Disclaimer: I own only the obvious, the rest belongs to JK Rowling.
Authors Note: Well, here's chapter two. Hope you enjoy and please review.
-Chapter Two-
* * * *
'But first on earth, as Vampyre sent,
Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent;
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet, which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corpse,
Thy victims, ere they yet expire,
Shall know the demon for their sire;
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem...'
Mary Shelly 'The Cenci'
* * * *
I gradually became aware of myself again. Every muscle hurt as hell and I felt weaker than ever before; yet, at the same time, I felt more powerful than even the gods themselves. I felt like I could do anything, I felt immortal.
That single word brought back the memories of the night before - if it had happened the night before. I had no idea how much time had passed, so I decided to take this logically. Don't laugh at me, Harry. Yes, I can be very logical when I have to; I just tend to avoid that kind of situations.
Anyways, as I said, I decided to take this logically. I was still alive, so the Immortal hadn't killed me in the everyday sense of the word. I ran my tongue over my teeth, searching for the fangs. I wasn't disappointed. My two canine teeth were longer and much, much sharper than before. They were withdrawn at the moment, but I knew instinctively that they would appear when I was about to feed. That was all I could figure out without moving.
A thought struck me like a bolt out of the blue. What if it was day outside?! I didn't particularly want to burn up before I had a chance of living like an Immortal - and I still don't as a matter of fact.
I sat up and found myself on my bed; how I ended up there when I had been made an Immortal at the other side of the hut, was beyond me, but the answer to that question came through the door of the hut at the same moment in the form of the Old Man.
He smiled when he saw that I was awake.
"About time you got up," he said. "I have no intention of being your slave, and we have to get a move on boy. We cannot stay here all the time." The Old Man sat down opposite me, and started to eat some dried meat.
My stomach rumbled loudly and he chuckled. "That's always a good sign. I have a freshly caught live rabbit just outside." He went out and got it. The rabbit was white and wasn't going down without a fight, but the Old Man had a surprisingly strong grip on it. He handed it over to me. "Here. Remember to avoid the Pull of Death."
"How do you know so much about Immortals?" I asked, the rabbit was clutched in my grip. It didn't feel any stronger than before.
"Later boy, I'll tell you later. Now you need to eat, and preferably before you strangle that rabbit to death."
I looked down. The creatures eyes were bulging comically, but I was so horrified that I dropped it. The rabbit made a mad dash for the exit, but my new instincts chose that moment to kick in; even if I was horrified at the thought of drinking from a living creature, my instincts belonged to a predator. And the predator in me was hungry.
Before I knew what was happening, I had lounged after the white rabbit, caught it and was finishing with drinking the crimson flood from it. Its heart beat in time with mine, the sound if it getting louder and louder every second. I could feel something cold and dark pulling at me, and I started resisting. I didn't want to die.
Suddenly I found myself back in the hut with the Old Man. I was lying flat out on the floor, the dead rabbit in my hands, and he was chuckling. I didn't exactly look graceful.
The Old Man took the rabbit from my hands and threw it out of the door and into the night, then he turned to me. I was just lying there, letting the new blood rush through me, feeling like I was flying high over the earth - something I'd always dreamt of.
Something hard connected with my face. "Don't let the blood hypnotize you, Athan. Else it will rule over you and you'll become a murderer instead of survivor." The Old Man helped me to sit up. "You have to reign it in, rule over the blood thirst."
It took some time before I managed to focus entirely on him. He was sitting calmly opposite me, finishing up the piece of dried meat he had begun.
"So, how do you know so much about Immortals?" I asked again. I wondered at first if he was a Slayer, but my Maker had told me that I would know when one of those were near. Then my imagination ran off with me and I began to think the weirdest thoughts I've ever thought in my life. Was he one of Them, whoever they might be? Was he some kind of God? A spirit who had taken human form and decided to show itself to us? There were endless possibilities.
"No, I'm not a God, nor a spirit, nor one of Them." What was he, a mind reader? "My sister was turned into an Immortal when she was young. We maintained contact until I was thrown out of the tribe, and she told me what it was like to be like her; she even offered to turn me, but I declined. I'm too old to live forever." The Old Man smiled sadly to someone or something that only he could see.
