(Altair, Malik, Darim, Sef and Maria Belong to Ubisoft) (The rest are my OC's)
(Starring Altair, Malik, Darim, Sef and Maria)
Altair moaned as he slightly turned his head to the right, he could feel the soft pillow under his head. He twitched his hands and felt the blankets of his bed, he groaned turning his head to the left. He opened his eyes to see everything swaying, after a little while of opening and closing his eyes for short periods, they finally came into focus. He looked out the window to see it was early evening, he stared out it for sometime perplex. Why was he in bed at this time? The back of his head started to roar at him. He lifted his left hand to the back of his head confused, he wondered why his arm felt like lead and was alarmed to feel bandages around his head, his arm fall back to his side. He could hear someone enter his room and lifted his head to see who.
"Greetings Altair. I so glad to see your awake." Asiya watched him drop his head back to the pillow, with a brief flash of pain on his face. She walked over to bed and sat on the edge facing him.
"What happened? What's wrong with me now?" He asked confused.
"Before I answer that, I would like to make sure your okay. Can you more your hands and feet alright?" She looked concerned.
He stared baffled at her for asking him such a question. He lift his hands and twirled them, he leaned up on his elbows and moved his feet. "I feel like I've been sparing with someone for 6 hours straight, but they feel fine to me."
She gave a sigh of relief. "Good, good." She handed him cup of herbal tea. "This should wake you up some more. Tell me everything you can remember from last night till now."
He drank the whole thing before putting the cup on the table beside the bed. He laid back down and rubbed his eyes as he tried to remember.
"Altair, will you be coming to bed soon?" Maria asked him before checking to make sure Darim and Sef were asleep.
He stretched his back and arms, hearing a few cracks before yawning. "Yes, as soon as I organize everything I want to show the Rafiqs." He relaxed and bent over the desk again.
"But they won't be here for two days, take a break and come to bed." She insisted and folded her arms.
"That maybe so, but all I can hear in the back of my head is Malik saying don't put off something that can be done now or it's better to be prepared now then to be unprepared later." He shook his head and smirked. "Well, something like that anyway, he always seems to have an endless supply of witty remarks."
She sighed in defeat. "Alright then, just don't spend all night at that desk," She saw him nod and left.
He sat there writing and crumpling some of the pages before he was satisfied with what he had. He was writing down the various new training methods he had come up with recently and was making copies for each Rafiq to take back with them once they returned to their bureau, it was also a chance for the old Rafiqs to meet the two new Rafiqs that controlled their strongholds in Cyprus and Baghdad. A bright light kept bothering him till he looked up and saw the sun rising, he cursed before stretching. He felt his legs and lower back crack, he figured it was better to get some sleep now then none at all. Once at his room, he took off his robes and ever so quietly laid on top of the blankets of his bed, he cursed once more when he felt his wife stir from her sleep.
"Altair? Did you just get to bed?" She asked him in disbelief.
He hesitated before answering. "Yes... Please kill me later? I would like to sleep first." He mumbled.
She got up to get dressed, she knew her sons would be waking up shortly as well. "Oh, don't worry. I intend too." She heard him chuckle and watched him roll onto his stomach. She folded the blanket over him before she left.
The sound of knocking woke him, he groaned ignoring it and tried to go back to sleep. He heard another knock. "Go away." He demanded before closing his eyes again, after a pause he figured they obeyed.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Master, but the Rafiqs have asked I summon you." The Assassin waited for the response.
After a short pause he sighed. "Tell them I'll be there shorty." He pushed himself off the bed and put on a clean set of Grandmaster robes. He splashed some water on his face before walking down the hallway. He had a few of the Assassins rooms converted into a place of living, such as somewhere they could eat and lounge together, this was mostly on Maria's request. Most of the Assassins were living in the village now enjoying the time they could have with their own families.
"Altair?" His wife called to him.
He had just passed the door and took a few steps back to peer in. "Yes?" He saw Maria and his two children eating at the table.
"Come eat something before you leave." She demanded more then asked.
"But the Rafiqs are waiting for me." He said as he pointed down the hall.
"They can wait a few minutes more, now sit." She placed a bowl of porridge and some bread on the table for him.
He sighed before taking a seat and started to eat.
"Dad, how come you never sleep?" Sef, his five year old asked.
"I do sleep, I just can't right now." He said amused as he rubs his sons hair, Sef started to giggle. When he finished eating he got up and kissed his wife on the cheek, before he left he turned to his seven year old. "Darim, I want you on your best behaviour today." He saw his son look up at him. "I mean it." He demanded and saw him nod. He left to go down stairs and meet with the Rafiq in the library. "Safety and peace bothers, please forgive my tardiness."
