Readjusting (Social; Closed)

Malm was breathing heavy as he rubbed his left arm that lied limb next to him. It's been about a week since he has lost the use of it and there was still no sign of him being able to ever regain use of it again. For this reason alone, he hasn't shown his face around the guildhall for that time. He didn't want to be seen as someone who's useless. Especially seeing how he was left handed.

"Come on. I can't give up now. I need to push more." Malm said to himself in staggered breathes as he flexed his right hand. He then raised his hand towards where he had dropped his sword and began drawing on his magical power. "Entangling Roots" He called out as he felt the magic leave his body as the roots begin to rip threw the ground and grab onto the sword. Yet half way through, the spell broke as the roots retreated back into the ground.

"No..." Malm said as he dropped to his knee. Having been doing this all day, he was just about spent. Yet he wasn't to give up just yet. Not until he can get this spell down.

Marik was alone in the forest, just watching the stars, or waiting to watch them "A beautiful day, I am sure the night will be beautiful too" the slayer stretched all his body and kept going into the woods, watching the trees and the place, looking for new stuff, then he heard something.
"What was that?..." the slayer heard something, like ground moving or maybe roots or trees. The slayer quickly took out his bow and arrow and walked closer to the noise, he gave some slowly steps and then he found a green haired kid, with a sword in the floor.

"A kid?... A mage?..." Marik was behind of the tree watching the mage, he placed his bow with his arrow in his back, looking at the green haired kid "Interesting..." the slayer wasn't sure if it was a good idea to get closer, but he didn't care, he just gave one step closer to him, letting the green haired kid able to see him, he took a heavy breathing and spoke to the kid "What are you doing here?... Who are you?... Are you lost?"

Malm nearly jumped as he heard a man speak. He had believed he was the only here in the forest. It was why he decided to come all the way out here in thw first place. So no one would see him in such a state. Though in hindsight, believing such a thing was probably quite foolish on his part. Why wouldn't anybody else be out here?

Quickly recovering from the initial shock, he turned to see the voices owner. A man that looked to be in his 20's if Malm had to guess. Definitely not someone he recognized from the guild, so that was good. Malm then took notice of the bow on the man's back. He could be a hunter perhaps. No. Malm was filling a pressure in the back of his mind that told him that wasn't exactly it.

"I'm not lost." Malm said as he used his good hand to pick himself up, "I'm Malm, and I came out here to practice some magic. Sorry if I bothered you."

Once he had managed to stand himself straight, he looked back up at the man. So far the man didn't seem to be a threat. The man is probably just someone who's trying to figure out why a teenager like Malm would be out here in the middle of this forest by himself. So there should be little need to be tense around him.

Marik stared at the kid while he was speaking, he quickly putted one hand behind his head and laughing tried to make the green haired kid feel comfortable "Actually, I found you... So, I am bothering you, anyway, I am Marik, I just came here to see the sky..." the slayer laughed and then his smile disappeared, changing to a face fool of doubts "But why would you train in a place like this?... Which kind of magic do you use?" Marik was very curious with the kid, he toughed that he was going to act in a worse way when haring Marik, but no, the kid just jumped a bit and spoke like if they knew each other before.

"Anyway, I don't remember seeing this kid before... From where could he be?..." tree points appeared in Marik's head, then he sated down laying his back in a tree and snoring very loud "I am tired".

Watch the sky in a forest? Well Malm guessed that made sense. There were quite a few places that he had found here that had a clear look of the sky. Still was an odd place to pick to do so. Perhaps this man just prefers being in nature while he does so.

"Well I came here because I thought it would be a nice place to practice my magic without disturbing people. Besides, I'm a plant mage. So a forest is a good place for me to practice in." Malm told the man nonchalantly, waving his right arm towards the trees around him. Though he had no clue if Merik was actually listening as he had lied down and seemed like he was about to go to sleep.

Marik heared the kid talking, he then laughed a bit and smiled "That actually makes a lot of sense... By the way, just so it can be fare, I am an Ice Mage, the ice dragon slayer" the ice guy placed his hands behind his neck laying in the floor.