"What happened?"
"We have to get a move-on if we want to reach the caves by dawn." He said and I didn't pry anymore.
Suddenly a thought struck me. "What about the rest of the tribe?"
"They are dead." No emotion, just a simple fact. "Except those who got away in time and the two of us, the rest are gone. Now, this is what we're going to do. We're going to gather as much food as possible, some clothes and some weapons. Then we're going to head south towards the caves, and we'll see what happens from there."
I nodded, it sounded like a good plan, and besides, the smell of death was beginning to take over my senses and my head hurt.
-------------------------
Gathering what we would need didn't take much time. I tried not to think about anything, didn't turn the bodies to identify them, nor did I shed a tear. It was as if I was watching everything from the outside, watching a stranger walk amongst the dead and take food and clothes and weapons from them.
A quiet crying drew me out of my thoughts, and I follow it to its source. 'Why didn't I hear it before?' I ask myself. 'Probably because I was too deep in my thoughts.' Answering my own question I enter a tiny hut, and stop dead in my tracks.
A little four year old girl, Kanika, is staring up at me with wide eyes. I remember her parents. They were some of those who didn't ignore me and let me watch their children when they wanted to be alone or when they were working. Kanika's brother and two sisters were all dead, lying on the floor, their eyes glassy, wide and unseeing.
"Athan!" she cried and climbed over the bodies, a little wooden figure tightly clutched in her grip. When she reached me she jumped in my arms, ignoring the coldness of my skin.
I was surprised at first, but then I held her as close as possible, being careful not to crush her tiny body like I'd almost done with the rabbit. She was cold and shaking from head to foot, and she was crying on my shoulder.
Murmuring encouraging words and stroking her hair I left the hut, picked up the things I had taken from the dead, and set out to find the Old Man.
----------------------
"No, absolutely not!" I glared at the Old Man. "We cannot leave her alone, and if she isn't coming with us, neither am I."
The older man rolled his eyes and sighed. "If you put it that way, alright, but you have the job of babysitting her." He looked to the sky. "We better get going."
Kanika ran over to him and hugged his leg tightly. The Old Man looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. She, however, wasn't intimidated and just hung on more tightly.
"Athan, get this brat to let go of me." I chuckled and picked her up. "I hate children under ten years." He muttered. "Come on, lets get out off here."
And with that we started the journey that would change my entire life.
***********************~*~********************~*~**************************
The vampire shook himself and looked over to the young mortal boy sitting quietly on his bed.
Harry on his part was thinking over the things he had heard so far. Athan was far more complex a character than he had first thought; well, after living for 8000 years the Gryffindor supposed you would be complex - but he felt somewhat guilty for not looking past Athan's joking exterior.
He looked up at the immortal who seemed to be waiting for the conviction to fall. "My dear immortal friend," the Boy Who Lived began, "I am not going to throw you to the lions just because you're the sole survivor of an attack that happened eight thousand years ago."
"Maybe you won't throw me to the lions for that, but what happens next will sure as hell change your mind."
"We won't know that until you actually tell me what happened next." Harry assured his friend. "Now, as it's almost seven AM and the Dursleys will be up soon, I hope you won't mind if we postpone the next part of the story 'til later tonight?"
Harry suggested the postponing for two reasons:
One: the Dursleys were going to be up soon.
And two: Athan needed some time to compose himself again.
"Sure, I don't mind." Athan looked thoughtfully at him. "Would you mind terribly if I played a few pranks on these... incredibly good animal-look- alike's?"
Harry chuckled. "Sure, but nothing too big or we'll draw unwanted attention to ourselves. And my guess is that neither the Ministry of Magic nor the Slayer Organisation would pass up the opportunity to capture a vampire as old as you?"
"Hell yeah, you should've seen it the last time they tried! They managed to corner me and I had to actually use some of my powers to get away."
"I take it that you don't like to use whatever powers you have?"
"Oh no, I love doing that, but I've promised to Cian - every vampire has to promise when they get turned - never to use them against mortals. But I'll tell you about that later." The vampire was standing upside-down on the ceiling, grinning at Harry and showing off his fangs.
"You're one weird vampire Athan, I'll give you that."
