Model: ashercn97/av-v1
Author: ashercn97
Pipeline: sentence-similarity
Library: sentence-transformers
Tags: sentence-transformers, safetensors, modernbert, sentence-similarity, feature-extraction, dense, generated_from_trainer, dataset_size:341835, loss:CoSENTLoss, arxiv:1908.10084, base_model:answerdotai/ModernBERT-base, base_model:finetune:answerdotai/ModernBERT-base, model-index, text-embeddings-inference, endpoints_compatible, region:us
Base models (finetune): id: answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
Card metadata: tags: sentence-transformers, sentence-similarity, feature-extraction, dense, generated_from_trainer, dataset_size:341835, loss:CoSENTLoss
base_model: answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
widget: source_sentence: Jack crossed his arms, "Why would I do that?" "Because it"s over, Jack." Declan ran a hand through his hair, "She made her choice and she happened to choose the guy who owns our bar, not to mention our home. From the first day, he"s always done right by us. Let it go, Emily isn"t the only girl in the world." Declan checked his watch, "Look, I need to go. I"ll catch you later Jack." Jack waved as his brother stepped out of the bar, and thought on his words. Unaware of the turmoil over at the Stowaway, Emily followed the sounds of rattling metal and ripping cardboard coming from the guestrroom. She knocked on the door and peeked inside to find Nolan kneeling on the floor, surrounded by connecting pieces and small tools. "What"re you doing?" He looked up at her and smiled, "This was supposed to be a surprise. Baby will need a crib, I figured mine is still good. I sent an assistant to get this bad boy out of storage." Emily stepped into the room for a closer look at the plain wood rails that would come together to make a baby crib. "This was yours?" "Yep." Emily ran her hands over the nearest wood frame, "It"s hard to picture you as a baby, Nolan." "We were all kids once, Ems. What, you think I hatched from an egg fully grown?" "Sometimes I can"t help but wonder." Emily eyed the small pile of screws and bolts he"d laid out on the floor at his side according to size, from smallest to largest. "Do you need any help?" The man shook his head, always teasing her. "Don"t let my geek chicness fool you, I"m a born builder. Even blindfolded, I can put together anything from Ikea." "Impressive." "Thanks." Nolan stood and guided her from the room, "Have a rest and I"ll show you when it"s ready." "You"re always telling me to rest, I feel fine." Emily groused. "The books say you need to rest." "And I say I feel fine. I"m not going on bed-rest any time soon." "All right, all right. Do your yoga or have a swim." Nolan lead her out of the room and promised her, "Let me put this together, you"ll see, it"ll be great." After taking Nolan"s advice and having a lazy swim in the pool, Emily removed her bathing suit and took a shower. The hot water enveloped her, the suds of shampoo tingled over her scalp. She felt great, she felt secure and happy. Nolan was still in the guest room when she"d come in from the pool, and she decided to leave him to his project. Nolan loved a project; she was not even three months into her pregnancy but the man had made plans to remake his house into a home for the three of them, he"d already read several books regarding pregnancy and child health and now he was assembling his own crib for the guest room that he had already decided to remake into a nursery. They were going to make a family. Emily warmed every time she saw Nolan, the friend who had become a lover and who would soon become the father to her child. Emily wanted to get through her pregnancy and skip to the end, to where the three of them would share the house and their lives. She combed out her hair and put on a chemise for the night, and over that she put on another of the man"s t-shirts. "Emily, are you up there?" She stepped out of his room and looked down from the upstairs landing. Nolan was down in the living room, "Come on down here, I want to show off my handiwork." "That crib better not have wi-fi, GPS or a touch-screen," Emily teased him as she moved down the stairs. "Excuse me, it"s a Nolcorp crib - it has a built-in hologram mobile, high-def surveillance monitors and an incubation system." Nolan fired back at her as he opened the door to the guestrroom. He stood aside and let her into the room first. Tears rose in Emily"s eyes at the sight of it, the polished wood crib. It was old. It was plain. It had been built for Nolan, and he had rebuilt it for the child they would share. Moving forward, she gripped the rail, the soft scent of old wood holding in the air. "Nolan, it looks great." She breathed. He knew she was happy, but all the same he didn"t like to see her crying and tried to make her laugh instead. "You sound so surprised, everyone underestimates me!" Emily swiped away her tears with the back of her hand, "So sensitive, you know I didn"t mean it like that." He shook his head and then lightly shook the crib"s railing, "Feel free to test it, I can guarantee that it"s structurally sound." "Nolan, this is wonderful. I love it." "Let"s hope the kid loves it enough to sleep through the night." The man had read through a library"s worth of books on infant and toddler care already - the one thing he wasn"t looking forward to was a greater lack of sleep. Emily turned to hug him, "You"re really getting ahead of yourself with this." She could feel the low rumble of his laugh through her chest as he hugged her to him, tightly. "Says the girl who spent the last decade in vengeance school. I thought you"d appreciate all this prep." "You know I do, super-dad." Emily kissed him. "I like the sound of that, say it again." He gently commanded as he backed her up to the guest bed. Emily moved to lay on her back as Nolan moved to lay beside her, propped on an elbow. "Nolan Ross, the super-dad." "As you say, so shall it be." He bowed his head while intoning the words. "Is that from a movie?" "Of course." "Why am I not surprised?" They went on, teasing, taunting each other for the rest of the night. Nolan kissed her belly and Emily ran her fingers through his hair, the two of them eventually settling down to sleep. Emily had another charity meeting to host and Nolan had to put in an appearance at the unveiling of Nolcorp"s latest and greatest gadget. It would be a busy day for them both, it would be the day that broke them. Before the fire, before Nolan, Emily had not allowed herself to dream of a new life for herself. Vengeance did not allow fantasies of lovers and children - not when she had spent a decade planning the downfall of so many people, saving the Graysons for last. After seeing that twisted family ripped apart, as her own family had been, Emily had allowed herself to feel secure with Nolan. She had trusted him in the beginning, but after the fire, in living with the man, her trust and affection had grown deeper, simmering until lust flashed between them, changing everything that they could ever be to each other going forward. It was late. Past midnight, and though the room was dark, light from the city just beyond the glass had managed to slip in between the curtains. Emily rolled over in bed, unable to sleep and unable to focus. She laid a hand over her belly, flattening her palm and spreading her fingers. Tired eyes wandered over the room, settling on the window. The view was different than what she had grown used to: Manhattan greeted her every morning now rather than a view of the Hamptons shore, the noise of a city screamed over gently rolling waves. Emily rolled onto her back, wondering what Nolan was doing in that moment. She hoped he was asleep, or, if his insomnia was keeping him up as hers was, then she hoped he was playing a game or working on his latest invention. That familiar ache pierced her chest and she hoped that, whatever he was doing, Nolan didn"t hate her. I deserve to be alone. I can"t face him, not after... Sleep would not be coming to her that night, Emily knew it. With great effort, she pulled her thoughts away from her friend. Perhaps she was meant to be alone, a fitting punishment for the innocents who had suffered for her vendetta. The woman threw back the covers and went to the living room, crossing onto her balcony to feel the early morning chill over her skin as autumn rolled over the city. The hard ache pulsed through her chest as her mind conjured some clever thing Nolan would say if only he was there with her. But Nolan was not, and Emily had to remember what it was to be alone in the world again. It was the dream again, that horrible day when it had all come falling down on them. The man had been tortured for days, powerless to free himself. Powerless to do anything, which tore at him, clawing into his mind with constant recriminations of I could have...I should have...It"s my fault...Why didn"t I...? Stripping a man of choice and ability, leaving him powerless but to stand and witness horror is nothing short of living torture. Any man who has had to endure the pain of a loved one can attest: there is no punishment worse than being rendered helpless to stop the pain of another. Nearly every night for the past several weeks, Nolan"s guilt had forced him to relive the pain of that horrible day. The confusion, the shock, the panic and fear, and finally, the pain of loss, of shattered happiness, of being helpless to stop yet another tragedy from happening to his Emily. Emily, are you all right? No. What are-? My God, is that blood? Emily, don"t move, I"ll call Dr. Thorton and an ambulance- Don"t, Nolan. It"s gone. It took effort to break himself from the nightmare, but Nolan had managed to do so the last few nights. Yes, he can wake himself, but even in his waking life he is not free of the memories that clawed through his mind, forcing him to see the proof and hear the words that their child would never be. The man snapped awake, his long form spread across the living room sofa, every last inch of him aching, a mind split by the pain of a torn heart and a body flooded by alcohol. "God, just make it stop," he muttered the infantile plea as he moved to stand, begging for a moment free of pain. Despite the cool air flowing in from the back door he"d left open, Nolan was sweating. He was sick, he knew, but he didn"t care. He wanted alcohol poisoning, he wanted some horrible disease - hell, if Tyler were to show up with a machete, Nolan would offer his neck. The man staggered to the guest bathroom, vomiting into the toilet, cradling his head on the cold bathroom tiles, haunted now not by the dream but by his memory of what horror took place that day. She thinks it"s her fault. I know. She said as much to me. Why did this happen? We did everything right... The body has a better knowledge of these things than our medical knowledge ever will. I"m sorry, Mr. Ross. So am I. "Stop it!" Nolan pulled at his hair, pounding his temples to rid himself of the memories. Their life together had ended that day, everything Nolan had never admitted to wanting had been taken from him. And Emily, she... Grunting, Nolan pulled himself up off the floor and he crossed to the wet bar, no longer locked against the child who would never be. It was nearly empty now thanks to Nolan"s glorious binge. Emily, it"s me. How do you feel? God, the way she"d looked at him... Empty. Nolan threw a bottle against the wall, a scream of anger unleashed from his raw throat. After everything, it wasn"t supposed to be this way - it was our turn to be happy! "It wasn"t supposed to be this way," Nolan sobbed out to the empty house. It had been empty for days and he hated every inch of the echoing glass building. He stood and staggered out to the backyard, hating Emily, hating his house, the beach, the sun, the Graysons, David and the whole world. Compared to most, Nolan"s life had seemed charmed by the grace of his genius and the wealth that had been born of it, but his genius had flourished as a direct result of his constant loneliness. For so long, all he"d wanted was a friend, so desperate for someone who understood and cared for him that he"d taken Emily"s every insult like a loving martyr. But that time had passed, everything had changed between them...and yet Emily was gone and he was alone again, friendless and a father to no one. "You"re a coward, Emily." Nolan said to the empty air. He sank to his knees on the shore as memories rose in his mind to torture him. After the...what had happened, time had stretched on in the house for days. Emily had faded in a way that Nolan had never seen before. She had shut down, crushed under the weight of her own sorrow. Thinking back, Nolan had hated the ghost that haunted his home, the wraith of misery that Emily had become. They had not shared their pain, they had grieved separately, which might have hurt Nolan most of all, that Emily had turned away from him as she so often had in the past. He missed her happy, golden and bright. He wasn"t used to seeing her in such a state of defeat and he didn"t know what to do with her. It seemed that the loss had eaten its way down to her very spirit. Nolan had done what he could. He"d discreetly removed the crib from the room as she slept, silent tears slipping down his face as he went to task with a screwdriver, taking the hated thing apart and calling his assistant to take it back to storage. He made her favorite meals, only to have Emily refuse to join him for dinner. He"d had flowers delivered, bright bouquets that wilted in the darkness of her room. Then, one day, Nolan had finally had enough of Emily"s mourning. He couldn"t take another day of her staying in bed in the dark guest room, he took it upon himself to break the hold that depression had over her. Finding his courage, the man had thrown open her door, ripped down the dark curtains to flood the room with light, and before Emily could demand just what the hell he was doing, Nolan pulled Emily over his shoulder and strode straight outside, jumping into the pool, clothes and all, bringing Emily into the water with him. When they surfaced, Emily had lashed out at him, screeching nonsense, punching and clawing at him like an animal. Nolan took it, absorbing her rage and despair, allowing himself to become the target of her violence. It took several minutes, but Emily"s fury began to ebb away as fresh despair took its place. Nolan watched as her face crumbled into sobs. "Oh God, Nolan...Nolan, my baby..." He brought her into his hold, cradling her head against his chest. There were no words that would comfort her, he knew, and so the man said nothing. It was some time later that found both Nolan and Emily in dry clothes. They"d showered together, Nolan reassuming his role as caretaker, scrubbing away her sorrow, holding her as she sobbed against him, accepting her kisses of gratitude but not pushing her for more. He set a plate of hearty lasagna before her on the table. He wanted to see her smile, but more than anything, he needed to see her eat. Three silent bites into the meal, Nolan had to ask her, "How do you feel?" "Better." He knew she was lying, but he pressed on. "Emily, I"m sorry for being rough. I just couldn"t take seeing you like that anymore." She shook her head. "It"s all right. You didn"t hurt me, Nolan. We all need a good kick in the ass sometimes, and you gave me mine." He gave her a small smile, "Interesting twist, huh? Seriously though, are you all right?" Emily went quiet for several long moments, searching for an answer. "No. But maybe I will be. Nolan?" "Hmm?" Emily finally raised her eyes to his. "I"m sorry too. For hurting you." The knot of dread in his stomach had him worried that Emily wasn"t just talking about what she"d done to him in the pool. The next morning, Nolan knew Emily was gone before he found her note on the kitchen counter downstairs. He"d woken up without her beside him and felt it: there was a stillness to his home that he once constantly craved as a haven from the ignorance he faced in the outside world. Now, though... Nolan had taken her letter outside to the backyard, needing the cool fresh air to combat his rising anger. Cold eyes had skimmed the words but it didn"t matter what she"d written, that she claimed she"d come back soon or that she"d signed it "I love you, Emily". All the man could feel was the weight of his failure. He knew exactly where Emily was, but it didn"t change anything. She was gone. She was gone because he couldn"t offer her enough to stay. He"d crumpled her note and tossed it in the pool. Returning upstairs, the man laid his palm on the blanket they"d shared the night before. The man was tired, a soul-deep weariness that he"d been carrying since that horrible day of loss. He had worked to pull Emily from her despair, ignoring his own in the process, but without another to focus his energies on, without a project of a sort, Nolan was lost in the tragedy. He made the effort to climb into the bed and sleep, alone as he had for years. Jack raised his brows, so surprised to see Nolan stagger through the door that he forgot his anger with the other man. "What are you doing here, Nolan?" Nolan slid onto a barstool and tilted his head, "I"m collecting on my investment, Porter. Now, I"ll have a big bottle of vodka...and a straw. I drank the bar at my house." Jack looked at this man, his friend, and he saw ruin. Nolan"s face was thin to start with, but the dark shadows circling his bloodshot eyes and grim expression made him look positively ghoulish. Jack had seen his share of depressed drinkers, but he knew this was different. It was clear Nolan hadn"t seen the sun in days, his hair had fallen forward, clinging to the clammy skin of his forehead. There was a yellowing bruise on his jaw and a scratch on his right temple and the edge of his eyebrow. Gone was the sly smile and bright clothes, Nolan was wearing all black, the long sleeves of his wrinkled Oxford were pushed up past his elbows. He couldn"t help himself, Jack looked his fill of the scars that ate away Nolan"s left forearm. The comparison of the skin to melted wax was not flattering, but it was accurate. He recalled from when he"d visited earlier in the summer that Nolan had called the burn the price he had paid to help a friend; Jack had only thought the burn to be on the back of his hand, he"d never expected an injury so severe. He looked up to see Nolan glaring at him, "See something interesting?" Nolan took a $100 bill and laid it on the bar. "I"ll have that bottle now, and here, I"ll pay for it up front. Don"t want to be accused of taking advantage of you." Jack took the money and ignored Nolan"s reference to their fight. "You want a whole bottle? Come on, what"s eating you, Nolan?" Taking the bottle, Nolan poured himself a shot, and gulped it down. Then another, and one more after that. Finally, taking a deep breath, Nolan was ready to talk. "Emily took off last night...no, it was three nights ago, I think...I don"t know, but I"ve been drinking since then." Jack furrowed his brow, "I get it." Nolan blinked tiredly, wondering if Jack actually did, somehow, understand what had happened. "Do you?" "You two got into a fight, right?" God, Jack, what is it like in your stupid, simple world? Nolan did not voice this thought, of course. He wasn"t looking for another black eye. "I wish it was that simple, but no, we didn"t fight." It was there, hovering just out of his grasp, everything Nolan wanted to share with Jack - with someone. But he did as he always did, and kept quiet to protect their secrets. "We just...we have a whole world of problems." Jack leaned in, concern on his face. "You have any idea where she might"ve gone?" Nolan blinked at Jack; it took a second, but then he remembered that most men didn"t have his tech resources, or if they did, they had no reason to keep multiple locations under surveillance. Again, Jack"s world was simple. "Oh, that"s not the problem, I know exactly where she is. 122 east 27th street, the Big Apple. I have the place wired." Nolan pulled out his cell and squinted at the screen rather than zooming in on the figure sitting alone at the kitchen island. He didn"t want to see her face, he didn"t trust himself not to throw the phone against the wall. "She"s there right now, looks like she"s eating a...what is that, maybe a bagel? It"s good that she"s eating again." Jack checked the phone screen for himself and rolled his eyes. "What the hell, Nolan. You know where she is, so why not go after her?" Nolan shook his head and gulped down a hard shot, groaning as it burned its way down his throat. "No. I"m not chasing her. I"m going to wait until she"s finally had enough of running away from her problems. I"ll be here for her when she comes back...if she comes back." Jack frowned, any lingering anger he"d carried for the man finally slipping away. He had carried a torch for Emily for too long and let his jealousy get the best of him, but in seeing Nolan this miserable, he was able to let it go. The man had seen men drink themselves half to death over a woman, and from what he could see, Nolan was already there. "I"m sorry Nolan." "So am I." Nolan sighed and bowed his head. "We both lost our Amandas, Jack." Nolan refused to leave Emily"s side as she was brought into the hospital, save for the treatment given to his arm. Even now, over five hours later, he would not budge from her bedside. He sat in a chair, his long fingers laced with her own, his voice silent even as his mind raced - replaying the nights" events and making plans for their future. Everything was in the air now, but the moment was upon him: with Emily out of commission, Nolan was in charge. For months he"d longed for this control, but not like this. Not with the beach house destroyed and Emily injured. He squeezed her hand. No, not like this.
sentences: "Than why, if you have no hope left, did you save me? What would it be of your concern what happens to me?" "Someone told me to find a reason to life. And I thought I could find it with you." "You could not have been more wrong about this." "Maybe. But we are here." Claire paused. "You know... You are actually one of the first who believed me, that I am no heretic. Even most from the Great Swamps believe, that everyone from the Great Swamp is a heretic." "Is that so?" There was silence for a while. While they have talked, it started to rain. Large drops hit the ground, making it difficult to see anything. Lightning flashed shortly, illuminating the church and the thunder shock the ground. "I wonder what happened to Petrus." Rhea suddenly asked. "I broke his nose, last time I saw him. I figured that breaking his nose after he essentially told me to do anything I want with you was a fitting retribution." "Perhaps he realized my weakness all along. Maybe that is the reason, he left me behind. After all, it was my frailty and my ignorance that sealed Vince and Nico"s fate to end as Hollows." "That is not an excuse. He was supposed to take care for you. He should have done it right." "I can hardly blame him." Claire stood up, taking a few steps away. "He was tasked to care for you and he failed. He made a run back to the Shrine and left you rot for good. How can you be so forgiving?" At the same moment, something hit her from behind. A morning star, by the feeling of it. Claire staggered, hitting the bench beside Rhea, before she fell to the ground. She hissed in pain, before turning around. Petrus stood behind her, his broken nose swollen and red. "Oh, it"s you?" he asked. "You saved Milady, did you not?" "Seems like it, coward." Claire hissed, clenching her teeth. She had broken her ribs yet again, the third time, if she was right. "Too bad, that you will not save her another time." He gave Rhea a short glance. She sat there, unafraid and dignified. "It will amount to nothing. Without her family"s name she is worth nothing." "Is that so, Petrus? I wonder what has gotten into you." "Oh, humanity does come in handy in Lordran. You two will die because of this." "Oh, shut up." Claire snapped, reaching for her sword. "In my eyes, you are just a traitor who is escaping his duties as a guard." "And you are a heretic from the Swamps, no matter what you claim to be." Claire drew her sword, standing up on shaking legs. Taking her shield would cost to much time and she had to defend Rhea as well. She took it into both hands, before looking at Petrus. She was faster than him, but his armour would be difficult to pierce. Claire stepped aside, before attacking him. Her sword was blocked by his shield and he countered with his morning star. Claire avoided it by a hair"s breath, but stumbled across a fragment of a statue. Her fall reminded her of her broken ribs and she gave a small cry of pain. Petrus lifted his morning star - probably to crush her skull and end her (Undead) life - but he stopped. His eyes widened, he let his morning star fall on the ground and he looked down on his chest. "Why... How could I... What the... What did I wrong..." An ominous, but yet cheerfull voice answered him. "Thou hast sinned. Fear thine indelible wrongdoings. I shall accept thy next confession, in the hereafter!" Petrus slumped and fell to the ground, hitting it with a heavy thud. "You shalt burn his body so he does not rise as a Hollow again." The man advised her. Claire could only nod, to stunned to say anything else. Rhea was crying, she could see it from her place. Surely Petrus had meant some sort of comfort to her in Lordran, even after his betrayal. Claire stood up, before she lit a flame. Petrus body was soon enveloped by her flames and as she watched them burn, she almost regretted not to burn him as he stilled lived. He would have deserved it. "May I ask your name, dear sir?" Rhea asked. "My name is Oswald of Carim the Pardoner. You are friends. Sin is my dominion, so do one of you feel the need to confess?" "Thank you for saving us." Claire said, before turning around. "Hmm... Thou with the silver hair... Thou art carrying heavy sin as well. Like Petrus thou art drenched in sin." "Yes I do. And I am willing to atone for it." "Thou art? This is rare. Most deny this very fact." "Does it matter? I am willing to atone. My goal is to ring the Bells of Awakening. I need to find a way to Blighttown." "Blighttown! A swamp filled with sin and chaos!" Oswald exclaimed. "I think I should get going. I did lose too much time. Farewell."Claire turned around. For some reason she was sure that Oswald would not harm Rhea - he killed Petrus so she should be safe. Her sins may have tainted her but she wished to atone for them - alone. It was her objective from the beginning and staying here would not bring her any further. "Thou art welcome anytime. It is only human to sin and to confess."Oswald said in a disturbingly cheerful voice. "I will remember this." Claire said, suppressing a shudder. "Vereor Nox." Rhea quietly said. The street of the Lower Undead Burg was quiet. The only noise was the screaming of someone, who fell prey to the Capra Demon. Next chapter, sorry it took so long (again). I was in Italy for the two last weeks without internet. In the next few days, I will reupload the first few chapters that are better readable and with lesser errors. So far, I"ve done the story roughly a third. Chapter 9 and 10 are almost finished, still in need of spell checking though, And I would like to thank who recommended my story on TvTropes! Seriously, saved my day, as I waited (and still waiting) for the Skyrim DLC. This chapter is for you! Chapter 8: Maw in the sewer Claire carefully observed the demon before her. It patrolled the streets but had not taken any interest in her - yet. From her hiding place she could see him killing another one of the thieves that lured in the dark. The Capra Demon hold two broadswords in his hands and had the shape of a goat walking on two legs with a skull as its helmet. Even from distance Claire could smell it - blood, gore, dirt and possibly more - but the dogs around it and feeding on everything that the demon left over did not seemed to care. Claire carefully loaded her crossbow, aiming at the first dog, nearer to her. A bolt ended its life and Claire quickly reload. The second one missed - the dog howled in anger and jumped at her. A quick thrust with her sword ended its life but the Capra Demon closed in, quicker than she thought it could even move. Claire stumbled back, trying to get distance between it and her so she could use her flame. It was quick and its swords hit the ground only inches before her feet. Strong and heavy attacks and yet fast enough to make it difficult to gain ground - Claire cursed her rotten luck. But maybe she did deserve it. Finally she was able to create a flame without tripping over her feet and threw it. The stench of burning fur reached her nose and she quickly moved around the goat demon, to stab it from behind and to cut its tensions. Lucky enough, the Capra Demon was distracted by her fire ball and did not realize until it was to late. It fell to his knees and she cut its neck. Blood soaked the partly burned fur as it fell to the ground, limp and hopefully dead. Claire sheathed her sword and started to search for the key to the sewers, looking first at the other end of the small room the demon was in. Finally, she found it: Laying on the ground at the top of a staircase leading to nowhere. She took it before turning around and leaving the small room. Only then she heard the noise of something stepping behind her. Claire turned around, ready for the worst. The Capra Demon, with its sliced neck, stood again, shakingly, but it stood. Claire turned around and run. The Demon screamed in fury and charged after her, while Claire was running as fast as she could towards the door to the sewers. Thugs, dogs and Hollows alike jumped out of the way of the furious Capra Demon while it chased Claire to the door. Upon reaching the door, Claire slammed the key into the lock and turned it around. The key fell from her shaking hands and she turned around ready to face the furious demon. Instead she saw a man clad in golden armour strolling towards her. "Lautrec?" she asked weakly. "You know that there is a Capra Demon after me?" "I disposed of it." he answered and shrugged. "While you was busy running away from it." "Thank you then." Claire picked the key off the ground and unlocked the door. Cold air touched her face as she took a few steps down the dark staircase. Lautrec followed her down, until she turned around. "You do not need to follow me around." "You have been running from such a lowly demon like the Capra Demon. How do someone like you know what is waiting in the sewers?" "It is not your concern what I do." "My honour as a knight demands, however, that I repay your favour." "The favour is repaid by you slaying the Capra Demon, is it not?" "Oh it is. But I took interest in the one who managed to kill the gargoyles so she could ring the bells." "I was not alone." "Oh, that is the reason? A companion, brave enough to do the killing for you?" "He only helped me. He did not do the killing by himself." "Help can often lead to reliance. What happens if you rely on the wrong person?" "I doubt that he would betray me. He is not the man for this." "Is he? Or is this faith ill-placed?" "It is not." "But you need to rely on no one but yourself. Or else someone might think it would be fine to kill someone with humanity in order to survive. Take this little maiden at Firelink Shrine for example... she is easy prey." "She is not easy prey. She is not an animal to be hunted down." "Is she?" Claire turned around and lead the way to the sewer. She could hear the noise of Hollows. Lautrec continued to follow her. "It would be an easy kill. So much humanity, so few uses for her." "Please stop it." Both of them fought against countless Undead on their way down. Lautrec continued to try to convince Claire of the possibilities that would be open if she would kill people for their humanity but she did not paid to him much heed. In the sewers there were Undead, giant rats, dogs and butchers. Claire was partly glad that Lautrec was with her - without him it would be much more complicated to reach the ground. After Lautrec took down a butcher, Claire heard a quiet cry for help. Curiously she followed the noise to a room full of barrows. A man with a tattered robe gave a bashful smile as she looked at him. "You! You must help me! Or else she will have me for lunch! So please!" Lautrec huffed and crossed his arms. "What a fool. To be caught by such a lowlifes like them. And caught into a barrel! What a joke!" Claire gave him a sour look. By the accent she could imagine that the man was from the Great Swamps and that he maybe would be a fellow pyromancer. It would feel reassuring having another pyromancer around - a keepsake of her lost home. She lifter her sword, sticking it between the loose planks and broke the barrel. The poor man fell against her, knocking her from her legs. "Thank you. Without your aid I would be her supper. Being eaten alive! I shudder to think..." "You are a pyromancer of the Great Swamp, are you not?" "Y-Yes, I am Laurentius of the Great Swamps." "I am Claire, as well from the Swamps. Glad to meet a fellow pyromancer in Lordran." "Yes, yes, fine that you like each other. But this fellow should head up to Firelink Shrine. Not to imagine, what would happen next to him." Lautrec huffed again. "Will you be fine, girl?" Laurentius asked worried. "I will be fine. Do not worry." "Sure?" "Yes. I will." "Good, then I will take my leave. We will meet again." "Yes, we will." "Don"t dare to go hollow." "Neither should you." Lautrec was silent after that - an ominous silence. Claire did her best to ignore the knight in golden armour, taking out her enemies before they would take her out. Water dripped from the low ceiling, run down the wall and gathering on the floor. Occasionally, a slime dropped down in their way but it was easily killed by Claire"s pyromancy. Suddenly, Lautrec stood still. "Someone is following us." "Who?" "I do not know. But he is close." Claire lifted her own sword. From the darkness of a shadow a knight stepped forward. Claire sighed in relief as she recognized Solaire"s steel armour. "Solaire." she stepped between Lautrec"s blade and the sun knight. "Claire. Good to see you in one piece." Claire felt his soft surcoat at her face, as he hugged her, short, but affectionately. "And this fellow is...?" asked Lautrec warily. "Knight Solaire of Astora. A comrade. And you are are by chance the rude knight who departed with Claire?" "I might be. The name is Knight Lautrec of Carim." "An honour to meet you and thank you for taking care of Claire." Solaire sounded matter-of-factly, but he seemed to be on edge. "May I take over? I am used to fight alongside Claire. And you seem to be... slightly tiered." "And I still have to repay my debt to her." Lautrec retorted. "Is that so? I think your help until now is enough repayment." "But I am dying to see the one who rang the First Bell of Awakening fighting a real foe." "You saw her fighting long enough. Claire let us go forward - the faster we get out of the sewers, the more lucky we both will be." Without waiting for an answer he grabbed her arm softly and forced her going with him. She took a few steps, before trying to free herself. "Solaire, what has gotten into you?" "Later." "No, now!" "Later." Claire"s heart seemed to stop - what would happen, if Lautrec was right after all? Suddenly she felt afraid of him. Solaire suddenly stopped and looked around. "Serious, Claire, you should stop being so trustful. Not everyone is a knight in shining armour." "And what about you, Solaire?" Claire asked. "What did he told you?" "And what are you doing?" "What did he told you?" "That it might not be right to trust you." Claire turned around. "And maybe he was right." Claire suddenly felt cold steel at her neck. Solaire"s sword