Everywhere the Devil Spits, Poison Ivy Grows [Intro]

WELL LATE AT NIGHT WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING,

Ahmoria looked out the curtained window of her carriage, holding its shade to the side so that she was able to see out of the glassless opening. In front of her, a mask of white flowed all around, covering what little amount of foliage there was from the fields behind the carriage. The inclination of the ride only became higher as time progressed on, and her eyes never left the small opening as she glanced outward. Despite all that she could see was white, she was thoroughly excited to see the exotic flora and fauna that lived on the mountain range. It was one of the main reasons why she had taken this carriage to Mt. Hakobe, in hope that she would be able to see the elusive species. At some point, she even wanted to collect a few of the plants that lived on the mountain, so that she could bring them home to her own garden. However, she knew that if she removed any type of plant from its native home, it was likely that it would die anywhere else.

The other reason she had come to Mt. Hakobe was because a supposed dark guild was located in the wintry mountaintops somewhere. After extensive research on the guild, she had decided she wanted to find this elusive place just as much as she wanted to see the flora and fauna. If the guild proved to be as the people were telling her of it she may even think about joining the guild as a new home to stay in. To her, the guild had the same goals as her, but perhaps she had misunderstood what the people had told her when she asked them. Unfortunately, she only had one way to find out and that was to go to the guild, itself, and personally as the guild master what their goals were. Of course, one thing stood in her way and it was the fact that the guild was a dark guild and likely wouldn’t just tell any passerby their goal. Ahmoria huffed and let the curtain drop back over the opening, blocking out the sunlight that had cast in through the glassless window.

As she did so, the carriage came to an abrupt stop, causing the demoness to slide forward in her seat and slam into the wood that barred her from the driver’s seat. “This is far as we go!” the driver’s voice called out, alerting the woman to the fact that she would not be seated comfortably and warm for the entire ride. Frowning, Ahmoria pushed herself off the wall of the carriage, dusted herself off, and opened the door of the carriage, stepping out into the open. A rush of frigid, wintry air blasted her in the face, forcing her hair to twirl and dance maniacally in the whiteness and her body to shiver from the cold. Reaching back into the carriage, she pulled out a fur coat that she had been given by one of the carriage attendants before she had left. Pulling it on, she walked her way to the front of the carriage and frowned harder at the driver with a slight look of disappointment. “What do you mean ‘this is as far as you go’?” she inquired in an angry voice, “I am a frail being that is not meant for the cold; I relied on this warm carriage to get to my destination!”

“Sorry, ma’am, but the trail just gets too rocky, and the carriage can’t handle such terrain; this is as far as we can go,” he answered her. Ahmoria merely gave a huff of exasperation in the man’s direction, bundling the coat closer to her body before turning away from him and stomping off. She wasn’t about to let a measly human ruin her day because he refused to take her up the mountain and to the guild hall of Basilisk Fang. Another shiver ran down her spine as the chill of the cold air deadlocked her and ran her blood cold from its frigid and cold nature. Her breath could easily be seen in the air against the blizzard that whirled around her and before long, nothing was visible to her eye. The sound of the carriage driving away was her only clue as to which direction she was facing, but she sucked in a brave breath and continued on. Even if she couldn’t see where her feet were taking her through the whiteness, she had the determination to find her destination.

Hours seemed to pass by to her and all she could still manage to see was the whiteness of the blizzard as it continued to rage on. She wasn’t even able to see the flora or fauna of the place because the blizzard was too harsh and the creatures were likely hiding away. All of it made her quite sad, but at least she was able to experience the climate of this place, no matter how difficult and harsh it was. Ahmoria was quite bundled up in the fur coat that she had been given, though it barely provided her the warmth that her frail body needed. Being a plant demon was unfortunate in this case, and it wasn’t like she was able to amp up her body temperature to keep her warmth. In any case, she simply had to wish that she would be able to find the building of Basilisk Fang before she ended up freezing to death. The last thing she wanted was to be found dead in the mountains of a place she wasn’t familiar with, but at this rate, it was highly possible.

