(Chapter Twenty-Eight)

(Sundas 19th) (With Draco)

When morning came Draco's mind continued to race from last nights discussion with Mikazuki. When Mikazuki told him about how to he took up the job to become a mercenary he thought he that it was stupid but seeing that it worked was just surprising.

Draco leaves the room his been sleeping in (The rooms of the house has been worked on throughout the chapters with the help of Geralt and Sal) entering the living room to see everyone (including Hana) sitting at the table eating some food. It was some fresh bread, wine, and what looks to be pie.

"Pie this early?" Draco says gaining everyones attention.

"Yes, got a problem?" Raven asks lips covered with pie stains.

"No, just curious with how you got it"

"She made it, surprisingly" Geralt says taking a sip of wine. Raven sends daggers his way.

"How about the wine?" Sal points at Mikazuki.

"Had on me"

"Come sit down with us" Raven says.

Draco was planning to go out and gather a few things for the house hoping to get some work on it today but with everyone staring at him he couldn't say no. He goes over and takes a seat at the front of the table which already had a plate ready for him.

"What's the plans for today?" Geralt asks bluntly.

"Today we might have to help with the rest of the clean up but if not I want to work on the house a little bit before you guys leave tomorrow"

It won't be fun without you guys" Raven says sadly.

"Then we should all do something together before we leave" Ciri suggests.

"Like what?"

"How about we all take a hot bath in the springs, like we use to" Everyone stops eating to think the idea over.

"How about we wait till the end of the day for something like that" it's not that Draco was against the idea but they really do have things to do.

"Really think that's a good idea?" Geralt asks.

"Why not? Afraid somethin' might happen?" Triss tease.

"No" he simply says.

Draco looks over to Hana whom was sitting there eating her food in silence "What's going on through her head?" he wonders but she seemed to have notice that he was looking at her and stared back. When their eyes met something felt weird when he stared into those black eyes. It looked like annoyance, lust, and…

"Draco?" Raven says brining him back to the world.

"W-What?"

"You seemed to have spaced out"

Draco shakes his head "It's nothing, I was just thinking"

Hana on the other hand let a small smile form on her lips "So close" just as she thought that something made her smile completely disappear.

"I'm going to go head into the village, Raven keep am eye out on Mikazuki and don't let him leave" Draco orders, leaving the table.

"What, why me?"

"Because you got to make sure that his wound doesn't get any worse"

"Why can't I just use healing on him?" she really didn't want to watch over him.

"Because we're trying to keep all of our abilities hidden from the Berkians"

"Ugh, fine" Draco leaves heading for the front door.

"Draco" Sal calls out.

"What?"

Sal hands over his katana, silver sword, hidden blades and his battlerobe "You almost forgot these" Draco looks himself over realizing that he forgot everything besides his underclothes. He takes his stuff and gears up.

Once he was all geared up he then now leaves the house without another word. Sal on the other hand stood there for a little bit until he heard Ravens voice "What do you thinks going on with him?"

"I'm not a hundred percen sure but I think it's just all that's been going on"

"He knows we're here for him right?" Sal nods.

Back with Draco whom was leaving the cove heading towards the village. Walking through the woods he began to hear a familiar sound which seemed to have gotten closer to where they're staying.

"It couldn't be" he thought following the sound.

The closer the sound got the more it sounded like someone throwing something and he only knew one person that did that this early but it's been a while since she's done it. Passing through a couple of bushes he sees who he thought it was. It was Astrid throwing her axe at a tree.

"What are you doing?" and just last the first time she quickly turns around and throws the axe at him but misses hitting the tree next to him.

"Oh my thor! I'm sorry, you just scared me" she apologizes running over to him.

He grabs her axe from the tree then hands it to her "You remember that I'm camping out here right?" she takes the axe from him.

"Yea, I remember" she seems embarrassed.

He took a look at the axe that was in her hand and noticed that it was chipped all over "I think you should get Gobber to fix that up, it's not looking to good" she looks at her axe and saw what he was talking about.

"R-Right, I'll do that" Draco begins to walk away but Astrid quickly ran up to his side.

"What are you doing today?" she quickly asks.

"Getting a couple of things for the house that we're building" this caught her attention.

"You're building a house? All the way out here?" he nods.

