Fandom Fairy Tail: A Woe of Elves and Dwarves IC

[Craftsdwarf]

Elvish Heart​

Despite Princess Easel’s best attempts, after Nero’s biting words she couldn’t completely hide her reaction. Her smile had frozen awkwardly, eyes flitting to and from the taller woman’s face, hand remaining stretched out even as Nero released it.

“Ah...ahahaha, perhaps I have forgotten myself,” the princess stated, words stilted slightly.

Before she could fully pull away, Ratnik moved in, taking her hand and quickly recouping the situation. As she regained her composure, Easel replied, “Your diligence is very much appreciated. I’m feeling safer as we speak.”

“If I may,” spoke up a voice from behind the princess. Among the guards (many of them still flustered from Nero’s words), a stern faced one, on the younger side and wearing thin rimmed glasses over his eyes stepped forward. Crossing one arm across his chest, he bowed lightly before continuing, “I believe your desire to seek additional aid was misguided, and frankly, disrespectful to my men and I. You sought them out with no input, and to have found out through outside inquiry and not your words… I am disappointed in the lack of trust, your highness.”

Face strained, Easel asked, “Could this not wait until later, Cholkin?”

Adjusting his glasses, he took a step back, “My apologies.”

Things clear for the moment, Easel took a deep breath, before glancing around at the party of town delegates, her bodyguards, and the members of Elvish Heart. “If we may proceed?”

At her words, the group continued through town hall, the princess making a few more greetings before they returned to the mayor’s office. A bit roundabout for the guild, but within moments they were finally inside: Princess Easel, Mayor Wioux, Cholkin, and the four remaining members of Elvish Heart. There weren’t many chairs to go around but Easel did take a stand by the desk, angling herself to face everyone.

Relieved to not be in the presence of so many, she began, “Now, I’m aware the mayor and I should be organizing my speech, but there’s the matter of my bodyguard detail that should be addressed first. You have your mission conformation?” Easel looked expectantly at the guildmembers.

Dwarf Spirit​

Eyes narrowing at Circe as she shed bandit blood, the leader apparent began, “I’d question why you assume we want something, but we are bandits, not human traffickers. And you could stand to calm down now, we barely did anything.”

As he finished, Hina began to glow with magic, hopping to her feet in spite of her bindings. As she called to Circe, the bandit blew into his pipe, a single grape sized bubble forming. Glistening lightly, the bubble floated for a moment before the bandit pointed his finger at Hina. In an instant, the bubble accelerated, shooting towards Hina and crashing into her forehead. Despite the size and nature of the projectile, it hit Hina like a stone, knocking her flat as if she’d been punched. While she crashed to the ground, welt forming where it landed on her forehead, the bubble still floated, unbroken for a moment before popping of its own volition a moment or so later.

“Well that was unnecessary...” the man chided. Before he could continue, however, a man came in from outside.

“Kotaro!” he called to the leader, who craned his head as he listened.

---

Outside, as Sam still worked his way to the hideout, back from where he came, a red flare had been fired into the air, pulsating in its role as a signal.

---

“Another one of them then?” Kotaro replied, before turning back to his captives. “Hmm, are you lot lucky or unlucky? All I want is for you to crawl back to whatever town you came from, but the more you make this difficult for us...” Sticking his pipe into his mouth, more bubbles appeared, bigger than the last by a fair margin. “The more difficult it’s going to be for all of you.”

 

[SDMG]

As Nero finished lecturing the princess Ratnik had made her feel better which Nero scoffed at, how would a princess need assistance of people outside her kingdom? What a swine.

When Cholkin spoke to her and also lectured her Nero slightly nodded in approval. But when the Princess cut back at him Nero once again nodded in approval. Nero had noted how ridiculous Cholkin’s name was and almost burst out laughing, Cholkin,,, what was he? Some kind of animal? She decided to ask him about it. She walked over to him while the princess was busy talking to the rest of the people.

“Hey Cholkin why is your name so awful?”

Cholkin responded calmly and assertively, “Mind your rotten tongue woman.”

Nero was indifferent to his response. All she had thought was that he was much too big for his tiny boots. She walked away since she was too bothered by the rest of the town hall to deal with such a brat.

As she walked back to Elvish Hearts members she sounded the boy's name in her head, Cholk-in, that vaguely sounded like “choke him”, Nero had wondered if the boy was a pervert as well as his parents.


On their way through the town hall Nero looked around all of the Princesses guards had her eye on Nero almost as if they wanted to snap her small thin neck in half. She chuckled quietly and couldn’t help but find it funny how they thought they could intimidate her. Mere guards should behave properly in front of a majestic mage. Nero’s good mood was interrupted by Rand’s drunk walking. She kept thinking about how she could have a small bit of revenge on him.

When they all had came to the Mayor's office Nero was shocked to hear the princess say they needed the mission confirmation, but one door closed and the another one opened. This was Nero’s perfect chance.

Nero bowed slightly before answering the princess, “Princess if I may answer your question, our mission conformation was destroyed. A member who… I shall not name for obvious reasons spilled coffee on the paper and threw it in the trash….” while saying all of this Nero looked directly at Rand. And looked away quickly. Then looked back. Then looked away.

 

[Winchester]

As Sam saw the flare go up, he cursed. He was now regretting his earlier outburst. He could have taken his time and spied on them for a while and found out what he needed. There had been no need for him to trap them in a tornado, or threaten to rip off their fingers and other soft, fleshy appendages.

As the hideout came in sight, he saw a large number of bandits rushing out of it. Noticing him coming at them, they began to fire at him. He summoned a dust storm, blinding them, causing them to fire erratically. Evading the random bursts of magic, he flew over their heads and blew down the doorway with a gust of wind, the noise echoing throughout the compound.

---

Raising his head at the noise Kotaro took his eyes off the captives. Eyebrows furrowed, he muttered, “This soon?” Puffing his pipe again, he summoned a few more bubbles as he waited, just as there was the sound of rushing winds from outside, the men who’d been posted screaming out. Just after Sam appeared in the doorway, the information he took from the room now including a hail of bubbles that zoomed at the doorway once he’d appeared.

