Some Time out

Ehrmich had always been a very warm district. Being in the south, this was no surprise, but it was one of the reasons Cora really did not enjoy it here. The sun was slowly setting,  which made the temperatures more bearable.
Ehrmich was also one of the districts the pack did not have a headquarter in and it was thus considered neutral territory with all of the Alphas being allowed to take contracts from here.
Cora looked down from the balcony of the mansion they were supposed to guard. Everything looked so peaceful. It probably was right now as well, given the sheer amount of military that was present right now.
They had planned a festival, probably to recruit some more people as well. There was some official reason, which Cora was not interested in. The main reason she would attend it now was one of her Betas...who had managed to convince her.
"Alright, Sir, I am done here. They will take care of your family's safety. Don't worry.", Cora said to the owner of the property, "Let me know if there are any problems. I will still be in the city for a good two or three days. My guards know where to find me."

Cora and her companion left the place and slowly started walking towards the main festivities. She only shook her head at the sight of a few of the 'Roses' that were already drunk on the sideways.
They headed towards the main road to see if anything interesting would be happening here soon.

West took a deep breath as she walked outside the medical facility in the Ehrmich district, she looked up and down the street before shrugging and heading off in a random direction. Her only business being there was to see how captain Delenni was healing up and notify him that his team has been reassigned until he is capable again. With not much else to do being off duty West decided to explore the district a bit more. With it being late she figured there would not be too much else to do when she saw a crowd drawing by reminding her of the event going on that day. "Why not?" She thought to herself following behind the crowd, once reaching the main grounds where the festival was taking place she looked around: people chatting casually, people discussing official business, and people drinking. The soldier simply walked through the crowd avoiding passer bys and staggering drunks who crossed her path. Though crowded events weren't really her thing she still tried to enjoy it. After chatting with a few people she eventually made it to the outskirts of the area of people. She thought she might be done with the whole thing for the night, but just as she was about head off she noticed a suspicious looking man scanning the crowd before heading towards an ally way. Not wanting to raise alarms she figured she would stay just to keep an eye out for that if it becomes a problem in the near future. Shrugging it off for the moment she turned to see a familiar tall blond woman coming from the crowd. "Cora?" She called out, West felt her voice might have been drowned out by the crowd so she drew closer to attempt to get Cora's attention.

Cora just had a very unpleasant conversation with Paul about women when it gladly got interrupted by a very pleasant voice. How easily some things could change. And how well could things turn out.
"Hello there Miss West!", she said happily and turned around, "It is very good to see you!"
Paul looked over Cora's shoulder. He was happily munching on bread he had either bought or stolen. Given it was Paul he probably stole it. Or...some woman gave it to him. She was quite uncomfortable with him being this good with women, as she was never really sure about whether or not he was including her into his men friends or women friends. And...if she belonged to the latter...how did he...she shook her head and smiled at West. It was no good thinking about these things.
"Oh right. Let me introduce you two."
"Oh?", Paul said, taking another bite out of his bread, "Introductions? That is always pleasant. Esspecially if it's an introduction to such a good looking woman."
Cora elbowed him in the stomach and he almost spit out his last bite.
"You shut your goddamn mouth. She is out of your league.", she glared at him. He was unbelievable.
"Let us start over: Paul, this is West, she is one of the few capable military men."
Paul nodded and grinned.
"And West. This is Paul. He is my Beta. Or well. To explain, I am the Alpha, leader of the Krolva division of the pack. This is my Beta. One of them. He is the one leading our military division."