The immortal grinned even more and bowed making a great show out of it. "Why thank you good sir, I tend to do my best you know."
"I rest my case."
"Boy!" Aunt Petunias shrill voice came from the other side of the door. "Who are you talking to in there?"
"No one Aunt Petunia."
"No one? Oh, go jump off a cliff Potter!" Athan was grinning deviously at Harry who glared at him. "Watch this," the vampire whispered. "I tell you, by the time I'm finished with them, you won't have to cook or clean for them for minimum a week."
Harry did an incredible imitation of Snape wondering how the hell he always ended up with the idiots and comedians.
"Boy, who was that?! Don't make me get your uncle!"
"Just go and get him, you pompous giraffe of a human being!" Athan called. "I doubt that that peanut-brain elephant of a husband of yours could do much about this situation." The immortal didn't even bother to at least try to conceal the glee in his voice.
"WHAT?!!!! VERNON!!!!!! DUDLEY!!!!!!!" they could hear running footsteps disappearing down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Creative insults." Harry said without looking up from the floor. "I'm so dead."
"Thank you for the compliment, and just trust me."
"I'm as dead as what Voldemort's gonna be by the time I'm finished with him."
"Hey, c'mon! Relax and enjoy the show!"
Right then there were thunderous footsteps on the stairs, the house shook slightly. Athan nearly lost his balance and almost fell from the ceiling. Harry just stayed where he was. Then the footsteps stopped outside the door to the room that belonged to the Boy Who Lived.
"BOY! What did you say to your Aunt?!"
"He called her a stick-thin, horse-faced ostrich. He also said that if she turned sideways, she would disappear!"
"Ave Maria, full of grace..." Harry mumbled.
"WHO THE HELL WAS THAT?!!!!" Vernon demanded. "OPEN THIS DOOR IMMEDIATELY!!!"
"There's no need to yell, you walrus sized idiot. We have perfectly good hearing."
"Free us from our sins..."
"Dad! Show him what happens when you mess with a Dursley!" Dudley whispered.
However, Athan had - as he had mentioned already - perfectly good hearing. "Oh shut up, you great... um... great... pssst, help me out here Harry."
"Wombat." Harry said. "God have mercy on my soul..."
"You great, whale sized lump of a slothful wombat!"
That was it. Vernon was doing one hell of an imitation of a beetroot. In no time he had broken down the door and run into the room beyond, Petunia and Dudley at his heels. However, the whole family stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the vampire standing upside-down on the ceiling.
"What the hell!" Vernon exclaimed. Petunia shrieked and ran out of the room, while Dudley just gaped at the immortal.
Athan grinned and made sure that the Dursley's saw his fangs getting longer and longer. Dudley's eyes were as big as dinner platters, while Vernon had gone deadly pale. Harry had stopped praying in a god he didn't believe in, and was watching the whole scene with mounting amusement.
"My, my, my," the immortal said, his tone was as dark as the grave. "What a nice dinner I have come upon." He grinned even wider and with a lightning- fast movement had his hand wrapped in Vernon's shirt, and was lifting the pale man off the floor. Then he dropped him again. "My mother always said that it's not healthy to eat upside-down, and I agree with her." Athan jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor like a cat, no sound escaped.
Vernon was shaking by this time, and before the vampire could take another step towards him, he had grabbed Dudley and was out of the room with a speed that would make a vampire proud. The real immortal watched the door bang shut trying hard not to laugh. That was one of his best performances, right up there with the act of being Anne Boelyn.
Harry stood up and stopped beside the vampire, an amused smile on his lips. "How long did you say that you wanted to stay here?"
-------------------------
There, finally finished. Sorry about the wait for this and the other stories, but I'm snowed in with school work. I'll try to get the next chapter out as fast as possible.
Also I realise that some of you didn't get the pictures I promised in the last chapter. I'm so sorry, but I simply never have the time. If you want them, please tell me, and I'll do my best to send them to you.
Thanks to:
Rachel A. Prongs, Confuzzler, Unnamed, RJLL, QuidBrm, Dark Sin, Naia, Erica, Silver Earth Dragon, daemonhart, Brion, Korinna Myorin, Dragonhope and coconut-ice agent h/h.
