SCHOOL OF MAGICAL ENLIGHTENMENT

GLAD YOU'RE ON MY SIDE

NYSSA'S POV

'Nicarra, I'm so sorry,' said a female voice.

'You've grown so beautiful, my love, and I am so proud of you.'

'Grandma Ellis, is that you?' I ask trying to form a telepathic link as I will my eyes to open, but they don't. When did I fall asleep.

'Who is there?' I ask again, frantically trying to get up and defend Nicarra if necessary, but my body refuses to obey me.

'Be strong, my hope.'

The room becomes quiet, and I hear the beeping of a heart monitor. I feel groggy as I open my eyes, slowly taking in features of the environment I am in. I look around, hoping to find the woman talking, but the room is dark with no one here except Nicarra, wearing hospital clothes and sleeping on a large bed in the room. Was I dreaming?

I smile as I lay back on my pillow, looking at my closest friend, grateful for her companionship. Seita, who is perched on her bed, senses my consciousness and squawks. Nicarra slowly wakes up and calls for me. I put on the lights, and she looks at me with a sad smile till I hug her, and she begins to cry.

'Everything will be okay, Nicarra. Please stop crying. Let me get a nurse.' I say, standing up. She holds my hand, shaking her head.

'I'm fine, Nyssa,' she says

I look at her unconvinced.

'I'm fine, sis, really. Where are we?' Nicarra asks, trying to sit up

'The school hospital, you were brought here unconscious. Why did you get into a fight? The nurses said you got into a fight with dragons and got struck by lightning.

Nicarra, why would you do that? You put yourself in danger, and what's worse is you put your scholarship at risk?'

'He hurt you Nyssa, what was I supposed to do?'

'You were supposed to find me, Nicarra,' I say calmly, and she facepalms herself.

'I saw everything through Seita. How he attacked you and rejected you and my heart shattered.' she responds with tears streaming down her face again.

'Nicarra?'

'I only wanted to defend you and make him do the right thing. Instead, he got hurt because of me. You almost lost your mate because of me, Nyssa. I didn't mean to, I swear I didn't mean to. Please forgive me, Nyssa.'

'Nicarra, please stop. None of this was your fault.' I said, holding her as she sobbed on my shoulder.

'Why do I always end up hurting the ones I love Nyssa? I'm a monster'

'That's not true, Nicarra. You are the kindest, bravest, and most selfless person I have ever met.' I say to her, holding her till she stops crying.

We hear a tap on the door, and Lisa walks in, looking uncomfortable. I smile at her, and Lisa looks down, unable to make eye contact, but I continue to stare at her, curious as to why she is here.

'Hi Lisa,' I say to her

'Hi.ehm.I wanted to.ehm.check.on'

'We are fine, thank you. How are your brothers?'

'They are good, Warren is out of danger. They are talking at the moment, so I wanted to check on you both. Nyssa, I want to apologize to you and Nicarra on behalf of Warren.'

'Lisa, please don't take this the wrong way, but it's been a long day, I'm really tired and I need to eat. Can we please talk about this some other time? Please?' I replied

'Sure, I'll just leave.'

'I didn't ask you to leave, you look tired and in need of food and rest yourself.Come, there's a spare blanket here we'll just lay it on the floor and I'll ask Seita to bring food.'

'Is that his name? The one who took the blades for me?' Nicarra asks Lisa as she strokes the feathers on Seita's head while he moves closer to her, laying at her side on the bed. Lisa nodded in response, closing the door behind her.

'I didn't mean for it to go that far', Nicarra said

'You know Nicarra, you are not totally to blame for what happened. If someone were to reject my brother, I would make them bleed too. Warren has his fair share of blame in the matter.'

'It doesn't change the fact that a crown prince almost died tonight because of me', Nicarra responded.

'He protected you, as is his duty as your', she stops, not finishing the sentence as she looks at Nicarra and me. We both look at her curiously. But she doesn't say anything.

'As my what?' Nicarra asks, but I shake my my head subtly, letting her know not to finish what I know she's about to say. She catches my signal and looks at Nicarra, saying.

'As your sisters attacker, he felt responsible for you,' she finished.

.

Nicarra looked at her, clearly not understanding the correlation of Lisa's statement.

'Nyssa says not to broach the subject, so I won't say anything else about that anymore. I will say, though, you are an elite warrior. You took down several dragons by yourself in one night. Only three people in history have achieved such a feat, and that is the dragon king, the siren crown prince, and my father. I'm glad you are on my side.'

Nicarra snorts, looking at me, causing me to sigh.

'Did i say something wrong, Nyssa?' Lisa asks, looking at me

.

I smile back at her, saying, 'No, like I said earlier, I'm hungry.'

'You're always hungry,' says Nicarra.

'I can't help it if my body keeps craving.' I respond to her.

'Hey, want to see a neat trick?' I ask Lisa who turns to me and nods. I look at Seita and say,'Seita, food.'

He rises up, flapping his wings, and different kinds of junk food appear on the blanket.

'Show off!' Nicarra says, chuckling, and I roll my eyes in response. Lisa looks at the food, clearly mesmerized by the magic. I pick up a tub of vanilla ice cream and hand it to Nicarra, knowing it's her favourite. She squeals, taking it from my hand, and begins to devour it. I sit on the blanket waiting for Lisa to join me. She takes off her shoes and sits beside me, picking up a chocolate bar, and we spend the rest of the night talking. We will deal with tomorrow's problems tomorrow.