"Getting up!" I drowsilly yelled back as her light footsteps retreated down the hallway. With a yawn, I lifed Marizpa off my chest and sat him on top of my dresser. He chirped sleepily, opening one golden eye to look at me.
"No, don't wake up," I urged. "Go back to sleep." Seeming all-too-happy to do so, the wyvern tucked his head under his wing and went back to sleep. I breathed a sigh of relief, a few times he'd attempted upon following me to school and a few people had begun to yell about "demon birds". It was not an experience I wished to repeat anytime soon, if at all.
I threw a random shirt on along with my socks and sneakers before wandering, still half asleep, down the hallway to the baths . Riders got bathrooms adjoined to their quarters, do to um...most of them at least had a steady partner. No one particularly wanted to interrupt them.
"Hey, Jasi," Sharuu greeted me as I shuffled, then a huge smirk painted his face as he chuckled. "You look like the walking dead."
"Uhn," I groaned, moving up to a sink. Of course, this made Sharuu laugh harder though I didn't realize this until I'd splashed cold water all over my head and face then looked up at him, more awake. "What're you laughing at?"
"Man, you really AREN'T a morning person," Sharuu cackled, going into a new fit of laughs.
I just glared at him for a moment then brushed my hair and teeth. My hair, of course, still looked a wreck...I could--and still can't--never get it to lay down straight and look halfway decent. "It amazes me that you have energy for wisecracks in the morning after dealing out millions a day," I commented dryly once we'd left the baths, fully groomed, and made our way down to the dining hall.
"Oooh, I'm hurt," Sharuu responded, feinting a wounded expression. Of course, no one could believe that look...especially not with what Sharuu did next. He grabbed a waffle right off of the anthro green-gold dragoness Gladestone's plate as we walked past and was about to take a bite out of it when she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him up against the wall.
"Give it back," the dragoness hissed, her sharp fangs a mere inch from taking a bite out of Sharuu's muzzle.
This time, Sharuu really did look scared. "Alright, alright! Yeesh!" He held up the waffle and she snatched it out of his hand, dropping him on the floor, and padding off.
"Thank you."
Sharuu blinked hard, rubbing his throat. He stood up and shook himself off like a dog. "Egads! I think that girl's been watching one too many 'Leggo My Eggo' commercials."
I laughed a bit, until I caught Gladestone's eye. That made me shut up. Not that I was really afraid of her, but she's been known to have some rather...vicious hits. Especially to a man's pride. And let me tell you, it looks like it HURTS. She's kicked Sharuu and a few other men there enough times...
We collected our breakfast and took a seat across a table from...my brother's grandson. With immortals and demi-immortals you often have different generations of the same family around at the same time. Asmodius, the creepy white vampire-looking anthro cat with the red eyes didn't even look up as we sat down. He appeared to be eating something I didn't exactly desire to know the ingredients of.
"Wow..." Sharuu said, looking and sounding like he was really in a state of awe. "He looks more like the walking dead in morning than you do, Jasi!" He poked me in the side with a claw.
I twitched and grumbled a bit, taking a bite of syrup-covered waffle. Asmodius still appeared to be ignoring us.
This seemed to be as bad as an insult to Sharuu, though, for he climbed halfway up onto the table. "Yo, 'Modius! You blind?" he taunted, waving a large black paw in front of Asmodius's face. The white felinoid still didn't appear to notice. Sharuu snorted and whipped his tail, nearly hitting me in the face with it. "Hey! Vampire boy! You'd better go back to your coffin, it's daylight out!"
Asmodius finally looked up, giving Sharuu an icy glare that seemed to make the big black-tawny Katri freeze. "I would suggest you leave me alone and get your filthy paw out of my face before I send you to your coffin," he hissed menacingly.
Sharuu thumped heavilly back into his seat, looking to be in a state of shock. Then he turned his eyes on me and made another annoying comment. "Y'all need to come back to the realm of the happy in living!" he yelled, then gave a loud "WOOT!"
I rolled my eyes,"You talk too much, you little pest..."
"Yes, I agree...he should act more grown up, like you," a voice behind me purred, clinging to me with her arms around my waist. I blinked, looking over my shoulder to see a spotted face beneath a clump of braided, cotton candy pink hair.
"Hi, Akinta," Sharuu chuckled. "Found your scratching post again, eh?"
The wolf-dragon-snow leopard girl shook her head, giving him a fangy grin. "Not my scratching post, my pillow."
"Uh...hehe..." I muttered awkwardly while Akinta rubbed her head against my back and Sharuu laughed at my predicament.
"Come on, lover-boy. Time for school," Sharuu snickered as he bodily pried her off of me and shoved me towards the 'coat room' to get our stuff. "Akinta...man, that girl really seems to like you. All the girls seem to like you! What's your deal, Jasi?"
I shrugged and shook my head, still slightly in a state of shock from Akinta's affections. "I don't know...I kept Anubyss away from her at my seventeenth birthday party. That's when Sargon gave me Marizpa and Akinta gave me this collar..." I idly tugged and the studded dog-like collar around my neck. "Ever since then she just seems to like to...drop in and hug me. I don't really like her like that, but I like her as a friend..."
Sharuu simply laughed again. "Yeah, all the girls like you because you're like a knight in shining armor but you don't like most of them back. You could get a lot of booty if you wanted, you know..."
I rolled my eyes again, kicking him in the shin. "Sorry, my mind doesn't live in the gutter unlike yours."