lingered there for a moment, before he withdraw it. "It may be wrong to trust me, yes. I might cause more trouble for than I am worth. But I had more chances to kill you than I could even count. So, do not trust me if you wish - but be aware that I will not kill you. I could have done it. But I did not." "But you..." "I had a reason. And excuse me my worries, but there is something off with this man - Lautrec of Carim I mean." "What should be off with him?" "I followed you quite a while. He seems to be... dangerous. Claire, stay away from him at any cost. I do not know what he is up to - yet - but it is definitely nothing good." "I do not think that." Solaire sighed. "Better safe than sorry. I cannot force you - but I will not be always near you to save you." "I can take care of myself." "I know. But I just want to make sure that you reach your goal." "By the way... How did you knew that I am here?" "I met Rhea and Oswald. They told me you left for the sewers. Shortly after I went after you I met this pyromancer - Laurentius, was it? - and he showed me which direction you have taken. It was easy to find you." "Why did you came after me in the first place?" "I was worried." "That does not seem like a sufficient reason to follow me." "Claire, we are Undead, I actually have a certain interest in you not dying on me and you are a suicidal young girl, who wants to atone by ringing the Bells of Awakening guarded by monsters. I think I have the right to be worried. And you are a still inexperienced. I, too, wish not to see someone turn Hollow." Claire was silent. Solaire continued. "You are a fearful opponent. But Lordran is dangerous." "Solaire? But could you please stop aiding me so much? I know, you want to make sure I am safe but I wish to learn to do things on my own. You said it yourself: You will not be always near me." "Fine. But be careful. No rushing into battles like before." "Fine, fine." Claire gave a small smile. After hours of wading trough cold water, fighting of monsters and Undead, a court filled with light came in sight. Light-filled was an exaggeration but in contrast to the dark sewers it was a welcome change. Claire was glad to breath - almost - fresh air and she quickly moved down the stairs followed by Solaire. At the ground level of the court they stood still for a second. The walls were marked by claws and Claire spotted at least four corpses laying at the ground. Additionally, a pool of water had gathered in the other half of the court leaving no other way out. "Seems like a dead end." Solaire said. "We should head back and find an other way down." "If there is one." "There should be one. I know about a difficult detour via New Londo and the Valley of the Drakes. But it would take a long time and I do not know if we can reach it." "We do not know until we tried, don"t we?" Claire sighed and forced herself to smile. "Yes, right." Both Undead turned around and walked back to the door, as they heard small waves breaking at the stones of broken pillars. As Claire turned around, she could see a small head - almost like the head of a crocodile - looking around, fixating then both Undead before rising. Solaire nudged her in the side. "I guess, we have a problem." he muttered. A giant maw opened up. Half of the body of the dragon seemed to be maw - the rest stomach. Claire lit a fire ball in her hand, while Solaire readied a lightning bolt. "Any ideas?" she asked. "Not dying?" he suggested. "Besides that?" The dragon crashed into the ground. Claire"s fireball crushed against scales, Solaire"s lightning bolt hit the creature in the maw. A scream echoed from the walls. Claire created another fire ball. Solaire, on the other side of the dragon, lured it to himself. Claire run closer to it, smelling the stench of its maw, the scales and the rotten flesh between the teeth. A fireball hit the maw, teeth blackened with soot. The dragon turned its attention to the woman, while Solaire staggered fell to one knee. He seemed to be exhausted, but got up quickly. Black, quick eyes fixated Claire and she moved back. With surprising speed the dragon crawled towards her and her back hit the wall. The dragon did not stop - and she clenched her teeth, before drawing her sword and took it in both hands. In the last second before the impact she rolled aside and dragon crashed into the wall, falling to the ground. As it tried to regain balance Claire quickly jumped on it - careful to not fall into the maw of the abomination. She reached the head, took her sword in both hands and lifted it. A quick swing was all she needed to behead the beast - it slumped immediately. Claire jumped down, wiping her sword clean of the blood. Solaire approached her, reaching out to her. He affectionately gave a pat on her shoulder, before he examined the right claw of the dragon. "I think, this is the solution to one of our problems." he said, holding up a key. "With this you should be able to continue towards Blighttown." "What about you?" Solaire sighed. "I have my own quest. And you did have proven that you are ready to fight your own battles. You have become strong." "You won"t come with me?" "You asked me to let you go alone, did you not? I think you can do it. Alone. Some say that the fate of the Chosen Undead is one of solitude and I simply know, that you will come back to Firelink Shrine alone. I know that we will meet again. And never forget, there will always be somebody to help you." "And still you distrust Lautrec." "Do not trust everyone. Choose your comrades wisely and you will reach your goal with your friends alive. But now I must bid you farewell - I guess Blighttown is not a place to look for my own sun." "You and your sun. Is there something I should know about Blighttown?" "Some say that a powerful Pyromancer is located there. No one I know does know more about this person, so be careful and do not hunt ghosts." "Pyromancers usually get along just fine. We are outcasts of society after all." "It is a shame, really. You magic might be unrefined, but it is everything that is left from the ancient fire sorcery of the Witch of Izalith." "It is?" "A pyromancer does not know the story behind his own magic? How sad." "Do you know the history behind every of your miracles?" "Oh, no I don"t. But I would like to." "I would like a lot of things. Knowing more about Pyromancy is one of them." Solaire laughed. "I think I know where the gate fitting to the key is located. You should go - maybe you will find out more about pyromancy than you like." "Do you want to get rid of me?" "No, I just want to see you again soon." "Fool." "Likewise." Claire laughed. "Show me your gate, or else we both won"t fulfil our goals." The gate lead down to the darkness. Wooden planks were everything that separated a by-passer from the depths. Claire looked down, before she turned around a last time. Solaire gave her an encouraging nod, before lifting his hand to bid her a silent farewell. Claire nodded back and returned the gesture, before both Undead departed to their respective destinations., "No. Not unless you go first~" She growled, now glaring in my direction again. I felt the icy-cold feeling wash over me again. I really wish she would stop with that by the way. "...Piss off." "Oh, someone"s getting testy - " "Poison!" Note to self: Try to take Solanaceae wand before insulting her when there is no Professor present. .... ...... "I leave for less than ten minutes, and in that time -" "She raised her wand at me first. I"d just like to point out." Solanaceae whipped her head in my direction, one hand over her left eye, which is probably a black eye by now, "You"re pinning this on me? Really, Vita?" She hissed. I glared harshly in her direction, not regretting what I had done to her one bit. "You tried to strangle me Solanaceae. Again!" The purple haired girl turned back to Professor Wu, who has now it seemed was waiting patiently for the two of us to stop bickering back and forth, and snarled, "Well, Vita invaded my personal bubble!" "I did what?" "You bloody well heard me - Or should I say it a little slower for you?" "You are the scum of the earth Solanaceae." "Hell beast." "Coming from a Necromancer, that"s almost a compliment." "You"re a right git Vita you know that?" "Hey did you know your accent gets heavier when you"re mad?" "I - What? What the bleeding hell are you on about? It most certainly does not!" "It does," I said in a sing-song voice, grinning when I noticed her twitch with irritation slightly. I still can"t figure out after all these years why her voice is a sensitive subject, but hey, I"ll take what I can get. And abuse the power it gives me. Professor Wu was clearly a woman with ample amounts of patience - Well, I suppose anyone who puts up with the two of us has to. But the Life Professor was watching the exchange with one brow raised. She"s probably used to it after five whole years of it. If she was annoyed, her voice gave no sign of it. "Miss Vita, Miss Solanaceae, if you are just about finished?" I glanced up, licking my lips and tasting the metallic taste of my own blood, but my gold eyes were still fiery. "Ah, yeah we"re done here. So can I leave?" Solanaceae "tch"ed, and I tried to ignore her presence altogether. Even though, I let my eyes fall, looking at the Necromancer briefly, I can admire my work, can"t I? She definitely had a black eye, thanks to my good aim, I also managed to knock her pretty hard in the jaw. Sadly it didn"t break. I don"t think. I"m not sure. I hope so. She"d have lots of bruises, though, that"s for sure. Not to mention the blood on her hands from when I had tried to copy her tactics and dug my nails into her skin as hard as I possibly could. Bad day to decide to not wear gloves Solanaceae. That was a terrible idea. Since...well...today apparently was a very stressful day for her. I learned that whenever she gets tired of using her nails, she uses her teeth. Solanaceae actually bit me. Although she would no doubt deny that she ever had, but the mark on my hand was proof enough for me. That bitch. Since I can"t use magic to try and kill her, I just have to attack her the old fashioned way most of the time. Not that I mind. I"d say it"s fun...but then I think that would make me a sadist...if I said that I enjoy hurting others. Fairly sure that"s a bad thing. Heh. "No Miss Vita, you cannot leave. When are the two of you going to grow up? You have been at this childish charade for years now." I sank lower into my chair and glared. Solanaceae folded her hands in her lap. My Professor sighed. I don"t know why she lets us off the hook so often. I think If I had any other Professor in charge of me, I"d have been expelled by now. "...I now see, at least, that you two should be left unsupervised. The consequences will be higher, however, if it continues at this rate." I noticed that her pale green eyes were trained on Solanaceae as she said that. Not me. "Fine then," Solanaceae smirked. "Understood." I felt like I was missing something. But I didn"t dwell on it for long. I had a book to inspect as soon as I got to my dorm. And Things to practice. Things that definitely didn"t involve trying to cast Death Spells. Because that"d be crazy, right? Warning(s): (Realized I should probably have one of these for...erm...future...activities) Warnings for now? Mild language, most likely. Note:As always reviews are appreciated! And I thank those who reviewed last chapter (Virtual cookies for you all) Chapter Three: Two too many The next day, Lilith had learned to never try and get any work done with any member of the Senith family lurking around. Hawk and Fox Senith, were absolutely the worst people in this world. The worst. "Well,' Lilith thought irritatedly "Solanaceae is most likely above them on my list of people I need to push off the edge of the world.' But that still didn"t make her feel better. In her current situation, what would make her feel better was a quick beheading of two certain Balance Mages. The two had a notorious reputation for mischief, they were always getting into something, sticking their pointy little noses places they did not belong, and overall annoying the general population. When they weren"t too busy annoying each other, that is. "So...watcha reading?" "Snow - don"t ignore us! That never works!" "Yeah, that only works on ghosts." "I don"t think it even works on ghosts, though." "So, what, even if you ignore a ghost it will continue to haunt you?" "Yeah." "Weird -" Lilith was this close to stabbing her quill into one (Or both) of their necks. She scowled, leaning over her book more and effectively causing her bangs to get in the way of her line of sight. Blocking off the view of the two nightmares perched on either side of her. She was sitting under a tree in the Commons, book perched on her lap and various supplies surrounding her. Luckily there weren"t many students out today, so she could work in almost peace. Well, you know that was the plan anyways. But oh well. "Snowbell~ You act as if you don"t like us!" Lilith finally snapped her book shut and glared over at the two of them and oh if looks could kill. "I"m sorry, didn"t you two get expelled?" Hawk, the female twin nodded excitedly, "Oh yeah we did -" Fox picked up her sentence halfway through. " - But we quit when we thought about what the student body of Ravenwood would possibly do without us!" Lilith blinked, "You - you quit being expelled?" "Yeah -" "Why doesn"t everyone?" Hawk scoffed, running a hand through her short blonde hair which was dyed a bright (And annoying) pink towards the top. Her green eyes shone - they always seemed to. Even if there was no reason, and Lilith found that annoying all in itself. The two had the exact same eyes, and their faces were similar too, but that"s the similarities stopped mainly. Fox"s hair was long, left to it"s natural color, which was red, and almost always tied back. She sort of found it ironic. "But anyways, how could we possibly leave our poor defenseless little Snow behind?" Lilith was very tempted to say that she was six feet tall and could pick both of the siblings up and throw them over a cliff with ease, but she didn"t get the chance since Fox interrupted. "You are one of our favorite people, after all!" And then simultaneously the two leaned over, getting way to far into Lilith"s personal space for her comfort and wrapped her in what could be described as a half-hug on each side. "Haha! Get off me you abominations -" "Oh hey, I wanted to ask you anyways, what were you doing at the Library at 2 A.M?" Fox asked suddenly, releasing her and having his sister soon follow suit. Thank the Gods. Lilith paled slightly upon realizing what he had actually just said, though, "...What?" "Yeah, Solanaceae was talking about with some of her Death-buddies earlier. Not like we eavesdrop or anything. Nah, we totally do who am I kidding?" Solanaceae? But - how? Both of their faces were filled with interest - rather than suspicion. She wondered how naive a person could possibly get. "Oh, that -? That"s not - We all know Solanaceae"s a liar, don"t we?" "Um, well, not really actually that"s mainly you -" "Yeah, so anyways it"s not true. It"s not. Don"t ask around about it just take my word." Fox raised a brow, not even remotely serious. "You sure it"s not true?" "Yeah, we won"t tell anyone, we"ve done way worse stuff than that!" "Oh haven"t we? Sister, we are underappreciated in our time!" "Clearly! You remember that one time -?" Lilith stopped listening at the words "Way worse stuff". She could only imagine. She suppressed a shudder. Then out of the corner of my eye her she saw her way out. A flash of purple passing in front of her. Aha, perfect. Solanaceae was making her way across the Commons, almost sluggishly. The same black leather-bound book in her hands from the day before in detention, Lilith noticed. She had it in a death grip and looked exhausted. Her dark eyes held less hatred today; that"s how she could tell she was tired. Perfect. ..... ...... L I knew an escape when I saw one. And well, this just might work for now. "Hey," I cut in on their conversation suddenly, not feeling even slightly sorry for interrupting. "You know, if you don"t believe me...why don"t you go ask someone else about it? My personal life seems very interesting to you two anyways...for some weird reason..." I added the last part in a lower tone, which seemed to be out of their earshot. "In fact, Solanaceae - She"s the one you heard talking about it, right? Go and ask her about it." Their emerald eyes lit up excitedly at the idea. They really are morons. "That"s a great idea!" Fox exclaimed. "Yeah - Oi! Solanaceae!" The Necromancer stiffened. I felt so satisfied with the world right now. The two were in front of her almost instantly, Solanaceae stiffened. I felt satisfied with life. In no time, Fox and Hawk had surrounded the purple-haired girl. She looked like she wanted to kill them, slowly and painfully. I know that feeling. I could hear them from here, the twins shouting questions, a low growl emitting from the Death student, and then Fox did something that surely only a man with a death-wish would do. Snatched the small leather book right out of Solanaceae"s hands. Hawk even with all of her stupidity, realized that was a bad move, and her eyes widened. Fox took no notice. A group of students, presumably Death, who Solanaceae was probably walking towards, noticed this as well. One of them looked about ready to burst into fits of laughter, another looked petrified, and one even was getting ready to take a picture. I recognized the three of them. The one who was obviously about to take pleasure in Fox"s pain was October Felidae. The shorter girls green eyes were lit excitedly. The one looking afraid on the other boy"s behalf was Cerberus Delta. Not a Death student, strangely. Just a Myth boy who tended to hang around that group often. I didn"t know, nor did I CARE why. The third one, savoring the moment was Salem Grayson. But all three looked as if this was a common practice. And it most likely was. The expression on Solanaceae"s face changed from annoyance to homicidal rage pretty damn quickly. Foxs screams filled the commons until Hawk tried to pry Solanaceae on "Kill Mode" off of her brother. The reason he screamed? Well, if that satisfying cracking sound had anything to do with it, I"d say she just broke his nose. I feel good about how today went. Even if I got almost no work done... Salem Grayson knew that when Persephone Solanaceae walked into Nightside later that day, that he should leave her alone. That everyone should leave her alone. Her temper had been off the charts lately. It was almost worrying. So when she hurried past him, he went against his better judgment and spoke to her. "Hey, Sol. You alright? I think you broke that kids nose earlier." She stopped, but only for a moment. Only to glare back half-heartedly, due to her lack of sleep. "Grayson. Go bother someone else." Grayson just looked down at her strangely. "I would, but October and Cerberus are out in Grizzleheim tonight...you know, mission and all that." "I don"t care." "I know. Just saying. You don"t...you don"t look so well." "Well," Solanaceae spat "Thank you, Grayson, because I so clearly desired your useless opinion!" The Marleybonian spun on her heel and was stalking towards the graves to the right of the Death School. Solanaceae was aware of him watching, but honestly? She couldn;t bring herself to care when she stepped onto the sigil behind the one of the stones. How pointless it all seemed. I could practically see the blood on my hands. Everywhere. Blood. I hated this. This feeling, I can feel my control slipping. How much longer can I go on? Goddammit. I"m a puppet now. No. Not if I can help it. I need help. I need a way out. Note: I"ll continue to switch from first person to third person as needed, it all depends on how important the current thoughts of Lilith are. I also decided that sometime after chapter five or six is when the chapters are going to be completely rewritten because I have a very specific way I want this to go. Chapter Four: Blood Blast and Fire "I have had enough of this behavior!" It was just another normal day. The sun shining, the Firebirds singing and me and Solanaceae being dragged off by another teacher. Joy. Of course, me being, well me, I just had to confront the Necromancer. I could have just left her alone, but no. That would have been no fun right? With Solanaceae confrontation equals strangling me. Her hold is getting better though so, good for her. Before we could bloody ourselves up too much, (pity) Professor Drake just had to catch us. Cyrus was in a particularly crabby mood today as well, so before we knew it he was dragging us away into the Myth classroom. Solanaceae muttering most likely very offensive things under her breath as we went. Professor Drake practically threw open the doors to his classroom, and then roughly yanked the two of us inside. After settling down behind his desk, he scowled at us like we were the filth that was polluting WizardCity. I returned the look to my best capabilities. "I assume, Miss Vita, Miss Solanaceae, you know why your here?" He said disdainfully. "Because I was assaulted?" He focused his hard gaze on Solanaceae, who looked back defiantly, raising and elegant eyebrow she added "I suspect you have gotten used to this Cyrus? Why bother? Just expel the Filth over there and all of this will subside." She said snarkily. "Filth? I"ll give you filth you stuck-up arrogant little Pureblood -" "Silence Vita! Solanaceae you will address me by Professor Drake at all times -" "Cyrus." I could practically feel the waves of irritation roll off of the Myth teacher, and even though I despised the Death student"s very existence, I had to admit. Well done with that... Drake was absolutely fuming at her, though, which hopefully would make him put most of the blame on her... "Detention. Both of you." Drake hissed. "And if you misbehave while in detention, you will do it again. And again. And again. I don"t care how long it takes you, you will learn to tolerate each other!" My eyes widened. I just stared up at him with as much hatred as I possibly could. Detention with Solanaceae was one thing, I could handle it probably, after last time. But- but every day...EVERYDAY? I could not possibly - I glanced over at said girl, who right now (If possible) was even paler than usual, and looked horrified. "Are you telling me, I am stuck in detention with THAT until - until what we graduate?!" "That"s just cruel," I added. Drake sighed deeply, "Not until you graduate Miss Solanaceae, just until you learn to get along." "Oh so forever then? Bloody fantastic! I can"t believe this! This - this is - you can"t do that! I have a life you know! I have things to do you, prat -! " I snickered. Just a little. I couldn"t help it. Hearing her voice so hopeless; it was hilarious. Even if I was in the same boat. And besides... "What the hell are you laughing at?" She snapped, eyes narrowed. "I"m sorry - but that accent when you get mad..." "You are obsessed with my voice, you realize? It always sounds like this anyways If you"d just listen -" "Yeah I usually tune out what you"re saying so..." "Oh, you wretched-!" "Enough!" Professor Drake was now looking as though he had a headache coming on, and was trying to keep himself calm. After all murdering students would surely get him fired... "I," He drawled out icily "Am going to ignore everything you just said Solanaceae. I am being merciful today...Your first detention I"m sure of MANY starts today after classes. Do not be late either of you. And don"t give me more reasons to punish you." Drake sighed again. "I tried so very hard to get both of you expelled too..." I was hoping that, without any issues, of course, I could try and put some of my...ideas to work tonight. Ideas that, of course, involve the place where the old Death School once stood. I don"t know why, maybe it was the sheer curiosity, maybe it was the strange feeling of a dark thrill whenever I glanced down into the darkness, maybe it was how panic lit Solanaceae"s features when I mentioned it. Who knows? It was happening, though. I was sure of it. So long that said Death nuisance doesn"t kill me in detention I should be fine. Speaking of the devil... Just a few yards from the Myth classroom, I ran into Solanaceae. She looked irritated beyond all belief and sent a nasty look my way when she noticed me. "You just HAD to go and get us detention for life didn"t you?" She muttered coldly. I just glared at her. Like it was my fault she tried to strangle me (AGAIN). And so yes maybe I started it, but it was...It...She had it coming. "It was your fault. Don"t be modest now." "Bugger off." "Don"t try anything. We"re in deep enough as it is." "And who"s fault is that?" "Yours! You bitch!" Solanaceae then made a very rude and unladylike gesture to me. "Oh real mature." I hiss. Golden eyes narrowed all the while, I couldn"t help but feel that her energy was strangely off today. Suddenly I wondered if starting something at this particular moment had been such a great idea. I got my answer when she reached for her wand, pulling it out to aim right between my eyes in one quick fluid motion. So this was how it was going to go? I had practice in this certain situation, and I mirrored her movement exactly. There was a tense crackling silence. I was ready, I had a spell on the tip of my tongue. I was almost hoping Professor Drake would show up; last time this happened she hit me full on with a hex that made me grow large bat ears that stayed put for forty-eight hours. "Mobiarmus Demoenum!" "Lumindo Horrendenta !" We said the spells at the exact same moment, and simultaneously two streaks of light shot out from our wands and clashed violently together in a flurry of green and black sparks. This was not supposed to happen. I know I had just taken a huge risk. That spell; Is the one I learned just in case. I couldn"t - I couldn"t help myself. It was in a forbidden spell book. That"s not all. A forbidden DEATH spell book. One I had gotten from the library. Dammit... Why did I do that? On school grounds - I felt suddenly very lightheaded. I world around me swam. Everything turned to black. All around me, there was nothing but darkness. A color darker than black. Complete void. Until the surroundings formed into place around me. A large elegant room, with marble floor and high ceiling that had deep red tapestries on the walls. I saw a woman walking out, a woman with long dark black hair, and equally as dark eyes, shining strangly. I had never seen her before I was sure of it. But she was so familiar. Alongside her fell a child. A little girl, with equally as dark hair and eyes. They were in a sort of conversation - but it was all muffled to me. I only understood parts "Do you understand why..." The woman was saying softly, but I could hear an edge to it that shouldn"t have been there. "...No...I dont...Should I?" The voice was familiar. The scenec dissolved around me once more. I only heard voices this time. No images. "I will." "You dont undertsand this could cost you your life!" "I know." "You can"t -!" "I"m protecting her! I can and I will." Then after that, I saw a scene playing out in front of me very, very clearly.' I could feel this person"s emotions like I was watching this happen from their eyes... Bright moonlight glistened off of the pale skin of the figure walking stealthily through the corridor. A dark claret hood pulled tightly around their head, and the rest cloaked their body. Dark eyes, the color of amythest, a deep royal purple stared out into the darkness, darting around. Checking for any signs of a guard. A small thin strand of almost black hair escaped the hood, hanging loosly in the way. Just barely. A women, a girl of no more than 14 years of age tip-toed quietly through the corridoor. Stealth was all that mattered. All that mattered was not getting caught. For if she was caught, she would be killed without mercy. But some things, she believed were just worth the risk. Soft black leather boot padded across the marble floors with extreme caution, and the cloak swished silently around her ankles. The risk was all too real for her, but she must do as she was told., Leonidas turned to Gorgo. She had been standing on the balcony, and must have heard him enter their room and begin to approach her. She had not turned to address him. He put his hands over her shoulders. "Gorgo-" "I know it is your duty. As king, you are the first warrior into battle." He brought his hands around her waist. "No, my queen...these are raiders we are facing, not a true army. I go only to ensure that every last one of them is made to pay for the Spartan blood they have spilled." At last, she turned to him. He glanced down to the small, rounded mound that was her womb. It had not been long since she had told him of the child that shared her body, but Leonidas was already so eager for his heir. He settled one of his large hands upon her flesh, hoping again to feel his child move. Gorgo held his hand more firmly to her body. "No, Leonidas. It is too soon for the babe to kick." He nodded, slightly disappointed. "I will not be gone long, Gorgo. Weeks, at most. I will return to you the same man I have always been." She rounded on him, "But I will not be the same woman! I will be bigger, as round as a sphere and as swollen as a melon! You won"t want what I have become, you"ll take a slave as your whore, you"ll take my babe away from me and-" Leonidas gripped her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Gorgo! What is this madness you speak of?! Have you lost your mind? You must have forgotten that I chose you as my wife," he bit out. Gorgo had been behaving strangely for the past few weeks, ever since her body began to grow fuller from the child. She avoided him during the day and slept further to her side of their bed at night. When she allowed him to touch her belly so that he might feel for his child, she often insisted that he was not doing it right and would leave in frustration. The midwife brought into the palace had assured them that it was safe for the babe if Leonidas were to take his wife again, so long as he was very gentle. Gorgo had seemed repulsed at the idea one moment and then eager for it the next; as of yet, Leonidas had stopped approaching her all together. His wife began to cry, and Leonidas hated himself for becoming upset with her. He brought her closer into his arms and allowed her tears to fall upon the linen of his robe. Careful not to upset her further, he reached up and stroked her hair. He could not understand why she thought he would be so eager to take another woman; in fact, he could not understand why Gorgo had been so withdrawn and angry with him at all. It seemed every step he took would irritate her to no end, every breath he took lead her into further annoyance. "Gorgo, Gorgo, you are my queen, my only love..." He crooned to her. Carefully, Leonidas backed her up to their bed and he had her lay back on the blankets there. Her face glistened with tears, her breasts and belly heaved slightly as she cried. Leonidas moved to lay on his side beside her, propping himself up on one elbow and looked down at her. "I want no other woman, and I would never dishonor you by taking another. There will only be one queen of Sparta. You and no other." He rested his hand over the gentle bump of her belly, then slowly stroking up her body towards her face. Gorgo shivered and gasped when his hand passed over her breast. To Leonidas, the sound was akin to a call from one mate to another. He cupped her face and leaned down to kiss her. To his relief and satisfaction, Gorgo responded to him. They simply kissed for a time, reacquainting themselves to each other. It had been a long time since Gorgo had allowed Leonidas to touch her as a husband, and he had been beginning to feel almosr desperate for the return of his wife. He would take what she would give, and not press her for more. He cared too much for Gorgo and for their child to risk upsetting her. The heir she carried was the future of all Sparta. They parted, and Gorgo moved to present her back to him. Leonidas moved his body to mold her shape against his, and he reached around her waist to lay his hand over her belly. "I"m sorry, Leonidas. The midwife warned me months ago that I would become upset at the rustling of a feather, but I hadn"t believed her- I laughed and told her that I was not the same as the other women she had seen to in the past. This is punishment for my arrogance! I"ve driven you to chasing raiders across Greece just so that you may find a bit of peace..." Leonidas laughed softly against her hair. "No, no, Gorgo. I go because of my duty as king. I go to discourage any others from even thinking of attacking Spartan villages or farms again, to protect the people. I will think of you every day, Gorgo, and beg the gods to deliver me back home swiftly so that I may see you with our babe." His woman was silent for a short time. "Leonidas, do you truly still want me?" "Yes. You are...too close to see yourself clearly. You cannot see what I can. I see you, healthy and strong, growing ripe with my seed. You have the mother"s glow about your face, your hair shines and your breasts have become even fuller. I would have to be a eunuch not to desire you." He laughed. Despite herself, Gorgo laughed too. "Thank you, Leonidas. I think I only wished to hear you say that." He drew her closer. "Then I will tell you every day." They slept, yet somewhere in the night, Leonidas woke at the faint, tiny fluttering of the child beneath his palm. Over fifty days had passed since Leonidas and his small band had departed from the city, intent on eradicating the rebels and raiders that had already killed hundreds of innocent Spartans. The days were blistering hot, the nights only slightly cooler. Leonidas and his fellow warriors hardly noticed the weather; they had edured all forms of hardships in their agoge, this was nothing in comparison. As of yet they had found but traces of the raiders. A few footprints, an abandoned campsite, broken spears and arrowheads. In the king"s estimation, they were perhaps three days from their quarry. Once word had spread that true warroriors, led by the king himself, had come to defend the citizens, the rebels had wisely run off. Their trail was erratic in an effort to confuse the Spartans chasing them, but it would do them no good. The only thing that they had accomplished by prolonging the chase was to enrage the Spartans further. Leonidas was not the only man whose wife was with child. Dilios, the captain, and five of the other warriors were impatient to return back to their women and hopeful sons. Leonidas sat on a smooth boulder, taking his turn on the perimeter watch as the man he"d replaced went off to sleep. The moon was full and bright in the night sky, it"s perfect round shape reminding him of Gorgo"s growing belly. "My wife waits with child as well," Dilios had told him earlier that day. "Halcyone has born me two sons, and hopes this time for a girl. I think she is lonely for a daughter in the house." Leonidas had smiled at his friend. "This will be my first. I hope for many children; sons, of course, but Gorgo once told me that she would someday want a daughter. I think women are like us- they want a child to take after them." Dilios agreed. "You are correct, sire. Halcyone has told me that if Aphrodite answers her prayers and she is given a daughter, she will teach her all the secrets that she has learned in the kitchen. I hope only for another son." Leonidas had raised his brows. "Why another son, Dilios? I have met your boys. They are large, fast and strong. The agoge will be child"s play to them, they will be prize additions to my armies. Why not allow Halcyone a girl to share her cooking skill?" Dilios had