"Yes, is that a problem?" she shakes her head furiously.

"No, I-I just don't understand why not just build it in the village, it'd be easier to get things"

"The reason is because the house is a little to big for the village, there isnt any place to have it built and also I just didn't want to be around to many people"

"The house is big? Like how big?"

"Bigger then Stoick's" she tripped on her own feet a little but quickly regained herself.

"W-Why is it that big?" she asks.

"We have a built in forge and armory along with a living room and bakery, plus the bedrooms"

"All of that in one house?" he nods.

"That's how our house was back home"

"Wow… that's a big house"

"Yes it is but I've seen bigger" at that moment Astrid remembered something.

"Hey Draco, do you think you can come with me to the arena for a little while?" he looks down at her.

"Why?"

"I wanted to see if you could watch one of my classes"

"Why?"

"Because… because I wanted some advice"

"I don't know how advice from me will be helpfully but ok" Astrid takes the lead.

Once out of the forest Astrid then remembered what Draco said about her axe and took them on a quick detour to the forge to let it be fixed. On the way to the forge asked "What do you plan to do after gathering what you need?"

"I was planning to go back home to help out with the building, why?"

"I was wanting to see if you would like to come to the hall for dinner with me and my friends, exclueding Snotface of course"

Draco thought about it and remembered that she has two sets of friends "Which friends?"

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs… oh and your friends are welcomed to of course, and Hiccup…" she still doesn't seem to be a fan of Hiccup but she's going to have to get use to him.

"I'll see if they would be up for it" she smiles.

"Aye lass, Draco what are ya two doin' 'ere?" Gobber asks. It seems like they've been standing there for at least a few minutes.

"Oh, hey Gobber, I'm here to have my axe repaired" she says handing him the axe.

"Been a while since I've 'ad to repair this" he takes the axe and hobbles into the forge to begin repairs.

"Hey Gobber, we'll be heading to the arena, I'll be back to pick it up later!" she yells into the forge. Nothing was said from within but she took that as an ok.

The two leave the forge to continue on their way to the arena but something bothered Draco about being around her. To get rid of this he decided to start a conversation "Will everyone finish up the cleaning from yesterdays raid?"

"Yes, but not everyone since some do have their own jobs but when they're not doing their jobs they'll jump in to help" she explains.

"What about you?"

"Oh… well, I wasn't plaining to since I… I was planning on asking if you could tell me some stories of your adventures" that doesn't seem to be the real reason but he'll let it slide.

"Wouldn't it be better if we wait until later so that everyone could hear it?"

She looks a little disappointed but says "I guess" shrugging her shoulders.

"Until then what do you plan to do?"

"I don't know, probably hang out with my friends"

"Speaking of friends where are they?" he asks looking around.

"They're around here somewhere"

The two go silent for a little bit. During the silence Draco glances over at Astrid looking her over. Something about her just keeps catching his eyes. He just couldn't help but stare at her a little taking in all of her beauty. It seems the longer he stays the more he finds her attractive but at the same time it seems wrong.

Astrid on the other hand has already notice that he's staring at her. That made her smile but she shouldn't do anything to make it obvious that she's caught him staring at her. It's also making her blush which she's trying to hide.

"I can't believe he's actually staring at me" she smiles a little bigger but kept her head turned away.

Eventually Draco stopped staring at her which made her a little disappointed "Usally I wouldn't be happy about a guy staring at me but… he's different, he's not staring at me with lustful eyes"

"Astrid?" Draco's voices pulls her out of her head.

"Y-Yes?"

"You ok?"

"Oh, u-um yes, I'm fine just thinking"

The two finally arrived at the arena to see all the kids waiting with their gear. The kids noticed Draco and Astrid entering the arena "Draco!" the kids exclaimed running over to him.

"Been a while since I've seen you kids"

"Yea, why haven't you come to see us lately?" one of the girls asked.

"I've been busy with my friends"

"Oh that's right, you're friends are here now, why didn't they come with you?"

"Because they're busy doing something else" he explains.

"Oh, then why are you here?"

"Astrid here asked for me to come along"

"To watch?" he nods. The kids all cheered in excitement.

He looks at Astrid "I'll be over there" he gestures over to the entrance of the arena. She nods her head. He walks away from Astrid and the children walking over to the entrance.

