i some how managed to get a chapter done dispite all my homework. this is another long chapter sitting just under 2k words and i am proud of myself. i want to thank mejinzs and rouge who have cralwed out of the woodwork and come back to proofread my stuff, i will be posting the proofread chapters in the next day or two.

PS i posted this last night on my blog, and i have my other story there...

without further ado, chapter 57

-----------------------------------------------Aesthyra POV---------------------------------------------------------

“Where’s Fafnir?” I wondered as I stretched atop my silver hoard. “He’s supposed to get me up so I can finish my lair.”

I yawned as I left the cavern, and headed towards the kitchen.

“I’m up!” I said as I stumbled into the kitchen. Then it hit me, “Where is everyone?”

I quickly searched the lair, “Even the human is gone, and that creature almost never leaves his non-hoard hoard.” I mumbled. I took a deep breath and prepared to cast a tracking spell that mom taught me. I reached for the energy, and released the spell. Immediately I felt a light tug on my right horn as if leading me towards the east.

I stopped for a moment reconsidering whether or not I should follow him, when a loud gurgling answered the question for me. I quickly dashed out of the lair’s mouth and headed towards Fafnir. It only took a few minutes of flying before I caught Fafnir’s familiar scent below me.

Looking at the leafy obstruction I took a deep breath and destroyed it; turning it all to liquid mana. Screams pierced the otherwise calm atmosphere as elves tried to avoid the falling debris. Tucking in my wings, I plummeted towards the ground only to snap them open at the last second landing with a deep thud, before a large wooden elf lair. With a thought I shrank myself just enough to fit through the mouth. I ignored the nonsensical words of the elves and headed towards Fafnir, on the other side of all the random walls

“Fafnir, what happened to working on my lair?” I asked as I reached the table.

“Ryan passed out this morning and I quickly took him to be treated by the elves. “There was an attack by some, rather quickly mutilated, elves. Azazel took care of the would be murder though, sorry Therin you aren’t important enough to be assassinated – That’s when Therin roped me into celebrating Azazel’s first kill and, well, here we are,” he nonchalantly replied.

“Where’s the human now, then?” I huffed still miffed at being left behind.

“Well darn it, we forgot Ryan,” Fafnir exclaimed staring daggers at Therin.

“He was coming?” Therin asked, looking at Fafnir, “You know he would have been flayed alive if he was challenged.”

“What do you mean by challenged?” Fafnir snapped.

“This is a combat arena, anyone can challenge anyone else to a duel to the death if they want, and he would have to accept or be branded a coward and allowed to be hunted down on the streets.” Thein replied.

“What the hell kind of custom is that!” Fafnir exclaimed, “The more you explain this ‘first blood’ celebration the less I like it.”

“No one would challenge a child as it would seem cowardly, and there are preparations needed to fight a wyvern, which you are not, and people know better than to challenge me as I have killed many in the arena.” Therin replied, smiling.

“So, then why didn’t you come get me for dinner,” I said, interrupting their argument.

“Fafnir forgot.” The elf said.

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus.” Fafnir replied.

“What’s a bus?” I asked.

“Never mind, we have been working hard and I though you should continue to sleep.” Fafnir said, but I knew better.

“Well then, I will be joining you for dinner as you forgot to leave food out for me.” I said as I shrank myself and jumped onto the only remaining chair.

I curled up upon the well cushioned seat cover as one of the elves walked up to the table and opened a glass jug and poured a little bit of a delicious smelling drink into one of those silly cup things.

“It’s good,” Therin said.

The serving elf poured some more of the sweet smelling liquid, into the silly cup. Then the elf started making some strange noises.

“What is wrong with the elf is it not feeling well?” I asked.

“Why?” Fafnir asked giving me the same look mom does when I do something silly.

“Well that elf has not only wet itself, but is making a lot of weird noises, and only sick animals do that sort of thing.” I replied.

“Here, put this on.” Fafnir said taking off the brooch attached to his horn and placed it on mine. “Now say, speak.”

“Speak,” all of a sudden those random elf noises that had been bothering me since I entered made sense.

“And what will you have sir?” the serving elf asked as he looked at me.

“I have no clue, and I’m female.” I replied looking at Fafnir.

“How about I just order for you?” Fafnir asked, saving me from trying to figure out what to order.

“Sure, I just know I want some of the stuff in Therin’s silly cup.” I replied; Therin started to choke as he stared at me.

“Why would you want wine?” Therin asked; cleaning the drink from his mouth.

“It smells as sweet as mana so it must me delicious.” I replied, wondering what the strange liquid looks like.

“What do you mean it smells like mana?” Therin asked; instantly sitting up straight, I could smell the mana flow out of the elf as he cast a spell. He frowned as he looked at his glass and then waved a servant elf over.

