Drake slid to a stop by the door. Ice magick, oh how he HATED ice magick! Red mages could do anything so long as they learned how, and Thor had apparently learned how to cast Blizzard... Drake had just meant to make him let go; heat up his arm till the guard freaked and let go, but Thor had freaked and cast Blizzard, which made Drake freak and his powers… got out of hand and the door went bye-bye as the ice burnt his arm. The fire was hard enough to control when he was injured, but the dumb guard kept it up! If Drake hadn’t finally pulled free he was pretty sure the guard would’ve combusted.
So, he was in trouble again, and had an ice burn on his arm which still stung like you wouldn’t believe.
Drake needed to find his bow… now. That was his current mission.

 

 

Ellipsis suddenly had a new problem, as he had somehow become the object of interest to some fool.

 

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before! That’s a nice bow!” Said a well-dressed, plump and balding man. He had a glass of something they were probably not serving to the younger guests in his hand. Ellipsis figured he was wasted.

“Uh, thanks...” Ellipsis said, already planning to move to another dark corner, before the man breathed on him…

 

Drake wandered into the hall and stopped, already smelling the alcohol. Then he just, leaned against the door at the opposite end, and watched. It was an interesting affair that almost made him forget about the ice burns. Some drunken slob was making Ellipsis’s time here nearly as miserable as Drake’s time here was being.

 

The display lasted for nearly five minutes before he saw Ellipsis completely pull away.

 

“Well, I must be going.” Ellipsis insisted, shoving away the large man who was now leaning half against him. Before the man could make his slurred objections of it being 'nonshense', Ellipsis had disappeared into the crowd. The hall was so crowded, it was surprisingly easy to do, but Ellipsis skirted around the outer edge. He'd just run into more drunks and kids in the center. It was moments like this that made him wish they could just go back to the Occultation village…

 

Drake followed. He had his bow in sight and wasn't letting it get away. Besides, it had been rather amusing to see the drunken man make Ellipsis feel close to the same way he did every time he was dragged here, it would be a shame not to comment on that.
Finally, he reached forward and wrapped his fingers around one of the wings of the bow.

 

However, at that exact moment, Ellipsis decided to stop dead. Well, he didn't exactly decide. Some annoying children that looked like they were much too small to be any interest to Pricilla, ran past right in front of them. They must have been part of the small number of younger children that had also been dragged along by their parents. Ellipsis had no idea why. Not only could all the adults and some of the children in the hall afford nannies for themselves, but he would be shocked if any of them didn't have one.

 

Drake wasn’t prepared for the stop, so his silent stalking ended as he had to swiftly move his foot just to be able to stop without actually running into Ellipsis.
He kept his hand around the bow, even if his plan to be discreet had been ruined.

 

Ellipsis was too angry at the children to notice Drake amongst all the other people around him. He berated himself for not just treading on the kids and teaching them a valuable lesson about walking in front of people. However the reaction to stop had been sudden and involuntary.

Subconsciously, he tightened his grip on the bow and again started to stalk forward. However, Drake kept his grip and did not walk forward.

 

Ellipsis so very nearly lost his grip on the bow from the unexpected anchorage. Therefore as he turned around to see what the bow had become snagged on, his grasp on it was still rather tenuous.

 

Drake glared a dark, evil, warning glare; a glare that said “gimme!” in a bold font.

 

Ellipsis gaped in surprise at Drake standing there. It took a little while for the mist to clear, and for what was going on to sink in. Then Ellipsis glared back.

“No, you can't have it!” He objected.

 

Drake snarled, fangs showing, trying to look more dangerous than he’d actually act. Whenever he was hurt, he did the same thing. Scare tactic.
“Give me my bow.” He growled, “Now.”

 

“No!” Ellipsis argued; he was a little more resistant to Drake's tactics. Living with the boy and Eclipse would do that to you. “You'll just use it to kill the damn Empress!”

 

“I don’t have any arrows.” Drake snapped, still trying to keep up the ‘look at my fangs, I’ll bite ya!’ act.
His arm still burned! At the moment, he’d have mauled the guard before Pricilla… then Pricilla directly after.

 

“You could probably find some arrows; this is a castle after all. Or you might just garrote her with the string.” Ellipsis further accused, narrowing his eyes and tugging on the bow.

 

Drake hadn’t thought about that. “That… that is a brilliant idea. However, my plan revolved around them leaving me alone because they will at least think I have the ability to fight back! Now let go!”

