Vesta Celestia and Avery Ackbar Celestia

@FamishedPants@demonspade64@noodles@Letter Bee@Sir Lurksalot@liferusher@Seirei No Hai@ADamnFiddle@ZekariVoblis@Rekaigan
With everyone's attention on the soap drama happening within the grounds, no one noticed the small child walk straight through the gate. Heads would roll for such a mistake later, but for now all that mattered was that the little elk girl who had wandered in had walked straight into the storming off Vesta's legs.
Not that it affected Vesta much, just a slight tumble forward as she felt something collide into her leg. The girl on the other hand bounced off of her and landed on her behind it would seem, which was the moment everyone seemed to notice the girl and rush over. Heinrich was the first to arrive seeing as he had already been following Vesta, and after being waved off by an irritated Vesta he attended to the girl along with Maria.
Vesta shot a side on glance towards the girl, noting the obvious demi human features which were her large elk horns. Besides that, the girl seemed to be more on the malnourished side of things and her clothes had obvious signs of travel on them.
Letting out a sigh, she let the irritation she felt leave with the sigh before half turning round.
"Do give the girl a little space you two, don't want to freak her out." Vesta looked down at the girl, her dark ruby orbs seeming to brighten for just a moment.
"Are you just going to sit there? Do come in, Ronni would've prepared the tea by now. You must be hungry from your travels." With that said Vesta disappeared further into the mansion, expecting the group to follow her to the large meeting room that she had used the last time such a group had gathered here.
Once the group had entered and sat down, a red haired maid came along pushing a trolley topped with a tray full of snacks and tea and would begin to distribute them amongst the group.
Vesta would sit there, sipping on some tea for a moment and just savoring the freshly brewed taste that accompanied it. Once Ronni had left the room, she gently put down her cup.
"So do tell me what brings you here girl, demi's such as yourself tend to avoid this place for good reason. My father frowns upon your kind after all."

---

Having chosen to ignore Ease's outburst as Avery having forgotten his name, as brief as it was anyway, Avery began to do something that Avery rarely did. That was fidget nervously. How should he explain this?
Cause he knew it didn't matter how he explained this, they were gonna be pissed off. Hell, Duncan seemed pretty pissed off as he began to scold the younger man on jumping off of the roof.
Well, to be fair, it was more like *fell* off the roof on purpose, but he decided that correcting the bald Canadian mightn't be the wisest course of action.
"Actually....bout that..." The trap said with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head "Umm Lady Vesta may or may not have, um, found her that night...." With the stares that he no doubt from Duncan, he gulped nervously and continued to fidget.
"Aaaand we may have just left her to her own devices when we went to the village." Yep, he knew he was in trouble now. Maybe he should mention that Vesta asked her to stay at the mansion? Well, not that he had made of a chance to as a drunk wandered into the alleyway.
Man this place sure was getting packed.
With his staff back in his hand, he went to whack the man lightly as a warning to back away from Aya, but seems like he was beaten to the chase by some new cloaked figure. As in literally, she was beating the absolute snot out of the guy and it was kinda hilarious.
Well damn, this alleyway must be more popular than Avery thought.
Deciding that the others had could try to stop the newcomer from beating the drunk to death, Avery turned round to Aya and leaned down to her level, giving her a once over before voicing his honest thoughts.
"You look like an absolute mess! When was the last time you had a bath young lady?" If Duncan was going to play the tired, overprotective father role then Avery was gonna play the overbearing older sister role. Sure, he was actually a guy but very few people knew that!
"And when was the last time you ate a proper meal? Jeez, you should've just accepted Lady Vesta's offer. I knew you couldn't survive on your own here. Well, no need to fret, for I am here!" Avery gave Aya a wide, toothy grin before embracing her in a tight hug.
"I'll take you to Yoshi! And she'll give you a nice warm meal, some nice new clothes..." Avery continued to babble excitedly, acting more and more like a teenage girl the longer he talked.

---

The puppy would immediately go back to demanding attention from Aya, sitting at her feet and lightly headbutting her shins. It wanted pets, and it wanted them now damnit!

---

She wasn't too sure how long she had been stroking Blanc's hair when she had begin to stir, her soft white hair tickling her slightly which incited a small giggle from the older lady, though it was mostly into her hand.
That was when she felt Blanc's hand shoot up and firmly grasp her chest, though she didn't seem all too bothered about the development.
"Oh my, isn't someone bold." Was all she said with a small laugh as Blanc looked up sleepily towards the woman. She was visibly disappointed when Blanc leapt away and began rambling on the ground, not even paying a single attention to a word she said.
"Aw, she's so adorable when she's embarrassed. Reminds me of my little Vivi." Was all she thought, sighing fondly as she thought back to her middle daughter. She tried too hard to be like her sister sometimes.
"Oh no dear, it's fine. I just wasn't expecting an elf of all things to just turn up in the family carriage. Your people tend to be very....reclusive." Summer said gently, looking at Blanc through half lidded eyes as she watched the elf go to leave.
She, uh, did realise they were moving right?
Just as she opened the door and would be about to fall out, a skeletal hand grabbed the back of Blanc's shirt and dragged her back in, before another closed the door. After the first hand put Blanc on the seat opposite Summer, it broke apart and flew back into her coat pocket.
The second one went about making some tea. Where the teaset and tea came from was anyones guess.
"So, do tell me about yourself elf. Oh but before that, I should introduce myself. I am Summer Celestia, wife to the current head of the Celestia family. Do excuses my manners, but I got a little excited. This is my first time meeting an elf." Summer said with a smile, acting as if nothing had happened.

Alexander Sky

Alexander would look at Vesta and say; "The Elk Girl has a fairly powerful Divine Protection; colored green. She also has two contracted Spirits bound to her with colored strings. Also, I have some food, perhaps I can - oh, she's allowed in; that's truly noble."

Alexander was awed by Vesta's kindness and her freedom from the prejudice common in Lugnica. He then followed Vesta further in, his loyalty to his new employer reaffirmed. As they reached the meeting room, Alexander chose a seat that was not too far, but not too close to where Vesta sat, and accepted the tea and pastries that were offered to him; it has been a long time since he had something sweet that wasn't honey cakes or fruit. It was clear that despite initial reservations, Alexander was going to do just fine with his new employer...though only if he avoided meeting with her father.