“Everything to your satisfaction, lord Therin?” The servant elf asked.

“Drink this.” Therin command as he shoved the glass at the server.

“Lord Therin, I would never presume…” the server started to say .

“Drink,” Therin repeated in the same tone of voice mom uses on me when I’m not lesioning. I could smell the fear on the servant elf as he slowly some of the stuff from the silly glass thing. When the last drop had vanished the servant elf fell to the floor his black skin turning a very bright pink.

“Looks like I win again.” Therin said with a smile.

“What happened to the elf person” Azazel asked as she jumped from the chair and started to poke the fallen elf.

“It’s a game that me and the owner play. Don’t worry, the server is ok. The poison will just turns his skin a hilarious shade of pink. He just needs to sleep it off.”

“Azazel, stop poking the elf,” Fafnir said in a low growl, “do we have to worry about being in the crossfire of this ‘GAME’?”

“No,” Therin quickly replied, “this is a bet strictly between myself and the owner; you have nothing to fear. “

“Therin, you do realize the attitude I have towards poisons since the wedding, right?” Fafnir said in a low voice.

“Fafnir, they prepare and cook everything in front of us and I will check each dish for poison.” Therin replied, trying quell Fafnir’s anger.

“Can I eat the elf?” I asked wondering if it tasted better than dwarf.

“What is wrong with you?” Fafnir asked horrified.

“What do you mean?” I asked a bit confused.

“You don’t eat people.” Fafnir yelled at me with disgust.

“Me and mom eat humans and dwarves all the time at home” I refuted, “ and I want to know if elf tastes better than dwarf.”

“Let’s just eat what we ordered and then get out of here.” Therin quickly interjected just in time as the chef was just arriving.” I looked over and saw a fat elf pushing a wooden box with a black metal top towards us. I sat quietly watching the cook elf as he brought out two large slabs of red meat and tossed them on the black slab. My stomach grumbled as the tantalizing scent of roasting meat filled the air around us. He pulled out a bowl and poured from a pot that was sitting on the blackboard and poured a dark red liquid with chunks of meat that smelled divine and placed the steaming food in front of Azazel. He picked up the two cooked pieces of meat and placed them on the plate things; setting them in front of both me and Fafnir.

“Where’s your food?” Fafnir asked.

“They are probably still butchering it, would be my guess.” He replied as he sipped his new bottle of wine.

“What are you eating?” Fafnir tentatively asked eyeing the elf.

“It is a classic dark elf dish, freshly killed cave crawler.” He replied, “It is a predator that is found in caves and abandoned mines. The belly meat melts in your mouth, the only problem is that cave crawlers release a deadly toxin after death, making the meat inedible after two hours, but until that point it is divine.”

“You know what… I don’t care anymore I’m just going to eat my food and then I am going to grab Ryan and head home. I’m can’t deal with this crap anymore.” Fafnir said.

We ate in silence for a few minutes as we enjoyed our food. During our meal I watched an elf stumble towards our table, I caught a strong whiff of that alcohol stuff my mom warned me about when interacting with the races.

“I shallange you to a, to a fight… to the d-death… dragon.” The stumbling man slurred as he pointed between me and fafnir.

“Which one?” Therin asked as he put his glass down.

“The only one there!” he replied pointing once again to between us.

“There are two of them.” Therin replied.

“I don’ts care if-if there’s ten of ‘em, ‘em… dragons…. I’m going to go kill the overgrown lizard.” He hiccuped, as he steadied himself against the table.

“Daddy, are you going to turn him into the blue stuff?” Azazel asked poking her head out to get a better look at the stumbling elf.

I thought for a second,reflecting on what mom would do, and, remembering mom’s words, I finished the bite I was on of my meal, and bit the elf’s head off. The sweet taste of mana flowed into my mouth as my teeth broke through the skull. I swallowed, enjoying the after taste of my mid meal snack and noticed all the elf noise had stopped.

“The man issued a challenge and it is the challenged party’s right to pick the time and place.” Therin said in a loud voice. Silence reigned for a few more seconds before the chattering began again.

“That’s it, Azazel finish your food, we’re leaving.” Fafnir said as he tossed the rest of his meat into his waiting maw. He picked Azazel up with his tail and left the restaurant.

“A perfect distraction so that he would not burn the town down.” Therin chuckled as he looked at me, “Shouldn’t you be following him?”

I tossed what was left of my dinner into my mouth and, with my tail, stole the bottle of the sweet smelling drink that Therin was drinking as I walked out of the elf lair.

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as always me mejinzs and rouge are mostly human so let us know if we missed anything and tell me what you think.

the real question is how did Therin arrange all this…