The Sabertoothed Dragon

The sun began to set over the mountain range behind Crocus as Haretsa made her way down the path. It had been about three day's since the white haired girl had left the capital city in search of the guild hall belonging to the magic guild of Sabertooth; her new home. Haretsa would have been to the guild hall a lot sooner had it not been for the terrible motion sickness that she got from riding on any form of transportation, so she had to walk the entire way instead. The journey was rather long, but it was at the very least a good workout for her legs.

     Once Haretsa reached the top of the small incline, she looked down to see the path finally breaking away from the mountain range. From here, the young mage could see a tavern located at the base of the trail; right where she was told Sabertooth’s guild hall was. That must be it then… Though it’s rather… small, compared to what I imagined. she thought aloud, making her way down the slope and towards the tavern. Even up close the building seemed far too small to be an actual guild hall. How could such a place be home to a guild that, from what Haretsa knew, was actually home to quite a few mages; far more than this building could hold at once.


    Haretsa gave the door 3 quick knocks on the door before she was greeted by a bar maid. “Um, hi! I was told that this was where I could find the guild Sabertooth..? I’m looking to join the guild so...um...am I even in the right place?” she asked, to which the maid gave a cheerful smile in return. ”Not to worry, you’re in the right place. Follow me!” the maid exclaimed, leading Haretsa through the tavern and out to the back. The door took the two individuals into a rather small room with a teleportation lacrima in the center of it. Suddenly, everything seemed to click in Haretsa’s mind. ”Oh, that makes a lot more sense now! I was wondering why this place was so freakin’ small!” she exclaimed, walking up to the lacrima and activating it without hesitation. She was surprisingly quite comfortable around such things. A bright yellow light quickly enveloped Haretsa’s entire body and before she could say thanks or goodbye, she was whisked away.



    Once she could see again, Haretsa looked around to see something she wasn’t expecting; clouds. “HOLY CRAP I’M IN THE SKY?!!” she exclaimed, before looking around again and realizing that she was now standing on a platform connected to an enormous, ornate castle. THE GUILD HALL IS A FREAKING CASTLE?! …….. THE GUILD HALLS A FLYING CASTLE!?! HOLY CRAP THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!!! she shouted, making a beeline down the path in front of her towards the guild’s main entrance; her armaments bouncing against her legs and lower back as she ran. When she pushed open the doors, a large lobby came into view with halls leading off in almost every direction. Haretsa’s eyes were as wide as could be, filled with a childlike wonderment at her surroundings. “This place is freaking huge!!! ….Where the hell am I supposed to go now!?” she wondered, looking around rather panicked and confused now.

With ears perked from a loud thud behind her, Haretsa turned to see a pale girl around her age proceeding towards her. The girl that approached was rather, peculiar in appearance; having ridiculously long, bright blue hair kept in twin ponytails and tattoos of clouds and bullets all over her body. Haretsa assumed that this girl had quite a thing for guns, considering the fact that she had bullets strapped around her belt and top as well as possessing armaments of her own. It seemed as though Haretsa was about to make quite a good first friend upon first impressions.


    However, before Haretsa could even utter a word of greeting, that impression quickly changed. The instant that she saw the blue haired girl begin to draw her rocket launcher over her shoulder, Haretsa perceived this as a threat and immediately drew her pistol and pointed it at the girl. The two stood there for a few moments before the blue haired girl made an imitating “boom” noise with her lips. Haretsa didn’t even flinch, positive the girl hadn’t so much as touched the trigger of her weapon. This girl then had a large smile on her face as she put the weapon away, causing Haretsa to lower hers as the girl explained she was merely kidding. “Well, that’s quite the interesting way to greet someone…. I like her already!!!” Haretsa thought as the other girl laughed and motioned for Haretsa to follow her.


   Although, just before Haretsa was about to put her gun away, a rather loud and brash feminine voice cried out. ”LET ME AT THE BITCH, I'LL POP TWO IN HER HEAD AND NO ONE WOULD EVEN KNOW!!!” the voice yelled, as Haretsa rather oddly made bobbing motions with her pistol. ” B-Blamo! Relax, she said she was just kidding!” “I DON’T GIVE A CRAP, SHE WAS THREATENING TO BLOW US UP!!! “It’s alright, just get back in your holster and calm down, will ya?!” “I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!!” Anyone around the two would have thought Haretsa to either be insane or an amazing ventriloquist as she seemed to struggle to secure Blamo back in the holster at her right. The truth was simply that both statements would be incredibly accurate.


   With her pistol finally secured in its holster, Haretsa proceeded to follow the blue haired girl, taking this opportunity to properly introduce herself. ”I’m Haretsa and yes I’m new, nice to meet ya! Sorry about Blamo, she’s just a bit… well, blunt, with her feelings.” she said with a smile. “ALLOW ME TO BE BLUNT UPSIDE HER FRIGGIN HEAD” the weapon shouted in a muffled tone, which was met with a quick punch from Haretsa to her pistol. If the girl was paying attention, she would notice Haretsa’s lips barely even moving as she caused the weapon to talk, showing an impressive ventriloquist skill; especially considering how different Blamo’s voice was from her own. “Juuuuuuuuust ignore her….like I wish I could…” Haretsa said, letting out a small chuckle. “So, what’s your name?

Oh gods what should she do?

'Could this be...a sense of panic? Worry?' Such an odd and uncomfortable sensation, Mao contemplated it as the footsteps neared. A small shiver swam up her back mere moments before she'd ducked around the corner, acting like mum might catch her with her hand in the cookie jar...that wasn't an ideal situation, right? In media they played that off as a bad thing, though as an adult that wasn't really a worry...no, she was definitely overthinking things again and getting too wrapped up in metaphors and similes.