West was surprised to see Cora here honestly at a military event to say the least, she seemed to not favor the military very much nor did she seem to enjoy being around the drunken soldiers that occupied the space. She how ever was very glad to see she was there since it meant that her and her team made it out of the titan forest unharmed, not that she had doubts to begin with. West scratched the back of her neck when Cora referred to her as miss then chuckled “you don’t have to call me “Miss West” West is perfectly fine.” She nodded referring to Cora saying it was good to see her “as well as you, Alistair and his team still owe you their lives for the help before, as do I, I’m glad to know I still have the chance to repay.” Her attention turned to the eating man looking over Cora’s shoulder, she gave a bit of a confused glance to the man not exactly sure how to respond to him. West turned back to Cora as she began to introduce him. West gave a slight smirk to Paul for the blatant and sudden compliment
“classic charmer, huh”
she thought to herself, speaking out loud she raised a brow “oh is that so, how many times have you used that one?”. The smirk turned to a small grin as she tried to stifle the laughter from the woman’s scolding of Paul “give him some credit if I was the average town girl I’d probably find that endearing, unfortunately I’m not but good try anyway” she wasn’t encouraging him more like giving an honest opinion. She was glad Cora saw her as capable even after she had to save her from a titan the first time they met. Looking to Paul she extended her hand for a handshake “pleasure to meet you Paul” once the introductions were all out of the way West turned to Cora “with the pleasantries out of the way, have you noticed any strange or suspicious people around here?” she noted back to the man she saw disappear in the ally way. She didn’t want to cause worry, but she wanted others to be aware so if something happened it wouldn’t have come in a surprise “I could just be making myself paranoid, but you never know who shows up for a large event” she just couldn’t ignore the feeling.

Paul was visibly pleased with West giving him a 'compliment'.
He poked Cora in the side of her thorax.
"Ha ha! Ha ha! She likes me!", he whispered happily, West could probably hear him though and Cora was not too pleased with that.
Cora shoved her Beta away and raised an eyebrow at West's suspicions.
"You mean, apart from all the suspiciously lazy drunkards in the alleys? Surprisingly enough no. That to be said, we came from different directions than you did. We came out of the part of town where the more wealthy people live. I doubt there was anything there."
She would be really disappointed in herself if she did not notice something. That was in no way good.
"I agree, you can not know for those groups."
She grinned at West
"Let's have some fun and check it out!"
She turned around to get Paul to come with her, but he was already occupied with a different girl. Cora scoffed, went over to him, smacked the back of his head and pulled him by his shirt.
"NooO! Alphaaa! Miss Wolf! Don't be mean to me!", he whined.
"Shut up and join us.", she said, not really angry, but still with a pissed off voice.
"Lead the way.... still...Miss West!", she said happily

She certainly hoped it didn't go to his head if she complimented him, judging by him West figured it most likely would, but hey, you have to throw the dog a bone every once in the while... except this dog took it to heart. West half expected Cora to punch him for poking her for no reason, not that she'd blame her for doing so. West gave a rather indifferent look when Paul said she likes him "it's more toleration so i'd be less likely to hit you for being inappropriate... but don't push your luck" she smirked. She watched Cora shove him out of the way then address her concern, she had to admit there were a bunch of drunken people hanging around but they seemed harmless the person she saw didn't seem to fit into that crowd. "Other than them, i came from the medical center and followed a group of civilians to this area, not a lot of military or patrol was there" she was beginning to wonder if it was just some random guy who meant no harm but the way he looked at the crowd was off putting. Seeing Cora grin she gave a slight smile, at least if they checked it out she could have peace of mind and relax for the rest of the event "I appreciate it" she looked to where Paul once stood seeing he vanished while they were chatting, it didn't surprise her much to see he was over flirting with another woman, he must seriously do this all the time. "Dose he do this to every girl he meets?" She twitched. Waiting back she saw Cora dragging the now unhappy Paul away from the girl he was talking to as he complained. "If your over there who's gonna keep us company?" She laughed.
After Cora told her to lead the way West turned and headed towards the ally, a few drunks buzzed around the entrance but it was empty along the inside. Shaded from the lack of street lamps it was barely visible to walk through except for a lamp light lightly illuminating one of the corners. The closer they drew to the corner the more sounds and voices could be heard. Turning back to the two she whispered "a little far from the festivities huh?" West walked forward a little to look around the corner and see the situation

Paul unhappily followed but after West said something about him keeping them company he cheered up almost instantly.
He was so simple sometimes. Cora really liked Paul, he was reliable, not in all ways, but he was always, and he would always stay true to her, not failing her trust a single bit. He cared for her, and he had done that for quite some time already and she in return, made him her Beta, allowing him more freedom. It was a professional relationship that was only sometimes interupted by his various women.
It was still a matter Cora could not cope with well, she had never had any sort of relationship with someone, nor did she plan to.