As Sam went in, he caught sight of a bunch of bubbles, which he pushed away with his wind, some stopping and going back to floating, or being popped, while some were merely redirected, smashing against the wood wall and leaving small gashes. Not paying them any mind, Sam walked into the room.

The attack stopped handily, the bandits gawked, while Kotaro raised a hand to his mouth, two fingers clutching his pipe, his face tense.

Sam glanced at the captives. Hani was staring at the guy who had launched the bubbles with a terrified look. Hina lay on the ground wincing in pain. Circe was guarding the both of them. There was a cocoon of gum next to them, from which he could hear a familiar snoring. “Damn it, Felix.” he muttered.

Looking at all the gawking faces, Sam scoffed “If that’s all it takes to impress you, I don’t think you’ll be any trouble.” He began creating a miniature tornado. “How about you let my friends go and surrender now, and we can end this without any more people getting hurt?” Kotaro gave no response, just an icy glare.

Sam noticed one of the guards holding Hina’s wand. “Mind giving it back?” The bandit threw a frightened look at the tornado, and hastily threw the wand. It clattered a few feet away from him.

Grumbling at the fact that Hina might bully him later about her wand getting scratched, he went to get it. As he moved, a bandit suddenly shouted and shot his gun at him. Sam managed to dodge it, however other bandits began to raise their guns as well. While he was busy attacking them, a force impacted his side, knocking him to the ground. Standing over him, fist encased in a firm bubble, Kotaro glared, jabbing once and letting the bubble fall, encasing Sam’s foot, pushing against the ground and resisting his future attempts to stand.

As he blew another bubble, once again on his fist, Sam blew some dust at him. While Kotaro was caught off guard, he pushed the wand towards Hina with a gust of wind. He the turned towards Felix and screamed “THE LORD'S WINGED MESSENGERS ARE WATCHING! THEY WILL RETURN TO THE LORD WITH TIDINGS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SINNED, ESPECIALLY THE ONES WHO COMMIT THE SIN OF SLOTH!”

 

[Kibichu]

“THE LORD'S WINGED MESSENGERS ARE WATCHING! THEY WILL RETURN TO THE LORD WITH TIDINGS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SINNED, ESPECIALLY THE ONES WHO COMMIT THE SIN OF SLOTH!”

Felix's eyes shot open and he sat up in a flash, after wiggling out of the cocoon of gum he had surrounded himself in. He looked around frantically, as if searching for something. After a second he stopped looking and laid back down on top of the sack, which had become cushioned rather nicely, with a satisfied look on his face, leaving the bandits in confused silence. Suddenly a hand shot into the sack and pulled out a hefty amount of gum that morphed into a wave that blanketed a portion of the bandits and forcefully pushed them against the wall, rendering them unable to move. As the gum settled Felix emerged looking about as ready for action as one can get when they were just startled awake. Yawning a little, he looked around, trying to identify where he was, why he had heard Sam bringing startling news, why all his other friends were tied up, and why there where people point guns at him. Then he noticed the fancy dresser in the center of the room, unaffected by the wave, surrounded by a bubble with two goons cowering behind him.

"G'mornin..." he grinned. "What's wrong, you don't like bubble gum, Fancy Pants?" He didn't give the a chance to respond when he noticed Sam behind them, luckily having avoided the blast zone. "Oh hey Sammy! Whatcha doin here? And why is everyone tied up?"

 

[Murozaki]

Hani carefully observed the events unfolding in front of him before making any rash decisions, things had taken a turn for the better with the arrival of Sam and Felix waking up. But the former was now stuck on the ground, and Kotaro still stood seemingly annoyed at the two.

Hani considered his options, to escape his chains he would have to turn into a rat, but what to do next? In his current condition he could absolutely not fight against a skilled magic user, his body was still exhausted and his headache had yet to completely fade, and even if he wasn't in such conditions victory would not be a guarantee with his level of skill. Even in Wolf form he it seemed unlikely his strength would be enough to break Circe's or Hina's chains to free them. And the thought of escaping and leaving everyone else for themselves was simply not something he even considered.

After considered many factors, Hani made a decision: If he could distract Kotaro in some manner, it might give an advantage to Felix, and if Kotaro lost enough of his concentration, it might even create opening for Sam to be able to lift himself up.

Hani gulped a breath in nervousness, and took the form of a rat as slowly and silently as possible so as to not be noticed. He then went on to quickly attempt to climb the walls and reach a very specific place: The lanterns, then with all of his strength, he flung his own body at the lantern as to bring it down to the floor as loudly as possible and create the distraction. He and the lantern both fell hard at the ground, Hani's body hurt from such a fall but thankfully not enough to the point where he could feel any deep wounds and broken bones, and the lantern's magic fire faded while its glass case shattered into dozens of little pieces through a small radius on the floor.

 

[Stickermans50]

Hina fell down hard, "Kyaaaah..." She was going to try and get up again but not long after Sam finally showed up, saving them... Kinda. His entrance brought a smile to her face, finally someone reliable around because Mr. Bubblegum was definitely not. 'If that bubblegum freak doesn't die here of eternal sleep, I'm killing him when we get back... My dreams of being a cool senpai on a mission... All ruined!'

She turned her attention to Kotaro and watched the entire thing unfold observantly, focusing specially on him. His bubble magic seemed to be really powerful, after all it had turned her beautiful forehead to a glowing red, she was going to have to use makeup later on to make it look better now.

'Thank Godaddy I was using my support magic, I could endure the attack without getting hurt too much... It still hurts though, mou!'

Sam sent the wand flying towards her and despite being chained and down on the floor, the girl managed to get it in her hands due to how close it fell, she was going to have to thank Sam later.

After Felix woke up, also due to Sam, 'Wow, Sam sure is being helpful unlike that sleep-freak' Immediately she saw Felix get up and catch a bunch of theives in his gum, attracting attention towards himself '...Still not redeemed...' and then even Hani put in efforts, when he turned into a rat and did his best she felt really proud! 'That's my kouhai!' Hani's act got almost everyone's attention, she used the chance of distraction and got up using the wand to support herself and standing up fully.