@Lunarlors34@ADamnFiddle[@Reikagan]@FamishedPants

Two people approached her within moments of her buttocks meeting the stone floor. One of them was.. a massive.. bulky thing. His tone of voice seemed nice enough, but she didn't really understand what he was saying. Perhaps it had something to do with her wellbeing. Who knows. The other person was.. a woman in a very shiny suit of something. She seemed to mimic the gesture of the bulky person. Elanil still didn't understand any of it. The torrent of what seemed to be questions made the demigirl shrink away slightly from the two, their mysterious language confusing her, but their tone remained friendly.

Suddenly a voice spoke up from behind her. It was the person she walked into earlier. Again, Elanil didn't know what the lady said but she felt inclined to follow them as they didn't try to remove her from this place. Like a duckling following it's mother, she followed after the silver haired woman. The little elk girl promptly sat herself next to the woman, sniffing the air. A delicious smell filled her nose and a feeling of anticipation welled up within her. A lady in heavy looking clothing walked into the room, pushing some weird thing, but it had the delicious smelling things on it!

Her gaze was fixed on the various foods that descended onto the table in front of her. A small well of weirdly coloured water sat next to it. She leaned forward in curiosity and sniffed at the water, but quickly pulled away as the steam stung at her nose. It was best to avoid such a dangerous thing. She didn't know how the lady next to her was able to handle such a dangerous liquid. She gingerly picked up the brown.. flaky thing. Sniffing it as she had done with the hot water. It smelled wonderful. She immediately bit into and a feeling of bliss took hold. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she continued to chew on the baked good.

Her attention moved to the silver haired lady next to her as she spoke. Once again, she didn't understand any of it, but picked up a word or two. "De..mi?" She repeated in a very unsure tone. Maybe they were saying names? She pointed to herself with a smile, "Elanil!" She said excitedly before pointing at the silver haired lady, "Demi!"

"Ugh... what happened...?"

No matter how drunk a person is, anybody would become sober from a beating like this. Kurokono had just drank a cup of beer and somehow he ended up getting beaten up in an alley by a dragon thing. He flinched from the bruises he'd gotten.

"What's with a dragon doing in the middle of an alley? Shouldn't you be kidnapping princesses or something?"

Kurokono turned to look at the other people, familiar faces that have used phrases that he'd only heard from his hometown. They seemed to be trustworthy, oh well...

"Alright, alright, I admit, I'm a Police from Hokkaido. Same place as some of you guys. Also, girls shouldn't be hanging around at places like this. Some men are indecent here, especially at night..."

That guy has said it in such a rash tone that makes it hard to believe. Not to mention his current state of being pinned to the wall in the middle of the alley...

@melpaws



Dragan remembered very little of his journey through the city as he woke up in some sort of infirmary, fresh but slightly bloodied bandages wrapped his head. His body was covered in a cold sweat he noticed as he threw aside the covers and attempted to rise, only to falter when his head left the pillow.
A wave of nausea swept over him while his brain felt like it had been lit aflame. Hissing in pain he instinctively held his forehead and winced.

From the side of the room there were footsteps.. voices.. their faces were a blir and every word was distorted, sluggish, but they guided him down forcefully to the sheets. The only word he could make out had been "..rest."
Two men chattered in the corner and turned to view Dragan from time to time.

Like pieces of a puzzle he began to unravel the many mysteries. One of the first was when a doctor mentioned to their colleague that "Dragan was..".

My name is.. Dragan?

Even his thoughts were sluggish. Even against his best efforts to stay awake, darkness claimed him within minites of resting.

---

A voice reached him in the darkness, cutting through the darkness like a white blade. The sensation of being touched forced his eyes open as memories of combat flooded his brain, Dragan all but flung himself upon whatever grasped him.
Breathing hard through the nausea his vision cleared. In his hands was an apprentice of some kind, thick robed and wide eyes as the lad attempted to shield himself. Dragan released his grip and stumbled back into a sitting position on the bed looking at the floor as he tried again to remember.

"Mr.Kendall? Sir?" The apprentice was sheepish, afraid, but still tried his best to continue. "Y-you have suffered a.. a.. damage to your head. The doctors-"

The boy stiffened as Dragans threatening gaze fell on the boy at every word.

"THEY FEARED-" coughing, the lad brought himself under control and continued. "Err.. feared you have suffered trauma. Something struck you earlier today, hard. Split your helmet wide open. Many feared you wouldn't recover.."

Dragan reached up to his head and felt the wound. A slashing weapon, not blunt? Even through the thick bandages he could feel the wound slightly. It would leave a good scar. As his fingers traced his face he let out a dry laigh, realizing this new scar was going to fit right in.
His whole body was covered in strange scars.

"The man who did it?"

The boy shook his head mournfully. "Nobody was found in the area. The iron bell knights found you bleeding in an alleyway and brought you back to the barracks. Your armor, minus the helmet, is in working condition if you are worried."

Dragans eyebrow raised questioningly at the comment. "What armor?"

"Excuse me?"

Standing up to his full height, Dragon towered over the lad. Bubbling confusion and anger already soreading across his face. "What. Armor. Out with it!" He shouted, loud enough that others flooded into the room.
Two of which were armed and armored. Before any could speak, the oldest of the armored group stepped forward.

"Brother Dragan, it is good to see you awake. We feared the iron bells had los another brave warrior."

That set him back on his heels. More thoughts came unbidden, a ride from a faraway land. Son of a nobleman. Transfer and induction into the iron bells. All of it fell into place so quickly it buckled his legs, depositing the injured man to the floor.
The others rushed over to help but Dragan waved them off, anger bubbling away to a feeling of emptiness.

"My brothers... the bells.. Kendall.. it is all so blurry." Mumbling to himself on the floor as the graying knight came to kneel beside his ally, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You suffered a nasty wound on your way in. My guess is you're feelin' like scramled eggs upstairs right now am I right, lad?"

Lacking a proper response Dragan merely nodded.

"Thought so. Get what rest you can, when you're ready I want you to get some freh air. Nothing strenous. Maybe that will jog your memory."

