Her attempt at baiting Goldas into a fight was ultimately futile as the Harpy's Wing mage had enough restraint to walk away. Mary was able to tell that she struck a nerve with him, despite his best attempt at covering it up. She had found a weak point in his emotional armor. It would be worth remembering that for the future but for now she let him leave. There would be others that would be willing to battle for the sake of art, though it didn't particularly matter to Mary if her opponent would find it as poetic as she does.

With Goldas and Phoebe now gone, Mary only had a brief moment of silent respite. Hardly enough for her to even sit back down again on the floating leaf before something caught her eye. A wallet that was left on her stand unnoticed began to float into the air. This would confuse, baffle, or mystify most anyone unfamiliar but Mary was quick to identify the handiwork of her fellow S-class mage, Kyvirn Xaesos. He was a weird one, that's for sure, but he mostly kept to himself so Mary had little to complain about with him. "That must belong to that Phoebe girl who was just here. She couldn't have left a full twenty seconds ago, though she used magic to skedaddle away."

"A better question is why are you hiding right now? It isn't like today is a day of celebration for our guild or anything. Do you not have pride in Golem's Hand?" It was a bit of a loaded question for the younger Godslayer, but that was fully intentional on Mary's part. While Ky liked to be alone and reclusive, Mary was the opposite and she felt the need to impose that on him in some way. He should be sociable, represent the guild, and perhaps smile once in a while. Mary's standards aren't even particularly high considering that she believes she is the best representative of Golem's Hand all the while attempting to get mages to challenge her to a fight. Ky wasn't the cocky type but if Mary had her way she would force him to at least pretend he is.

But before she could lay into her invisible companion any further another customer showed up. This one was someone that Mary recognized. A girl from Golem's Hand, Penny. The girl wasn't very "beautiful" the way Mary sees it, as she has little style, grace, or flashiness on top of poor combat skills, but she was trying to improve and even had an interest in the beauty of plants like Mary does. That common factor alone allows the girl to bother Mary with no consequence as Mary has found very few that have come to her for gardening advice and tips about plants in general. "Hello, Penny," Mary greeted, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the stand while propping up her head. By now she figured Ky would walk away and attempt to return the lost wallet, so there was no need for any farewells. He may have already left anyways. "Of course you may have one. I have enough beautiful plants in my garden so I must share some of my excess with the rest of the world. It would be cruel of me to deny you such beauties as these. If you treat them right you can even grow some more of your own and create your own beauty that you too may share one day." Penny had likely heard these kinds of words from Mary plenty of times since they've met, but it wouldn't stop the Flower Queen from repeating them for flair.

"Doesn't seem fair that the Harpies get to be there enjoying it while you don't."

"Harpies get to be there enjoying it while you don't."

"enjoying it while you don't."

"while you don't."

The words resounded in his head like some kind of irritating mantra, within moments he made an annoyed grunt before sitting back up.

"Well when you put it that way... Hmmmmm", he looked down at the festival, no one said anything about having to mess around at the festival right? The view from this tree was grand, and from here it was a clean view of the Harpy Wing guild hall... Yes, since most of them or all of them would be at the festival right now, there'd be pretty much no one at the Harpy Wing guild hall right? Perfect. A little loophole.

He got up and started walking towards the exit of this branch.

"I'm gonna go have some fun, later nerd", now then... Where did they keep the paint again...?

As Ceri sat as motionless as a brick on concrete, she watched Ky fall. There was nothing she could do to help him. Just watch as he fell to his inevitable doom. Just as she was about to lean back up and go get the guild master, a familiar face came rushing into the guilds grounds. Klisa. The small girl breathed a quiet sigh of relief as Klisa saved the guy, and then started making her way up to where she was.

"Ceri!"

As Klisa arrived, Ceri leaned back, obviously relieved that a familiar and...friendly face had joined her. Her grip on her book lessened as she placed it beside her.

"Are you okay? Is everything all right? Was it okay that I saved that person or where they bothering you? Should I have let them fall? Sorry if I just saved someone you was giving you trouble. If that is the case, I could go kick his but or something."

