A warriors madness

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut Thorston, lightning lass, Apprentice Overlord.

Vagrant Viking.

Rather then settle down in any one given place on the ship she had developed a habit of claiming whatever land was convenient for herself and making little "nests" that she could sleep in using materials she had "borrowed".

Tonight (Which was a relative term in the city where the sun rose and set whenever it damn well pleased) Ruffnut had found her way down into a dark quiet and echo filled basement of one of the ruins. She lied basements. They reminded her of the caves of Birk and more to the point, they didn't have windows so the sun wouldn't bother her when she was sleeping and it decided to rise for the third time in six hours.

The only downside is the basements tended to be cool so she had to gather together lots of fabric to wrap around herself to keep warm. Curtains, bedsheets, towels and the like. A good thick blanket was harder to come by. She did find a thick warm cloth with sleeves one day while rummaging through the lockers. It was like a blanket but the sleeves made it easier to do things with her hands. Ingenious!

She had learned from her first few mistakes involving building a fire as well and made sure if she did that the smoke had somewhere to escape. She had thrown some broken wooden furniture into a trashcan and used re lightning power to set it ablaze. Now the room was warmer and had a pleasant glow. You'd almost forget you were indoors if you tried.

"Man you look like a rat under all that." Tuffnut taunted from his place near the fire. Ruffnut did her best to ignore him. He'd been particularly derisive lately and it was working her last nerve.

"Then again I guess you kind of are right? I mean what kind of proud warrior does the stuff you've done?" He continued rubbing his hands together. "I mean you were never gonna be as awesome as me but at least you could have been loyal to Astrid and Hiccup right?"

Ruffnut grumbled and pulled her covers closer together eyes focused with almost laser precision on the fire. If she stared hard enough maybe she'd see something like the elders back home.

"It's a good thing Snotlout and Stoic were put back to sleep, I'd hate to see what they'd think of all this."

"Shut it." Ruffnut finally responded which was all the encouragement that Tuffnut needed.

"And what if Mom and Dad knew?" His lips peeled back into a wicked grin that Ruffnut herself often wore when she was enjoying a particularly painful fight.

This fight however hurt her in a different way and she lost control of her temper, screaming at the brother that wasn't really there. Her scream of rage echoed through the building as she threw off the sheets and fabrics and cut loose with a blast of electrical energy. As Tuffnut wasn't really there it connected with the trashcan exploding and sending flames and kindling scattering about the room.

"Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no!" Ruffnut scrambled about with a towel from her pile and began beating and smothering out the scattered flames. In the cement basement it wouldn't spread but the smoke was already stinging her eyes and choking her lungs.

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[badassfreakingoverlord]

"The hell was that?" Zetta asked of absolutely no one, looking at the building from which he'd sworn he'd heard a very familiar scream and thunderbolt.

Well, never a stickler for privacy that wasn't his, the Overlord ordered his minion to boot down the door, and in her arms he moved in to investigate.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

The building itself was an old apartment building, ruined by age. It was the kind of old building that looked like it could fall over in a strong breeze but somehow just became more sturdy with time. Almost stubborn really.

Smoke filled the lobby drifting up from a pair of forced open doors that led to an elevator shaft. There was some cursing and crashing about from the bottom of the shaft, also familiar no doubt.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hmm." Well, either Ruffnut was in a fight or had a boyfriend over. Either way, it deserved to be watched (for laughing mockery only, if the latter). So the minion hopped down the shaft to investigate, book in hand.

That didn't last; the minion stumbled as she landed, dropping the book face first onto the floor.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut was pretty distracted by her fire fighting and by the time she finished she was ash faced and sweaty. She flopped onto her pile of fabrics and cloths breathing shallow and waiting for the smoke to clear so she could catch her breath. If she tried to suck in too much air it would just choke her.

"Thor almighty look what you made me do!" She rasped at her brother who had re-appeared and was laughing at her without a need to breath the smoke himself.

"You look like such an idiot. What did you forget all your fire fighting from Birk? Just like you forgot your loyalty? Or your brother?"

"Shut up!" She hissed back and swung at him. But to the casual observer she was talking to and punching thin air. A rather one sided conversation and fight.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

The minion picked up the book just in time for him to see this rather baffling sight.

"Uh. Ruffnut? What up?"

Yes, he just said 'what up'.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut swung suddenly distracted and spun about falling back into the pile of cloth burying herself before standing up again, a towel hanging off her head like a nuns wimple.

"Um...hi?" She waved awkwardly and then coughed forgetting about the smoke and lowering herself below it again.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"You, uh, look like you're having a rough day."

He didn't have the heart to laugh at her. Later he'd probably wonder what was wrong with him.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"Nah just...a setback." She coughed adjusting herself in the pile and taking the towel off her head.

"Pft, yeah right. You can't even handle a little ribbing." Tuffnut mocked earning a glare from his sister...who appeared to be glaring at nothing to her left.

"What are you doing here?" She asked of Zetta turning back.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I heard you yelling and blasting stuff. Made me wonder what was going on..."

What WAS she looking at anyway? He tried to look where she had, but saw nothing.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Well, Hit girl wasn't the type to let people just go unguarded. The truth was, she'd been concerned all the while, but she wasn't about to show it to anyone, not the Overlord or Negi or even Ruffnut. Who she cared about was HER business, not anyone else's, and if they had a problem they could go fuck themselves.

