"Wait a minute... YOU HAVE A DRAGON?!" Sunset spoke on behalf of the rest of a stunned Team Spark.
"Yeah. Hatched her myself," Digit said with pride. "Her name's Sparks."
"Sparks?" Sunset asked. "As in Team Spark?"
"Yeah, well, there's no "s"."
"Not the point."
"You named the team after your pet DRAGON?!" Trixie said, somewhat infuriated.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" Sparks cried back. The spikes along her back and tail stood up, her teeth and claws sharpened.
Trixie was a bit confused, but still said, "A pet," with great confidence.
Sparks calmed down. "I am not a pet. Friend? Yes. Assistant? Why not. Familiar? ...Still working on that part. But pet? NEVER!"
"Well, you look pretty comfortable with himpetting you like that," Trixie said with a smirk.
"THAT'S IT!" Sparks' spines and claws extended again as she leaped off Digit's head and towards Trixie, who tripped over in her attempt to back away. Digit caught her by her tail. "Lemme go! I'll barbecue her myself!"
"Easy, Sparks," Digit said, holding the little dragon up. "You said you were here to watch, not get involved."
She calmed down and turned to face Pixel's team. "Whichever one of you is going up against... her, please, kick her butt for me."
"I'll try," Sapphire replied, "But I'm not making any promises," she added with a grin.
"Wait, what?" Trixie asked, surprised.
"Ah, yes," Pixel said, stepping forward. "Trixie, you and Pixel will go one-on-one in the north end of the compound. Zest and Nox will team up against Aerial and Surprise."
"You're trying to put fire and water in the same jar," Nox said. "It's not going to work."
"Way to keep up that positive attitude," Zest said, sarcastically.
Nox shrugged. "Just being honest. You and I both know this won't work out."
"The point is for both of you to learn to work together," said Pixel. "You're both Skyborn, so you're strength will be in the air and there's no point in being on the same team if you're going to fight each other for domination."
"She's got a point," Zest pointed out, "...Unfortunately," he added, seeing Surprise smiling and cracking her knuckles.
"Then let's go," Surprise said as she and Aerial took off, with their opponents following behind. "We'll take the sky." Trixie and Sapphire did the same.
"Next, Amethyst and Chrome on the West side." They went on their way. "Next, Digit... and Harebell. You guys take the south end."
"WHAT?!" Digit cried. "Do you want me to die before the trials?"
"C'mon, Digi," said the Amazon, wrapping her arm around his neck, "It'll be fine."
"She's right," Pixel reassures him.
"That's a lie," Digit said, as he and Harebell made their way to their side.
"Wait a minute," Sunset said. She, Pixel, and Sparks were the only ones left. "That means..."
"Yep," Pixel said, taking off her jacket, "Just you and me, Sunny."
Sunset gulped. "Eep!"
"Argh! I'm bored!" The young queen was sitting on her crystal throne, balancing a short sword on her fingertip. "BANE!"
A shadow appeared and took on a shape. "You called, Milady?"
"I'm bored."
Ban just stared. "Um, yes, well, things have been rather... uneventful for the past few days."
"Urgh, if only I didn't have to take care of this hive." She thought for a moment. "Hey, Bane, what do kids my age do normally?"
Bane was surprised. His queen hardly ever asked what other's her age would do, especially considering her position. "Well, at this time, I'm guessing they'll be at school."
She thought for a moment, then smiled. "Then that settles it, "she said jumping out of her throne. "I'm going to school. This'll be fun! Way more fun than sitting down on a boring old throne all day."
"Well, that's something you don't hear everyday from a teenager," Bane said.
"Bane, find me the most prestigious school in the area, within a four mile radius."
"Well, there is the Chantalot Academy. It was founded by Princess Celestia herself."
"Oooooh! I'm definitely going there." She stopped a the door. "Get Descent and Nightshade. We're going shopping! You too Bane."
"Great," he muttered sarcastically.
"SWEET CELESTIA!" Sunset cried as she dodged another bolt of energy.
"C'mon! It's like you aren't even trying," Pixel said as she fire another bolt from her hand.
"I'm trying NOT TO GET KILLED!" "I cant stay on the defensive forever." She dodged another bolt and rolled behind a pillar. She gathered a mass of teal energy into her hands. She rolled out of cover and fired the bolt at Pixel. Pixel held out her hand and brought up a blue bubble shield, which blocked the blast.
