Dandilion

[AdmiralStarNight]

Warner looked indignant for a few moments before he gave a small huff and disappearedback into the hall way with Avia close behind.

Kayia nodded to Andrew, "If you feel like sleeping, choose any of the empty rooms down the hall, we have plenty of them." She left to stalk back down the hallway leaving only Zeke.

He watched the General for a few moments before he said "Good Night General Bell." Then he disappeared into the darkness of the hallway.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Morning

Outside the door there was a slight noise and something, scratched at the door. The dook was unlocked in the same series of clicks and the door was pushed open.

The first thing to enter was the black German Shepard mix that bounded happily into the hallway. Ivy pawed at one of the doors and it opened and the dog pounced into the room of what was probably Warner, a happy bark echoing with the giggling of a young boy.

Then Caitlyn entered into the room the light from the sun was bright, meaning it was late in the morning. She wore an emerald green vest over a white shirt and a white skirt which moved well with her figure. Her brown hair was pulled up in a neat ponytail and she had a belt around her waist on which a different sidearm, a SIG P226.

"Sleep well General?" she asked leaning up against the door frame.

[Scottish Girl]

Andrew was leaning against the back wall, his chin in his palm. He sighed and lent backwards,"Not particularly," he said as he folded his arms, his blue eyes fixi on the gun on her belt. He laughed softly, showing his pure white teeth,"You know, If I didn't know better I would say you were scared of me," he said, raising his eyebrows as he looked up at her.

Andrew had not slept all night, he had stayed up thinking. Yet Andrew didn't look tired at all, and he had no bags under his eyes. He had paced up and down the room, he had sat and thought, but he could come up with no way to get out, especially with a bullet hole in his leg, and a very angy girl wih a gun.

He stood up, not feeling any pain from his leg,"I'm not getting a tattoo," he said defiantly, folding his arms as he looked directly at her. He glanced at the dog and rolled his eyes,"And dogs don't scare me," he said.

[AdmiralStarNight]

"Scared of you? Not paticularly. Being logical about an a slave which is a fully trained soldier? Yes." Caitlyn replied.

Ivy had trotted out of the room and sat on the floor, and yipped at her owner. Her ears were forward and tail wagging as she waited for Warner to come out.

"Oh, you mean Ivy?" She said, "She wouldn't bite a human even if that person had her favorite bone. She's harmless." Caitlyn watched as Warner came out of his bedroom, dressed in normal clothes and patted the dog on the head. "Warner, could you please go play with Ivy?"

"Yes, I can." The boy reeplied."Is she going to have puppies?"

"Not yet Warner,she'll have them as soon I find a boy dog she likes." Caitlyn replied patiently. "Now go."

The boy and dog slipped out of the door and Ivy's barks were loud as she chased Warner to where they usually played before breakfast.

"So you're not going to get a tattoo? Thats fine, you're probably scared I'd give you some girly tattoo, don't you?" She mocked him slightly. "I don't suppose your afraid of the pain, I thought you already had a tattoo on one of your arms?" Her questions biting edge were not as harsh as her words were last night and she seemed more neutral in personality that the cold person Andrew had met last night.

[Scottish Girl]

Andrew folded his arms and raised his eyebrows, waiting until Warner had left before answering,"How the hell did you know I had a tattoo on my right arm, no one knows that, not even my father," he asked, takin a yep forward.

His eyes went back to the gun at her belt and he swallowed, stepping back again,"Doesn't matter, I'm still not getting one, and you can't make me, even with your little gun," he said with a grin, folding his arms and looking determined. He looked around the basement,"So shoot me if you want, but it's not going to do anything for you," he said, sitting down.

[AdmiralStarNight]

"How I know is less important than they fact that I do know. You were a General, do you think our troops wouldn't keep a close eye on you?" She said her hand starting for the side arm in sheer reflex as Andrew stepped forward. She wasn't going to take chances with him. Then her hand relaxed and she glarred at him.

"I can settle for the one you already have. Even if it isn't a draco." she said instead, "Don't look so smug, Andrew, or else I might forget the manners I was taught. Now that we're done that part of what seems to becoming a regular part of our arguement, would you like some food before I find you something productive to do like helping Zeke or are you going to starve yourself too?"