Astrid turns to look at the kids "Alright everyone, class will begin now"

Draco stood there and watched the whole class closefully taking in everything that he was watching. The way Astrid was training class today seems to be a little bit more different then the other ones he saw but something still seems a little off.

Right now she started them with simple swings of their weapons but from how the kids are looking it looks like they haven't really done a lot of real combat training. This might be what Astrid really had in mind but he'll wait it out a little bit longer to see how this goes.

The constant swings continued on for about another ten or so minutes before Astrid decided to stop them and do something different. This time she was having her stundents practice blocking one another but still in a non combat style. This was kind of pitiful to watch.

"Astrid" he calls gaining her attention "I have an idea, why not let them go through a real combat run?"

"What do you mean? With real weapons?" he shakes his head.

"With the fake ones that they're already using, have them fight a free for all match, that'll show them at least a little bit of real combat" She looks at the students who have stopped.

"Will we get hurt?" asks one of the little girls.

"Sadly yes, you'll be getting hurt but until you're out of the match"

"You might have to explain to them what you're talking about"

"Ok, a free for all is when everyone is against everyone, or the simple way of saying you're fighting everyone, and when you get hit by someone you're out of the fight, this is to show how you would do in a real fight" the kids seemed to understand.

"Ok, everyone split up and make some space in between you" the kids looked around confused but then Astrid began to help move people around spreading them apart.

After the kids were spreaded apart Draco began to speak "Ok, now that everyone is in position the match will start… Start!" the kids scattered and was confused not so sure what to do but after a little while everyone started to attack one another.

During this Astrid and Draco kept really close eyes on them making sure that someone got hit to call out that they're out. It didn't take long though since it seems like none of them knew any real combat and everyone didn't know how to actually block or fight.

"They need some more training" Draco says to Astrid whom couldn't disagree.

"I guess I should do this more often?" he nods.

"If I recall they watch the match I had with my friends but it seems like it didn't really stick"

"Seems like" the match quickly ended no real winner since the last two took each other out at the same time.

"Match over!" Draco yells. All of the kids were breathing heavily and rubbing where they got hit.

"Lets call it a day, with them being this young matches like this will take a toll on them, I'll give you some ideas on what could possibly help in other trainings" Draco says to Astrid. She nods.

"Ok everyone, we're calling it a day, go home and rest" Astrid says walking over to the kids.

Draco walks out of the arena leaving to go to the village. Not long after leaving the arena Astrid came running out of the arena to his side.

"Going to grab what you came for?" he nods.

"Can I walk with you?" he nods again.

"I don't mind but why would you want to?"

"B-Because I—" she doesn't know how to answer that.

"Forget that I asked"

"N-No, I just wanted to that's all" she quickly answers.

"Ok" he wasn't going to make her leave so he'll just let it go for now.

"What all do you have to get?"

"I have to get some nails, hinges, and cloth"

"That's all?" he nods.

"Well if that's the case then I can help with the cloth, my mom works with cloth and hide" she says with a smile.

"Oh, I guess that will be helpful" she smiles.

The two first set off for the forge to grab the nails and hinges, plus her axe. Making their way into the village they noticed that everyone has started to begin their day of cleaning up and repairs.

Upon reaching the forge they could hear banging as well talking within the forge. It was Gobber and what sounds like Hiccup. The two walked up to the window calling to Gobber "Gobber!?" Draco calls.

"In 'ere!" Gobber comes hobbling over to the window.

"Ya 'ere ta pick up ya axe lass?" she nods. He then looks at Draco.

"What about ya lad?"

"I need some nails and hinges"

"Lucky for ya I got some" he hobbles away to grab the things for the two.

About a minute or two he comes back to the window with some nails and hinges in one hand while carrying Astrids axe in the other. He hands out both to the two.

"'ere ya go" the two take away the nails, hinges, and axe away from him.

"Thank you Gobber" Astrid thanks the old blacksmith. Draco nods thankfully.

"Anytime, now run along ya two" the two walk away from the forge now heading over to where Astrids mom would be to get the cloth.

"The axe looks beautiful" Draco comments at the brand new looking axe.

"Yea, it does" she says smiling looking over her newly fixed axe.

