Kind of Magic {Agent B52/HiddenBeauty13}

[Agent B52]

Joseph ran his hand along the thick trunk for a moment while he hummed.

"Different, a lot different. We still had a king and queen as rulers, but they did not have the same shall we say, concentrated power. My academy of special arts was far from the only one in the country, though it was the largest. That alone gave the head administrator a lot of power. The wide spread had a few draw backs here and there. For one it's a lot easier to have certain powerful lords decide to go their own way and meddle with things best left alone. Most of the time Mauretia had more trouble containing incidents within it's borders than with their neighbours. Same for them really but that's the price for power in the hands of the many." he said, nestling beside Raine.

"That's just one aspect though, there's a ton of things different here. Like how everyone here seems to be human. Don't you have any elves or anything over here or did I just not notice them?"

[HiddenBeauty13]

As he spoke, Raine tried to mentally visualize his words. It all seemed interesting and she even found herself wanting to visit the place he called home. She then sighed when he asked her a question and popped a brownie into her mouth before speaking: "We used to have other races, like elves and such, a long time ago. However, humans ended up running them all out once we took over the kingdoms that they once ruled. Now, they are either extinct or hiding, maybe even in plain sight."

Sighing again, she glanced up into the sky. Unfortunately, her own ancestors had been one of the ones that ran out those people. Sometimes, she honestly wished that she wasn't related to them but, then again, no one can choose who their parents were. "So, there were more people like yourself? Ones that accidently make transportation portals to other realms when they're half drunk?" She asked, a slightly amused smile coming to her lips, only to disappear moments later.

[Agent B52]

Joseph slightly flushed at the reminder.

"Honestly not really. While it's not uncommon to make a mess my own predicament is a bit more, ah, spectacular than usual although there have been worse incidents. The absolute worst that happened as far as I can remember would be the bunny incident when a head professor tried to make a mass version of the 'Baleful Polymorph' spell. Essentially it's the standard 'turn your opponent into a frog' spell' and he was working on giving it an area affect rather than a single target. He tried to test fire it in his own lab and it worked a little too well. His entire floor had all people turned into rabbits."

He snorted at the memory.

"Detail about the tower, rabbits were usually used as test subjects so you can imagine the chaos that followed when an unwitting assistant herded all of these new little bunnies into the holding pen. It took us weeks to figure out what rabbits were normal, what were the transformed humans and what were the ones that used to be the giant flaming demons also kept locked on the same floor."

He sighed as he leaned back, looking up at the mighty branches overhead and the sunbeams that played through them.

"I still have not figured out why they kept those things there. The research into the demonic planes was in the basement."

[HiddenBeauty13]

Raine suppressed a smile as he told his story. That whole incident sounded like it could be funny, as long as she wasn't one of the people turned into a rabbit. She then raised an eyebrow at his next statement. "Demonic planes? What's that?" The princess asked curiously, popping another piece of brownie into her mouth. It sounded like some dark and secret place that no one was really supposed to know about.

[Agent B52]

Joseph picked the ham bread out of his bag and started to chew on it thoughtfully.

"Now there's a question to fill an afternoon. Well you know what a plane of existence is I presume. This world, the ground and the sky, to the very stars themselves, they're all part of this particular plane of existence. But it's not the only one, far from it in fact. Have you ever made a choice that afterwards had you look back and think 'what if I chose differently?'. There are different planes of existence for that, where you did choose the other option, and all the differences between this plane and that plane. Like what could have happened if you decided to pick a small cafe opposed to a bakery, we would probably never have gone to this park. Still with me so far?" he said.

[HiddenBeauty13]

The princess nodded thoughtfully and silently urged him to continue. He had a point, though. They really wouldn't be at the park if she'd taken him to a cafe. Suddenly, a gentle wind blew, as if thanking the two for coming to the park. A few flower petals from the trees on the floated on the wind and scattered them all around, making the place look even better. Picking one up, Raine held it between her fingers and enhaled. It smelt wonderful.

[Agent B52]

The flower rain distracted Joseph as he simply took in the sight. Feeling into his pocket and into his bag of holding, he pulled out the one he had caught earlier.

"Hang on a second, I just remembered something. Trust me, just don't move please?" he asked Raine as he sat up straighter. Showing her the flower for a moment he gently reached over and put it into her hair, beginning to delicately weave the fragile plant into her locks.

"If you don't mind me being so bold."

[HiddenBeauty13]

Raine watched in silence as he pulled out the flower. He had obviously caught it earlier when they were walking down the path. As he put it into her hair, she felt herself blush. It was something she hadn't done since she was little and it took her a while to even identify the warming of her cheeks. Once he was done, she looked over in his direction but not quite at him. "Uhm, thanks. I like flowers." She stated simply and then looked down at her hands. Soon, she was lost in thought, momentarily forgetting about their previous topic.

[Agent B52]

Joseph could practically feel the heat coming off Raine's face as he worked. Was she starting to get ill? He hoped not, maybe it was the heat of the sun that beat down even through the shade of the tree. It was certainly warm enough to make him feel light headed, although the scent of her hair had something to do with that as well he supposed. He felt relaxed down to his bones, the tension and crazy events of the past few days melting away like wax.

He barely caught Raine's words of thanks, and he smiled at her expression. She was adorable, her demure and sweet tone contrasting cutely with the hard muscles brought on by her martial arts training.

"You're welcome, I just thought it looked pretty." Joseph said. 'Like you.' he thought.

Wait a minute.

"I said that out loud didn't I?"

[HiddenBeauty13]

Raine only caught half of his sentence but it was enough. Her cheeks warmed even more this time and she risked another glance up at him. There was no trace of shame or regret on his face for saying those words and it made a foreign feeling creep into her body. For a good while, she simply stared at him before standing in one quick motion.

"C'mon...We should head back to that armor shop." She said and walked forward a bit before stopping to wait for him. The princess silently wished that her hair wasn't in a braid because she couldn't hide her still blushing face behind it.