"Don't you want to rest a while?... Come, see the stars" Marik stared at the sky smiling, he then yawn hard and looked again to the green haired kid "If you lay here, you can see the sky and the stars between the leafs, you will see how the sky and the earth work together to make a magnificent combination" Marik laughed one more time and turned his eyes to the sky "You might not believe me, but I have a friend, actually my partner, thats its a star, that you saw him once in the sky... Sounds weird, doesn't it?" the mage smiled.

((Sorry for the wait. I've been pretty busy recently.))

Malm looked up over at Merik as he mention something that was pretty worthy of note. That he was, in fact, a dragon slayer. Malm had only really heard about dragon slayers in the stories his grandparents use to tell him, but this was the first time he has (knowingly) met one in person. Well perhaps that isn't exactly true as he has met a God Slayer before, but that was something completely different.

Malm may of been a little to stuck on the Dragon Slayer thing that he may have missed a part of what Merik said next. What he did caught was Merik saying something about his good friend/partner being a star. Malm didn't knew what exactly to think of it at first. It didn't exactly seem that weird to him at first seeing the company he has found himself usually keeping. Yet the more he thought about it, the more a certain question grew inside his mind.

"This friend of yours. Do you mean he's a Celestial Spirit, or that he's literally a star?" Malm asked before noticing the words that left his lips, "Sorry. Ignore that. I isn't my place pry." Malm said quickly in order to take back his question. He hardly knew this man, so he didn't believe it was right to just ask questions about the man's friend like he just did.

"I once knew a man who's girlfriend turned into the moon." Kaseki said. He had been leaning against a tree, watching the two. He had a knack for appearing at odd times and blending with the shadows. "... That last I talked to him, was on his deathbed. He was dying of age. It was sad to see him like that, since I've known him his whole life." Kaseki looked at the mages. He recognized Malm, and needed not to introduce himself to him, just to greet. Then there was another. He could smell the man's need of... some plant. Odd, he thought, normally the scroll would tell him this. Kaseki had no time to ponder thoughts, he was in no mood to keep people in suspended mystery. Kaseki told the truth.

"Hello there... Mage of Sabertooth." He said, "My name is Kaseki, some call me the Plantman. I am the Coming Storm of Savage Skull, and I come here in peace today." He smiled before adding on, "... I always come in peace." Kaseki was one who used his scroll often. with it he could see the minds and thoughts of people. He knew their memories and their actions. Because he could see the truth, he found it fair to speak the truth. This alone, made this dark mage trust worthy. And no one knew how the scroll of learning actually worked... everyone besides Kaseki.

"I have a habit of meeting mages that eat my magic, for I use The Gifts of the Lion Turtle. My element is Water. With it I shape the seas and shape the ice. I mend wounds. Water is the element of purity." He said it with a sort of venomous tone, and sense of scorn. There was something that made Kaseki uneasy. As if he was under surveillance. He decided to try to laugh off the feeling as he plucked an apple or two from the inside of his cloak. He took a bite of the rotten one, and offered a fresh one to the two, "Either of you care for a treat?" he asked with his mouthful, "I won't bite... well at least they won't. Heheh."

Marik heard Malm's words, he smiled and laughed standing up "Na, I don't use celestial keys, she is in this world, at my house right now... Or she should be..." the slayer yawned watching how the sun went down, surrounding the place with dark and a bit of light coming from the stars. Then something happened that Marik didn't really enjoy.

A dark voice appeared behind him and around him, then he looked to a tree where a guy with the appearance of the same death appeared. It was a dark mage, a mage that he never met before, even if he was the fourth coming storm. "An illegal mage..." The slayer took an offensive position, with anger in his face. When Marik heard the Savage Skull mage saying something of being in peace, he didn't believe him, but anyway stood up like any other day and stared at him hearing his words. When the stranger offered an apple to the mages, Marik laughed, trying to feel comfortable and stretched his hand to take the apple "Only because I love apples..." the slayer smiled and then sat down again laying his back against the tree, he was amazed that he only spoke to him, and not to the green haired kid. The slayer spoke with apple in his mouth "How do you know each other?" Marik just guessed he wasn't sure about anything. He bit the apple eating it all "That was a good apple"

Is it sad that Malm wasn't surprise by Kaseki's presence? It seemed that just about any time Malm believes he's alone, the dark mage happens to be close by. It's actually a bit creepy now that Malm thinks about it. If he didn't knew any better, he'd almost believe the dark mage was stalking him. Almost.

