She’d been practicing so hard trying to control her outbursts of flames. It only happened when she was scared, or angry, but she couldn’t keep just blowing things up, either. So many things scared her, or made her angry. "Things" generally being people, and people generally being around Narrowhaven much more than when she was so secluded in the forest. Her seclusion had protected her, as her love for her mother, and her mother’s understanding. Twice, now, she’d heard how fortunate she had been, but she wondered about that. Perhaps being secluded had it’s own set of problems. How many times had she heard the word "innocent" and "naive" the last month? As if it’s a bad thing, or something very good. She couldn’t decide, and so decided it just depended upon who was saying it. Then she dismissed it as irrelevant. So many things were irrelevant to her.
The Drow was not irrelevant. She had been harassing Astra ever since she’d come to this place. And it wasn’t just her, she’d noticed. That Drow was a potential danger to everyone, and doled out her harassment to anyone who came near the bank, or went around the well. Right in the center of town! That could be anybody, but Astra cared less about "anybody" than she did about herself. After the row that night, when Astra lost her control when the Drow kissed Fenrir (she didn’t get why he didn’t just smack her for it! something about being Duke and political stuff that would bore Astra to tears) and she had attacked her for it, she had decided that, perhaps, the best thing to stop her from losing her temper was to simply avoid it all. She’d have to continue practicing, of course, and she knew little to nothing of magic, but there you have it. The only way to keep herself out of trouble would be to simply do all she could to avoid that Drow.
And perhaps Samael, but that might be harder. She didn’t tell Fenrir about that at all. No use him getting upset over things, especially dealing with Scarlet, whom Astra felt she had to protect because she was her only family, ever, next to Mother. She couldn’t protect Scarlet from Samael, because that would mean Scarlet either getting more hurt, like the other day at the house, or Scarlet not getting her part of the deal. So, perhaps going to Scarlet’s house was out of the question, and then Samael would leave them both alone. He didn’t want Astra, or Sasha, at Scarlet’s. That would cure that problem, with no one getting hurt in the process.
She did feel a bit of pride about burning Samael, and burning the Drow. She couldn’t help that. Astra may be "naive" and "innocent" but she certainly wasn’t defenseless!
Would Scarlet be mad that she was kissing Fenrir? Astra considered that. She had told Scarlet a while back that she could have Fenrir if she wanted him, but Scarlet had said no. Fenrir had said he loved Astra, when the Drow had been being mean to her. Loved! She knew the Drow scorned the concept, and she was pretty sure that Scarlet did. Sasha did as well. Was it naive to think that anyone could love her? Was it naive to think she was in love? Maybe, but kissing was very nice, and she was pretty sure she was in love with Fenrir, too. She’d have to think about that. Scarlet may get mad, but Astra had told her she could have him back first! Anyhow, Scarlet and Sasha had kissed a lot of people. Astra figured kissing just one was perfectly fine!
Fenrir said it didn’t matter what race you were, that there were good and bad in everyone. So far, Astra hadn’t seen too many good Drow. She had seen demons, that night, real ones, bigger than the black one in Narrowhaven. Fenrir said there were those even bigger than what he’d shown her. It was a good outlet for her anger to kill the demons and dragons who were bad. But the demons upset her more than she let Fenrir know (though she suspected he did know, anyhow). They had horns like she had, and tails like she had, and that was very upsetting, indeed. They also had wings.
She knew who else had wings, and she thought those were pretty! Could she get wings, too? Fenrir said they’d be hard to hide, but others who had them appeared to have no problem hiding them. How did they do it? She would have to ask. Wings were pretty, at least on some people. Maybe not so much on the demons, and frankly she didn’t want to be like the demons, at all. She’d be good. She’d work really hard to control the fire – even if it meant staying away from others until she could.
