A Cold Meeting [Open]

Cleona could not recall how she had arrived here. Where was she anyway? It couldn’t be the guild hall; it was too hot, too bright. In fact, the sun showered the pixie in warmth! Her heels sunk into what appeared to be sand too. Was she at a beach? No, there wasn’t any water; it was more like a desert. The pixie searched her area – she was alone with little more than rolling sand hills. She spotted some footprints though, even followed them. Perhaps they would lead her to someone. Cleona took a single step forward and an intense surge of pain flowed through her body, her eyes winced in agony, and she noticed drops of blood falling from her body.

Another step forward.

Tears started erupting from her eyes as a severe gloominess shrouded her without warning. The sorrow felt like a mix of loneliness, mourning, betrayal…

Each step she took made her condition worse. More pain. More sorrow. She couldn’t stop following the trail of footsteps though – she knew she had to keep following them. Cleona did not understand her instinct to follow the trail, but it certainly felt familiar. The determined yet beaten pixie tried to fly but a stinging sensation followed every time she tried to move her wings. Her head craned to the right – her right wing had been cut and a trickle of blood flowed down it. The sight horrified her. She had always enjoyed the safety of flight after all. Now she was forced to walk, but her legs were so dearly exhausted. Cleona couldn’t understand how things could seem so bleak when the sun was so bright. It was as if someone somewhere was mocking her.

Cleona spotted a literal oasis in the distance, the footprints leading right up to it. She, of course, crawled like a defeated dog toward it. As she grew nearer, she could see more and more palm trees, even a couple of ponds. They were so beautiful, yet it did not ease the pixie’s sorrow.

When she finally reached a pond, Cleona hastily dipped  her head into the water and swallowed all the water her tiny mouth would allow. With a cool sigh, she raised her head but jerked her neck when she saw a figure leaning on a palm tree. With a wobbly, leg she wondered over to the figure, clad in robes, and stared. The figure was motionless, as if it were a mere statute. She tugged on the edge of cloak, which actually sparked a reaction from the cloaked figure. He or she bent down on one knee, getting close Cleona, and the hood.

“Ngh! Y-you…!”

The clinking of a glass against the bar awoke Cleona from her nightmare. Sweat drenched the pixie and she shook profusely, a lingering fear still possessing her. She looked around again and found herself back in the guild hall; apparently she had dozed off while sitting atop a hanging light fixture. Her little head peaked below, careful not to fall off, and spotted a young man drinking at the bar and whispering to himself, complaining about quietness or something of that nature.

Cleona gave herself a moment to recover from the dream before flapping her wings. She raised herself from the light fixture and gently glided down to the bar, hovering inches behind his head with her arms crossed. With a tone as cold as the snow, she broke the silence.

“And just what are you sulking about?”

Kitteh was in the shadows planning to sneak up on Marik smiling he pushed through the shadows and out he smiled and laughed a bit. He walked out and saw an imp type figure and Marik himself."Heh The Demon bird is here and so is fun honestly this is very quiet more than I would have thought, but I can make due so that will be how it is , it seems that the insanity has benn spread to other creatures.Kitteh walked to the group a slick smile corrupted him his hair all messy and eyes redder than usual. Kitteh slung his hand onto Marik's shoulder and waited for more people to come he snickered a bit which turned into a violent laugh this time louder than the last mutter. Honestly the people here seemed less dark than a usual dark guild, but if they were anything like marik he would have to be on watch and he would have to assume that all in the guild were as powerful as marik. THe night before he researched the wizards of this guild and found a few files, but not much so kitteh would have to stick to the shadows. Kitteh looked over at Marik as he whispered to himself Kitteh wondered how insane this man really was and thought to himself am I gonna be this insane, but he shrugged it off and twitched a bit the smile changing his lips ripping and veins popping a bit out of his body his hands tensed as they turned into that of a demon blue jays talons and then back into human form his hair resembling feathers for a bit he got even a bit dizzy and he sat down on the ground grasping his mentor with great strength to keep up and balanced, but slowly failing the recent month had tired him and he did not like its effects.