What worried Malm now was how exactly Marik would react to Kaseki? Most people didn't exactly took the presence of Dark Mages well, and with good reason. And just as expected, he took an offensive stance when he learned that Kaseki was apart of Savage Skull. Well, at least he did, until Kaseki offered the two of them an apple that Merik graciously took.

It then turned out that Merik had somehow picked up on the fact that Malm and Kaseki knew each other. Malm wasn't exactly sure how he did so. Whether it was because of Malm's lack of reaction to Kaseki's sudden appearance, or if it was Kaseki not introducing himself to Malm. Probably both. Regardless, Malm guessed he should answer Merik's question.

"It's a long story." Malm answered as he rubbed his left arm, "Let's just say it involves a series of events that mainly includes a drunk woman who was being picked on by some guys because she had wolf ears." Perhaps not exactly the best explanation, but to be honest that day is mostly a blur to Malm now. Though now that he thinks about it, he's curious about how Artemis is doing. He really hoped she was doing fine for herself.

Meanwhile, Flare has been resting at shady spot under a tree while Malm was training. That was until Zoe hid near the tree he was sleeping under. The reddish-brown ferret looked up at the woman with curiosity as he tried to figure out what the woman was doing here, and why exactly she decided to bother his rest. Was she a threat? She didn't seem like one. Whatever the case may be, Flare quickly ran over to where Malm was and climbed up to his shoulder.

"Huh... Flare, what is it?" Malm asked as he wondered what could of got the Fire Ferret all riled up. Yet as he looked over at where Flare was at, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Could Flare just wanted to be a part of what's going on, or was there another reason why he decided to come over here?

"Artemis was a nice and friendly... um, girl." Kaseki added. "It's nice to see that you are well. You always happen to be in the forests, my friend. You train in my natural habitat." Kaseki did not wish to tell him the real reason he was there in the forest. He would save it for another time. Kaseki looked at Malm's little ferett. Flare was an interesting one. Kaseki took a whiff of the wind and looked where Flare did. "Adolescent girl?" Kaseki thought, feeds off the information from his scroll. "Reveal yourself, Flare and I both smell the sugar on your teeth." Kaseki said.

He made no comment on the amber ooze on his feet. Only Flare would notice, for only Flare could smell it. The reason Kaseki had been in the forest today was to learn on how to mimic the bee's honey. It was for his own personal use, as well as the food he makes for Dragon Fang and all of Aeylst Crux. Kaseki was the fallen hero of Lamia Scale, the forgotten chef. Kodai was the killer of both legal and dark mages. And together... they made up the Demon of Life.

Kaseki was nothing more than a walking, talking, fighting, metal tree. But he was also part wolf too. There was things about him that would remain forever unexplained. He was a mystery, a paradox, and someone who was always a better ally to have than an enemy. In almost every case, everyone was his ally.

After Marik's question, he heard how the green haired kid answered "So I was right... They now each other... But a dark and a legal mage?..." the slayer laughed after hearing the boy's story, he laughed a lot "That really doesn't help me, but anyway, I think I am getting the point" he smiled to both mage with a challenging smile of confidence. He then yawned one more time and saw how a nice animal went to the kid's shoulder, it was cute.

Marik smiled standing up, he then gave a step closer to the reaper, and asked for another apple "Hey, do you have any other apple? I am kind of hungry" the slayer smiled with his hand against his neck and then took a heavy breathing, he was smelling something near but the mage's words interrupted him "So there is someone else here... Why would that many persons be in the forest at night?" he quickly looked at a tree, a girl went out from it, it was a girl!... It was a girl?...