laughed then. "Because, if she should have a daughter, the girl will know the secret of attracting many suitors- Halcyone seduced me with her wonderful food. Once I had a meal with her family and learned that had cooked it all herself, I asked her father to give her to me that very night. If she passed on her secrets to a girl, all of Sparta"s young men would be begging at my door!" The men had laughed then, but Leonidas no longer felt so humorous. Gorgo was with child; he wanted to be by her side, not rummaging around abandoned campsites searching for murdering scum. Suppose something happened while he was away? His child could be lost, his wife injured or worse! He had to stop the grim thoughts, he had only to complete the task of tracking the raiders, and then he would return. His eyes burned out into the distance, his anger growing within, urging him to chase the rebels, faster and farther, all the way to the sea if it would only bring him back to Sparta. Gorgo rested her arms on the balcony of the royal bedchambers; the grand rooms where she had slept alone for many nights. She stared at the moon, hoping that somehow Leonidas was watching it as well. It would connect them, in a way, even if neither of them were aware of it. She glanced down and pressed a hand to her bulging womb. The child was within, moving inside of her. It had began shortly after Leonidas had left the city to hunt down the raiders that were slaughtering Sparta"s innocent people. Gorgo hoped it was a good omen that their child was so restless. It meant that the little boy or girl would be restless in life, always striving for greatness and earning pride. She had once dreamed that Leonidas would return, and kiss her belly just in time to feel their child kick. It would be a great thing if he would return to her that very night, as their babe seemed more restless than usual. Ten more days had passed, and Leonidas had still not returned to Sparta. Gorgo knew that he was Sparta- the world"s- finest warrior, but how could she not worry? The raider killings might have been a diversion, a way of baiting him to leave the city, taking only a handful of his fellow soldiers. Could they all have walked into a trap? To be ambushed by hundreds? She shuddered at the thought as images of bloodshed flashed through her mind. "You must think only happy thoughts- otherwise, the poisonous worries of your mind may harm the child." The words of the palace midwife were not so comforting. Gorgo knew that worrying over her husband for days on end was not healthy. She had gone about her queen"s duties the same as she had before, and tried to keep herself as useful as she was able. As she began to swell, it was not so easy as it once was. Still, there was time. Leonidas would return to Sparta in time to see the birth of his child, the future heir to all of Sparta. He had to. "These were the last of them, sire. Their leader has been captured for interrogation, the rest have been driven to the sea." Leonidas turned to face the captain, his expression grim with purpose. "Good. Then we can begin the return journey to Sparta at once." It had been many days, over a hundred, since he had first left his city and his wife. The rebels had been clever in evading them, but no chase lasted forever. They had been caught when Dilios noticed their pattern of hiding during the day and moving along the foothills at night. All of the men had been eager to get back to Sparta, and so they had been eager to cut through the raiders all the more quickly. Leonidas had led the attacks, each strike of his sword leading them closer to home and closer to their wives" embrace. The raiders had been a strange assembled group of insurgents, all of them hailing from different nations. Obviously, the legends of Sparta"s warriors had somehow escaped them and they had had no idea what they had been facing. They stood on this plain and taunted us. I"ve never before seen such fools, Leonidas thought as he wiped the blade of his sword free of blood. Smiling slightly beneath his beard, he glanced around and saw that taking ten other warriors had indeed been unnecessary. One lone Spartan would have been enough to rid the countryside of these raiders. As it happened, Leonidas and each of his warriors had made a few kills, but the battle (such as it was) had been over in a matter of minutes. The raiders were young, poorly trained and despite having robbed so many families, they had been far too ill-equipt to even hope facing off with true warriors. They had been lambs sent to the slaughter, a clear warning to any others that might think to attack Sparta"s country farms. No matter now, Leonidas thought. The raiders have been taken care of. No warriors of mine have been lost. It is time to return to our city. The journey back to Sparta was not no long. Indeed, most of their time had been spent in pursuit of the rebels but now that the warriors were headed back home, the days passed with ease. The warriors even marched late into the night, greatly aided by the pale silver light of the full moon that hung above them in the midnight sky. He thought of Gorgo again at seeing the moon"s perfect round shape. He knew that by the time he returned to Sparta and was presented to her, she would have grown much larger than the last time he had seen her. Their last night together, he had felt their child move beneath his hand. Surely by now their babe was moving constantly, eager to be born and claim its birthright as the future king or queen of Sparta. Leonidas smiled softly at the thought, hoping that their child born would be a son. He anticipated fighting with this future king, sparring, teaching the boy how best to hold a spear and how to hunt for deer in the wilds. All would be useful for when the time came for the boy to take to his agoge trials. Yes, Leonidas hoped for a son; he wouldn"t know what to do with a daughter. What could he possibly do? He could not fight with a girl, he might injure her upon sparring. He knew nothing of female customs and had no true interest in such things. All a princess would be required to learn was how to present herself correctly to courts and then take in lessons of Spartan law and philosophy when she came of age. Until then, all a princess did was play with her precious pet animals and toys. Sparta would fall if its king began to play with weaved silk dolls! Please, Zeus, a beg you for a son...I would be lost with a daughter! Days passed and finally the men came over a hill and saw Sparta. Leonidas allowed them to cheer as they moved down the road leading to the city, their horses" hooves beating the earth like thunder. Dilios followed Leonidas to the palace once the other soliders were dismissed to their homes. The rebel leader was taken away to be questioned and then killed; there was no room for mercy in Sparta. "Why do you not return to your wife, Dilios? I"m sure you must miss Halcyone"s cooking," Leonidas had joked to him as they"d made their way up the palace steps. Dilios nodded. "I admit that I do, sire. Halcyone has been staying close to the midwife who resides within your palace; I wish to see if she is here before checking our house." Leonidas nodded. "No bother. Perhaps you might wish to bathe before seeing her?" The king suggested, gesturing to the both of them. The battle and the journey had made them filthy- dust and dirt clung to their exposed, sweaty skin. Their hair had grown as matted as their beards, the dried blood of their enemy clung both to their clothes and to their skin. Dilios glanced down at himself as if noticing his appearance for the first time. "Perhaps you are right, sire." Servants had been called forward to bathe the king; they washed his body, oiled his skin and attended to his hair and beard. Gorgo had been told of his return, and despite his eagerness to see her, Leonidas was reluctant to allow her to see him as filthy as a common dog. He wished to embrace and kiss her, but no woman would have allowed him to touch her as filthy as he had been! Once he had dismissed the attending servants, Leonidas had felt refreshed and more than ready to see his queen. He went directly to their chambers, but she was not within, wiating for him as he had expected. He stood in their rooms for a moment, absorbing her delicate female scent. Gorgo, Gorgo, my wife and queen... He left their chambers to go down into the gardens; that was a place that had held private meaning to them for years, even before they were married, back when they had had their first meeting. Leonidas ran a hand through his newly cut hair and headed through the courtyard, instinct carrying him toward her. As Leonidas moved, he tilted his head. He had thought he had heard...no, he had heard something. He paused to listen. It was a sweet sound, taking on form and lyrics. A woman was singing. Smiling, Leonidas followed the sound, not at all surprised to find Gorgo sitting on the stone bench before the fountain; this was the place where he had told her of his intention to take her as his wife. Her back was facing him, and Leonidas almost felt content to listen to her for a while more, but could not stand aside from her much longer. "I have never heard you sing," Gorgo turned to face him, her face lighting up as he had never seen before. "Husband!" Leonidas moved to her side and embraced her tightly, surprised and somehow pleased to see how large her womb had grown in the time he was away chasing the rebels. Gorgo smiled at him and rested a hand over the large bump of her body. "Yes, didn"t I tell you? As round as a sphere and as swollen as a melon!" He laughed and carefully touched her, hoping to feel the babe move within. He felt nothing, but did not show disappointment. How could he, now that he was back in Sparta? "I thought of you and our child every night that I could see the moon," he told her. "Its shape made me think of you, being so round and perfect." Gorgo laughed, kissing him. "I am glad that you have come back, for I have been told that it is only a few days more before our child will come forth. I am ready, but also afraid." She confessed, holding him as close to her as she was able. He held her. "You need not be afraid, wife. This child will come, and will be my heir to the throne." She nodded. "Yes, I know. It is only that...while it lives within me, we share the same life. I can protect it. When she-" "Or he!" "Or he, is born, we will be separate. Anything could go wrong." Leonidas shook his head. "Nothing will." "That is not a promise you can make, my love." Leonidas nodded. "I know it is not. Gorgo, this child will have everything, I promise you. I will lay down my life to protect you and all the rest of Sparta." "And if you die? What will become of us then?" Leonidas thought for a moment. "Then I will rage through Hades to come back to you both." No more than ten days had passed since Leonidas"s return to Sparta when he was roused from his sleep by his queen"s cry of pain. He was awake in an instant, alert to any threat, ready to kill for her. Gorgo had been sleeping beside him, but she had moved to sit up and placed her hands over her bulging womb. She turned to him, her eyes large, glowing with fear and happiness. "Leonidas, it"s time. Help me, you must bring me to the midwife." Leonidas moved quickly to do what he knew needed to be done. Carefully, he moved off the bed and eased her onto her feet. He was alarmed to see that her thighs were smeared with a strange fluid, but he said nothing for fear of upsetting her further. The king guided her out of their bedchamber and down a short corridor to find the old, experienced midwife that would safely deliver his heir. And she will deliver our child safely, or I will end her myself! He felt his heart pounding, but he indicated no fear or excitement. He was king, and had to keep his composure before all, even with the servants. He called for the widwife, who answered them within minutes with several other servants following suit. Around them, Leonidas could sense the entire palace coming awake. "Oh, Gorgo, I had expected you at about any time, come on, come into the chamber here." The midwife ushered the queen into her chambers, and then ordered her servants to fetch linens, a blade and hot water. Leonidas began to follow the women inside, but the midwife moved to block his entrance. "No, my lord, you cannot be here for the birth." At once, he felt ready to strike her for her insolence. "What foolishness do you speak? Gorgo is my wife, it is my child to be born this night!" The midwife stood her ground. "I am no fool, sire, but I say again: no man will enter." "I am not just a man, I am your king." "You are a man all the same. Your father was just as arrogant and stubborn when I delivered you and your brothers! Sire, you must wait outside this chamber-" A pained cry from inside drew both their attention away. Leonidas stepped forward to go to Gorgo, but the midwife moved to block his path to her. "Sire, you must not-" "Leonidas, stop," He turned to find his father, bleary-eyed from interrupted sleep. Androcles moved forward, flanked by servants and advisors- Cadmus, Gorgo"s father, was among them. "You cannot be with her now," The midwife took advantage of Leonidas"s attention being on his father, and slipped into the chamber, locking the heavy door behind her. Leonidas realized that he"d been locked out and he beat his fist against the door. Androcles moved forward. "Leonidas, you must stop. Birth is a woman"s realm where men have no place. Gorgo must do this alone.", source_sentence:            I was really frustrated, and I know I would never do something like that to interfere with her relationships.  I really like her, but if she'd rather be with someone else I guess it's ok.  The reason I'm saying this is because I saw a girl that I really liked last year, and it made me remember all the good times I had with her, so that lifted my spirits.  But if it came down to a choice between these 2 girls, I'd have to go with Erica...  Also, today was my last day of school (w00t!!!!!).  I really  should start practicing for cross country today, but xbox is callin...oh well, I'll post more about my day later :)         
sentences:        yes that's right... conversations with my dad consist of the following: how r u doing? are you eating?  how's work?  do you have a boyfriend yet?  after he's covered that then he proceeds to tell my why i shouldn't wait so long to get married. last time we talked he asked if i was gay because i haven't had a boyfriend in years and all i talked about were my 'girlfriends'. i proceeded to tell him no, but thanks for asking me straight up. it's interesting in my culture, that if your not married or have a boyfriend by 21, or going to be an old maid or ur gay! on the flip side my mother wants me to find someone because she says if i wait too long, all the men that will be left have too much baggage and all the good men will be taken. i told her then i'd rather be alone! of course that was half meant, but she makes it so important that i have to find someone right now or else my life is over! ok ok i know that they're just looking out for me, but i can't deal w the pressure. i have enough on my plate. to have to include a relationship in my life right now wud be putting a gun to my head!     ,        Okay, Sars just wrapped up the Famous Ghost Monologues DATE. And from what I've seen, it'd make an awesome one-act play. And even though ORG would never go for it, it would make an awesome play. Seriously, it'd be cheap as hell too. Costumes, makeup, lights and some props. No sets. No Backdrops. No Special Effects. And if we don't do them here, I'd absolutely love to do CARDINAL or CARDINAL at ORG. It is his love, it is his life, it is his fault he didn't lock the garage!     ,         urlLink    I spent TIME sketching this logo for a friend's band, CG3.  I showed it to him several times, seeking approval.  After I finished, I could tell he didn't like it.  'It's not a bad design,' he said, 'but it's too complicated.  I liked it more in previous designs.'  *sigh*&nbsp; urlLink            , source_sentence:              rain. it rained. I fell. it rained I loved. it rained. I lost. it rained. It hurts. I rained. rain.           
sentences: "Maggie?" Jackson breathed. Author"s Note: Okay, so, which sin would be worse? Davey being in on the plot against the Rippners or Davey actually having the nerve to kiss Jackson"s woman? I"m curious to know. Be sure to tell me what you thought of the chapter, kay! 8 Author"s Note: Forgive me the extreme delay with this update. I"ve been super busy with a play that I"m in, but opening night is soon so updates will be better. Just bear with me for a while. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews and on to the story! Chapter Seven: The Babysitter Maggie, seventeen year old Maggie, the flipping babysitter was standing there, leaned against the doorframe holding a semi automatic handgun. She beamed a blinding smile at Jackson and said, "Hello, Mr. Rippner!" Jackson figured that she looked very much like the cat that got the cream at the moment...then it occurred to him that he was the cream. He didn"t like being gotten much. Point and fact, he didn"t like it at all. "Are you surprised?" she asked, that grin not faltering the slightest little bit. "Terribly," Jackson said, his voice steady and even. Years of training had taught him how to handle shock. "I didn"t think they gave gun permits to bitchy cheerleaders." Maggie was obviously fairly new and hadn"t had as much training as he had. She managed to keep the grin, but her eyes widened considerably and then narrowed. "Language, Jackson." She said, gesturing with her head to where Mariah and Luhki sat in the corner with their arms around each other. Luhki suddenly sniffed, audibly swallowed, and then, in a very tiny voice, said, "Daddy?" "Shut up!" Maggie screamed, her head snapping in the direction of the children. "Stupid little brats." As soon as she had raised her voice to his children, without even realizing it, Jackson begun to ferociously jerk at his bindings in attempt to get to his captor. He wanted to rip her throat out for screaming at his kids like that. "Don"t yell at my kids, Maggie." Jackson warned, keeping his voice cool and even. Maggie turned to him, her eyes wide and brilliant as though her mind were bordering at the edge of the map and about to swan dive over it. "You know, I"ve been following your career for years!" she said coming over to kneel at the side of the bed, putting herself at eye level with him. "I"m your biggest fan. Getting Senator Weinstein"s granddaughter to shoot him seven times simply by using your power of persuasion...it was awe inspiring." "So, you"re Clyde"s partner." Jackson said, shaking his head. "Little young aren"t you?" "Old enough." "Here I thought Clyde had better taste." "Now, don"t be mean, Jackson." Maggie said, straightening and walking towards his kids. "Or I"ll have to be mean." "Get away from my kids." Jackson demanded, not even realizing that he was really in no position to be making demands. "You"re right!" Maggie chirped, "We"d much more enjoy the time alone, I think. Okay, kiddies, into the bathroom." Luhki kept her arms draped around her little sister as she looked back and forth between her babysitter and her father. Then, she turned her little chin up at the woman in blatant defiance. "No." She said. She looked so much like Lisa at that moment that it almost made Jackson smile. Maggie looked bug eyed at the comment. "What did you say?" "I...I...I wanna stay with my daddy." Luhki stated, looking down at her feet and away from Maggie"s glaring eyes. Maggie tucked her handgun into the back of her waistband and grabbed Luhki by the arm, a little harder than was necessary to move a five year old, and dragged her into the bathroom. Mariah screamed as her big sister was torn away from her and thrown into the bathroom. "Hey!" Jackson bellowed, fighting against his restraints. Maggie stormed back over and snatched Mariah from her feet and shoved her into the bathroom with Luhki. Jack Jr. was screaming as well from his play pen and it wasn"t long before Maggie had grabbed the two year old and put him down in the empty bathtub before she slammed the door closed on the three crying children, blocking out the noise of their sobs. Jackson tried to rip his hands out of the handcuffs but to no avail. Maggie flashed him a brilliant smile as she sauntered back over to the bed. "Alone at last." "If you hurt so much as a hair on one of my kids" heads, I swear to God I will rip your jaw off of your face and feed it to the dog." Jackson seethed. "You don"t have a dog." Maggie countered without losing her smile. "I"m buying Lisa one for Christmas." "Oh Lord," Maggie sighed, rolling her eyes and plopping down beside him on the edge of the bed, "Do we have to talk about her? She"s just too...common for someone like you." Jackson wanted to smack the grin off of her face. His lips pressed together in concentration and he tugged yet again on the handcuffs that held him to the bed. In his eyes, Lisa was anything but common and he refused to sit idly by and let her be insulted by the likes of a wannabe assassin. She suddenly swung one leg over to the other side of him so that she was sitting on top of him, straddling his hips. "You need someone who understands you. Someone...who shares in the enjoyment of your job." She leaned forward, exposing him to her cleavage and talking so that her lips were brushing against his face every time they moved. "Someone who can appreciate the art of what you do." "You mean someone like you?" Jackson snorted. "You know," Maggie went on as if she hadn"t noticed the mockery in his tone or the murder blazing in his eyes, "I admire your work. The only reason I even took this gig with Clyde was because he said that I would get to meet you." She slid her hand down, letting the tips of her fingers knead at his chest. "I think that we could do really great jobs together." "Don"t touch me." Jackson hissed, attempting to throw her off of him but unable to do so. Maggie"s eyes lit up. "Don"t fight me, Jackson." Maggie said as she began to rotate her hips and grind herself down on his pelvis, searching for any hint of arousal and finding none. However, she would not be deterred. "Don"t you see? We shouldn"t be fighting each other. We should be helping each other." Jackson looked up at his hands, refusing to give Maggie the satisfaction of having him looking at her. He would have liked nothing more than to throw her down to the floor and beat her to death with a baseball bat. Threatening his family was not acceptable. The fact that she was touching was unacceptable. The entire situation at hand was pretty much unacceptable. "Get your hands off my husband, bitch!" Jackson broke into a full fledged grin as he turned and looked to see his gorgeous Lisa standing there in all her glory. She was dripping wet from head to toe, covered in mud and what appeared to be hey, her hair was matted to her head, and she was aiming the 9mm at Maggie"s head. "What if I don"t want to?" Maggie said, running one hand over Jackson"s hair, though he twisted his head to get away from her touch. "Then I shoot you in the head." Lisa answered. Maggie threw back her head and laughed from deep in her stomach, "You think you can stand there and threaten me with my own gun?" "You think I"m gonna let you rape my husband in my own house?" Lisa countered, stepping forward. Jackson wanted to shake his head. Once again, people were underestimating Lisa. It seemed that no matter how many guys she managed to kill, they were never going to understand just how dangerous she really was. True, when had first began watching her, he thought that she was an ordinary workaholic type of woman who would be easy to scare, easy to control. She had surprised him with her resilience. He had never doubted her again, but these other idiots apparently didn"t learn so well. Mellmott had mistaken her for a weak little woman, Larsard had thought her to be easy pickings, and now Maggie thought that she would be able to intimidate her. Fools. "This is what the great Jackson Rippner wants? This common little mouse of a girl! I can"t believe it." Maggie said. Jackson winced. That wasn"t going to go over well with Lisa. "Mouse?" Lisa asked, her eyes narrowing. "Rape your husband in you own house, huh?" Maggie went on, stroking Jackson"s cheek. Suddenly, she leaned down and ran her tongue along his face then looked back up at Lisa with a twisted grin on her face. "How do you plan to stop me?" Without even thinking about it, Lisa squeezed the trigger. Actually, in the sudden rage at seeing Maggie touch lick Jackson, she had pulled the trigger. The gun had jerked and instead of hitting Maggie between the eyes, she had hit her in the shoulder. The force was enough to throw her off of Jackson though, so Lisa chalked that up to a point for her. "You bitch!" Maggie screamed from the other side of the bed, her hand clutched to her now bleeding shoulder. Lisa trotted over to the edge of the bed and with one hand, held the gun fixed on the other side of the bed in case Maggie should expose herself. With her other hand, she untied one of Jackson"s ankles. Her plan was to get Jackson untied and to let him deal with Maggie. She may have been more than embodied with impulse to survive and protect her young, but she lacked in the killer instinct that Jackson possessed. She hurried up to the head of the bed and jerked open the drawer of the nightstand. After rummaging through it as quickly as she could, she found the keys to the handcuffs were missing. Her gaze snapped to Jackson, who shrugged as best he could, then she looked to the other side of the bed. Lisa swallowed the lump in her throat and slowly made her way around the foot of the bed, but when she reached the other side, there was no one there. "Shit!" she said. "Lisa!" Jackson"s voice rang out just as a bullet flew past Lisa"s head and shattered her beloved picture window. Lisa turned and saw Maggie standing with her gun poised to fire again. She had a swath of material tied around the wound in her upper arm, soaking up the blood. She squeezed the trigger again and Lisa dropped to her knees, tucking her chin to her chest to keep her head as low as possible. She saw that the corner of the bed skirt had been torn off, which was what Maggie had tied around her arm. "You slut!" Lisa screamed, "That"s Egyptian cotton!" With that, she came back up, just in time to see a flash of blonde hair as Maggie made her way to the bathroom. "Leese, the kids!" Jackson exclaimed. Lisa jumped to her feet and shot toward the hallway of the bathroom just as the bathroom door flew open to reveal Maggie standing there, one hand clamped around Luhki"s arm and the other pressing the barrel of her gun to Luhki"s temple. Maggie was staring at her with bright beaming eyes that were wide and watery and wild. She looked like she had lost whatever mind she had had. "Mrs. Rippner!" she exclaimed, her voice high and peppy, "I"ve been meaning to talk to you about my salary." "Has all that bleach you put in your hair seeped through to your brain?" Lisa hissed, "Let my babies go or I will shoot you between the eyes." "If you so much as twitch an eyelid, little Luhki won"t be livin" up to her namesake for very long." Maggie retorted, visibly pressing the gun harder against the small child"s head. "What is this, psycho teens take Miami? Is Charlie the video store clerk gonna come waltzing in with an AK in a second?" Lisa said, trying her best to distract Maggie. It was one of Jackson"s strategies; throw her off balance and attack when she"s weak. If she could get her attention on something else, anything else, she could tear her apart. "Not unless he"s managed to reattach his head to his neck." Maggie spat. "So, you killed Charlie?" "I just wanted the bike." "Get away from my kids." Maggie"s face suddenly contorted into stone seriousness, "You"re not good enough for him." As soon as the words had left her mouth, the wolverine smile was back on her face. But, she had blocked out the other two kid"s cries so well, that she didn"t even notice it when Mariah stopped. It"s amazing how perceptive children are when it comes to their parents, particularly their mothers. The three year old didn"t understand what was going on, but she could tell that her mother and her older sister were scared and it was Maggie"s fault. She was probably gonna get in trouble in the end, but she didn"t care. Maybe her momma would stop being scared if she had something else to think about. So, little Mariah wiped her nose with her hand and crept over to Maggie"s side. Then, without hesitation, she chomped her little razor sharp teeth down through one of the holes in Maggie"s jeans. She bit down so hard that she drew blood. Maggie shrieked and kicked the little girl away from her into the wall. Lisa took advantage of the distraction and rushed the younger woman. She didn"t want to fire her gun and risk hitting one of her kids, so she grabbed hold of the wrist of the hand that held the gun and pointed it up at the ceiling, wincing as it went off. Luhki got out from in between the two women as they wrestled and joined her younger sister at the wall. Maggie slammed Lisa into the sink, drawing a grunt of pain from her. Lisa brought up her knee hard between Maggie"s legs. Don"t listen to what they say, just because women don"t have balls, it still hurts like hell. Then, taking a cue from Jackson, she head butted Maggie right between the eyes. Apparently, being able to head butt somebody was a talent that she didn"t have, because it affected her just as much as it affected Maggie. She was always telling Jackson that he was thick headed. Both women fell and crashed onto the edge of the bathtub. Lisa hit shoulder first and thought that surely she had knocked it out of the socket as she somersaulted into the actual tub as Jack Jr. scampered out of the way. Maggie, on the other hand, hit the back of her head and her body went immediately limp as she lost consciousness on top of Lisa. Lisa groaned and tried to right herself in the narrow confines of the porcelain tub, shoving the dead weight of the babysitter off of her when she spotted the handcuff keys lying on the floor near Luhki"s feet. They must have fallen out of Maggie"s pocket in the midst of their struggling. The blonde groaned and moved slightly. She wasn"t that far out of it. Lisa had to act fast. She hoisted herself out of the bathtub, accidentally turning the faucet on as she did so. She didn"t bother to turn the water off and left Maggie in the tub in hopes that the bitch would just drown. Quickly, she palmed the keys as she scooped Jack Jr. out of the bathtub and ushered the girls out the door at the same time she kicked both guns through the doorway. Maggie stirred again as Lisa pulled the door to. She set Jack Jr. on his feet and grabbed a pair of dirty pantyhose from the floor. She tied one end to the doorknob and the other end a coat rack that was mounted to the wall, stretching them as tight as they would go. They hose wouldn"t hold long, but they would slow her down when she woke up. She snatched the handguns from the floor and turned to her children. "Okay, babies," she said, "Luhki, take Jack Jr. and Mariah to your room. Lock yourselves in the closet and don"t come out for anyone unless it"s me or daddy. No one, do you understand?" Tears streaming down her face, Luhki nodded. Lisa nodded along with her, "Yes. Okay." She sniffled, fighting back the tears that were building. She heard Maggie begin to fight with the bathroom door and knew that she needed to wrap things up. She kissed each of them on the head and then stood and looked away from them. She couldn"t watch them leave the room. She didn"t know why, she just couldn"t. "Go." She took two breaths to compose herself, then rushed to the bedside back to Jackson. He didn"t look pleased. "It"s about time." He snapped. Lisa glared at him as a single tear slid down her cheek and his expression softened considerably. "Untie me." He said gently. Lisa set the guns down on the nightstand and struggled to unlock Jackson"s wrist, but her hands were shaking so badly. Maggie"s pounding on the door seemed to be growing louder and Lisa couldn"t seem to make herself focus. She finally got the one wrist undone and lean across him to get to the other one. The thumping on the door suddenly turned into the sound of splintering wood and not two seconds later, Maggie flew at Lisa like a football player and tackled her. The women went tumbling over the edge of the bed, sending the keys flying through the air where they finally came to rest by the wall. Maggie charge Lisa, but Lisa threw her foot up and caught Maggie in the stomach to send her flipping over her head. Maggie grabbed Lisa by the arm and dragged her across the floor to her. Lisa swung her arm and hit Maggie across the side of the head at the same time Maggie managed to get two handfuls of Lisa"s hair and slam her head into the side of Jackson"s bureau. Meanwhile, Jackson had half of his body off the bed and was willing his arm to stretch in length of about three inches so he could reach the damn keys to the handcuffs. Maggie and Lisa were back on their feet again. Maggie still had a hold of Lisa"s hair and Lisa had both fists tangled in the material of Maggie"s tee shirt. Maggie rammed Lisa back into the bureau and Lisa countered by shoving Maggie into the wall. Jackson looked on helplessly. He couldn"t help but think about how this scene was most men"s fantasy come true and all he could think about was ripping that little bitch away from his wife and blowing her brains out. Wait a second! His head snapped around to the other side of the bed where he spotted the two handguns laying on the nightstand, completely undisturbed and completely within his reach. He scooted back up onto the bed and then over to the other side, grabbing the 9mm and swinging it across his body to take aim. "Lisa!" he called. Lisa looked over her shoulder, tugged herself out of Maggie"s grasp and dove to the floor. Maggie didn"t even notice that Jackson had the gun until after he had fired. Blood exploded from her side and the impact sent her smashing back against the wall. Her face held a sort of wide eyed shock as she slowly slid down the wall to the floor. Lisa peered up at Jackson from the floor, then leapt to her feet and flew at him. As soon as she landed on top of him, she attacked his mouth with her own. "Who says you"re a lousy shot?" she said breathlessly. "Leese, babe," Jackson said, licking his lips and looking at her with a dark smoldering look, "there"s something I really want you to do for me." "Anything." Lisa said. Jackson grinned but didn"t say anything. Instead, Lisa"s attention was drawn to a clinking sound. She looked up and saw Jackson shaking his still handcuffed wrist back and forth. "Oh, right!" Lisa exclaimed, climbing off of him and grabbing the keys from the floor. She got him uncuffed in no time and as soon as his hand was free, both of his arms were around her. Lisa threw her own arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly against her. She just needed to be closer to him. Then, as if from nowhere, Davey, soaked to the bone, came bumbling through the bedroom door. His hair was caked to his forehead and releasing a steady stream of water down his face. His hands were over his face and he seemed to be rubbing his eyes vigorously. "Lisa, couldn"t leave without say...well...I"m sorry. That was so wrong of me." His hands dropped and he saw Jackson, but it was too late. The words were out of his mouth. "I shouldn"t have kissed you." Lisa felt Jackson"s body tense under her touch and she instinctively tightened her grasp on his shoulders in preparation to hold him back. "What?" Jackson growled, his eyes narrowing as his gaze zoomed in on his target: Davey. But, Jackson wasn"t going to get his shot at Davey just yet, because at that exact moment, a .38 snub nose revolver came into view, the barrel resting right at Davey"s temple. Along with the gun, Clyde came gliding into the room. Author"s Note: Be sure to let me know what you think! Am I slipping up anywhere? Author"s Note: Sorry for the long delay. Finals and all that. On the brighter side, we are nearing the end of our story. Thanks for the reviews, your support, and your patience! I really appreciate it. I"ll stop blabbing now and let you read! Let me know what you think! Chapter Eight: Dealing With Clyde Jackson"s eyes went from Davey"s face to Clyde"s. "Kill him." He said, letting his hand snake its way discreetly down to his ankle to release from the one remaining tie. Lisa watched poor Davey"s dark blue eyes widen in a combination of shock at what Jackson had just said and fear at the fact that Clyde might just do it. "I don"t want him." Clyde said. There were chunks of dried blood hanging from his face just below his ear. Lisa smiled with a slight sensation of pride blooming inside her at the sight of the wound. "I want that bitch of a wife you got." The smile faded. Asshole. Jackson"s grip on Lisa"s waist tightened. "Not gonna happen." "So, you don"t care if I do away with this little prick?" Clyde said, nudging Davey"s temple with the barrel of the gun., "Wonder what the matter is," pondered Marshall. Josie was laying on her back with a pillow on her face. Corrine sat opposite her on her own bed. "Ok, Josie. What exactly happened?" "Mhmmmmfmmmhmmmfmmmhmmfm," replied Josie. Corrine shook her head and sighed. "Come on, Josie. Take that pillow off your face, look me in the eye, and just tell me what happened." Josie sat up with an indignant look on her face. "Fine. Vaughn told me he loved me, I said I too, we kissed, I felt guilty for some reason, then I ran off, you found me, and here I am confused and conflicted over something I don"t even understand," Josie exhaled. "Better, Corrine?" Josie asked sarcastically. Corrine nodded. "Much, actually. Now we have somewhere to start from. Now, from what you have told me I can only guess you weren"t entirely truthful when you told Vaughn you loved him." "How?" asked Josie, frustrated. "I thought I really did love him. I mean, there"s definitely attraction..." "Is there anyone else you might have forgotten?" asked Corrine. Josie pondered a moment. "Well...there"s Lucas, but..." "But what?" "I don"t know...maybe I like him, too...maybe just as much. But, I mean I"m going to have to choose someday, just...for now...I can"t," stammered Josie. "Well, who do you feel more comfortable around?" "Both, I guess." "Ok, who do you trust more?" "I guess that would have to be Lucas." "Alright...then, when does your heart flutter the most; when you"re with Vaughn or Lucas?" "Uh...both?" replied Josie hesitantly. Corrine shook her head and laughed. "I don"t know what to say, Josie. All I can say is that you"re in a tough predicament." At that Josie rolled her eyes. "But...all you need to do is just follow your heart." Josie sighed. "But my mind and my heart are telling me different things. They contradict each other. How am I possibly supposed to figure it out?" "You"ll figure it out, no doubt about that, Josie. One of these days your eyes will be opened and you"ll see who that perfect guy is." "But that might never happen! I wish I could just take those two and...mash them together, into one person," said Josie as she repeatedly punched her pillow. Corrine laughed. "Poor Josie! You have to resort to beating pillows to work out your issues." Josie mockingly stuck her tongue out at her. What"s in store for Josie Trent this summer? Will she finally decide? Will she ever decide? A/N: There we go! Super long chapter to keep my reviewers I have left happy! Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter! Lots of feedback, comments, suggestions, etc would be loverly! Rate and review! A/N: Sorry guys for the really long time periods between updates! It"s just that it seems like my muse likes playing hide-and-go-seek with me and it is quite irritating. Anyways, I"m trying my hardest to write some really good stuff for you guys to read! A BIG shoutout to so damn gryffindor for being my only reviewer for the last chapter! Come on guys, I know you"re out there! What happened to all my lovely reviewers? Has my story turned sour and dull? Chapter 19: Surreptitious Soiree Josie woke up the next morning and rolled over onto her side to gaze out the glass French doors. Grey and black clouds could be seen rolling in, obscuring the sunlight and foretelling ominous weather. Looks like a storm"s going to hit pretty soon... Josie yawned as she threw back the covers and stumbled sleepily out of bed. She noticed that Corrine was still in bed. Glancing at the clock she realized that it was almost 10:30 AM. Corrine would never normally sleep in this late. She padded over to her friend"s bed and gently shook her shoulder. Oh my god...please just let her be sleeping... "Corrine?" asked Josie hesitantly, holding her breath. Groggily, Corrine turned over onto her side to face Josie, eyes fluttering open sleepily. "What?" she asked groggily. "And would you quit moving around?" she asked as she buried her head in her pillow. "Corrine, are you ok?" Josie asked worriedly. "Yeah, just...tired and a bit queasy is all," replied Corrine with a stifled yawn. Josie breathed a little easier, chastising herself for scaring herself half to death like that. It was the Science Club"s final week in St. Lucia. They all knew that they were going to miss the sun-kissed beaches and the balmy weather of the tropical island. Josie had been avoiding both Lucas and Vaughn like the plague ever since her little escapade into the forest after Vaughn had confessed his feelings for her. Unknowingly, she was hurting both Vaughn and Lucas by avoiding them. Instead, she had been Corrine"s constant companion seeing as how she had become more sluggish and weaker from both the medication and her illness. The gang was due to leave the upcoming Saturday. Seeing as it was Monday, they had five days left of the gorgeous island that they had called home for the summer. Everyone was outside on the beach in the early afternoon. A storm had hit the day before so the beach had debris scattered across its shores. Corrine was snapping on a beach chair, having fallen asleep while reading. Everyone had noticed that she had been doing a lot more sleeping lately. Josie, Lucas, Vaughn, and Marshall, on the other hand, were playing in the crystal clear sparkling aquamarine water. Josie glanced over and saw that Corrine was sound asleep and out of earshot. "Ok, guys. So what are we going to do for Corrine"s birthday?" A/N: I don"t actually know when Corrine"s birthday is and I"m pretty sure it wasn"t mentioned in the series so I"m making it up. "Well I talked to Brooklyn and Sam and they said that they"d be willing to pitch in," said Marshall. Josie nodded. "Ok, so here"s my plan. One of us can take her out for a drive around the island and the rest of us can be setting everything up here," whispered Josie just in case Corrine woke up. The rest of the gang nodded. "Ok, well I can take Corrine out somewhere. I"ll tell her that we"ll meet up with you guys later," said Marshall. "Ok, then Lucas and I can make a cake and all that stuff and Josie, Brooklyn, and Sam can work on decorations," finished Vaughn. Josie and Lucas both threw him a perplexed look but Vaughn just ignored them. "Ok...well, then it"s settled. We"ll make Corrine"s 17th birthday something she"ll never forget," said Josie with an affirmative nod from everyone else. Later that day, Marshall was up in his room escaping from the midday hubbub. He sat wrapping a small box and afterwards, worked on a letter. Lucas soon walked in and saw his friend hunched over, working meticulously on something. "What are you doing, Marsh?" inquired Lucas as he sat down on his bed. This caused Marshall to nearly fall over in surprise. "God, I thought you were Corrine for a second!" "Do I look like your girlfriend?" asked Lucas sardonically. "No, but don"t worry, Lucas, I still love you," replied Marshall laughing. Lucas raised an eyebrow, beginning to think his best friend was either messed up in the head or...well, he"d have to get to that. "And people think I"m crazy..." muttered Lucas. "Well, what are you doing?" "I"m wrapping Corrine"s present up for her birthday this Friday," replied Marshall as he cleverly stashed her gift away. "God, you love struck fool," Lucas said with a chuckle. He realized he had touched on fragile and shaky turf. He knew how much Marshall would be crushed if Corrine...well, died. "I"m still hoping for that ever elusive miracle to come around and make that stupid tumor disappear," he said softly as he crumpled up a piece of paper, a reject from his muse. "We all are, Marsh, we all are," replied Lucas sadly. Marshall shook his head. "Why her? Why us? She doesn"t deserve this!...No one does..." "I don"t know. And I"m guessing nobody else really knows for sure either," replied Lucas. Marshall gave a hollow laugh. "I just wish there was a way I could change it all," said Marshall with a sigh. Lucas saw how much his friend was suffering. If worst came to worst, he wondered how he would react. How they all would react. Tuesday morning dawned as the sun"s fiery warmth filled the sky, brushing it with a bold palette of colors. Corrine blinked several times as she wriggled out from beneath the covers. She hated feeling like crap. Sluggishly, she sat up and yawned before standing up to get dressed. She managed to shuffle her feet a few steps before her knees buckled from dizziness and she fell to the floor. She cursed a little too loudly and, with the thud, woke Josie up. Josie scrambled out of bed, shocked to see Corrine had fallen and to have heard her swear. She helped Corrine back into bed as she stared inquisitively down at her. "Corrine, what happened? And did those words come out of your mouth?" she asked surprised. Corrine lay, eyes closed, grumbling as she rubbed her now bruised knees. "I"m sick of this, Josie. I"m sick of feeling so dizzy that I have trouble getting around. And falling on occasions because I keep losing my balance isn"t fun either," replied Corrine bitterly. Josie looked down sympathetically at her. They were interrupted by a knock on the door and the sound of Marshall"s voice. "Hey, you guys alright? We heard a thud and someone swearing at the top of their lungs." Corrine and Josie glanced wide-eyed at each other. Corrine made a slashing motion across her throat signaling that she didn"t want to tell the guys about her fall. "Uh...uh, that was me. I just tripped getting out of bed. You know, clumsy little me! And...and I guess I couldn"t quite control my language this early in the morning..." "But it sounded like Corrine!" interjected a muffled sounding Lucas. "It was me!" squeaked Josie nervously. Silence ensued as the girls looked at each other nervously wondering if their little fibs were convincing at all. "Ok...well, Lucas is going to make pancakes for breakfast. You guys want some?" asked Marshall as he opened the door slowly. The girls could partially see him, Lucas, and Vaughn standing in the hall. Josie scrambled over and slammed the door shut, bracing it with her back. "Ok, what is going on?" asked Vaughn slightly annoyed. "Uh...we"re changing! Don"t come in!" exclaimed Corrine. They could hear the guys sighing and mumbling on the other side of the door, obviously confused and slightly irked by their antics. "Ok, well, then we"ll see you girls downstairs..." said Marshall as he and Lucas and Vaughn walked down the hall and down the stairs. "Phew," said Corrine, breathing a sigh of relief. "What was up with not telling the guys about your little fall a few moments ago?" inquired Josie. Corrine sighed. "I just don"t want to trouble everyone every time something happens," replied Corrine. Josie just shook her head slowly, a smile creeping across her face. A/N: Ok sorry for the choppy and short chapter! The next one will be better and I promise there will be lots more C/M fluffy moments and such in the next upcoming chapters. Please review! I"ve only had one person review my last chapter! It would make my day and may encourage me to update sooner! ; ) A/N: Thanks to scifi-warper for the review! First one, yes! Anyways here is chapter 2! Hope you guys like it and rate and review! Chapter 2: My Ickle Nurse Wheeler Marshall headed down the stairs with Corrine on his mind. Perhaps she was just coming down with a cold or something. Marshall made his way to the cafeteria and walked through doorway. He grabbed some dinner before heading into the dining hall. He made his way towards the table where Josie, Lucas, and Vaughn sat. He placed his tray down before taking a seat. Josie looked up from a book on wormholes and as did Lucas from his unappetizing dinner. "Hey, Marshall. Hey, where"s Corrine?" asked Josie. "She wasn"t feeling too good so she"s upstairs resting a bit," replied Marshall. He thought it would be best to leave out the part about Corrine"s near-collision with the ground. "Is she ok?" asked Vaughn. "Yeah, I think she"ll feel better after getting some rest," replied Marshall, "she said it was probably all the stress from school." "Well, she should just chillax. I mean she"s the smartest kid in the school," said Lucas. Josie scoffed at Lucas" remark. "Did you just say "chillax?'" Lucas just glared at Josie. "So what if I did?" Josie just rolled her eyes and continued her reading on wormholes. Marshall ate his dinner in relative peace except for another little scuffle between Miss Redhead and Mr. Conspiracy Freak that had to do with Lucas claiming to see Durst flying across the school. Vaughn interrupted his thoughts. "You"re being really thoughtful tonight. Is Corrine on your mind?" "Yeah. I guess I"m just...worried," replied Marshall. "At least you have someone to care about," said Vaughn with a slightly exasperated sigh. Marshall smiled a little bit. "Don"t start complaining about not having anybody to care about. You have four great friends and may be one means a little more?" asked Marshall. Vaughn shrugged and glanced over at Josie. Unusually, her nose was buried in her book. Vaughn sighed. "I"m not even sure what I feel anymore. Well, anyways, when you head back upstairs tell Corrine I hope she feels better." Marshall nodded. "Sure thing." Lucas held up his fork to eye level, examining it. A look of slight disgust appeared on his face. "Do they actually expect us to eat this stuff?" Josie looked up reproachfully at the "food" on his fork. Marshall chuckled and gathered his tray. "Well, I"m going to go ahead and go before I get sick." They all said bye as Marshall dumped his tray on the cart and walked off. He headed out of the cafeteria and took a left instead of going up the stairs. He paused at the door to the nurse"s office before turning the handle and walking in. "Uh, Nurse Robins?" A women appearing to be in her late forties looked up from her small but cluttered desk. "Yes, may I help you?" Marshall stepped inside the nurse"s office. It was not too small a desk and filing cabinet occupying one half while the other half had two sick beds, partitioned off from the rest of the room. "Uh, do you by any chance have any aspiring?" He knew it sounded dumb but he felt like he needed to do something. Nurse Robins smiled. "Yes, I do have some. Hold on one second." She got up from behind the desk and went over to a medicine cabinet and opened it. She pulled out a bottle of aspirin and two paper cups. She put some aspiring in one and water in the other. "May I ask who"s the one needing the aspirin?" "My friend has a migraine and isn"t feeling all that great," said Marshall. "Oh dear. Does he or she need to come see me?" she asked worriedly as she handed him the two cups. Marshall took the cups gratefully and shook his head. "No, ma"am. Just a migraine from school stress." The nurse gave a reassuring smile. "Alright then. But if your friend doesn"t feel better, send him down here." Marshall nodded. "Thank you," he said hastily as he headed out. Marshall quickly ascended the steps and made it to Josie and Corrine"s room. Balancing the cups, he opened the door and headed in. He was slightly surprised to see Josie, Vaughn, and Lucas there, and even more so, to see Corrine up and sitting on her bed. She gave him a slightly tired and sleepy smile. Josie was sitting legs crossed next to Corrine on her bed and Lucas was sitting on Josie"s bed. Vaughn meanwhile was sitting in the computer chair. Marshall walked over to Corrine and handed her the aspiring and water. "I thought this might help. How are you feeling?" Corrine took the aspirin and water. "A lot better. Thanks," she said with a smile. "Looks like ickle Nurse Wheeler"s checking on Corrine," said Lucas with a laugh. Corrine laughed. "Well, then I guess he"s my ickle Nurse Wheeler," said Corrine. This caused the whole group to start laughing. Josie patted her friend on the back. "You need to take it easy, Corrine. You don"t need to stress yourself out so much about school! We all already know you"re perfect!" The group laughed once more including Corrine. "Alright guys. I promise to take it easier on myself!" A/N: Ok so I know this chapter is a little on the short side but the next one will be longer. And something pivotal will happen in the next chapter! Have I got you guys on the edge of your seats? Rate and review please! A/N: Thanks to all my loveoly reviewers for my last chapter! See! Your reviews prompted and encouraged me to update faster: ) Heheheheheheh! Anyways, here"s chapter 20! Chapter 20: Happy is a Yuppie Word The next few days rolled by, filled with nothing but sea, sand, and sky. Finally, Friday arrived. Josie, Corrine, and Lucas sat in the living room watching "The Revenge of the Prep School Piranhas 2" while Marshall and Vaughn were in the kitchen making lunch and secretly organizing a few last minute details for Corrine"s party. Vaughn sat checking off a list as Marshall stood pacing occasionally. "Ok, so after lunch, I"m going to go take Corrine over to the other side of the island for some last minute sight-seeing and stuff. That"ll give you guys a couple of hours to get everything set up here. You guys have everything you need, right?" "Yep," replied Vaughn," we have all the stuff for the cake and the other food, too. Oh and Sam said she was going to bring her husband Frank and Brooklyn said her sister Lydia arrived from Miami two days ago and would bring her tonight." "Alright. So everything"s set!" said Marshall. Vaughn nodded and then looked around, frowning slightly, as he sniffed the air. "Dude, is something...burning?" Marshall stared wide-eyed at Vaughn before scrambling over to the oven to turn it off. "Smooth move, Marshall. You nearly burned down the villa on our last day!" said Vaughn chuckling. Marshall had packed some food, blankets, and other stuff in the back of the Jeep as Corrine got in the passenger"s side. "We"ll meet up with you guys later at Smitheman"s Port to go sailing!" said Josie. "Why are you guys staying behind? I don"t want to leave you three to the confinements of the villa. You might drive each other insane and doing something rash," said Corrine. Josie tiptoed over to the window on Corrine" side of the car. She glanced around carefully as if no one else could hear what she was about to say. "We thought you two deserved some time along and away from the short-tempered redheaded elf, clueless jock, and Mr. Conspiracy Freak. And besides there"s a beach behind the villa, remember?" Corrine laughed and shook her head. "You"re in a loving mood, aren"t you, Josie?" Josie just smiled and shrugged as she started to walk back to the house. "Have fun, Corrine!" she yelled over her shoulder. Corrine and Marshall waved as they pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. Corrine looked out the window, enjoying the peaceful and beautiful scenery roll by. "So, where exactly are we going?" asked Corrine curiously. "You"ll see," Marshall replied with a secretive little smile on his face. After a while, Corrine and Marshall arrived at a secluded area with plenty of palm trees and other tropical plants obscuring the view of the beach. Through chinks in the mass of trees, they could see the sparkling blue waters of the ocean and hear the waves lapping the sun-warmed sands. Marshall quickly parked the car and hopped out to get everything out of the back. While Marshall was doing that, Corrine got out an walked towards the semi-dense expanse of trees that hid the beach from sight. As she stepped in among the trees, she could see the sparkling waters a bit more clearly. Curiously, she crept forward until she stood on the border between the stark white sands and the grove of trees. Her jaw dropped in awe as she surveyed the scene before her. It was an inlet or cove that resembled a crescent moon in shape. The clear aquamarine waters glittered from the sun as sea foam and waves gently lapped at the white sand beach. The beach was surrounded by a huge stretch of palm trees and tropical foliage, making a giant wall that seemed to isolate this little cove from the rest of the world. Marshall appeared behind her, picnic basket in one arm and a blanket in the other. "Surprise," he said softly. "You like it?" Corrine just stood in awe before turning around and throwing her arms around Marshall"s neck and planted a big kiss on his lips. He immediately dropped everything and kissed her back while spinning her around. Corrine laughed. He placed her back down and rested his forehead against hers. "Happy birthday, Corrine." For a second Corrine looked puzzled but then the little light bulb inside her head went off and an embarrassed look appeared on her face. "I forgot all about that!" she said with an embarrassed laugh. "Well, you"ve had a lot on your mind, no doubt." Corrine picked up the folded blanket and Marshall picked up the basket. He took her hand in his and entwined their fingers as they made their way down to the beach. Corrine spread out the blanket on the warm sands. "Well I don"t know about you, Marshall, but I am definitely going for a swim," said Corrine as she slipped off her tank top and shorts to reveal her turquoise tankini. "I thought you said you didn"t know about where we were going," said Marshall slightly puzzled. "I didn"t. But a certain redhead tipped me off saying I should bring my bathing suit with me," replied Corrine.,              ok..so i got this fish tank for valentine's day and i really wanted to have a pet shark but instead a got a bunch of feeder fishes. for some reason, they all got sick but one. the runt out of the group survived. she outlived all her brothers and sisters. then one day, i got a few guppies added to my tank but that didn't last long because they miracuously disappeared while i was on vacation. so now all i have is one guppy and a gold fish name wanda. i ran out of food a week ago...i've been neglecting them. i never really got to attached to the guppy but wanda, i did care about and i didn't want her to die. well, i was at my parent's house the other day and i saw my sister's turtle and thought about wanda. i asked my sis if i could have some of her turtle food for my fishy. yes i am lazy and didn't feel like going to the pet store. well when i got home, i crushed the turtle stick food and put one in the tank. wanda was so excited cuz she hasn't seen food in awhile. she went in for the food and she choked. the stick was too big for her little mouth. she was gagging. i didn't know what to do. i was so scared for her. i could see the food in her mouth. it was too hard for her to swallow it. a tear came to my eye...i felt my fish slipping away from me and if she died, it would have been all my fault. i called my friend and told him that my fish was choking. he was no help. he just laughed at me. so i hung up the phone and prayed that the food stick would just get soft so she could either swallow it or cough it up. after about 5 minutes of gagging, she coughed up the food. i was so relieved but then i saw her going for the food again but luckily it was soft enough for her to swallow. go figure.   well that's my fish story. i hope i never have to live through that again. it was pretty traumatizing. but i did learn something...that maybe i shouldn't get a shark ..and not to feed wanda turtle food. :-)          , source_sentence: She walked from underneath the large, dense tree branches where they were sleeping, into a small clearing. The clearing was surrounded by large pine and fir trees; the last of the snow clung to their branches. The forest floor was carpeted by old, discarded pine needles. There were a few patches of left over snow scattered along the forest floor. The carcass of a deer, killed during the early morning, lay at the clearing edge. "Sister..." "Yes... I hear you." She answered. She was not afraid. The voice was familiar. A small light, like a firefly, danced in the darkness. She smiled as she watched the light dance between the trees branches, slowly coming towards her. She watched as the small light seemed to swim in her blue eyes. Smiling she spoke to the light. "Show yourself, Sophia." She yawned; laying down on the dried pine needles that covered the ground. She extended her paws forward waiting for her sister to appear. A small flash of light grew into a form she was quite familiar with. It was a young woman; nude, green eyes, yellow hair; beautiful features. Her wings extending, covering a distance twice her height, gently folded together behind her... "Sister..." Sophia smiled as she looked at her sister sitting on the ground. "It is good to see you..." "It"s been a while..." Sophia continued as she kneeled down next to her. "You look good as a wolf." She ran her hands across her fur. She tilted her head, laughing as she scratched her sister behind her ears. "Nice coloring..." She was looking at the tip of her sister"s tail. "Gray with a silver tip?" She smiled. "Angelic white..." "Huh?" She was enjoying her sister scratching behind her ears. She did not hear the question or the comment. "Your tip of your tail?" She pointed it out. "It"s angelic white... I bet, it never gets dirty... Huh?" She rose up, supporting herself with her front legs. She looked at her sister and smiled. "It is good to see you... Sophia." She continued to speak. "But why are you here?" "Sophia"s" green eyes seem to lose their brightness as she shook her head. It was though she had some bad news. "I... I... I..." She stuttered, looking away, almost ashamed to say it. "I"ve come"...; she paused, "to take you home now..." She continued, her eyes were starting to tear up. "They sent me to bring you back home..." "No!" She quickly responded. She rose from the ground and stepped back from her sister. "You can"t..." "I don"t want to..." Sophia covered her green eyes with her hand, concealing the fact that she started to cry. "But they..." Sophia was shaking her head. She knew how bad her sister wanted to stay. She remembered when her sister first heard the howling; she was excited, something Sophia had not seen in her sister in a long time. When her sister left to discover the source of the howl, she smiled. Sophia knew her sister would not be coming back for a little while. "They, what?" His voice came from the darkness. He moved from the shadows, into the moonlight. His large, black body was imposing; he walked slowly towards them. His eyes burned as he glared at Sophia, standing next to his mate. He slowly moved towards Sophia. Each paw quietly placed in front of the other paw. "Who are they?" He growled. Sophia turned quickly to him. Her green eyes ablaze, she reached out her hand and pointed at him. "Back down, wolf!" Her soft features were hard. "This is between us..." Her voice and her words were like weapons and she used them indiscriminately. "You are just a dog... sit down and obey!" She narrowed her eyes and continued to point at him; she moved her hand pointing in a downward motion. He stood there glaring, his growl grew louder, and his mouth opened up exposing rows of sharp teeth. "You think me a dog? Wait till I get my teeth in you!" The wind, blowing from her direction, seemed to pick up, almost blowing him backwards. He lowered his head and continued to push forward. His eyes continued to glare at her. "Stop it!" She cried out, she was looking at both of them. "Enough... Both of you..." She was standing between them. Her head lowered and looking at the ground. She was crying, her fur wet with tears. Both of them were surprised by her outburst. "Enough!" Her voice cracked, she was starting to sob. "I am not leaving..." She was sobbing, shaking her head, her eyes closed tight as if that would stop the pain. "You don"t understand...," Sophia paused, "they will just take you... You know that..." Sophia continued to explain to her, pleading. "Take her...?" The black wolf raised his head in disbelief. He looked at his mate and then he looked at Sophia. "What do you mean... take her?" "Be happy with the time you had..." Sophia walked towards her, kneeling down on one leg, putting her hands around her furry neck and hugged her. She cried into her sister"s fur, gently stroking her face. "You may be a wolf, but I see you as an angel... My sister!" Sophia whispered into her ear. "I can"t..." She pleaded with Sophia. The black wolf stared at his mate as her sister embraced her. "What can I do...?" "It is so little time, I"m asking for..." She continued as she looked at the black wolf, tears fell from her eyes. "10... Maybe 15 more years... That"s all I need..." She turned her head, nuzzled her sister"s face. "Sister, I want this..." "it is nothing compared to eternity" she continued to plead with Sophia Sophia continued to listen to her pleading and begging to let her stay. "It is not up to me... Sister." "I can"t..." "Why?" "I can"t..." "Why not..." She raised her head up, looking at Sophia, who was now standing looking down at her sister, her face red with tears. Her green eyes seem to lose their luster. The expression on Sophia"s face seemed to ask her for something concrete. Something she could take back to them so they would understand. What came next caught Sophia and the black wolf by surprised. "I"m with pups..." "Pups!" Both her sister and the black wolf spoke. Their mouths dropped open, their eyes wide with surprise as they looked at each other. "How..." Sophia quickly responded, she shook her head, raised her hand out. "I know how..." "When..." Sophia corrected herself. The black wolf stood motionless. Pups, little ones, the future there sitting in front of him, in his mate"s body. He looked at her and she at him. Her eyes nervous, it reminded him of the first time when she tried to howl. He slowly walked over to her side. He greeted her, rubbing his nose against hers as she closed her eyes. "I am so happy..." He replied. He sat down next to her and looked at Sophia. Sophia stood, motionless, her hands on her hips and she was shaking her head with her eyes closed. Thinking about the situation; an angel and a wolf mating? "Sister... I don"t know what to say..." Sophia looked at both of them. She watched as her sister leaned her head against her mate. He leaned into her body. "This is unexpected..." Sophia opened her green eyes and stared at the ground. She brought her hand up and rubbed her chin. Sophia stood thinking to herself about the ramifications of an angel and a wolf. The history of man was filled with the mating of gods and man, but not wolfs and angels. She was in the middle of her thought process when something caught her attention out of the corner of her green eyes. Looking up, suddenly her eyes widened with surprise. "Sister!" Sophia quickly raised her arm and pointed. "Your tail!" "Huh... What!" they both turned quickly, looking at her tail. Sophia quickly ran to her side, grabbing her tail as if to pat the fire out. "No, no!" Sophia spoke quickly as she continued to no avail to try to stop it. Sophia turned to look to her sister as she was trying to stop it. She looked at her tail, slowly fading, turning into golden embers rising to heaven fading into the nothing. "They are taking you, sister!" Sophia"s face strained with concern. "No...!" She looked at the black wolf. "My pups..." He watched not knowing what to do. His eyes watched in disbelief. There was nothing for him to fight, nothing to chase off. Fear rose from his belly, something he had never experienced before tonight. "What can I do...?" He placed his head next to her head. He breathed in deeply taking in her scent. "What can I do..." his eyes teared up, it was a helpless feeling, one he had never experienced in his life. He looked into her eyes, watching her, knowing he could not help. "What can I do..."The tears rolled down his face. "Remember me... Please." She looked at her mate. Her eyes seem to be resigned to her fate. The tears flowed as she thought about her pups. "What about...", he started to ask about the pups. She could only rest her head against him crying. "They are taking me..." she whispered between sobs. Sophia quickly wrapped her arms around her body squeezing her tight. "No... No..." her tears flowed as she cried into her sister"s fur. She held on tightly, hoping, knowing it would not help her stay. "No... No... I am so sorry..." Sophia cried, her face buried in her sister"s coat. "Please stop..." Sophia moved her hand to her sister"s belly, feeling the life that existed inside." Sophia was crying as her sister"s form gently slipped away from her grasp. She, knowing her time was short, stared into the black wolf"s gaze. She noticed something out of the corner of her eye. "Huh!" She quickly looked over and saw it. She with all her remaining strength freed herself from Sophia"s grip. "What!" Sophia leaned forward with her arms open as if she could catch her. The black wolf raised his head, surprised as he watched her leap across the clearing. She straddled the remains of a carcass of an animal that he had killed earlier that morning. She reached down with her mouth and tore a piece of flesh off the body. Holding the flesh in her mouth, she turned, looking over her shoulder at Sophia. Her blue eyes seemed to be saying, "I"m sorry, sister". "Sister! ... No!" Sophia yelled and screamed. " Please..." Her body was still fading as the embers drifted into the night sky. She looked at both Sophia and her mate as she quickly chewed, then swallowed the flesh. She squeezed her eyes tight, grimaced. It tasted of life lost, she choked it down. "My pups..." Is all she could say repeatedly. She suddenly collapsed to the ground, and lay silent. Sophia watched as the transformation ceased. She had eaten the flesh of an animal and she would pay a heavy price. Sophia slowly walked over to her, stunned at what her sister had done, wiping the tears from her face. She sniffed as she bent down over her sister. She could hear her murmuring "my pups..." She stared down at her sister with her green eyes, with a hint of sadness; she rubbed her coat from nose to tail. The black wolf walked slowly over, sitting down, he lowered his head and sniffed." Will her..." "Yes... She will be fine..." She had a content look on her face, her green eyes shone. The smile came easy. Sophia, still looking down at her sister, smiled; her green eyes glowed, and her yellow hair flowed down her nude body to her waist. Her wings spread wide, twice her height as she turned to him. "We will be watching..." She disappeared in a bright light and the rushing sound of wind. He lay next to her, putting his head on her neck. He could hear her breathing soft, her heart beat steady. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes slowing falling asleep next to her on the warm pine needles. Spring came to the valley with the melting of snow and ice. The streams flowed fast down the mountainside, filling the lake full, forcing the old out and the new in. There is a chill in the air, which was offset by the warmth of the sun"s rays. The flowers of the valley bloomed along the water"s edge. The bird songs filled the air as they scourged for food to feed their young. This particular spring was welcomed by the yelping of four new pups; three females and one male. The young male"s coat was black, like his father with yellow eyes. One sister had bright blue eyes; her coat was steel grey with a white chest and belly. Another sister"s coat was a mixture of grey and black with black eyes. The third sister had a coat of chestnut brown and amber eyes, her tail was the same as her coat but the tip was white. After weeks of feeding from their mother, they would finally leave the den, enjoying the world outside. They bounced, ran, played, peed, and pooped to their hearts content just like all pups would be doing in the spring. "I"m home..." The black wolf laughed. He was greeted by four pups bouncing all over him. "Whoa, now..." He raised his head up, each one jumping and licking his mouth. "Food! Food! They cried out repeatedly. "Take it easy... Your father will give you some..." she laughed; she smiled as she came out of the darkness of the den. He regurgitated his meal, and they promptly lapped it up. "Soon, they will be eating by themselves..." He walked over; they gently rubbed their heads together then touched noses. "Hmmm" she gazed at him, "it"s so nice having a home..." "I like that..." He smiled, turned, looked over his shoulder at their pups. "What?" "Home..." She caressed his coat with her head. She leaned heavily against him, rubbing against him nose to tail. She sat down, watching their pups play with each other. Bouncing, jumping, and growling. One even tried to howl. "Not as bad as her first time." He thought. The black wolf walked over and lay down next to her as she watched the pups play. His front paws extended, he laid his head down upon them. "I am so tired..." They sat next to each other, their tails intertwined. The birds filled the air with song. The pups rough housed in the tall grass. The cool, spring breeze brushed through the pines and the leaves of the trees. "Hello... Sister..." Both of them quickly turned their heads in the direction of the voice. It was Sophia. Her green eyes shining like emeralds, smiled, her yellow hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her wings were folded and brought forward partially covering her nude body. She tilted her head, smiled, and gave a quick finger wave. She was standing next to a large tree a few feet behind them. The black wolf looked at her with suspicion. After what happened last time, he didn"t really trust her. He gave a slight growl so that she would notice. The pups heard, raised their heads, and went running for their mother. When they finally reached her, she was standing facing Sophia. She was smiling and laughing, her blue eyes were filled with happiness. "How are you doing, Sophia?" She leapt up on her hind legs, Sophia caught her front paws. Sophia gave her a hug and a playful scratch behind the ears. "It is so nice to see you..." The black wolf, however, gave a different response. He stood up slowly, growling, his ears back and his eyes narrowed. "Good morning, Sophia." She responded, her pups staring at the strangely beautiful somewhat familiar sight. Her pups gathered around her feet. "It is good to see you..." Sophia smiled, her green eyes focusing down at her sister"s feet at her pups. The black wolf stared, watching carefully. The male pup turned to watch him... Turned back and he attempted to growl, heckles raised. "Oh my... What a cute little male you have there, sister." A new voice sounded. It was Angelina, the youngest of the four sisters. She was shorter than Sophia, nude, with long, brown hair, and hazel eyes. She was quite beautiful and hid her wings folded behind her back. She was sitting on a fallen tree behind the black wolf. She was bracing her head up with her hand that was placed on her knee. She tilted her head slightly, smiled, and looked playfully at the young male pup. The black wolf quickly turned to see the new threat. Angelina smiled at him and gave a slight little finger wave. "Hello..." Her greeting was bright and cheerful, Angelina smiled. "You are a big fella... Aren"t you?" she directed her comment at the big, black wolf. She got up from the fallen tree, walked over to him. She squatted in front of him and stared into his eyes. "You got a nice growl there, but your eyes are saying something different." She reached out and patted in between his ears. "Huh?" Was his only response; as he turned his head away from her. "Besides", she tilted her head, "you know, we would never hurt our sister..." She laughed aloud, "but you..." she smirked. "Well, well..." She came from around the side of Sophia. It was Seraphina. She was the tallest and the oldest of the four sisters; her hair was the color of flame. It fell to her waist. Her eyes were the color of amber. She was beautiful and nude. She had a mischievous grin on her face. Seraphina knelt down, hugging her sister. "What a beautiful coat you have..." She reached out and picked up one of the female pups. "Well now, little girl," she held her in her arms with her belly exposed to the world. She playfully scratched it, the little pup, laughing, tried to bite her fingers. She growled. "Oh, my, so feisty!" Seraphina laughed, her amber eyes glowed. "So beautiful..." All the sisters laughed. "It is good to see you all..." She spoke looking up to her sisters. The black wolf stepped by her side, still not trusting them. Angelina noticed this immediately. "You don"t have to worry; she looked at the black wolf, "she"s eaten the flesh of an animal." "Hmmph..." He responded, turning his head opposite of her. "We can never bring her back now..." Angelina continued, she leaned in close to his black ears. She had a mischievous smirk on her face and her eyes narrowed. "But... we can come and see her anytime we want... I mean any time!" He looked up into her eyes and he slowly shook his head and closed them slowly. "What the!" Angelina rose up, putting her hand on her waist. "Are you..." She pointed at him. "Sticking your tongue out at me!" She turned to look at her mate, just as the pups and the others did. He was sitting up, his ears perked up, his eyes narrowed, and the tip of his red tongue exposed at the front of his muzzle. "Indeed..." He responded. "Oh my..." "Ha ha..." The sisters roared with laughter. Hmmph..." Angelina folded her arms, pretending to pout. "That will not work on me..." He continued, he motioned in the direction of his mate. "She tries it all the time." Smiles lit up all around. Seraphina was holding a little female high up in the air. She gazed down at the angel holding her firmly. She was smiling and laughing, talking to the pup. "Aaachoo!" The pup sneezed. Seraphinas" eyes widened in surprise. "What!" The others raced to her side. She was still holding the pup high into the air. The black wolf and his mate rose up on their hind legs supported by her sisters. The pups sat on the ground watching the scene. "How can this be?" Seraphina spoke, gazing at all of them. When the pup had sneezed, the little female pup turned into a little girl. If that was not surprising enough, she had two large, brown ears with white tufts sitting on top of her head. A tail was attached to her back covered in fur of chestnut with a white tip. She smiled, laughing, exposing two canines in her mouth. She was slowly brought back down to earth, smiling all the way. She stood on two legs quite wobbly, but she reached out and grabbed her mother"s coat around her neck to support her. Sophia spoke. She was standing next to Seraphina, looking down at the child on the ground. She raised her eyes to Seraphina. "How can this be?" Sophia was puzzled; they looked at each other shaking their heads, and then returned her gaze to the pups. "I don"t... Understand." The black wolf sniffed his daughter. "It"s her..." He looked at his mate and at the rest of his pups. The little girl released her mother"s coat, turned, and ran to her brother and sisters. They smiled, laughed as her sister came to them. They jumped up and greeted her as if nothing had changed. She sneezed again, then transformed back to a wolf pup. The adults watched, amazed, not understanding what was going on. "It is possible..." Seraphina spoke running her hands through her flame colored hair. She watched as the pups were playing. She rose up on her hind legs, Sophia caught her front paws. "What you mean?" They all looked at Seraphina for the answer. "You were with pup before you ate the flesh..." She looked at her sister, Sophia let her front paws go, and she sat on the ground in front of her. Seraphina continued to explain. She could see the worry in her sister"s eyes and the black wolf"s eyes. "It"s not that ... that.. it will be all right..." Seraphina smiled. "Because, it occurred after they were conceived." She smiled watching the pups play. "So..." Angelina spoke looking up to her sister. She questioned her with her eyes. "What about..." Angelina asked. Seraphina was watching the pups play and then turned looking at the group. She looked at her sisters and the black wolf; her eyes conveyed that everything is all right. She looked up to each sister, they all smiled. "We will be here to help... Seraphina spoke, they all nodded their heads. "Once they"ve mastered their transformation it should be relatively easy." "But..." The black wolf interrupted, his eyes filled with worry but she smiled at him. "The pups have the attributes of both mother and father..." She placed her hand on her sister and scratched behind her ears. She turned her head and looked over her shoulder. She finished her sentence. "The pups have the attributes of both mother and father, she paused and smiled, "Angel and Wolf."
sentences: Mr. Jefferies finally got done lecturing on Ancient Greece and passed out our work for the day. We could work together or separate but since I was sitting next to Rhydian now we decided to work together. Looking around while he read over the worksheet I noticed Tom and Shannon sitting together and working too. Feeling a weight on my leg I looked over to see Rhydian with a grin on his beautifully smooth lips and smiled back. "Is it bad that I can"t stop thinking about more of your explanations?" I whispered so low only he could hear, this of course only made his grin grow. He moved his hand higher up onto my thigh and moved his lips an airs breath from my ear. "No I think that"s a very good thing. Cause I haven"t thought of anything other than what happened in the darkroom the entire time." He whispered into my ear then he bit my earlobe before pulling away and looking back down at his paper. This of course left my heart trying to jump out of my chest and my head swirling. I shook my head to clear it of all thoughts of Rhydian and heard him chuckle beside me. "Maddy, Rhydian I see you haven"t gotten much work done. Would you like to explain why?" Mr. Jefferies asked looking between the both of us. "Uh we are a bit confused on what we are supposed to do." I replied cautiously. Nodding he leaned over the table and started explaining the questions to us. The next thing we know the lunch bell was ringing and everyone was packing up. Walking down the hall towards the cafeteria people were bumping into me from every direction and I could feel my wolf surfacing again just not as fast. Trying to control the wolf while it was still new to me was hard but I was learning. I was about to enter the cafeteria when I felt someone pull me back from the door. Rhydian had ahold of my arm while looking me up and down before continuing to pull me backwards. We ended up in the boy"s locker room in front of his locker. "What are we doing here?" I asked obviously confused. "Well I couldn"t very well let you continue going around the school looking like that, now could I." he grinned once again looking me up and down and I remembered I was still in the short shorts, tights, and my school shirt. "Well what can I do while still at school?" I asked once again confused. He was taking the lock off his locker door and pulled out gym pants and a t-shirt of his. "Are you serious?" I practically squealed at him. He laughed and pulled me closer kissing me on my lips. He pushed the clothes into my hands and turned around. "Yes now hurry and change so we can go get some food." He pretty much barked at me. I pulled my clothes off and pulled his shirt over my head then pulled the gym pants up my legs laughing when they trapped my feet inside. "Okay I"ll admit it was a good try but the pants have swallowed me." I explained tugging on his shoulder letting him know he could turn back around. He looked me up and down once again but this time his wolf was surfacing for some reason. "Do I look so bad that even your wolf finds it horrific?" I laughed nervously. "Quite the opposite you look great in MY clothes. Here." He kneeled down on his knees and rolled the legs of the pants up until my feet finally were free. Then he looked up at me and his eyes were yellow and I finally understood. His wolf was possessive of me. He ran his hands up my legs to my hips and over the sides of my ribs then he pulled me in for a kiss. Much like the one in the darkroom this one was passionate and out of control. A part of me knew that we should stop before we got caught but when I saw his wolf rise mine decided to join the party to. He slid his hands back down my sides and around my thighs picking me up and closing my legs around his waist. He held me up against the lockers kissing me senseless. Finally we pulled a part for air and I kissed down his neck while he ran his hands back up my thighs but this time when he made it to the bottom of his shirt they went underneath it. The feeling of his hands running over my bare skin wasn"t calming my wolf but riling it up even more. I threw my head back and moaned when he ran his fingers down my spine. Pulling his head back to mine I kissed him deeply while tugging on his hair in which he groaned. When we heard the latch on the door squeak we jumped apart before the person could see our position. "What do you lot think you"re doing in here?" the PE teacher asked. "Maddy needed some clothes since hers weren"t exactly school dress code." Rhydian spoke with all the confidence in the world. I on the other hand couldn"t even look at the teacher since my eyes were still yellow and my veins were black. He held me behind him in a protective stance while the teacher thought over his answer. "Okay but you need to leave now that she"s changed." She ordered. "Yes ma"am." He replied pulling me by the waist out of the locker rooms. His arm was still tight around my waist when he pulled me into the darkroom. "Are you okay now? Enough to go get food before class?" he asked looking me over to see that the inky veins were fading fast and that my eyes were once again my natural brown. "Yes I"m okay. Let"s get food." I stood on my tip toes and kissed him on the lips before turning around and walking out the door. Walking through the cafeteria doors the giant room was almost empty which was a sign class was about to start. We went up to the counter and I started to laugh. "Veggie day!" I exclaimed. "Never mind I"m no longer hungry. You should get something though." He said like he might be sick. "No I"m good till I get home. Let"s get to class." I replied still laughing hard. He smiled while shaking his head and pulled me close to his body. Next thing I know I"m being tickled then the loud shrill sound of the bell sounded and we went running. "Maddy, Rhydian your late!" the teacher called out. Jefferies walked in and noticed my clothes. "At least your better dress than our last meeting Maddy." He nodded at me as he walked back out of the room and we took our seats. When the teacher started teaching I started to think about what I was going to do when I got home. This had already been a long day. Tomorrow probably wasn"t going to be any better if we kept up like today. Merry Christmas y"all! Leave me some reviews. They make me sooo happy! A/N Okay for my regular readers I have decided since so many of you want me to continue with the story that has developed with chapters two and three to post it separately since some was getting confused. The title you should look for now if you still wish to read it is Maddian Wolfblood. Now that I have a new laptop I"ll try and update at least once a week. Also PLEASE send in ideas for the story I would love to see what you guys want to happen and I"ll see what I can do to incorporate them into the story. By the way one of you asked about Tom and Shannon finding out and I already have an idea for that rattling around inside my head so that will be coming up in the next few chapters. So hopefully you will keep reading and reviewing and I do believe I will try to update some more tonight or at the latest tomorrow since after all it is Christmas A/N Okay this chapter is dedicated to one of you guys. I"m loving all the feedback and ideas .Also there is another idea I got from a Lucy that wanted me to write a one shot of Maddian reuniting in season 3. I will try to do this for you but I don"t know how good it will be cause of the fact I have not yet watched season 3. But I will look around on YouTube and such and see if I can make a good story. So with no further distractions and music blaring here"s your one-shot! Chapter Four Unknown POV Running that"s all I could do. I followed his scent until I finally came upon a farm with a pretty large stone house and no other houses for what seemed like miles. I went a little closer being careful to avoid the broken branches on the ground and dried leaves not wanting anyone to know I was here just yet. His scent seemed to disappear into the house I seen a shed and ran for it. I could at least hide out here and rest then continue tracking him later. Walking in and noticing the shelves that held wooden boxes and picture frames and a lot of other things I quickly darted behind them and curled up to rest. Before everything went black I started to remember how we ran to the village and had the time of our lives. Now I understood why my mother had been a tame before going wild. There was so much we didn"t know about and so much to do. My sister the daddy"s girl she is was too scared to come with me when I told her I was leaving. Truthfully she was only my half-sister her mother died before mine came along. My mother was proud and beautiful there"s really no question to why my father fell for her even if she happened to be a tame before she came to the wild. All I could think about was how much it was going to hurt her when she found me gone. Just as I was about to fall asleep when I heard a noise, it was the door opening. A male wolfblood walked in he was talk with curly hair about the color of sand. He looked like he could be intimidating if he wanted to be but something about him gave off the thought of laid back and childishness. Either way I wasn"t taking the chance I ran for it pushing him to the side and running out the door. I was trying to quickly find his scent again when I heard another door slam open and out walks a female wolfblood that was about the same age as the male. Her eyes were yellow and her veins where an inky black, she was about to change. The male came up behind me in about the same shape, both had growls ripping from their throats, a clear warning. Then the door slammed again and I see him. Rhydian. But there was another. A tomboyish girl that wasn"t very tall or big but still had an air of superiority about her. Her dark brown hair flowed just passed her shoulders and her tanned skin worked together perfectly to make her look more feminine than she seemed to want. I was guessing that the two older wolves were her parents and she resembled them a lot mainly because she too had let her wolf come closer to the surface. But even as she was threatening me I couldn"t help but think she was beautiful. "Jesse?!" Rhydian asked almost like he thought he was dreaming. "Hey Rhydian." Rhydian POV I couldn"t believe Jesse actually came. I mean I did tell him he could leave but I didn"t think he would follow me especially after his father"s issues with me. Neither one of us are high on his favorites list but still. "Jesse does he know you"re here?" I asked thinking that I"d have to keep running to keep Maddy and the Smiths safe. He turned to look at me after pretty much just staring straight at Maddy answering with, "I don"t think anyone knows I left yet. Although it probably won"t slow him down." "Who are you?" Maddy asked. "He"s Alric"s son. He"s okay. We watched each other"s backs." I quickly explained. Maddy seemed to finally get tired of the staring and yelled at him. "Stop staring at me like I"m a freak!" "Sorry." "Are you here to help your father?" Mrs. Smith asked him while looking around the perimeter of their property. "No. I just had to get away and I didn"t know where else to go so I followed Rhydian." He seemed scared which was no surprise Emma could do that to almost anyone. Except Maddy. "Come inside." She said while walking back toward the door. It had been a few days since I had been back and the Smiths had gotten me back into school and situated while waiting for Alric to finally show himself. He had made a couple appearances but nothing to say that he was done waiting. Jesse on the other hand was loving the human world like I always knew he would. Honestly he fit in too well to be a wild wolf. He had been hanging around Tom and Shannon but mainly he hung around Maddy. I wasn"t sure how she felt about it though, at times she seemed happy to have another friend other times not so much. A couple times I had caught him staring at her like he had the first time he saw her. Finally I got tired of trying to guess and just came straight out and asked him. "So you and Maddy seem to be pretty good friends now." The way I stated it, it sounded more like a question than a statement. "Yeah, about that, I had a question for you. Does she have a boyfriend or anything?" he seemed scared about asking me. Why would he be scared by me? It"s not like I have a claim on her. It"s your own fault. Tell him she"s yours. My wolf demanded. "No not that I know of why?" I replied while ignoring my wolf. "I was thinking of asking her out. I mean get real who wouldn"t want to. She"s beautiful and fierce and smart. The list just keeps going." He seemed almost in a day dream so I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes and he shook his head and focused on me again. Kill him. My wolf demanded again. Shut up. "You can always try." I encouraged him then walked out not being able to take the thoughts of him and Maddy together. "Jesse! Rhydian! Maddy! Can you come down?" We all ran out of our rooms when we heard Emma yell, my eyes connected with Maddy"s and we both seemed to have the same question in them. "Yes mum?" "Jesse we want some more information on you. Like why you"re not helping your father and why you seem to fit into the human world so easily." Emma stared straight at him and he stepped back from her. Finally he took a deep breath and sat down on the sofa. "I"m not helping my father because he and I don"t exactly see eye to eye on something"s. Anything really. As for fitting in so well I"m not sure. Maybe it is because my mother was a tame before she came to the wild. She used to tell me stories about her family and the stuff they would do. She hasn"t seen them for a while because she ran off from them but she still remembers and would tell me." He seemed sadden by talking of his mother. Perhaps he missed her, after all that was the reason he gave me for not leaving at first. "Why did your mother run away, Jesse?" Emma seemed emotional about the topic as well. "She discovered Eolas and some other skills that she couldn"t use unless she was in the wild. So she left." "What does she look like?" Emma demanded. "Black hair down to her back, dark blue eyes, pale skin, and a stare that could rival yours. Why?" he asked. Then added, "She looks a lot like you." "Is her name Louise?" "Yes. How did you know?" Jesse asked while Emma looked at Dan with a slight smile on her face. She almost looked like she was going to cry. Dan on the other hand just wrapped his arms around her. "Because she is my cousin. I"ve missed her for so long." Jesse seemed to think that over then suddenly looked over at Maddy with a look of horror on his face. I on the other hand could barely contain my laughter. They were related. Well no date now. "So that means we are related." He looked at Emma while she nodded. "Great." "You can stay with us as long as you wish." Dan said looking at both me and Jesse. "Thanks Mr. Smith." We both replied at the same time to which we cracked up laughing. Maddy seemed to be frozen in place so I went over to her and threw an arm around her shoulders shaking her out of her thoughts. "Watch it you might hurt yourself if you think too hard." I teased while smiling. She looked up at me and just shook her head laughing. "That explains your good health cause you never think." She retorted to which I pulled her on my lap while tickling her. I looked up as she struggled over to Jesse who was watching us. He just smiled and shook his head. Looking me straight in the eyes he mouthed two words. You win. I smiled back because he was right. I had won, maybe not Maddy"s heart but I had her none the less and plenty of other stuff to be thankful for. Regardless of that or the fact that they are related. He gets too close to her and he will wish he hadn"t. I think my facial expression showed what I was thinking cause threw his head back laughing so hard I thought he might pass out. Ugh stupid boys. My wolf muttered always to have the last word. A/N okay so probably not what you had in mind but it popped into mine when I read the request so I figured why not. Tell me what you think. A/N Hi guys and gals. I"m sorry if you are waiting on an update. I"m working on it for all three of my stories. I don"t feel very well at the moment but I promise you I will update soon. I do have a question for you guys though. The chapters I have wrote in Rhydian"s POV, are they well written? I find it hard to know when they are well written considering I"m a girl trying to write from a guy"s POV. I"m writing stories for my senior project and I"m kind of tired of writing from a girls POV. So can you guys give me some feedback and some help please? And once again I swear I will work on updating. Thank you. A/N Someone asked for a Dances with Wolfbloods one-shot so here"s what I came up with. Hopefully y"all like it. Had to pull myself off of tumblr to write this Rhydian"s POV Leaning against the lockers with Jana on one side and Maddy on the other but Maddy had her head on my shoulder I could feel her breath brushing my neck from her light snoring. I shrugged my shoulder roughly trying to wake her. She woke startled and looked around when she looked toward me I asked her about the journal in her lap. "I made it for Shannon. Hoping she could forget about the files." She explained while turning it over and over in her hands. "Just give her time. She"ll be okay." I replied. I couldn"t help but watch her out of the corner of my eye. She was beautiful. I kept hearing the Three K"s speak of the Disko that they have planned. Could I ask her too it? Was it possible she would say yes? "Um...Maddy could I speak to you alone for a moment?" I asked pushing myself up off of the floor and holding a hand down for her. She took my hand with a worried expression but didn"t question me until we were alone outside since our darkroom was taken at the moment. "What"s wrong?" she inquired shivering as the wind chose then to blow. I shrugged out of my jacket and swung it over her shoulders and pulled it tight until she grabbed it to hold. She smiled and looked away then looking me back in the eyes she repeated her question. "Nothing is wrong, it"s just that I had a question for you. I just figured to ask you away from distractions would be better." I explained but in the end kind of ended up rambling. I was losing my nerve. This isn"t good. "Well..." she said getting slightly impatient. She shifted from one foot to the other while waiting and I decided to just go for it. "Will you go with me to the dance?" I spoke quickly and I wasn"t actually sure she heard me until she looked at me with wide eyes. She seemed a bit frozen. Was it that bad of an idea? I shouldn"t have asked her, now I understand that. It had been a good three minutes without any kind of verbal response from her, so I decided to speak instead. "Never mind it was a stupid idea. I"ll see you in class." When I started to walk away I seen her face fall a bit and she seemed to try not to cry. I knew by her reaction before though that I miss interpreted her actions. Or she probably was crying because she was disgusted or creeped out. A few minutes later he walked into class but instead of sitting next to me like usual she sat next to Shannon. I should have known that she wouldn"t want anything to do with me. The rest of class went as normal as it could have without Maddy by my side. She disappeared after class with Shannon and then reappeared in the cafeteria for lunch. We all sat at the same table Tom chatting away while Maddy and me we basically sleeping in our food. All of a sudden Shannon came running in and over to our table doing everything except jumping in place. Although I suspect she would have started to if we hadn"t jumped in. "Shannon you okay?" Maddy asked with a smirk on her beautifully smooth lips. I really need to stop thinking like that... "Harry flipping Averwood just asked me to the disko!"She practically yelled. We all laughed and congratulated her. I wasn"t exactly up for talking about the dance which just reminded me I no longer needed the tickets I had. "I need Maddy there so Rhydian you should come to and Toms going anyway so we could make a group thing out of this. Or if you want to keep the K"s away from you then you and Maddy could go together." Shannon offered while smiling still, I swear her face was going to break in half if she didn"t stop smiling so big. "I"m good." I spoke. "Come on Rhydian!" Maddy practically whined. I just looked at her for a moment then got up shaking my head and walked out of the room. I knew she was following me but had no clue as to why. "I think you made your decision already, Maddy." I growled at her without turning around to face her. Honestly I didn"t know if I was more hurt or angry at who else was on her mind. "Yes I have made up my mind. Maybe you should stop and let me explain." She shouted back at me. I stopped but didn"t dare turn around and let her see the emotions running across my face. "Fine." This is just the first part. I will also be updating my other two stories soon. I just have to find time in between my classes. Thanks for being patient. I know most don"t like waiting., Clamping her mouth shut, thakfully no one had come running at her screams, she tried to calm herself down. Her whole body shook with the effort it took her to be quiet when ligtning struck again. Tears streamed down Danu"s face as she struggled to keep from screaming. She hugged her blankets as close to her as physically possible. Her arms and legs burned as she curled in upon herself. Shaking from the thunder still ringing in her ears, Danu beganto sob. Her body shook with each heaving sob. No longer trying to be quiet, the fear had overcome her, her crying grew in volume. Someone should have heard, apart from the fact that the pelting rain disquised any and all noise. Clinging on to her beadclothes for all she was worth, danu"s musscels relaxedone by one. Softly, gently, she fell asleep and into dreams about a tall man with dark peircing eyes. A/N: So I said that I"d try to get Septimus into this chapter. It was a lot harder than I anticipated. In case you can"t tell. He"s the one that she"s dreaming about. Hopefully it will all make sense later. On a less happy note. I will probably not update for quite some time now. I somehow managed to hurt my wrist while at school and guess what. It turns out that I have tendonitis which is temporary, so... Hopefuly I"ll be able to write more in a few weeks. But the brace means that it"s hard to do just about anything and I have to get a splint so that it will be completly imobilized. Recap. Septimus will be in the next chapter. He"s fully introduced there and everything. And you probably won"t get it for a while. The only reason I managed to type this up is I did it one handed while on spring break. And yes, I get that our spring break is a little late. Whatever. Lakeside Gravity Danu was curled up in her chair with the book Yvaine had given her. Her boots stuck out of the fluffy mess of skirt and petticoats that she wore as they rested on the armrest. Her long brown hair hung down the other side of the chair. She felt the slight dip of the ship that signaled descent, and sighed. Sticking a random piece of parchment in the pages, she stretched the kinks out of her neck and sat up. The door was still safely shut, which meant that she had a few moments more than she originally thought. She braced herself for impact, grateful that this time someone had managed to land the ship relatively smoothly. The previous landing had jarred her much more than she would have liked. She paced around her cabin six times, the heels of her boots lightly tapping on the wooden floor. Her cabin wasn"t particularly large, but she paced it diligently, biding her time. She wanted to get out of the stuffy space, but was still afraid to do so. There was something about being on land that made all of the crew members more adventurous. They usually spent the first day lazing about near the ship, but hardly paid much attention to their surroundings and people. The only ones they cared about were the ones with weapons. Danu slipped her boots off her feet. She held them in her hand and carefully opened the door. She continued to hold her boots in one hand as she crept along. Her skirt, though much more voluminous than preferred for sneaking around, hardly rustled at all as she turned one corner after another. There was a huge ruckus from the top deck, and Danu stepped back a bit before continuing on. She had no clue what was going on, but it didn"t look like anyone was going to be coming down for quite some time. She continued on for only a few moments before hearing slight creaking and music. She knew that her uncle had a music machine thing, she couldn"t remember its proper name, but he didn"t creak floorboards that way when he played it. There was too much carpet in his cabin. She moved silently, almost stalking the noise. The creak was subtle, so subtle that anyone not looking for it would have missed it. In all the commotion that was happening above deck, Danu was surprised that she had heard it in spite of the fact that she had conditioned herself to respond to even the slightest noise. She leaned against the wall, just a few feet from where a man dressed all in black stood. He had unsheathed his sword, and appeared to be taking great care to make as little noise as possible. "Come here often?" Danu asked. She couldn"t help but try to lighten what appeared to be a very tense moment for him. "Who are you?" He tensed up even more, his gloves hiding the whiteness of his knuckles as he gripped his sword even tighter. "That"s no way to treat a lady." The man looked her over. In her blue dress, the golden chain around her