Assassin's Creed: Brothers Unite (#Wattys2016) |Assassin's Creed Fanfiction|

Chapter 32 Ezio

   I pushed the sleeve of my robes to my lip, which was still bleeding from when Shay had cut it. I had a feeling it would bleed for a while. It was likely to scar. Oh well. I had however expected it to be harder. Now that it was done it all seemed easy. Too easy. My sleeve was starting to turn red, I should stop before my whole arm was red.

   Altaïr moved to my side. He smiled slightly. I noticed for the first time that he had a scar in the same place that Shay had cut me. "Copy cat," he said bumping my shoulder.

   I grinned. "I would have liked to avoid it," I complained. "But he chose a bad time to take a swipe."

   "Are you sure it wasn't just you picking a bad time to kill him?"Altaïr's eyes glittered with amusement. "You could have waited until after he had attacked. Then you wouldn't end up with something like this." He pointed to his scar and smiled. "But now we will match."

   I raised an eyebrow. "Do we want to match?"

   "No. But it's amusing all the same."Altaïr thought for a moment. "I was going to ask you something, but I just forgot what it was."

   "I hate it when that happens."

   "Oh yes!"Altaïr said. "What does 'bene' mean?"

   I smirked. "You said it wrong."

   "Fine, how am I supposed to say it, and what does it mean?"

   "You're supposed to pronounce it Ben like a person, and end with a as in one. It means alright in Italian. 'Va bene' means fine."

   "Oh,"Altaïr frowned. "I don't speak Italian."

   "I hadn't noticed," I said sarcastically. 

   He sighed in exasperation. "Ezio?"

   "What?"

   "You're impossible."

   "Why thank you!"

   "That wasn't a compliment."

   "That's nice."

   Altaïr sighed again and looked into the woods. The sun was just starting to rise. Painfully reminding me that I hadn't slept all night. I yawned and Arno gave me an amused look. "Tired?"

   "Exhausted."

   "Good."

   Good? I wondered why on earth that was a good thing. I must have looked perplexed because Arno laughed. He didn't explain what he meant though. I hadn't realized how far we had come until I saw the lights of Homestead through the tree trunks. That was fast. I thought suspiciously. I didn't think we were moving that quickly. I looked around. The sun was above the hills now. We definitely should not be at Homestead yet. I stopped. "We shouldn't be here yet."

   Altaïr squinted at the sky. "You're right," he said quietly. "We need to walk a ways further."

   "What are you two talking about?" Edward asked. "That's Homestead right there, no doubt about it."

   "No doubt?" Arno asked. "Are you sure about that Edward? We definitely shouldn't be here yet."

   I picked up a stone that was about the size of my palm. I tossed it up into the air a couple of times. I wasn't sure how good of a shot I would be, seeing as the stone was at least twice as heavy as a throwing knife. I looked at the house that looked like Homestead. I hurled the stone as hard as I could manage. The stone sailed through the wall without even making a hole. I raised an eyebrow at Edward. "No doubt huh?"

   Edward didn't seem to be listening. He was staring at the illusion with a vacant expression.

   "Edward?"Altaïr asked. He shook Edwards shoulders. "EDWARD!"

   Edward almost leaped out of his skin. "What?! Don't shout in my face."

   Altaïr made a growling sound in the back of his throat and scanned the forest around us. He stepped away from Edward and paced around us.

   "Altaïr, what are you doing?" Arno asked.

   "Something..." he stopped pacing and stomped his foot in frustration. "I don't know! This doesn't make any sense!" He pointed at the illusion. "That looks like Homestead. So we need to go around right? If the person who made that illusion is skilled enough it will look like there is a cliff back there. Then what?!"

   I frowned and started around the illusion. I moved slowly, testing each step before putting my foot down. Altaïr's mention of cliffs had made me nervous.

   "Ezio? Where are you going?" Edward called.

   "I think I'm going crazy!" I called back.

   "Do you want us to stop you?!" Arno asked.

   "No thanks!" I could feel them watching me. "You should see what I'm doing! That way, if it works you can do it too!"

   I continued carefully around the illusion. Sure enough around the back side of the illusion was a cliff. I walked to the edge and put my foot on what seemed to be air. It's grass, it's grass. I tried to convince myself. I fell forward and gasped. Maybe it is a cliff. I hit the ground faster than I had expected. I opened my eyes. I was laying on the grass behind a huge rock. I sighed in relief.

   I stood and brushed the dirt off of my robes. "Come on!" I called. "It's safe!"