Heavenly Creature With A Dark Agenda

❛ HE THANKED PARIS FOR FILLING HIS GOBLET with a nod of his head. though it was his own varietal, he still went through the motions of swirling the goblet a bit and taking small, experimental sips of the wine to savor the flavor. “well, he wouldn’t trust me with that sort of information,” he chuckled. “as fond as your father is of my services, he seems to think i’d be a bad influence on you.” not that he blamed paris’ father for assuming the worst. august was sensible and smart enough to keep his night job completely separate from his day job, so he just came across as an easy-going wine merchant and wealthy socialite to the general public. “but here you are,” he said, raising his glass to gently clink against the elf’s. the vampire chuckled a bit, fangs showing briefly as he did. “you’re very trusting of me for a politician.” he grinned softly, his hazel eyes seeming to glower blue for a second as his gaze traced the bend of paris’ shoulder and neck.

❛ THE VAMPIRE TOOK THE GOBLET THAT was handed to him with a nod of thanks. “i’m sure there have,” he chuckled. it wasn’t hard to imagine that paris would be popular among the older politicians, because there were hardly any young individuals that were so active in that field for anyone to take note of. “your father seemed interested in that, the last i spoke with him,” he mentioned. the elder rosenthal had spoken to august briefly about his son’s future, mostly about what species he thought an arranged marriage could benefit them. that had been a while back. “but i’m relieved, i wouldn’t have wanted to overextend,” he said, subtly hinting at his own, selfish interest in the elf. “what kind of pet were you thinking of?” he asked, grazing his fingertips over some of the items on display. “a half-elf?”

❛ AUGUST COULDN’T HELP BUT STARE A BIT at the young elf’s lack of dress, feeling that he might have overdressed for this occasion. he had only assumed with a political background and a father who stressed the importance of public image that paris would dress a bit more… decently, but august much preferred this look. “while it would be polite for me to gift you blood wine if you were a vampire… i think this would be a bit more appropriate,” the vampire chuckled, shrugging off his coat and handing it to the servant who obliged to take his clothes. he still dressed darkly and wore one or two thin layers underneath, but the fabric clung to his toned body. “well,” he said for lack of a better word as he followed paris into his parlour. “i’ve been meaning to take time away from them. make new friends,” he chuckled as he looked around, admiring what the elf had done to his place. “you must be quite the socialite. no… wife or husband around?”

❛ AUGUST COULDN’T HELP BUT CHUCKLE AT paris’ praise, knowing it was more of a good-natured tease than anything said with sincerity. he looked towards the chaos ahead, knowing why many elites were choosing to flee rather than stay and fight for a lost cause. “goblins are strong in numbers, and their hive mind is unbeatable. we’re too scattered, there is no organization among the different species, and it makes us vulnerable to them. once we get overwhelmed by their numbers, it’ll be easy picking,” he explained. “this is their natural terrain. high trees, dense cover.” he cleaned one of his daggers off. “but if you insist to clean up, i’ll help you. i’m sure your father would like you to come home in one piece.”

❛ THE VAMPIRE COULDN’T HELP BUT ADMIRE the elf in some way, simply because it was rare to encounter an adept warrior who was also knowledgeable in politics. though august mainly did business with paris’ father, he found himself wanting to work more closely with paris instead. he glanced at the area where he had been injured last, and found barely a mark there, the flesh having healed up quickly. “healed,” he sighed out, trying to ignore the fact that his entire body still ached from the werewolf venom in his system. “i’d suggest you don’t go any further if you’d prefer to not be close-range,” he said, looking out where many elites were still fleeing from. 

❛ AUGUST COULDN’T SAY HE WAS PROUD OF having his own pets “mixed up” in this chaos, but it wasn’t like he had known. still, he was best at adapting to emergency situations, having been trained to expect danger at every moment. “so you mean to say, you believe the avians have something to do with this attack?” he asked, stamping his boot on the corpse of a goblin to yank out one of the steel-tipped arrows from its chest. “i wouldn’t put it behind them.” avians were manipulative creatures, and august didn’t doubt they had earned their title as pirates for a reason no more noble than thieves did. “they’re not far,” he said. he smelled elliot and jake close by. most of the goblins seemed to have scattered, or were dead in this concentrated area. he glanced at paris. “are you hurt anywhere?” he asked

 ❛ IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR CONVERSATION, august retrieved a throwing dagger from his coat and chucked it behind paris, striking a goblin straight between its eyes. it fell with a thud behind the elf just before it had a chance to strike with its axe. “neither was i,” he answered honestly. “i’m only here for my own.” by own he meant his pets. he knew elliot could defend himself or at least find safety somehow but he wasn’t so sure about his newest pup, jake. “what brings you–here?” he asked, moving them out of the clearing. “can’t imagine you’d be the type to want your hands dirty, as well.”

“I’ll heal. But we need to get out of here.” Specifically, he eyed the pet next to him awkwardly holding the sword that was obviously too big for him. At his question, Matias pushed up off the ground and brought the pet with him. “We can.” He nodded, continuing to monitor their horizons as he watched the man for his next direction.

Paris had noticed how the armed pet seemed to almost lunge at him, and he was ready to side step out of the way. His armor may have looked heavy, but the lightweight metal that was used for it made mobility still quite capable. Removing the arrows that were still intact he listened to the male explain that he would heal and reaffirm their need to leave. “Good, we’ll head towards the tower. Their will be more guards there and less goblins.” He theorized as he watched the one pet struggle to hold the sword. He took a dagger from his belt and tossed it to the pet. “Don’t bother with a sword you can’t hold. Stay between myself and your saviour there.” He commanded before beginning to lead the way.

Paris would have moved faster on his own, but he wasn’t going to leave the two pets on their own. His bow was ready in the event enemies would cross their path. “My name is Paris Rosenthal. What are your names?” He asked as he shot an arrow into the back of a lone goblins head.

HE DIDN’T DOUBT FOR A SECOND that the elf knew what he was doing, so august maneuvered himself to stay out of harm’s way. once the tree was down, crushing the goblins beneath it, and scattering the rest, he let the tension bleed out of his shoulders. there were still many goblins heading their way, but the threat had been decimated enough for him to catch his breath. august cleaned off his blade against the side of his forearm guard, and looked to paris. “i can’t see why he’d need my help,” he said, mostly to praise the elf’s skills. if paris’ father had a son as skilled in battle as paris was, the vampire questioned why the man needed his services at all. “you’re paris,” he said, prying his broadsword out of the lifeless body of a goblin, his boot stamped against it to hold it down as he did. “i’ve heard about you.”

AUGUST WASN’T USED TO WORKING with other people that weren’t his own pets but since the elf sounded like he knew what he was doing, the vampire decided to follow, but not blindly. he knew what the elf was attempting and it was the best chance they had at clearing out many of them at once. bolstered by his superhuman speed, he picked up daggers and anything he could throw to hit the goblins with surprising accuracy, shaving off the ones that crawled up the sides. noticing that the other male was running low, he yanked a few arrows free from the corpses on the ground and tossed them up to paris, just enough so he could take out the rest closing in.

Paris kept up with the few arrows he had, trying to funnel the climbing goblins. He was happy though that August had caught onto his plan and was helping funnel them as well. When the vampire threw up extra arrows, he caught them, picked off a few of the goblins getting too close. He could hear and feel the way the tree was creaking and beginning to buckle from the weight of so many goblins climbing it's trunk. The tree jerked forward, Paris clawed gauntlets keeping him firm. Theirnjust needed to be a little more weight, just a dozen or so more goblins.