neck glimmered in the light. He recognized the chain instead of the diamond. He had seen the thick coil around his father"s neck his whole life. "I suppose not," he said as he sheathed his sword. He removed his gloves and walked towards Danu, a strange contemplative look in his eyes. She became increasingly aware of her height, or lack thereof. He was tall, with dark hair and black eyes that seemed to pierce her soul. She felt her breath hitch in her throat, almost as if it was stuck. There was a certain attraction that she had never felt before. The man picked up the pendant. In his hands the stone turned from a diamond to a ruby. Danu stared at the man in front of her with shock. She hadn"t ever expected a prince to even speak to her. She was about to drop to her knees. She would have had the necklace not stopped her before she had lowered herself only a few inches to the degree of a princess to a king. She stood again, feeling more confused than ever. "My lord, please forgive my impertinence. I was not aware of your identity." He was much too young to be Primus, and the only other prince alive was Septimus. He had the most notorious reputation. But whatever could be said about him, he was powerful and alive. He could cut off her head in an instant if he felt like it. He walked around her, letting go of the pendant as he circled. His eyes wandered over every inch of her from her light brown hair tumbling down her back, to the faintest touch of a blush on her cheeks. What he noticed the most, was that her eyes were the most brilliant shade of blue. He would have sworn that they were brighter than the sky and more intense than the ocean. They burned with emotion, with only a hint of fear at the surface. He had always favored the color blue, but in that moment he loved it. "Strong willed, a good sense of pride, common sense. You have some fine traits, even if you are a little short." "I"m not short," Danu replied a little quickly. "Feisty too. I would say that you meet most of the qualifications. Now tell me, who is your next of kin?" And I"m going to leave it here for now. Sorry it"s taken me so long to get back to this. I didn"t expect my wrist to hurt for as long as it did. I"m still working on everything, it"s just been on hold for longer than I would have originally liked. Thank you all for putting up with me and my sporadic updates. I"ll try to get the next chapter up next week. Danu mumbled something about a captain and her uncle, looking down at the floor. She couldn"t help it. Being in front of a prince, no a king, was intimidating. "I"m afraid I didn"t catch that," Septimus said. "My Uncle, Captain Shakespeare is physically the closest relative available. If you want one of my parents, I"m afraid you"ll have to travel a while to get to them. Even on the ship," Danu said. His voice had softened and that made Danu a little more comfortable. She still stared at the floor, unsure of how to act in the presence of a king, but she had managed to find her voice. "Is he on the ship now?" Septimus asked. "Yes." Danu looked up at him, wondering what he was asking. Septimus held out his arm for her to take. "Would you lead me to him?" She took it, not sure if it was a wise thing to turn a king down. Not that she wanted to. He was attractive, and she felt drawn to him. His eyes were dark and smoldering, like the ones she had been dreaming about. She led him down the corridor, and then through a few twists and turns to the cabin of Captain Shakespeare. There was music playing, as it usually was when the crew had free time. Danu knocked as loudly as she could. "Captain?" she called through the door. "There"s someone here to see you." The music stopped. There was a slight scuffling noise, and then a pause. Captain Shakespeare opened the door in a dressing gown, a smudge on his right cheek. Danu internally rolled her eyes. "What can I help you with?" he asked Septimus "May we come in?" Septimus asked. "I seem to have found a young lady on board and I"m not sure I want the crew to come rushing down and find her." Captain Shakespeare nodded. He wasn"t too keen on the idea of them finding Danu either. He would do anything to keep her safe. "So what can I do for you today?" Septimus took a deep breath. Even though he had spent his whole life trying to become king, he was unsure of what to do in the situation he was in. The stone had not only chosen him, but it seemed it had chosen a queen as well. "I"m Septimus. Former prince, and now king of Stormhold. And I have to ask you for your niece"s hand in marriage." Both of Danu"s and Captain Shakespeare"s jaws dropped at the request. Captain Shakespeare because he wasn"t sure what would prompt such a question, and Danu"s at the idea that he would ask her uncle without asking her. "Why would you ask such a thing?" Captain Shakespeare asked. "Under normal circumstances I wouldn"t," Septimus replied. "After all, we only just met. Normally I would have asked to court her and then marry her. But the stone chose me to be king, and it appears to have chosen her to be my consort." "It can do that?" Danu asked. "Under rare circumstances. Usually it tells the king when his love is near," he explained. "As most of the kings met their wives after they had been king for a while." Danu blushed a little and looked back at the floor. While she found him startlingly handsome, the way he looked at her was slightly intimidating. He looked at her as if she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Septimus wished that Danu would look at him. Her eyes were blue. His favourite colour was blue, and her eyes were it. When she had looked at him before it had flooded him with feelings that he wasn"t quite sure exactly what they were. But the longer he stood close to her, the more intense a pull he felt towards her. He supposed it could be the ruby hanging around her neck, but that seemed unlikely. "And what do you want Danu?" Captain Shakespeare asked. She pondered his question for a few seconds. "I think that he"s right," she said. "It does feel as if the stone can choose, and I don"t feel as if questioning it too much would be the wisest thing ever. After all, you"re a pirate on a flying ship." She looked at her uncle and he nodded his head. There wasn"t anything he could argue with that. "If she agrees to marry you, then I have no objections." Danu and Septimus looked at each other, each daring to hope. Danu nodded her assent, and Septimus felt his mouth curve in a fraction of a smile. "Would you marry us?" he asked Captain Shakespeare. "Here? Now?" "I know it"s a little unusual, but this whole thing is unusual," Septimus said. "And you"re a captain of a ship. If you do it, it"s just as binding as if a priest did it." "Alright," Captain Shakespeare said. He performed the wedding, acting as both witness and officiator. The couple stood in front of him, nervous and excited, in spite of having just met. "You may now kiss the bride." Septimus leaned down to kiss her. It was slow, sweet and tender. Danu wrapped her arms around Septimus" neck, enjoying it. And a crash burst through the door, and the crew entered. "What have I told you about knocking my door down?" Captain Shakespeare bellowed. "I was conducting a wedding!" "We thought you were in trouble," the first mate said. "And who"s the couple?" another of the crew asked. "Meet my niece Danu, and her new husband King Septimus," Captain Shakespeare said. There were a few gasps in the crew. They certainly hadn"t been expecting a prince to board their ship and then become king while on it. They fell to their knees. "Excuse me," one of them said. He was a fairly short member, with black hair and brown eyes. "It seems there was a bit of a misunderstanding, and your men are dead." Septimus felt his rage grow, but he could also feel the woman who was next to him. One of her hands was on his back, trying to calm him down, and it was working. "I fear that means I"ll have to come up with alternate means of making sure that my wife and I arrive back at the palace unscathed," he said. "If I might offer my services," Captain Shakespeare said. "After all, she is my favourite niece, and her mother would kill me if anything were to happen to her. And I"ll make sure that my crew behaves from here on out." Septimus nodded in agreement. He wanted to go punch something, but would wait until that was acceptable. So I really loved writing the last chapter. I have no clue if this is even in character anymore, but it"s my fic. So what I say goes. Right? Danu awoke in the morning to find herself wrapped up in strong arms. There was a split second of panic before she remembered the events of the day before and snuggled closer to her pillow. Her pillow turned out to be her husband"s chest. She snuggled into him and he laughed. "What are you doing?" She mumbled, wanting to get back to sleep. The previous night, while enjoyable, hadn"t exactly been restful. "I was just thinking. It seems strange to become king, and then so quickly after that find my queen. The same day that I had become king. What do you think?" "I think that if you"re going to ask me questions like this in the morning, you shouldn"t keep me up so late." She pulled an actual pillow from under Septimus"s head and covered her face and ears with it. It was a poor attempt to block out the noise. And it was slightly folly in that it caused Septimus to laugh deeply, and her head was still resting on his chest. "I don"t recall you complaining last night." Danu pulled the pillow from over her head and glared at him. Septimus was once again caught by her eyes. Bright blue, and beautiful. She must have had a human ancestor somewhere in order to have eyes that colour. But he wouldn"t have it any other way. He kissed her, surprising his wife. He pulled away after a moment, but she gripped him tightly, holding him close. "Now I remember why I wasn"t complaining last night," she whispered. "But why don"t you show me some more." Septimus was all too eager to oblige. ~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~ The morning was delightfully less eventful than the day before. Or that was the way that Danu saw it. There was no one unexpected coming aboard, and no one leaving. The one thing that she could have done without was the way that she blushed, or at least felt like blushing, every time someone looked at her too long. She didn"t have anything to blush about. Sure, she was now a married woman. But that hardly changed anything. She was still the same girl she had been just the day before. Only now she had a title. Just thinking about that was enough to make her shake her head. How was she going to explain that one to her mother? Hi mum. I went off with Uncle Dauntless and got myself married. And my husband is the most feared man in all of Stormhold, and the king. That wouldn"t go over too well. "How are you my dear?" Captain Shakespeare asked. "More than a little tired," Danu admitted. She then wondered if that was too much information for her uncle. It probably was, but she hadn"t said anything incriminating. "More brides than you have spent the first few days after their wedding exhausted," Captain Shakespeare assured his niece. Danu could feel the blush rise around her cheeks. It had felt almost constant, but it burned brighter with a fervor that she wanted to hide. Captain Shakespeare laughed. "Don"t worry. No one here thinks anything of it." That made Danu feel slightly better. But only slightly. She was still embarrassed out of her mind. "There you are," Septimus swept in followed by the first mate. "I"ve just been talking with George here about security and our route. He said that you were the best person to consult with in terms of navigation. But he assures me that we"re safer here than anywhere else." "I usually set the routes for our trips," Captain Shakespeare said. "But George here is in charge of security. Not that I can"t take care of myself or my crew. He"s just better at making sure that no one gets close enough to even try anything." "Though," Danu interjected, "with your reputation we likely won"t have any trouble at all." "I guess I do have a bad habit of killing people who get in my way," Septimus admitted. "And I really hate traitors. So there is some truth to the rumors." Danu rolled her eyes. She knew that the rumors wouldn"t have gotten as far as they had, or been as outlandish as they had been, if they hadn"t had some grain of truth. "Just try to avoid killing people unnecessarily, please." "I think I can manage that." Danu smiled. She might have jumped headfirst into marriage, but she was founding that she could at least be a positive influence in Septimus" life. Hopefully she could be a positive influence for her home. A/N: So I"m not really sure anymore where this story is going. I guess that"s what happens when there"s a few years between chapters. And I"m not going to promise that I"ll get the next chapter up soon. I really have no clue when I"ll have the time and/or energy to write it. Or if another story will take precedence. I am really hoping to get this finished and done soon, though. But the best and easiest way to get me to write more is to tell me that you liked it. I thrive off feedback. And actually the only reason that the past two chapters have gone up is because someone liked/followed my story. So if you want to read more, let me know. Danu shook her head as she clung onto the pillow. The thunderstorm they were flying into wasn"t the biggest one she"d been in, but she still didn"t like it. And she liked the fact that it was happening at night even less. Septimus was sound asleep next to her. He"d managed to fall asleep before the storm hit, and hadn"t been awakened by it like she had. Another crack and flash, almost simultaneous, echoed through the small cabin. She buried her head into the pillow, debating whether or not to wake her husband. After all, he was supposed to protect her. But she wasn"t in any real danger. Finally, her need to have company won out and she shook Septimus gently. He sat up faster than she had seen anyone move, looking around as if there was great danger. "Septimus?" she asked. "Danu? I thought... What time is it?" "I"m not entirely sure," she confessed. "I think it"s about one or two in the morning." He looked over at her rumpled hair and the dark circles starting to form under her eyes. It was clear that she"d been up for a while. "Why are you awake?" he asked. A flash, so close that it had to have hit the wire strung to the ship for that exact purpose echoed through her skin. She almost jumped, but grabbed Septimus" hand. "The storm. I"ve been afraid of them for a while." He pulled her into his arms. "You should have woken me up when it started." She snuggled into his embrace, feeling her muscles relax. As long as she listened to his heartbeat she could ignore the thunder crashing just outside her room. "I didn"t want to disturb you," she mumbled. "You looked so peaceful sleeping there, and you need your rest. We"ll be at the palace soon, and then life will get interesting." He looked into her blue eyes, feeling himself falling for her. He had known it would happen, but he hadn"t expected how quickly it was happening. Part of him wanted to fight it, to remain as detached from his emotions as he had been while his brothers were alive. But a larger portion of him wanted to let himself be vulnerable now that his survival didn"t depend on him remaining aloof. "I"m not going to sleep when you can"t," he said. "I..." he trailed off. "Thank you." Danu whispered the words, softly exhaling as she curled up in the space that she seemed to fit as if it had been made for her. When her nose tickled his neck, it was all he could do to keep from kissing her breathless. He wasn"t sure if she needed that. While it would be a distraction from the storm, and he certainly wouldn"t be complaining, she had looked exhausted. Still, her lips ghosted over his skin, occasionally placing a kiss on particularly vulnerable parts of his neck. It looked like sleep wasn"t exactly on her mind. He kissed her heartily, his hands roaming over her. He enjoyed the little gasps and sounds that came from her as he distracted her from the storm raging outside. A/N: So yes, this chapter"s short. I really didn"t have much of an idea going on when I started. I"ll get them to the palace soon. I hope. Anyway. I"m doing much better at updating now. But seriously, reviews or anything would be greatly appreciated., The Assassins walked and killed as they made their way through the mansion"s many corridors, ended up finding the one they were looking for. Breaking in the room with a small lockpick, the group entered the room to find a dead man. '"Wait...'' Aedel said, confused. '"The Governor was already killed by someone else?'' Connor stood there, confused as well. '"If he was already killed...'' '"Look out!'' Holo shouted at the two men as they got knocked out by two guards coming from the door behind them. She looked back at the two guards who were followed by the Governor himself. '"If this isn"t a surprise, miss Holo.'' he said confidently. Holo didn"t have time to say anything as she got knocked out as well. England came out of Ukraine"s room. Seeing the governor at the end of the hall he went over to investigate. He smiled when he saw his new captives. The next morning, the group woke up in a bloody cell. '"What happened?'' Aedel said as he was massaging the back of his head. '"We got knocked out by some people.'' Connor said, already up. '"I figured I"d let you two sleep a little while I"d try to find a way to get us all out of this cell.'' he said, pointing at the metal bars in front of him. Holo slowly woke up as well. England appeared in front of them, smiling. "I see everyone"s awake now." he grinned. "Good. You all just sit tight while I go get something." He gave a sadistic look to Aedel and Holo before leaving. The wolf growled back as England was walking away. '"I knew something was wrong with him.'' he said to Holo and Connor. The Assassin sighed as he got up. '"Aedel, if I were you I"d be concerned about what he said. He did say he"d go get something. And I"m wondering what that thing could possibly be.'' Holo sat on the bench behind the two. '"Whatever it is, we"d better be ready for anything.'' Aedel shrugged as he sat down with Holo. '"Couldn"t we lockpick the door?'' he asked Connor. '"We can"t.'' the Assassin replied to the wolf. '"I tried earlier, and even my hidden blade couldn"t do anything. We"re locked down here until he comes back.'' A few moments later, Britain came back, dragging a figure behind him. As he got closer to the group, they could see ears and a tail on the limp body behind the man. Aedel shouted at England. '"Who is this?!'' England dropped Votie"s body in front of the metallic bars, the choker jingling lightly as she hit the ground. Although there were no visible violence marks, she seemed completely unconscious. '"You filthy bastard!'' Aedel shouted again, hitting a metal bar in front of him. Britain grinned, laughing. "Stupid dog." '"What purpose would it serve you to make her unconscious like that, Britain?'' Holo asked the man as she came closer to the metal gate. "So she can"t struggle through this." he replied, pulling out a long, thin sword out of its sheath. He started drawing on Votie, pushing the sword ever so slightly under her skin, at the base of her stomach. '"Wait.'' Aedel said calmly. '"Isn"t there anything we could do in order for you not to do this?'' "No." the man smiled, continuing to cut as the blood started pouring, tracing a heart around Votie"s stomach. After he stepped back and surveyed his work, he took her body, carelessly throwing it onto her stomach. He grabbed her tail, lightly tapping the sword against it. '"Bastard...'' the wolf mumbled. '"Stop it or you"ll be the one getting cut down!'' The man laughed again. "Oh? And how, pray tell do you plan on getting out?" They heard the sickening crack of the sword hitting bone and being pulled back. '"Don"t worry about me, I have plenty of ways to get out.'' The wolf shrugged. '"By the way, haven"t you ever heard of...'' the wolf grinned. ''...poison?'' England raised an eyebrow curiously. "What"re you talking about...?" The wolf smiled again. '"You"ve been poisoned.'' the wolf said as he pointed at his gauntlet. '"Works everytime.'' Britain cursed to himself. "Bastard..." He fell down on the ground, sleeping heavily. '"Well, now we only need to find a way to get out.'' Connor said. '"Good job Aedel.'' The wolf smiled back at him. '"I know you don"t have this thing in your gauntlet, and I"m impressed it still works even after two hundred years myself.'' Holo looked at the metal bars and found a small crack caused by Aedel"s hit on it earlier. '"Guys, help me, we"ll break the bar by pulling it out of place.'' The wolf and the Assassin obeyed quickly as they pulled on the bar. '"Harder!'' Aedel said while making a big, final effort. The metal bar broke in a "cling" sound, and the group got out of the prison cell. '"Pick up Votie, and get out of here.'' Connor said to Aedel as the wolf picked her up. '"Holo, follow him and protect him while you get out, I"ll go and find the Governor.'' Holo nodded as the wolves walked out of the basement in which they were locked and got out of the mansion. Meanwhile, Connor got up the stairs and quickly entered the room in which they got knocked out earlier. '"He isn"t here, but...'' The Assassin picked up a letter. Reading it, he quickly got out of the mansion and followed the wolves, helping them carry Votie back to safety. Votie twitched weakly in Connor"s arms. "M...Ma...ma..." '"It"ll be okay Votie.'' he said to her. '"Don"t worry about her, she"ll be fine.'' Votie fell asleep in his arms, clinging to him weakly, the blood drying on her stomach, as the group went back to their inn. Getting in the inn, Aedel grabbed Votie and took her in Holo and his" room. The wolves entered the room and locked the door behind them. Aedel then put down Votie on his bed, and summoned one of his servants. '"Take care of her wounds, please.'' he asked his servant. '"Yes, Master, it"ll be a pleasure.'' she said to him while starting to heal the woman"s wounds. Holo sat down next to the two. '"Aedel, you should go downstairs and tell Adams about what happened back there. I"ll stay here with them.'' The wolf nodded, going down the inn"s stairs and sitting on a chair next to Connor and Adams". The wolf explained all of the details to Sam Adams. ''...and that"s pretty much it.'' The man looked a little confused. '"And what about the Governor?'' he asked. Connor replied to him, getting out the letter he picked up from the Governor"s desk. '"Seems like he made fun of us and ran away again.'' '"I see...'' Adams seemed thoughtful. '"Well, at least you"re all safe, that"s the most important part!'' he said, enthusiastic as always. The two Assassins nodded, and they talked the night away. Votie woke up early in the morning. She looked around weakly, trying to get her bearings. The servant looked at her with a smile, putting her hand on Votie"s head, taking her temperature. '"You"ve healed good dear. But don"t go running out yet, else you"ll get yourself hurt again.'' She smiled warmly to Votie. '"W-Where"s Mom?...'' Votie asked. '"Master Aedelwulf and Miss Holo went this morning to get her I think. They should be back quickly, don"t worry.'' she said gently. Votie looked at her tail, weakly pulling herself up on her arms. '"Try not to move your tail too much either, your bones were crushed a little, they"re fixed now but the wound"s not completely healed yet.'' the servant said to Votie. Holo and Aedel went inside the mansion again, running through the corridors, opening every doors. When they finally found Ukraine, she was sobbing on her bed, but England was nowhere to be found. Ukraine closed her eyes tightly as the light flood the room, looking frantically as her eyes adjusted to the intake in light, expecting England to be there once more. '"Miss Ukraine.'' Holo said to her gently. '"It is Aedel and I. We"re bringing you back to safety with Votie. Any objections?'' she says, smiling warmly. She shakes her head, standing on weak legs, wanting to exit the building as quickly as possible. '"Here, let me help you.'' Aedel said, taking her in his arms. They went back to the inn, and did the same thing as before for Ukraine, healing her as well. Votie, despite not being able to walk, jumped into her mothers" arms, nuzzling and purring and taking in the warmth of her chest and finding solace in the beating of her heart. '"Glad everything is back to normal.'' Aedel said, walking in the room. Votie"s ears turned towards where Aedel"s voice was. She purred even louder. The wolf smiled at Votie. '"Well! Whenever you feel like it, we"re having dinner downstairs. See you then.'' Aedel walked back out and went downstairs, along with Holo, Connor and Adams. Votie snuggled into Ukraine, shifting into a cat, licking Ukraine"s head as she shifted into cat form. In one swift motion Ukraine had her scruff in her mouth, carrying her downstairs. The day ended softly, a more festive mood setting in the inn. Holo noticed Votie eyeing her scarf intently, tail swishing as much as it could, her rear wiggling in the air. Holo looked at Votie who was trying to play with the scarf. '"Haha, silly cat!'' She gave her the scarf. As soon as Votie got it, she started wrestling with the fox fur, playing happily as Holo laughed slightly to the scene. Author"s Note: Hey! Sorry for not posting in such a long time, had alot of things going on (again, I"m all sorry about it) and couldn"t post. This is the end of the 1700s years and now moving towards 1939 in the next chapter. By the way, big thanks to Votie for her support and ideas for the story and last chapter (Love ya!) and see you all whenever I"ll post next chapter! Writer-Wolf, out! Wolf and History Author"s Note: Chapter 13 is up! It went quicker than expected, Votie and I felt inspired alot lately and thus we"ve been able to put this chapter quickly thanks to it! Wait no more, here"s chapter 13! Chapter 13: Wolf and Cold Grounds '"It was a harsh winter. The winds blew as if they were mad, and snow was swirling around us in a beautiful dance. We were four, walking to a small building I called home. We were back in Lonoare.'' Aedel opened the frozen door of their home and let the three women behind him get in as well. He closed the door behind the group in a sigh. '"Damn it"s freezing, even though I"m used to it I must say it"s a harsh night.'' Votie grinned, her tail swishing under her jacket. "What"s wrong big brother? Can"t take the cold?" She smiled playfully at him. '"Well...'' he said to her, putting his tongue out to her in a just as playful way. ''...we just took a boat from America, I got seasick a little from it, we ran and walked for miles in harsh snow, and I have to get used to the weather again because America is so hot in summer!'' he said, laughing a little. Ukraine smiles, holding her daughters hand as they got everything situated. '"Welcome to our humble home!'' Holo said to her with a smile. '"I"m glad we"re back here!'' Ukraine smiled as well. '"It"s a beautiful home you have there. To make it even more perfect, could I make dinner for us?'' '"Sure!'' she replied. As Holo showed to Ukraine where everything needed for cooking was, she lit up a fire from their little fireplace to warm the place up. '"Here...'' she said, lighting the wood up with a flint and a small steel piece. '"That should do it.'' She turned around to see Aedel laughing while Votie played and wrestled with him. After a while, the group ate dinner. The atmosphere was a jolly and warm one, to which Aedel didn"t complain about. It had been so long since he wanted to get back home. Feeling comfortable and nice again made him wonder why he hadn"t come back earlier. '"Wars, problems, everything...'' he mumbled to himself, eating a potato piece from which they had bought earlier in a small town nearby. '"It"s crazy how it changed so quickly...'' the wolf mumbled again. "Change is imminent sadly. Everything and everyone is changing at any given moment, and for the most part there"s nothing that can be done." Ukraine smiled sadly, eating her dinner quietly. '"I guess you"re right.'' the wolf shrugged. Suddenly, the wolves heard a knocking on their home"s door. Wondering who it was, Aedel got up and went to the doorstep. Finland knocked on the door again. '"It"s Finland, let me in, please.'' the man said in a serious voice. The wolf opened the door to him with a confused look on his face. '"Come, come. Why are you here?'' he said, closing the door behind him. '"I must ask you something, Aedelwulf.'' the man replied. '"If I were to need you to fight with me in a war, would you accept?'' Aedel replied to him with a sigh. '"Guess I don"t have much of a choice... Can"t anything go right for a single day?'' Finland sighed in relief at the answer. '"Thanks. I"m off again, sorry for interrupting your dinner.'' he said, running back outside as the wolf closed the door again. '"Can"t anything go right...'' he mumbled again. "I thought you liked going to war." Votie said, wondering about the validity of that statement. '"Oh, but I do.'' the wolf replied to her. '"Just sometimes I wish we could have a small break to relax.'' The cat looked down to the ground with a sad face. "Same here..." '"I"m wondering who"s in war again, and why Finland would need us to help him.'' Holo said to the group. The others shrugged. Votie got up quickly and went to the house"s door. "I"m going to go talk with him. I"ll be back later." she said before running off. Aedel nodded to her as he got up the small stairs leading to his fireplace and the kitchen, and put some wood in the fireplace. Votie ran down the path leading to their home, pulling her jacket closer to her body, looking every which way for Finland. After a little while of searching, she found him getting out a small building that seemed like a shop. She waved to him, grabbing his attention before sprinting to shorten the distance between herself and him. As she caught up she was panting heavily, catching her breath. "Hey... I wanted to talk about what you said earlier... What"s been happening?" '"Well...'' he started. '"I don"t want to reminize you about bad moments, even though you might not remember it, but ever since Russia died from the guillotine back in 1500, the Russian government went wild and everything got wrong with a man named Lenin lately. Now they have a new governor, Stalin, and they want war against Germany and want to take our lands to make war to them.'' "What!? I knew this would happen! If only I could"ve saved him..." She shook her head, looking back at Finland. "Thank you. I"ll relay the information back to Aedel and we"ll be ready to help as soon as possible." Finland nodded back at her and went to another house, a long night ahead of him. '"They want war with Germany?'' Holo asked Votie as she gave them the information. "Yes. As of right now I don"t know why however. I know the outcome will be horrendous though just from judging the two.'' Votie replied. '"I see.'' Aedel said, thoughtful, putting his hand under his chin. '"If I"m correct it won"t be an easy task to repel so many men. Russia"s army is made out mostly of soldiers.'' Ukraine looked down sadly, looking away from everyone else. '"Well, as long as war isn"t at our doors I guess we"ll be just fine.'' Aedel said, sighing. A few months later, Russia started to invade Finland after a refusal of mutual assistance from the country. War was officially started. The morning was a cold one, the winter was just starting. The wolves were standing next to a bunch of Finnish soldiers, as well as a few Germans. '"Garde à vous!'' the commander said to the soldiers in front of him. The group replied by a military hand on their forehead. '"Soldiers! Russia has decided to invade our beautiful country in order to take our lands for their own! They are actually marching towards us at a quick rate! They"ll be here in a few months, until then, you all need to learn the basics of military training! You!'' he pointed at Holo. '"Show our soldiers how to move quickly on a field! I feel you"re quite the agile type!'' Holo smiled as she advanced towards a small parkour made of a few rubber tires. She ran through the tires, over a fallen tree, and over a few walls easily. '"Good job!'' the commander yelled at her in the distance. '"Now!'' he said, turning towards the other soldiers. '"The Miss will show you how to move like that, and make you agile people as well!'' '"YES MY COMMANDER!'' the soldiers replied to him, with a hand on their forehead again. Votie watched the soldiers train, wondering what to do, staring at the sky absent mindedly. The commander came to see her in a quick sigh. '"Whew. Not at all easy to yell like that.'' he said with a smile. Votie shrugged, smiling. "I find it easy." The commander laughed a little. '"For you it must be!'' He pointed at Aedel and Holo. '"Do you know those two? I feel like I"ve seen them before but I can"t put my finger on what their names were.'' "Yeah." She pointed to Holo. "That"s my big sister, Holo..." She then pointed to Aedel. "...and that"s Aedelwulf, Holo"s mate." As she said so, her tail swished, her ears drooping just a bit. '"I see.'' he said, thoughtful. I felt like there was something between them earlier so I was wondering. A few moments later, all of the soldiers had done their agility training. '"Troops!'' the commander yelled. '"It is now time for a much different kind of training! Most of you have already held a rifle in their hands, but it doesn"t mean you were all good with it!'' The commander went to Aedel. '"Aedelwulf! Have you ever held a rifle, or shot one before?'' The wolf replied quickly. '"No, my commander!'' The commander smiled. '"Then you shall be the first to train!'' The Assassin wasn"t sure about himself. '"Yes, my commander.'' he said, unsure. The high-graded gave him a Karabiner 98k and took him to the shooting range. '"It is quite simple! You see those wooden pieces? You need to aim in the middle of the circles on each of them! The circle and the small bar you have on your rifle"s end must be perfectly equal on both horizontal and vertical sides so that you aim right! To put another bullet in the chamber, just pull the handle on the right of your rifle! Now try it!'' he said to the wolf. Aedel slowly advanced towards one of the shooting spots and started aiming. '"Circle and bar, equal...'' he mumbled as he aimed at one of the wooden pieces. He then shot on the target. '"Good!'' the commander said as he went to see where the shot was taken. '"You need to aim a little more left, when you shot your arm must"ve went a little to the right side! Another trick, try holding your breath while aiming, it"ll help!'' The wolf tried again as he mumbled the same '"Circle and bar, equal...'' again. He then took a shot almost in the middle of the target. '"That"s much better, congrats!'' the commander said to him. '"Everyone take a place and try yourselves out as well! Rifles are in the back, ammo as well!'' he yelled to the soldiers as they went to train. Votie watched them, Ukraine sitting behind her. Votie"s ears flattenned out to her head more as the day went by. She eventually went to take a walk, looking down at everything to try and clear her head, though finding it unsuccessful. Her mind flashed back to her and Latvia"s first date and she sighed sadly at the memory. "Big wolfy is lucky... Him and Holo are never separated... They"re always together... Why can"t Latvia and I have what they do...?" Her tail laid limply behind her as she kept her slow walk towards nowhere in particular. Hours later, they went back home and as they walked, Holo noticed about Votie"s down. She came closer to her sister. '"What"s