 

Ellipsis didn't let go. “You know she doesn't have any sense of reason whatsoever! It won't work.” He said slowly, as if talking to a much younger child.

 

Drake narrowed his eyes even further, something he’d learned from Eclipse… except with Drake it made everything all blurry and hard to see, but seemed to look frightening to other people. “I’ll bite you,” he warned.

 

“I'll tell Eclipse,” Ellipsis countered. For a moment the very Eclipse-like eye narrowing had actually made Ellipsis more nervous, but he forced himself to remember that this was Drake. He could look scary, he could be annoying, but all in all… he knew Drake was harmless to him. The boy never had shown any real interest in actually hurting him. Ellipsis had to wonder if that wasn’t because he’d always been nicer to him than Eclipse was. There were times it seemed they had a mutual understanding that they were both stuck obeying that man.

 

Drake wasn’t sure if he’d get in trouble for biting Ellipsis… Drake had a hard time thinking Eclipse would care about anything that was said about this stupid trip.
He raised an eyebrow, stating his thoughts about that.
Then he sighed and shook his head, resigning from the ‘fear me and do as I say’ attitude he’d had just seconds ago, he even let go of the bow as a sign that he was backing off.
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” he groaned.

 

Ellipsis made sure he held the bow at a good distance from Drake. Part of him said that it was a trick. Knowing Eclipse, he wouldn't be surprised if he had taught the boy how trick people before he taught him how to read.

“I don't want to be here either,” he assured the boy. “But if you're going to kill her, at least make it look like an accident. You know what she's like; she won't even let us refuel the airship until its time for you to leave.”

 

“I don’t want to kill her—I do want to kill her. But I can’t kill her… Incult tarfa.” Drake grumbled, “I can scare the guard off. He burnt me, and thus he must either drop dead or simply stay away from me. The choice is his, for now.”

 

Ellipsis sighed, about to say something when he spotted the drunken man from before looking around and stumbling in their direction. “Uhh, yeah... go do that, then.” He said, stepping back a step. “Just make it look like an accident.”

 

“Really? Okay... good. Give me my bow back,” Drake smiled.

 

“It will not look like an accident with the bow,” Ellipsis snapped at Drake, frustrated. He was worried by the amount of attention their little 'conversation' was starting to get.

 

“For the last time! I’m not going to kill her! I’m just going to scare her– You know what? I’m not going to bite you. I’m going stab you.” With that, he pulled the arrow out from his sleeve.

 

“You do have an arrow! You culcat ticălos!” Ellipsis accused glaring harder than ever.

 

“I said I didn't have arrows! I have one. Sort of... it won't fly, but— Just give me my bow back you—!”

“Oh, Drakey! There you are, is that for me?” Pricilla interrupted, jerking the arrow away from Drake.

“... In a way, but—,”

“It's lovely! What a thoughtful gift! ... What is it? Oh, it doesn't matter I love it anyway!”

“Right. Hey, give it back and I’ll show you how to use i—OW!”

“Oh! That shouldn’t hurt, it’s just ice. See?” Pricilla put the ice back against Drake’s arm.

“Ow!” Drake pulled his arm back. “Stop it!”

“Hehehe!” Pricilla giggled. She’d always found it so funny that ice would burn him! She’d shown her friends a few times and it always intrigued them greatly. “That’s really weird! What happens if—?”

“Pricilla! Come on! You have to open my gift! Daddy spent a fortune on it!” Some girl shouted.

“Aw! Coming! Now don’t you two go anywhere!” She then turned to Ellipsis. “My uncle mentioned he got to speak with you, he thinks, and since he’s one of the few staying the whole two days I’m sure you’ll get to spend plenty of time getting to know each other! And Drakey, I’ll see you in a bit, we’ll have fun! Don’t go anywhere! Toodles!” And she pranced away.

Drake looked his arm over and rubbed it, trying to warm up so the throbbing would stop. “… Give me my bow.”

 

“Căcat!” Ellipsis muttered, then pulled the bow closer to him. “No, I need it!” He decided. Ellipsis didn't even know who Pricilla's uncle was, but he didn't want to spend time with anyone here, and especially not any member of Pricilla's family.

 

“What? You didn’t enjoy your conversation with the fat drunken slob? Pity, your room is right next to his,” Drake stated. “Give me my bow back; I’ll make this allll end.” Drake promised, reaching for the bow.

