Just a little Glorybringer for ya

The Order of Cruel and Unusual Punishment

He was whistling. Glory's face molded into an extremely annoyed expression. Deathbringer always followed her wherever she went, but lately, he'd just been plain annoying. He was enjoying himself, watching her grow more irritated by the second as he poked her and whistled, pushed her buttons and hummed. In his own defense, his job was a little boring. He stood around all day, following Glory around. Sure, he got to stare at her, that was a major perk, but it was dull listening to other dragon's problems. Annoying Glory just made his day a bit more interesting.

"Deathbringer," Glory said eloquently, with a bit of sass that made it sound like she was silently saying I'm done with your shit.  

"Yes, your Majesty?" he replied dramatically. Glory frowned. She could easily tell Deathbringer off for bothering her, but maybe she could do something else; something that would make him appreciate his job. But what could she do? An idea struck her, and she grinned in a way that made Deathbringer hesitant to be cocky again. 

"I have a new assignment for you." she declared. Deathbringer froze. Had he really gone that far? She couldn't really be replacing him, could she? 

She wouldn't. 

Would she? 

But if he was reassigned, then who would protect her? What if it was someone horrible? Like Jambu? What if she got hurt because of his careless teasing? 

Wait....Was she...messing with him? He let out a sigh of relief. That had to be it. He was the love of her life, she wouldn't just toss him away. 

He was wrong. 

"It'll be perfect for you." Glory insisted. 

"Alright," Deathbringer agreed, playing along. "What is it?" She grinned again before responding.

"I want you to train some Rainwings to be assassins."

****

Two days later, Deathbringer stood in a clearing, fuming about his new job. He didn't want it. He didn't like the idea of other assassins in his territory. The only dragons he wanted to train were his own kids, but Glory didn't like that, and Rainkeeper didn't really want to learn. He was too busy playing in the forest with Pear and doing who knows what else. Deathbringer especially didn't like how Rainkeeper and Joy had reacted to learning about his new position. Joy had laughed so hard that the berries in her hand were crushed. Rainkeeper was rolling on the floor at the very thought. Glory had thought it was amusing. 

I'll show her, Deathbringer thought. I'll make these Rainwings the second-best assassins in Pyrrhia. That, however, was much easier said than done. 

Three hours into training, Deathbringer was considering just killing them all. 

All he'd asked them to do was to fly a couple laps around the clearing and to stretch. These were warm-ups. He expected them to be easy and done within a few minutes. He didn't expect to have three out of the six dragons he was training whine for an entire hour about how that was too hard and how their wings would get sore. By the time they got started, it was suntime. That was another issue. 

"FOR THE LAST TIME! WE. ARE. NOT. STOPPING FOR SUNTIME!" he snapped. One of the dragons yawned. 

"But I'm tired!" he exclaimed. Deathbringer snapped slightly. He walked over to the dragon and grabbed him by the neck, pinning him against a tree. 

"You wanna say that again?" he snarled. 

"Bu-but I'm-AK!" the Rainwing stammered. As he spoke, Deathbringer tightened his grip on the dragon's throat. 

"What was that?" he questioned. The Rainwing kept quiet. Deathbringer released him and walked away as he collapsed to the ground. "LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN!" Deathbringer barked. "Drop and give me twenty!" The Rainwings stared at him in confusion. 

"What's twenty?" One of them asked. Deathbringer let out a scream of frustration. As he yelled, laughter was heard from one of the trees. He glanced up at it to see Rainkeeper, Joy, and two dragonets he didn't know sitting in the tree, watching him and laughing. 

"RAINKEEPER!" he yelled. "JOY!"  The laughter stopped. "For that, YOU TWO GET DOWN HERE AND GIVE ME TWENTY!" he ordered. "YOU TWO GO HOME!" he told the other dragonets. They obliged. When she'd finished, Joy turned to her dad. 

"Dad, if they won't listen, then how about we make this fun?" she suggested. 

"How?" Deathbringer asked with a sigh. She whispered an idea into his ear and he grinned. "Alright!" he barked to the dragons. "New plan!" He stared at them for a moment, then continued.

"I want all of you to attack me."

And for once, they followed directions without another word. 

The dragon he had pinned against the tree came sprinting at him, claws lunging for him. 

Deathbringer neatly grabbed his arm and pulled so that he was bent over and slammed his elbow on the dragon's back, causing him to collapse to the floor. 

Another dragon tried to attack from behind. 

Deathbringer smoothly flipped the dragon over his head and smashed the dragon in front of him with him. 

Joy and Rainkeeper watched from the back of the clearing as Deathbringer kicked the crap out of all of his 'trainees'.  Not one of them even got a hit in. He punched the last dragon to the ground and turned around. No one was still standing. 

"Is that all you've got?" he asked. No one replied. There were all unconscious. Rainkeeper blinked and glanced down at Joy. She was sitting there jaw-dropped. 

"Dad?" she said amazement. "Can you teach me to do that?"  

"No way," Rainkeeper insisted. "Me first." Deathbringer smiled as they began to argue over who he'd teach. They really were the only dragons he could train.

Later that night....

Glory walked into the hut to see Deathbringer standing there, glaring at the doorway. 

"Yes?" she asked. 

"I demand my old job back." he declared. She grinned at him smugly. 

"Really, and what makes you think that you have the authority to demand it?" 

"I know I have the authority." he replied. " Because I'm your husband and the King and if I have to keep training those ridiculous excuses for trainees then you're going to have a pile of dead dragons in your forest by the end of the week." She laughed. 

"Any other reasons?"

 "Yes." he began smugly. "Because you need me. And you missed me today and you luuuuuuuuve me." Glory bit back a grin and looked at him. 

"Oh I do, do I?" 

"Oh, yes you do." Deathbringer insisted, picking her up and twirling her around. 

"Deathbringer!" she yelled. "Put me down!" 

"Not til you say it." Glory began to laugh as he spun her around and planted small kisses on her face. 

"Alright!" she agreed through her laughs. "I love you." Deathbringer stopped spinning, but he didn't put her down. 

"I know you do." he said smugly, kissing her again. "Can I have my job back?" 

"Hmmmm." she thought for a moment. "Maybe." 

"Maybe!"

 "Yep." she replied. "We'll have to see how well you behave." He gave another smug grin. 

"No promises on any good behavior." he declared. "But you already knew that."