Ceri giggled quietly. She was just happy Klisa was back, and she wasn't going to be...well, more or less alone with people she didn't know too well. She was also glad the guy didn't meet sudden doom.

"Also, Hi, I'm back from my mission. Hope you haven't had too much trouble since I've been gone."

"I'm fine, Klisa." Ceri replied. Her voice was much more confident then when she was talking with Ky. Though she still seemed a little unsure of herself. "And N-no, he wasn't bothering me..." She turned her attention to the ground below, unsure of what exactly to say since she didn't want to instigate anything, and this hadn't really been that big of a deal. "I-it was an accident..he slipped..."

"U-uhm, anyways..." Ceri stood up on the branch. "Welcome back. I was fine!...m-mostly. The other guild members don't really...talk to me much, w-which is fine..." She didn't get much of a chance to say anything before there was a flash of odd light, as Ky's swords activated. A small shout from the girl as one of the blades came right at her, too fast for her to react with. The blade lopped off the end of her hood as it went to its master. Thankfully, not enough to actually cause her any embarrassment and her hood to fall, though locks of white hair were revealed as they were freed.

It didn't stop her from losing her balance in surprise though, and stumble backwards. Not far enough to stumble off the branch, though she did fall right on her butt. Ugh, what was that guys problem?! She had been perfectly nice to him, and then he goes and attacks her? Goddamn it, now she wished he had gone splat.

The thought only lasted moments, though, and instead focused back on Klisa.

"I'm fine...a-are you hurt?"

@KiltmanBagz

---

"A fight does sound interesting something to entertain the masses perhaps but in a fight I wont lose so easily"

Hehe, looked like Sora here had spunk! Unlike a certain old man standing next to her.

"Dragon Slayer magic a lost magic one where a dragon teaches a human their magic if I am not mistaken. If you really want a fight be it a group or single I am not one to say no Chloe was it?"

"Yep, Chloes the name. Learned all the magic I know from a dragon, and the martial arts from my dad." Before she could say much else, though, Haine interrupted with his talk of peace. Chloe merely rolled her eyes, pouting a bit. He was such an old man! Not even the monk who raised her was like this, and he was probably old enough to be Haine's grand dad. She folded her arms, pouting a bit that Haine was being a stubborn old mule about this. It wasn't like they were gonna be fighting as enemies, would they? Well, they would be, but it'd be entertainment! Well, whatever.

"We fight every other day of the year, it would be nice to actually celebrate together instead. But a fight would interesting, with sprits high, fighting would take a different dynamic, In all honesty I don't mind."

At this, Chloe grinned, not taking note of the new addition of the harpies. Not that it mattered, really. She'd take them all on regardless.

"Hey hey, even if Haine wants to be an unfunny old man and doesn't want too, I'll fight the both of ya! Nothing like a tough battle to get the blood going, right?" She laughed heartily laughed. "I'm not gonna go down so easily even if both of ya are A-Ranks!" The slayer took a battle stance, clenching her fists as her she prepared herself for battle. She'd try not to use her hammer this time, unless she absolutely needed too, or unless one of the others had a weapon.

"So, come on then!~ I wanna see how strong you harpies are, yeah?~"

@LokiLeo789@RabidAnubis@Suku

"Ah yeah," Sandria responds as if she just remembered, "To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect out of him/her. I haven't even seen the new master, nor heard of its' name. Regardless, I'm still pretty excited to see what we get."

"In fact, I actually just gotten back from delivering fresh food from the farms outside the town, all being prepared into healthy and delicious meals. The more exquisite ones are going into the master's dish. Surely it'll like it."

It was then when she remembered Kyuuten wanting to "shake up" some Golems members.

"Also," she responds, "You wouldn't want to get so cocky in front of us. Don't forget we can still easily kiss your little Harpy-behinds good bye if we really want to. You should be thankful that your saying that to me compared to some of the other more... "aggressive" folk."

_{" . . . Description?"}

Ky waited until the demanding mage had finished speaking to Penny before asking his question, his voice coming from behind the latter mage, a tad to her right. He had no idea who this Phoebe was, nor any idea what they looked like, which he found odd considering he tried to make a habit of knowing the members of both guilds, as well as what they can do. This was something he naturally never alerted anyone too, as it could quite possibly be perceived to be much more perverse and malicious in nature than just simple observation and information gathering.