"Practi biginaru Ventus" Hit girl said, and the flame at least got a little smaller. She wasn't about to let her best friend (she WAS that, she guessed) go up in flames.

"Hey," she said. "What's up?"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut looked up from the floor, soot in her face and hair. She looked like she was about to punch something but there was nothing there. She shot a quick look of confusion at Hit Girl and the empty space under her before rolling to her feet and grinning sheepishly.

"Uh, not much." She then coughed on the smoke and waved her hands about to clear it. "You?"

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"Nothin,'" Hit Girl said, trying to look as if she was pretty relaxed. "I'm just chilling out. It's all right."

She sighed. "Just relaxing. You all right, without lying?"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut blinked and felt an all too familiar sickness churning in her belly. Ah guilt welcome back. She hadn't missed you.

"Busted!" Taunted Tuffnut and Ruffnut instinctively lashed out at him with a foot despite him not being there.

Realizing she was caught she felt her shoulders slump. "Um...so...promise not to tell anyone OK?" She couldn't meet Hit Girl's eyes. It was bad enough she was letting this thing with Astrid and Hiccup drag her through the mud and everyone knew it. Now she was going insane.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

She definitely wondered who Ruffnut had been kicking her foot at, but that question could wait, right? In any case, she could tell there was a lot going on with the viking, and while it wasn't really her bag (not by a long shot) she could lend a sympathetic ear.

"Of course not," Hit Girl said. "Warrior's code, if you want."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut still seemed unsure and squirmed a little but shot a glare at empty space again, "You can't see anything there right? Like right there?" She pointed specifically at the uninhabited space next to her.

Of coarse to Ruffnut it looked like her brother was there blowing a fat raspberry at her.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit Girl took a look at the empty space, then another look. Weird things happened on the ship all the time, why shouldn't invisible people exist? But Ruffnut asked an honest question, and deserved the same kind of answer.

"No. I don't see anything there."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut groaned and rubbed her eyes a few times. Tuffnut rolled his eyes.

"I knew it! I freaking knew it!" Ruffnut complained pulling on her braids in frustration. "I keep seeing my stupid brother but I know he's not there and I can't make it go away!"

[curiousredsoul]

Celena had been flying low through the city on one of her daily flights, weaving between buildings before arching up and over them once more. The sounds of shouting drifting up from below even as the crackle of lightning and the sight of smoke drifting from one of the ruined buildings of the area drew her attention.

...That hadn't been there a moment ago, smoke is generally not the best of things. Thus flaring her wings out she looped up around and back down, barely slowing herself as she landed rapidly. Moving quickly over to the building, holding her wings tight against her sides as she pushed into the building, weaving through to the source of the smoke.

"Is anyone in there?" She would call out down toward the source of the smoke, if there was she readied herself to press down through it to the source.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut was hacking and coughing on the smoke, stumbling towards the elevator shaft she'd used to let herself in. She wanted to make sure that the airway was open. She may not have been smart but she'd been in enough fires to know better then to breath in too much smoke.

When she heard the voice she froze. Was she in trouble? "U-uh...no. No one's home!" She yelled back.

"Real smooth." The figment of her imagination that was her brother mocked.

[curiousredsoul]

The sounds of hacking and coughing were not the most reassuring sounds to have drifting up to her as she approached the elevator doors from which smoke was spilling from the open Elevator doors.

She rose an eyeridge at the reply...okay then. Shaking her head she approached the door elevator door, getting close before using a wing to fan away at least some of the smoke in the immediate area before she sticking her head into the elevator shaft to peer down to see how far the drop would be.

"Need some help down there?" She called down, if one viking were to look up the elevator shaft she might find the head of a dragon peering down toward her, one whose markings appeared to glow and cast red light on the smoke around them.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut did in fact see the dragon and reacted by instinct alone, years of being attacked by dragons had her yelp and duck out of the shaft to avoid a fire blast.

"Um, Hi!" She called back, "Thanks for the wind just had a little misfire with my um...fire." She called back and then could be heard bickering with someone else though the words were too quiet to make out.

[curiousredsoul]

Celena rose an eyeridge at the other's sudden reaction to her presence, shaking her head a moment as she used a wing to help blow away the majority of the smoke.

"You're welcome, and indeed?" Peering back over the edge she judged the space and the distance to get down, wouldn't be too difficult of a fit in her current size. She noted however that seemingly one sided bickering, though couldn't understand the words, "Would you mind if I came down?"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"Um..." There was a moment of silence and then finally, "I guess not...not much to see down here though just some junk." She called back trying to discourage it. Ruffnut's logic kicked back in reminding her that even non-talking dragons weren't enemies anymore.

[curiousredsoul]

Celena waited with easy patience, junk? That's not something that would deter a dragon as inquisitive as the one now peering down the elevator shaft a moment longer.

Thus after another moment had passed, there was something of a clatter as something disturbed one of the cables before something of a thumb as the dragon in question landed at the bottom of the shaft gracefully enough despite the smoke. Not a short moment longer past before she folded her wings close to her form and stepped out of the elevator shaft and into the basement.

"Well hello there,"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut blinked a few times, clearly taken aback by Celena's appearance. Finally she managed to ask a little baffled, "Just how many dragons are on this ship!?"

She really wasn't trying to be rude really.