There's Crows In The Garden | 3rd Life AU

.: The Death Of A Llama :.

TWs: animal death, LOTS of talk about death and murder, mentions of war, mentions of the poisoning

***

Ren flopped into bed next to me with a tired groan. I rolled over to face him, anger already blooming in my gut.

"Again?"

"Again." Ren confirmed with a sigh. "I don't see why those desert fiends can't leave us alone."

"They're trying to scare us," I told him. "They're going to keep sending threatening letters until we give up and let them do whatever they want with us."

Ren buried his face in my hair. "Why do they have to send so many, though?" he murmured. "One a day is a little much, don't you think?"

"They're just trying to grind us down until we don't have anything left, I think. Then they can come in and crush us easily."

"I hate this," said Ren, "because they win either way. If we do nothing, we'll eventually be their puppets, but if we declare war or something, they'll probably be able to defeat us."

The gears turned in my head. "What if we poke the bear a little? Do something small that'll get on their nerves, but probably won't be enough for them to declare war on us? Maybe they'll stop if we show that we aren't afraid to stand up to them."

"That . . . could work. What were you thinking to do?"

I felt a little bad and a little evil, but the desert duo deserved misfortune much worse than I would be delivering to them, so I spoke my thoughts with confidence. "I want to kill Scar's precious llama."

"That sounds fair enough," Ren said after a minute of deliberation. "I'll send someone to Monopoly Mountain tomorrow."

"No," I argued automatically, "I want to go. I want to be the one to do it."

One of Ren's arms draped protectively over me, drawing me closer to him. I breathed into his neck. "And what if they notice you? It's safer to send a soldier."

"They won't catch me," I promised. "I'll sneak into the royal stables under the cover of night, do the deed, and get out of there as fast as possible. I'll be out of their borders before they even realize Pizza's dead."

Ren was hesitant. "I don't know. I don't doubt your abilities, but I want you to be safe."

"Ren, I'm going whether you want me to our not," I told him. "I can't keep letting them do what they've been doing to you without retribution, and I need to be the one to deliver that retribution. They poisoned you and now they're harassing you, and, I'll be quite honest, I'm fed up with it. I need some revenge."

With a sigh, Ren surrendered to me. "Okay. Just be careful, please?"

"I will— I promise on my devotion to you."

"Okay," Ren whispered. He pressed a gentle kiss to the top of my head.

I was done for.

***

The next day, I set out early, and arrived at the river that marked the border between Dogwarts and Monopoly Mountain in the late afternoon. I sat down in the coarse grass that made up the bank of the river to eat a quick dinner, then waded over to the opposite shore, taking advantage of how shallow and calm the water was. I waited there for a couple of hours, until it was closer to sundown, before continuing onward.

The hardy grass and brush that grew near the river was quickly replaced by sand and small cacti as the ground grew drier. In the distance, I spotted some small mountains, one of which I knew the Sand Castle was perched atop. I searched for it among the peaks, but I was too far away for it to be within eyeshot quite yet.