Authors Note: Well, here's chapter two. Hope you enjoy and please review.
-Chapter Two-
* * * *
'But first on earth, as Vampyre sent,
Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent;
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet, which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corpse,
Thy victims, ere they yet expire,
Shall know the demon for their sire;
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem...'
Mary Shelly 'The Cenci'
* * * *
I gradually became aware of myself again. Every muscle hurt as hell and I felt weaker than ever before; yet, at the same time, I felt more powerful than even the gods themselves. I felt like I could do anything, I felt immortal.
That single word brought back the memories of the night before - if it had happened the night before. I had no idea how much time had passed, so I decided to take this logically. Don't laugh at me, Harry. Yes, I can be very logical when I have to; I just tend to avoid that kind of situations.
Anyways, as I said, I decided to take this logically. I was still alive, so the Immortal hadn't killed me in the everyday sense of the word. I ran my tongue over my teeth, searching for the fangs. I wasn't disappointed. My two canine teeth were longer and much, much sharper than before. They were withdrawn at the moment, but I knew instinctively that they would appear when I was about to feed. That was all I could figure out without moving.
A thought struck me like a bolt out of the blue. What if it was day outside?! I didn't particularly want to burn up before I had a chance of living like an Immortal - and I still don't as a matter of fact.
I sat up and found myself on my bed; how I ended up there when I had been made an Immortal at the other side of the hut, was beyond me, but the answer to that question came through the door of the hut at the same moment in the form of the Old Man.
He smiled when he saw that I was awake.
"About time you got up," he said. "I have no intention of being your slave, and we have to get a move on boy. We cannot stay here all the time." The Old Man sat down opposite me, and started to eat some dried meat.
My stomach rumbled loudly and he chuckled. "That's always a good sign. I have a freshly caught live rabbit just outside." He went out and got it. The rabbit was white and wasn't going down without a fight, but the Old Man had a surprisingly strong grip on it. He handed it over to me. "Here. Remember to avoid the Pull of Death."
"How do you know so much about Immortals?" I asked, the rabbit was clutched in my grip. It didn't feel any stronger than before.
"Later boy, I'll tell you later. Now you need to eat, and preferably before you strangle that rabbit to death."
I looked down. The creatures eyes were bulging comically, but I was so horrified that I dropped it. The rabbit made a mad dash for the exit, but my new instincts chose that moment to kick in; even if I was horrified at the thought of drinking from a living creature, my instincts belonged to a predator. And the predator in me was hungry.
Before I knew what was happening, I had lounged after the white rabbit, caught it and was finishing with drinking the crimson flood from it. Its heart beat in time with mine, the sound if it getting louder and louder every second. I could feel something cold and dark pulling at me, and I started resisting. I didn't want to die.
Suddenly I found myself back in the hut with the Old Man. I was lying flat out on the floor, the dead rabbit in my hands, and he was chuckling. I didn't exactly look graceful.
The Old Man took the rabbit from my hands and threw it out of the door and into the night, then he turned to me. I was just lying there, letting the new blood rush through me, feeling like I was flying high over the earth - something I'd always dreamt of.
Something hard connected with my face. "Don't let the blood hypnotize you, Athan. Else it will rule over you and you'll become a murderer instead of survivor." The Old Man helped me to sit up. "You have to reign it in, rule over the blood thirst."
It took some time before I managed to focus entirely on him. He was sitting calmly opposite me, finishing up the piece of dried meat he had begun.
"So, how do you know so much about Immortals?" I asked again. I wondered at first if he was a Slayer, but my Maker had told me that I would know when one of those were near. Then my imagination ran off with me and I began to think the weirdest thoughts I've ever thought in my life. Was he one of Them, whoever they might be? Was he some kind of God? A spirit who had taken human form and decided to show itself to us? There were endless possibilities.
"No, I'm not a God, nor a spirit, nor one of Them." What was he, a mind reader? "My sister was turned into an Immortal when she was young. We maintained contact until I was thrown out of the tribe, and she told me what it was like to be like her; she even offered to turn me, but I declined. I'm too old to live forever." The Old Man smiled sadly to someone or something that only he could see.