When Dragan nodded his further agreement, the graying knight turned to the gsthering mass of people and gave his orders for rest and quiet for the injured. No more contact unless called for, and a hearty meal was called for.
As the door closed behind the group Dragan was left to his thoughts.
Outside the window he saw the world stretch out endlessly before him.

Fingers clenched as the thought of his attacker lurking outside came to mind.

---

Having taken his share of rest and food Dragan decided to take the other knights suggestion and explore outside for some time. It was unlikely he would be accosted again but somewhere inside his heart there was the feeling that he was missing something. The one who attacked him might be the one holding the answer..
Armed and armored, Dragan stood at the exit of the Iron Bells barracks near the main gates looking at the city ahead.

Zin switched hands holding the drunkard up against the wall with simply her hand, she reached down between the two of them, nearly head butting his stomach as she reached down for her cloak, then one of the men in the group either found the guts to approach Zin or they just did it without thinking about what she could do to him. Instead of threatening her or sounding afraid of her form, he instead told her that she got him, she probably got him after the first couple jabs to the chest, or after she pushed his head into the wall, listening to the human and wanting to get her cloak, the Dragon woman let go of the guy and grabbed her cloak from the ground.

While she shook the dirt and muck off the thing, the guy she beat the crap out of ended up commenting on her form."What's with a drunkard picking a fight with a young girl?" she wrapped herself up the best she could before pulling the rest over her head to best cover her face. The guy began to bring up some words and say he was from a different world of some sort, cracking her knuckles Zin put her fist up." I guess you're still drunk and need some more sobering up?" She asked him." If you're sober enough, you should take this chance to walk away before I turn you into a piece of charcoal. " She warned him one final time before throwing him out of the alley.

Once the drunk was taken care of, she noticed one of the people in this alley group was Avery, a member of the Celestia family and member of Vesta's growing posse,"You!" She pointed to Avery."Aren't you suppose to by Vesta's side?" She then thought of the last situation that just went down with her barrelling down the alley and beating the crap out of someone and wanted to avoid having to talk and fight at the same time."Everyone should clear out this alley before people believe something shady is going down here?" Zin mentioned to the others before stepping out of the alley way making sure her cloak wouldn't fall off this time around.

@Lunarlors34
@FamishedPants
@Letter Bee
@Rekaigan

Maria followed the others as they moved from the yard into the mansion. After all, a simple meeting was all Maria really wished to have with Vesta, but drama and the presence of other individuals seemed to change the overall objective of her meeting. Through and through, it was still a meeting, regardless of the changes.

A server had brought out foods and the like for the group. Perhaps unlike someone who claims to be a knight, Maria seemed to have a weakness against sweets and the like. Perhaps she would be a glutton if her duty to the sword was more important to her than any other indulgence, but that did not stop her desires from occasionally slipping through.

Taking some tea, which was served in expensive-looking porcelain cups, and a sweet to herself, Maria relaxed for a moment.

Maria couldn’t help but stifle her laughter at the ponderous, yet simple nature of the demi-human child who had walked into the area, not unlike a small animal’s thought process, she had seemed to enjoy the sweets prepared by Vesta.

Though she was suspicious about the nature of the child, a kid couldn't cause too much harm, right? Of course, looks can be deceiving, but Maria was willing to overlook this fact, so long as she didn’t step too far out of line.

“I guess she doesn't understand us,” Maria commented with another laugh as Vesta was referred to as “Demi”, as if it was her name or something. Though it likely more so directed at Vesta’s reduction of her outward coldness she normally displays to others, broken by something Maria also considers “cute”. Maybe, by that metric, Maria wasn’t too away from her older sister’s footsteps, humanizing something Maria admires.

“Elanil,” Maria said slowly as she pointed towards Elanil, enunciating the word slowly as she dropped down to her knee to an eye level with the young child.

“Maria.”

Maria did the same, this time pointing towards herself.

“Vesta.”

“Heinrich.”

“Alexander.“

She continued to do this to introduce those who were in the room. Perhaps the girl would at least be able to understand who one another were. Though if she didn’t know how to properly speak, perhaps she spoke a different language? Perhaps she was farther than how than what Maria would be willing

“I heard there is an epidemic. Individuals from foreign lands getting abducted and brought here. I know not what for, but I’ve had several run ins with smugglers trafficking on the back roads. Maybe that has something to do with this child.”

Maria took a scoop of sugar with a silver spoon, spinning the powdery substance into her tea in a swirling motion. Shortly after she she poured some of the milk in a silver saucer provided by the maid prior, coalescing into a somewhat sweeter tea than most others might wish to have, though Maria wasn’t completely averse to such a taste or texture.

“The problem is with a child though, is that I know not where she comes from, nor the language she understands. If she was with her parents, I could leave it as so, but alone and so far away from her home, it would be irresponsible to leave her by herself. The question is … what would be do with her?”

Though Maria was sure that the people around her had not given the extent of thought into the subject that she would have hoped for, she had experience in this field. After all, she was a knight. If a missing girl wasn’t something she could handle, what good were the knights to begin with?

“I could likely use the knights to help find her family if she still has any; the Iron Bell are here to protect the laws of this land and those whom fall under its jurisdiction. But until they find them, or if they don't find them, what would we have us do? Your father cares not for Demi-kind, Vesta, and I am not sure about the other two, but they don’t really look like they want to look after a child yet. I could take her with me, but I am busy with my work a lot of the time, and the only place i could keep her is in a military installation. That being said, there are orphanages that daddy… I mean that father influences in the capital I could bring her too as well.”

@liferusher @Noodles @Lunarlors34 @Sir Lurksalot@Spriggs27




Honestly, it was hard to tell when exactly Ease’s life got so weird and out there. More than likely it was the, you know, time he got transported into a world with literal cat people, magic, and him suddenly being able to die and come back to life repeatedly. That would be the time it would get weird wouldn’t it? The past 4 weeks have been....interesting to say the least and, like that fateful day, always seem to have everything weird happen in just a day.

Avery decided to reveal just a few important details. The first being that apparently Vesta actually found Aya that night. While unfortunate that they didn’t actually tell anyone this, it was something...generally passable, if annoying. The second, more important, being that they left the teenage schoolgirl on her own. In the city that literally killed him several times. Ease’s face dropped in terms of expression. He could also hear what she had said repeating in his head over and over for a second as he let out a sharp exhale from his nose. He immediately glared at the purple haired girl.

