R͠óll̴̢ì̛͝n̸̢̕g̕͏͟ ͢Ǵ̡ir̕l • Astrid's Secondary Training [Private]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

She had never let any of her past bad experiences ruin any locations for her. Even now, despite what happened in Rose Garden and what exactly was there, she still enjoyed going back there from time to time, even if she was a little wary. The same, could be said for Lavanitir Port City. The Black Rose guild's original home. Her original guild.
Despite almost dying in a dark alleyway in this city the slayer would not allow such a memory to ruin the place she marked as when her adventure started. It was a special place... Even if her stomach twisted into knots whenever she looked down a dark alleyway here, remembering the smell of metallic blood hitting the back of her throat and the fiery pain of claws reaching into her being and playing with her insides...
A shiver traveled down Astrid's spine at the memory.

Yes, even that could not damper the slayer's spirit. She had come here to play, to share her music with the citizens of this port town. And she had done just that. Another brilliant show done.
What she had not expected, however... Had been the weather. The sky was slightly cloudy when she came, a tint of dark clouds threatening to pour rain onto the earth. But seeing as how she had traveled all this way to do a show, she was not going to just turn back and forget it... Especially when that meant going back on a train and getting even worse motion sickness than she already had. No. If she had to, she would play in the rain. She was that determined not to turn back on her plans.
Thankfully, mother nature had been on her side this afternoon, as not a single drop of rain had fallen during her performance in the center of town.
Instead... It saved it all till afterwards. What seemed like moments after the musician packed up, rain sprinkled the ground lightly... Then a few moments after that, a full downfall started, large raindrops pounding onto the brick pavement, covering the ground faster than you could blink.
The crowd she had gathered quickly dispersed back into their homes or covers. Not being ready for this sudden downpour, Astrid had been caught off guard. And within seconds, was soaked from head to toe.

The ace breathed out a sigh, a small cloud of mist disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
Small drops of water trickled off damp silver locks, landing onto pale skin, sliding down to either soak up into her clothing or fall off onto the pavement.
She held her drenched violin case close to her body, having used it as a sort of temporary umbrella. Though by her appearance, it was easy to tell it hadn't worked that well.
She leaned against the smooth wall of a nearby bakery, trying to catch her breath after running for the closest cover. Luckily, this shop had a plastic sun cover attached to the outside, used for the guests who preferred to eat their treats outdoors.
Tightening her arms around the case she closed her eyes, leaning her head against it, listening to the pitter patter of raindrops hitting the plastic covering with dull thuds. Thankfully the water had not reached her hearing aids, otherwise she'd be hearing nothing right now. Her hair was to be thanked for that. One of the reason she kept it so long, so nothing would happen to them. Though she had to sacrifice her clean hair to do it.
After the rain stopped, she'd go home and take a shower. A warm shower. What a lovey thought right now to someone who was soaking wet outside in the middle of winter.
Goosebumps arose on the slayer's skin though her damp clothing, her small frame shivering from a small draft that would pick up every couple of seconds and sweep through the area. Despite dressing for winter with a rather large coat and scarf, they weren't helpful when went and sticking to your body. In fact, it just weighted her down, constricting her movements.
Tightening her arms around the case even more Astrid tried her best to push down her shivers, biting through the tingles that rushed through her body, doing her best to latch on to the last remaining bit of warmth within her limbs.

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And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