Not far from the forge they saw the little shop that Astrid's mom, Ingrid worked in and saw that she was there. The two walk up to the small shop quickly being seen by her mother. Ingrid smiles at the two.

"Morning you two, what can I help you with?" she asks with a smile.

"Hey mom, we came here for some cloth"

"What kind of cloth?" Astrid looks at Draco.

"I came for some soft cloth, boar preferbably" she looks between the two with a confused look but turned to look at all of the types of cloth.

About a minute or two she turns back around with a couple of sheets of cloth made from boar skin in her hands. She places it on the table in front of them. Draco looks over them for a little making sure that they were in some good condition.

After checking them over he smiles and looks at Ingrid "How much them?"

"Hmmm, for you, I'll say twelve silver and one gold"

"That's all?" she seemed confused by this question.

"What do you mean, that's all?"

He opens up his robe pulling out a coin potch that looked rather large and pulling out two gold coins handing it over to Ingrid. This surprised her along with Astrid. Draco puts his potch away back under his robe then grabs the cloth leaving the store.

"Astrid, can you hang back a little, I need to speak to you" Astrid looks at Draco and tells hhim "Go on ahead" he nods leaving the store.

When Draco was gone Astrid looks at her mom and asks "Is something wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to make sure that you two aren't planning to… you know" Astrid seems confused but after a second of thinking her face turns bright red and furiously shakes her head.

"NO! MOM NO!" she yells still red in the face.

"Ok, ok, I was just making sure, because if you were—"

"I don't want to hear this!" she yells leaving the store. Her mom was laughing as she left the store.

Outside of the store, Astrid was still blushing like a tomato and Draco saw this. Curious of what happened he asks Astrid "What's the matter?"

She shook her head "Nothing, don't worry about it" she quickly says walking past him. He didn't know what happened but whatever happened it seems to have gotten to her.

"I wonder what the mom said?" he wondered.

The two walked through the plaza heading towards the woods to go and drop this stuff off at the house but it seems like luck was on his side today because Geralt and Sal were walking through the plaza heading right for the two.

"There you are" Sal says walking up to the two.

"Did something happen?" Draco asks.

"No, just came to see what's taking you so long" Geralt explains but when he lands on Astrid he then sees what took him so long "So that's why"

"What?"

"Nothing, Sal, grab the cloth from him and take it back to the house" Sal nods understanding the situation as well.

Sal takes the cloth from Draco and begins to walk away back to the house "Got anything else?" Geralt asks. Draco hands out a bag of nails and hinges handing it over to Geralt.

Geralt takes the bags in hand "I'll see you back home"

"Actually, I want you to get everyone to come to dinner later, I'll be back home in a little bit" Geralt nods his head leaving Astrid and Draco.

"Do you still plan to go hang out with your friends?" Draco asks Astrid.

"Yea, also I have to help out with the clean up with my father"

"Would like to get some lunch first?" just hearing the word lunch a growling sound could be heard. Astrid blushes.

"I'll take that as a yes" he grins. She doesn't say anything and begins to make her way to the hall. Draco follows.

Astrid kept herself ahead of Draco not wanting to let him see her blushing again but also she's hoping to catch him looking at her again. She glances over her shoulder slightly trying to catch him looking at her. Surprisingly he was and that just made her blush a little bit more but smile at the same time.

She continued to glance over her shoulder a few more times but when she glanced over for the fourth time she tripped over her own feet and began to fall forward but she quickly felt something wrap around her stomach.

When she looks to see who it is she was surprised to see that it was Draco that's grabbed her. She stared at him for a little while until he spoke "You ok?"

She nods slowly "Y-Yea, I'm fine" he helps her back onto her feet.

Once back on her feet she continues on walking up the steps but this time doesn't take glances to see if he was looking "That was so embarresing"

The two enter the hall to see that only a few people were in there already eating. Lucky for Astrid it wasn't anyone that she knew. She looks around at the tables and sees the one in the corner that Draco used to use and pointed.

"How about we sit over there" he looks at where she was pointing.

"You sure?" he asks.

"Yes, I'll go over and grab some food" she quickly runs over to where they grab the food leaving Draco to go sit at the table by himself for a little bit.

Heading over to the table, he sits down on the side where his back was up against the wall so he would have a good sight of the hall and everyone in it, especially Astrid. Lately… his heart would race everytime he sees her… and it was ever since that day she kissed him.