“You did wha-?”

Out of practically thin air, a random cloaked figure came out and pinned the swordsman to a wall and started punching and decking him in the stomach. Not long afterwards, the cloak dropped, revealing a...blessed dragon woman. That was beating up a drunk swordsman. Surprisingly, Ease barely reacted to the new person...dragon...girl in the alleyway. As Duncan looked back at him and the others to confirm that, yes, this was indeed happening, Ease just let out a sigh, took off his glasses to rub his eyes, and turned his head towards Avery for a second. “We will talk about this later.” He said with an immensely fed-up tone. He was really not having any of this shit today.

Ignoring Avery’s attempt at feigning innocence by excitedly talking with Aya, he put his glasses back on and turned towards the drunk man and the dragon woman. As if wanting to get the woman more pissed off at him, he announced, once again, that he was from Earth and, even stupider, that woman shouldn’t be in alleyways like this. After getting his handed to him by one specifically.

Ease just let out an annoyed groan and said “Buddy. Just...just shut the hell up.”

And then he was tossed out the alley by Titties McTiamat. Who also told everyone that they should leave the alleyway, which Ease really didn’t feel like arguing against. Walking out, he motioned for the others to follow. He looked over towards the pain-in-his-ass that was the drunk man.

He can’t just leave him there, mostly because the guy’s from Earth.

Ease helped the man up on to a wall. “You’re walking on your own though. And we’ll talk more about E A R T H in a little bit with the others.” He turned towards the dragon woman, probably expecting her to say something. “Guy doesn’t know how to handle his liquor. Sorry about his ramblings.” It was too complicated explaining Earth like this and, technically, she didn’t need to know about it at the moment. Best idea was to just play it off.

He turned towards the rest of the group. “Okay, I know a place not too far from here. We’ll go there to discuss...basically everything mentioned in the past 20 minutes or so.” One last turn to D-cup the Dragon. “Won’t stop you if you’re coming, but fair warning, it’s gonna be a lot to digest if you do.”

Reinhardt

With a loud creaking noise the brownish wooden door opened. The sound was loud enough to startle the local wildlife and cause some slight commotion nearby. It only lasted for a few moments before everything returned to the peaceful, calm athmosphere which was known in this part of the forest. The house in question, a rather common, wooden building with an inviting appearance was placed in a secluded part of the forest, just about half an hour away from the capital city. It was occupied by a certain someone called Reinhardt, a prestigious and proud member of the Royal Guard, towering at more than Two meters tall, or as others may know it, roughly seven foot tall. The man who was dressed in his uniform had just left his house where he took a moment to have a look around, inspecting the area in close proximity. His white beard was rustling in the wind and the sun, which was shining brighty, threw its rays upon Reinhardt's body. It truly seemed like a beautiful day and the guard took a rather deep breath of fresh air, held it in for what seemed like an eternity, before releasing his breath again with a pleasant sigh. He then spoke with his deep, somewhat smokey voice to himself. "What a beautiful day. The perfect day to be on duty." After he was done gazing around the area which he had grown so accustomed to over these past few years. He enjoyed the fact that his house was so secluded in such a peaceful area. Yet it was still close enough to the capital for him to do his job as a Royal Guard properly.

Finally, after he was done preparing, he locked the door behind him and then proceeded to leave his property into the green and inviting forest. Everything around him was quiet and he had no intention to change this scenery, walking as quietly as he could with his size, not wanting to be a nuisance to the wildlife in their daily routine. It took him roughly 45 minutes until he finally reached the city, he enjoyed to take his time while the area was still so full of peace and serenity before he would reach the crowded and stressful capital where he would have to pay attention while he was on duty.
Of course, a Royal Guard who was strolling through the town did so with good reason. His job was to fight those who dared to be a nuisance to the public, however as a Royal Guard he would serve more as prevention than actual reaction. Of course Reinhardt was more than capable of fighting those off who dared to disturb the public, his presence alone was usually enough to prevent any actions from small criminals. No unexperienced thief would dare to cause a commotion when a Royal Guard was in the area, especially not with a veteran like Reinhardt.
He took his job very seriously and had a "zero tolerance politic" when it came down to even the smalles criminal. However while his presence alone served as a preventing tool to those crimes, he had to keep and eye open himself as well of course. Any suspicious individual would have to be either thoroughly inspected or just carefully followed. One of those occasions was now, roughly an hour after he had begun is duty.
With his one still functioning eye Reinhardt spotted him, a rather armed individual whom Reinhardt had not seen before. Since the person was walking through the city rather aimlessly the Guard didn't really expect him to be hostile. However, one who was armed like him had to be investigated to make sure preventive actions could be taken if necessary. On top of that, with all the experience that Reinhardt had acquired over the years he was able to spot someone who was stronger than usual civilians easily. And this guy had this certain athmosphere around him, something that made him special. While Reinhardt himself stood out easily in a crowd, given his uniform and size, he couldn't really follow someone secretly. Which is why he decided a rather direct approach. Reinhardt stopped in front of Dragan with a friendly smile on his lips, showing that the Guard had no hostile intentions. "Greetings! I couldn't help but notice that you seem rather lost, are you looking for something or someone?" Reinhardt asked with his friendly voice. If the stranger did not know what a Royal Guard is he surely wouldn't suspect any other intentions than him being helpful. If he did know that however, he would know that a Royal Guard would not have any bad intentions, as long as Dragan himself had none.

@Zelosse

GREETINGS!

The voice cut through his silent considerations and brought out a sudden urge to attack, startled by a voice so close to him. His right hand gripped his claymore reassuringly but blew out a sigh attempting to calm his shaky nerves. Rationally thinking, it was unlikely the big man meant any harm given that his armor was pristine and weapon undrawn.

Lowering his hand off the hilt he waved at the newcomer, attempting to smile in a friendly manner. Too bad it came out looking like a wolf baring its teeth angrily.