Caitlyn's hazel eyes met Andrew's blue ones, like two swords clashing. One iron clad will against another, if this soldier boy thought he was going to get out of anything more than the tattoo, he was wrong, though she wondered exactly where she should shoot him, maybe his left leg would be a good place to start.

[Scottish Girl]

Andrew grinned,"Oh please, I can survive without food for up to a month and a half, I have far more training then Zeke every had, I k ow a million ways to kill you," he said, putting his hands in his pockets with a smug look.

He grinned, he had beaten her at something, that was a start. Andrew could spot weakness in someone from a hundred miles away, and although she was not afraid to shoot him, Andrew could sense it, physically and mentally she had no control over him. He grinned,"Ahh, not feeling so confident with you ūñ now are we sweetheart," he said with a cocky grin.

Andrew muscles were clearing seen throught eh jacket, and his eyes met her's, daring her to try something. If she shot at him he would not hesitate to punch her, Infact he would gladly do it if he could get close enough, and he minute he saw her without the gun he would strike.

Andrew figured he would find it easy to get out of here when he was outside, he was a fast runner and could survive in the wild no problem, after all, he had been a marine for years. He kept his eyes locked on hers, the grin not disappearing from his face.

[AdmiralStarNight]

Caitlyn felt her shoulders tense and she nodded to Zeke, Avia and Kayia as they slipped out of the door. All three had artfully ignored the pair, knowing any sort of response could spell their down fall.

And suddenly Caitlyn was stuck with the horribly appropriate image of a cat challenging a mastiff on a leash. The cat had claws and the advantage of freedom, but if that leash broke it might be all over for the cat.

She stood in the doorway, body tense, knowing that this was second person who was at least her equal, if not a little more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first person to be able to challenge her had been back when she was just 18, a firey, brash, unknowning girl who had wandered onto the training grounds where the soldiers were staying. Caitlyn remembered the encouter all to clearly, and the person who had decided to save her. A soldier by the rank and name of 2nd Lieutenant Ansten Herman had killed two fo the soldiers and wounded another. He had been a close friend of Caitlyn's father, only 20 years of age at the time,and with a large, ugly red scar running down the left side of face.

He had been the only person to date, other than her own father, to address her a mocking tone or dare to challenge her in such a way. But then again, once Caitlyn had gotten over Ansten's intial mockery and critism, they had become close friends to each other, learning different things from each other, and the two hadn't been perfect, they had argued, but they had finally drifted close enough to proclaim they had been dating before Ansten had been sent off to the front of the war when Caitlyn had turned 24.

It was there he had died with two bullets through his heart, protecting the casket which had carried her dead father back behind the lines for a proper funeral.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caitlyn admitted she had finally gotten herself in over her head, argueing with and threatening her nation's own soldiers was easy because while they were soliders, they were not all top notch. Andrew was top notch, and he was a general, she knew he wasn't kidding about the 'million ways to kill you' thing.

"Alright," she half snapped, the tension burned deep in her voice and she hated the fact that it was showing. "If you want to play that game, fine, I'll play it too."

She stepped out of the room and closed the door, locking it behind her and she noted that her hands were shaking.

What have I gotten myself in to?

[Scottish Girl]

Andrew grinned as she closed the doorShes shared," he said under his breath, a sense of victory bubbling through him. He say down at a table nearby and took one of Waron's pencil and price of paper and started to draw. Half an hour later Andrew had an extremely detailed map of the area. It was something he had always been good at, remembering positions and thins on maps, now he just had to figure out where the stupid house was. He sighed softly and rolled the paper up, placing it in his pocket safely and out of the way.

Andrew walked around the basement, looking around, but it was pure brick without any holes. He shook his head softly, sitting down with a defeated sigh. He hated being stuck in a basement, and wanted to be outside, but if I meant submitting to her, he would much rather stay where he was.

