In the mirror this time was a boy, a boy I knew. He was on his knees, his head bowed low. His arms were trembling and there was dirt caked on his elbow.

He looked up at me and tears streamed down his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up to the sun just barely peaking over the horizon. The morning light was still weak and delicate, like a spider's web. I breathed in deeply.

My friends were sound asleep. I stared at them. People look so different when they're asleep. Deynan looked so quiet, so vulnerable. Isaac looked so young. I had never really noticed how much older Isaac looked when he was awake. I realized that I didn't know if he was older or younger than me. I had assumed they were both my age. I had assumed all the boys at the school were my age. But I didn't really know. I would ask them when they woke up.

Ore meandered over. "Can I get in your pocket?" he asked. "The sun is about to be up."

"Oh, yeah, sure thing," I whispered , holding out a hand. He crawled onto it, having to use his arms for balance. It was an awkward transition, as he had no knees or elbows. I put him in the pocket that didn't hold the scroll--um, Tinder. I was going to have to get used to calling him that. Ore curled up into a rock--as in, an actual one--and settled in.

I stared ahead, not sure what to do. I was a natural early riser. In fact, Aasha once teased me that I could've slept for a week and still be tired when I woke up.

Aasha. I missed my little sister, oddly enough. I missed Shreya too, and half wondered if she missed me, though I decided not to think on that too hard. She used to tell me it was her duty as an older sister to torment me, and lived up to the claim.

I suddenly felt lonely.

On a whim, I took out Tinder. I hesitated for a moment, then wrote, "Hey."

The reply didn't take too long. "Um...hi?"

"You're an imp, aren't you?"

"Oh my! Wise master Ravi has figured it out! Tell me, sir, how do you feel in your moment of triumph?"

I rolled my eyes. "Are you upset? That someone put you in this scroll, I mean. Mr. Marquez did that, didn't he?"

"Uh, DUH I'm upset! Juan Marquez is a freaking mad scientist when it comes to magic. There I was, happily living in the middle of a desert, when HE comes along and captures me, shoves me in a scroll, and enslaves me. I would think that's ample reason to be mad."

I considered this. It WAS kind of mean. "Do you have a name?"

"No. I've never understood humans' desire to name everything. We all have ourselves, don't we? Is a name just another way to assure yourself that you have an identity?"

I stared, not sure what to do. "I've never really thought of it that way before."

"That's because you're stupid."

My eyes narrowed. "Harsh, much?"

"Hey, it's who I am. It's part of MYSELF. I can't help my sarcasm anymore than you can help being stupid. It's sad, truly."

I heard a noise. I turned quickly. Isaac was sitting up. He looked and noticed me. "Oh. Morning, Ravi. What are you doing?" he asked, yawning.

