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"Master Asling."

The blonde looked up from the book which she studied. Her tired and weathered eyes laid on the boy entering her room.

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

She said with a tug of a grin at her lips. He could almost hear it in her words, her demeanor had not changed. Ever.

"Is your sister with you?"

She asked, raising a brow and he shook his head.

"Not yet." He replied. "But she's on her way." "I see."

Asling stood, putting her leather bound book down and inserting a slip of parchment to mark her spot in the book.

"It's a slow morning for both of you then, isn't it?"

She asked and with a snap of her fingers a roaring fire came to life in the hearth of her room.

"I was only a few minutes late..." The boy replied and Asling chuckled. "You and I are really very much alike." She said with a genuine smile at him and he smiled back, glad he had met her.

"Sorry I am late." The two turned to see a third entering the room, His sister.

"Ah," Asling said with her persistent smile. "Good to see you have decided to join us." She said.

"Now come along both of you, our lesson was supposed to begin ten minutes ago."

"Master Asling," The boy spoke up and the others turned to look at him.

"Were you not routinely late to your lessons as an apprentice?" He asked and once again Asling chuckled.

"You know me too well." She said.

"Then again, you would know, wouldn't you, Will?" She asked, still grinning and he smiled back up at her.

"But late is better than never. Now come along you two, you as well Jane."

She turned to the girl who nodded.

"Today we will be discussing the..."

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Her voice faded away until it was impossible to detect by the naked ear and Asling's eyes shot open.

She was cold, so incredibly cold, and alone. She sat up. The first thing she noticed were the floating specs in the air.

They looked like snow but she knew they couldn't be. It wasn't cold enough for snow. She stood up slowly, groaning from the pain in her soar limbs. Everything around her was dead, no plants, no animals, just darkness and decay as far as the eye could see.

The Land Between Lands. Her swords were still gone, all she had was her bow, and yet she was still putting on a fight.

She had run into some nasty looking bat like creatures and had to fight her way out of them to survive just another day. That was why she was sore. And yet she was still searching and combing the dead lands for a way out.

A way back to Hawkins. There had to be one and she knew she was getting close.

Why else would the bats have attacked her for just wondering the land unless she was coming up on something she wasn't supposed to.

The beasts of the Land Between Lands had not forgotten her and how her people fought them when they had attacked her home- which still was entirely her fault. Combined with the crippling feeling of loneliness Asling felt she also had a crushing weight of guilt pulling her down.

She had caused the downfall of her own people, not her corrupted master, not the ferocious beasts of the Land Between Lands, her. Because she was too ignorant.

She reached down to grasp the hilt of a sword that did not exist anymore. She did that often, reaching for her crystal sword when she knew it was gone. Destroyed by her own doing. It was her own fault. Everything that she complained about was her own fault.

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"Well we can count on having off of work tomorrow."

Said Robin as she tossed a news paper at Steve.

"And for like the rest of the summer."

She added. It was the morning after the mall had burned down. The Byers were moving away, Steve was moving out, and things were about to change in Hawkins.

"Scoops didn't survive the fire, huh?" Steve asked as she handed him a coffee from the McDonalds down the street.

"Nope." She said as she pointed to the article about the mall burning down.

"A bunch of people died too apparently." She added.

"But they did like a crazy good job at covering up what really happened." She said. "Yeah." Steve said. "Looks like it." He added.

"But we need new jobs." He said, moving on from the subject of the burned down mall. "Rent won't pay itself." "You're right there, Harrington." Robin harped.

"I already looked at the job listings under the fold." She said and steve flipped the paper over to see a column of jobs listed, three of which had been circled in red.

"There's a few openings at K-mart." "No." Steve shot her down at once. "My mom goes there like all the time." he noted. "Ok. well dairy queen is also hiring, I figured it would be familiar territory - ice cream and all." "No." Steve said. "No more ice cream." He said.

"Well the only other one that sounded interesting was the family video store is hiring sales associates."

Steve hesitated. Selling and renting movies was something he could do. He would probably only have to man the register which was something he already knew how to do from his previous job, but it wasn't similar enough to said previous job to give him PTSD of the events at scoops ahoy and star court mall.

"That one sounds good." He said. "Family video?" Robin asked. "Yeah." He replied. "Then that's where we'll start the new job search at."

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Her eyes peered over a decaying remains of what she thought was once a bush. Before her was something she had not expected. She had seen the monsters of the upside down. She had seen the bats, the demodogs, and even a sparse demogorgan, but this... this was no monster.

A dragon stood, it's rear claws digging into the dirt as it swatted at incoming bats with it's mighty silver paws. Talons dug into the flesh of the tiny flying monsters and they each cried out in agony accordingly.

But as each was struck down another took it's place, attacking the beautiful impossible creature. It had green eyes and pale white scales that reflected the light of the land between lands. Its wings were spread wide as it attacked the creatures.

A bat landed it's teeth in the dragon's hide just above it's shoulder on the right and the dragon roared in anger. It flapped it's wings and shook its body but nothing could get the monster to release it's hold. Not until an arrow wizzed through the arrow, aimed true as it soared past bats, and landed strait in the back of the bat.

It's grip loosed and the dragon shook it off. With a stomp it was dead. Asling shouldered her quiver and held her bow tightly in her hand as she loaded another arrow.

Her eyes met those of the dragon and for a moment time seemed to stop around her. The dragon looked into her and she looked into the dragon. It gave a nod and asling knew what to do. She released the arrow and another bat was shot dead. Between the two of them, they would have this area cleared of bats in no time.