Bickslow found himself hating Natsu just a little. The pink haired fool sauntered through the burning sand, no protective gear, not even the glimmer of sweat on his head, completely unaffected by the heat while the rest of them died a slow, hot death. Considering how long she'd been there already and the fact that her previous selves were natives, Ali handled the heat no better than the Bickslow or Laxus; sweltering away under the sun
They were all irritable, and despite the provisions, they had maybe one more day of water left and only Ali's word that they were heading in the right direction. Nightfall on the first day had brought up the stars and given her a direction, that she was somehow able to assure them was the way to the capital.
Her idea of close was two blistering days of walking in the sun; the heat seemed to be increasing as well. Bickslow hadn't thought it was possible for it to get any hotter than it was. He was very wrong.
"We've one day of water left," Laxus growled to Ali and Bickslow winced, he saw her jaw clench at the tone. "So you'd better be sure about the distance."
Bickslow watched her closely, close enough to see her struggle with an inner dialogue before coming out with a measured response. Clearly not her first, immediate one.
"The heat is a good sign we're close. They built the city at the hottest point in the desert, where the sun was strongest," She adjusted her goggles, skin sweaty and irritated underneath. "We should be able to see the citadel when the sun goes down."
At the moment Bickslow couldn't see anything; a sea of sand and a blinding sky ahead for miles, as far as the eye could see. He trusted her, but it was hard to argue with his eyes when he was hot, thirsty and couldn't even tell the direction of the sun at the moment; light seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Natsu handed him his own nearly full canteen of water. Bickslow stopped and stood there disbelievingly.
"This really doesn't effect you?" His eyes narrowed behind the googles. "Not even a bit?"
Natsu shrugged. The guy was too hot to freeze in the snow, too fireproof to burn in the sun. Bickslow swore under his breath before taking the offered canteen and taking a mouthful.
"Don't feel bad, Bix, you'll still always be the better swimmer," Natsu chortled with a derisive snort.
"Hell of a lot of comfort in a fucking desert," Bickslow grumbled. "Thanks, man!" He snapped sarcastically. His feet were killing him. They'd long since stopped burning but they throbbed something terrible. He didn't even want to take off his boots; he was afraid of what he'd find. Something unpleasant he was sure. Ali shared the sentiment encouraging Laxus to follow his example. She said it wouldn't do them any good to think about it.
When night fell he saw it light up the dark sky, the bulk of it hidden by the sand dunes but the bright glow was unmistakeable; as visible as the look of pure smugness on Ali's face, even in the dark.
Now that he had a place to visualize and he knew their location in relation to that point, Laxus could teleport ahead without worrying that he'd lose the group. He vanished into the night while the group patiently waited for him to get back. Hopefully with more water. Enough at least to get them to the city.
With the sun down the desert got shockingly cold. Natsu started a fire while Bickslow sat beside Ali, the pair under a blanket as the winds tormented them. Laxus was back within the hour with water and something to eat, and now satisfied that shelter was in sight and they weren't under threat of starvation or dehydration, the mood drastically improved.
"Most you've ever made on a job?" Laxus asked Natsu. The four of them sitting in a circle around the fire playing a somewhat twisted up version of truth or dare. Everyone had a chance to ask anyone a question, they'd to answer honestly, and with two Dragon Slayers, an empath and a Seith mage, there wasn't going to be any chance for lies, and if you couldn't answer, or failed to, you were subject to a penalty dare of Bickslow's choosing, and no one wanted that.
"About ten million jewel, and I still think it was cheap...but it paid for the house,"
"Come on, Natsu, don't leave us hanging, what was the job?" Bickslow laughed, impatient to hear whatever he did that earned him that much money and was apparently the reason he no longer took jobs from the swamp regions. Him and the Thunder legion had been away at the time and Bickslow hadn't heard the specifics, but Natsu rarely if ever backed down from a challenge, so the Seith knew it must have been bad.
"Hey! Not the way the game works, pal. You gotta wait your turn if you want to ask another question," Natsu smiled, knowing that by the time it went around again, Bickslow would probably have forgotten already.
"Fine," Bickslow sighed.
Natsu smirked.
"My turn!"
Bickslow rubbed his hands together and beckoned Natsu to continue.
"Show me what you got, Flame Brain!"
"Okay, most embarrassing moment in bed with a woman?" Natsu came out with.
"Oh, I know this one!" Alma said out loud with a sudden smile.