"Just passing the time," I said, rolling up Tinder. "Come on. Let's wake Deynan up and get moving." I swallowed. "With luck, we'll make it to the palace today."

~~~~~~

We walked for what seemed like only a little time before the sun was blazing high in the sky. My skin was sticky with sweat.

"Why is it so hot?" Deynan complained.

"Maybe because, I don't know, it's early May?" I suggested, raising my eyebrows

"Seriously? When did that happen?"

"Um, a few days ago I think."

"So it's basically summer."

"Basically."

"Well crap."

"It's May third," Isaac added, looking up from the book.

"Told you," I said proudly.

"Do you hear me arguing?"

"Whatever."

"You guys," Isaac chuckled.

Just then, a chill ran down my spine. Deynan, Isaac, and I stopped simultaneously. I looked at them. "Did you guys feel that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. They didn't respond, but simply nodded. We hurried forwards without speaking, urged forward by an invisible pull like a fishing line.

We arrived in a clearing. It was waiting for us.

This Tempter was the most gruesome yet. The tentacles had almost no flesh on them, but were black, shriveled, slimy, like a rotten banana peel. Its shirt hung in gray rags, the edges frayed from countless hours of twisting and twisting in those spiny hands that resembled claws more than hands. It had almost no hair, but a few stray strands sticking out from its wrinkled head. Its eyes were wild with burning hatred, but deep as the sky when it was pitch black, and you felt like you were falling and couldn't escape. Its beak was black like tarnished silver, broken and splintered, scratched and desolate.

Overall, this Tempter radiated a sort of inane power that sent jitters up my spine and nausea in the pit of my stomach.

I gulped. "Guys, this one has to be the opposite of kindness, it's the only one left! Become a dragon!"

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Kindness, I thought desperately. What had I come up with last time?

It was something important, I remembered that. Kindness and FORGIVENESS, I thought. I had a thought...a really important thought...what was it...

Then the Tempter began to shriek.

A heavy cloud began to creep over my heart. What was the point? Kindness was power, so I was supposed to believe. But when had kindness ever solved any of the world's problems? Wars, terrorists, bloodshed...it never ended. My kindness wouldn't make a difference.

An idea occurred to me. Had I tried to be kind before? Obviously. Did that change the way people thought of me?

My heart hardened. Never.

Bitterness swirled in the pit of my stomach, swelling up like a fast growing weed, crawling up my insides, wrapping around my heart and stomach, constricting them. I took a ragged breath. Anger started to slowly burn in the center of my chest, slowly rising.

And then something in my mind flinched.

I stopped, confused. Why was I feeling this way? It was irrational. What was I angry at? What was making me so upset? Some crap about the world? That made no sense. It had to be the Tempter.

Somehow, this made me even angrier.

I couldn't control my feelings and it made me incomprehensibly upset.

I fell to my knees, my face hardened. My throat constricted as if I was about to cry, but tears would not come. I closed my eyes. This didn't make sense.

I hated the world and everything in it.

Everything in it...

A small part of my mind woke up in protest at that. Um, no, it seemed to say. You can't hate EVERYTHING because everything includes Isaac, Deynan, Audrey, Sophie, and Sierra.

My eyes flew open with a gasp. That was it! That was my key to kindness! But it was slipping away quickly. I squeezed my eyes shut, grasping desperately at memories. Audrey, stealing Deynan's bouncy ball. Sophie, that moment we quietly had that one morning, before the world had started to move. Sierra's glittering expression, the one that said, isn't-this-fun?

And Isaac and Deynan. These past days we had spent together...had it really only been days? It felt like lifetimes. I felt as though...as though they had become part of me. I had changed, that was certain. And I had changed because of them.

I could forgive the world for all its horrors, because it still gave me friends like these.

Before I had been nice, but they had unlocked my heart and now I could be kind.

It was so easy then, so fluid. I stood up and raised my arms in one swift motion, becoming a mighty dragon, rearing my front claws to the sky and thudding back down on the powerful earth. I arched my long neck upwards and screeched.

I began charging towards the scraggly monster, spewing flames from my mouth. It felt strange and normal at the same time. I tried not to think about it.

The monster's shriek cut off abruptly, and it hissed at us before flying away. I felt the heavy weight lifted from my heart the moment it left.

My heartbeat beginning to slow down, I felt the thrill of the moment fading. Suddenly, I felt every aspect of being a dragon. It was almost insanely powerful...I felt a little nervous. What damage could I cause?

I quickly shrunk back down to human.

I took a deep breath in, feeling refreshed. "That was almost...eye-opening."

"What do you mean, almost?" Deynan asked a few feet to my left. He must have also been a dragon just moments ago. He grinned. "It was extremely eye-opening. And extremely awesome."

"Yeah," I agreed, a smile spreading across my face. "Isaac? Any thoughts?" I turned to my right, but he was not there. I frowned. I looked back at Deynan. I turned completely around.

Back in the place where we had originally stood, Isaac was on the ground on his hands and knees. His arms were trembling. Dirt was covering his elbow. His breath was tagged.

He looked up at us. Tears were streaming down his face.

I froze. What? What was going on?

Deynan jogged towards him, and I followed. We reached him in seconds, both of us sitting cross-legged on the ground simultaneously.