Once up, she looked at Hani to see if he was okay and gave him a wink. She turned her attention back to Kotaro and grabbed the wand with both hands, pointed it towards the bubble mage as the tip of it began to engulf itself in flames. Hina stared at him and gave him a scary smile "Ano, Kotaro-san... Please don't make a move and surrender. Or I'll burn you like that one guy from Elvish Heart, he is a mummy basically and not handsome so I recommend listening to me, teehee~"

 

[Nunmanji]

Eli observed Nero as she interacted with clients and felt she was risking the job. "After all there’s tons of guilds they could go to they don’t need us. I can’t let this job slip through my fingers." Eli took a deep breath and decided to talk to Nero. Eli awkwardly approached her with a half cracked shaking smile.

“Hey Nero, uh how’s things goin for ya?...”

Nero looked at the child and responded as rudely as ever, “I don’t think I gave you permission to talk to me.”

…

She's insane…


"Uh May I please talk to you?"


“No.”


"It's sort of important…" Eli said in a barely audible tone...


“I don’t care if it’s important or not, I’m not talking with you.” Nero coldly responded back.


Eli walked away from Nero and thought of asking someone else to get Nero under control. As Eli approached Ratnik she backed away realizing perhaps nobody wanted to talk to her. Maybe it was because she was but a child on this mission and she’d just be dead weight. Perhaps she deserved Nero’s cold responses. Maybe she was in the wrong thinking she had anything important to say.

 

[Craftsdwarf]

Dwarf Spirit​

Teeth gnawing on his pipe, Kotaro’s eye twitched as the wizards continued to resist. A broken lantern grabbed his attention for a moment, and when he turned back, Hina was standing and ready with an attack despite her bindings. Between her, Felix, and Sam by his feet, plus one of the five now missing, sweat began to bead on Kotaro’s forehead. He was protected by a massive bubble for now but who knew how long that would last.

Suddenly, an eye widened in realization, as he grinned. Outstretching his arms, he said, “Go ahead: burn this place down. These cramped quarters with only wood construction? Maybe your metal friend will survive, but the rest of you?”

His shield finally popping, Kotato grabbed his pipe before puffing into time after time, each bubble coming out zooming off almost immediately, targeting almost at random.

 

[ani456123]

Ratnik had a blank look on his face as the man known as Cholkin expressed his disappointment. It seemed that Ratnikn was about to say something, but he simply opened his mouth and then right after closed it.

As they were walking behind the princess, Ratnik caught his eye once more. He motioned Ratnik to come near him. Ratnik made his way towards him.

"So -"

But before he could finish his sentence, Ratnik interjected.

"I realise you know this, but from that day onwards we became strangers."

"...Hm. Well you sure did a poor job then. With those words of yours...."

Ratnik did not respond back. He seemed contemplative, and a few seconds later asked -
"What is your name?"

"I go by Selyoir these days. And what is yours?"

"Ratnik. That's my name now"

***
The princess had asked the members for their mission confirmation. As he was about to speak up, reluctantly, he was cut off by Nero's response. Ratnik looked at the acused, but Rand did not seem to respond back. He then looked at Nero, who appeared to be enjoying the situation. Eli seemed frantic. Reluctantly again, Ratnik spoke up -

"I apologise. It was me. I should have known better, but I was careless. I mistoke it for a piece of article I was reading. It is troublesome because I cannot convince you of my position by words alone. That being said, we are at a standstill of sorts. Perhaps, I can contact our guildmistress and request a copy from her -"

But he was interrupted. By Selyoir.

"O princess. These people do not have to do so to prove their innocence. I have once gone to their guild out of curiousity and have made acquaintance with the guildmistress and this man right here. They mean no harm, and will surely help you. As the general of the royal security army, I know these people are what they claim to be. So, as a compromise, I would please ask you to forget the confirmation for sometime and let them continue their mission. These people will surely send a request to their guild leader and get you a new notice in a short time"

 

[Winchester]

In between deflecting Kotaro's random bubbles with gusts of wind, He called out to Hina “Don't worry about it, and burn him to a crisp. I'll put out the fire if it spreads.”

He smirked at Kotaro. “How about we work together and trap him in a flaming tornado, Hina? Let's see how much he can take.” He began summoning a tornado.

 

[Stickermans50]

"Only my metal friend will survive? Yeah, right. And her name's Circe by the way you jerk." She turned to Sam and nodded. Hina began to channel more magic power into her wand, her body glew brighter, surrounded by a magic aura and the flames surrounding the tip of her beloved wand got bigger.

Kotaro: "Okay sure use fire, burn all the wood in this encolsed space see how you guys like not breathing."

"I'M TRUSTING YOU WITH THIS SAM!" She took a deep breath and shot her fire ball as she yelled out the name of her attack "KAKYU!!!"

Sam made sure none of the fire spread out and even combined it with his tornado, "You're the only one who's going to stop breathing." He said as he surrounded Kotaro with the tornado.

As soon as she was done firing her attack, it was basically up to Sam to handle it and she quickly hopped to Hani, "MINNA, BE CAREFUL!" she then turned to Hani. "That was really kakui of you Hani, as your senpai I'm proud!"

 

[Murozaki]

Hani's entire body felt around near half a dozen of minuscule shards of glass, most only slightly larger the size of a sand grain, all below his body, their size wasn't enough to make a cut, but they were enough to make his body feel an uncomfortable itch all over.

As he looked up and paid attention to his surroundings after falling, he saw Hina standing up next to him as well, telling him she was proud of what he had done. Hani, still in the form of a tiny and exhausted rodent, could not respond.

As he watched Felix, Hina and Sam in battle however, his spirits began to shift. For that instant all of the thoughts of how this scenario could go wrong were gone. Ever since joining the guilf Hani had always tried to be respectful towards his more experienced guildmates and always assumed they were strong and capable mages. And, as he watched Kotaro be locked by a tornado of flames, he only thought one thing: "This is what i admired. This is the valor of a mage."