At this point, she was wondering if it was worth just bolting back out into the rain and making a beeline for the train station. She had no idea when this storm was going to pass. Back when she lived here as a Black Rose mage, she remembered rain that seemed to last for days. Typical to that of a muggy port town. If this was one of their normal rainstorms, she could be here for hours, standing, soaking wet in the cold. Her health was something she always had to be careful of. The Foss family was known for its poor health, something that traveled down and up the line for generations. Members were known to die at very young ages. From what she remembered her grandfather saying, her grandmother died of this same health disease when she was just in her young adulthood. In fact, most of them died in their adulthood. The very youngest had been her nineteen year old great grandmother who had died soon after childbirth. And being just one year younger herself, Astrid was very cautious of any situation that may make her sick. On top of the fact it may threaten her life, she also still had much work to do. Jobs, ace duties, and normal guild activities. If she got sick it would just end up stacking much, much more onto her plate. She had so much to do, she couldn't afford risking being bedridden, unable to do anything. After she had done so much to get where she is? Falling behind was the worst possible outcome for the violinist.
Her gaze reopened, staring at the blackness of her violin case before looking to her left, staring at the path she would have to take to get to the train station. She was tempted, very tempted to just take it and run to get home sooner. She couldn't risk getting a cold. The slayer could already feel the rain numbing her toes and fingers. The longer she stayed in place the longer she was tempting fate.
The silvernette let out a small huff through her nose, dropping the case and arms back down to her sides. It wasn't even a question at this point. No matter how much she didn't want to go back out in the rain, she had to force herself to do it. Potentially, her life was on the line, as well as her reputation and other such things that fell under it.

But what happened next, would probably be worse than any sickness she may gain throughout her whole life.
Just when Astrid was about to push herself away from the wall and go ahead with her plan something grabbed her arm, restraining her to stay in place. Reacting straight away Astrid turned her head to the left, trying to catch a glimpse of what was tugging on her. But when she tried, all she was met with was a cold, wet floor. In what was less than one second, everything had changed.
She was no longer standing, but kneeling upon the ground, her body being held up with her left arm while the other weakly kept her up from falling to the ground altogether.
She blinked, unsure what had just happened. Why… Was she on the ground? Why could she now feel the sensation of raindrops pounding down upon her skin? Wasn’t she still supposed to be under the cover of the bakery’s plastic covering?
If the cold was not numbing her joints and muscles, maybe she could have done something in those couple of seconds she weakly hung in someone… Or something’s grasp. But being caught off guard combined with the cold weather, all she could do was stare at the ground, confused and dazed.
It wasn’t until a few split milliseconds later, did she react fully. The thing’s hand reached into her chest. She didn’t feel it at first, which she found strange and began panicking, crimson orbs widening as she watched the hand reach into her very being. It would have been different if she could feel something, anything. But the fact she couldn’t feel even the movement within her? It was unnerving.
The hand went deeper. Every second she continued to stare at the hand, the heavier her breathing became, scared whimpers escaping her throat. At this point, she was too scared to even look up and see exactly what was doing this to her. Her fear made her continue looking at the hand as it fazed through her chest, frozen in place. All she could do was shake, cries coming up more as hiccups as her breathing only got faster.
Then, it happened. The hand must have hit something within her. At least, that’s what it felt like as a rush of sudden and fiery pain burst from her chest and consumed her body. The cries which had been overtaken by her rough breathing pushed out of her vocal cords in a painful scream, tears pricking at the corner of wide crimson orbs. The pain forced her body to convulse, thrashing about violently, trying to get the hand out of her chest. But the more she tried to move away, the more and the greater the pain became. It was equally as bad as that night in the alleyway, when the tanuki guild master pushed her way inside her chest and scratched at her insides with elongated claws.
The cries continued, long and painful as she tried to fight back, grabbing at the being’s wrist with both hands to try and pull it out. But at this point, she was too shaky and too weak to really pull it out. She was mostly digging her nails into the skin to try and bare through the pain. Though it was effortless. The pain continued shooting through her body, even with her nails digged deep into the skin.
A cold chill entered the center of her body. She could feel it straight away. It traveled upwards, catching in her throat. It caused her cries to become ragged and sore, like someone who had caught a bad throat infection and tried to speak. It hurt. It hurt to even cry now, encasing her entire throat in what felt like frost. But she still did, involuntarily. Raspy and quiet screams pushed out of the young musician still, fighting against her weakening breaths.

Why was this happening to her?
… What had she done to deserve this? All she wanted to do was play her instrument.
But for some reason, the world kept trying to kill her.
But… Why?
…
…
Cold. It was cold. The more she fought, the colder she got. The inside of her body felt like a blizzard was raging inside of her. Eventually, she noticed she could no longer feel the raindrops pounding down on her. Actually… She couldn’t feel anything but the pain the hand caused… And the freezing cold.
She felt… Cold.
So cold.

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