Bickslow closed his eyes groaning.
"That has to be when he accidentally handcuffed himself in bed, lost the keys and his partner had to call me to come over and break him out," She smiled, pleased to suddenly have something she could contribute. She lived a fairly boring life these days. The only remotely amusing thing she'd done had been accidentally sitting in lasagna.
Laxus and Natsu looked to Bickslow for confirmation, the man now had his eyes covered and was groaning miserably.
"Give the woman a cookie, she's right!" Laxus laughed.
Bickslow had actually been thinking of something else, but she was right, the incident he'd been thinking of was possibly not quite that embarrassing. He looked at Ali and grinned a smile she knew was going to spell trouble. The purpose of the game was to get to know each other a little better, but she could tell she'd overstepped again and he was going to try make her pay.
"Okay, sweetness, most irritating physical difference between being a man and being a woman?"
Letting out a breath of air in relief that it wasn't something she couldn't answer, she chuckled to herself.
"Sitting down awkwardly and pinching a ball...and periods. Oh, the gods were cruel when they gave women menstrual cramps," The look on her face was more than glum.
"They really all that bad?" Laxus laughed. Like most men, you heard about them, knew what they were, but there was no real comparison.
"I have memories of pain so bad it caused blackouts. Not so terrible this time round; can definitely vary. Really, though, not a joke," She looked serious before it dawned on her that the game was starting again and it was now her chance to ask Bickslow something personal. Ali thought long and hard, pondering it.
"The tattoo on your face. How did you get it?" Her question fell among absolute silence, only the crackle of the fire to break the tension suddenly crushing the atmosphere of the camp.
Laxus appeared to want to interrupt but chose to let Bickslow answer instead. The Seith giving him a look letting him know it was okay. Ali genuinely didn't know about it. As a subject it had never come up.
"It was done to identify me as a Seith mage when I was ten. It's resistant to magic, so you can't cover it with an illusion. The damn thing even shows after transformation spells. This..." He pointed to his face. "...this is a permanent brand. Not a tattoo," His laugh was entirely without humor. It was downright bitter.
"Fiore never had the same problems with Seith mages that Bosco did. They had entire dark guilds of the fuckers. Made a right mess," Laxus explained. Most in Fiore would never even know what it meant. The old magic council gave Bickslow a free pass because of Fairy Tail's reputation and the fact he was the last. But back in Bosco was a different story. It was a Boscan symbol. People would know what it meant. And while he had never broken any laws, the fact that he practiced the magic was enough to ensure that he would be watched closely for the rest of his life. When he fled his home, it was because they were moving to confiscate his soul jar.
"So it's not by choice?" She asked, actually a little shocked. The way he walked around Magnolia had never indicated he was ashamed of it, or hated it.
"No. Wasn't my choice."
"Would you conceal it if you had the choice? Because I could hide it for you...if you wanted, of course?" She said, startling him.
"Magic doesn't work on it," Bickslow was grateful for the offer, but this wasn't the first time someone had tried to cover it with magic. It not only resulted in failure, it some times resulted in injury. They were designed specifically to be resistant to tampering.
"I know a magic that will," She uttered smiling and pulling a small container out of her satchel. He couldn't see precisely what she was mixing, but it looked like makeup. "Turn around!"
He looked to Laxus who seemed like he was about to erupt into hysterical laughter and ground out a quick "shush you!" Natsu on the other hand was staring in fascination.
She started dabbing his face with the solution, constantly adjusting the mixture till she found the right tone, the tattoo disappearing as she went until it was finally gone. The final stage was in a small spray bottle.
"This is the only actual magic involved, but I'm certain because it's not actually going to touch the mark itself, we shouldn't have a problem," She said spritzing him with the solution.
The potion hit the makeup and all traces of her smudged makeup vanished. She leaned in, examining him closely, satisfied with the work. He looked at Laxus and his friend was sitting there open mouthed. Because the makeup wasn't magical it didn't react to the brand, and because the light concealment magic wasn't actually touching the mark, only the makeup on top, it didn't react. Instead, it did its job, blending the makeup with the skin around it, making it completely indistinguishable.
"I can't even tell. What the hell is that stuff?" Laxus asked her.
"It's my under eye concealer," There was a look on her face daring them to say anything about it. When you didn't get much sleep, assistance was often necessary so you didn't look entirely dead.