 

[Kibichu]

Felix flipped and dived around various attacks as he watched Sam and Hina do their tandem attack, half heartedly retaliating to his aggressors with globs of gum. He was busy trying to come up with his excuse for being asleep when they were apparently captured. He figured it would be best to let his comrades let their anger out now, lest it be turned on him later, so he didn’t worry too much about taking out the bandits. However, his mind began to drift as he started coming up with various jokes about Sam, Hina, and the bandit boss. As he narrowly evaded a bubble coming for his temple he thought of an especially funny joke and went to write it down. As he was looking for his pen and paper he noticed Circe, still tied up, and got an idea. If he could untie her in a cool or distracting way, perhaps his friends would forget about his mistake. After thinking for a few seconds he decided a backup plan would probably be a good idea anyway. With that in mind, he went down and used his gum to pull a few of the unconscious bodies that Sam and Hina had created in the scuffle. Then he tied them all together with gum and stretched out a rope. He poured an ample amount of magic into it to make it more durable and threw it over a rafter and latched the other end to Circe’s bonds. He found that the men weren’t enough to counter Circe’s weight so he got a few more which successfully raised her off the ground about four feet. Then he pulled Circe back and pushed her towards the enemy. The weight was enough to slip Circe out of her bonds which caused her to crash into a couple bandits. Satisfied with his work, Felix wiped his brow, smiled at the group, gave a smug thumbs up, and jumped behind Hina to hide.

 

[Cintra]

"Thank you, Mr. Lazzo." As she got up from the loosen chains, Circe was still trying to think about how to confront Felix about his... lapse of judgement. On one hand, it was such a dangerous show of incompetence to sleep on watch duty there were children riddles about it. On the other, he still was her senior, and more importantly, she wasn't paying attention either despite being completely awake. Did she even have the right to point her finger at him? She suddenly remembered something. 'Oh no, my house key is in my right index.' but that wasn't important right now. Dwelling with her own toughts wasn't going to get anything done.

Taking in the current situation in the room, she figured the others had the leader under control.

"I will take care of the rest of the mooks outside." She said. "Will be back in about five minutes."

Going over to the window, making sure to lower her head and jumping, she met face with about a dozen bandits frightened and sweating like they were in an oven.

"I should warn you all that your leader is already being dealt with by three of my colleagues. Knowing that, you still won't let us go quietly?" She asked in her usual polite tone. They answered by leaping towards her with weapons on hand or shooting at her. She responded in kind by searing their weapons out of their hands with her lasers, and beating their faces with her stumps. Circe definitely didn't use this as an oportunity to spew her current frustrations out of her system. Circe definitely did NOT picture Mr. Lazzo and her own faces on the bandits for the entirety of the short-spanned conflict either.

Seven minutes later, she was the last one standing, some blood splattered on her normally pristine golden surface. From what she could see, while all of them were seriously injured, none of the bandits were dead. She leaped on the window back inside to meet the others, with a much clearer head than before.

 

[Craftsdwarf]

Elvish Heart​

At Selyoir vouching for the Elvish Heart members, Easel gave a curt nod. “Official conformation would do much for alleviating the concerns of my men.”

“If I may,” Cholkin interjected. The edges of her mouth fell slightly as he continued, “Knowing that these four are indeed proper guild mages and not dark guild mages would hardly alleviate all of my concerns. I’m no guild mage, but even a child knows the importance of the mission slip. For these people to have made the mistake of losing it in the first place...I wouldn’t trust a child with your safety, your highness, and these people can’t even seem to reach that standard. They can’t even be trusted to hold on to a slip of paper.”

Easel’s expression was defiant, but after a few moments of strained silence as she tried to find the words, she was finally able to muster: “This matter isn’t under your jurisdiction.”

“You safety is under my jurisdiction, and these…people, are not up to caring for your safety. Never mind that they were bought. My loyalty to the crown is unshakable.” Cholkin looked over to the wizards. “Can you say the same?”

Dwarf Spirit​

As the fighting climax, bandits largely being defeated, the fire tornado was dissipated, Kotaro spilling out of it, completely unconscious, scorch marks on his body and clothing, dark circles burnt into floor and ceiling.

 

[Stickermans50]

Hina simply ignored Felix hiding behind her and extended her hand to help Hani up. Seeing his eyes, Hina couldn't help but feel really proud that she didn't let her kouhai down. Just like that, she hopped to Sam's side "Seems like it's over Sam, good job on that last one. You saved all of us, SASUGA THE DWARF JOURNALIST! Hahaha, otou-san would be proud of us." She turned her attention to Felix and sighed "Us except Felix that is... Hmph..."

Sam sighed. He thought all Felix had done was stay asleep while they were captured, but it looks like there was more to it. "What did Felix do?"

A tick mark appeared on Hina's head with her face turning red in anger, "THE QUESTION SHOULD BE, WHAT DID THAT AHO NOT DO..... He was on guard duty and went to sleep and got us all almost killed!"

'Damn it, Felix' He threw a frustrated glance at Felix, who was still cowering behind Hina. "Alright Hina, we'll punish Felix for this. No need to be too angry about this, we all made it out unscathed. "

A scary smile made its way onto her lips, "Unscathed? Have you seen my forehead...?"

Sam slowly edged away from her with a sweatdrop. "Uh.... it's not that bad. I actually think it makes you look prettier?"

Hina noticed his movement, "Is that why you are backing away huh?"

Sam stopped."Uh.... I wanted to move away from the smell of everything burning. It's kind of getting to me. But you know what, I can deal with it. I'll stay right here, so let's not do anything hasty, OK?"

Comical tears formed in her eyes, "Wakata, wakata, you don't need to worry about it. I know I look ugly..." Sniffling, she turned to Felix and thought as she made a fist with her eyes still watery, 'Yurusare nai, ZETTAI! That bubblegum freak will pay for this with me ignoring him! BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!'

Sam moved cautiously towards Hina, being careful not to set her off. He awkwardly patted her on the head. "There, there, it's alright. It'll heal pretty soon, and I'm sure there won't be any scarring. Even if there is, you'll always have it as proof of your bravery. So cheer up, alright? You did a great job with the Fire Tornado. We couldn't have won without you. See, even Hani looks up to you now."

Hearing about the Hani bit, she wiped the tears off her face with the sleeve of her clothing and nodded, 'Souka... Hani-kun looks up to me now...' Hina smiled and enthusiastically responded "Mhm! You are right! Sam, you are sam..art! Very smart, mhm, mhm!" That's when Circe returned, bloodied... Hina now feeling better than before waved at Circe and walked to her and looked high up to see her face. "Are you daijoubu?" She was going to talk to everyone... but not Felix, nope.

