reach, and for a split second, Kael actually stuck his small, forked tongue out at him. It was a gesture of pure, unadulterated sass that left Noah momentarily stunned.
The same thing happened over and over again. Noah pursued the creature around the small sitting room, weaving between the tattered sofa and the old wooden table.
He used his enhanced reflexes to dive and swipe, but the dragon simply slipped away every time.
Kael seemed to be treating the entire ordeal as a high-stakes game of tag, his golden eyes glowing brighter with every failed attempt Noah made.
Noah’s breath was coming in short bursts now, not from exhaustion, but from the sheer irritation of being played with.
He stopped for a second, his hands on his knees as he watched the dragon perform a celebratory loop-de-loop near the drooping ceiling.
He gnashed his teeth again, his mind racing to analyze the creature’s movement patterns.
’Why... is it so slippery?’ he thought to himself, a mix of frustration and awe blooming in his mind. ’I can barely even touch its tail!’
He exhaled slowly, trying to calm the storm of his emotions. He stood up straight and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, his gaze never leaving the black-and-gold hatchling.
’And what’s funny...’ he mused, finally realising the gravity of what was happening. ’Its intelligence has increased a lot in merely a few minutes?!’
Earlier, Kael had been a newborn who barely understood how to stand on four legs.
Now, he was not only flying with the skill of a veteran, but he was also demonstrating complex social behavior like teasing and irony.
The dragon was learning at an exponential rate, its cognitive functions evolving alongside its physical body.
Every second it spent outside the egg, it seemed to be absorbing the world around it, turning into a sentient, highly intelligent being that could outthink a Master Magus.
Kael chirped again, landing gracefully on the back of the sofa.
He tucked his wings in and looked at Noah with a look of pure triumph, his tail twitching back and forth.