Pulling out a small mirror and waving it in front of him, Bickslow got a look at his bare face for the first time since he was ten years old. He...genuinely didn't recognise the man in it. Older, a little haggard. Without the tattoo to distract you, it was clear there was a lot more going on than you'd assume from his demeanor. There was
"How long does this stuff last?" Bickslow asked her in wonder.
"The makeup? Just a few hours, but the magical setting spray will keep it intact, smudge proof, water proof and invisible for up to two days."
"I'll need to get some for Lucy!" Natsu said grinning.
"Where do you think I got this?" Ali fired back to him with a small upturn at the corner of her mouth. "Your girlfriend's dark circles are bigger than mine."
"You don't talk this much back home. Don't think you said more than a few words when you came with us on our last job," Laxus was seeing more of her that he'd ever before. She wasn't one to involve herself with people back at the guild. Not voluntarily.
"It's difficult to tune you all out. Makes it hard to focus sometimes."
Natsu looked thoughtful.
"Just like us. Any idea how annoying it is to literally smell everything? You know who's going out with who. What people had for breakfast. How long its been since they showered. Accidentally eavesdropping on conversations, as well, there are some things I just don't want to hear," The fire Dragon Slayer listed them off.
"Gajeel and Levy going at it like rabbits in the hallways upstairs in the guild hall," Laxus shook his head. "Not even the decency to use one of the rooms like civilized folk," Bickslow knew enough about Laxus to know he'd screwed his fair share of women in hallways.
"Let's not go throwing stones in that pond, eh, boss?" Bickslow winked at him. "Who knows what'll float to the surface, right?"
Alid however was thinking about what Natsu had said. It was true, similarities could be drawn between them.
"How do you block it out?" There was an eagerness to her question.
"Practice!" Laxus answered with a laugh. "But I'd recommend you maybe think about asking Gajeel when you get back. He's got plenty of experience with meditation. You could trade him some singing lessons," He grinned.
"I'll consider it," She said. "But I don't think he needs lessons," The statement left the others perplexed for a moment before she smiled. "He needs help coming to terms with the fact he's tone deaf."
Laxus' water went the wrong way he laughed so hard and he was left coughing, red faced. It took him and Natsu about five minutes to recover. Wrapped under the blanket Bickslow rubbed small circles in her lower back. Letting her know he was proud of the effort she was making with the conversation.
"One thing I always wondered..." Laxus looked unsure of his own question. He knew it was a personal one that not everyone in her position would be comfortable sharing. "...and you don't need to answer if you don't want to," Her head visibly perked, shoulders stiff. " But just how many people are you made up of?" Laxus questioned. Unsure of just how much she'd answer.
"Fifty-three," Ali responded, not missing a beat. Fifty three individual souls, fragments of their memories, their personalities, their skills and hobbies. Although, most of them she'd forgotten. It was hard to keep track of what she kept and why sometimes.
Bickslow was just happy to see them interact on such good terms. Fairy Tail was as much her family as it was his. Whether she realized it it not she fit in there; it was a guild that prided itself on collecting the misfits.
"Do you think Jera and Eli are in the capital?"
The tone of the conversation changed entirely with Bickslow's question. She toward the city.
"This is the only place in range. They couldn't have gone anywhere else even if they'd wanted to. They would have had to come here for supplies. Even if they left, the capital is the next stage regardless."
Laxus nodded in agreement.
"I spoke with a few traders in the marketplace. We shouldn't have too much trouble blending in in the lower districts of the city. Seems pretty much a melting pot from the neighboring countries. Lot of foreign mercenaries. A lot more than Atlan anyway."
"Believe me, the reasons they leave are pretty good excuses not to come back," Ali intoned with a whisper.
"Well, the Boscan Embassy should be our first destination. I'm still a Boscan citizen regardless of the Seith status and we have leverage we can use when were there. I for one know they have a bathhouse for guests, and I don't think I've ever wanted a shower more in my entire life," A wistful expression crossing his face.
"If you leave the mark covered, would they even know you were a Seith?" Laxus asked.
"Probably not, I could give them one of my brothers' names," Bickslow seemed suddenly happy. Even if they contacted his family back home, they'd back him up.
Ali started putting her bag away and Bickslow grabbed her arm suddenly.
"What the hell is this?" His voice rose in pitch, disbelievingly staring into the bottom of her bag. There was a mixture of shock and horror on his face.