 

[Winchester]

After the conversation with Hina, a wave of exhaustion hit Sam. He just wanted to sleep now.

Shaking it off, He looked at Hani and Circe “You both did well on your first fight as members of Dwarf Spirit, well done.”

Turning to Felix, who was still hiding behind Hina, he sighed. Hina was still ignoring him, and talking to Circe, who seemed annoyed about Felix as well.

He was slightly annoyed at Felix himself, but he didn't want the others to hold a grudge against Felix over this. “Felix, you screwed up, man. For now, tie up all of the bandits with your gum and bring them over here.”

He addressed everybody now “I know you're all pissed at Felix right now, but hopefully you can forgive him. He may seem unreliable right now, but he is one of the best mages of Dwarf Spirit. He'll redeem himself soon enough.”

“For now, let us go to Dipper Town. It's not that far off. We'll take Kotaro with us, and leave the rest of the bandits here for the Town's Police to take care off. I'm sure you're all tired, so we'll sleep at the inn, and talk to the Mayor tomorrow. We'll interrogate Kotaro, and find out what's actually going on here."

 

[Murozaki]

Hani slowly put the strength into his legs and arms and proceeded to stand up. He still felt significant pain from falling to the floor as a tiny rat, and his body was no less exhausted than when he first woke up, but he still had the energy to respond "Thank you Sam" to his senior's compliment. Regardless, he was more than willing to go with his suggestion of heading for the city now, at this point, a nice warm bed sounded much better than camping in the woods again.

He took a glance to see Sam and Felix tying the unconscious Kotaro in the same kind of chains the bandits had tied him and the others in before. Hani felt some frustration and disappointment with Felix for causing them all to be in such a sittuation in the first place, but at the same time, Felix had proved himself a skilled and powerful mage when dealing with the bandits, so he didn't felt much anger.

As they all left the small hideout, Hani felt the chill wind from the woods and took a deep breath, he had always heard about stories of mages engaged in incredible battles that were far above the level of the skirmish that had recently occured, yet to Hani, this small skirmish that must have lasted about five to ten minutes felt like an eternity. Thinking about that, as well as the far more skillful performance his seniors showed, made Hani think "I still have a long way to go."

---///---

At 10:00 AM in the morning, they had finally arrived, after spending around seven to eight hours walking through the woods in both the night and morning, they were near the small wooden gate in the middle of a short wooden fence with a sign that only read "Dipper Town".

The rural city was exactly what they would have expected from what Guildmaster Korin told them, around a dozen or two small buildings, mostly farms with small plantations that were sustained thanks to the large river positioned exactly at west of the city outskirts, most of the said buildings showed their age, specially in the wood materials on some of them, and at least two of them had visible holes in their ceilings.

As most of them were exhausted they agreed to simply rest at the nearest inn for now and simply talk to the mayor when the evening arrived, Sam on the other hand, said he was gonna go to the town hall to turn in Kotaro as well as discuss the bandit attack problem.

The small two floor inn was likely the largest building in the city besides the town hall and the local restaurant, after signing in for two rooms for one day they proceeded to their rooms. Upon opening the door to his and Circe's room Hani's first action was to simply lay down on the bed looking and try to relax his body.

 

[ani456123]

Just as Cholkin finished saying those words, both Selyoir and Ratnik closed their eyes at the same time, as if remembering a tale that was never passed down.
****

"We must have faith in them." he said. As he would every meeting, the King of Quaslo addressed the fourteen figures of darkness. King Aldo III was wearing the usual golden robes, Quaslo's royal colors. Tall and mature looking as he was, he was still quite young, with him only recently being coronated king. Unlike his uncle of the same name, the King was not exemplary in any way. He did not know of battle and was quite slow in understanding the political affairs of his kingdom. He would not have been named King at all, if it were not for the former King to have lost his life in battle, and his offspring to be mere children. Perhaps it was because of these qualities however, that he did not worry about -
"Aren't the wizards part of the country too? Then..."
But the King's voice trailed off. He had noticed the tension in the room spike up. Some of the figures began murmuring and began contemplating on the King's words.
Indeed. The King did not worry about the people's hatred for the wizards and their guilds. Some people feared them for their powers, and others resented them for being affiliated with their own "guilds" (kingdoms). But he did not mind seeking their help; he would often employ them as workers for the kingdom. The fourteen. his royal "guard" were not welcoming of the new king's policies (or lack thereof) and were still of the old mind and considered him the young still Prince Aldo III.

"I wonder if the Prince's decision is a good one?"
"Hm. We must not depend on them...."
"They were employed by our enemies during the time of the first King. We must be wary..."

"STOP!"
Silence fell as the King bellowed in his loud voice.
"I will do anything for this kingdom, even beg, if neccesary. Our thoughts will get across. I am sure of it."

The royal guard silently agreed. The fourteen were the most trusted and loyal in the kingdom, and were present since the creation of the kingdom. King Aldo (I) had sought these people out. They were all people from different parts of the world, from different kingdoms...To solve any prior feud the King made them his 'shadow'. Always cloaked, and never even seeing their fingers. To destroy their past and create a new future, they were always cloaked under dark robes under his orders. He was quite extreme in his way, but his 'shadow' appreciated it. And they never forgot their past with him.... They became his 'guard' and so helped the first King. It was that very extreme nature that was inherited and is now present in this King, which is why they remain cloaked for this kingdom.
"We must send them requests. I do not care for any privacy. We must forget all that and our pride. We must believe in their 'hope'."
And so along with request, the magic letters were written:

We shall await the golden carriages of hope
For those words will come true
Even if the land itself rots away
We shall await the golden carriages of hope

And so, the wizards came. They accepted the request, and hope was renewed. It was finally possible to win against their invaders.
But the wizards left. They accepted another request, and hope was lost. It was impossible....

"Prince. The wizards-"
"Do not say it. I know. They were bought. They betrayed their country. I am hopeless as a King after all. I thought I could make a kingdom where my cousins would be able to live happily even though they lost their father. I thought they wouldn't have to go through the same pain as I did.... No. I betrayed my own kingdom and the people. The magicians were never to be trusted. This kingdom will not give up. I will go. "

"King Aldo. Please-"
"What mockery is this? After all this time you now call me King? When I least deserve it? Very well. I suppose it is my destiny to die a forgotten King. I am heading out now. I must kill them."