"That it?" she asked.
"Nope." As Pixel lowered the shield, a salvo of fireballs approached her. She dodged them, but for some reason, they followed her. She brought up a small shield and took the hit, crashing into a wall. "Not bad, huh?" Sunset said, twirling a fireball on her finger.
"Not at all," Pixel replied, pulling herself from the rubble. "In fact, it's given me incentive to stop holding back." She dodged as Snset threw the fireball, followed by a barrage of energy bolts. Pixel slide to a halt, keeping her head down so the barrage past over her, then fired a bolt of energy that hit Sunset square in the stomach, knocking her back.
"Ow," Sunset said getting up, holding her stomach. "Isn't this supposed to be training?"
"That won't be an excuse when you're out fighting, will it?" She charged up another bolt of energy.
"Yep. I'm done."
Meanwhile...
"Come on!" Zest cried as he charged towards Aerial, who knocked him away into Nox, who was facing off against Surprise.
"Watch it," Nox said, regaining his balance and pulling away from Zest.
"Oh, sorry. Wasn't expecting to be hit by a blast of wind," he replied sarcastically.
"Hey, eyes on the enemy," Aerial said as he threw a ball of wind at them. Surprise followed up with a ball of lightning. The wind knocked them off balance, while the lightning stretched around them like a rope, tying them together.
"Come on," Surprise said, hovering over them, arms crossed, "It's like you're not even trying."
Meanwhile...
"I AM TRYING!" Digit had been dodging Harebell's blows for nearly five minutes now, and she wasn't letting up. If anything, she was becoming more ferocious.
"C'mon, kiddo. Ya ain't gonna be on the defensive forever," she said, throwing a right cross. Digit blocked it, but the force sent him flying into a nearby van. Harebell straightened up. "Ah remember when ya used t' punch zap apple trees for practice! What happened t' that?"
"Nothing," he replied as he got up. "I just..."
"Just what?" she asked as she charged at him again. She landed the hit, but didn't feel the contact. She looked back and saw the image of Digit fading. She noticed a faint blue trail and used her eyes to trace it to Digit, who was sitting on top of a pillar. She smiled. "Slow start, but still a start." She jumped up to meet him and brought her hammer-like fist down, hitting another afterimage and shattering the pillar completely. She landed with the debris and saw Digit running towards her, coated in a blue and white aura. "That's more like it!" She blocked Digit's relentless attacks. For her, it was easy since she had trained him and trained with him many times, but for anyone else, trying to predict Digit's capoeira-like fighting style was like trying to understand Pinkie Pie: it was nearly impossible!
Digit's attacks flowed so smoothly, it was as if he had planned out his movements five minutes earlier. When he managed to pushed Harebell far enough, he did a hand stand. Using his hands as pivots, he spun and brought his right foot to her face. She blocked it, then moved back to dodge his incoming left leg. He brought his legs down and swept the ground in front of him. She jumped, but didn't noticed his other foot as it slammed into her stomach. She moved back and looked up as Digit moved for a punch. She closed her eyes and braced herself, but it never came. She looked up to see Digit's fist inches from her breast. He was red. That instant, Harebell brought her leg around and caught Digit's arm in the joint behind her knee and used her other leg to sweep his feet off the ground. She spun sideways and flipped Digit onto the ground and stopped her incoming leg just above his face. She smiled.
"Not bad," She said getting up. "Still needs a bit o' work though." She stretched out her hand and pulled him up. "What was that? When you stopped mid-punch?"
"I... um... well..."
"You were afraid you were gonna punch mah boobs?"
Digit's faced burned. "Um... well... something like that. Besides, I don't hit girls."
"Ah know."
"WHAT?!"
"Digit, ah've trained with you fer years now."
"So this was to teach me not to be afraid to hit a girl?"
"Somethin' like that." Digit just growled in response. "Ready fer round two?"
"No."
"Too bad."
Meanwhile...
"Stand still so Trixie can blast you!"
"Why would I even consider that?" Trixie had, fruitlessly, tried to hit Sapphire with energy bolts. Sapphire made use of a spell that allowed her made mirror images of herself that kept moving and dodging Trixie's attacks, much to the latter's annoyance. "Combat isn't just about magic. You need to be more ambidextrous if you want to stand a chance at winning in any fight."