As his thoughts turned to the people in both guilds, he looked towards Penny, who he consider to be Xae's playmate more than anything else. Her desire to be in the guild despite her lack of magical skill was interesting, and Ky wondered what she would be once she grew into her own.

Hopefully, she doesn't turn out anything like Mary, despite how much time they spend together with their gardening, because I doubt I could stand much more nagging bossiness like I have to deal with from that woman.

@Leslie Hall@j8cob

Sora Takamachi|Battle Ready?

@LokiLeo789@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist

"So, come on then!~ I wanna see how strong you harpies are, yeah?~"

"Very well lets get this show underway shall we?" Sora said her head tilting to the side her pride was not going to allow her to walk away from a open challenge like that. "Though I do suggest we take it to a more suitable location than a middle of a street. After all no need for any accidents to occur due to us fighting." She quickly added as she nodded her head. Shifting her stance to where her left hand supported her right elbow she started to add more questions. "So is there are some ground rules we should lay down some obvious ones such as nothing that can truly injure someone. Also beyond that how about we avoid weapons in this duel as well?" She added once more sure she was skilled with her axe but she was sure Chloe shared her sentiments on that part. Plus like this is made things more interesting.

Umiko sat with his arms behind his head and his elbows held up to the sky. He pressed his back against the firm tree bark, tilting his head back so he could stare up through the canopy. The sky trickled through the gaps of the canopy and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. Umiko would have been content to stay here all day and avoid the festival. Not everyone seemed to share the same mindset and it was clear to Umiko that Vega was not happy with the arrangement his Guild master had roped him into.

Vega stirred at Umiko's mention of the Harpy's being able to participate in the festival while he missed out. It was clear something had clicked inside of him.
"Well when you put it that way... Hmmmmm" Umiko could only imagine what Vega was thinking, though he knew that he was up to no good. Not that he cared. When Vega stood up and prepared to leave Umiko could not have been more relieved. Finally he'd have some some alone time to train and read.

"I'm gonna go have some fun, later nerd." Umiko scoffed at his little insult. The young man liked to believe he was better than letting childish names get to him, but in truth it still pissed him off. He watched Vega leave the tree, taking his smug attitude with him.
Good riddance. Umiko thought, returning back to his rest. Though it only took a few moments for the nagging sensation to start gnawing at him. What kind of fun was Vega going to have? Surely there'd be mischief involved. As a responsible young man, Umiko knew better than to waste his time hanging around people like Vega who were always looking for trouble. Yet in saying that, Umiko had never been great at resisting the temptation of mischief. Surely today of all days he'd be able to resist? Umiko's fists clenched in eagerness, his body tense as his conflicted feelings on the matter wrestled for dominance.

"Hey, wait up!" Umiko called out, quickly springing to his feet and gathering his belongings. Logic had lost today and Umiko found himself embarrassingly giddy at the idea of getting up to no good with Vega. He quickly hopped down from the branch, descending down the grand tree with careful, yet quick, steps. Within a matter of moments he had caught up with Vega.
"Whatever fun you're getting into, I want in." Umiko smirked, punching Vega in the shoulder.
"And don't call me a nerd." Umiko was practically bounding up and down, like a boxer pumped up for the fight. It was true that any responsible young man would avoid company such as Vega, but Umiko was all too familiar with his companions boredom. Things had been quite stagnant for some time and this was the kind of rush he'd been yearning for.



Penny's attention had fallen on a particularly glamorous display of roses at Mary's stand. Penny loved roses, particularly white ones, and had even been trying to grow her own rose bush. Even though she had spent a lot of time and effort on her roses, they did not look nearly as amazing as Mary's. That was to be expected; she was the expert! Penny had to stand on her toes just so she could get a full view of the stand, her hands clinging to the edge of the magical hedge that Mary had summoned.
"Hello, Penny," Penny smiled at Mary's greeting, leaning over the hedge slightly to get a better look at the flowers. "Of course you may have one. I have enough beautiful plants in my garden so I must share some of my excess with the rest of the world." Penny clasped her hands together in delight at Mary's response, unable to contain her excitement.
"Oh, thank you Ms Boyce!" Penny pushed her glassed back up from the tip of her nose, though this did little to stop them from appearing crooked on her face. She kept one finger on her chin, quietly browsing the selection of flowers with her usual, pensive glare. People always thought the little girl was just exaggerating whenever she looked so serious about any mundane thing, but to her these were not just 'simple tasks'. She had waited a long time to be able to see Mary's stand and she wanted to make sure she chose something absolutely wonderful.

