Above the giant stone with its eerie glow, in the dragon loft, Vanyali and I sat in our own stone room. Aramae was somewhere down the insanely long staircase because she claimed she didn't like heights. Unsure of whether I believed her, I let it go, but I kept the other two eggs with me. I wasn't going to risk anything. Earlier, she had wanted to tell Ajihad about them, because apparently that had been her entire mission. We got in a huge argument over the matter in which I made some particularly nasty threats and finally she said that she would not tell him right away, provided she was allowed to tell him of their existence. Grudgingly, I agreed, but made it excruciatingly clear that she wasn't allowed to give anything that could be interpreted as a hint at a hint by anyone. I spent the next hour detailing to her what exactly she could and could not say, but mostly what she couldn't, as we ate our dinner of some sort of bird and some liquor. That was interesting, to me at least. I made sure not to get too drunk since I knew generally what my limit was on drinks. I mean, even though it wasn't technically legal, I had been drunk before. As in totally wasted, calling people in the middle of the night, intense hangover wasted before. It was fun, and at the same time not so much. Well, I overestimated the number I could have, and Lili just plain didn't care, so she was worse than me. Only Aramae had remained totally sober so when Ajihad sought her out again later to ask about her 'secret' mission, her tongue wasn't loosened by the drinks we had been downing like crazy. But I didn't trust her enough to have the eggs herself, just as I didn't trust Ajihad. It was nothing personal, I just had trust issues.
So, as Vanyali and I lay on the floor of our room, world spinning around us, laughing hysterically at something neither of us could remember at this point, the knock on our door was quite unexpected. I assumed it was some ungodly hour in the morning that no one would want to be awake at.
In my complete and utter drunkenness I never suspected anything bad to be at the door, nothing of interest. I just thought it would be Aramae, so I didn't even bother to reach out with my mind to see who it was.
I laughed as I pulled open the door, slurring some sort of greeting and half-yelling at the person I had previously believed to be Aramae when it finally registered, somehow, in some part of my brain that was not totally consumed by drunken stupor, that this person was not Aramae. Maybe it was the height, or the blonde hair, but then again it might just have been the reason I gave the woman at the door as I wrinkled my nose and said, "Waaai', youuuu're no' Ariri. You're too oooold"
Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she asked in a very offended tone, "Excuse me? I beg your pardon, but did you just call me old?"
"Yeah, so Ithink...that...you should tell me...who you are...so I don't have to..." I paused every few seconds and slurred a lot, but even through all of that I was pretty sure she could understand. At least, she looked like it. At this point I turned to Vanyali and asked, "What woul' I do again?"
She hiccuped then I heard Tell her you'll do something really mean like pull her hair. Then she snickered at it like it was a joke, and I will admit, I giggled a bit as well.
I turned back to the blonde woman who was looking at us with confusion, attempted, and nearly failed, dignity, and possibly a hint of annoyance. I said, "Yeah, wha' she said." Then I had to grip the wall as a wave of dizziness hit me. It didn't work and I found myself on my butt the next second later.
Ignoring that, the blonde stared down at me and introduced herself, "Hello rider, my name is Trianna. I am the head of Du Vrangr Gata."
I frowned up at her, "And that is?" God this stupid candle light hurt. It made me have to squint. Why couldn't some of it go away?
Without thinking, I reached for the magic, which was a very difficult thing since, you know, I was drunk. Then I commanded it with the words, "Geuloth du garjzla." And with that the lights dimmed to a reasonable level for me where I no longer had to squint.
Her eyes grew wider, and I thought for a second that they might fall out of her head. That made me laugh again, as she asked, "How did you do that?"
"Easy. I called th' magic 'n it came 'n then I told i' what I wanted."
"But you're intoxicated! You shouldn't be able to do that!"
"Oh, wonderful, more of you people telling me what I'm like. Well guess what, I'm not, so get over it and if that's all you wanna say, then goodbye."
She shook her head a bit as though to clear it, then managed some form of speech, "No, umm, I'm here on behalf of Du Vrangr Gata. We are the group of magicians at the Varden and help them. We would like you to join. It would benefit us greatly to have someone with your magical abilities with us."
"Look...Wha' was your name again?"
She looked offended as she said, "Trianna."
"Right, okay, so look, while I'm...okay I'm not really flattered at all. I'm just here and that's it, I don't wanna do anything or be part of anything that I have to obey and whatnot. So you can go back to your Ringy Gato whatever and tell them, nope, not interested. Okay? Okay." I started to shove her out the door when Vanyali piped up. I was mildly surprised she had been so quiet this whole time.
Cali, ask her...bout those mean bald losers. She knows thems 'n I thinks she's workin' for dem.
I rounded on Trianna, "You work for those lowlife pieces of crap?"
"I work for no one!"
"Uhuh, well Lili says you work for those ugly twin thingies 'n I don't like them and therefore I don't like you." I started to throw her out the door as violently as I could but she said something I couldn't quite understand in the Ancient Language and it felt as though someone had punched me in the gut. Vanyali snarled and ran at her, grabbing hold of Trianna's ankle with her razor-sharp teeth just as Trianna was saying something about breaking in the Ancient Language. She shrieked and Lili but a little harder, then let go. She moved back a bit, and growled, but when Trianna failed to move, she went for her hand, snapping her jaws just short as Trianna fled.
Then she sat down, licking her lips. Blood is yummy, Cali, I think it'sss better than aaaaall that stuff we had downstairs.
You're crazy. I rolled my eyes at her.
Yeah, well you're inebriated.
What'd I tell you 'bout digging around in my head. And yes, I'm am aware of that. And you are too.
Yes. Can you make the world stop going around and around and around and...
No. I can't, so stop saying that. You're making me even more dizzy.
Spinny spinny spinny spinny spinny spinny...more spinny!
Gah! I launched myself at her, but my vision, having very little real perception, made me miss where she really was and she laughed.
So, I stuck my tongue out at her, and she copied.
Monkey see, monkey do. I told her.
You just called me a monkey, didn't you?
Yeah, pretty much.
She jumped onto my stomach and her weight made it impossible to breathe, not to mention really, really painful.
OW! Lili get off!
No.
Right now!
Take it back!
No!
Then I'm not moving. She curled up as if she were going to sleep.
Okay, okay! You're not a monkey, you're an adorable, scary, heavy little dragon who feels like a ton of bricks! Now off!
No, I don't think I shall. This is quite comfy.
I flashed her what would have been a death glare had I not been so terribly drunk and, with much effort, succeeded in rolling over, dumping her off and onto the ground.
She tried to stand up and resume a similar position, but suddenly became aware of her exhaustion and fell over, instantly falling asleep. I wasn't too far behind.