She shook her head, making herself focus on the situation again.
The trio walked into an alley, which was 'guarded' by drunks. They seemingly wanted to keep women out, given that it was avoided by almost any girl around. Apart from West and Cora of course, even though you could argue about how female Cora was.

They continued walking down the alley, the light was dim and a perfect habitat for the average pack member.
They were used to this. The dirt, the dust, the dark. It was pleasant for them. Both of them were only breathing shallow, blending in with the shadows, trying to minimize their presence.
The alley came to an end and took a sharp turn right.
Paul peeked around the corner. Cora could only try to guess the situation by his facial expressions. First he was raising his eyebrows, then he started grinning.

"Hihi!", he just said, then walked into the alley, he pulled Cora around the corner so she could see herself.

She was quite surprised indeed. "Oho. Interesting! Do you think I can participate?", she asked.
There was a whole ring of people in front of her, eagerly watching two people lying on the ground and cheering for them.
They were betting on who would win in their small fight club and Cora was pleasantly surprised by the fact she got to see some action.

West hoped he didn’t take what she said all to seriously, he was nice but quite frankly not the type of guy she would go for. He seemed to be good friends, she thought, with Cora though it was a bit shocking considering Cora’s serious nature. As good natured as he was she thought his flirtatious behavior might get him in a spot of trouble from time to time. With the thoughts pushed out of mind she continued on through the ally with little consideration to the drunkards who staggered around. Peering around the corner she saw the street brawl occurring and the crowed of people surrounding them. “really a street fight?” she thought to herself. Well at least it was something she didn’t have to worry about, though it’s not encouraged street fights aren’t illegal.
Muttering to herself she wasn’t over all too pleased with the sight. She was trained by her father to fight properly in combat and street brawls to her were commonly filled with sloppy technique and drunken fighters. But they weren’t hurting anyone [except each other] so there was no real reason to intervene in the fight. Turning to Cora and Paul she noticed their pleased and excited glances towards the fight, at least they enjoyed it. “I guess it wasn’t something to worry about after all” she was about to turn back when Paul suddenly pulled Cora into the ally way, well that plan went out the window. West followed behind them around the corner drawing closer to where the brawl was occurring she really didn’t want to stay for very long but the other two seemed to have different ideas.
She seemed shocked when Cora abruptly asked if she could possibly participate “Cora do you honestly want to fight in street brawl, I’m pretty sure none of them can really stand up to you” she was a trained Titan fighter, simple civilians most likely didn’t stand a chance to her. Looking around she spotted the man who she saw scanning the crowd earlier, he was a bookmaker for the fight and currently watching the match as he organized the bet. He turned to them addressing Cora’s question if she could participate in the brawl “I’m sorry Miss but this isn’t really the activity a woman should be engaging in, but you could always cheer on the fighters and make bets.” West twitched at his statement ready try and hold Cora back incase she decided to knock his teeth out. The Fight came to a conclusion and the looser was dragged from the ring and the victor, a large burly man, was left itching for a fight. The bookmaker looked around the crowd asking if anyone was brave enough to fight him… no one from the crowd wanted to step forward. West muttered to Cora and Paul “he’s a sub-par fighter at best” the oaf in the ring suddenly shot a glare at West “damn did he actually hear that?” she thought to herself.

Funnily enough the person overseeing the whole fight called Cora a 'Miss'. A 'Miss'? Cora was a 'Miss'? Yes she got called 'Miss Wolf' Or 'Miss Alpha' or even a combination 'Miss Alpha Wolf'. But. It was only because they felt weird to adress her as 'Sir', not because she was an actual 'Miss'. Miss sounded like 'Lady', and Cora was not a Lady at all! Quite the opposite even. Cora was not the Lady, she was the lady's guard, the lady's protector. She was not one that needed protection. She was not frail, her body was strong, her mind broken but still being kept together, if only by the shards being weirdly intertwined and holding onto each other. She might look like a woman but she was not a Miss. And the man calling her that way pissed her off quite a bit.
And how was it NOT the activity of a woman? Cora thought about this and only came to the same conclusion: She was not female in any way and she wanted to be adressed the way everyone got adressed as well. Sir. Sir Cora Wolf. Given her two other personalities were male too, this fit way better.