"H-hello! You.. startled me. Sorry. No! No, I uh- was just- you were- that is to say-"

Dragan clumsily stumbled through his words before coughing to clear his throat, regaining composure over his words once more

"There is nobody in particular I am seeking, no. Just got the jitters after an.. incident. Still a little on edge after a close call in the city. That said, what brings you out these parts?"

Truthfully speaking he had no idea where the two were or if someone like Reinhardt came this way regularily. Just seemed like something to say.

Vesta Celestia

Vesta shook her head lightly, somewhat in disbelief at Elanil's crying out of demi at Vesta. It would seem that, as Maria pointed out, the girl didn't seem to understand them all too well. If at all.
Seeing as Maria corrected the girl, and slowly introduced everyone to her, Vesta saw no need to add much to it. The girl clearly struggled to understand them, so without a medium with which to communicate they would struggle to do so. Though Alexander had mentioned something about a spirit...
Which was something of interest. It wasn't that easy to contract with a spirit, first of spirits were quite fickle existences to begin with. They did as they wanted, helped whenever they wanted. Forcing one self upon a spirit also came with consequences.
So the fact that this young girl had a contract was something rather extraordinary. Depending on how powerful the spirit was, one needed a large amount of mana to forge a contract. Not usually the amount of mana a small child would possess, but it wasn't unheard of. Just extremely rare.

Tapping her cup thoughtfully, Vesta brought the warm liquid back to her lips to indulge in the tea some more before speaking.
"Abductions you say? That is indeed a cause for concern." Vesta drawled. So it hadn't been just Vesta who had been running into people from strange lands?
Though it was difficult to pinpoint from Mari's words if she was talking about the people from the other world, or another more sinister problem closer to home.
"Perhaps...though I doubt it." Vesta commented, gesturing to Elanil. She more came across to Vesta as a forest dweller, it wasn't unheard of. She wore no shoes, wore simplistic clothing and one wouldn't exactly call her clean. Then there was her inability to comprehend them. That and the horns were something she had seen with some demis who lived in a forest community a couple years back.
Whether she belonged to that group or not is a moot point.

"As to what to do with her..." Vesta looked down towards Elanil before turning back to Maria "To say my father doesn't care for her kind is an understatement. Though for that matter, what he thinks I care for even less." she added, a shrug accompanying her blunt tone. Her father may be the head of the family, but a long enough stare off and the thought of a duel tended to sway his thoughts eventually.

"Spirit. I know you can hear us, I've dealt with your lot enough." Vesta said as she gently placed her teacup down.
"It would be most appreciated if you would show yourself. Otherwise your master might end up in a city orphanage, which I doubt would sit well with her. Or yourself for that matter."

The young girl's amusement died down as the blonde, shiny woman moved closer to her and started speaking to her. She had pointed to herself and the others around her saying what seemed to be names. Names that were not what Elanil had expected to hear. The demi started to imitate the woman, pointing at each person in the exact order in which she was told, slowly trying to copy the pronunciation of each name.

"Maaah...ree..a"

"Veh.. veh-sstah?"

"Hi...Hein.." She furrowed her brow as she tried to make the sound for the last part of the name.. But at that point she kind of gave up trying to pronounce it. She just couldn't figure out how that word is even a name. She'll just call him 'Hein'.

Her mind wandered off as Vesta and Maria started talking about whatever they were talking about. Elanil didn't understand much of it. She started humming to herself until Vesta started speaking toward her. Elanil nodded as if she understood whatever Vesta was saying. She held out one of her hands, a blueish green glow collecting in the palm of her hand. A small turtle appeared in her hand, but it's shell was covered in grass and small flowers, with a small tree sprouting from the middle.

"Mm.. That would be problematic." It responded simply. True to it's shape, a long pause fell upon the group before the spirit began to speak again.
"I had expected, but also not expected young Elanil to leave the forest. It was possibly inevitable that she would come across others like you. She has come to an age where her curiosity gets the better of her, thus I ask you to take care of her externally." It stated blankly.

"I sense a strong magic within you. Perhaps you can help this child harness her power. I would like to see her realise her potential and perhaps do something with her short life." It added, it's gaze locked with Vesta's. Elanil seemed to have stopped fidgeting, concentrating on what her 'parent' was saying.

Among the many things the... curvy... dragon... person shouted out, a few things stood out to Duncan.

"You!" Said personification of everything Duncan had come to loathe but sort of expect in this bullshit world suddenly exclaimed while pointing at the violet haired Shenanigans-Engineer behind him who was in the midst of some frenzied Aya-smothering "Aren't you supposed to be by Vesta's side?"

Slowly, Duncan's head turned half-way towards the trap in question, his eyes swiveling the rest of the way to fix Avery with a silent look of 'Are you fucking kidding me?'

Before Duncan could quite grill her on that little remark, said still-unidentified demi-human turned and began to head out of the alley, remarking (truthfully) that a bunch of guys standing around a teenage girl in a dark alley would look just a liiiitle bit off to any passers-by, Ease in tow.

“Okay, I know a place not too far from here. We’ll go there to discuss...basically everything mentioned in the past 20 minutes or so.”

Eyeballing where the sun was sitting in the sky right now, the Canuck frowned a little; this... whatever the hell this was, had taken up a fair amount of time, and he was already running late when he got here. Him and Avery'd have to leave soon if they wanted some good daylight for the road.

Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose and screwing his eyes shut, the man lightly waved his hand the negative at his Blond friend.

"Sorry man, but me and Avery kinda got shit to do out of town. And we're late enough as is..." He offered apologetically "...And if we want to get far in the daylight, we're gonna have to hit the road and soon."

"And after we get your hair done, we will have to do something about those nails! They are dreadful!" Avery remarked, having spent most of the encounter babbling to Aya without even giving the poor girl a chance to get a word in. He only finally turned his attention back to the others when he heard a familiar sounding voice mention something about Vesta.
Blinking a few times as he looked from Zin to Duncan back to Zin, down to Aya before finally returning it to Duncan, his head tilted slightly to the side as he pointed towards himself. All this while still holding Aya close to his side.