I knew better than to ask if something was wrong. I also felt like it would be out of place to ask what was wrong. He would tell us, if he wanted to.

Isaac shook with silent sobs, occasionally gasping for air. I wasn't good at comforting crying people, so I examined his face instead.

Isaac's usually healthy pale face was flushed so red he looked almost sunburnt. The tears left splotchy tracks on his cheeks and his eyes puffy and red. He looked nothing short of distraught. It was an unusual expression to see on Isaac, and made me a bit uncomfortable. But mostly, it made me very, very, sad.

"I'm adopted," he blurted out. Deynan and I didn't respond. He took a few steadying breaths. "Everybody at school always knew. My family is Hispanic, and I'm blonde. I mean, we just look so different..." He trailed off and sat back on his heels. He wiped his tears away with the back of his hand. "I love my adopted family, really, I do...Mom, and Dad, and Elliot, and Cadence...but it's not the same." He grew quiet. "My parents didn't die. My mom gave me away. She didn't want me." His eyes filled with tears again. "Some financial crap."

"Isaac..." I whispered. He looked down. "I mean, it was ok. I never knew my biological family so I didn't think much of it. But you can't stop thoughts...and one day I thought...if your own mother doesn't want you...who does?"

My stomach churned. I felt so horrible. How could anyone think something like that? That was terrible. I never knew.

"But life moves on," he continued. "My parents are awesome. They raised me well. I wasn't a bad student, I played a lot of music, I was the perfect child. I got bullied some..."--his voice faltered but he swallowed and continued--"...for looking different from my family. But it was ok. I kept telling myself, this is fine, this is nothing, this is ok. I'm one of the lucky ones, to get a good family, well-off, nice people. The kind of person I turned into though...I'm not sure how it happened, actually. I think I was trying to prove it to my adopted family, that I was good enough, they made the right choice. I became the perfect son. Always did my chores, never complained, always smiled. That aspect of me kind of...I don't know, spilled over into the rest of my life. At school I was known as the 'nice kid', the kid that couldn't say mean things to anybody, the kid who helped every person he met. As reputations go, it was a pretty good one." His voice got quieter. "But people don't understand how hard it is to live into that reputation. To have to try to understand EVERYBODY, to never get in ANY fights, to have to ALWAYS work something out, even when sometimes, you just want to scream." He stopped, his eyes squeezed shut tight in remembering. "And people came to me for advice, because I'm good at that. Giving advice. Dealing with people in general. It's hard enough shouldering your own problems, but when people tell you about theirs and expect you to fix them...well, it gets a bit harder. Two people is fine, three people is a bit rough, but then you get to four, and five...I had eight."

I almost couldn't believe my ears. How could he have stood all of that? By himself?

"But I wanted to help them, that was the problem. I couldn't tell anyone no. But then it just got worse and worse until I was afraid to talk to people because, what would they ask me to do?" He shook his head slowly. "And the entire time, all I could think was...you have no right. You have no right to complain. Your parents are alive. You have nothing to prove to them. You have nothing to prove to ANYBODY. You're part of that family. But me? I was an add-on. And sure, I was always part of the family, but you can never love another child as much as you love your own." He became very still. "And my real mother didn't even love her own."

The world seemed to have stopped. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move.

He took a shaky breath. "It was a terrible thing to think, I know. Everyone has struggled and I have no right to judge them. But then I met you guys." He smiled weakly. "And yes, you still expected me to talk to people, to deal with things." We immediately jumped and started to apologize, but he held up his hands. "Don't apologize. It's probably my fault. I give off that vibe. But what you never did is complain. You had rough lives but you never, ever complained. And I admire that more than I've ever admired anything else."

His smile fell off his face. "But just now...with the Tempter...I couldn't feel kindness. I could only remember how bitter I felt towards the people who had just used me as a pillow. And I tried, but..."--his voice constricted--"...I couldn't transform." Tears began to roll down his face again. "I-I just...I couldn't."

I sensed he was done speaking. He had wrapped his arms around his stomach and was taking deep but shaky breaths. The tears were slowly stopping again, but his eyes were red as ever, and had lost their shine.

"Isaac," I said quietly. "If you're thinking that you aren't kind, that isn't true. That's completely untrue. You have literally laid you happiness aside to help others and that is a tremendous sacrifice. But that much pain is going to leave a mark. The Tempter exploited that. That's ok. Tempters are powerful, manipulative, and evil. It's ok that this one just affected you more. But you know what? You didn't turn dark. Legends can do that, remember? You didn't turn dark and that makes you strong. So...yeah," I finished lamely.

He looked up and scrutinized me for a moment. "Thanks, Ravi," he said quietly.

"And, if it makes you feel any better," Deynan added awkwardly, "there were five Tempters, and that was the fifth, so...I think that's the last one! Go us!"

Isaac laughed. I laughed. And then suddenly we were all laughing together, crazy, happy, and a little closer than we were before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!! This one is pretty long though, so yay?

Happy Holidays!

~Paint_splatt