"What happened?"
"We have to get a move-on if we want to reach the caves by dawn." He said and I didn't pry anymore.
Suddenly a thought struck me. "What about the rest of the tribe?"
"They are dead." No emotion, just a simple fact. "Except those who got away in time and the two of us, the rest are gone. Now, this is what we're going to do. We're going to gather as much food as possible, some clothes and some weapons. Then we're going to head south towards the caves, and we'll see what happens from there."
I nodded, it sounded like a good plan, and besides, the smell of death was beginning to take over my senses and my head hurt.
-------------------------
Gathering what we would need didn't take much time. I tried not to think about anything, didn't turn the bodies to identify them, nor did I shed a tear. It was as if I was watching everything from the outside, watching a stranger walk amongst the dead and take food and clothes and weapons from them.
A quiet crying drew me out of my thoughts, and I follow it to its source. 'Why didn't I hear it before?' I ask myself. 'Probably because I was too deep in my thoughts.' Answering my own question I enter a tiny hut, and stop dead in my tracks.
A little four year old girl, Kanika, is staring up at me with wide eyes. I remember her parents. They were some of those who didn't ignore me and let me watch their children when they wanted to be alone or when they were working. Kanika's brother and two sisters were all dead, lying on the floor, their eyes glassy, wide and unseeing.
"Athan!" she cried and climbed over the bodies, a little wooden figure tightly clutched in her grip. When she reached me she jumped in my arms, ignoring the coldness of my skin.
I was surprised at first, but then I held her as close as possible, being careful not to crush her tiny body like I'd almost done with the rabbit. She was cold and shaking from head to foot, and she was crying on my shoulder.
Murmuring encouraging words and stroking her hair I left the hut, picked up the things I had taken from the dead, and set out to find the Old Man.
----------------------
"No, absolutely not!" I glared at the Old Man. "We cannot leave her alone, and if she isn't coming with us, neither am I."
The older man rolled his eyes and sighed. "If you put it that way, alright, but you have the job of babysitting her." He looked to the sky. "We better get going."
Kanika ran over to him and hugged his leg tightly. The Old Man looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. She, however, wasn't intimidated and just hung on more tightly.
"Athan, get this brat to let go of me." I chuckled and picked her up. "I hate children under ten years." He muttered. "Come on, lets get out off here."
And with that we started the journey that would change my entire life.
***********************~*~********************~*~**************************
The vampire shook himself and looked over to the young mortal boy sitting quietly on his bed.
Harry on his part was thinking over the things he had heard so far. Athan was far more complex a character than he had first thought; well, after living for 8000 years the Gryffindor supposed you would be complex - but he felt somewhat guilty for not looking past Athan's joking exterior.
He looked up at the immortal who seemed to be waiting for the conviction to fall. "My dear immortal friend," the Boy Who Lived began, "I am not going to throw you to the lions just because you're the sole survivor of an attack that happened eight thousand years ago."
"Maybe you won't throw me to the lions for that, but what happens next will sure as hell change your mind."
"We won't know that until you actually tell me what happened next." Harry assured his friend. "Now, as it's almost seven AM and the Dursleys will be up soon, I hope you won't mind if we postpone the next part of the story 'til later tonight?"
Harry suggested the postponing for two reasons:
One: the Dursleys were going to be up soon.
And two: Athan needed some time to compose himself again.
"Sure, I don't mind." Athan looked thoughtfully at him. "Would you mind terribly if I played a few pranks on these... incredibly good animal-look- alike's?"
Harry chuckled. "Sure, but nothing too big or we'll draw unwanted attention to ourselves. And my guess is that neither the Ministry of Magic nor the Slayer Organisation would pass up the opportunity to capture a vampire as old as you?"
"Hell yeah, you should've seen it the last time they tried! They managed to corner me and I had to actually use some of my powers to get away."
"I take it that you don't like to use whatever powers you have?"
"Oh no, I love doing that, but I've promised to Cian - every vampire has to promise when they get turned - never to use them against mortals. But I'll tell you about that later." The vampire was standing upside-down on the ceiling, grinning at Harry and showing off his fangs.
"You're one weird vampire Athan, I'll give you that."
