Snippet #2266157

Astrid made her way out of the meeting room, whilst inwardly jumping for joy.

She didn't get shouted at.

Sebastian didn't brutally murder her.

Talon didn;t give Sebastian permission to murder her.

All in all, a good result for all. The assassin tried to smooth down her rebelious hair, ignoring the sniggering dragon on her shoulder.

"I will seriously hurt you, Stephano, if you don't shut the fuck up."

"Oh, I feel so threatened."

The young woman felt as if she should chuck the dragon off her shoulder, just out of spite before a little bolt of thought hit her.

Sebastian was going to be her boss. Oh hell no. He hated her. Right now, he did anyway. She never got that. Astrid was only doing what she thought was right. She was good at distractions and with lots of new people round, the recruits needed distractions. Sebastian was just touchy sometimes. It really wasn't anything to do with Astrid or her actions.

Really.

So as the assassin knew the older man would be at the meeting room soon, she took off quickly towards her little flat so she could pack the little she needed. Spare clothes, couple of knives, Stephano's food and blanket, her spare arrow heads and her other bow. She didn't like using the spare bow; it didn;t have the same feel as her regular one. Her bow felt like an extention of herself. But she couldn't very well leave with one bow. What if, god forbid, it broke? She'd be screwed. Astrid quickly turned the corner and found herself plough straight into someone. The young woman caught herself and looked up to see a familiar face.

"Aw, shit. Not you." It was the recruit from earlier, the one she had hit with the pots. And he did not look too happy to see her. The young woman plastered a smile onto her face and tried to side step around the tall man.

"Sorry, coming through! Super important order business!" She pushed past but was caught by a hard grip on her arm. The recruit pulled her back in front of him and cornered her. Astrid didn't worry as he leaned in with a not so happy expression on his face. She had dealt with those kinds of people before. She did worry, however, as a cough tickled her throat and tried to make itself known.

"So, you think it's funny to run away from me?"

"Well, it depends. You look like you'd run like a fricking rag doll with those long arms so yeah! It would be kinda funny." The young woman replied, her cheery voice hindered by the roughness of her throat. She tried to clear her throat quietly but felt Stephano's attention peak.

Uh oh.

Astrid's mind was shaken from that line of thought by a harsh push to her chest. She couldn't help but gasp as the air from her lungs was forcibly removed.

"The hell was that for?!"

"No one makes fun of me. No one." Astrid opened her mouth to answer back when a harsh growl cut in. Her red eyes followed the noise until she found her little dragon standing up and looking pissed. His gold eyes gleamed furiously at the recruit. Stephano had been rather quiet and docile so far, letting Astrid control the situation. He must have thought it had gotten a little out of hand for his tastes.

"Leave." The dragon growled in a tone that sounded almost unearthly, not like his normal warm voice. This was the voice of a dragon, a pissed off dragon. Astrid couldn't help but shiver and be glad that that voice was not directed at her. She looked up at the pale looking recruit.

"You better do what he says. He's hungry and recruits are his favourite." The young assassin teased, her bright eyes glimmering in amusement. Ah, recruit baiting. So much fun, it really was a great past time. The young man paled further as the dragon breathed out sharply, a few flames flickering around his mouth. The recruit turned on his heel and took off, leaving Astrid and Stephano in the empty hall alone. Astrid sighed. He would bet her finely crafted bow that he was going to tell Sebastian, who in turn would tell Talon and Jennifer. Great. Just what she needed.

Despite this, a little angry presence on her shoulder forced her to focus and make something up.

Quickly.

"Hey, Stephano! That was weird, huh? Well, we better be-" The assassin was cut off by a lamplike glare turning her way. Normally if Stephano glared at her, she'd glare right on back and threaten to put him in tomorrow's dinner. But this was no normal Stephano glare. This was the glare of death.

Well, hell.

"Why didn't you tell me." A statement, not a question. Astrid tried to avoid the seriousness and carried on walking down the corridor.

"Tell ya what?"

"You know. You know what I mean." The anger drained out of the little dragon and was replaced with a tiredness that made him seem so much older, ancient.

"So, I've got a little cough. I'll be fine, you worry too much. Besides, we are going to Ro'ell. Which is very not fun."

"Ah, yes. I had forgotten about your adversion to mages." Stephano replied to the unspoken question.

Can we change the subject please?

He knew that being sick scared the young assassin just as much as it did him.

"Adversion? More like I best not get in there way again unless I want to pop up in another dimension."

"Technically, you'd already be in an another dimension. There would just be two of you there and none of you here. Which wouldn't be that much of a loss really..." Stephano trailed off, smirking as his assassin pulled her face into an indignant frown.

"Shut it or I will give you to that Capella as a chew toy."

"I think that would insult her again."

"Pride schmide, I want a chew toy dragon."

"I appreciate that. Really. I do." This banter of insults carried on its back and forth until the duo had collected their belongings and were making their way to the enterence to meet "King Grumpy" himself when Astrid's interest was diverted. Two people looked like they were fighting. Or rather, one dragon lady looked as if she was shouting at the person in front of her. Astrid watched as that Khrae guy they had met earlier moved forward to intervene. She scoffed. Really, didn't he know anything? You didn't break up fights, you stood on the sidelines and placed bets! Stephano spotted Fukayna looking frozen in place and winced in pity. Yeah, he never liked being frozen like that either.

He didn't have much time to muse on this as his companion did what she did well. A bit too well, if you asked him.

She caught people's attention and made fun.

"Caaaaaaat fiiiiiight." She drawled, leaning against the courtyard wall, knives resting in the gaps between her fingers like talons. She had figured out how to use them like that a few years earlier and took great joy in doing so. It always got a funny look from the recruits anyway. She slid the knives away seamlessly and gave a Cheshire Cat grin as she slowly moved over beside Fukayna. With her grin still gleaming, she spoke loudly to Fukayna, sure that eveyone could hear her.

"So, I'm putting 10 on the Grey Sword, you in or what?" She turned to Capella, giving her a wink and a friendly smile hoping her anger had somewhat disapated from earlier.

Stephano let out a heavy sigh.

Oh Riena, let someone put me out of my misery before this raging lunatic gets us both killed.