 

“You'll make it worse!” Ellipsis argued, pulling the bow further out of Drake's reach.

 

“No, better. I'm going to shoot myself and end the pain.” Drake informed, grabbing for the bow again.

 

Ellipsis, after realizing who Pricilla’s uncle was, actually had to agree that suicide would make the pain stop. “Hmm... maybe that would be a good id-NO! Then Eclipse will kill me!” Ellipsis snapped. True, dying wasn't looking like such a terrible fate right at that moment...but if Eclipse did it, it would be. Drake knew that as well as Ellipsis did.

 

Drake glared. “That’s the reason I can’t die... Because you’ll get in trouble. Fine, keep the bow; you can’t use it and the fat uncle seemed interested in it. I am going to the roof!”

 

Ellipsis glared back at him. “I bet she's locked the door to get up there now,” he growled.

 

“I can fly,” Drake reminded.

 

“Not with all these people and the people outside watching you can't,” Ellipsis reminded him.

 

Eclipse had made very imaginative threats to Drake about using his True Form in public places… and Ellipsis had heard them and even though he knew the threats weren’t aimed at him, they were gruesome enough to make him afraid.

 

Drake’s mood darkened further with that reminder. “I… can… break a window and jump… or… steal a boat… …”

 

“We're several hundred miles from the sea,” Ellipsis reminded him with what was almost a smile. “And the windows have bars on them… Big ones.”

 

Drake wondered why the fates hated him so very, very much. He grumbled about that then looked around and took notice that Pricilla was running low on gifts and there were people leaving, and others bustling around the dinning room doors, going in and out with covered dishes.
That was a bad sign.

… Unless…

“… It would be a grave tragedy if someone managed to poison the food.” He mused, looking toward the dining hall doors.

 

Ellipsis nodded, confused, but then he recalled the very large and detailed book of poisons someone had given Drake for his last birthday. “…Don’t you dare!”

 

Drake was gone in an instant. He moved through the crowd much easier than Ellipsis could and when he was set on something… he went for it and rarely ever let anyone or anything get in his way.

When the meal was served, despite his best efforts, Drake found himself sitting next to Pricilla… as usual.
The food wasn’t bad… the conversation was. It got so bad that Drake stopped having second thoughts about his actions. He kept his eyes alert, watching people. Seeing their reactions to the food, what they liked, didn’t like, what everyone seemed to be eating.
It was perfect. No one would suspect anything till it was too late—and then what could they do? He’d be rid of them.
He waited, patiently. Never letting his guard down, staying alert. People began to get antsy, dinner was coming to a close, but it wasn’t late enough that people had stopped eating.

 

Ellipsis looked up from his mushroom soup. No one ever ordered the mushroom soup, so Ellipsis figured it would be safe. His first plan was to eat what Drake ate, but Drake didn't seem to eat at all for most of the meal.

Once satisfied that there was no escape, Drake looked down at his own plate and speared a piece of fish with his fork. He liked fish, so it had been hard to refrain from eating any this entire night, but it was what everyone else was eating…

He picked it up, was about to take a bite when he looked at it, looking surprised.

“Hey… Hey! This fish is poisoned!” He yelled.

People… flipped… out.
There was chaos everywhere. Screaming, running, people fainted and were dragged out of the room! A few people started shrieking about feeling ill, a few were shaking and declaring it to be a sign of food poisoning; which just fueled the masses and caused most everyone else to start feeling ill. Pricilla started crying and ran to her room…
Once the last of the freaked out nobles had filed out, Drake ate the fish. The not poisoned and never was fish.

“Hehehehehehe.” He cackled, taking another bite.

“You little bastard!” Ellipsis called from several tables away in the now empty room. He had a glass of something that smelt like berries and vomit spilled over him, and he had discovered why no one ever ordered the mushroom soup. It tasted like poison!

 

“You told me to have fun. And it’s not my fault you’re a moron.” Drake shrugged, taking another bite now that he could eat in peace. “I never said I was going to poison anything, I said it would be a grave tragedy if someone did. Now, that soup you got, no one needs to poison that it’s already fungus. That’s why no one eats it.”

 

Ellipsis got up to leave, but not before walking over to where Drake was eating and pouring nine tenths of a bowl of mushroom soup over his head. He wasn't worried about it burning the boy, it had already cooled, and he doubted that if it had been boiling it would have affected Drake anyway. Perhaps that was an experiment for another day.