"Is....is she talking to me?" The trap asked, sounding as confused as anyone else about this situation. He had never met this woman...lizard...thing before in his life!
He was sure he would remember someone like this. Though the voice was familiar....
Snapping back to reality as Duncan mentioned how late it had gotten, he let out an almost comedic, over the top gasp as he directed his line of sight skyward.
"....Huh." Wondering where the time had gone, Avery walked after the group holding Aya like a newborn baby with the puppy sitting on her stomach.
"Yeah we should get going. Need to get Aya some new clothes before we go at least, no way is she going adventuring in a potato sack!'

"I'm... sorry, what?" Duncan interjected, putting a hand on Avery's shoulder to both stop him physically and also, hopefully derail that crazy train before it picked up steam "We're going to a place we found on a map that we got from a bunch of bandits your sister turned into beet stew with no idea of what's actually going to be there and your first thought is to bring a Japanese Schoolgirl? You're fucking with me right now, right?"

Something that was... trying to be a smile made it's way across the bald man's face... and then slowly, comically began to melt into something between irritation and disbelief as he looked Avery in the eye, realizing one thing-

"Oh God, you're serious."

"Hmmm, sounds about right." The trap master replied after a moment of umming at Duncan's question. So what if it was just some place they had never been to, and they were using a map they had taken from criminals Vesta had turned into bloody remains scattered around the countryside, and yeah they had no idea what was at the end of this rainbow.
But Avery wasn't leaving Aya behind. Not this time.
"Don't be such a spoilsport Duncan! I promise to look after her! She won't leave my sight for a moment!" From the way he was talking, it sounded more like a child begging one's parent to let them keep the stray dog they had just found.
Which, wasn't that big a difference in this situation either. Avery needed to think here.
Duncan seemed pretty deadset against his idea, which was why he hadn't planned on letting him know till *after* it was too late. Damn him and his horrible ability to keep such secrets hidden.
"I mean, won't she be better off with us than in some dank, dark alley in this city filled with rapists, murderers and goons? We can at least make sure she eats and stays warm."

Duncan could only rub his temples and clench his eyes shut to soothe the headache that Avery's arguments wrought on his very psyche- Yeah, the trap had a point, leaving the girl alone in the city was a terrible fucking idea... but bringing her along was potentially a lot fucking worse.

Goddammit, there was no real right answer to this one, was there?

After a brief silence, the bald man sighed (again); Avery had that weird sparkly thing going on with his eyes right now which meant this was gonna be an uphill battle.

"So lemme get this straight..." He finally started, opening his eyes wearily and bringing his hands forward slightly in a lecture-y, chopping-motion "You want to bring this girl to what is likely, at best, a Bandit Lair populated solely by 'Rapists, murderers and goons', and at worst, a dark cave filled with giant spiders and cursed bullshit because why wouldn't it, we've spent the past month fighting hordes of flesh-eating rabbits and big fuck-off demon bears. This is your plan?"

Duncan had to take a minute to inhale after that mouthful.

"You understand that that sounds completely bugfuck crazy, right?"

"Yep, sounds about right." Avery didn't hesitate in his carefree response, his grin widening even further as Duncan continued to grin him. So what if there were fifty or so bandits, he and Duncan could dispatch that with ease.
Hey, speaking of Ease maybe they should invite him! More eyes to watch Aya!

At the crazy comment, he couldn't help but stifle a laugh.
"That's what I thought when she turned down Lady Vesta's offer and decided to brave the city on her own." The young man admitted, his playful tone faltering for a moment.

"Well, maybe not with those exact words, but close enough." With his tone restored, he perked up and gave Duncan a knowing smile.
"Besides, even if there are bandits, giant spiders or mabeasts up ahead she'll be far safer with us than here. All by herself, in the cold, dark alleyways. Afraid and hungry. Unless you have a better idea on where to take her? To Lady Vesta perhaps?" Avery said slowly, mockingly so, as his smiled widened further. To the point of annoying arrogant and smug. His tone soon matched that as he added another thought.
"Maybe Lady Summer? What could go wrong with leaving her with the woman that raised Vesta and myself?"

Duncan's head tilted to the side slightly; Yeah, that one was actually a fairly good point... well, save for one minor detail.

"Oh, so does that mean you don't intend to take her home with you afterward?" He queried flatly, crossing his arms and leaning forward slightly with a brow cocked "Ya know, where both of those people live?"

Head tilting to the other side now, the bald man clicked his tongue and quickly ran it over his back molars in an expression that showed that though he wasn't convinced, he was at least listening now.

"...You have thought that far ahead, right?" Duncan did, in fact, agree that Aya shouldn't be living on the street in this shithole city, in that sense Avery had already won this argument; it was whether or not he could actually convince the bald man that he'd thought this through enough not to get her killed and/or punted back out onto the street again when this was over that kept Duncan in opposition to the whole idea. "What exactly is your endgame if she comes with us?"

"O-of course I have! Even I'm not that impulsive!" With a nervous laugh, Avery could feel the cold sweat setting in. It was a complete and utter lie, Avery never thought anything through.
He was as impulsive as they came, I mean he had just jumped off a roof on the off chance that it was Aya. He was certain it had been her, but it would've been awkward if it wasn't.....
Thinking hard for a moment, he returned his still unconvincing gaze back to Duncan.
"T-there are other people I can talk too! Like Lady Mari, she's a knight. When we get back, we can just talk with her what to do!
Yeah that works." Nodding to himself, he seemed rather proud of the suggestion he made up on the spot.

"I mean, there other people too, like Yoshi, Lady Vivi or Lady Maribel just to name a few. We can work out the rest as we go." Avery added with a 'hmpth', puffing out his cheeks in an overly exaggerated, cutesy pout. Whether he convinced Duncan or not, he had already made up his own mind. Duncan could certainly damn well try to stop him.
He had one other trick up his sleeve though. Geography and local street smarts.
"If she's not going, then I'm not. Good luck guiding yourself with a map that you have no clue how to use, I mean do you even know half of those landmarks?"

Duncan clicked his tongue. Kid had him there; he wasn't gonna get too far without a guide in a country he barely knew a damned thing about, even with a map. Though he still wasn't entirely satisfied with Avery's ultimatum.

Pinching the bridge of his nose for the umpteenth time today and wringing his eyes shut, a sort of habit he'd formed in reaction to Avery's... Averyisms... he finally let out a defeated sigh.

'Welp, guess we're doing this now...'