"There is no point. We fourteen and you all know our enemies will destroy us. There is no use for honor, King. We all must flee, and hope-"
"I do not care about them. I do not care about my life. The one I must kill are the magicians. I will not run. And what is this hope you speak of? The hope known as magic does not exist now. It never did.... "


The kingdom fell the same day. The King was killed by the magicians. It was said that his shadow followed him into death.


This happened 75 years ago...

****
Ratnik responded -
"We understand. We were indeed paid money to do your work. But our loyalty is not rooted in money. It is rooted in our ideals. In the ideals of our guild. To follow the request to the end. And while we may make some mistakes, please understand and have faith in us. We wizards are part of the country too, no?"
Ratnik then glanced at Selyoir, and withdrew his glance immediately. For, unbeknownst to all but Ratnik, Selyoir shed some tears.

 

[Craftsdwarf]

Elvish Heart​

Cholkin’s gaze on the Elvish Heart members remained stern, but he had no further response. Easel let out a light sigh of relief, a satisfied smile coming to her face. “Now, if we can begin...”

---

Meeting truly underway, organization for the Princess’ speech and surrounding bodyguard detail went into motion. Ratnik got in contact with Aralia detailing the need for a replacement mission slip and Yuki’s abandonment of the mission during an interim period, but beyond that, preparations went smoothly. Security set, the next morning Easel gave her speech to the people of Corona, impressing on them a desire for peace and good relations with neighbors, recited and rehearsed through the villages her journey had taken her. To much relief, the speech came and went without incident.

---

May 14th, 777 (two days after the Corona Town speech)

Sunny sky, salty spray, seagulls cawing, Malk Port lulled about on the lazy day, the sea complying as it murmured about. White sails billowing, blazoned with the a silver wolf surrounded by golden roses, the emblem of the Rigel Kingdom, the wolf shaped headpiece snarled at nothing in the open sea it faced towards.

Docks by the ship more packed, the captain and Cholkin went about final security checks, combing the ship top to bottom, ensuring that not even a single rat would join the trip unaccounted for. The rest all waited on the docks, soldiers and crew chatting and joking about in their respective groups, the princess well kept by some of her men. Other dockworkers came to a fro, most not daring to approach with the heavy security.

 

[Winchester]

Sam parted with the others at the entrance of the town. They headed off towards the town inn while he headed off towards Town Hall. On the way, he noticed that the people were wary and tended to get out of his way, though some of the more curious ones stayed to gawk at him and his prisoner. When he finally reached Town Hall, he was stopped by the guard.

“Who are you?” The guard asked harshly.
“I’m Sam Brandybuck, member of Dwarf Spirit. I’m here to see the mayor about the mission? We’ve managed to capture some of the bandits, and I’ve brought their leader here.”
The guard still did not relax. On the contrary, he kept frowning. “Any proof that you’re who you say you are?” Sam showed his guild mark. “Alright, wait here, I’ll be back soon.”

Sam was left to wait for a while there. Just as he was about to drift off into a dream about cherry pies, the guard returned with reinforcements. “They’ll take care of the prisoner. You can accompany me now.”

Being led to the mayor’s office, the room was a bit on the messy side, paperwork and old food containers or plates mussed about. Glasses on the bridge of his nose, black vest over a white dress shirt, black combed over hair, the man wrinkled his nose at the lone mage. Reaching out his hand, he greeted, eyes still skeptical. “Sam was it? I’m Smith, Roger Smith.”

Sam smiled at the mayor “Yes, I’m Sam. I’m here about the job you offered our guild, Dwarf Spirit. We managed to capture what seems like one of the higher ranking members of the bandit group that has been plaguing you. Can you tell me what exactly has been happening in your town?”

“Caught a bandit?” Roger repeated, starting to glow. “Outstanding! Fate is finally starting to roll in my favor!” Leaning back in his seat, he let out a long sigh of relief, before sitting up again. “I can’t tell you how awful it’s been. These last few months we’ve had bizarre animal attacks. Boars in the fields, wolves and foxes ganking animals. The cows and pigs even! Not just the chickens. Then there’s the weather. First we had some landslides that took out some of the roads...we’re lucky there’s a lot of them but it’s been painful for trade. How can we sell food if we can’t move it anywhere? We barely have enough to feed ourselves at the moment but that goes back to the damn animals. Worse the landslide also blocked off a river so there’s been flooding.” Rubbing a hand on his forehead he groaned, “And the bandits. Couldn’t even tell you how many there are, but if you’ve broken up even one group then that’s a huge help for us. What do they even want with us?”

‘What do they want with this no name town?’ Sam thought to himself. He answered the Mayor “I’ll need to interrogate the bandit leader, Kotaro to find out about their motives. By the way, around the time the animal attacks happened, did anything strange happen? Did any newcomer show up during that time or was there any other incident that stood out?”

Roger rubbed his temple as he thought on the answer. “No one suspicious has been around, just us folk who’ve always been here. They’d know more about the details than me.”

“I see. Well, for now, would you mind giving me the list of all the incidents and their details? After that, I would like a room to interrogate Kotaro.”

Roger grimaced helplessly, “I’ll see what I can do. You go ahead and talk to the bandit then, I’ll at least try and give you some names…”

“I see. Well, thanks anyway. I assure you, Dwarf Spirit will solve this problem of yours. I’ll go talk with the bandit now.” He gave a slight nod to the mayor. As he left, the mayor gave a friendly wave. The guard was waiting outside.

“Would you set up a room in which I can talk to the bandit?”

The guard shrugged, noting, “He’s already in a room, just talk to him there.” Sam headed to the room. As he entered, he noticed Kotaro sitting in a chair, his hands bound, and sat down opposite him.

“So, how’re you doing? I hope you’re still not hurting from that last attack.”

Face cringing into a condescending smile, Kotaro gagged, “Please, spare me.”

Sam shrugged “Alright then,straight to business. Tell me everything about yourself and your gang and what you guys were doing here.”

Kotaro balked. “Why.”

“Because I believe,that in your heart of hearts, that you are a good person.” He flashed a winning smile at Kotaro. “And that the sooner we are done here, we can both go and sleep.”