"He didn't want to go back in the jar," The words came out sheepishly as Pappa crawled out of the bottom of her bag. "I didn't think it was a big deal,"
"You little fucking traitor!" Eyes narrowed, he glared at the doll. "How the hell did he get out?" He directed his question at his girlfriend who pursed her lips nonchalantly, confused at Bickslow sudden anger. Entirely focused on keeping his feelings at bay as he gripped her.
"The lid came off when that boro hit us. Found it in my bag the first day. He refused to go back, so..." She started to say but a rarely furious Bickslow interrupted her.
"So you kept it around. Gave it magic," He leveled an angry look her way. "You saved my life before, messing around with them so I didn't say anything, but Seith magic doesn't make allowances for this kinda thing. If I tell them to do something they need to do it. They're dark souls, they aren't toys no matter how much they look it," He argued. "They're bound to me, and I keep them under control. They are not your friends, do you understand?"
"I don't quite know what your problem is. They aren't evil, Bickslow. I know them well enough to know that at least," His anger was beginning to affect her, through the heavy handed grip on her arm.
"You don't know anything," He ground out.
It occurred to everyone there, everyone but Bickslow, that he was still holding her despite the fact that she was pulling against his grip. His fingers held the limb tightly. Enough to whiten the skin around his hand. Hard enough that it was sure to bruise.
"I understand," She said, her voice even. "Now let go before I do," She snarled, dangerously.
"Bix!" Laxus called out from across the fire.
Looking down Bickslow saw just what he was doing and released her like she'd burned him. She held up her arm to examine the reddening marks. Already, portions were purpling, angry bruises in the making. The woman hummed a quiet note to herself and the marks were gone in moments, when she looked up to him the smiles and the laughter were gone and she'd withdrawn again. Alma shrugged the blanket off her shoulders and straightened the armour she was still wearing.
"I didn't think it would cause a problem. It won't happen again," She declared, standing up. "I need to take a leak," How casually she was able to simply announce something like that would have shocked Laxus and Natsu were the circumstances different, but they sat quietly while she brushed herself off; as though the previous event had never taken place, before disappearing off into the dark sands beyond the firelight. Pappa stared after her, its empty eyes following her movements in the darkness before the doll crumpled lifelessly back into the bag at Bickslow's unspoken commands. He'd barely even felt Pappa; when he was drawing power from her, he was just some distant white noise in Bickslow's head.
Something hard hit the Seith in the face and he turned to see an angry looking Natsu growling at him, one shoe missing, arms crossed. The other Dragon Slayer's expression no better.
"Way to be a dick!" Natsu rumbled unhappily.
"What the fuck are you playing at? She had those things for two days. And you want to throw a fit over it now?" Laxus spat at him.
"Yeah, because clearly they've got problems taking my commands now," Bickslow had thought it would pass, a side effect of her connection to them. But Ali was a creature of feeling, and by its very nature her power was unstable. He honestly couldn't predict what that would do.
All he did know was that Pappa was acting out, acting odd, and if Bickow knew anything about dark magic, it was to be wary when unusual things started happening. It was unsettling to consider. Pappa wasn't bound to her, it was bound to him. He checked it over himself and there hadn't been anything of her power remaining to influence him, so that made its actions, its own; a willful rebellion.
"None of that was her fault. You practically died, and it wasn't us that saved you. So what that your babies are feeling rebellious? Its your job to control them," As far as Laxus could see, Bickslow control problems weren't Alma's problems.
"Practically? Exactly what does that mean?" Bickslow asked and Laxus looked to Natsu. It occurred to them they hadn't necessarily gone over the particulars of his attack and Laxus was clearly conflicted about telling him, perfectly happy never to talk about it again. He looked to Natsu for his input but he wasn't certain himself.
"Your call, man!" Natsu replied, shrugging.
"Technically dead," Laxus admitted. "Heart stopped, no pulse, no breath. And then you were alive...screaming fucking blue murder, but you were alive, Bix. If you gotta spend the rest of your fucking days getting your shit under control, bow down and kiss that woman's feet that you even have the chance," The words hit hard for more than a few reasons.
Bickslow pulled the cloth doll out of the satchel and examined it staring blankly into space.
"Fucking hell..." He whispered. "I got dumped," The words came tumbling out.
"Hey! You didn't get dumped. If she dumped you I'm sure you'd know it. You'd have a black eye or something."
Bickslow shook his head with a dry laugh at Natsu's comment. "Fuck sake, not Ali!" Hopefully not yet anyway. He waved the cloth doll in the Dragon Slayer's face. "Pappa! Little fucker."
