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Airlia watched him go, then turned to Dain with a sigh. "Now look what you did."

Dain just grinned. "Bet he doesn't even know why he's mad."

She bit her lip, watching Hagan's retreating back. Maybe he did know. Maybe she did too.

And maybe... she didn't mind.

One afternoon, the two of them lay in a daisy-filled meadow, the sun warm against their skin. they had just polished off Hagan's eleventh birthday cake from yesterday. He lay on his back, chewing lazily on a stalk of grass, while Airlia sat cross-legged beside him, weaving a daisy chain with small, nimble fingers.

"You're making that wrong," Hagan teased, watching her from the corner of his eye.

Airlia shot him a look. "I am not. I've been making these since I was little."

Hagan smirked. "Then why does it look like it'll fall apart in five minutes?"

She huffed, tossing the unfinished chain at him. He caught it, laughing, before sitting up. Then, he proceeded to show her how it was done. She bent her head and he rumbled in a fake voice crackling with the beginnings of puberty "And I crown thee, Queen Lia"

The sun dipped low, casting a golden glow around her, making her hair gleam like firelight.

Hagan swallowed, something warm blooming in his chest.

Without thinking, he leaned forward.

Airlia blinked at him but did not move away.

Their lips met in a soft, close-lipped kiss, fleeting and innocent.

When Hagan pulled back, he felt light-headed. She was staring at him with wide eyes, her fingers tightening in the grass beneath her.

For a long moment, neither spoke.

Then, finally, she smiled, a secret kind of smile, and whispered, "No one else gets to call you this, you know."

Hagan frowned. "Call me what?"

She grinned, tapping his nose lightly before turning away. "Hail"

Hagan groaned, but he was grinning as he tackled her into the flowers.

She laughed as they tumbled together, their childhood innocence untouched, unbroken.

Hagan felt certain—they would always be happy together.

Chapter 16

Hagan

Highclaw Draken stood near the edge of the longhouse, arms crossed as he watched the two figures sparring in the training grounds below. Hagan and Airlia. Again.

Lunara Astrid stood beside him, silent as she observed the way the boy instinctively protected the girl, how his stance shifted ever so slightly to keep himself between her and any perceived threat. It was not the behaviour of mere childhood friends.

"They are too close," Draken muttered, voicing the concern they had both been feeling. "It should be stopped."

Astrid tilted her head. "They are children."

Draken exhaled sharply. "They won't be for much longer."

Astrid exhaled softly. "Would you rather they be enemies?"