Mary continued to speak while Penny browsed her selection, and Penny hung onto every word as usual.
"It would be cruel of me to deny you such beauties as these. If you treat them right you can even grow some more of your own and create your own beauty that you too may share one day." No doubt Penny had heard this all before, but Mary's wisdom was never tedious to the impressionable young girl.
"I'd love to show you my garden sometime, Ms Boyce!" Even despite the excitement in her tone, Penny's eyes never left the stand. She wasn't finished choosing yet, and she needed to make sure she was paying attention to every detail. "It's only small, and we don't have much growing just yet. We did have grapes, but the birds kept eating them off the vine." Truthfully, Penny was quite happy to share her grapes with the birds. She had planned on bringing a bunch of them in for her Guild mates, but by the time the birds were finished with them there was nothing left.

Penny's eyes settled upon a lovely little bundle of lavender that sat in the middle of the stall.
"May I have that one, Ms. Boyce?" Penny pointed at the plant of her choice, a colorful purple band strapped around her finger. What was that supposed to be again? Penny couldn't even remember what her reminders were supposed to be reminding her of sometimes. She felt quite silly, but had little time to dwell on it as a quiet voice spoke up from her right side.

_{" . . . Description?"}

Penny spun around to see Ky standing beside her, holding a brown wallet. He seemed to be intent on returning it to someone.
"Hello Ky! How are you today?" Penny was the least bit concerned by his sudden presence, or rather she did a very good job of not showing it. She didn't think she'd ever get used to the way Ky sort of just dropped in unannounced. Regardless, it was a pleasant surprise. Penny was quite fond of Ky and Xae. Even despite their unusual circumstances, Penny had always been rather understanding of the two of them. She'd always been able to tell whether or not she was talking to Xae or Ky just by nature; they didn't even need to speak for her to know.

"So the kid wants to be a man huh? Fine by me, but don't count on me to bail you out", if some kid wanted to join in on the fun, who was he to decline? Maybe it'd be convenient for him too.

---

The old wooden door clicked and swung slowly open, revealing a dark room to Vega. He put his lockpicks away and stepped inside. This was a hardware store, what was Vega planning? He swept past the wooden parts and furniture and strode straight up to the paint aisle in the dark.

"I reckon that boring old Harpy hall could use a little pizazz, know what I mean? The old Vega touch", he was going to vandalize their guild hall with graffiti basically. Leave them a pleasant surprise when they return from the festival so to speak. There might be some of them left, but the objective was going to be graffiti then run, so upon being noticed they should bail. He snatched a bucket of paint and a brush from the shelf, and handed them to Umiko to carry without looking back to him.

"Now if I remember they also had some new fancy thing, they called it 'spray paint'... Oh this must be it", after rummaging through the boxes, he found a cannister, it had a nozzle and everything too. He turned it to the ground and tried it out, but nothing came out.

"Huh?... Oh I need to shake it...", he spotted the writing in large letters through the dark, and after following that instruction it worked.

"Well, would you look at that... Come on let's get going", bluntly put, this was stealing, as they just stole some painting goods. As he exit the building with Umiko in tow and locked the door like no one ever touched it...
"Don't worry... We'll return these... Maybe. Those Harpies certainly will if we have to leave them behind", plus it was only a bucket, a brush, and one of the new stock. He looked around, but the street was deserted, everyone was out to the festival, it was also starting to get towards afternoon too... Perfect. The less light there was when they got there the better.