"Man, I thought the kids picked sides in the divorce, not the bit before." Laxus muttered, confusedly.
"I fucking died, maybe just for a second, and he decided to pledge his allegiance to the Alma dictatorship. Of course she fixed me right up and here the little shit is, stuck in the middle," Bickslow wiped his face in despair, getting up and turning in the direction she walked off in. "I'll be back in a minute."
He wandered out into the desert. It was always beautiful at night. Hundreds of thousands of stars overhead, the glow of the city in front of them; what he could now see were enormous lacrima atop spires, glowing in the distance. Standing dentinal over a still bustling city.
"So, welcome to your own unique branch of Seith magic," He punctuated the words by throwing the cloth doll to her. She didn't need to look his way to snatch it out of the air.
Alma angled her body from his, evasively. Trying to avoid the sight of him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She grumbled. She was rightfully angry at him. If she was even half as angry as he was with himself, he was positive she'd just call it quits right now.
The doll sprung to life in her hands and Pappa flew into her face, arms outstretched in a hug that was never going to encompass anything; the doll just wound up spread eagle, plastered across her brow, straddling her nose.
She finally spun toward Bickslow. Her face amusingly impassive. Pappa still comically stuck to it.
"Is this meant to be some sort of joke? You shout at me. You patronize me," Her face was twisted in an angry sneer. "You lectured me on dark souls. I don't know what I find more humiliating, that or the fact you all but publicly assaulted me," Her breath came out in furious billow of air.
"I didn't even realize I'd grabbed you. It won't happen again," He said sincerely. And he meant that. He'd panicked, the thought that she'd inadvertently made the same choice he had when he was young and he'd lost it. But the he was alive because of it and the damage had already been done, the choices made. Alma however was no child.
A soul pact was no light hearted endeavor and it was Seith magic. And that's exactly why Pappa was now so fixated on her. It was doubtful she even realized any thing had happened when she'd linked directly with him.
The man watched her crack a small smile. "No apology this time?"
"I figured I'd just not do it again," He sat down in the sand beside her noticing she snorted, holding in one of those laughs of hers. "You might be right on the whole apology shit. What's the point in it, if you're just gonna repeat it?"
"Glad to see some things are rubbing off," She'd been running her fingers through the sand, weaving patterns in the surface absently before he'd arrived. He didn't recognize the symbols she'd drawn. When she caught him looking she carefully destroyed them with a boot, prying Pappa off her face, staring at the doll. "So why is your possessed toy attacking me?"
"Yeah, about that. Pappa seems to be a little confused right now...and I figure its probably best maybe you keep an eye on him. Seems to like you more than me at the minute," Bickslow leaned in and bumped his shoulder with hers.
"That's crap and you know it. You're a Seith, what does it matter whether he likes me," She mustn't have realized it but she was stroking the dolls head as it sat on her knee. "You give the commands. He obeys," It wasn't exactly as simple as all that, but she wasn't completely wrong.
"You know, I had this talent for reading people when I was little? If I concentrated they'd...sorta glow. Everyone had their unique shades, filled with these colours that would tell me things about them. If they were happy or sad, lying or telling the truth, all sorts of stuff a little kid really shouldn't be thinking about," The night sky wheeled overhead and at his side, Alma was quietly listening.
"Then one day I was in the market with my older brother and it was pretty busy and some asshole bumps into me, and poof just like that, I lose him in the crowd," He could remember that sudden burst of terror finding himself suddenly alone and surrounded by people. Too small to see anything other than a see of bodies.
"So I focus on trying to find him, find his particular colours," He scoffed. "I was a stupid little shit to think I could with so many people around. And then this man catches me by the arm and pulls me out of the crowd. Tells me to stay there, my brother will find me. Low and behold he did, freaking the fuck out, practically begged me not to tell our father," He wiped at his face. "Well a few weeks passed and I was in the market again and the same guy was there. He was a little weird...but he seemed nice. I only talked to him for a little bit, mostly about magic and then I went home. He was there the next time I went into the market as well," From the growing look of pity on Alma's face he could tell she knew where this was going.