Trixie fired another bolt and shattered another mirror image. "Stop distracting me!"
"Fine. Then let me show you." All the clones converged and a single Sapphire was running towards Trixie.
"Gotcha!" Trixie fired a bolt of pale pink energy at Sapphire, but somehow it missed... at point-blank range. Sapphire bent under Trixie's arm and elbowed her stomach with enough force to send her flying into a pool of water behind her.
"See?" Sapphire said. Trixie pointed her wand at her again. "Have you learned nothing?" Sapphire asked as she face-palmed.
Meanwhile...
"Fighting isn't about brute strength and raw power. It's about focus and precision."
"Sorry, that don't make much sense to me," Amethyst said throwing another punch, which missed.
"Predict your opponent' moves and plan your own moves based on that. The better the prediction, the more likely you are to win." As he spoke, he dodged several blows aimed at his head, and just as many aimed at his chest.
"What if I just barrel through the opponent?" She delivered another flurry of punches, all of which missed.
"Then you'll hurt yourself." With that, Chrome caught her hand and flipped her on her back. She got up and aimed to kick him, but he caught her leg and flipped her behind him. "I can see the anger," he said as she got up. "Now channel it."
"LIKE THIS?!" She punched the ground with, literally, earthshaking force. The ground beneath them shattered and shifted. Chrome stomped the ground and the shockwave not only countered Amethyst's blow, causing it to stop, it also knocked Amethyst back into a wall.
"No," he said blankly, "Not like that."
Digit was now lying flat on the ground, panting. Harebell was sitting on his chest. "Thank Faust she isn't wearing a skirt." Then the second voice echoed, "Why isn't she wearing a skirt?!"
"Hello? Anyone home?" Harebell asked, knocking on his head like a door. "What's goin' on up there?"
"Nothing," Digit said, blushing.
"Kid, ain't you ever been with a girl before?"
"WHAT?!" One of the many questions he never wanted to answer. "Yes, well, no. Not really. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Relax. I'm just teasin'," she said as she got up. "Yeesh. For someone as popular as you, ah thought you'd be used to gettin' attention from pretty girls."
"This is different," he said as he sat up.
"How so?"
"Well for starters, your 21."
"So you're nervous... 'cause am older than you?"
"Okay, now this got... hey, do you hear that?" Digit heard a faint noise that seemed to get closer and louder. Suddenly, a giant teal ball crashed in front of them. When the dust cleared, Digit and Harebell saw Sunset in a protective sphere, panting.
"Dude... your sister's... trying... to kill me," she said between breaths.
"Quit exaggerating." They saw Pixel behind them.
"GAH! White flag! White flag!" Sunset materialized a fairly large white flag and was waving it around."
"Don't worry, we're done." Sunset breathed a sigh of relief and released the shield, letting herself slump into the crater she created. Soon, saw Nox carrying an unconscious Zest as he descended with Aerial and Surprise close behind.
"Don't ask," Nox said before Pixel had the chance.
Chrome was also carrying an unconscious Amethyst as he made his way to the group. "Don't ask."
"Wasn't going to." She turned around to greet the last group. "Well, at least your conscious." Sapphire was walking next to a soaked Trixie, who looked angry enough to vaporize the water on her. "I'm gonna go with the Twenty-Rivers Mirror Flood Technique."
"Ten, actually," Sapphire said. "She thought she could blast her way through it or hit me to stop it."
"They were both legitimate plans," said Trixie.
"But neither of them worked." Trixie growled.
"Well, this was a good start. Next session will be on Friday, after school," Pixel said as she walked away. "Same place. Don't be late." Sunset took Amethyst from Chrome as he made his way to the group. "Later." With that, the group was engulfed in a bright blue sphere, which vanished in a flash of light.
"Wow, you weren't kidding," Sunset said to Amethyst, "She is heavy."
"Toldyaso."
In Chantalot, a teenage girl with lavender hair was making her way through the many stores in the town. She was wearing a pink shirt, knee-length black skirt, and black boots and was carrying about four large shopping bags. Behind her was a man in a long black trench coat, black trousers, white shirt, and black shoes carrying six large bags. To his right, a girl with dark blue hair in a blue tank-top, black short-shorts, and blue high-top sneakers. To his left, a boy with similar hair wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, and black boots. They were each carrying about eight bags. "Is all this stuff necessary?" asked the blue-haired girl.