"Safety and peace Altair, I'm sorry we arrived a day early, I guess we are just eager to hear your new plans." The Rafiq from Acre mused.
"Nothing to apologise for brother." He was glad Malik's nagging had some merit sometimes.
He begun explaining the new changes he made to Masyaf, soon they were all looking over a map to where Altair thought might be good places to try and set up another Stronghold. Altairs eyes grow wide and he arcked his head back just enough to see an arrow fly across his eyes and embed its self on top of the bookshelf. The other Rafiqs had jumped back and drawn their weapons eagerly searching for the traitor that would dare assassinate the Grandmaster. Altair chuckled rather nervously at them before sighing and dropping his head down. They looked at him confused wondering how he could be so calm after almost being killed. "Excuse me a moment bothers." They watched him walk over to the arrow, pull it out of the book case and walk to the entrance of the garden. They heard him yell Darim and watched as a small child ran up to him.
"I thought I told you to be on your best behaviour." Altair crossed his arms still holding the arrow. "What would happen if you hit me?"
"But I'll never hit you!" Darim smiled at his father. "Your the best Assassin, no one can hit you!" He cheerfully replied.
He sighed. "That maybe so but one day you might catch me off guard and what will you do then?"
"But I'll never catch you off guard!" He replied and tried to get the arrow back.
He let out another sigh. "Either way please stop it, we have training dummies for a reason. Use those instead." He saw Darim nod and gave him back the arrow. He then headed back upstairs, were he was greeted by Sef holding a cup out to him. He crouched down to eye level before taking the cup.
"Here daddy, I've made you some tea." He smiled at his father.
"Thank you Sef. How about you make some for our guests as well?" He rubbed his sons hair with his free hand.
"Okay." He said with a large grin on his face before running off.
He drank the tea while he walked back to the Rafiqs. "Sorry about the interruption, now where were we?" He placed the empty cup on the desk.
"I'm rather impressed your oldest sons able to shot an arrow at you from that far away." The Rafiq from Damascus said. "I'll keep it in mind to stay a few feet away from you just incase he tries again." He mused.
"I think its nice to see children running around the castle. I've never seen this place look so alive." The Rafiq Acre remarked. "It's seems the Assassins that have families are more careful when on missions, we've had far less deaths in Acre in the past few years."
"I find it disgraceful that you can't seem to control your son, Altair." Said Abbas, Jerusalems Rafiq. "Assassins with families also have an added fear that their families will be in danger making them weak."
"Your wrong about that Abbas, but I don't expect you to understand the strength it can give you." He glared at him. "This is why I encourage them to have a family if they choose have one. Anyway, I have some novices in the training ring willing to show you the new technics I mentioned earlier in the letters." They followed Altair as he explained in more detail, he had just reached the last few steps of the stairs.
"Altair?" Someone asked.
"Yes?" He turned around and looked at them confused. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Altair frowned in confusion. "That's all I seem to remember till you came in asking me these strange questions."
Asiya sighed again "Good, then you really are okay."
"I don't understand." He sat up on his elbows. "How did I get here and why am I injured?"
She chuckled. "I'll fill in the blanks." She motioned for him to lay back down and so he did. "The Rafiqs told me as you explained you started to slur your words and were holding onto the railing of the stairs rather tightly. When they asked you what was wrong, you turned to them looking confused before you eyes rolled up into the back of your head and fell backwards off the stairs. You scared them all pretty badly including the Assassins that were on guard, they were distraught when you wouldn't wake up and saw that you were bleeding from the back of your head." She saw the look of horror and embarrassment appear on his face. "It took me a while to figure out what caused you to pass out. It wasn't till I noticed I was missing a sleeping elixir and your son Sef saying he put it in your tea because you told him, you couldn't sleep. Maria finally got Sef to stop crying and saying he was sorry he killed you. I was then concerned about how hard you hit your head, you needed several stitches to close the wound and there was the fear that you might be paralysed or have memory lose. I think if it wasn't for you always wearing your hood, it probably would have been worse."
He put his hands over his face. "I can't believe this... I have a son that determined to use me as a practice dummy and another that's going to end up poisoning me."
She chuckled at him. "I don't think Sef will ever do that again, He was really afraid he killed you."
He sat up suddenly. "I was with the Rafiqs... What are they doing now?" He rubbed his face with both hands again. "They'll never let me live this down."