“You're right, it was good advice.” Ellipsis said with a nod, and then turned heading for the door. They had been given rooms by Pricilla, and now he needed to change.

 

Drake was rather mad about that. He loathed mushrooms with such a great passion he’d once set fire to every single one of them around Daguerreo. Took sixteen hours, but they never grew back.
He threw the bowl at Ellipsis.

 

The bowl was a surprisingly cheap lightweight thing, and although it hurt, it would probably only cause a minor bruise on Ellipsis' shoulder. The bowl itself was apparently unbreakable, as it bounced several times on the floor, clattering around loudly.

Ellipsis would probably have wondered why Pricilla would have such cheap bowls, if he hadn't been too busy turning and growling at Drake. Still, the sight of Drake covered in mushroom soup soon cheered him back up, and he headed out the door, smile returning to his face, and rubbing his shoulder.

 

Drake was luckily able to sneak to hid room, get cleaned up and dressed, without hassle. Pricilla was rather busy crying about her poisoned food, so Drake wandered back to the kitchen to see if there was anything left they would let him eat.
He was a bit surprised to see guards stationed outside the kitchen door, and so he hung back.

 

Ellipsis had decided to stay in his room for a while. He doubted Drake would get in much more trouble than he had earlier. At least for a little while. He would probably go off and hide again while he had the chance.

Dennis, meanwhile, perhaps the happiest party guest once again, wandered past the kitchen, just to laugh at the guards. Words couldn't describe how gleefully happy he was that everyone had been poisoned. It served Pricilla right for trying to starve him!

 

Drake raised an eyebrow at the fat rich boy. He was sure he hadn't seen him at the dinner party... but he seemed happy and anyone who was happy here was insane. “What are you laughing at?”

 

Dennis hadn't noticed Drake standing there. “You!” The fat boy accused, his gleeful grin turning to a scornful frown at the cause for all his troubles. Well, all his recent ones anyway, which pretty much totaled all of them.

 

“You’re laughing at me?” Drake asked, not thinking that a wise idea.

 

“What?” The boy asked. His frown turning to confusion. He had completely forgotten or missed Drake's original question sometime between hearing it, and noticing who had asked it.

 

“Oh! My apologies. I forgot you’re that stupid pompous brat I met earlier.” Drake pardoned, waving it off.

 

“Hey!” Dennis shouted angrily after a short delay. It was hopeless for him to come up with a witty comeback, but at least he had enough sense not to try.

 

Drake waited patiently; pointedly awaiting a response and then shook his head when he didn’t hear one. “I’ll repeat the question, alright? What are you laughing at?”

 

“How is that any of your business?!” Dennis snapped. He was an idiot, it was true, but he was also an obnoxious idiot.

 

“You’re an obnoxious idiot so you must be related to Pricilla.” Drake stated and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall, bored.

 

“Actually, I am, so you ought to treat me with more respect you... peasant impersonator!!” Dennis yelled at Drake, balling his fists, even though with a mere glance at them you could tell Drake would mop the floor with him.

 

Drake stared at him, not sure what he was doing and then, when realization appeared, wondering if the boy was kidding. “… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Respect you!? Look at you! Stray dogs on the street wouldn’t respect you. And the fact that you mistook a prince for a peasant shows how dense you clearly are. It’s amazing your parents didn’t drown you at birth.”

 

Dennis stared for a couple of seconds, his face going darker and darker red. “How dare you!?” He practically screamed finally. He was shaking with rage...which was not a pretty sight.

 

“Careful, you don’t want to pop.” Drake chided, snickering to himself.

 

Dennis had temper issues. He also had cowardice issues (Not to mention body odor issues, but they aren't important in this case). His rational mind wouldn't let him try to attack Drake. He was badly outmatched. But even though his mind was trying to tell him to run, this seldom listened to part of him was ignored.

“You peasant!” Was his battle cry, and Dennis tried to slap Drake with the back of his hand.

 

Drake grabbed Dennis’s wrist and swiftly twisted it. While doing this, Drake circled to one side and pulled Dennis forward so he could get to the side of him. Then he simply kicked the back of Dennis’s closes knee and put his free hand on the fat boy’s shoulder. Drake pushed Dennis’s wrist up higher; the higher his wrist would go, the more agony the moron be in. “Now, that wasn’t smart.”