The slayer smiled and answered, then he started thinking in loud voice "Hi... She could be the one... She could be my true love, I know it! I am sure! She is the one!" with one step, Marik knelt on his knee taking the woman's hand "My name is Marik, and ice warrior, a Sabertooth's warrior, and I will be here if you need help" he then kissed the girl's hand trying to make her fell "Comfortable"... In his own ways.

Well it seemed that Kaseki hasn't taken notice of Malm's current plight. Or, at least, he has chosen not to say anything about it. The last thing he wanted was any one giving him any pity because of it. It's the main reason why he came to this forest in the first place. So he could learn how to deal with his paralyzed arm without anybody knowing.

Uhh... That doesn't exactly explain every other time we happen to bump into each other. Was Malm's first thought to the second part of Kaseki's question. Then something dawned on him. Wait a second. Did Kaseki just read my mind? The thought itself was scary. How Kaseki just (attempted) to explain why they had happened to bump into each other just soon after Malm thought about how it was odd that Kaseki and him keep bumping into each other was just eerie. It must just be a coincidence, right? Because if not, he had just given away the fact that his left arm is paralyzed to Kaseki. Something that he was trying to avoid.

Malm's attention was then drawn back to the tree Flare had ran from as Kaseki called out to someone who he believed to be there. And sure enough, a girl revealed herself, saying hello to them nervously. Why was she hiding? Could she have been afraid of them? Well looking at present company, he guessed that wasn't hard to believe. Kaseki never struck Malm as someone a complete stranger would knowingly approach, and while Merik seemed pretty okay at first, he quickly showed his true colors once he took notice of Zoe. In fact, Malm was about to tell her that they she had nothing to be afraid of before Merik made his advances. Now Malm believes it would be best to not do so.

"Uhh... Hello there miss." Malm said as politely as he could while he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. And that was all he could really get himself to say. He was just too bewildered by Merik's display for him to know what else to really say. There was trying to be a gentleman, and then there was that.

Flare, meanwhile, sniffed the air as he noticed something sweet in it, and it smelled really close by. Flare jumped off Malm's shoulder (who was to preoccupied with Zoe to take notice) as he decided to go investigate what it was. He didn't have to go far as his nose led him to the feet of the strange wooden creature where he found some amber ooze on. Another sniff in the air confirmed to Flare that it smelled like honey. Could the treeman have happened to step in it by chance? Well, regardless if he did or didn't, Flare decided to give the ooze a test lick.

"Kekekeke..." Kaseki giggled. He felt stupid sounding like that. He always laughed weird. Why? Well if you saw the tongue he had... "Ay, that's mine!" Kaseki shook his leg where Flare licked him. It was odd... forest creatures always wanted to lick him...

Kaseki watched as the Slayer mage advanced towards the lady. "Heroes... and their feelings of entitlement." Kaseki thought. He cared not. He was there to keep his bees, and his honey. Kaseki looked at the girl, "We mean no harm, unless you mean harm. Harm to harm us, and we will harm you harming us." He said.

It was Kaseki's tactic. Confusion.

"Malm, please call your weasel back." he stared at his friend. "If Flare reveals this, I will reveal you. Remember... Learning Scroll~"

The slayer smiled with a challenging face, when the girl gave a step back with a movement in his hand, Marik quickly took a conclusion "Its obvious... She is in love with me... This is the was it should be" his face turned into a happy person, he took a heavy breathing and stood up.

The ice mage took a heavy breathing with a small smile when he heard the girl's words, he in deed toughed that she was in love with him, and he was sure that the last word "Maybe" didn't exist in that phrase, or thats what he wanted to think.
There were a lot of words confusing Marik, he heard something about harm, and more harm, it was kind of confusing, he felt stupid. Anyway, the slayer didn't actually pay attention to the other male's, he was concentrated in the woman that entered the place, woman's were his debility.

Marik created slowly two ice wings causing snow and ice flying in the place, he quickly stretched his hand against the girl with a smile in his face "If you need help... I will show you the way back, lets fly together, and I will take you out of this forest".