Cora also saw West being prepared to hold her back in case she would attack the guy, which...made her not want to embarass herself, so she did not.

However, just a few seconds later, West herself got into trouble by letting the huge, probably mildly drunk man in the ring hear her.
"Sub-par fighter at best.", West said.
Cora chuckled and could not agree more.
"I am not one that bets...usually, but I am betting that it will take you less than a minute to knock him out.", she said to West. Cora did not even wait for her answer and just shouted to the guy making the bets.
"Alrighty, Madam, I shall bet as well. I am betting...", she looked through her pockets and got a bit of money, "This on my dearest friend here. And not only that, I bet it shall take her less than a minute to knock this guy out."
Cora grinned and handed the baffled man the money.
"Oh. Don't go looking this sad now! She got the poor monkey up there all worked up for calling him a 'Sub-par fighter' anyway! I bet he really wants to show everyone how much of a man he is by beating her up!", her voice was mocking him, and she doubted he would like it.
"Go on, dear friend, the money I get out of this shall be spent on happy endevours for the rest of the evening!"

As much as she wanted Cora to beat the crap out of him for blatantly insulting her and doubting her ability to fight but she really didn't want Cora to waist her time or energy on him, if things did escalate she hoped Paul would help intervene instead of letting Cora go ballistic on him. West looked at the bookmaker with a displeased look "it's rude to doubt ones capability before actually seeing them in action." He looked back at her and sneered "do i look like i care?" The man was honest pissing West off and she was about ready to fight him. "Don't do it he's not worth the trouble" she repeated to herself over and over in her head.
West gave a sigh about to tell Cora and Paul they should leave before the big oaf decided to fight her, she really wasn't in the mood to fight. But wasn't she surprised when Cora suddenly stated she could beat the fighter in under one minute "as fun as it be to try i don-" she was cut off by Cora walking to the Bookmaker and abruptly making a bet repeating the condition of beating him in under a minute "Cora what are you doing?!" West couldn't believe she just did that especially after she explicitly said she didn't want to be there. The Bookmaker look showed his surprise, but eventually he took the bet stating "it looks like the champ has a new challenger, lets see if her bite is as bad as her bark!" The crowd gave out burst of laughter to the idea of West fighting him. She was about to tell the man to give her money back so they could go until Cora began provoking the fighter in the ring by commenting on West's unintentionally loud insult. "Don't make it worse" she scoffed. The fighter approached West and the crowd parted out of his way. Looking down he stood almost a foot over the girl and bared the appearance of a gorilla "so you think im a sub-par fighter? Your friend is putting money on you so she doesn't seem that smart" West's face was unfazed by his snarling appearance was pissed at his insult towards Cora "your drunk, your technique is sloppy, and you move like a blundering ape... so yes sub-par" his face turned red and his nostrils flared "ill show you get into the ring if you dare!" He shouted and slightly spitted in her face. The smell of beer thick off his breath almost made West gag, however, she maintained her composure and simply walked into the center of the crowd's ring. The oaf grinded his teeth as he walked back into the ring "this will be easy" the Bookmaker took all the bets and all but Cora's was placed on the man. West turned back to Cora "ill finish this up quickly and we leave" the man slammed his foot on the ground "You ain't finishing nothing!" He suddenly changed at West should down aiming to knock her down. West in retaliation stepped off until the man was right passed her. The next step was a swift kick to the back of his legs. If she was successful all she needed to do was a round house kick to the back of his head. It was a trick showed to her by her father, good for a clean blow. Time seemed to slow as she kicked her heel into the back of the mans knee. A loud thud was made when the man fell to his knees. Before he had the chance to recover she swung her leg from the ground straight into the back of the man's head. The man froze then flopped forward like a rag doll. The faces of the crowd became shocked. West turned to Cora "how long was that?" The bookmaker's jaw dropped and the cash in his hand nearly fell.

