Half Destruktion

Chapter Two: Them

It’s been a week. That irritating, skinny little boy has been here a week. He never shuts up about rules and not doing anything without his "master's" consent, even Fredrik—who loves rules—was getting sick of him.

"Does that little shit ever stop talking?" Wilma hissed as her husband, Fredrik, rubs her shoulders.

"His name is Louis." Molly said fiddling with a chocolate colored curl. "And he is new, so he aims to please." at that last part she smirked and suddenly I wanted to slam my head repeatedly into the table; Gwenn choked on her drink.

"Keep your legs closed Molly, you don't want to fall in with the likes of him." Gwenn said as Roy thumped her back to get her to start breathing again. "He'll likely go running back to his master the moment they get here." a silent curse went up the moment she mentioned them.

Over the past week we've been preparing to partake in The Draco Magne Games. Training had never been big with us because we were always running off on jobs, but now we were cramming in fighting anytime we could. Leech disappeared for hours on end and Roy was lifting more than he was eating, Cristina was levitating rocks at the bar and Molly flirted less than usual. We got letters from the Game Committee stating what procedures we needed to fulfill and what steps are needed to qualify.

"For the gods! The stupid thing is only a month away, do we really need to do all this stuff?" Beatrix had said when she saw the stack of parchment Maize pulled from the envelope.

We did our best to go through with all the paperwork, but by the time it was all sorted we were just trying to keep from killing each other and—when they arrived—the other team. This feeling of malcontent was magnified by Louis routinely poking his upturned little nose into the proceedings.

 “You can’t pick the members of your team just yet.” He had said once in a brief lapse of bravery and Master Lowing had given him such a stink eye that we feared the boy might shrivel into a pile of self-important ash.

 “Why not?” Corin growled, he had taken to staying up in his room and sharpening his knives whenever the Games were mentioned; he really hated the Games.

“The other five want to pick people that will work well with them.” Louis had said.

“They just want to make sure we don’t screw up, control freaks.” Ed had drunkenly said, he and Gwenn had been drinking more than usual; this process was affecting everyone.

 Now, we only had about twenty minutes, according to Jody, until we meet the other five members of our team; the ones that would be controlling our every movement. They were also the only reason Corin had graced us with his presence after three days in his room and why Gwenn and Ed were sober, well Gwenn was sober and Ed was only slightly inebriated.

“I hate waiting.” Beatrix said as she added swirling burns to the already complicated pattern on the table, “Idiots, they think they can just waltz right in here and turn our lives upside-down.” Beatrix continued to rant about inconsiderate pricks with no sense of class; I ignored her, trying to concentrate on my book. A rustling beside me announced the arrival of Leech; I turned and sure enough there he was—hunched figure and black cloak included.

“Morning Leech, sleep well?” I asked, Leech grunted in response, which was a primo response from him. “Thanks by the way, for the book I mean.” Every once and awhile something like a book or an ink pen would appear outside my door, as such gifts would appear outside the door of anyone Leech was close to, it was how he showed happiness or gratitude.

“Welcome.” He hissed and multiple heads snapped towards us, Leech rarely spoke before noon on a good day, but Kip liked to say that I brought out the best in our mysterious Leech.