The immortal grinned even more and bowed making a great show out of it. "Why thank you good sir, I tend to do my best you know."
"I rest my case."
"Boy!" Aunt Petunias shrill voice came from the other side of the door. "Who are you talking to in there?"
"No one Aunt Petunia."
"No one? Oh, go jump off a cliff Potter!" Athan was grinning deviously at Harry who glared at him. "Watch this," the vampire whispered. "I tell you, by the time I'm finished with them, you won't have to cook or clean for them for minimum a week."
Harry did an incredible imitation of Snape wondering how the hell he always ended up with the idiots and comedians.
"Boy, who was that?! Don't make me get your uncle!"
"Just go and get him, you pompous giraffe of a human being!" Athan called. "I doubt that that peanut-brain elephant of a husband of yours could do much about this situation." The immortal didn't even bother to at least try to conceal the glee in his voice.
"WHAT?!!!! VERNON!!!!!! DUDLEY!!!!!!!" they could hear running footsteps disappearing down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Creative insults." Harry said without looking up from the floor. "I'm so dead."
"Thank you for the compliment, and just trust me."
"I'm as dead as what Voldemort's gonna be by the time I'm finished with him."
"Hey, c'mon! Relax and enjoy the show!"
Right then there were thunderous footsteps on the stairs, the house shook slightly. Athan nearly lost his balance and almost fell from the ceiling. Harry just stayed where he was. Then the footsteps stopped outside the door to the room that belonged to the Boy Who Lived.
"BOY! What did you say to your Aunt?!"
"He called her a stick-thin, horse-faced ostrich. He also said that if she turned sideways, she would disappear!"
"Ave Maria, full of grace..." Harry mumbled.
"WHO THE HELL WAS THAT?!!!!" Vernon demanded. "OPEN THIS DOOR IMMEDIATELY!!!"
"There's no need to yell, you walrus sized idiot. We have perfectly good hearing."
"Free us from our sins..."
"Dad! Show him what happens when you mess with a Dursley!" Dudley whispered.
However, Athan had - as he had mentioned already - perfectly good hearing. "Oh shut up, you great... um... great... pssst, help me out here Harry."
"Wombat." Harry said. "God have mercy on my soul..."
"You great, whale sized lump of a slothful wombat!"
That was it. Vernon was doing one hell of an imitation of a beetroot. In no time he had broken down the door and run into the room beyond, Petunia and Dudley at his heels. However, the whole family stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the vampire standing upside-down on the ceiling.
"What the hell!" Vernon exclaimed. Petunia shrieked and ran out of the room, while Dudley just gaped at the immortal.
Athan grinned and made sure that the Dursley's saw his fangs getting longer and longer. Dudley's eyes were as big as dinner platters, while Vernon had gone deadly pale. Harry had stopped praying in a god he didn't believe in, and was watching the whole scene with mounting amusement.
"My, my, my," the immortal said, his tone was as dark as the grave. "What a nice dinner I have come upon." He grinned even wider and with a lightning- fast movement had his hand wrapped in Vernon's shirt, and was lifting the pale man off the floor. Then he dropped him again. "My mother always said that it's not healthy to eat upside-down, and I agree with her." Athan jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor like a cat, no sound escaped.
Vernon was shaking by this time, and before the vampire could take another step towards him, he had grabbed Dudley and was out of the room with a speed that would make a vampire proud. The real immortal watched the door bang shut trying hard not to laugh. That was one of his best performances, right up there with the act of being Anne Boelyn.
Harry stood up and stopped beside the vampire, an amused smile on his lips. "How long did you say that you wanted to stay here?"
-------------------------
There, finally finished. Sorry about the wait for this and the other stories, but I'm snowed in with school work. I'll try to get the next chapter out as fast as possible.
Also I realise that some of you didn't get the pictures I promised in the last chapter. I'm so sorry, but I simply never have the time. If you want them, please tell me, and I'll do my best to send them to you.
Thanks to:
Rachel A. Prongs, Confuzzler, Unnamed, RJLL, QuidBrm, Dark Sin, Naia, Erica, Silver Earth Dragon, daemonhart, Brion, Korinna Myorin, Dragonhope and coconut-ice agent h/h.