"Better safe than sorry," said the other girl. "Don't worry, Nighty. Some of those are for you."
"I hate that name, for more reasons than I can count, but I'll let it slide 'cause of the second part."
"You are too easily bribed," said the boy.
"I like when people are nice to me and get me nice stuff. So sue me."
"We're here," said the older man. They now stood in front of a large building they knew as Chantalot Academy.
"Wow. It looks pretty cool. Almost as cool as my castle."
"Which one?" asked Nightshade.
Bane handed his bags to Nightshade and Descent, as did the girl. "Get these back to the house. We'll deal with the formalities."
"Which house?" Nightshade asked again smiling. "Oh, you mean the one we just bought. Sorry, lost track."
"You aren't attending with us?" asked Descent.
"I think I'd look better as a parent."
"Don't your "kids" look a bit different?"
"I married twice."
"NO!" The young queen turned to face him. "This should be fun and all, but let's try to maintain some class, huh?"
"Fine... you two took after me and she took after her mother." He ran his hand through his hair and it gained a dark blue tint.
"And the different names?" Descent pointed out.
"You took my last name, she took her mother's."
"Cool," said the younger girl. "I can work with that. But don't they need to be there when we're signing up?"
"True that," said Nightshade.
Bane sighed. "Fine." He bent down and drew a symbol on the ground using a blade he took from inside his coat. When it lit up, he dropped his bags on it and they vanished.
"You had a teleport rune and you wanted to make us carry the bags?" Nightshade asked, unsure whether to be angry or confused at his decision. Bane simply smiled.
"Look out Chantalot," the queen said as they approached the school, "Lavender Heart's in town!"
"Okay. That's it. You're all officially welcome to the Chantalot Academy." Celestia had just finished signing the papers signifying their acceptance into the school. Apparently, the trio had passed the entrance test in nearly record time. "You can begin classes tomorrow. Will you be adding anyone to your group, or will you be fine with just three members?"
"We'll be fine on our own," replied Lavender.
"Okay then. These are you student IDs. They will act as your identification, library card, and keycards for specific areas." She handed them each a card.
"Thank you," the three of them said.
Once they left, the Lavender insisted they do more shopping while Bane went home to prepare dinner. They stopped off at a clothes store, where Lavender tried out a bunch of different clothes while Nightshade and Descent just looked around and held anything she decided to buy. "Hey, Nighty, something's been bothering me," she said.
"Still don't like the name, but what is it?" she asked, taking a sip from her blueberry smoothie.
"Does the name "Digit" mean anything to you?" At that moment, Nightshade nearly choked on her smoothie, coughing and gagging in an attempt to get it out of her lungs.
"Omigoodness, are you okay?" Lavender asked, rushing to her side.
"Yeah, fine," she said, clearing her throat. "Think they forgot to crush all the blueberries." She regained her composure and looked at Descent, who was as shocked as she was at the question. "Um, no. Why do you ask?"
"Bane found some intruders in the Rainbow Forest a few weeks ago. Said one of them went by Digit. For some reason, the name sounds familiar, but I haven't been able to figure out why."
"Um, maybe it's, uh, just a, um, random name you heard over time. You do get around, right?"
"I guess."
"Besides," Descent pitched in, "The Rainbow Forest is a lot more pleasant than your home in the Everfree. There's more likely to be people coming in there."
"Yeah. I'm thinking we should move back to the main hive in the Everfree," Lavender said as she took a jacket to try on. "A lot more peace and quiet. People are way too freaked out by the place."
"Yeah," said Nightshade, breathing a sigh of relief and looking at Descent. "We'll do that."
The next day, each member of team Spark was either tired or sore from training the previous day. Twilight noticed as Sunset walked into her locker to get her first period books. "Wow. You look worst than me the night before a test I didn't study for and had to wake up at two in the morning to read."
"Mhm," was her reply.
"What exactly were y'all doin'?" asked Applejack.
"Getting our butts handed to us."
They froze. They saw Digit walking towards them. Sunset grabbed her large history book, with whatever strength she could muster, and hit him with it. "Ow," he said, rubbing shoulder, "Why?"
"Why? Really? After what happened yesterday?"
"Okay, I'm sorry. But in my defense, how was I supposed to know she would launch you that far?"
