The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 27

Janson didn't speak for a few minutes after Aura brought him down to the secret library. He just stood at the bottom of the staircase, staring around the room with his mouth agape. He'd had much the same reaction when she opened the secret staircase to take them down.

Aura had bent down and pushed the brick to open the staircase, trying to act as normal and calm as possible. She didn't want Janson to see that she was nervous, didn't want him to know she had doubts about showing him. The sound of the staircase mechanisms beginning to move, a sound Aura could now recognize after having opened the staircase so many times despite how quiet it was, prompted Aura to release her hold on the brick and stand up, pushing Janson back from where the staircase would open up.

His eyes had been wide with wonder as the last stair slid into place and the whole staircase came to a standstill, open and waiting. Aura had made to go down the staircase as soon as it was open, but when she realized that Janson wasn't following her she'd stopped and turned around. He still stood where she'd put him so he wouldn't be in the way of the staircase opening. His hands were over his mouth and he was still as a statue, the only part of him that moved was his eyes as they darted from the staircase to Aura to the brick she'd pushed and back to the staircase.

Aura gave him a minute, recognising his shock as being the same that Kasha, Salarah, and even herself had all experienced when first encountering the staircase. When it became clear that he still wasn't moving though, Aura went over and grabbed his hand to pull him towards the staircase.

"Come on, don't you want to see what's actually down there?" She asked with a laugh, as she pulled him down the stairs.

Now she again gave him a moment to process, before once again taking his hand and guiding him towards the table. Once he had sat down she took a seat across from him and sat nervously for a moment, twisting her hands in her lap.

"Well..." Aura finally found the courage to say, "What do you think?"

Janson was silent for a moment, still processing his shock, before he said, "This has been here the whole time? Like all the time I've been in the library, this has been under it the whole time?"

Aura gave only a small nod in reply. She really didn't know how long the library had been there, she had to assume a long time, but she didn't really know.

Janson looked around the room in amazement one more time before saying, "Wow, just...wow," but then his face turned serious as he said, "This is amazing, but I guess we have some work to do, huh?"

"Right," Aura said, glad he hadn't really asked her any questions, "but before we begin I kind of wanted to talk to you about something."

"Alright, what is it?" Janson asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"Well it's nothing bad," Aura began, still feeling unsure about sharing her discovery with anyone, "it's just that something kind of weird happened in Combat Training today."

"Oh? What was it?" Janson asked.

Aura took a deep breath before replying, "There was this....I guess you could call it an accident, today. A kid wasn't listening to directions and he went up in the sky to attempt a barrel roll without getting himself tied to the saddle first. Anyways he went to do the roll, and of course he fell because he wasn't going anywhere near fast enough to stay in the saddle. So we were all there just watching him fall and it didn't seem like anyone could catch him in time because he was falling too fast. But then this instinct or something just took over me, because I couldn't just stand there and watch him fall to his death, and suddenly I was all the way across the field where he was falling and then we, Nir-, I mean Helga, and I, were in the sky and we somehow caught him in time." Aura finished the entire story in one breath, and sat panting, waiting for Janson to answer.

"So...you saved a kid?" I mean, good job Aura and I'm super proud of you for acting so quickly, but I'm going to be honest and say that I don't really understand what's weird about it." Janson said.

"Oh, I guess I didn't explain that part very well, did I?" Aura said sheepishly, realizing she'd kind of skipped over that part in her rush to finish the story, "The weird part is how fast I got over to him. It
wasn't like I just ran over, it was like I was on the ground one second and the next I was in the air with Helga catching the kid and there was no time in between."

"Like...teleportation?" Janson asked, excitement creeping into his voice.

"Kind of, I guess. But I don't think that was it. It was more like time somehow stopped and allowed me to get to him. I think that was what happened at least, there was so much adrenaline that I don't really remember." Aura said, unsure of how to get to the "time element" part of her explanation.

"Well, that's... different," Janson said slowly, "I mean, I don't doubt what you're saying or anything, it's just that I've never heard of anything like it."

"Yeah, that's what I thought might be the case," Aura replied, "but then I was thinking about it more and I don't think this is the first time this has happened to me. There was the time in Skills Practice I told you about, where the water stopped before it hit me. Everyone thought it was a water element, but maybe it was actually that time stopped around me because it wasn't only the water that stopped, it was everything. And then there was this other time where I was running the warm up laps for Combat Class and I really wanted to prove myself so I was trying to beat everyone and be done first. And then somehow, even though my speed hadn't really increased, I was in the lead, and it looked like everyone else was going slower and it seemed like time had just slowed down or something."

Janson didn't say anything in reply. He seemed confused, like he didn't know what Aura was trying to say with her story. The room fell silent as both waited for the other to say something. Finally Aura seemed to realize that Janson had no clue what she was trying to tell him and steeled her nerves before she took a deep breath and got ready to explain what she meant.

"I guess the thing I'm getting at is that whenever I feel like I really need or want to do something, weird things happen and time just seems to....I don't know....work in my favor I guess. And then I remembered what you said about "lost elements" and whatnot. And so I guess all of this is really coming around to one question which is: do you think it's possible that my elemental power could be time? And that it's one of the lost elements?"

Janson sat stunned for a moment before saying, "That's two questions."

"What?" Aura demanded, surprised at his answer, which had zero to do with her question.

"That's two questions, you said one question but asked two," Janson said, a smile crossing his face.

"Okay, fine you dork, two questions then. Can you answer them now?" Aura said, a small smile now playing on her lips as well.

"Alright, alright," Janson said, holding his hands up in mock surrender,"The answer to your questions is: Possibly."

"Possibly?" Aura asked, a look crossing her face like she thought he was playing a joke again.

"Yep, possibly," Janson said, "I really would love to give you a straight answer, but I truly do not know enough about the lost elements to give you one. I bet we can find what we need here though."

"Right!" Aura said, "Let's get to work then!"

A/N: Alright y'all, I know my updating has been really sporadic lately, so thanks for continuing to read this story despite that. Also I know this chapter may have a lot of typos in it, I haven't really looked it over yet. As one last note, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the continued building of Aura and Janson's relationship. I love you all and thanks so much for reading!

Bye for now,
Kat