Cleona’s little lips curved as if she had just eaten a sour grape. The unforeseen politeness of a dark mage, Marik Anderson in this case, came across the surprised pixie as a little eerie. So far, every member of Basilisk Fang she had met displayed an admirable kindness.  It was quite the opposite from what she had expected of the lot: she assumed a group of people hidden away within an isolated fortress tucked away in a snowy tundra would be a little more nutty, or at least not so kind. At this point, Cleona was beginning to hope she’d meet someone with a little more audacity. The rough-and tough kind of evil certainly represented the kind of evil Cleona could get into, not the pish-and-posh sort of evil she had been running into lately.

“Yeah… the pleasure’s mine. I guess.” She kept her hands crossed, though her expression shifted to a more awkward one with a matching tone. Polite small talk wasn’t a skill Cleona had gotten to yet (although she planned to get to it as soon as someone took her dignity), which is probably why her next statement was, “If ya’ aren’t sulking, then pour me a drink.” Her wings fluttered down and she plopped herself right onto the bar counter, using a small pile of coasters as her makeshift chair before softly mumbling, “I sure as Hell need it anyway…” Her mind still grimaced on the inside at the thought of that lucid nightmare. If she were human, the hypothetical hairs on her arms would be standing up by now.

A new man entered the room – Kitteh. Cleona definitely needed to take the moment to ponder how dumb she thought the name was, guessing his mother was insane when she named him. In fact, Cleona disliked the name “kitteh” so much that she resolved to never actually refer to him as such. Kitteh made a mention about insanity being spread among creatures. The statement intrigued Cleona. She turned her gaze back toward Marik for his response, but it was nothing what she expected to see – a red glow emanated from his eye, coupled with a laugh that sent a chill down Cleona’s spine. The sight had caught off guard to the point that she literally gulped. She had thought Marik to be human… but he was, evidently, something else.

A sudden humiliation grasped Cleona. The site of Marik’s disposition had unsettled her for a moment, and it was a moment too long. This undesired humiliation boiled into anger toward Marik, though Cleona figured it best not to express this anger for the time being (at least until she figured more about him).

Kitteh proved to be different in ways other than his name. His formed seemed to shift into a creature and back again. Cleona had absolutely no idea what to make of it. She did not know if it was magic or if Kitteh was a were-kin of some sorts. Either way, it was almost as unsettling as the glowing eye. This place’s inhabitants was beginning to rub her the wrong way.

To empower the growing stress in Cleona’s circus of a mind, none other than Laycie herself walked in and dropped herself on the nearby sofa. The pixie’s eyes drooped in surrender to the presence of the neatly-dressed woman. While Cleona’s hatred for the little woman had cooled down since their last meeting, she still didn’t like the little woman. Though, she could do little about it beyond verbal rudeness since Laycie was the de facto guild master for the time being. In a sense, Cleona was a muzzled dog: she could growl but not bite. Marik, in contrast with Cleona, sounded delighted to have Laycie in their presence.

Cleona bit her lip and sighed, “What on Earthland is wrong with him?” referring to Kitteh’s little transformations.

KItteh got angered at the many comments, but he was not in a state to argue with them so instead he just replied with "says the little imp that has the magic of pestering people and you are the guild master here hmm It seems you are powerful, but I get the feeling that you do not lead this place instead you let them do what they wish, sorry for not being so active for a welcome my enthusiasm right now is dropped more than usual also I am a takeover mage, but recently like a growth spurt the takeover is well as it is called taking over me Kitteh walked over to the guild master and held out his hand meanwhile with the other hand he flicked the little imp into a wall. Kitteh lost his balance again falling to the ground and coughing hard. Kitteh got all dizzy phoenix wings stretching out to fly him into the ceiling."oh and I am perfectly human I just look like a demon Kitteh showed he had a whole row of shark like teeth ready to bite the small pesky bug paying no attention to the others. Kitteh fell down until he hit the floor hard as his wings disappeared."Marik I hope this ant does not interrupt our training because I came here to work not be insulted".