It'd been the yelling that caught her attention, the innocent girl's curiosity perked mid munch of her apple. The trip back to her room was put on hold in lieu of figuring out what the disturbance was, only to come across an unsettling situation that caused her to duck out of sight immediately. Flat against the wall, hands spread out because that would obviously help her blend in well despite the fact neither person could probably see through the walls - probably - those elongated ears twitched to catch every sound.

Things became more confusing with the addition of a third voice, whoever showed up after-the-fact displeased by the blue-haired girl's display and little "joke." The other two sounded friendly enough - ignoring the earlier western scene - but that third-party person preferred to stay agitated. As the footsteps neared - oddly she could only discern two - Mao began to wonder: could she make it far enough down the hallway to appear like she'd casually walked by or was it already too late? So lost in thought she lost track of just how close they came, and forgot to maybe peel herself off the wall for maximum casualness.

The blonde nun had been meditating on the Guild Hall balcony, trying to work on her magical efficiency like how Draco and Capricorn had been teaching her, when she was interrupted by the very loud arrival of a new recruit... and then the very loud confrontation with another member of Sabertooth.

Kiersa sighed before she stood up, patting herself down to straighten her robes. "Let's see what the fuss is about this time... I hope it's not Frederick again trying to intimidate people..." she mused to herself, the sentence itself briefly stunning her before she chuckled, the memory of her own arrival not that long ago stirring.

She went towards the main entrance before blinking at the sight before her. She did a little jog to catch up with the two girls, mainly to double check one of them. "Miss Hikari?" the nun asked, a little hesitantly and unsure. The last time she'd seen Hikari had been at the girl's rank up exam... whilst the face was the same, everything else was... very very different than she recalled.

She looked at the new girl before bowing her head towards her in greeting. "Sorry, where are my manners... I'm Kiersa Bec, and welcome to Sabertooth." she said, a soft smile on her face before she saw yet another new person... who was apparently doing whatever they could to try and "act" normal.

A loud tapping of metal on marble, sounding like a leaking faucet, slowly emanated from down the large hall. The dull sounds echoed throughout the halls as a boy with fair hair appeared, walking down the hallway with a nervous smile on his face "Hello!" his voice spoke from several dozen feet away. "I am new here as well actually" The boy froze as he saw the large mass of people talking, some with guns and what looked like a nun.

"I have not exactly communicated with anyone from this guild yet, besides the various letters between me and our master, miss Kurosaki, My name is Triatath Wright. The boy continued his advance towards the crowd of people. He lost his footing on the freshly waxed flooring, and crashed down on his stomach, his leg hitting a table in the process and severing completely, flying towards the mass of mages. This certainly did not seem like the best way to make first impressions.

Triatath covered his ears as the deafening blast of his left leg slamming against the floor in the middle of the group, his eyes locked on the location of the landing. "could someone spare a moment and pass me that? I haven't really been myself today, my dearest apologies. Triatath began crawling his way towards the group, clawing at the ground and pushing using his other leg.

Triatath chuckled to himself, the strangest feeling of deja vu descended upon him as he remembered his original entrance to the guild, One which seemed woefully less populated than this entrance. Oh well, Might as well introduce myself now and get this over with so that people aren't confused as to why I am in the guild. Triatath began to stand up to talk but again, he landed straight on his face due to the loss of a limb, his left leg seemed to be becoming a bit of a hazard for his "Great Introduction"

Certainly a strange series of events, and if Mao held any precognitive abilities she would’ve avoided the hall altogether. One moment everything was…okay, not normal in the slightest, but the noise level was central to the newest presence. One surprise attack later, complete with battle war cry, and Mao could feel all the air flee her lungs as the person began choking the life out of her midsection. Two more seconds and her face might’ve matched her hair if she hadn’t been promptly sent airborne, the dizziness only heightened by the spinning of the walls around her. Last second like a cat, she landed on both feet and her hands, the hair on her long tail standing upright, yet more like a rabbit she bolted to “safety” behind the nun figure.

Then from behind somewhere a loud crash followed by the splintering of wood as a projectile took out a poor, innocent table leg on its journey to clock the crazy cream-haired girl on the head. ’His legs can be removed?!’ It was probably the most exciting thing she’d seen to date! Was he born that way? Did someone craft false limbs? Why would they do that? How did he lose his legs? And why did that one person keep punching her talking pistol?

So many questions…

Later she’d definitely review the memory when everything didn’t feel so chaotic. Right now she could hardly recall any of their names even though Mao definitely heard them.

”…But why would hitting a tree with its limb be funny? And…he’s not even a tree…he looks more like a mammal than any type of flora,” Mao murmured from her spot behind the nun figure, before realizing that using someone as a human meat shield might be considered impolite and backed away, apologizing profusely in a mostly calm tone, ”Ah! I’m sorry…that was rather rude of me, I apologize.”

Kiersa blinked as everything seemed to happen at once. First there was the rather loud girl and her... talking gun, then there was a rabbit girl suddenly hiding behind her, and then there was a man who was literally falling apart before her eyes. She blinked for a few moments before glancing at the girl behind her.

"His full name is Triatath, which Miss Shikon couldn't quite remember how to say, so she shortened it to Tree... I'm going to guess the joke is that tree branches are also known as limbs, and since his are... detachable," the nun said with a gesture to the mans prosthetics, "someone else could hit him with his own limbs..." explained Kiersa before smiling softly at the girl who had used her to hide from it all. "It's quite alright. My magic makes use of myself for the sake of others in any case, so it's only natural." she said when the girl apologised to her.

She returned her attentions to the rest of the group now, trying to figure out a way to make some semblance of order from all of this chaos... and failing. Instead she chose to focus on Hikari. "You look... different since last we met. Been alright?" she asked, taking the situation one person at a time.