"Maria took the liberty to explain your ideas to the Rafiqs after she found the papers on your desk and I told them what caused you to pass out suddenly was the lack of sleep you had gotten in the last few days. You've been known to do that so they didn't question it." She shrugged at him.
"Maria? Why didn't Malik do that?" He looked at her confused as she started to blush. "That reminds me, I haven't seen him in a few days." He got to go look for him.
"No! Please stop!" She held out her arms in an attempt to stop him from going any further down the hallway. "He doesn't want to be disturbed! You need rest! umm...umm... Maria was calling for you earlier!" This seemed to stop him as she sighed with relief.
"Stand a side Asiya... I don't know why your trying to stop me." He knocked on Malik's door, after a pause he replied.
"Go away." Malik shouted.
"Malik, it's me. I'm coming in." He stated before opening the door.
"No! Go away novice!" He yelled.
Altair pushed open the door. "Would you stop calling me that already?" He stared at Malik confused, his face was red and sweat fell from his forehead. He looked to Asiya. "What's wrong with him?"
She sighed. "He has a cold, sorry Malik I tried."
"A cold?" Altair frowned. "Only a cold?" He said disappointed as folded his arms and leaned on the wall next to the door.
"Do you honestly wish me ill?" Malik asked in disbelieve before he coughed.
"Of course not." Altair looked to the ceiling failing to hide the smile that crossed his face.
He sighed. "You never going to let that go, will you?
Altair looked at him. "No, I'm rather determined to find any excuse to have you pay him a visit. He had such a wonderful collection of red crosses all over the place." He casually tilted his head to the right to hear an arrow bounce off the wall before he sighed heavily.
"I see Darim's still using you for target practice?" He chuckled before he noticed the bandages around his head. "What happened to your head?"
"You don't want to know." Altair stated.
"Darim finally got a hit in, didn't he?" He laughed before coughing again.
"If only, it be far less embarrassing then what really happened." He saw Malik raise a brow and explained what happened to only hear Malik burst into a series of laughs and coughs. "It's not that funny Malik! I could have died."
"Oh please, you would kill death himself if he tried to take your life before your time." He was trying to compose himself before coughing a lot.
"I'll let you rest now, safety and peace Malik." He heard him mutter it back before he left to head to his room.
Altair walked down the dimly light hallway thinking of the events of the day again. He let out a yell as he stumbled forward, falling to his knees and his left hand holding his right shoulder. He was somewhat horrified to see any arrow tip sticking out of it. He heard someone running up to him and he groaned loudly.
"Oh no! Oh no! I didn't mean it!" Darim panicked. "I sorry! I'm so sorry! Here I'll pull it out." He yanked on the arrow to hear his father cry in protest.
"Darim! Don't touch it!" He hissed at him, he trembled slightly.
"I'm sorry, I so sorry!" Darim started to cry. "Please don't die! I don't want you to die!" Tears streamed down his face.
"Go get Asiya in Malik's room and tell her to meet me in my room." He groaned loudly again as he got to his feet and started walking towards his room.
"Okay, Don't die! I'll get Asiya!" He said still in a panic as he ran down the hallway screaming her name.
Moments later Asiya walked into his room to find him slumped over the desk shaking rather violently. "Oh dear."
"Please save him! You can't let him die! I didn't mean to do it!" Darim cried tugging at her sleeve.
She crouched down to eye level with him and wipes his tears away. "Don't worry, he'll be alright. Go tell your mom what happened, she'll want to know." She heard him sniffle and nod, then ran off to find her. She was amused to hear the agonizing groans come from Altair as she looked at him. "You can stop acting now, his gone." She watched him relax and start laughing.
"Do you think it was convincing enough to have him stop shooting at me?" He asked as he straighten.
"I think so, did he really get you?" She inquired, she felt honoured to able to witness his casual side. He could only act that way for a select few and with his current attitude it was hard to tell if the arrow really injured his shoulder.
"Sadly yes. Can you remove it? My arm starting to go numb." He sighed.
"And you let him?" She went over to inspect it.
"It was the only time his aim was off." He shrugged then tensed.
"You'll never stop surprising me." She laughed. She broke the arrow shaft and pulled it out, she felt him tense before releasing his breath. She stitched and bandages the new wound and told him to lay down and rest before leaving.
"Asiya?" He called while laying on his stomach.
"Yes?" She turned to look at him.
"Don't go to far." He said as he yawned.
"Why?" She asked puzzled.
"Because my wife is going to try and kill me next." He chuckled.