Almost to her disappointment the fight was over rather fast. Cora was pleased, the fact the idiot had spat into West's face made it all the better.
"How long was that?", West asked her.
"Probably less than half a minute. I should have doubled the money I bet on you."
Cora grinned widely. The person taking in bets turned pale. He knew what would happen now.
"So, Madam, you shall hand me my money.", he looked around. As expected, the crowd around him was everything but pleased. They were drunk, they had had their fun, and now everything got interrupted by a bunch of women. Rather displeasing. A few grunted, some went away, swearing at both of them but as usual some stayed. And those few that stayed were rather eager to get their money back. Cora was not though. Even though she technically had enough money at their hands, it was still a rather welcome pay to the pack. Apart from that, she had enjoyed herself way too much right now to just hand it off to some displeased drunkards.
"Is there a problem, Madam?", she asked the man standing in front of her.
"I am not a Lady.", he said quietly.
"Did you say something?", she asked, he knew she had heard him. And he also knew that if he gave the wrong answer now it would not end well for him.
"No.", he quickly put the money in a bag and handed it to her.
"Eh, eh, make it two bags. One for my glorious fighter here."
He did as she said, while the others were slowly creeping closer.
Cora took a quick look at Paul and he got closer to her.
"Thank you, I really don't want to get my hands dirty now."

The bookmaker had finally finished equally distributing the money into two bags and Cora turned around to throw it to West as one of the men had the funny idea to try to take her bag.
She grabbed his hand and pulled it upwards. He glared at her hand.
Cora sighed and dropped it, the man quickly drew a knife from behind his back and tried stabbing her. How unfortunate for him, she just ended up grabbing his hand again, turning it around on his back. He squeeled.
"What was that? Assault against a government official?", she turned his hand up more on his back and he let out a grunt.
"Fighting may not be illegal, betting on fights definitly is. And assaulting me is definitly illegal."
"You were betting as well!", he said loudly, his voice cracking.
"Oh? Did I hear you say something against me? Are you resisting an enforcement officer?"
He started another sentence but she simply turned his arm up more.
"Careful there, mate, it is no problem for me at all to break your arm."
He stopped talking.
"Good boy.", she leaned in closer to his ear.
"If this would be Krolva, you would be lying dead in the gutter now.", she whispered half loud. Loud enough for the people right around, including West, to hear her. Her voice was not her usual one, it was Nec speaking, colder, deeper, sounding a bit smokey.
She smiled coldly.
"Now get lost."

Cora turned around to West, this time smiling genuinly.
"Let's go eat, shall we?"

She already knew it was less than a minute for the fight but she was curious so she could figure out how to improve her speed. Now that she had the time she wiped the spit off of her face muttering "disgusting" she didn't appreciate when people spit when they talked and she certainly didn't enjoy when a drunk person did so. West raised a brow when Cora said she should have betted double on her "I don't know wether to be insulted more buy the fact that i was dragged into the fight or you betted less on me" either way she was insulted. The bookmaker could believe his eyes, the champ was winning matches all night and she comes in beating him like it's nothing. The crowd murmured to one another bitter words at the idea that she won. Well the engaged in unlawful gambling and lost their money its no one else's fault but their own. Turning to the crowd who had once laughed at her for getting into the fight she chuckled "still think a woman can't fight?" She watched as some scattered while others stayed. Were they trying to get into a fight? West kept her eye on them while Cora collected her money and insulted the bookmaker. She noticed them draw closer but the didn't dare cross the line.
She caught the bag Cora threw at her, what was she going to do with it? She had money but seldom carried it around and it certainly wasn't acquired from street fights. Her attention was drawn to the man about to try and take Cora's bag, West knew that was a big mistake on his part. Approaching Paul West got out of the way so Cora could deal with the attempted thief. The girl was shocked to see him pull a knife on Cora but she was glad she reacted it time. She found it funny how she referred to the fact that betting was illegal yet she did so herself but the difference was that all of them were betting for countless matches. Seeing that Cora was close to snapping his arm "lets not get too hasty" seeing Cora lean in and whisper a threat against him it seemed like an entirely different person. She shot a quick look to Paul for an explanation before Cora turned and stated they should get something to eat. "Um right" she chuckled softly seeing she returned back to normal

Paul looked at West forming a 'I shall explain' with his lips. He hoped that West had seen it. But he was not too sure if it would not go against Cora if he told her. That to be said: Paul took a liking in West's personality. Not in any 'love' or 'crush' way, simply the way she behaved. He probably saw a bit of his own boss in her.