Ascending through the dark night sky over East Forest was what appeared to be a crow or raven of some sort... only it was ginormous in size. Something ten times smaller hung from the monstrous birds claws. "H-Hey put me down you flying feathered F###!" It's catch whined, trying to free her left leg which she was being dangled by. How had the mage even found herself in this situation to begin with?... Ha. Heck if she knew.

Rita flailed her arms, comedic beads of sweat flying off of her, and tried to release her leg by kicking at the monster with her free one. It hadn't even taken notice to her... She was running out of options, If she didn't find herself out of this she would be It's carnivorous and giant hatch-lings next meal.

Then it hit her, There was one other thing she hadn't tried yet Rita reached  up at her belt, un-hooking a narrow cylinder shaped object from it. The object in her hands enveloped itself in a light blue glow. It appeared to be a glowing blue mass of fire in her hand. The aura overtook the object completely began to take a new shape as the work beneath it pulled apart and stretched into a shaft with what appeared to be a blade horizontally jutting out of the end of it.

Rita's lips stretched into that of a smirk, the glow dimmed slightly, revealing the weapon it had created. In Rita's hands hung a scythe. The blade which was embedded with sapphire rhinestones curved outward and Jutting out behind the head of the blade was a loose fan of spikes, like the sharp and blood-thirsty teeth. Rita firmly reached and locked her other hand on the blade below one of the three patterned swatches of cloth hanging from the hilt.

A monstrous and loud squawk filled the air as she severed the beasts talons with an effort filled swing of her scythe, freeing herself from it's clutches.

Only then did Rita remember that she couldn't fly... The mage quickly found herself whirling through the air and back down to the earth below them, her caramel stream of hair whipping back against the wind. Rita's grip tightened around her scythe which still glew a rather vibrant blue

From a distance... The mage appeared to be that of a cyan colored shooting star...

She was heading straight for a giant mass of trees,  before she was to splatter on the ground.. maybe she could latc-

Unable to finish her thought, The mage darted through a vast layer of leaves and on her way through she crashed into a series of tree branches. Rita smashed her back against the first branch, her scythe slipping out of her hands. She then flipped and bashed face first into the second one. Tree limbs were now breaking away as she flew through them, cutting, scraping and bruising her as she tore her way closer and closer to the earth.

It felt as if the world had slown down for her in that instant, Rita blinked and she saw what was waiting for her at the end of her drop. The Fairy couldn't get a clear look at the victims face, but she was able to make out a head of long snowy hair.

Rita and the stranger impacted, knocking them both down. Oddly enough, It wasn't as hard as an crash as she had originally thought it would of been... The very opposite... It felt... As if Rita's face had planted into a pillow...some how it was a rather warm pillow. Urgent to sit up and see what she had crashed into, she reached up and grabbed at the pillow, pushing herself up against it. Rita blinked her eyes widely with embarrassment. She was on top of a  familiar looking female, her hands were groping where they shouldn't have been... "Ehm--- V-Viola?!?!?!?!" Rita stammered as her face went red.

As if things couldn't get worse... Rita's scythe which she had dropped mid-fall flew down at them and landed blade first into the earth, mere centimeters away from Viola's face, the glow dimming into nothing. Rita chuckled nervously...Still holding onto Viola...there.

((Sorry for the wait. To be honest, I had no idea how to really respond to all this. This thread has gotten way to big for my comfort. Especially for a thread that I intended for one or two people at most. And it's also been discouraging to see any chance of this thread being able to accomplish the thing I wanted to be thrown out the window. Sorry. Please don't take this as me being angry at any of you. I'm just frustrated with myself for not having the foresight to predict that the thread to explode like this -_-))

So the girl doesn't mean them any harm. That was good. While Malm doubted that she would attempt to harm them, it was nice to make sure. To be completely frank, despite his current appearancd, Malm was in no shape to fight. He's done nothing, but exhaust himself all day (with little result), and was still recovering from his battle a week ago. It was to the point that he was pretty sure that if any of the others decided to attack him, he would present next to no challenge to them whatsoever.

