Carpetboarding

"Umm…Altair… Are you sure this is safe?" Malik asks warily as he eyes the contraption Altair is leaning over.

"Positive Malik. After all, the worst thing that can happen is death."

"That's reassuring…"

Altair frowns as he looks up from his squatting position at Malik, "Oh come on! Loosen up a bit. Snowboarding is fun! I hear that-"

"You mean sandboarding." Malik cuts him short while folding his arms across his chest. He wasn't going to be convinced easily.

"It's the same thing." Altair replies nonchalantly as he rises to his feet. He quickly dusts the dirt off his legs before pointing at his creation and puffing his chest out proudly, "Ta-da! What do you think? Neat isn't it?"

"It's junk." Malik replies moodily.

Altair's chest immediately de-puffed and his jaw nearly hit the floor, "But…but…" he stammers, "It's a piece of art!"

A snort is the only reply that he gets. Altair frowns deeply while scratching the side of his head; sometimes he swears Malik can have the same mood swings as a woman. But that doesn't matter right now; he has more important things to do… Like getting Malik to give his beloved snowboard a test run, for example.

"Now who will test this baby for me?" Altair says thoughtfully while scratching his chin, pretending to look out over the horizon as if he's in deep thought.

"You built it; test it yourself."

"But I'll need a partner. I can't go solo, you know? Now, will Abbas work? No… Jubari? No… Ah, dear little Kadar! He'll be perfect!"

Upon hearing that Malik's eyes stretch to the size of saucers, "No! You can't! It's too dangerous."

"Do you know anyone else?" Altair asks slyly.

"Well…no…"

"Then it'll be your little brother." Altair says as he starts to walk to the Novice's quarters.

Malik closes his eyes and gulps before saying, "Fine… I'll do it…"

Altair stops in his tracks and smiles triumphantly, his back still turned to Malik, "Are you sure Malik?"

"No, but let's get this over with before I change my mind."

***

Majid Al'Din lives a relatively quiet and peaceful life as an Assassin Guard. All he has to do is look at who comes and goes and occasionally take an afternoon nap when it fancies him. So you would certainly understand that he got quite a shock when two screaming teenage Assassins where heading straight at him at the speed of light. He told his legs to run but they decided, at that moment, that they wouldn't listen to their master and stayed glued to the spot. The next thing he knew he was sitting on Malik's lap on this strange contraption that was now moving at the speed of WARP Drive Eight.

Screaming their heads off –and attracting quite a lot of attention in the process- they headed straight for a cliff face and with aloud crashed they slammed into the stone cliff, flying off in different directions.

An eerie silence follows before Malik moans loudly, clutching at his throbbing head. He looks over to his left and sees an unconscious Majid. He blinks and turns to his right to find Altair not lying too far away. Slowly he rises to his hands and knees and crawls over to Altair, shaking him by his shoulders.

"Hmm? Wha-? Five more minutes, please Mommy. Al Mualim won't be too angry…" Altair mumbles, eyes still closed.

"You fool, it's me." Malik hisses as he backhands Altair across the face.

Altair slowly opens an eye and drowsily looks at Malik, "What?"

"I'm going to kill you…"