Astrid on the other hand couldn't get her heart to stop racing. This whole entire day it was racing almost busting out of her chest. She felt nervous around him… but happy at the same time. She smiled… then frowned when she remembered that she'll be having a duel with him for her hand soon… It made her heart ach thinking about it.

She didn't know what to do…

Back at the table with Draco he watches as people began to walk into the hall coming to eat lunch like them. When he sees Astrid coming over to the table with the food in each hand. She places the food down onto the table then sitting down just across of him.

"You guys need to seriously think of some new food ideas, this stuff is getting a little blane" Draco complains.

"Well, during raids whatever you eat isnt something to worry about"

"Yea, but with less raids now you should think about that" he takes a bite of his food.

"Well, we don't have much of varity to plant anything around here" she then took a bite out of her food.

The two sat there talking and eating for about an hour until they were fully finished with their plates. Once done Astrid told Draco that she has to get going and that she would see him a little later leaving Draco there by himself.

After she left the hall it was his turn to leave and head back on home.

(Back at the house)

Back at the house everyone, exclueding Hana have been working on the house, finishing up the rooms and other additions to it. The girls worked on the some of the furniture while the guys worked on the walls and whatever else that had to do with heavy lifting.

"It's looking good in here" Raven comments on the new furniture that they've just finished.

"Yea it is" Sal agrees.

"So this is what your house back home looked like?" Ciri asks.

"Yes, but it was a little bit different inside though since there were a lot more of us"

"Do you plan to ever tell him?"

"I-I don't know yet"

"You'll have to tell him soon"

"I know" Raven lowers her head. But it quickly rose back up when she heard the dragons outside making noises.

"Took him long enough" says Geralt.

Everyone hears the front door open revealing who everyone thought it was, Draco. He seems to be a little annoyed.

"What's the matter?" Raven asks.

"The black dragon said that he's not able to convince the other dragons not to move here" Draco explains.

"Well shit, that doesn't sound good"

"If that happens a lot of bloodshed will happen" Draco sits down at the dining table.

"Is there really nothing that it could do?"

"No, at least that's what it said but maybe…" he trailed off. Everyone in the room waited for him to finish. When he didn't Raven spoke.

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe Galaxy could do something about it" he finishes.

"How? Is something special about that beast?" Geralt asks.

"Yes, he's what other dragons would call an alpha he has power over dragons and could be a way to get the dragons to find another place to live" Draco gets up and heads back over to the front door leaving the house.

"Galaxy, would it be possible if you did something about the other dragons?"

The two dragons look at him for a second, then at one another, then back at him "Tilro koraas tol Zu'u vust dreh atruk nuz ni reistigaar"

Draco then looks at the black dragon. The black dragon can tell that Draco was waiting for him to say something "Zu'u vust fun niin do strun faaniik het"

"Would you do that, if it doesn't work then there'll be a lot of bloodshed on both sides" the black dragon understands what he's talking about and it would be bad if that did happen.

"Speaking of bloodshed, what did the vikings do with the fallen ones?" Geralt asks out of the blue.

"I-I'm not really sure, I didn't think about it but I could probably say they put them somewhere until they get a chance to burn them" Draco explains.

The sound of wings flapping catches Dracos attention. When he turned around to see what was happening he saw that it was the black dragon taking off. Draco looks down at Galaxy that did his own version of a shrug.

"Let's hope this works" he whispers to himself.

(5 hours later)

Hours have past and a lot has gotten down within that amount of time. The house was fully furnished and almost all of the buildings were fixed and livable again. Everyone back at the village were happy that everything was now finished so they can get back with their daily lives again, even though this time, it didn't take it that long to finish repairs.

With Draco and his friends on the other hand they got done with everything, at least on the main part of the house done and next was the underground forge which will be worked on a later date. They were finish with it about two hours ago which gave them some time to place all of the newly made furniser.

For the remaining two hours they thought about hitting up the hot springs but that was stopped when Draco mention about dinner at the hall again.

Night began to fell and everyone was making their way to the hall to get dinner before calling it a day. Astrid, along with her friends, Fishlegs, and the twins were waiting at the hall for Draco and his friends to show. Astrids heart began to race again.