He also learned that girl's name is Zoe, and that she was a wizard of Fairy Tail. Probably a new member if Malm had to guess judging how he never saw her at the guildhall before. Though seeing how he is not only new himself, but also hasn't exactly been to the guildhall that often himself (especially not recently), he could easily be mistaken. Besides, he wasn't exactly sure how he felt meeting another Fairy Tail member right now seeing how he purposefully came all the way out here in this forest so no one from the guild would find out about his condition.

It seemed she also happened to lost her way in the forest, which was very understandable. Malm could see himself being lost in this forest without his plant sense to guide him all the time. He looked over as Merik, unsurprisingly, offered his assistance to Zoe. While Malm would normally see this as a good thing, he wasn't quite sure it was a good idea to leave Zoe in the love struck man's hands.

"Well if you want, I could easily take you back to the guildhall no problem." Malm offered to Zoe. While he wasn't sure it was a good idea at first, he guessed that even if she noticed his non-functioning arm, she was unlikely to tell anyone else at the guild about it. Besides, it was in his nature to help people.

Malm then turned as Kaseki made a request that came with an ultimatum if Malm didn't do it. An ultimatum that Malm would prefer to avoid. Yet that now begged the question what exactly was on Kaseki's feet that he didn't want any one else to know about, but also made Flare want to lick it. Kaseki had also made mention of something he had called a Learning Scroll. Despite how Kaseki seemed to be under the belief that Malm would understand what that meant, Malm had no idea what he was talking about. As far as he could remember, this was the first time Kaseki had made mention to such a thing. Though it didn't take much to guess that the scroll had somehow allowed Kaseki to notice Malm's disability.

Then, as Malm was trying to figure out how exactly he was going to call Flare off of Kaseki's feet, an explosion happened. This managed to frighten Flare enough to quickly climb up to seek refuge within the treeman's robe. However, it also managed to somehow knock Malm off his feet. Yet whether this was because he was close enough to feel the shockwave of the explosion, or if it was just the noise somehow knocking the weakened teen off his feet was still up to debate. Whatever the case maybe, he decided to just lay there for a while with a slight groan, wondering what exactly went wrong in his life for him to find himself in this position so often.

"BY THE MAKER, DON'T DO THAT." Said Kaseki as he jumped. The explosion was something that startled him, yes. Frighten him? No. He quickly shifted his arms into his sleeves to grab the little ferret. He did not want to wait for Malm to do something. And this... thing was chewing on his secret strawberry supply. Before his started to descend, Flare was in his hands, and before he touched the ground he tossed the ferret on the ground. Flare hopped and skipped gracefully, while Kaseki fell on his back.

Yet something told him to get out of there, yet there was a reason for him to stay. He looked over and saw two girls... um... yeah. He could feel the auras. As for the scroll, he knew the guilds. "Oh my..." he thought. He saw the powers these people had in store. He was outnumbered by the light, and over powered by them... or at least it would seem that way. Should this turn into a battle, Kaseki would have to summon his army... he would lead with Skittles this time.

He listened to the words of the first girl, who seemed to get the jist of harm that harms others to do more harm that harms. And the man of Sabertooth was... on his own thing. Kaseki was the only of of the Dark Guilds, and at that, one that held a particular role between certain guilds.

__________
OOC: I had no idea what to post... this is getting ridiculous now. lol.

Marik was completely convinced that the girl, Zoe, was in love with him, he usually is completely rejected when trying to talk with girls, but this time she was being kind of nice with him. "I am completely sure now... This is the one, this is the girl I love" Marik smiled and turned around with his back against Zoe, he then turned his face staring with one eye at the girl and pointed to the sky, pointing to a star. "Try to reach that star, I am sure you will find the way out, trust me...".

The slayer took a heavy breathing and went closer to the trees, ignoring all the other people, he took a heavy breathing and turned around, all that he could see, was the girl in front of him and the moonlight upon them. "Anyway, another way to go back, its looking for the snow" The wings went bigger and move with a nice feeling of power and trust, he then gave a step and with a strong jump appeared flying in the sky "Follow the snow... And you will find who really wants to be with you..." he then started to fly away from the forest, flying.
Marik is not use to fly that much with his eyes wings, they are heavy, but he wanted to look powerful so it was a good idea.