wrong?'' she asked. "Nothing... I"m fine" Votie replied to her, quickly getting away from the wolf. '"Alright.'' Holo simply shrugged. Back in their home, they cooked dinner and went to bed quickly, as many harsh days were coming towards them, and they"d need all the energy they could get from sleep to be able to get through them. Votie and Ukraine headed up to their room, Votie wishing she could see her husband again, crying into her pillow. The next morning went by quickly as the wolves trained and helped their military companions to train as well. Eventually the sun rose up in the sky and as the group was eating some of their food, the commander went to Votie who was sitting with Aedel and Ukraine. '"Miss Votie?'' he asked. '"May I talk with you for a second?'' "Sure..." The cat went to see him. After a few steps the commander started talking. '"I noticed you don"t train with your friends, and it"s not like I want you to. War is an extremely dangerous thing, especially in these days. I was wondering if I could do anything for you, I also noticed you were feeling down a bit yesterday, and I was wondering as I said if I could help.'' "Thank you for the offer, but no, it"ll be alright... I can go train now if you"d like me to.'' '"Alright.'' the commander shrugged. '"If you want to train, guns are in the back, and pick up some ammo from the ammo crate next to it.'' he said as he went back to look at how his soldiers were doing. Votie went to get a rifle. She practiced even when the others had long since stopped, silently praying that her husband was alright, knowing that she wouldn"t be able to see Latvia., source_sentence: She"d noticed in the center of the room that Cassie was slowing down in her frantic scribbling, focusing on a single sheet of paper for more than a few seconds. That meant she was seeing something clearly. Something that mattered to her. Or someone that mattered to her. That could mean... "What do you see, Cassie? Who do you see?" Agent Hollis leaned down, trying to keep her face open and inviting. Cassie didn"t answer, just switched the colors in her hands, adding tiny details to the object she was drawing. Agent Hollis looked over to the other agents and shrugged at their impatience; they"d learn soon enough it wasn"t easy to hurry this Watcher along. She"d lose the vision if they weren"t careful. Agent Hollis sat back on her heels, and waited. She"d only Push the Watcher if she had too, if she didn"t answer or tried to move to another sheet of paper without explaining. After a long moment of the younger woman choosing one final color and adding her signature in the corner. She still didn"t speak, and Agent Hollis sighed. Plan B it was then. "Tell me what you see, Cassie," she said and pushed, her eyes going blind for a moment as she exerted her will over the other woman. Cassie swayed, her eyes narrowing as she glared for a moment, making it clear she knew full well that she was being influenced. Then the ragged blonde shook all over and shrugged, then held the image out to the agent. "It"s just a lily, Kira. A pendant." She smiled down at the image she"d drawn, and then spoke so softly the other woman almost didn"t hear her. "He gave me a flower..." At her words, the agent felt a ripple of excitement and then vicious jealousy sweep over her, but she ruthlessly buried both before they could affect her. There was too much work to do for her to become distracted. She took the picture Cassie had offered and rose, turning to the agents under her command. "It"s time. He"s coming for her." Hope you enjoyed! I"m probably going to be posting chapters ever day or so - I didn"t want to spam your inboxes! Chapter 1 "Yesterday" has gone,Future"s coming next.So move, clock"s on.It"s a countdown... "In a Row" - Nothink Nick checked his watch again and resisted the urge to drum his fingers on the steering wheel, knowing it would only earn him a sharp comment from the Shadow in the passenger seat. And they couldn"t dissolve into an argument again, not now, not when they sat literally right around the corner from the lab where the Holmes woman and one old friend were being held. He settled for picking up the envelope on the console between them and running his fingers silently along the folds, not opening it, though, not yet. Not until 2:58 on the dot. God he hoped Cassie would be ready. That she even could be ready, considering the cocktail Division likely had her on. "You"re sure she"s seen-" "The pendant up against a digital clock stopped at 3:00 p.m. exactly. As I told you the last time, and the time before that." Mitchell Bryce didn"t bother to turn to look at Nick, but the Mover could imagine the annoyance in the Shadow"s dark eyes. He knew that the Shadow had in fact told Nick more than once now, and knew too that Bryce needed to rescue his cousin and so had every bit of a stake in the success of this mission as Nick did. With that in mind, Nick tried again to calm the impatience welling up within him. He"d have thought the months without word or hint of Cassie"s location would have been worse, but it seemed having her just out of reach was driving him even more crazy. It was just... they were so close. After nearly 6 months of planning and scraping and doing everything in his power to find her, to get some bead on where the hell Division had taken his lover, they finally were in position to begin the rescue, to fight back and take her back from the bastards who had stolen her from him. "God, I hope Emily gets here soon," Nick cringed as the words slipped out, half expecting Bryce to snap. When the expected sarcastic comment didn"t happen, he risked a glance over to see Bryce"s face carefully blank, his hand half-hiding his eyes. After a moment, the dark-haired man sighed and straightened. "The lovely Ms. Hu will be here." He tugged as his tie and smoothed down imaginary wrinkles, the only sign that he might be as stressed as Nick was. "She risks losing too much not to arrive on schedule." Nick nodded, and scrubbed a hand across his face. He knew all too well Emily and Bryce had lost someone, lost the same someone as a matter of fact. And it was unfortunately likely due to the somebody he"d lost. Cassie"s gifts were always stronger when it came to her friends and family, and there wasn"t much chance that one after another of some of their past contacts were getting snatched up after she was taken was just a coincidence. Hook Waters had been only one of those scooped up by Division. At least there was a chance to get Hook back, or as much of a chance as getting Cassie back. He was the only one so far who was actually being kept in the same Division lock up as his Watcher friend. He and their original rescue target, Anna Holmes, Cassie"s mother. She"d been who they were trying to rescue in the first place those 6 months ago when the mission had gone so very wrong. He still wasn"t totally sure what had... He shook his head at himself. He knew exactly what had gone wrong - Ms. Kira Hudson, or Agent Kira Hollis as she seemed to be called lately. They"d thought she was fine after the mess in Hong Kong. She"d rendezvoused with he and Cassie as planned, and for a while the three of them, he, Kira, and Cassie, had done fairly well moving from city to country, laying low and keeping under the Division radar. It had almost been like a family - almost. If not for the sheer bitchyness that was Kira and Cassie alone in a room together for any length of time at all, he might have been perfectly happy, or as happy as a group of psychics on the run could be. But then... Then Kira started Pushing, and not just marks around them, but Nick himself, and Cassie. Pushing them to do things that just didn"t make sense. Petty things, like Cassie refusing to speak to him for days, or Nick locking Cassie out of their current squat in the middle of a thunderstorm. Nick talked to Kira, Cassie screamed at her, and their various friends when they were allowed took turns trying to explain just how utterly invasive being Pushed really was. But Kira didn"t stop. Didn"t seem to want to. And as for the rest of her behavior, it was increasingly erratic, until finally she all but walked back into Division hands. For all he"d once promised to keep looking, to always come for her, Nick couldn"t go after her that time. Not this way unfortunately. In any case, Kira"s little stunt had put Cassie in front of a bullet, and Nick"d had his hands full trying to keep the young Watcher from bleeding out before he could find a Stitch to patch her up. By the time Cassie was out of the woods, Kira and the Division Sniffs and Pushers who"d managed to snag her were gone. Back to the U.S. and whatever facility was deemed proper to re-integrate a psychic and possibly an agent who"d been on the outside as long as Kira had. In any case, Kira"d been M.I.A. for several years, and Nick, he hadn"t missed her as much as he might have expected. He still had Cassie, and in the coming days as they both grew older and somehow wiser, that impractically dressed and ancient-eyed young woman meant far more than Kira ever did. If forced to choose between them, and God knew he really had been forced to choose between them, Cassie came first and would continue to come first, no matter what. He just hoped he wouldn"t have to deal with that choice right now in the midst of their rescue mission. Word on the street had it that an Agent Hollis was likely part of the team keeping tabs and guard on Cassie and Anna Holmes. If it was the same Hollis that Carver had thought Kira to be, they could be in deep shit. Kira"s presence complicated things even more than the rescue itself. With Carver long dead, she was definitely the strongest Pusher on record, and while he and Cassie had some experience with holding her off, no one else on their team did. And even he and Cassie could only hold her off to a point. Worse was the fact that Kira might very well have shared the trick Nick had figured out to avoiding Watchers all those years ago in Hong Kong with her superiors. If that happened, this mission would be over almost before it began. He set the letter back on the console carefully, and then his fingers drifted up to his throat and the pendant he"d taken to wearing under his shirt after Cassie"d been taken. He"d meant to give it to her as both a birthday present and celebratory gift when they"d rescued her mother. That hadn"t happened, obviously. The pendant had come to mean both hope and failure. Just the chance of the former kept him wearing it though, needing that fragile connection with the woman he"d lost. Nick barely heard a slight snort from the other man in the car and he jerked his hand away from the pendant with an embarrassed cough. Bryce didn"t look over, just smirked knowingly out the window. Nick ignored him best he could, and checked the clock again. Almost time to open their respective envelopes. Nick was fairly sure he knew his part in the plan already, but there was no knowing for sure until he read the instructions Emily had written. Instructions she should be wiping from her memory as they waited. But she"d said she"d meet them here after that. So where the hell was she? He shook his head and hoped the other two members of their merry band of idiots were in position. There was no way to check at this point, but if they weren"t... Well that would blow any chance of getting into the facility itself. He glanced at the clock and started: 2:58 p.m. He all but lunged for the envelope again, and this time Bryce looked anything but smug, leaning in to look at the card himself. His wasn"t set to be opened til 3:43 p.m., and Nick didn"t even want to consider the stress that time period would be causing the Shadow. Nick pulled out the card and flipped it over to read. "Drive straight to the gates then drive straight through them - 3:00 p.m." He blinked and raised an eyebrow at his companion. Bryce shrugged, and Nick turned the key in the ignition starting the engine. The clock changed to 2:59 p.m., and Nick felt his blood begin to pound. They had one minute and if Emily hadn"t shown by then, they"d need to go without her. That would make finding their targets in the facility that much harder to track, but they wouldn"t have a choice. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as the seconds ticked away, finally not caring if it bothered the man beside him. 10, 9, 8... He flexed his hands and moved one to hover over the gearshift. 3, 2, 1. 3:00 p.m. Nick slammed the SUV into drive and gunned it, slamming his foot down on the accelerator and the vehicle all but shrieked into motion. He barely slowed at the stop sign at the corner, wheeling the SUV right and sending Bryce almost sliding, his hand on the door and his seatbelt the only things keeping the Shadow securely in his seat. They roared down the street and toward the facility entrance at the far end. The massive gate at the entrance was visibly shut, and Nick swallowed as he stepped even harder on the accelerator, pushing the SUV to even higher speeds. As they approached Nick forced himself to let go of the steering wheel with one hand, preparing the Push the shit out of the gate if it didn"t open on its own. At the very last second, he saw the massive pieces of metal begin to slide apart. "Thank you, Matthew," he muttered with a grin and slammed his foot on the accelerator again, sending the SUV flying past the gates and the guard station where he just barely saw the agents beginning to panic. Phase One fucking complete. Nick continued to drive, wheeling through the large parking lot to a side entrance Matt"s intel told them might be the closest way to reach the Holmes women. He glanced in the rearview mirror to see another pair of SUVs barreling their way in behind him. "Seems the ladies have arrived on schedule," Bryce said from beside him, his smirk showing his satisfaction at the turn of events. One of the vehicles followed close behind him, Emily likely at the wheel. The other spun to face the gate almost as soon as it entered and a barrage of fireballs began to fly from the open drivers side window to the guard station. Their favorite little pyrokinetic, Lex, was clearly having the proverbial and literal blast with the distraction role she was playing for their mission. Nick could only hope she"d keep moving fast enough to evade the agents that would soon come storming after her in the absence on any other intruder to follow. She should be fine though, he reminded himself. According to the rumors, Lex had kept herself out of Division hands her entire life using only her pyrokinetic tricks, an impressive set of street smarts, and a kick ass driving ability. Or so he"d heard. He wished her well silently - she was on her own for a while or at least as long as Bryce could pull off Shadowing all three of them as they entered the building. Nick came to a screeching halt with Emily right behind him. All three psychics ran from their respective vehicles, engines still on and running. With any luck, they"d stay that way - facilitating the quick getaway they"d need if the mission proved to be a success. The three of them pounded up the exterior steps to the door, pausing only a moment before the internal lock triggered itself and they entered. Once again, Nick thought a heartfelt "thank you" to the young technopath they"d met only months before Cassie"d been taken. Nick doubted they"d have ever narrowed down Cassie"s location without the Tech"s help, and he was still proving his worth with every damn move they made. It was almost enough to make Nick ignore the younger man"s obvious crush on Nick"s Watcher love. Almost anyway. The hallway the door led to was clear, but the first passageway off to the left definitely wasn"t. Nick didn"t even have time to Push the agents - Bryce was already moving, breaking into a sequence of viciously efficient martial arts that had the trio of Division goons out cold with what looked to be very little effort. That talent had not been something the Shadow had mentioned. Handy little trick. Nick couldn"t help the whistle that escaped his lips, but Bryce barely acknowledged it, straightening his jacket almost casually. Behind them, Emily had used the momentary distraction to strip off her gloves, reaching each into the pockets of her jacket to pull out two objects - a cufflink and a pen, previously owned by Hook Waters and Cassie respectively. With Nick and Bryce guarding her, Emily brought each item up to her face allowing the psychic "scent" to seep into her hands as the Sniff activated her psychometric gifts to the forefront of her mind. She swayed as her gift took her for a moment, and then shook her head to clear it. "Cassie is down that hall and up 2 flights of stairs. Behind the blast doors in the... fifth room on the left. She seems stationary for now." Emily turned her head to blink down the hallway just ahead of them. "Hook - he"s that way... but he"s moving. I can"t get a clear fix on his location." It didn"t take Nick even a moment to make his decision. "Bryce take Emily with you. Head after Hook. I"ll get the women." Bryce didn"t bother to nod, just took Emily by the elbow and set off at a swift jog down the hallway, leaving Nick to set off in the other direction. Chapter 2 I don"t know where we"re headingI"m willing and ready to goWe can"t drive it so fast we just need to slow downAnd just roll Anything that"s worth havingIs sure enough worth fighting forQuiting"s out of the questionWhen it gets tough gotta fight some moreWe gotta fight fight fight fight fight for this love "Fight for this Love" - Cheryl Cole Nick burst through the door to the stairwell and started climbing up at a run, knowing he"d need to move fast now that his Shadow was heading to another part of the building. At least Emily and Bryce might get safely to Hook without a Sniff catching on to that goal. He was on his own, not that he"d really thought a Shadow would help much at this point anyway - any Division goon worth their paycheck would know exactly where Nick was headed. He kept climbing, keeping his mind on Cassie as his goal, knowing he needed that mental encouragement. He heard a slam and looked up startled as he reached the first landing and looked through the window slit in the door to see an agent pounding on the door to the stairwell. For some reason the door wouldn"t open even when he swiped his access card. Nick grinned and tossed a quick salute at the camera in the corner then kept climbing to the next floor. He paused at that landing, seeing several other agents waiting through the window, all apparently having the same trouble getting through the lock that their counterparts downstairs had. Nick let out a long breath and twitched his fingers as he brought his power to mind, then he nodded at the camera and hearing the lock disengage with a metallic click, he wrenched open the door off its hinges with his gift and then sent it slamming back through into the hallway knocking two of the waiting agents sprawling. The other few were handled with another quick wave of Nick"s hands slamming into the walls, ceiling, and floor like pinballs. Nick barely spared them a glance beyond a quick check to make sure they were well and truly out cold, before he was moving again and heading through the blast doors down the hall. They slid open as he approached. He paused a little into the hallway, surprised that no one was waiting to attack. Then he just shook his head, chalking it up to the Tech guardian angel watching from through the security system. He half jogged down the hallway, counting doors until he reached the fifth door, still half cringing at the thought of the sound of phantom footsteps around him. He took a deep breath, feeling something inside him tremble in hope that this really might be the door he"d been looking for these past many months. Then he softly pushed it open. "Hey, Nick," her soft voice reached him before the door was even open, and he felt his knees go weak as he finally saw her smile, alive and in front of him. Her eyes were glassy, likely due to some drug Division had shoved through her system, but they were steady despite it. Nick smiled to himself remembering how she"d long ago told him that she and her mother both saw more clearly when drunk off their asses. Cassie had since proven that more than once on their time on the run, and he had a sudden suspicion that held true to just about any type of intoxicant. Clearly the Division goons were even dumber than he"d thought. Though that certainly explained how Cassie"s mom had managed to keep her schemes in motion, even in Division"s hands. "Hey, you," he replied softly, stepping into the room and wrapping his arms around her, allowing himself a slow shaky breath at the feel of her back where she belonged. "You ready to get the hell out of here?" "Oh yeah." The grin was clearly forced, and Nick felt himself cringe inside at the dark circles under her eyes, but something about the tilt of her head said her attitude was still there. That part of her that was always willing to step up against anyone who wanted her to back down. Whatever they had her on, they hadn"t managed to break his feisty little Watcher. With that reminder firmly in his mind, he pulled out of the embrace, his hand finding her"s instinctively as they turned back to the door and slipped quietly out into the hall. They were almost to the blast door when he heard the sound he"d been so paranoid and waiting for, light footsteps with that click of high heels. He stiffened and then turned to put himself between Cassie and the woman at the other end of the hall. The pair of women he realized as a second moved from behind the first, her dark form almost more a shadow that a person. The first, of course, was Kira as he"d known in the pit of his stomach it would be. She strode forward slowly, as if stalking toward her prey. Nick glanced back over his shoulder looking for a way out, but the blast doors were closed, and in any case, there though the glass were at least some of the agents he"d knocked out on his way in, and it wasn"t likely they"d let the pair of psychics past them easily. Not after the humiliatingly easy way Nick had gotten past them to get to Cassie"s room there in the first place. "Well shit," he heard Cassie mutter from behind him, and he heartily agreed. This was not going to go particularly well. "Hello, Nick," Kira said as she paced toward him. Her voice was serene and almost casual, and Nick suddenly remembered the way her voice had been all those years ago back in Hong Kong when he"d gone to find her in Carver"s thrall. She"d been cruel then, and she"d only gotten worse with time. That didn"t seem to have changed either. "So nice to see you again, though not exactly what I would have expected. Not considering your promise to me."
sentences: A short burst of gunfire brought her slamming out of her reverie, and she noticed Taka passing a single corpse without a second glance. She moved nervously to the side as she and then the pair behind her moved past the corpse in turn. She"d seen no evidence yet that the bastards might move even after a bullet to the brain, but if they could move after looking otherwise dead due to infection, who was to say? In any case, Dannie sure as hell wasn"t to take the chance of standing within reach of one of them. Not if she could help it. She kept closer to Carlos after that, trusting in the leader"s aim and arsenal just the slightest bit more than the others. She needed that reassurance right about now, with each new infected they saw, and then killed, she was reminded of just how helpless she was. She found her hands itched for her tiny little Bodyguard model pistol that she usually kept in her purse. When she"d announced her intention to work with the military overseas, her brother had insisted on her knowing how to use a weapon competently. He"d bought her the little handgun, and he"d then ruthlessly trained her until she could accurately empty the entirety of the tiny weapon"s 6 shots in the clip and 1 in the chamber into the target"s forehead. That she"d never actually used that training during her relief work wasn"t important; the lessons and practice had grown into their weekly Friday lunch sibling date, one she"d never missed since they started the tradition a couple years prior. Carlos opened fire again, this time on a trio of infected huddled awkwardly around an SUV, and it occurred to her that she"d likely be missing that tradition tomorrow. It was all too likely that her brother would end up among the missing, too. She shivered and fought back tears at the thought, hoping the men hadn"t noticed. She forced away the melancholy thoughts, and tried to distract herself by guessing how many different types of weapons the men might had tucked into their uniforms. That didn"t help her mood all that much, as the concept only reminded her that she had exactly zero weapons stored about her own person. She resolved to ask the men to give her a pistol, a knife, hell just something resembling a weapon as soon as they reached a pause in their trek. Finally, she was pleased to see the guard stand at the bottom of the garage, signaling a halt to their slightly dizzying descent from the 3rd floor to the street level. Carlos and Taka approached the booth cautiously, clearly keeping an eye on both the guard stand"s sliding door and the entrance to the street itself. Dannie almost followed close behind them, but Nicholai"s hand on her shoulder kept her still. "Open space could mean an ambush. Wait until they check it out," he whispered down to her, and she nodded silently, moving backwards slightly to place herself in the more protected position between the redhead and Yuri. She kept her eyes fixed on the pair in the lead, feeling her heart rate quicken without warning at her anxiety for the men. It wasn"t that surprising their health had become her problem; if even one of their little band fell, the odds of any of them surviving the night would drop that much lower. And fuck if she didn"t know the odds of survival were pretty damned low to begin with. Carlos inched toward the guard booth with Taka covering him. He was nearly to the door hanging just ajar when a snarling four-legged figure hurled itself out of the booth through the window. "Son of a bitch!" None of them blamed Carlos for the outburst, nor Taka for the spattering of Japanese curses that followed as they fired on the charging creature. Finally the thing lay dead, and almost as one, the five of them crept close to peer at it. "Was that a goddamned cocker spaniel?" Yuri asked, clearly offended by the very idea. "Looks like. Apparently the infection is transferring to animals, too. Great," Carlos answered, his face just as disgusted. He shook his head and straightened. "Come on, let"s keep moving. There"s nothing else here." He moved into the lead again, pausing at the garage entrance, and then waving the others forward. They turned onto the empty street, and Dannie rubbed her arms as the eerie quiet sent a chill down her spine. At least it was the only chill, she noted. She normally got cold easy, but the heat wave was keeping her relatively comfortable even in the skirt and thin cap-sleeved shirt. What almost sounded like the wind echoed down the street, and Dannie paused, barely noting that the men had paused with her. Was that moaning? It only took a moment for the significance of the sound to sink in, and then Carlos was ordering them to move. Together the quintet sprinted for an alley way, ducking down the narrow passage as a crowd of infected turned onto the street they"d just been on. There was no way of knowing if the infected had seen or sensed them, and the group of soldiers and single civilian keep up a brisk pace, running down the alley and then turning onto another, even more deserted back street. They slowed to a jog and then to a walk, and then came to a halt, Dannie stumbling to lean against a wall. "You all right there Dannie?" Carlos called quietly, and she waved his slightly superior concern away, still too winded to reply. She had not signed up for long distance sprinting, and damned if she didn"t need a minute to catch her breath. She didn"t get it; Carlos was turning away, the smirk once again on his face, when Taka let out a strangled shout and a mutilated monstrous something came leaping into their midst. The men opened fire, more on instinct than with a clear clue of what the fuck their attacker was. Under the rain of gunfire, the gruesome thing fell fairly quickly, but another shout, this time from Dannie as she stared upwards in horror warned the men that the monster had not been alone. This one seemed smarter, or at least more agile. It jumped and ducked, avoiding the bullets the men were firing desperately. Dannie just tired to stay clear and out of their way, praying to God she wouldn"t be a distraction to any of the men as they faced off with that thing. She did, of course, but damned if it wasn"t her fault. It was the creature"s. It leapt from one building to another across the alley way, landing and then clambering down the fire escape directly above Dannie. An enormously long tongue whipped out and down, grabbing her knot of hair and lifting her screaming from the ground, pulling her up toward a gaping mouth. Gunfire sounded again, this time terrifyingly in her direction. Dannie didn"t know whether she was screaming about the creature with its tongue in her hair or the bullets flying past far too close for comfort, all she knew was that she was terrified and helpless. There was a garbled roar of pain above her and then she was dropping painfully back to the concrete, parts of a long whippy tongue falling down on top of her. She scrambled backwards just in case the creature decided to chase after its escaped meal, instinctively craving the comfort of the wall, though it hadn"t been much help before. A creak of abused metal suddenly cut through the sound of gun fire, and she looked up again, her mouth open in shock as the fire escape creaked again and began to fall. For just a moment everything seemed to stop, and she could have sworn the world itself when silent as the metal began to crash towards her. "I"m going to die," she mouthed. Then she was hit by a solid dark mass, lunging in and throwing her clear of the collapsing structure. She was tucked under a larger body, and she simply held on as the crash of the fire escape and the hopefully deceased creature slammed into the pavement only a few feet from them. There was another moment of silence, this time genuine, as the survivors collectively held their breath, as if unsure they"d really managed to escape this last round of death and destruction. Finally, Dannie coughed, clearing her throat of the dust the crash had thrown up. As if that was a cue, the men began coughing and cursing around her as well. "Fucking shit," she breathed, too out of breath to really yell. "What the fuck were those things?" From where he"d landed more than half on top of her, Carlos shook his head. "Not a clue." He pushed himself shakily to his feet and offered her a hand. She took it with a faint sense of déjà vu, and stood even less steadily than he had. "I think the file called them "lickers.'" Nicholai stumbled up from their far side, easing around the fallen monster and twisted metal with a look of distaste. "Lickers. Really." It was far from the title Dannie would have chosen for the monsters, but Nicholai seemed unfazed. "Lickers. For the tongues, you see?" He made the motion of a long tongue falling out of his mouth, and then to her mild shame, Dannie started to giggle. It went on longer than she"d expected, her giggles giving way to hysterical laughter as the sight of yet another creature, this time having met a truly gruesome end right in front of her, sunk in. The laughter dragged on and tears began pouring down her cheeks, and she tried to bring herself under control, knowing she was finally falling prey to shock and hating that the soldiers around her were witnessing it. "At least someone is having fun." Yuri"s voice was cold, and something made her laughter die in her throat. Nicholai glared at the other man, but Dannie frankly was gratefully he"d shaken her out of her hysteria. Still, something in his voice spoke of more than just cruelty. She looked up at the harsh soldier, and then looked around, realizing their little band was one man short. "Taka?" she asked quietly, wanting to be wrong, but already knowing the truth. Yuri shook his head sharply and then glanced behind him. She stepped over to the huddled form he"d indicated, ignoring Carlos"s soft call for her not to look. Taka lay there in pieces, his head less than a yard away from the second of the disgusting creatures" corpses. Dannie couldn"t help it: she took a few faltering steps and then vomited against the wall of the alley. She was dimly aware of someone"s strong hands holding her hair and their leader"s voice softly whispering that it wasn"t her fault. She was grateful to Carlos for the sentiment at least, but she couldn"t help but think he was wrong. "Maybe it is her fault." Clearly Yuri agreed with her. The scowling soldier went on, not caring that the subject of discussion stood right in their midst. "If we hadn"t left the helo for her and the other, our men would still be alive." Carlos waited for Dannie to straighten and then handed her a canteen he"d detached from some portion of his gear she hadn"t had reason to notice thus far. She took it gratefully and unscrewed the cap and took a swig to rinse her mouth out once, and then twice. Only after she took one last actual drink and handed it back did he turn and face his sullen subordinate. "Yuri, think for a moment. Listen." Carlos nodded up and down the alley way. "What do you hear? Not much, huh? Not even from the comm." He shrugged and clipped his canteen back on his hip. "If we"d moved on as ordered, I"m not sure any of us would be left by now." Yuri opened his mouth as if to argue, but instead he let the silence sink over them. Dannie didn"t blame him. Whoo hoo new chapter already up! Give my beta askita a quick thanks, because this was beta"ed at 1 in the morning cuz I was impatient to get this posted lol! Oh! Speaking of askita, she"s got an RE fic up too called Revolt. Only one chap so far but it"s got potential. And no, I don"t own anything. Haven"t we been through this already? Chapter 4: Over Fire The group, now whittled down to a quartet, stood in silence in the wake of Carlos"s admonishment. It was an uneasy silence this time, unlike the focused quiet of their trek through the parking garage. This quiet, Dannie knew, only meant that none of them knew what to say to each other. She certainly didn"t; hell, she wasn"t even sure she knew how to meet the mens" eyes. She turned away, and wiped at her mouth again with the back at her hand, still more than half convinced she could taste vomit on her own breath. Her throat was still raw, even if the taste was all in her head. She shook her head at herself, and her long hair flopped into her face, causing her to frown. The licker had really fucked up her up-do. She pulled her hair the rest of the way down and attempted to pin it back into a knot. It wasn"t as tight as it had been, she realized ruefully, but at least this way it wouldn"t obstruct her vision. She wished absently that she had some kind of a hair tie so she could just braid it back, but those had been in her purse. Along with her phone to call her likely to already be dead brother, and breath mints for her vomit breath, and bandages for the new scrapes on her other knee, and... and... and just something like normalcy. She turned back to find the men pointedly not watching her or meeting each other"s eyes. Her gaze lingered on their weaponry, and for a moment she thought of her purse again, and one other much missed item. "I need a gun." That she"d