Before she could confirm that Penny could take the Lavenders, Ky had spoken up again much to Mary's surprise. "Oh? I figured you would've known who that girl was," Mary confessed, "considering your hobby of spying on people and all." With that out of the way she redirected her attention back to Penny. "Of course you can have these beautiful Lavenders. Lucky for you they were the last ones, I think. Yes. They were." Being that she was giving away the flowers for free she didn't have any kind of paper or checklist to confirm what she does and doesn't have. Everything has to go by sight and memory.

And with the younger girl satisfied she brought her attention back to her fellow S-class mage. "The Phoebe girl is pretty short, white hair, and looks as if she doesn't go outside very often. Seems to be about your age or so. She'll probably come back for the wallet anyways but otherwise I have no idea where she went. Kinda teleported away or something so no idea what direction she went." With that information relayed, Mary let out a sigh and leaned back again until she was parallel with the ground and was now facing the sky. It was a nice stretch, being she had been sitting with no back support for hours. "Penny. If you want to keep birds off your grapes I can make you a safe potion to deter them. All you'll have to do is drizzle it on your grapes or any other fruits and they'll leave it alone. You'll just have to wash them when you are ready to eat them."

While Mary was known for being a phenomenal gardener she was far from ignorant about the plants she grew. Had she not had the magic she was blessed with she would've certainly become a herbologist, as her knowledge of plants translates well into knowing how to use them. Making magic potions is easy for Mary, though it isn't combat effective so not many know of that skill of hers. Only those who really understand her dedication would assume that Mary's knowledge of plants and their uses is unrivaled. Few understand how little she uses her magic outside of combat. "If it rains you will have to reapply it, though, so I might have to make you a few bottles..." It seemed that Mary had already set her mind to assisting Penny with her grape dilemma.

Not Spying. Information Gathering. Difference. Moving on. I'll wait here.

Having realized that he was with only his guildmates and only his guildmates, Ky had switched to sign language to communicate. Offering Penny a light wave when she greeted him. He also gave her the sign for 'meh' in response to her question of how his day had been going. He'd fallen out of tree and was now dealing with one of the more demanding people of their guild, so he couldn't say it was going great, not by a long shot, but the day was still early, so it could get better. . . or worse.

Letting out a soft sigh, he seated himself next to the stand, reaching out to pick one of the flowers and spend his time examining it, waiting for those Phoebe to come and pick up her wallet. he considered leaving the task to Xae, but figured that if he didn't know the person, they didn't get out much, and as such, wouldn't appreciated someone like Xae being all up in their face as he was very likely to do.

@TheHangedMan@j8cob@Leslie Hall



At the front of the Harpy Wing Guild Hall stood a red haired beauty, dressed in a loose-fitting, long sleeved top, jeans, and a pair of slip-on shoes as she looked towards where the festival was being held, a sneer present on her face as she turned away from the whole thing, instead going back into Hall in order to get something to eat. She'd witnessed Klisa's arrival and rescue of the boy who had fallen of the tree, and considering how the one she saved was a Golem, she felt that the Dragon Slayer should've left him to his fate. If he was half as strong as the Golem's liked to say they were, he wouldn't have been seriously injured by a mere fall, and if he was, then it just proved how full of hot air Golems truly are.

Klisa sure is taking her time coming down . . . must mean that Ceri's up amongst the branches again. Wonder if she's the one who pushed that Golem off? Unlike, she's such a frail spirit, I can hardly imagine her having the strength of will that such an act would require, even if the Golem was being exceptionally cruel to her and asking for it. That just the kind of person she is, weak in both mind and body, but who knows, she might make something of herself with that Smoke magic of hers. Either that, or continue to be a drag on her Slayer friend. Akane saw real potential in Klisa to be a top-tire mage, not only because she commanded a Lost Magic, but because she held quite a strong will of her own, something the Akane saw as necessary in order to be truly great. However, the only thing that seemed to be holding her back was her devotion towards Ceri, who was seemingly hopeless in Akane's eyes. While it was a good virtue to care for the weak, if you do so at the cost of your own growth, then all you end up doing is shackling your own growth to their level for eternity.

As such, she disapproved of their friendship greatly, but kept to herself about it, for the most part. It was, after all, none of her business how they handled their affairs and relationships, though she couldn't help but make the odd comment here and there at Ceri's expense.