"A warning about how strong she is would've been nice."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"What exactly did you guys do?" asked Rainbow.
Then, the bell rang. They headed towards class. That morning, they had Element Studies. Their teacher, Amber Force, had long black hair with a single red highlight. She wore a long purple dress and a white cloak with a red trim. As she started, the classroom door opened and three students walked in. The first was a fairly young-looking teenage girl with lavender hair and green eyes. She wore a purple shirt, black skirt, and black high-top sneakers along with her open academy uniform. The next was another girl with dark blue hair and matching eyes wearing a beige halter top, black cargo shorts, and beige boots. The boy next to her had similar hair and eyes and wore a white t-shirt under a light blue jacket, brown khakis, and black boots. "Ah welcome. I've been expecting you. Class these are your new classmates."
"I'm Nightshade Haze."
"I'm Descent Haze."
The last girl stepped forward. "My name is Lavender Heart. Pleases to meet you all."
As they made their way to the free seats in the third row, Nightshade spotted him: snow white hair with blue highlights, cool blue eyes. It was him: Digit. "But how? That can't be right. Maybe he just looks like him."
As class progressed, Lavender was engrossed in learning the basics of combining two different elements, which Amber demonstrated. Descent nudged Nightshade. "Hey, isn't that her boyfriend from about a year or two ago?" he asked in a low tone, gesturing towards Digit.
"Yes, and that's what's wrong. He shouldn't be here... he shouldn't be alive."
Descent looked back and saw Digit playing with a ball of water. "He looks pretty alive to me."
During their first break, Lavender decided to wander off and explore the school. Finally alone, Descent and Nightshade retreated to a shadowy corner behind the lockers. "oh ho ho! This is rich," said Descent.
"Rich? Do you realize how definitely screwed we are right now?" Night shade said, panicking.
"You mean you, not we."
"Way to be a great big brother."
"It was your mission."
"And I did it!"
"Really? Because it looks like you missed something... everything."
"I'm certain he should've been dead. I stabbed his and shot him through the chest with an arrow that froze his heart solid, just to be sure."
"Looks like the ice defrosted, so your precaution was a bit in vain."
"GAH! Not helping." Nightshade paced in the small space they occupied. "Oh, sweet Faust. She's gonna kill me if she figures out who he is."
"You mean when. She may be a bit naïve, but she is clever."
"Well, I can't kill him here, that would just raise suspicion, especially if we suddenly disappeared afterwards, and it would be too dangerous to stay. And telling Lavender is not an option. Friends or bodyguards, she won't forgive us for this."
"What's with all this "us" and "we" business?"
"You should've been there!"
Descent smiled. "I'm sorry, did you just say you needed my help to pull this off? That the reason you failed id because I wasn't there?"
"Absolutely not!" She continued pacing. "Argh! I need to fix this... and you're going to help."
"Me?! Why? No! Don't get me killed!"
"Look, I have an idea. I think I might be able to find a few kids with issues with Digit. See where I'm going with this?"
"Yeah. And it's crazy."
"That was FUN!" cried Lavender as they made their way back from school.
"Well, those are words you hardly ever hear from students talking about school," said Nightshade. "Y'know, I thought a parent was supposed to pick you up from school," she stated taking a sip from her smoothie, shorter ones in case of another bombshell question like earlier.
When they got home, they were greeted by Bane. They had purchased a two-story house in a residential area, about a twenty minute walk from the school. it had three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a well stocked kitchen, and more space than they knew what to do with (It was a lot bigger on the inside). "Ah, your back. How was your day?"
"Great," said Lavender.
"Okay, I guess," said Nightshade. Descent just shrugged.
"Well, dinner is ready. I could find any dragon meat in the market, but I did find a rather large duck.
"Good enough for me," said Lavender.
"She's way too easy, even for royalty," noted Nightshade as Lavender walked in ahead of them.
"Especially for royalty," added Descent.
Later that night, Nightshade couldn't sleep, and neither could Descent. They stayed up looking for anything they could use in the yearbook they "borrowed" from the library. "I've got nothing," said Nightshade.
"Me neither. Maybe we should try asking the students tomorrow."
And that's what they did. They went from student to student, asking about relationships in general amongst the students, hoping to find something on Digit. However, Digit seemed to be on good terms with just about everyone. "No way," said Nightshade, refusing to give up. "There is no way someone doesn't have it out for the kid."
