New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

It took a dozen minutes for a screeching to echo at the forest's edge, where Astaroth and Phoenix were waiting. And soon after, four griffins landed in the busted part of the forest.

One was larger than the others, sporting a silvery sheen, and an angry woman jumped from it.

"Do you think my riders are carriage drivers, King Astaroth?!" Mary burst into anger.

"Urgh, pipe down. I already have a headache from mana deprivation. Can we have this conversation back at the palace? I'll listen to all your berating then. I won't even interrupt you. Deal?" Astaroth asked, wincing in pain.

Mary clenched her fists and growled, staring at Astaroth and Phoenix.

"Fine! But you better get ready mentally. I'm going to fill your head up with my screams until you hear only that when falling asleep at night!"

"Ooh. Kinky. Commander Kadmus, I never thought of you like that," Astaroth joked, making the woman go beet red.

The next moment, he took a weak punch to the ribs from Phoenix, who didn't appreciate the connotation of his joke, and a not-so-weak one to the jaw from a very pissed-off Commander Kadmus.

She roared in fury; her face red with either shyness or rage, and jumped back on her griffin.

"Get him on his griffin and back to the palace! And make sure he doesn't die on the way there! I want to kill him myself!" she shouted before sending Silverwind rocketing into the skies.

Astaroth was on the ground, chuckling to himself as he caressed his jaw.

"Man, you can't even pull a joke to a gall these days without taking a hit," he jokingly complained.

"You deserved that punch. Both punches, actually," Phoenix commented, staggering her way toward an empty saddled griffin.

The beast looked at her warily as she got closer, but since she did nothing threatening, it let her approach enough to pull herself on the saddle.

Phoenix lowered her face toward the griffin's head, talking to him in whispers and caressing the side of his head, reassuring it that she was a friend.

It calmed down quickly while the soldier ran to Astaroth with a panicked look.

"Please forgive the commander, sir. She has a temper, but she's a good person. Please don't punish her or the riders," he pleaded, picking Astaroth up.

Astaroth laughed as he was picked up.

"Calm down, soldier. I had no such intention. The queen is right; I deserved that hit. I only wished she had been slightly gentler. My body is already hurting everywhere."

After helping him up on the last griffin, the soldier ensured the king wouldn't fall, even as the concerned party said he would hang on via magic. There was no way he would disobey a direct order from the commander.

She would have him cleaning the griffin pens for weeks if he did. So whether the king was happy about getting murdered by her or not was no longer his problem.

The flight back was relatively eventless, aside from the single scare factor of a black dragon suddenly charging at them from nowhere. Astaroth had heard Shegror saying she was coming back, but he didn't bother warning the others, thinking she was warning him well in advance.

But there were only a few seconds between her warning and her showing up. And she even scared Astaroth, as she never slowed down, heading straight for him, turning into a soul fragment barely at the last second before slamming into him.

He thought he was about to get flung off the griffon at Mach Jesus, but instead, his heart only stopped for a few seconds.

After landing at the palace, inside the last floor, where the griffin perches were, Astaroth tried fleeing the scene sneakily but was rapidly sold out by his girlfriend.

"Where are you going? I thought you wanted to talk to Mary before leaving?" Phoenix asked before walking by him.

She stopped next to him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek as she grinned at him.

"Traitor," Astaroth whispered, pouting.

"I love you, too," she replied before walking down the stairs toward their room.

"King Astaroth!" Mary shouted, noticing him near the stairs.

"You thought you could escape me?!" she howled.

"Far from me the thought, Commander Kadmus," Astaroth said with a sigh. Novel Fire - novelfire.net

He listened to her yelling for over fifteen minutes until the woman had screamed herself hoarse and fled the scene while she went to grab some water, most likely with the intention to keep going.

When she saw he had run away, she growled but led the matter to rest, at least for now.

Astaroth had to be wary while running down the stairs, as his legs were still wobbly, but he made it to the second floor safely. His first stop was Leon's room, where he knew he would find the lazing lion.

Barging into the room, he woke Leon mid-nap, startling him awake.

"Wake up, you lazy ass!" Astaroth barked.

"Huh?! What? What's going on?" Leon asked, jumping up with half-closed eyes.

"Did you not feel that massive aura earlier? Or were you too far in your slumber that you missed that?" Astaroth questioned, walking up to the bed.

Leon sighed loudly, sitting back on his bed, before rubbing his eyes.

"No. I felt it. But what was I supposed to do? Go running in on a god?" Leon asked, looking annoyed.

"Oh, I don't know. Have a look, at least, maybe? Or was your nap more important?"

"Should I answer that?" Leon asked sarcastically.

Astaroth clicked his tongue at him.

"What would you have done if the god killed me? Or Phoenix?" Astaroth asked, annoyed by the lion's nonchalance.

"There isn't much I could have done… Rule in your stead until you come back, or pick new rulers once I know you aren't?" he asked, unsure what a suitable answer would sound like.

Astaroth couldn't fault him for taking this matter lightly. He figured there really wasn't much Leon could have done against a god. But he would have liked to know that his guardian at least had his back if shit went down.

"At least go check next time…" Astaroth sighed before leaving the room.

The lion promptly returned to his nap after the king left. He was in charge at night while the king and queen were gone, so he spent most of his days sleeping.

'As if I could mess around with a god…' he thought, closing his eyes and falling asleep.

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