Keeping a straight face for a moment, Kotaro’s lip quivered before he busted out into a guffaw. Turning around and lounging onto his side, he let out a yawn. “Good night then.”

“I can’t go to sleep just yet without getting the info out of you. So how about you stop antagonizing the guy who thrashed you while you did have magic, and answer me?”

Rolling onto his back, Kotaro chided, “And you’re not even going to make it worth my while? Why waste time for the both of us? Not that I have much better to do but it can’t be worse than being annoyed to death by you.”

“Oh, you think I’m annoying? I’m nothing compared to my other guildmates. Well anyway, since I’m feeling nice, I’ll listen to what you want.”

“Leave. I’ll talk all you want once you’re not here. To myself of course. Once you’re back I’ll be sure to shut up though,” Kotaro chortled.

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t do that. I could you get some cherry pies if you’re a good boy and tell me what I want. Oh, and I could also tell the Rune Knights who’ll come to get you soon to be nice to you.They’re being pretty hard on rogue magic users nowadays. Sometimes, some of the mages in their custody end up disappearing. I have heard some rumours of what happens to them, none of them good. A friendly word could go a long way with them.”

Kotaro shivered. “Oh no, they’ll vanish me away, the big bad royalty!” Clicking his tongue, Kotaro said, “Just admit it: you have nothing to give. Why go to the store with an empty stomach and an empty wallet? You’re only going to get hungrier.”

“True, I don’t have anything on you. Ah well,I might as well give up. I’ll be sure to spread the word around that you were quite helpful to us. Wonder what you’re buddies will think of that.” He got up and began walking out of the room. He didn’t hear anything from Kotaro as he walked out of the door.

'Well, that went as well I could've expected.' As he was walking out of the building, the guard caught up to him. "Here's the list of names." "Thanks" Sam said as he took the page from him. Giving a nod to the guard, he walked away.

'It's been a long day, time to do a Felix and sleep for 2 weeks.' At that moment, his stomach grumbled. 'Well, after eating some pies.'

 

[Sowizardhologram]

After getting the mission paper, it was time for Shine to join the group that was still protecting the princess. Since this was his first mission, he felt very excited. He felt as if he had finally gained a purpose in life.

In the ability demonstration and the physical test, he had managed to impress the other members. They were also shocked to see his scarred face. He guessed he shouldn’t be surprised by their reaction at this point. Indeed, he always got more negative feedback than positive ones. Hopefully, the group will be cool and be fine with him. He knew their appearance, their names, and their abilities. But they wouldn’t be able to recognize him.

The mission was plain and simple: To protect the princess. He had to head to the dock where the princess and the group were at and sail with them. Shine smiled and then started to run towards the dock. He couldn’t wait to see what adventures would come from this and what he could do for the team!

 

[Winchester]

When Sam finally finished eating his third pie, he looked at the others, and began to talk.

"Alright, so let's begin with what I found out yesterday from Kotaro. Which, unfortunately, wasn't much. He's a cocky guy who wasn't particularly bothered by the situation he was in, and just seemed bored. I'm pretty sure that he's got other comrades, some of them probably as strong as he is, if not stronger-"

Hina sipped her tea and clapped her hands after putting her tea down, “Sasuga Sam-sensei, you really are our journalist-san! Go on desu.”

Slightly annoyed at the pointless interruption, he continued, "Like I was saying, Kotaro probably has other strong comrades, so all of you should be on the lookout for them. Well, I received a list of the people who seem to know about these strange incidents. They are Joshua Johns, a city planner and Kari Madoga, a senior farmer. We'll need to decide who does what now. So, any questions?"

Circe nodded in understanding, already thinking about her next steps. “None. Actually, one. The roadblocks caused by landslides and such are in the outskirts of town, so I assume that the senior farmer will be able to give more information about them, correct? I think that’s where my strength would be most useful.”

Hani, listening closely to Circe’s words, decided to take the initiative and volunteer as well. “From what I remember of the Guildmaster’s words, the problem the farmers are facing are attacks from beasts wasn’t it? Due to my knowledge of animals’ behavior I believe that is where I may be of help. So i would like to meet Mr. Madoga as well.” he said sharply and formally.

Sam nodded to Circe and Hani "Alright, that sounds good. I think having one more member with you guys would be good since you are inexperienced. Felix will do it, unless anyone has any objections?" He was hoping Felix would be able to bond with them and they could move on from the sleeping incident.

Hina nodded to herself, “Mhm, mhm, Circe-chan needs a senpai and support, so me and Sleepelix are her only options~” she turned to Circe and winked at her, “Do you want to go with that Boss of yours eh, Circe or do you want to be around a more competent senpai?” A smug smile formed on Hina’s lips as she pointed towards herself.

“Miss Hina would be my choice.” Circe stated as a matter of fact.

“You heard that Boss Sleepelix?” Hina sipped her tea and then glared at Sam, “And I hope you heard that too, Sam-sensei…”

Felix, who had not been paying much attention to anything up to this point, cringed slightly at Hina’s poor attempt at a nickname. He started to say something but decided that since everyone was probably still a little on edge over sleeping tied up on the floor all night, he’d let it slide. After all, not everyone had the privilege of knowing such an amazingly useful magic. So he shrugged and went back listlessly blowing bubbles into his drink.

Hiding his disappointment, Sam turned to Hani "You're fine with Hina leading you,then?"

Hani remembered Hina’s actions when he and the others were captured by bandits, and feeling a sense of trust, replied “Yes, that would be fine.”

"Alright then, we've decided the teams. Hina, Hani and Circe meet Madoga, and me and Felix will meet Johns. I want to, I mean, I assume you guys still want to eat some more, so we'll set out in an hour."

“Sure, I can wait.” Circe nodded.

Hina made an annoyed face and got off her seat “We’d like to eat, but I’m sure your friend over there might want to sleep more too. Who knows where he’ll fall asleep again, anyway, ja ne Sam-sensei, thank you for the information. Let’s go Hani, Circe!~”

As Hina and her group left, Felix lobbed a tiny piece of gum into her hair. After making sure no one noticed, he chuckled to himself and had Sam order him some ham and eggs.

Sam was too absorbed in his pie to pay any attention to Felix. Well, that's what his excuse was going to be. He did make sure to discreetly ask them to add a mystery ingredient to Felix's ham and eggs.