"Look, we should just slow down. If we just watch maybe we'll find someone."
"Someone for what?" They twins looked back to see Lavender standing behind them, curiosity flaring in her eyes.
"Um, uh, Lavender. Um, didn't hear you coming."
"Who are you looking for? Are you keeping something from me? You know I hate it when people keep secrets from me..." her curious look started to turn to anger. "...Unless it involves presents or a party." She was now smiling.
"Fine, we'll tell you." Nightshade looked at Descent in shock. "What are you DOING?!"
"The truth is..."
"We are so dead."
"... we've been looking for a boyfriend for you." Nightshade's jaw dropped.
"Um, Descent, you're a good friend and all, but I'm sixteen. I'm perfectly capable of finding a guy I like. Actually, I already found one."
"... What?" Nightshade's eye twitched.
"Yeah. He's cute with snow white hair and sky blue eyes." Nightshade's heart skipped a beat.
"That's Digit," said Descent. Now, Nightshade was on the verge of a heart attack.
"Really? The same one that Bane saw in the forest?" Descent shrugged. "Huh." She thought for a moment. "Remind me to tell Bane to prepare a hamper as a token of my sincerest apologies," she said as she walked away.
Nightshade turned to look at Descent, who was smiling, rather pleased with himself. "Playing it cool," he said, right before she punched him in the face.
"Um... thanks, I guess." Digit was holding a basket full of food, books, and other things.
"It's the least I could do," said Lavender.
"But how did you know?"
"Oh, I was just walking through the forest when I heard a loud explosion and saw you and your friend fighting those changelings." "Luckily, the ones you obliterated were husks. Otherwise, I'd kill you where you stand! Plus, your too damn cute."
"Oh... cool." He transferred the basket into a tome in his back pocket for storage.
"Hey, um, do you have a girlfriend?"
"Um, no. Why?"
She frowned. "What are ya, dense? Why else would I be asking?"
"Sorry," he said, scratching the back of his head.
Meanwhile, Nightshade and Descent were watching from a distance. "Wow, that was subtle," Nightshade said sarcastically.
"Must be awkward for you,' said Descent.
"Kinda. Mostly creepy. Like, how did he survive?"
"We'll look into that later. I was talking about how you two... you know," he said, earning him another punch.
"So, what do you say?" Lavender asked.
"Look, your nice and cute and all, but..." Digit lost his train of thought for a while. "... I've kinda had a few... bad experiences with dating. Think I'm gonna wait a few more years."
"It's a first date, not marriage," she said, chuckling.
"First for you, maybe. But why me?"
"You kinda remind me of someone I knew and liked a while back."
"Huh. That usually doesn't end well."
"I'm willing to take the risk."
Digit though for a moment. "One date. That's it. No second try. No taking it a step further."
"Deal."
"Congrats and good luck," Nightshade said as she and Descent were waving as she left the house later that evening, Digit waiting at the gate wearing a t-shirt, khakis, and high-top sneakers. Lavender wore a white shirt, blue skirt, and blue sneakers. "Good thing love is blind, huh?"
"Yes. Yes it is." They twins turned to see Bane standing behind them. "You do know your both dead once she figures it out, right?"
"You knew?" asked Nightshade.
"How could I not. I fought the guy. His runes, fighting style, even that teleportation spell he used were all familiar, based on your account."
"Yeah, well, we need to fix this."
"What's with all this "we" business?"
"That's what I said," Descent said. "Besides, you weren't this eager to kill him when your inches from sharing a romantic moonlight kiss," he added, smirking.
"S-Shut up."
"You kissed him?" asked Bane.
"No. I almost did." She blushed furiously. "I-I mean I needed to get close enough to stab him and get rid of his weapon."
"Uh huh."
"Oh, shut up."
"So, you do this on all your dates?" Lavender and Digit were standing on top of the Eclipse Obelisk, a tall spire that overlooked to city.
"No. I do something different. Gets kinda boring when you repeat the same routine," he replied.
"I know what you mean."
"Like replaying a scene."
"Or being boring."
They looked at each other and laughed and spent another hour walking around the town, seeing the sights, and enjoying each other's company. Watching in the distance, though, was a shadow, and she wasn't so pleased at the sight. She smiled and said, "He never took me sightseeing."