Dragon-slavers aint got long life expectancies (pm to join )

[Smaugthesilver]

Laeli pauses for a minute.
"Of course I'll take you home. Of course. It's just that... Do you really think it's safe?" she says quietly.

[DragonSong]

"Safe?" Gwaine repeated, blinking at her. "Why wouldn't it be safe?" He started to blanch. Oh gods- if those people had come and kidnapped him...what had happened to his father?

Maybe it wasn't so safe after all.

[Smaugthesilver]

"Do you have any family?" Laeli's voice broke through the silence of the nigjt air. Her voice sounded almost wistful, and was almost pained. "You don't do you?"

[DragonSong]

"My father," Gwaine replied immediately. "Look, he's the reason I need to get home. I- I don't remember much, I need to make sure he's okay."

[Smaugthesilver]

Laeli hauls runt up to a stop. "Let's go. I'll get us there as soon as possible." she whisltles a low,  carrying note and the cloud of dragons behind them disperses.

[DragonSong]

He let out a relieved breath and a heartfelt, "Thank you."

As the dragons flew away, he watched them go and a confused sort of frown stole over his face. "What were you doing back there anyway? I mean, how'd you know those guys had a bunch of dragons caged up?"

[Smaugthesilver]

"I've been working to bring down this organisation for months. Today was one of my more successful raids. I'm working on training dragons to defend their nests and fight defensively collectively. They're doing well: in about a year the dragon hunters will be out of business. "

[DragonSong]

"Huh." He tilted his head. "Is that what you do then? Crusade for dragons? Or do you have a day job?" He was trying to joke, maybe distract himself from his own spiraling thoughts.

[Smaugthesilver]

Laeli is silent,  and doesn't even turn around for a while. "You may joke, but I used to have a life."

[DragonSong]

"Oh. Uh, sorry." He glanced away, flushing.

[Smaugthesilver]

Another silence follows, but after half a minute,  Laeli sighs heavily and replies, smiling nervously at him. "There's nothing to be sorry about. And, since you ask, actually I do have a day job."

[DragonSong]

"Hm?" He tilted his head. "Let me guess- combat trainer?" he joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit and distract himself.

[Smaugthesilver]

This time Laeli actually smiles, but shakes her head with an amused half-smile on her face."No. Guess again."

[DragonSong]

"Hmm..." He cast around for something nonsensical. "A player, then?"

[Smaugthesilver]

"Nope."

[DragonSong]

"I give up," he said with a quick grin. "What?"

[Smaugthesilver]

"I'm a barmaid."  Laeli smiles. "The tavern gossip really helps me root out dragon hunters and, plus, it was the only job I could get when I first arrived here, and Now I'm too attached to it to leave it."

[DragonSong]

"Really?" He genuinely wouldn't have expected that, but... "Well, I suppose it makes sense." He shrugged.

[Smaugthesilver]

Laeli smiles and is about to answer when an arrow flys out of nowhere from below. Instinctively, runt banks right, narrowly missing another arrow.

[DragonSong]

"Gods!" Gwaine's eyes widened and he clutched at the dragon's back. "What the hell?"