𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟-𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝

Alekseeves

Rewritten

"Fucking hell!"

Aurora's face met with the dirty ground. She could bloody taste the earth in her mouth, and it wasn't pleasant.

How the hell did this happen again?

Oh, right, it's the giant's fault.

Sodding Alyosha.

The day started out lovely, there was a break from the constant rain and the sky was unusually bright and blue, the sun was out and the birds chirped harmoniously atop the tree-branches, adorning the bark and leaves like Christmas ornaments.

It hadn't occurred to Aurora that pleasant and sunny days like this one was a rarity for clan-dwellers, rain and wind and snow was the kind of weather they were used to and had been taught to adapt to, so when the sun showed its bright face and melted the snow from the trees, Harpies flew around with evident patches of sweat on their bodies, the barely noticeable heat got to them and it was evident much work couldn't be done in such a hazy mindset, so they took an unofficial day off.

It was quite funny, fearsome half-breeds defeated by the weather.

Aurora would have enjoyed it if she wasn't bound to the limitations of a clan waiting for a fucking answer. Her mood was sour, she felt claustrophobic, she wanted to leave, she started to hate everyone around her, and she loathed everyone else's happiness. Sod the bright and sunny day and sod the people who enjoyed it. She wished it would rain.

Look at all of them, happy and playful in the sunshine, whilst Aurora waits miserably each and every minute for news or a decision from the Chieftains and High Counselor Lavidis.

After Aurora had left the meeting, she had stayed in her tent until dawn, and the meeting had run through until midnight. They had much to discuss apparently, without her. When she saw them the next morning, their weathered and grim faces had pulled at her fight or flight instincts, thinking that they were about to kick her out, but Chief Demyan came over slowly like he was approaching a wild cheetah, and had told her that High Counselor Lavidis had to go back to the Sofia Towers so they could come to some sort of decision.

He had said nothing beyond that.

However, right before he had flown off with his entourage, Counselor Lavidis had looked at her somewhat strangely, as if she was some almighty puzzle sent from the heavens to test who was worthy or not to enter its gates.

Aurora hadn't said anything, merely folded her hands like the proper lady she most definitely wasn't and had nodded her head in stoic agreement, before flying off the hillside seething with unbridled rage.

Perhaps somewhere in the briefing, Dumbledore would have mentioned the unbearable waiting one had to do on these missions.

So Aurora had bit down and been patient, she'd been resigned, she'd drank her tent dry of liquor and got so drunk Alyosha had to confiscate her wand so she would stop her attempts of conjuring a beanstalk she could climb - the next day had been one hell of a hangover.

This continued, and repeated, until Aurora could no longer stand it. Now she just wanted to get her hands bloodied, she wanted her blood to rush, she wanted to plummet down the cliff without using her wings just to feel something. Nothing helped, not even rereading Harry's letter, who hadn't responded to her yet. She spent more time staring at the sky waiting for a mail-delivering owl than she was proud of. But the horizon always remained clear, and Aurora would retreat back to her quarters with resigned disappointment.