 

“Let me go!” Dennis ordered, pitifully trying to break free.

 

“No.” Drake replied, smirking.

 

“Let me go!!” Dennis repeated, louder this time, struggling more frantically, but still weakly, to get away.

 

“You know. I could let you go,” Drake said, pushing Dennis’s arm up further. “But then what would you learn?”

 

“Help!” Dennis screeched loudly, knowing there were guards nearby. “This peasant is attacking me!”

 

“I'd torch you if I didn't think it would smell so bad...” Drake warned, his voice flickering from a serious tone, to one of half met amusement. “Now, then. I am not a peasant. I am the second highest-ranking royal figure here. The first being your cousin who... will probably let me kill you if I agree to stay another day. The guards will probably let me kill you, the guests will let me kill you; almost everyone will let me kill you and the people who wont... are probably not within hearing distance. So! Why shouldn't I just kill you?”

 

“B-because…” Dennis stammered and blabbed some things not even he could make out.

 

Drake shook his head and then pulled sharply against Dennis's arm, nearly hard enough to snap bone and surely snap muscle... if there was any. He let go after that, seeing what the boy would do.

 

Dennis screamed and fell to the floor, holding his arm, and was near tears. He still had his teeth gritted, and as soon as he was able to muster the will to move he dragged himself to his feet, with a lot of effort (not all of which was because of the pain). Then he tried to kick Drake in the groin because, well, it was the only fighting technique anyone had bothered to teach him. A dirty, disgraceful, but effective move that was supposed to give him enough time to get away.

 

Drake, however, was a skilled fighter and such a pathetic attempt at a dirty fight wasn’t going to get him. His hand shot out and he grabbed Dennis’s foot and twisted it sharply.

 

Dennis screamed in pain again, and then fell backwards onto his arse. While he was down, he attempted to use his other leg to kick Drake in the shin.

 

Drake grabbed his other leg as well, and drug him down the hall. “Sheez you're heavy!” He stated, then threw him into the pool.

 

He landed in the shallow end of the pool, which was good, as he couldn't really swim well. He had found the lessons degrading. After a second, he came back to the surface, coughing and spluttering.

Then Dennis used his unhurt, but even weaker arm to try and splash Drake with the water in the pool. He was totally beaten, but his rage was still great enough that it was surprising the water didn't boil. Though in the end, it just made him look like he was going to cry and puke at the same time.

“You!” he started, but started to cough, “p-peasant! You freak!” He managed to choke out.

 

“That's it! You die now!” Drake put one hand in the water and it instantly heated up, only getting worse as the seconds ticked by.

 

Dennis didn't notice right away, but then he did a little after it passed ‘comfortable’. And so he screamed. “What are you doing!?” He cried, leaving off the peasant more through panic than intent.

Then he looked around frantically for the ladder, and started to half doggy paddle, and half hop to it. Each accidental step or paddle with his injured leg or arm was accompanied by a pitiful “ow!”

 

Drake turned up the heat even more. He'd never done this before, but had noticed it happened when he was in the water sometimes. It was the exact same as when he put his firepower in through an enemies bloodstream.
“I told you. It’s time for you to die.” Drake replied, his voice showing nothing but amusement toward the situation.

 

Drake's words just made Dennis hurry faster. Though 'fast', and 'Dennis' were words that really didn't go together. A dead snail would be getting to the ladder faster and probably taste better if it was boiled.

 

Drake waited till he saw bubbles come up as the water began to boil, which... oddly enough, did burn him, before pulling his hand out of the water.
His own hand ached, but the true pain had ended the moment he'd pulled out of the boiling water, and he bet Dennis would be worse off...

 

Dennis was pretty much screaming as he struggled up the ladder, no longer caring how much his arm and leg hurt. He didn't stick around for long either. He continued to scream and ran into the castle with a limping waddle. If indeed it could be called a run at all.

 

Drake sauntered back to his room, figuring it might hopefully be a while before he would be bothered by Dennis again.
On his way… he ran into the fat, drunk, slob of a man Pricilla referred to as her uncle, and told him where Ellipsis’s room was.

 

Needless to say, Ellipsis was quite disappointed that his 'Do Not Disturb' sign didn’t stop Pricilla’s uncle coming to bother him. Nor did the locked door. Or the bear trap. Or the bottle Ellipsis smashed over his head after the first ten minutes.

 

Drake laughed till he fell asleep.