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40. Goonies

ASTORIA

I watched for the fifth time as Zander throws a grape in the air and catches it with his mouth. Every time he succeeds, he bows and gives a speech about how hard he's worked just to do that. "Blood, sweat, and tears have been spilled day and night. All the hard work finally paid off." He states dramatically, pretending to shed a tear.

Of course, his only audience is me.

Though the courtyard is full of people, enjoying the warm, sunny day, they all have their own groups and activities that they found are worth more attention than the witch who is catching fruits with his mouth. Orion is playing an intense game of chess with Daniel not too far from us. Xena and Angel are discussing certain conspiracy theories regarding the U.S. government with a couple of werewolves. Emory, Owen, and a group of kids and teens are playing a board game in a corner. Then, there's me, sitting on a yellow blanket, surrounded with snacks, and making a terrible sketch of the handsome witch as he catches another grape. I'm actually quite impressed because he hasn't failed. Yet.

This green, college ruled notebook contains very important things:

War plans and tactics.

Weapon designs.

Crucial information regarding the Tesseract and Schrodinger's Transporter.

Awful sketches of Queen's Garden, plus stick figures of myself, Zander, Orion, Xena, Emory, and everyone included in our secret team, drawn in certain spots and their positions for when all hell breaks loose.

There's also doodles of Zander. Lots of it. Some of them are in his cat form, such as when he got stuck on a tree outside of the castle just yesterday. The poor baby ended up climbing a tree too high and panicked at his distance from the ground, so we had to get Xena to help him. There's also the wonderful portrait of the magical feline sticking out his tongue, as well as a rough sketch of Orion holding a sleeping Loki like a baby, both drawn three days ago. There are a fair few drawings of Zander in his human form too. Yesterday, while Zander was practicing magic in the dungeon and making some furniture float, I busied myself with my notebook by drawing the impressive view in front of me.

My favorite one so far is from two days ago, when I found Zander's back full of scratches. I asked him how he got them. His answer? "I'm having an affair." Eventually, while blushing as red as a tomato, he admitted that when he was taking a shower the night before, Pluto, the secular cat roaming around Queen's Garden, thought it would be funny to steal the shampoo bottle and so Zander gave him a piece of his mind. And lost. During breakfast, I doodled Zander wrestling with Pluto with hearts all around them. These drawings will be hanged in a special museum known as my apartment, once we go home.

"Hey Zander!" Just as I was about to share him my latest masterpiece, the witch lost his concentration. The grape ended up going straight down to his throat. Zander put a hand on his neck and coughed loudly, dropping to his knees as he choked. "Oh my god!" I crawled over to him and rested him on my lap.

Shit shit shit shit shit. Do I know Heimlich Maneuver?

Zander coughed a couple more times before his hands gripped mine. He opened one eye and coughed one more time before breathing out, "Astoria! I'm dying! My heart! It's beating slower and slower!"

Oh, he's definitely got people's attentions now.

"That poison you call grape! It's killing me!"

"Oh no!" One of the youngest prisoners of the castle, Raven, a seven year old girl who has been playing a board game with the other kids, gasped and turned to me with wide orange eyes. "Help him Astoria!"