actually said it out loud surprised her almost as much as it did the men. All three jumped, startled out of their personal brooding. She found herself rather glad the hoard they"d run from hadn"t actually followed them; none of their group had been much up to keeping track of their surroundings. Now they were paying attention again, or at least attention to her. Yuri sneered at her, not that Dannie would have expected anything else; Nicholai looked skeptical; and Carlos, well, Carlos looked calculating. It was much the same look that she"d seen on him when he and Nicholai had decided to take her with them from the roof, and Dannie hoped that was a good sign in this case. Carlos studied her a moment. "Do you know how to use one?" he finally asked, no hint of his thoughts in his voice. Yuri opened his mouth, clearly wanting to argue, but Carlos just shut him down with a single solemn look before turning back to Dannie. "Be honest with me. We don"t have time for more than a crash course, and an amateur with a weapon could be dangerous to the rest of us." Dannie took a breath to settle herself under the weight of his steady gaze and then nodded. "My brother... Derek"s a cop, Dad was military. When I set up to go overseas, they got me a concealed carry course." "Caliber?" ".380 in a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard pistol," she answered without hesitation, then waited for the "manly men" to make the expected quips. Yuri was quick to take advantage of that. "Cute. That"s more of an accessory than a weapon. It would hardly do anything but tickle an attacker." "It will do a hell of a lot more if you aim in the right place, and I do. Are you accurate enough to do damage with something that small?" Dannie shot back, irritated despite expecting it. Carlos shook his head sharply at the scowling pair before Yuri could continue the verbal battle. "Enough." As much as it annoyed her to do so, Dannie obeyed the steely order, vaguely wondering just how she"d managed to end up as subordinate to the dark man as the others were. Carlos flicked his eyes between Yuri and Dannie as if daring either of them to speak again. Then he nodded to himself, and reached back to draw one of his pistols from its holster and held it out to Dannie. She took it gingerly, forcing herself to hide her apprehension. The 9 mm handgun was definitely larger than her little Bodyguard. That hadn"t been all that much bigger than her palm, but this... this had some heft to it. She double checked that the safety was on, and then released the clip to check how many rounds were left. Satisfied that she had more than half a clip left, she shoved it back in smoothly, and then gripped the weapon properly with her right hand ready to squeeze the trigger, but not too close for the safety of those around her. Finally relatively comfortable with the larger handgun, she looked up to find all three men studying her with a considering air. She swallowed, a little unnerved by the attention, but then straightened her shoulders and stared back. "Extra clips?" she asked with as forced smile. Carlos pulled a couple from one of the many pockets on his ammo belt, and handed them to her. Dannie shoved one into each of her skirt pockets carefully, hoping they"d actually stay in. Her pockets weren"t exactly intended to hold anything like this after all. Fairly certain she wouldn"t need to hold anything else now, she wrapped her empty left hand around the bottom of the 9 mm and her right hand, steadying the unfamiliar weight as she"d been taught. Dannie was all too aware that after a while she"d need that extra steadiness. Even the recoil on her little Bodyguard was hell on her tiny wrists after a while. The 9 mm was probably going to hurt. So be it. It was sure as hell better than being unarmed. She took a deep breath and then lifted her eyes to the men again. Yuri didn"t look all that convinced, but Nicholai seemed grudgingly respectful at her competent handling on the weapon thus far. "Alright then. Hold your fire unless you"re sure of a kill shot. We"ll need to save ammo," Carlos said gruffly, his eyes proud though the rest of his face was carefully schooled into impassiveness. Dannie just nodded, encouraged by his words, though she didn"t bother to say so. "Let"s move out. Yuri on our 6, Nicholai and Dannie take the center. I"ll take point." Carlos paused for only a moment by Taka"s body, a solemn look on his face. He muttered something under his breath than almost sounded like an apology, but then leaned down to take the fallen man"s dog tags and refill his own pouches with as much of Taka"s ammo as he could hold. Yuri ground his teeth behind her, but as he and Nicholai passed the body, they did the same. Dannie didn"t have room to carry anything else, but she thought a prayer for him as she passed, though she found she couldn"t actually stand to look at his mutilated body again. Once had been more than enough, and they didn"t have time for her to be sick again. Her head cocked to the side as the now familiar moaning began to fill her hearing. Now they really didn"t have time. The men picked up their pace to a slow jog as they trekked through the back alleys and side streets, barely pausing to gun down the scattered groups of infected they encountered. Dannie gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep up. She hadn"t needed to fire yet; the men"s automatic weapons could drop the infected at a farther distance and with a hell of a lot more speed than her pistol. She just held on and waited; with the way the night had gone so far, there was no doubt she"d need the weapon eventually. The team ducked across a larger street and the moaning grew to a roar. Dannie had only a moment to look, but the sheer number of infected filling the streets had her nearly faltering from absolute fear. Yuri was at her back though, a hand on her shoulder shoving her forward before she could stumble to a halt. "Keep moving!" he ordered, and she snapped back to the present, forcing the panic down with a nod to him over her shoulder. Yuri dropped back into the tail guard position, and as the hoards began to pour down the alley behind them at that painful shuffling run, Nicholai dropped back behind to join him. Carlos turned half to look as the trailing men opened fire, both of them forced to slow to a careful backwards march as they aimed and fired. Their leader slowed too, boxing Dannie back in between them with a bare glance. She now turned her gaze back and forth to either side, keeping track of anything threat that might come from that direction to take her men the way Phil had been taken. She too finally opened fire, the 9 mm bucking into life in her hands as they passed a small cul de sac with a trio of infected shuffling their way. Despite the pain that caused her to grimace at the much stronger kick of the heavy pistol, her aim was true, and each infected dropped with a bullet to the head. She allowed herself to think for a brief moment that her brother would have been proud, but then she had to move again as Yuri and Nicholai almost drew abreast of her, still firing steadily to the rear. Dannie began to wonder vaguely where the hell they were going to go with infected at every turn, but then the sound of squealing tires and gun fire began to echo ahead of them, and she guessed Carlos was likely making his way to that sign of other armed survivors. Voices crackled from the damaged radio in their leader"s vest, a garbled message of something about "rendezvous" and "secure against" coming through, though she couldn"t be quite sure of what she was hearing in the din of gunfire and infected. Carlos seemed to, though; his steps quickened after he heard the message, and he shouted back an order to the men to double time it. They abandoned their attack on the few infected left behind them and began to run with Dannie keeping as close to Carlos"s heels as she dared. Flashing red and blue lights flickered at the alley entrance, and the team burst out onto a busy street into sheer chaos. Carlos immediately opened fire down the street with Nicholai kneeling at his side, his gun blazing too. Yuri turned back to face the alley again, covering their rear against any attack from that end., hardships his short arm and quick as thought escapes where vex not and the weary rest robert the nor shall it hope in vain the time draws on when not a single spot of burial earth whether on land or in the spacious sea but must give back its long committed trust and faithfully shall these make up the full account not the least or of the whole tale each soul shall have a body ready furnished and each shall have his own hence ye profane ask not how this can be sure the same power that reared the piece at ORDINAL and took it down can the loose scattered parts and put them as they were almighty god has done much more nor is his arm with length of DATE and what he can he will his stands bound to see it done when the dread trumpet sounds the dust not to the call wake and every joint possess its proper place with a new elegance of form unknown to its ORDINAL state nor shall the conscious soul mistake its partner but amidst the crowd its other CARDINAL into its arms rush with all the impatience of a man that s new come home who having long been absent with haste runs over ev ry different room in pain to see the whole thrice happy meeting i nor time nor death shall part them ever more tis but a night a long and night we make the grave our bed and then are gone thus at the shut of even the weary bird leaves the wide air and in some lonely down and till the dawn of day then his well wings and bears away edward young the of the night thoughts was born at in in and died m the of april the last day was published in and was soon followed by the of religion young s unlucky tendency to flattery and early showed itself in many small pieces to persons of rank which cannot be said to have been regularly published until long afterwards in his ORDINAL tragedy was performed and in DATE the letter to on the death of and the of the book of job appeared the revenge followed in the the universal passion made their appearance during the course of and the following DATE in they were published meanwhile the accession of george ii had been hailed with the so called to ocean e the brothers a tragedy pretty nearly with this in appeared the and CARDINAL to pope some more followed the ORDINAL night thought was published in the last in of young s remaining works resignation which appeared DATE before his death need alone be mentioned except young is probably the most unequal of english poets the difference between his best work and his worst is so great as to be almost unintelligible and it is fair to him to say that he seems to have been aware of this when his collected poems were a large were by his express direction left out publication however as it has been well observed in CARDINAL sense an sin and in young it is necessary to take the and the into consideration as well as the night thoughts and the last day of the class represented by ORDINAL named works it may be said that hardly any worse poetry has ever been written there is scarcely a of the so called which does not read like an edward young able and the author seems by his to have had no ear at all and his gross and flattery is of this latter peculiarity indeed even his best work contains but too many instances the fine passage soon to be quoted from DATE is by the in the midst of it of a clumsy and foolish on queen anne which any CARDINAL but DATE divine would have felt to be not only in bad taste but hopelessly to the case the depths to which young sinks at his worst are however by the heights at which at his best he arrives if poetry and poets could be judged by single lines there are few save the highest who could safely challenge comparison with young he had an astonishing of thought of a certain kind and a corresponding richness of expression nor were his powers confined as it has been asserted to the production of gloomy lie stands pre eminent among artists of blank verse and a critic might well have asked him as asked where he got his style from DATE is indeed remarkable for its mould of blank verse considering that though young was a much older man than he did not produce his great work until DATE after the appearance of DATE it may be that the seasons exercised some influence over him but the influence was scarcely that of imitation the different uses to which the CARDINAL instruments were put may perhaps in some measure account for the difference of their sound both have in common the tendency to language and to which the had made popular both use and indeed abuse the effect of strongly contrasted lights and shades but young probably owing to his dramatic studies is much more than not a few passages in the night thoughts especially that remark able CARDINAL in the ORDINAL night about dying friends where the confusion of does not obscure the grandeur of the verse are of the finest tragic mould it was inevitable that in the hands of a man of such taste as young this tragic quality should often into mere the indeed which is so characteristic of him exists even in detached passages of very small extent so that it is difficult if not impossible to select any in which the taste shall not be offended the night thoughts has accordingly long ceased to be the popular book it , and remembered the incident the night before. They were probably wondering who he had a crush on. Edward wished that some squirrel scouts had been at marshmallow night; then he wouldn"t have to put up with scouts thinking he was gay. The fact that it was, however, true stung like poison oak. His determined pose began to shrink under their stares. He went from standing tall, chest stuck out- to hunched over, glaring at the ground. The path to Jelly cabin seemed to drag on, and by the time he had reached its door, he was practically crawling. "Hey Edward!" Lazlo said, opening the door before Edward got the chance to work up the courage to knock. "It"s so nice of you to visit!" Edward tried to think of something to say. Lazlo seemed to be dressed in a series of cardboard boxes. "Um....hey Laz-" Lazlo interrupted him. "Do you wanna play "Knights of the Round Table" with us?" Lazlo chirped in. "Huzzah!' Said Clam from somewhere inside the cabin. "Listen Lazlo, I need to talk to you in private..." "There"s no secrets between friends." Lazlo said, smiling. Edward hated that smile for all the reasons he hated Lazlo. Anger bubbled up inside him. "Why does he always have to make this harder for me!? Why?" "Laaazlooo!' He yelled angrily, shaking his fist at Lazlo. "When I say "private", I mean private!" "But..." "No buts! I didn"t walk all the way here from Nurse Leslie"s office for buts!" His reddening face seemed to make Lazlo suddenly concerned. "Edward, relax. Whatever"s bothering you, I"m sure we can talk about it..." Edward cut him off. "That"s what I wanna talk to you about..." "Maybe he needs Biryani Rice! I always feel cranky "till I"ve had Biryani Rice!" Raj interrupted. "Huzzah!" Clam repeated. Edward turned on them, the fires of hell burning in his eyes. "Shut up, both of you!" Raj took a step to the side, putting Clam between him and the angry platypus. At this moment, Lazlo had no idea what was making Edward so testy, but he remembered his parents telling him that people acted mad when they were unhappy. It was pretty much this thought that drove Lazlo to pestering people like Edward and scoutmaster Lumpus. He couldn"t stand the thought of anyone being unhappy; and right now, Edward must be really unhappy. Or, at least, that was how his thoughts ran as he watched Edward. Lazlo put a hand on his shoulder. "Edward..." He said, cooing like he was talking to a child. "I know a yoga move that can help you." Edward had been glaring at Lazlo"s hand on his shoulder up to that moment. He looked up as Lazlo"s words reached his ears: stupid, ridiculous words. The anger that had been piling up inside him suddenly sloshed to his knees, leaving him feeling empty. Lazlo got the feeling his suggestion was denied. "Or you could just... talk about your feelings..?" He hesitated for a second, wondering if Edward was about to say something. When no words came, he continued trying to egg Edward on. "It"d make you feel better..." "I hate you." It was hardly even a whisper. The sound of Edward"s voice was even lower than the floorboards" constant creaks, but it cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. Edward didn"t even look up as he said it, his gaze was resting on Lazlo"s black shoes. He wasn"t angry; he felt... detached. He couldn"t even feel the ground under his feet. He tried to gather up all the rage that Lazlo dispersed just to feel in control again. "I hate you, Lazlo! I hate your smile, I hate the way your so frikkin" happy all the time...!" He advanced towards Lazlo. Lazlo took a few steps back as the words Edward said dawned on him. "I hate the way everyone likes you, even though they know you"re an idiot! I hate the way I can"t tell where your shoes end and your pants start!" Edward looked up, because the shoes where mocking him, and right into Lazlo"s eyes. The monkey had backed up right up against the wall now. "I hate your cockamamie definition of fun! I hate the way you always win! I hate that you think I"m a nice person, and I absolutely hate the fact that I"m in love with you!!" Lazlo was right, he did feel better now that he had said it. But only for a few seconds. As Lazlo"s expression turned to one of pure shock, he realized that he had said it. Sure, that was what he meant to do, but now everyone was staring at him. He blushed, embarrassed, and ran out of the cabin before anyone could say anything. Later that day, Lazlo was walking around camp. He wasn"t going anywhere, he just wanted to clear his head. His two friends trailed after him silently. They didn"t say anything- they could tell he was thinking hard about the situation at hand. They both had their own prediction of what conclusion Lazlo"d reach, so they waited... Eventually, Lazlo stopped walking. He turned, and finally voiced his opinion. "Poor Edward." He said, looking toward Pinto cabin where Edward had locked himself in. Skip and Chip were sitting on the doorstep, looking glum. They were wondering where they would sleep that night. "Poor Edward?" echoed Raj in disbelief. "What about poor you!? First he yells at you, and then he declares his undying love for you!" In Raj"s point of view, the latter was worse. "Undying?" Lazlo felt his anxiety escalate. "He didn"t say undying. Did he?" "It"s what we presume..." Raj replied solemnly. Well, then this was more serious than Lazlo had previously thought! Drastic measures were going to have to be taken. He didn"t know a thing about love. Of course, romance was out of his league, but he had to do something to cheer Edward up. "I know what to do!" He said. "Let him down easy?" Asked Raj Lazlo laughed, thinking what Raj said was a joke. "Of course not! I was going to ask him out on a date!" "What?! Why?" "That"s what people who are in love do! Right?" "But you- you"re not in love with him!" The elephant"s eyes suddenly widened. "Are you?" "I don"t know. I"ve never been in love before- have you?" "No." Raj answered back. Clam, who was walking silently beside the two, decided to hold up his side of conversation "I have!" Lazlo was intrigued. "What"s it feel like?" "Bubbly." Lazlo didn"t understand a lot of things. Romance was one of those things, so was hate. He did understand door knocking, but only to a certain point. He didn"t know that at some point you had to stop. Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok... Inside the cabin, Edward pulled the blanket on his bed over his head, trying muffle out the barrage of knocks. He knew who it was. "Go away, Lazlo!" Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok..... He opened the door and glared at his oppressor. "What? What do you want?!" Lazlo"s face was so cheerful that it should"ve been printed out on a hippie van against a backdrop of flowers and peace signs. Edward had to squint to look at him. "Let"s go on a date!" Lazlo said, giggling. Edward slammed the door. Bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok bok... Edward opened the door, and growled, "You"re mocking me, aren"t you?" "I"m serious." Lazlo replied. Edward wanted to yell "no" but he couldn"t. He opened his mouth to try again. Nothing. He hated himself for being such a slave to his emotions. After a pause, he said "I"ll think about it.", and shut the door silently. He leaned on the door and sighed. "Let"s go on a date!'? Seriously? That wasn"t even a question! How was he supposed to reply to that? A date? Sure, he"d go if he wanted to be mortified for the rest of his life! But, then again, he"d never been on a date before...no! Never! Lazlo was the reason he was hiding in here in the first place! "I just can"t believe you!" A voice close to him said. Author"s note: gasp! A cliffhanger! the next parts lame though ... "I just can"t believe you!" A voice suddenly said. Edward whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, ready to pound whoever it was who had sneaked into his room. "...Turning down that cute hunk of monkey!" His jaw dropped. It was his doll; Veronica! And, not only that, but she was talking! Okaaay, he must had just stepped into the twilight zone; "The place where normal things don"t happen very often". Sure, Veronica was his emotional support, and he talked to her a lot, but he never expected her to talk back. She talked in an annoying tone of voice, the type common among teenage girls. It made you want to hit her. She stood up, looked right at him with her little plastic hands resting on her hips, and continued her speech. "I mean, like, don"t you want to be happy?" Edward picked her up. "Happy?" He repeated, confused. She gave him a meaningful look with one of her eyebrows raised. "Duh! Yeah! You"re always complainin" to me about how depressed you are, but you never do anything about it!" Edward couldn"t believe his own doll was dissin" him! "I want you to be happy," She said. "You know you love him, so give him a chance..." and, as though she felt her time of being able to talk and move running out, she blurted out, "And buy a Ben doll; I deserve love, too!" And then she was back to normal, and reality settled its warm fuzzy blanket around the world again. Whether it was just a hallucination induced by a repressed subconscience or had actually happened, there was only one thing left for Edward to do... Lazlo sat on the steps of Pinto cabin, leaning on the door and staring at the sky. There"s a danger to leaning on doors, but Lazlo was leaning on this one on purpose, since he didn"t want to miss it when it opened. It did. Lazlo nearly fell backwards into the cabin but Edward had his weight on the door so he didn"t fall all the way in. Edward glared at Lazlo for his stupidity. Lazlo smiled back. Edward sighed, his glare fading. "Fine." "Fine?" "I"ll go out... with you." He said through gritted teeth. "Really? Oh." Lazlo got up, excited. "Ok! I"ll pick you up at eight. Wear something nice!" He commanded nonchalantly, which was something only Lazlo and children"s show hosts could do. Pick me up? Edward thought. "Wait! Where are you takin" me?!" He tried to yell out, but Lazlo had already hopped, skipped, and jumped across the camp and out of earshot. Edward leaned his head on the doorframe and tried not to think about what the other campers would think. He felt defeated and sort of relieved. He came to believe that he would have to leave whatever happened next to chance, and just hope that Veronica was right. He"d never packed for this. He never thought to himself, Hey! I"d better pack something nice, in case a monkey asks me out to dinner! No, he didn"t! Why didn"t he!? He threw a pair of shorts across the room at Skip and Chip, who, for some reason or another, he had let in. Skip put the shorts on his head like a hat. "Look, I"m Edward!" He said to his brother, who laughed. What did Lazlo expect him to wear anyhow? A suit? A dress? Well... he did have a dress (don"t ask), but he wasn"t planning on letting anyone see him in it anytime soon. He didn"t have a suit. He had a Scab Zombies t-shirt, but what would that say? And... And why did he care what Lazlo would think?! The guy did a gymnastics routine in a sunflower suit, for heavens sake! He wasn"t in any position to judge. Some shorts, after he"d wrestled them off Skip, and a sleeveless t-shirt that was what he ended up wearing. It was good enough, and it wasn"t like Lazlo would find anything better... There was a knock at the door. Lazlo stood in the entrance, grinning. He was wearing a suit. He looked hot! Edward looked down at his shoes, feeling suddenly scruffy by comparison. Lazlo got the feeling that Edward was mad at him. "I like your shirt." He said in effort to lighten the mood. It didn"t really work, but it was enough to get Edward out the door. "So, where are you takin" me?" Edward asked, feeling like he was being taken hostage. In a way, he was. Lazlo had a death grip on his arm. Lazlo put his index finger to his lips and went shhh. He grabbed Edward"s hand and dragged him through the woods. The path they were on took them to a clearing. It wasn"t a particularly interesting clearing; although it had a stump right in the middle of it. Someone had draped it with a checkered tablecloth and thus, with very little effort, the clearing was transformed into a posh restaurant. Standing next to the stump was Raj, looking uncomfortable in a tux. "Please wait to be seated!" He demanded rather than asked politely. Edward felt a cold shiver down his back as he looked at the stump again. One of Lumpus"s scented bath candles had been pilfered to decorate it. Clam was a little ways off to the side, next to a large pot, dressed like a cook. This wasn"t a date; it was a game! It was a frikkin" pretend date! He shot Lazlo a look of simmering contempt. Lazlo didn"t seem to notice, for he was busy smiling at his own handy work. It took a lot of asking around to find out what a date was like, since very few Bean Scouts had experienced one. He pulled up a "chair for his date. Edward pushed him away. "Don"t bother; its a log!" He sat on the aformentioned log with a huff. Lazlo quietly took his seat on the opposite side of the stump. Raj handed them menus. They were just pieces of paper with the word, "soup" scrawled on in an erratic handwriting that one could only guess as belonging to Clam. Edward growled at the lack of choices. After a few seconds, he decided that he"d just have to swallow whatever Clam the cook was stirring up. Ew! Raj came back with a notebook. "May I take your order?" He twittered. Edward crumpled the menu up into a ball and flung it at the elephant"s head. "Fine! I"ll take the soup!" This small act of violence rested his soul a bit. Raj grinned nervously, trying hard to be polite for Lazlo"s sake. Lazlo looked at his menu, cupped his chin in his hand, and went, "Hmmm..." Edward seethed. He tapped his fingers on the stump and waited. Finally he burst out, "There"s only one thing on the menu, Lazlo, pick it!" Lazlo giggled. It wasn"t that he was stupid and didn"t notice that the menu lacked any real choices, it was just that Lazlo thought pouring over a menu was an essential part of a "going to a posh restaurant" experience. Either way, he ordered the soup. Raj carefully wrote down their orders with a somewhat obsessive-compulsive attention to spelling (one could only double check the spelling of the word "soup" so many times...) and took the order to the cook. The cook, Clam, promptly took the paper and dropped it into the cooking pot, giving it a good stir. "This is crazy!" Raj hissed. Clam stared at his own cooking. Raj hadn"t ever judged his cooking abilities before. "I meant this date!" Raj quickly corrected after seeing that look of dismay on Clam"s face. Clam nodded, then shrugged. He poured out two bowls of soup and handed them to Raj. Unlike Raj, he didn"t believe that it was his place to judge their enigmatic leader. Back at the table, Edward had already decided to take out his rage on the service. He grinned sneakily when Raj came back with the soup, deciding that he had always wanted to try what he was thinking about doing... He took some lint out of his pocket and dropped it into the soup when no one was looking. He took a deep breath and declared, "Oh Maître D"! There"s a fly in my soup!" "Where?" Exclaimed Raj, leaning over the soup. "Right there!" Edward yelled, pushing him in. It wasn"t what he was planning to do in the first place, but seeing Raj lean over the soup like that was too big a chance to resist. That, and the fact that he messed up the first line of the joke. Raj slowly lifted his head out of the soup. He was mad. He was so mad that Dumbo"s mother attacking circus visitors and dropping the ringmaster into a barrel had nothing on him. "I"ll kill him!" He raged. Both Lazlo and Clam had to hold him back. "You can"t kill him, Raj!" Lazlo said, trying his hardest to seem calm. "And why not?!" "Because you"re a gentle, peace loving guy." He explained. And, oddly enough, Lazlo believed this with all his heart... "Wuss!" Barked Clam, although he also believed this with all his heart. Raj calmed down. They were right, of course. Edward could take him any day and he wasn"t up to having a fight. Clam took his hand and led him back to the pot, which had now become Clam"s personal cauldron of weird concoctions. "Make soufflé, make soufflé!" He yelled, repeating it ecstatically. Lazlo sat back in his chair. "That wasn"t very nice, Edward..." Despite the fact that he believed that he was guiltless, Edward found himself looking at his feet. "I was bored!" he retaliated. "This so-called-date is boring, Lazlo! It sucks..." "Oh." Lazlo"s pupils dilated with understanding. "Dates aren"t as fun as stagecoach robberies, are they?" Edward didn"t have anything to say to that. "I don"t really know that much about dates..." continued Lazlo. "I asked everyone I know, too. Nobody here knows anything about them." "That"s "cuz everyone here"s antisocial loners!" Edward said. And, like how both Clam and Lazlo believed that Raj was gentle and peace-loving, Edward believed his statement with all of his heart. Lazlo smiled at him, and Edward had to look away. He had always found the monkey"s smile unnerving. Lazlo tried lean back into his line of vision. "What"s a real date like, Edward?" He asked. "Umm..." Edward blushed. "What makes you think that I know about dates?..." ""Cuz you"re so smart, Edward!" Lazlo said, giggling. Encouraged by this, Edward blurted out the only single thing he knew about dates. "Well, my brother said that they start with dancing and end with sex..." He said this with nearly no expression on his face. He knew he"d regret it as soon as he said it. He tried to avoid looking at Lazlo"s face so he won"t blush again. He glanced up. To his surprise, Lazlo seemed pretty mellow. "What"s sex?" Lazlo asked suddenly. Edward fell off his log. "Well, there goes our relationship!" He snapped. The last thing Edward said didn"t make much sense to Lazlo, so he promptly erased it from his mind, but something in the sentence before that one agreed with the happy-go-lucky primate... He got out of his seat, walked to Edward"s side of the table, leaned down, grabbed the younger boy"s hand, and pulled him up. "What kind of dance?" "Guh?" Edward didn"t hear him since he was too shocked. One minute he was on the ground and the next minute his head was buried in Lazlo"s shoulder. He pushed Lazlo away to a safe, manly distance, but he was still too close, and Lazlo was holding onto his hand. "What kind of dance?" Lazlo repeated. "I dunno..." He tried to remember things about dates. Things he"d seen on TV. "The waltz, I think..." and because he didn"t like to seem uncertain in front of someone who thought he was smart, he added, "Yeah, that!" Lazlo"s smile, if possible, grew wider. Lazlo liked dancing. He knew there was something missing with this date thing, and that must"ve been it. Granted, he preferred the robot to the waltz, but the waltz was one of those dances you could dance with someone. He took a step closer to Edward while trying to remember how it went. One of his hands was already entwined with the little platypus"s he put his other had on the boy"s waist, ignoring Edward"s sharp intake of breath. Lazlo started leading Edward around the clearing in small, lazy circles. Edward stumbled along. "I didn"t mean we should dance!" He protested. Lazlo continued to ignore him. "Someone will see us, Lazlo!" He raged. "And..." Lazlo twirled him. Edward growled under his breath, trying to regain his posture. It would be hard to explain a difficult concept like embarrassment to Lazlo. He tried to calm down. It really wasn"t so bad. Dancing. Even if he wasn"t really good at it. Yet something nagged at him. "Lazlo?" "Hmmm?" "Why are you doing this?" "Because you said danci-" "Not that! This date!" "Umm..." Lazlo tried to think back to earlier that day. "It seemed a good idea at the time" didn"t sound like the answer Edward was expecting. "So you"d be happy!" He answered truthfully. Edward"s face went from crème to beet red. "It"s not like I"m your friend or anything..." "It"s okay, I like you!" Lazlo said, grinning. If Edward blushed any harder his head would"ve exploded. Again. Lazlo continued talking, taking a dangerous road. "And you said you liked me!" After a moment of consideration, he corrected himself. "You said you lov-" (Edward coughed, embarrassed) "-ed me. That makes us friends, right?" "Well..." Frankly, Edward didn"t really know what that made them. He hoped it wasn"t friends. He also didn"t want to say that he didn"t know... He decided to throw in a random guess. He stood on his tiptoes. "Not really..." He continued, "It sorta makes us..." Lazlo didn"t get to hear the rest, because Edward"s lips were on his. If anyone is wondering where our overtly cautious pink elephant and beloved albino pygmy rhino were at this moment, here is your answer. Back when Lazlo and Edward were discussing the intricacies of a date, Clam and Raj where walking back to get Clam"s pot when, suddenly, a bear (the very same bear that Lazlo once brought back to camp) jumped out of the bushes! Wowed by the scent of Clam"s cooking, it grabbed the pot and ran. Clam took chase, because that pot was one of Clam"s most prized possessions along with the nose hair trimmer that Lazlo gave him and his toaster. Raj followed, panicking from a safe distance. He didn"t know what he"d tell Lazlo if he ever lost Clam again.
pipeline_tag: sentence-similarity
library_name: sentence-transformers
metrics: cosine_accuracy, cosine_accuracy_threshold, cosine_f1, cosine_f1_threshold, cosine_precision, cosine_recall, cosine_ap, cosine_mcc
model-index: name: SentenceTransformer based on answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
results: task: type: binary-classification
name: Binary Classification
dataset: name: lovesit
type: lovesit
metrics: type: cosine_accuracy
value: 0.8326093252244425
name: Cosine Accuracy
verified: no, type: cosine_accuracy_threshold
value: 0.7510991096496582
name: Cosine Accuracy Threshold
verified: no, type: cosine_f1
value: 0.8303312027890761
name: Cosine F1
verified: no, type: cosine_f1_threshold
value: 0.7280441522598267
name: Cosine F1 Threshold
verified: no, type: cosine_precision
value: 0.8255343731946851
name: Cosine Precision
verified: no, type: cosine_recall
value: 0.8351841028638223
name: Cosine Recall
verified: no, type: cosine_ap
value: 0.9171321950629071
name: Cosine Ap
verified: no, type: cosine_mcc
value: 0.6617957297358702
name: Cosine Mcc
verified: no
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Created: 2025-07-02 02:34:04