 

[SDMG]

As they walked along to the dock Nero was incredibly annoyed, Ratnik took the blame and Rand didn’t get in trouble, now it was practically known amongst everyone she messed up the mission paper. She was having one hell of a bad day.

Shortly after they got to the dock Nero heard footsteps and supposed it was someone trying to attack the princess. She wondered if she should tell everyone else. No, she couldn’t, that would make a bothersome situation and everyone would be idiotic about it.

“I’m going to the bathroom to take a shit, I’ll be back in a second. ” Nero announced as blunt as ever.

She walked toward the footsteps and loaded her gun with normal bullets and shot directly below the man’s leg as a warning.

Shine, confused, responded "W-wait what did you do that for? I'm from the Elvish Heart guild. I even have the mission slip to prove it.”

Shine held up the mission slip.

Nero sighed and responded with, “You’re late come earlier next time.” She had said that with a bothered face.” Nero noticed she had never seen him before, he was a new member, must’ve been sent by the ghost as a replacement for Yukine.


She walked back with Shine right next to her.
As bothered and pissed off as she was she opened up a coffee packet and started chewing the coffee grains

 

[ani456123]

“This is a real nice one, Sir. I am glad you decided to buy it…it really does fit your look quite well.”

“Looks like you are making fun of me….”

“Not at all Sir…I was simply…”

“This scythe is bulky, huge and expensive…does not fit me one bit...”

“Uh…”

The weapons dealer was quite lost for words.

“It is quite beautiful however…really….”

In the end, luckily enough, his honest praise was able to secure him the deal, and he sold off one of his most beautiful and expensive weapons to the cloaked bandaged man. He happily accepted the money and bid the odd person farewell. As the customer left, he signaled two young men on the road and then all of them began the hunt…!

It was not hard. The three of them could keep their distance and yet not lose track of him.

“A great hustle, boss. The fool would never suspect it. Heheheh…”

“Indeed. Though I question giving away the ‘Deathseeker’ that easily…”

“Fool! Do not question the boss. Tell ‘em, boss. You did give it away for a reason right…?”

Both looked skeptically and fearfully at the “boss”, the weapons dealer from earlier.

“Do not worry boys. The plan is proceeding well. But to answer your question, that man seemed dignified and rich yet weak. I did not want to risk giving a fake away to him. We would have been in trouble…”

“But boss! What if he uses it against us.”

“Again, do not worry lad. That weapon is special. Even an expert scythe wielder would be suppressed by their inability to master it. We can do it. I know we can, together.”

Smiling they split up to ready a flank attack on the unsuspecting fellow. They maneuvered around for quite some time before arriving at an empty field slightly away from town. The two youngsters were eager and decided to appear before their target. The dealer felt slightly worried.

“Did he, perhaps, lead us to this place…? No…but…” he slightly murmured. But even that hesitation was for but a moment, as he too appeared in front of his former customer thereby completing their flank attack.

“Sir…I believe you have something we want…”

“Heheheheh”

“Kikikikiki”

“Now then boys, behave yourselves. And Sir, now that I think about it, that scythe does not fit you after all. So along give it up, and everything you own, if you do not want…pain.”

“Hehehehe”

“That’s right. The moment the boss fooled you, your life was forfeit….to us!!!”

“…”

The three began circling him and slowly drew closer.

“It is a shame. My apologies, but I cannot do that gentlemen. I never had anything valuable to begin with. So, I cannot offer you what you came for…”

“Hmph. Enough. Boys go get him!”

“It is true. But I can offer you something else….”

The man leaned backwards to avoid the incoming attack, raised his newly bought scythe, and brought it down upon his attacker’s neck. The head was cleanly cut.

“…What…? B-boss…he….”

“You…you monster….! How dare you kill my precious follower…you...you…”

“I apologize. “

The man bowed down in front of the corpse, and then picked up the scythe again and approached the other two.

“The One Magic has forgiven all three of you. It says that I will be allowed to witness your moments today. I am somewhat jealous even…”

The two attackers slowly began to withdraw. Fear was apparent from the looks of their faces. They had to run…

“It has not forgiven me…and it never will. Before my time, there were others forgiven. But once I took the mantle, I was to be the one for eternity…my life was already forfeit, the moment the One chose me….”

“RUN!!!!!!!!!”

The two ran away at maximum speed. The weapons dealer was mistaken after all. Not only was the weapon in dangerous hands, but so were their lives. He started crying for forgiveness and was now far away from the danger…when he saw the scythe in front of him now…but this time having his other companion’s head with it….

“In the end we will continue to do the same as always. People will die because they had magic on their side, and people will die because they did not have magic on their side. Change itself is unnecessary, because any change at all will make no difference. The One Magic shall decide everything …”

“The…One…Magic…? What…?”

“That is right. It is something which never will be realized and yet, it has been in control for many years now…People will never know if it exists or not and can only ponder. I do not think it exists, and that it never will decide anything, but what we think has no consequence. People will continue to seek it, whether it exists or not, and it will continue to command people like myself, for little meaning.”

The dealer was slowly backing off from the scythe and the man, but very soon he had reached an end. He slowly spoke up, hoping to extend and further his chances –
“But what you say makes no sense. If you do not think it exists, then why speak of it...?”

“I wonder. But it seems certain I was punished by something. And such punishment can only be delivered by something that is lesser than mankind itself. “
“What was your punishment then….? Was it a contract of some kind…?”

“I wonder. But I think it wanted me to choose the type of punishment….in the end, change is trivial in the face of everything. Magic, humanity, guilds, they will all be trivial. The only thing that remains is the essence one can store…our memories. And so, I will collect them.”

“Huh…. what…?”

“I swear on the great magic…. I shall forever remember you…”

“You…you…you shall repent it yourself……YOU- “

The blade hit the ground again.

“Ah. I forgot to ask your name…. But your actions and your weapon, I shall fulfil my mission with it. To see others’ final moments, seeing them is my mission and punishment. I am sorry again, and yet I am thankful. That you did not suffer my fate…”

“…”

He picked the weapon up.

“This scythe does not suit me one bit.”

“Well then. To the docks. Hopefully, the new tool is here."