Cora stood up and started walking. She went a bit in front and thought about whether or not she had been a bit too harsh.
A while later they came to a small stall on the side of the road.
"Let's go eat here, I don't want to go inside a restaurant. The last times I have been in restaurants we got into bar fights alot...it was mostly some scouts that seemed...odd", she took a seat and ordered some grilled chicken. It was quite expensive but that was not much of a problem, given the amount she just won.
Paul sat down next to her.

While they were walking there Paul was walking next to West.
"Lemme explain...", he said.
"I suppose you do know she has been kicked out of the military, right? It's because she is a bit...crazy. Multiple people in her head. It tends to happen to people if they go through what we did. It does not happen to most of us, given we were all older than her...but she was one of the youngest.", he was talking quietly but judging by the way Cora was walking alone she was anyway more occupied withherself.
He stayed vague, he was not sure if she would get the implications or not. He would simply wait for her answer

Seeing Paul mouth out that he'd explain she gave a quick nod before continuing forward, she'd ask Cora about it but she doubted she'd get the straight answer if one at all. It made her curious since when she met her the first time she didn't act like that but now she suddenly threatened a drunkard?
She walked along side Paul to give Cora the space she needed after that the last thing she wanted was to provoke her unintentionally. Seeing the restaurant she nodded, it was almost funny howCora was worried about a bar fight after what had just occurred. She didn't order right away instead she just stood quietly, she wasn't really hungry anyway.
She turned to Paul when he started to explain. West remembered Cora telling her she was no longer in the military but she never told her why, pausing at the short explanation she raised a brow "crazy?" How crazy did one have to be before being kicked out of the military. It became a bit clearer how she suddenly acted towards that drunk spectator. So she isn't alone in her head? What would have to happen to someone to get into that situation? As she was pondering the idea West noticed he was waiting for an some sort of response. "Well she seems to have it under control... has it ever effected her actions?" West knew not everyone was stable especially when growing up under hard and stressful conditions, she was no exception.

Paul looked at West.
"Affected her actions?", he stopped talking, "Well...she got kicked out because of her actions...even though that was actually not bad....she never talks about it."
He shrugged his shoulders. "But if you mean out of the military? Then it for sure happened. Not that often, she has herself under control alot.", he shrugged his shoulders, "Most of the time actually, sometimes she gets reminded of something or is...I am not sure, might depend on the weather. Mostly she is mostly good though."
He smiled at her.
"I know her for a really long time. As weird as it sounds, but you can trust her. Not necessarily a third of her. But...mostly.", he laughed nervously.
"Don't listen too much to what I am saying, just make your own picture of her. She is fine. In her own way."
He stopped talking, not really sure how she was going to react.

“I figured some thing must have happened if she was kicked out…” West never saw anyone kicked out of the military for anything but not performing up to standards or not being able to keep up with everyone. It’s clear that Cora performed above that standard. “its good to know she at least has it under control” even if its somewhat its better than nothing. She didn’t know how to think about it, she’s heard of people hearing voices in their head but never actually seen a person’s whose inner voice comes out. She laughed at the depends on the weather comment, though everyone probably wished it could be summed up so easily. She leaned her chin on the back of her hand “well it comforts me to know that and she hasn’t given me a reason to not trust her so I’ll take your word for it” she wasn’t going to judge Cora for that but she would certainly execute caution around her as to not have who ever that was before doesn’t direct that hostility at her. “I appreciate you telling me this though and trust me I’ve seen some pretty strange things and people so I’m not to worried about it.”