Free Draconic Testament by Zac Atie Page A

pulled himself out of bed, yawning and cleaning sleep out of his eyes, as he stumbles into his en suite bathroom, going about his daily routines of brushing his extremely sharp teeth that he was so insecure of, taking a shower, drying his hair, adding gel etc. Once he was done, he searched his messy room for his phone, eventually finding it in his jogging bottoms within the laundry basket, and dialled Talia’s number. At this time in the morning, Talia would have her phone on vibrate, and it would vibrate on the bedside table in her equally messy room. She ignores it, but the way she knows it’s Bastion is that as soon as the answer machine comes on, he turns it off and calls again right away. This time, he had to do it three times in a row, before Talia would groan, frustrated, and pull herself over to the bedside table to grab the phone and fumble with the call button. “Herro, Bastion...” Talia yawned, rolling on her back. “Spit it.”
”Well, I figured I’d surprise you and ask you if you want to come studying with me today.” Bastion laughed, as he hears Talia groan again at the reminder of exams. “It’s 8am… Don’t ever talk to me about school, especially exams, at 8am…” She sighs.
”Honestly, Talia, if you don’t make an exception and get your lazy ass up for this one session, you’ll only call back later… besides, we’ll have a lot of time to push up your grades to beyond even a C.” Bastion says.
”I don’t need to pass… I have you, don’t I?” Talia growls “I’ll just go on welfare, and eat all your food.”
”Don’t be a little scally.” Bastion huffs “Get your ass up or I’ll come get you up. Call me back in half an hour when you’ve gotten changed, and eaten.”
”Bastion, I can’t be bothered…” Talia moans.
”I’ll carry you there as you are now if you don’t get up!” Bastion prods, determined to win this.
”Alright, alright… give me an hour though, I’ll be there.” She sighs.
”Loooove you!” Bastion coos, then hangs up the phone. He puts it in his pocket, then heads out the door onto his rickety, creaky stairs, and heads down to get some breakfast before pursuing the rest of the day with Talia, trying to keep his mind off the incident yesterday.

Hours passed by with Bastion and Talia as they sat in front of each other, and Bastion flicked through textbooks explaining topics of the subjects in question, and asking her questions as if she were a child in a classroom. It wasn’t anything new, ever since they had been together they had done this for exams that actually mattered. Bastion tried to steer away from Biology, since he had to touch up on that himself, and he didn’t want Talia to get the impression that he was distracted by Veronica, which was the truth, but not in the way Talia would think. “So, Attrition is the friction rubbing away the rocks, like small pebbles rubbing against the surface chipping parts of it off. What’s Corrosion?”
”Bastion, we-“ Talia began.
”What’s Corrosion?” He repeated, demandingly.
”Chemicals in the water melting the rock and stuff.” Talia sighs, bored.
”No, no, eroding.” Bastion corrects her. “Eroding is the right word for it, remember that.”
”We’ve been doing this for ages” Talia sighs again “Can we not… call it a day? It’s 4pm.” Bastions looks at his watch, taken aback. “Ah… so it is, I…” Bastion says, realizing how long he’s spent here.
”Is something the matter?” Talia asks, crawling across the textbooks sprawled across the platform, sitting in Bastion’s lap. “Just… I don’t know.” Bastion says, truthfully. “Depression, fatigue.” Talia raises an eyebrow.
”Perhaps you should loosen up, and if that doesn’t work, see a doctor.” Talia giggles
”Loosen up how?” Bastion purrs, suggestively. Talia giggles and hits him
”I’ll show you.” She giggles, getting up from his lap “Close your eyes.” Bastion momentarily