"What's wrong Astrid?" Fishlegs asks.

"N-Nothing, just tired, long day and all" she says looking down at her food.

"I heard differently" Ruffnut teases.

"What do you mean?" Fishlegs asks curiously.

"Well, little miss divine beauty was hanging out with Draco most of the day" Fishlegs quickly looks at Astrid.

"W-Woah, I thought… I didn't think that you… I—" he begins to loses himself.

"Fishlegs! Calm down, it's not that big of a deal" Astrid snaps.

"Actually it is, because if people see you and him together people will start thinking that—" she cuts him off.

"I know Fishlegs" she growled.

"Oh come on Astrid, don't be like that—"

"Hey look" Tuffnut points at the door making Astrid turn. It was Draco and his friends entering the hall.

Astrid was going to call them over but she stopped when she saw Snotlout and his goons Lugnut, and Dogsbreath walk up to them. This didn't look good to her so she got up and went over to them but something grabbed her arm and it was Ruffnut.

"What are you doing?"

"Just sit and wait" Astrid didn't want to 'sit and wait' but Ruffnut sounded like she knows nothing's going to happen so she sat back down and watched the show.

"I challenge you to another duel" Snotlout bluntly calls out.

"No"

"You afraid you're going to loose?"

"No, just don't want to, you're a waste of my time" Snotlout didn't like that answer.

"And who are you suppose to be?" Raven jumps in.

"I'm the next chief so you should show some—"

"Don't listen to him, he's just an idiot" Draco cuts him off.

"Makes sense, he looks like one and acts like one too, but he seems more like a dumbass this anything" Raven laughs.

"Listen here you little—" this time Raven cuts him off.

"Would you shut your fat mouth! I've heard a lot about you and how much trouble you cause everyone, I'm surprised that they haven't kicked you out!" she yells making him back up a little.

This time Spitelout joined in "Shut your mouth! That's the soon to be chief you're speaking to!" he yells back.

"Do you really think that anybody's going to listen to a dumbass like him!? I would be surprised if anybody took one order from him!" some mumbles could be heard from within the crowd of people.

"Raven, be quiet" Draco simply asks.

"But—"

"No buts, just be quiet" Draco says with a serious look. He turns his attention to Snotlout.

"How about this, we have a mock battle" everyone that heard 'mock battle' was confused since they've never heard of that word.

"What's a mock battle?" asks Lugnut.

"A mock battle is a team oriented battle"

"Meaning?" Snotlout is seriously an idiot…

Draco sighs "My friends and I verse you and your friends but in this case it won't be fair"

"Whats going on?" Stoick joins in on the conversation.

"Just suggestioning something else other then duels" Stoick seemed interested.

"Can you tell us about this?" Draco nods then adds "Yes but it'll have to wait until tomorrow"

"Wait you can't just—" Stoick places a hand on Snotlout's shoulder.

"Be quiet and go sit down" Snotlout mumbles under his breath as he walks back over to his seat.

Draco watches as the idiot goes and sits back down at the table he was sitting at which was where his father was sitting but the father just stood there and glared at Draco but didn't say anything to him.

"Draco!" he looks around for where his name came from and eventually landed on Astrid whom was sitting with her friends and surprisingly Hiccup.

Draco leads his friends over to the table all taking a seat "I see you made it" he says to a nervous Hiccup.

"Y-Yea, I just got here actually" he says with a small stutter.

"So Hiccup, how do you like Draco's training?" Raven asks curious, this caught Astrids attention as well.

"U-Um… It's a-alright, a little difficult… difficult then what we're put through" at least he didn't stutter through the whole explanation.

"That's all (looks at Draco) I thought you would've put him through our regement" Raven says sounding disappointed.

"He's not ready"

"But we were?" she questions with a raised eyebrow?"

"You were trained the same way as I was so yes, I thought you were ready" he argues. Everyone sitting at the table couldn't help but watch these two. It was actually funny.

"You two seem close" Ruffnut comments on the way the two are actting while glancing over at Astrid.

"We've known each other for a long time, I think about seven years or eight, lost count, got a problem with that?" she sees where the dirty blondes eyes were glancing at, following them she sees that it was at the other blonde girl.