"Alright. Fine. Two conditions though." Duncan began, opening his eyes and locking them directly onto Avery's own. "Firstly, she needs gear-"

Knowing right away how Avery was going to take that statement, he pre-emptively cut him off with an indicative chop pointed at his face.

"Proper gear. Not a maid outfit. Not a sundress. Something that will keep her safe." He continued, before his hand aimed away from the trapmaster's face and towards the girl in Avery's arms who they've been arguing about this entire time as if she weren't even there. "Second, she actually has to want to come."

How many times do I have to say I'm not drunk? Kurokono grunted. Today was a really bad day for him, not only he got himself killed by miscasting his own magic, he got beaten the living daylights by a crazy woman. And people say that girls from more primitive eras are humble and reserved.

"Urgh... Thanks, I'm fine now..." The swordsman rubbed his bruises as he got up. If it weren't for Ease who approached him more reasonably, he would've inched closer to his own sword by now.

He showed a steady and composed look that no drunk man would ever able to do. After all, it was just one mug of ale, the effects of it never last long. Regaining his posture, his ears twitched upon overhearing the interesting conversation between Duncan and Avery. Avery, quite a name for a girl~ He found the conversation quite heartwarming, them treating the girl Aya like a young sister, something he'd never seen for a long long time. But from what is seems, that girl Aya was also from the same hometown.

"Back in Japan, I was an honest and responsible policeman," Kurokono approached the baldy and the red haired girl, showing his police badge that is written in Japanese, "it would be safer to have someone with the same homeland to tag along, and I have a hunch I will gain more leads to the slave trade if I were to know someone like you."

After having sheltered behind Duncan from the rest of the weird people in the alley Avery told him the whole thing to what happened between them. Aya gulped while she averted her sorry eyes. Thinking back about the wrong choice she made brought a heavy feeling to her stomach. Avery hadn't told them the full story how it was basically Aya her choice to leave her on her own, Ease his reaction to Avery didn't help Aya with her feeling bad about it either.

Aya lightly bit her lip as the drunkard was being beat up by the dragon in the background, she chose to mostly ignore them since she didn't have anything to do with them at all. Why were they here in the first place!? Ease decided to help the drunkard out from being beaten any further while Avery tried talking to Aya to distract her from that other mess in the alley. Avery told her that she was an absolute mess, yes she was. Close to no proper clothes, her hair was dirty, her face and hands too, most of all she smelled real bad and it wouldn't be surprising if she had any infected wounds on her body. Aya scratched her chin lightly while keeping her eyes averted feeling quite embarrassed to answer that one question.





With her head dropt down she spoke back to Avery feeling ashamed of herself and sad. Slowly her voice died down the longer she talked feeling worse and worse. After speaking she turned her head back up back to Avery expecting a smiling grin on how he had been right on this all along that she wouldn't be able to survive but instead she found a concerned look in Avery his eyes. Aya gazed up into Avery's eyes goosebumps all over her body, her mouth slightly agape not having expected something like that from Avery.



Aya felt her body shiver for a moment as tears enveloped her eyes, that smile made her feel relieved for some reason. She just felt like the problems of the past 4 weeks have all been solved with those words. Aya stumbled backwards a light step as she quickly shifted both her hands in front of her face not knowing why these tears suddenly bursted out of her eyes.



Her hands desperately tried moving the tears away but they refusingly kept flowing. Avery his sudden hug made Aya drop her hands blankly staring forwards as he kept talking about warm meals and new clothes, showers. Aya couldn't hold back any longer and nuzzled her head onto Avery his shoulder while crying her heart out for a while.

---

Aya sniffled a bit of left over snot as she rubbed one of her eyes. They were all red from the crying she had done the past few minutes. Her voice was still shaky but she had regained some of her old serious personality at least.



Aya was a bit tired now of all Avery his bantering about how bad she looked after 4 weeks not cleaning. He was suppose to be the last to tell her. The dragon woman and the drunkard seemed to be on most of good terms right now so she supposed that situation has been resolved finally. The dragon woman had already chosen her next victim, she was frantically yelling how Avery was suppose to be by Vesta her side. Did it really matter that much? Aya gave a light worried nod at Avery after he asked if the dragon was talking to him.

Aya was picked up by Avery in princess like manner making her release a high princess like scream at the sudden feeling of being lift. In reaction she moved her arms around Avery his neck in order not to fall. After feeling less terrified she gave Avery a viscous snake glare before pouting and looking away. At the mention of her potato sack she jumped up for a moment moving one of her hands to the bottom of her cloth to pull it down to make sure nobody saw, her face seemingly reddening.

The scout didn't think it was a good idea to take Aya with them. Avery detested it and dropped the I want to keep this stray girl act. While Avery was doing the sad puppy eyes Aya was visibly growling at Duncan with redness in her eyes. Avery brightened the idea of having Aya over which Aya nodded with every reason he gave Duncan.

After Duncan his word about how the situation was gonna look like Aya gave him a somewhat troubled look now, s-spiders, bandits, rapist... This didn't sound fun or good at all. She didn't know if she was better off with or without them. At least they were able to fight those things off of Aya right. So that was at least 20 procent better then before.

At last Avery dropped the 'if the stray girl can't come home then I won't either' act. Aya gave him a worried look while still lying in his arms. Did he want her to come with him so much? He could have just dropped her off somewhere safe too, that would have been fine with Aya too. With pearly eyes Aya had been gazing between the two for a while waiting for them to make up or something.

At the end Duncan was fine with the choice of bringing Aya with them, on two conditions. One was gear which was only a matter of money and looking for good gear, sundress didn't count apparently. She didn't know why it didn't count. Back in the summer she felt pretty powerful punching someone on the head while in a sundress. Second one was for her to want to come with them. Aya turned her head up at Duncan feeling a bit pressured now, she gave a short gulp and looked away for a moment thinking if it was either a good or bad choice. She spoke up.

@liferusher @Noodles @Lunarlors34 @Sir Lurksalot@Spriggs27




"You’ve gotta be kidding me with this…” Ease said with a groan.