Andrew took another price of paper and started to draw a stag. He was good at drawing, no brilliant, but he could draw. He had learnt it from describing places when he was a marine. It helped pass the time, and while he was doing that Andrew kept thinking about escaping, which, now that he thought about it, was getting harder and harder.

[AdmiralStarNight]

After the agruement with Andrew Caitlyn had buried herself in her work, with a little more despreation than usual.

She had eaten breakfast prepared by Avia with Warner, like she usually did and gave him the food to distribute to all the animals. She had worked on the garden, pulling up weeds and fixing the bushes which she could reach while also keeping an eye of Zeke as he started to dig a new hole into ground for a new young Cherry Blossom she had ordered. Kayia had been folding her laundry and generally helping organize the house, dusting things here and there, while Avia had taken cheerfully to throwing herself into the task of pulling rouge dandelions from the cracks, most likely so she could make a salad with the things, from the sidewalk leading to the house.

Over all Caitlyn had seen it as the most productive day she had ever had, knowing full well she had dove into her estates daily mundane chores to forget about Andrew's unspoken threats.

The worst part had been the fact the only way he had threatened her hadn't been all that direct. Soldiers boasted all the time about how many ways they learned to kill their enemies and she never really spared it a thought untill Andrew had said it. While Ansten had trained her to shoot a gun and general put up the same aggressive front her father naturally projected, she wasn't a soldier. She had never been to the front lines of a war, she only knew how to mask the feelings under the hard-charging persona she often gave to her suitors because they all thought they were her equal, and they weren't.

About halfway through the day, a palace guard with his own German Shepard, a beautiful sliver and black male named Forres. He had given her the leash and instructions on how to control Forres and left. Caitlyn was glad to have Forres around as she introduced him to her Ivy, then let him off the leash to watch the two chase each other around the yard in the brillance of the sunset.

After explaining to Warner, that he may not play with the dogs at the moment and guideing him inside under the steadily darkening night to have dinner, she submitted to a barage of questions which was normal from him. Then after the young boy bothered her enough she allowed the boy to sleep in one of the guest rooms so he could see the stars while he slept and given him yet another toy, this a medium sized toy truck which he had taken to pushing around on the floor pretending he was racing other trucks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was even darker outside as the moon had risen during the day, leaving only the artifical yellow light from the walkway to the house and the stars.

Avia waited patiently while Caitlyn unlocked the door to the slave quarters and let them inside then locked the door behind her, without once going into the room... Once inside and Kayia had disappeared into the back room to get herself ready for bed she and Zeke stood alone with the newest addition to the estate.

"Pushing yourself a little hard there, are we General Bell?" Zeke asked, "And Caitlyn locked you in here the whole day? You must be bored out of your mind." He seemed a little concerned, but not all that much and Avia took a cloth napkin from her pocket and unfolded it.

It was a small slice of cornbread, and she place it on the small table which the plants were sitting on and turned up the light. She scuffed a foot on the floor before saying, "I brought you the cornbread. I made it yesterday for Warner and Caitlyn, I thought you might want something to eat..."

Avia seemed a little confused, probably becasue she had never seen her master act in such a fashion before... She was usually nice to the slaves, she fed them well, hell she even gave Avia premission a few times before to bake cake for the slaves, usually for a birthday or maybe for a holiday. This wasn't like her, obviously Andrew must have been rubbing Caitlyn the wrong way.

[Scottish Girl]

Andrew barely looked up as they entered. He was sitting against the back wall, a piece of paper on his lap and examining it. He shook his head, still not looking up, a thoughtful expression on his face,"I'm not hungry," he said, still looking at the map.

Andrew spent the woke night looking at it, until he finally found where the house was. He marked it with an X, and looked at what was nearby. There was a lake, a town and some other things along that line. Of course Andrew could not go into the town, especially not dressed in army clothes, he would be spotted immediately. Andrew sighed softly, and he would 't go to the lake, because that would be the first place they looked for him. He put his chin on his palm as he thought, of he went east he would be on clear ground, but they wouldn't expect it. He shook his head, folding the map up again and sighing, rubbing his eyes. All this was pointless unless he could get outside, and she was being rather reluctant to do so.