"Hold on" she thinks back a little a remembers that she's notice something weird about this girl, at first she thought it was nothing but seeing how this girl is seeming to be uneasy and the way her voice was when she called Dracos name… now she understands.

"No, I don't have a problem, I was just wondering what was going between you two" sure, that was her reason.

Seeing where this is probably going to go, Draco steps in "We're like siblings" he simply puts it. What he didn't know was what he said made Raven's heart ach a little.

"Oh, makes sense"

Draco looks around the table to see that the other men around seem to be uncomfortable, he thinks back at the time Astrid brought up the idea of telling her some more stories about what he did in the past.

"Raven, how about we tell them of one of our adventures" she quickly jumps at the idea, smiling like a madman "Hell yea (begins to think) wonder which one we should tell them" she wonders.

"How about the one with the leshen? I would to see if you still remember that one" Geralt suggested.

"Oh, that creepy thing, that was… something" Draco looked back at how it went and remembered that some of it they had to use magic so he'll have to alter some of it.

"Sure, lets go with that one… I guess we could start when we entered the forest…" then the story how how Draco, Sal, and Geralt took on the leshen.

(Flashback)

This was one of the first contracts that Geralt, Draco and Sal took without the others leaving the girls back at the vineyard to do whatever they want. The contract that the trio took lead them to Velen and from what Geralt says that they'll be up against a creature called a leshen.

From how Geralt describes the leshen it's a guardian of the forest, immune to human steel and can control the animals of the forest to come to its aid when needed. It's described of possessing a deer skull as a head and tree like limbs. Draco and Sal have never heard of such a creature and don't know how to defeat such a creature, something that looks like the forest itself.

"Geralt, have you fought one of these things before?" Sal asks.

"A couple, not sure if this will be like the others though"

"What do you mean like the others?"

"There are three variants of a leshen, Kernun, woodland spirt, and ancient leshen, lets hope we don't run into one of those"

The trio has been walking through the woods of Velen for about an hour now and haven't run into anything out of the ordinary so telling them that isnt something that they wanted to hear. What made that statement even worse was the fact that it was super quiet.

"How long will it be until we run into this thing?" Draco asks.

"Shouldn't be long, look" Geralt looks past some trees out into a huge opening.

Just walking out into the opening was a tall slender creature that resembled what a leshen is. This one was taller though then what Geralt described.

"This isnt good, that's an ancient leshen" Geralt whispers, drawing his sword.

"Great, something you said the we hope we don't run into" Draco complains, following Geralts lead by drawing his own sword.

"So, whats the plan?"

"Split up but not to far, this thing will likely call in some help so be ready" the trio split slowly circling around the edge of the forest. It seems to have not noticed them yet but it won't take long until it does.

When splitted far enough the trio exit the forest, into the opening letting the leshen see them. It quickly called in some aid starting out with crows swarming out of the trees right at the trio. Most of them went at Geralt but still sent a few after Draco and Sal.

"Ok, if I knew I would be fighting birds I wouldn't have decided to hunt this thing!" Draco calls out while cutting down the birds that are swarming him.

"That's why I didn't say anything!" Geralt calls back.

It didn't take that long for Sal and Draco slay the crows that were attacking them, both charged for the leshen and started to swing at it. A few hits were made but after about five hits on the thing it turns to smoke disappearing right before their eyes.

"What the hel?" Draco and Sal both say at the same time in confusion of what just happened.

"They tend to do that" Geralt states walking up behind the two.

"Where did it go?" Sal asks.

"Not sure but usually it wouldn't be to far"

The trio head back into the woods seeing that sticking around here would be a waste of time. Back into the woods they already began to hear wolves howling in the distance and getting closer.

"Wolves, it had to be wolves" A pack of wolves, around a dozen came running at the trio.

"Wait, this thing called in wolves after you… cool" Tuffnut interrupts.

"Wow, took you long enough to actually ask a question, you broke a new record" Draco says sarrcasticly. Some laughed.

"Can we get back with the story?" Raven asks, annoyed with the interruption.

"Right…"

Geralt, Sal, and Draco, swords drawn got ready for the incoming attack. The wolves made no hesitation of backing off and jumped at the trio. Draco was quick enough to move back before he got tackled. Sal swung instead taking out two of the wolves with one good swing.