He could feel any remaining grip he actually had on this bonkers-ass situation fading really fast. Avery and Duncan argued on bringing Aya and all he could do was just watch. Hell, every time he was about to actually opened his mouth to bring up a point, the other pretty promptly got to it before him. Then came the fact that Aya actually agreed with going. He absolutely despised the idea of bringing a teenage schoolgirl who’s been lost for 4 weeks and barely seems to have survived on her own on a quest that none here knew what to expect. But considering Avery won’t come if she doesn’t, what choice was there? It wasn’t just the fact that she knew this place better than any of them, it was the fact that she was crucial as hell to them surviving this. Duncan had super strength, but God know how well it’d be in a group fight. Ease was good with a bow and arrow and decent with swords, but that’ll only help so far against bandits or mabeasts. Kuro and Aya were….no and if the dragon came, they’d still only have 2 real fighters with no healers. They needed Avery.

With a loud “ehem” as Aya pointed out she was starving, Ease decided it was probably time to speak up. “Yeah, you go in the inn and actually get something to eat, though if we’re doing this, you should probably get it to go. Avery will help you out with the pay, I’m sure.” He turned over to Avery with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised with a stern face that screamed "you wanted to bring her, your responsibility." “Isn’t that right?“

Then came the agency of getting her gear. “She also needs a weapon.” He turned back towards Aya. “Knife or a dagger is best since I doubt you know how to use swords.” He royally doubted she’d need to use a weapon, but why risk it at this point. Especially with all the risks they were already taking. Well that and an amateur swinging around a sword is probably just gonna make more issues than solutions.

“Most importantly, since we aren’t actually sure on what’s gonna be there, we should stop by my house. Most of my gears there first off, but secondly I have these.” He said as he took out a blue stone. “These things keep Mabeasts away from us so less shit we have to focus on. I got this one and the one spare I have around.” Well, he had 3 actually but he wasn’t making that common knowledge. He liked these people so far but he also barely knew them and, after all the new complications, he didn’t trust Avery for shit with one.

Putting his gem back into his bag, he had a final big piece of advice. “Now if we're all on the same page, let’s get going with this and out away from this damn alleyway.”

The sound of metal on the cobble stone paved road was the only thing that Noi had to listen to as she journeyed down the road. Sat atop the cat girl's head was a large hat, it looked as if it would be someonthing that belongs to a witch, it's wide brim and pointy tip only confirmed that it belonged or once belonged to a witch, or it was stolen from someone with a love of pointy wide brimmed hats. Soon the cat girl's walking came to a stop at the gates of the Celestia house hold.

She didn't get a complete look, but she did notice a silver haired woman, a woman in armor, and a child walk inside, before she could try to just walk in like the child did, she was rudely stopped by a couple guards telling her she couldn't just walk in without an appointment. The cat girl pointed to how the child just walked in without an appointment and received only silence from the duo before she told them why she's here."I here to fight Celestia. " She told them in her heavy accent. The guards chuckled at her, probably from her accent or thinking that her lightweight self could go against Vesta,"I will prove I can with warm'n up." She told them before discarding her hat and revealing her purple cat ears to them.

The demi struk a pose before moving her feet back and forth quickly and taking up an odd fighting stance towards the guards, they laughed at her odd stance and her quick movements believing she was crazy. The demi cat girl backflipped and swung her metal shoes into their helmets sending them flying into the air and sailing back to the windows cracking them; taking up a low stance as the two looked baffled by the demi woman's skill they charged only for her to evade their attacks and kick their legs out from under them. Soon other guards were on the way to give aid to their comrades, the circled around Noi to prevent her from entering or escaping really, instead of fighting them all, she instead evaded their attacks, whenever they thought they couldn't miss an attack, she'd prove them wrong and spin herself into a position causing them to miss.

After a while of dodging their attacks, the cat girl started to get bored and the guards started to tire themselves out; thinking on her feet, she chose to end this with probably the easist move she had, she flipped herself upside down spread her legs out, she spun herself around kicking all of the guards surronding her knocking them to the ground. Out of either tiring themselves out from the attacks, or not believing that a 100 lbs demi just knocked them on their asses, they were groaning and lying on the ground while one of the guards crawled off probably to get Vesta for her, as the one guard crawled off, Noi just sat on the ground in the center of the knocked out gang of guards. She just casually sat there criss cross apple sauce with a smile on her face as if she didn't do anything wrong.

The snow elf could see the moving landscape, unable to stop from her panicked escape, she thought she was going to literally eat the dirt of a moving carriage... that was until a pair of hands (bony hands) had seemed to stick out from somewhere in the carriage, one pulling her back in and the other shutting the door.

Before she could even scream she was already seated opposite to the woman before her. She had to recollect herself for a minute was she saved by some hands from whatever dimension they just popped out of? And why didn't she noticed the carriage was moving.

All of these things were rushing to her mind and she was just trying to figure out what in the mother of glaciers just happened.

"So, do tell me about yourself elf. Oh but before that, I should introduce myself. I am Summer Celestia, wife to the current head of the Celestia family. Do excuses my manners, but I got a little excited. This is my first time meeting an elf."

Oh right, she was just talking with someone and she herself rudely tried to escape such a polite conversation. With a sigh, she decided she would start over and hope she disregarded her little episode earlier. Sometimes even a mystical Spirit can be a great teacher in times when your parents could be overprotective.

The elf calmed down completely and her completely neutral expression would take over the once scared (and somewhat adorable) face that she had put on when she ranted.

"You want me to tell you... about me?" Clearly this was a surprise to her. Usually it's insults being thrown at her or somewhat assumes the weirdest things about the elven stereotype. She's actually thankful, that her long ears twitched and perked up at the sound of that.

Her icy blue eyes went wide with enthusiasm, a small smile forming from her blank lips. "O-oh umm... okay... err... I am Blanc Neige, a snow elf from a glacial village far from here. I actually came here to look for work or temporary errands and experience life as an outgoing adventurer, like the humans my family tells me so much about. Although, they seem more afraid at the thought that they warned me about them just as soon as they started talking about this Witch thing which made the humans dislike non-humans.."

The white-haired girl rambled on, even to more socialistic traits of hers, like her favorite food and colors. If Summer would like to change the subject, now would be the time before she started to talk about her life as a Hunter-Tailor before she ventured out.

@Lunarlors34