"The man was called Arlo Basta and I didn't know it at the time but he was a Seith from a fairly nasty, almost exclusively Seith guild. He was their best recruiter. Picking children with suitable latent talents off the streets to bring them into the fold. I didn't really fit the bill, but the natural ability to see a soul was pretty rare. He showed me how to do a few things that seemed harmless enough. I used to get in trouble sneaking out of the house to go visit him and practice. And then one day he says he's going to be leaving town for a bit but he had a gift for me. It was just boom," Bickslow started. Remembering how he hid the book, sneaking it back home under his tunic. Arlo had to flee the city because his protections had failed and he'd been spotted. Bickslow hadn't known, but even his family were involved in the hunt for him and his guild.
"It was a book on Seith magic?" Alma asked. Bickslow was just a child at the time. With a natural talent that made him a good match. He hadn't known what he was doing or studying was illegal. That the practitioners were reviled as almost demonic. "They got you in just deep enough to convince you there was no exit," Ali wasn't naïve, and it was a standard tactic of dark guilds. They preyed on the young. On the vulnerable.
"Oh did they ever. But I was stupid, I ran home thinking they wouldn't find me. Didn't matter who my family were. They came for me in the middle of the night while I was sleeping, took me right out of my bed and walked me out of my own house like a doll. I didn't really fit the bill for your average member, but they'd put a lot of time into grooming me and they weren't gonna give up quite that easily. No, they had a special job for me."
Pappa leapt up from Alma's lap and zoomed around Bickslow chanting 'job' over and over.
"Yeah, little guy, I know," He looked away from her. He wasn't sure he would be able to continue if he saw anything like pity in her eyes. "When I met these little shits they were being used by an entire guild of Seith mages. They were passed around like common tools. When Seith uses their magic for nefarious purposes it darkens their aura and the Boscan guard have people who pick that out. They'd use these souls like waste disposal for themselves. Dumping their shit on them. When I met them they were broken and angry. They'd been used for so much evil even their masters couldn't control what they'd become."
"And exactly what were they hoping a child would accomplish? You were a novice," She seemed genuinely affronted by the idea they would use a children for anything as dark as all that.
"They were going to take my soul. Use it to purify, offset the darkness of the rest. Add to the collection. They're a set, you see, bound together."
It dawned on her then, that that was probably a pattern for them. When the others grew too wild, too overcome with their masters evil, they would add an innocent soul into the mix. Dilute it. Teaching the child some entry level Seith magic ensured that not only would they be compatible, but that they'd add to the power of the rest.
"These are children?" Horror was a natural human reaction. Ali wasn't a monster.
"They were at some point. Seith magic users. So long ago I doubt they remember much. They have very little sense of self anymore," There was a sadness in his voice but he stuttered his next words as a pair of arms wrapped around him.
"I think I understand," She whispered, holding him. "They succeeded, didn't they."
"Mostly. I'd learned enough, gotten strong enough that I put up a fight, but I was a kid and while my family tore the guild apart to get me back it wasn't soon enough. Me and these guys weren't left with much choice but to keep practicing Seith magic after."
"Pappa is tied to me in the same way, now, isn't he..."
"You need a Seith to create a bond like that. But I keep forgetting that Pappa was a Seith, and he has access to my magic," Bickslow snorted. "Like he's now got access to yours." He lay back in the cool sand and watched the sky.
"I think there's some sort of Seith curse that means all our relationships turn to big giant messes," He was almost physically pained by the knowledge his magic was now responsible for two relationship disasters. "We ever break up... man, that is gonna be one for the record books. Fuck, we could legitimately die."
He rumbled with laughter. Now permanently tied to a woman he'd been officially dating for less than a week. At this rate he should probably just propose and get it over with.
"Everything dying is actually the only certainty in all our lives. The rest is up to us. And if it ever does come to a breakup, well, one of us tore a piece out of a god so I don't know about you, but I think we'll manage," She leaned down and pecked him on the cheek, before standing and turning back to the camp. "I consider us even," She remarked with a devious smile. Pappa was now sitting on her head holding pieces of hair like reigns. A sight so far beyond funny it bordered on ludicrous.
"Forgive me already? Thought you said apologies in Atla usually involve bleeding and prostration?" He joked.
"Yes, well, you're sitting in my pee so we'll count that as a tradition satisfied," Her answer silenced him immediately, though they both heard bellowing laughter back at camp.
Bickslow groaned loudly. A pox on Dragon Slayers and their stupid Dragon hearing.
Notes
Huge thanks Desna and Weezel474 for the awesome reviews.
Oh, I can't even imagine the kind of heat that would ground Airplanes. That is just absolutely mental. Ireland does NOT get that hot LOL