Geralt did the same and swung taking out one of them but the other two that jumped him circled around him to come in for another attack. Draco saw this and calls out to him "Geralt, behind you!"

Geralt quickly turns around to see the wolves charging at him. With another swing he took out the two wolves. Draco on the other hand was stuck with six of them. Luckliy for him he's fast but with them trying to get behind him it was becoming a little difficult to maneuver around.

Sal saw this and ran over to help but was quickly stopped by the last little bit of wolves. He made quick with them taking them down with a swing to the heads. Once done he runs on over to Dracos aid.

Once by his side the duo took out the wolves while watching each others backs. After the wolves were taken care of the leshen came into sight once again and began its own attack but onto Geralt.

While Geralt was keeping it busy Sal and Draco ran up behind it and slashed at its back, it didn't like that of course and tried swinging at them but they were able to block it. Geralt took this chance to create a small bomb that will light this thing up in flames.

Both Sal and Draco kept that thing busy as long as they could but they had a feeling that something is going to happen soon. Draco glances over to Geralt "When are you going to be done with that!?"

"Move!" the two did and jumped back away from the leshen.

Once out of the way Geralt throws the small bomb at the leshen which set it ablaze once it made contact with it. The creature made a loud screeching noise while it burned. About a minute of burning it finally fell over turning into a pile of burnt wood.

"After that, we returned to the contractor, gained our rewards and went back to the vineyard" the story finally came to an end.

"Yea, and when you returned we had to patch you three up" Triss adds.

"You should've expected that"

"S-So you were able to kill that thing?" Fishlegs asks. Draco noticed that he had a notebook out with a charcoal pencil in hand.

"Yes, but I wouldn't suggest going looking for one"

Draco then feels someone pull on his sleeve. Looks down to see that it was Raven. From the look she's giving him, he knows that she's at her limit and wants to go to the hot springs. At least they got done with eating even though he didn't get to talk to Astrid much.

"It seems like we need to be heading back home for the night" Draco and all of his friends stood up from their seats leaving the table, everyone seemed confused.

"Didn't you just get here?" Astrid asks.

"Yea but with these three (gesturing to Ciri, Triss, and Geralt) leaving tomorrow afternoon and with the possibility of a mock battle we need to be ready" Draco explains. Astrid was still disappointed though.

With nothing else being said Draco and everyone else leaves the hall. Once out of the hall Astrid lowers into the seat but tries to hide it, though it didn't seem to work out all to well since Ruffnut was sitting there looking at her with a smile.

"What?"

"Follow me, I have something to show you" this didn't sound good.

(1 Hour later) (Hotsprings)

Draco and friends were enjoying themselves at the hotsprings, even Galaxy was there, hiding at the lower part of the springs where a lot of steam will keep him hidden.

"It's been so long since we've done this together" The girls stayed on one side of the springs while the men stayed on the other, even though some were a little close since the springs weren't that big.

"This is actually the first time for me" Ciri says.

"Same" Mikazuki's voice could be heard.

"Well, this is something common for us as you can tell" Ciri nods understanding that from how Raven has stood up revealing herself to everyone and no one has done or said anything.

"Sit down" well, besides Draco.

"Oh come on, it's not you haven't seen this before" she gestures to herself. He keeps his eyes closed trying to relax.

"Just sit" disappointed she sits down next to Ciri once again.

"Zeymah" Galaxy says sniffing the air.

"I know"

Geralt notices the smell to "At least I wasn't the only one" they kept their voices down from the girls.

"Zu'u vis sahlon nunon vogaan nuz voth vorey sahlon muliik niidro buruk wah mindok vir pogaan" Galaxy explains.

Draco and Geralt looks over to Mikazuki and sees that he was paying attention to something else but something tells them that he can smell it too. Draco couldn't help but facepalm himself "This is going to get out of hand"

"I think it's about time we leave" Geralt suggests to Draco who couldn't disagree with that idea.

"It seems like it but lets sit here for a little bit longer so Raven doesn't complain about leaving to early"

Everyone else in the springs, except for Geralt, Mikazuki, Draco, and Galaxy wasn't able to actually enjoy the springs since there was something else happening behind them but not wanting to cause a seen they stayed quiet, staying for about thirty minutes before leaving the springs. After everyone began to leave the springs, revealing all of their glory, the smells that the four smelled disappeared.