She squinted her eyes at something in the distance, something that was either very big or very small and extremely dark in color. The closer she got to it, the more she realized it was getting bigger and the thought of this being the guild’s hall popped into her head. This caused her pace to quicken, bringing the structure closer to her until at long last, she was standing at the massive doors of Basilisk Fang. Ahmoria stared up at it in awe, but managed to slowly reach out for a handle on the door and tug lightly in order to get it to open. Slowly, the beast of an opening creaked and swung open, allowing for the demoness to peer inside and look for some help. It was a rather desolate building, maybe this wasn’t the guildhall at all, but rather an abandoned building she could find shelter in for a while. Stepping inside, Ahmoria looked around, green optics taking in the bleak surroundings before she called out into the emptiness, “hello?”

WELL LATE AT NIGHT WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING,

The sound of someone approaching her alerted the demoness to the vacant building not being as vacant as she had first assumed. Her green orbs flickered away from the empty hallway to a man who had come from a different part of the building to greet her. Two more magi that had flanked him moved away and around her, at first making her believe that she was about to be surrounded. However, the men merely went around her to close the door, shutting out the harsh cold of the blizzard from the outside world. She found that now a warmth enveloped her, allowing her to peel away the fur coat and down to her natural outfit, coat over one arm. Ahmoria smiled kindly at the male, an aura of darkness emitting off him that allowed her knowledge that he was not one of those petty humans. “Always nice to find a fellow demon out here in the bleak landscape,” she responded to him, her gaze wandering away and over the building’s insides.

“I appreciate the kind gesture,” she added, walking toward and past Sol as she went the way he had come when first greeting her. She ducked into the rest of the guildhall, being greeted by a swelling warmth from the fireplaces that were spread out over the large room. Several people were resting in this section of the guildhall, all huddled by the fireside to keep warm and ward away the cold. Mori glanced around for an unoccupied fireplace before heading over to it and taking a seat in a chair settled close by. The fire was nice, but she didn’t want to be too close as she was still quite sensitive to intense heat, like she was to the harsh cold. “So, this is the fabled Basilisk Fang…” the woman repeated the name she had heard from the man upon being greeted by him. “I’m glad to know that I’ve safely made it to the guild; thought I wasn’t going to be able to find it and that I’d freeze to death before I did”

A light chuckled escaped the plant demoness’s dark, ruby-red lips when she turned her head in the direction Sol was in. “So, Mr. Oh-So-Powerful, mind telling me what the goals of your guild are? I’m assuming that from the immense power you emit that you must be the macho man here, no?” Ahmoria inquired. Perhaps she was merely stroking his ego with all that she was saying, but she neither knew his name or the position he held here. She was merely assuming what position he held with the amount of power that she could sense radiating off of the magus. “I suppose you’re probably wondering who I am as well and why I’m here… I mean, I guess I can tell you that first… My name is Ahmoria Mayy; I hail from a forest just off of Akane Beach and I just so recently heard of your lovely guild and decided to come find and check it out, myself. Hope you don’t mind that, Big Boy… after all, I’ll leave right away if you don’t want me around, but I was thinking of joining if it appealed to me.”

WELL LATE AT NIGHT WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING,

Ahmoria quietly watched Sol, shifting in her seat so that her legs were draped over on of the arms and the small of her back pressed to the other. She tilted her head slightly at him, listening to his words as he explained the reason why Basilisk Fang was located up in the mountains. Such a dastardly deed that was, but she could understand why a dark guild such as this one was so well hidden. They clearly must have been quite the wanted guild if their first thought was to dissuade people from finding them. A smirk pulled across her dark cherry lips, her head leaning back so that her hair nearly touched the ground. "It's not that I would be tired and unwilling to fight the people of your guild, it's that I have no interest at all in fighting them. I'm not here to prove my strength to measly humans; they aren't worth my time when I have the world to take care of. No offense to you. . ."

She lifted her head up and looked at Sol again, intrigued by the words that he was telling her, running a hand through her hair and flipping it over. "True freedom. . . true freedom is when the winds can blow on their own and the trees can do much more than simply produce oxygen. . ." Mori gave out a sigh and glanced up at the long-away ceiling above her, the tragic boards that held the rickety building together. "I want what was stolen from my people; men clip, prune, and remake my beautiful plants without any regard to their feelings. It's certainly very tragic and for that, I would like for the human race to cease to exist and nature to roam free once more. Hearing that Basilisk Fang is willing to not only achieve its goal, but the goal of its people is pleasing to know. . . you know. . ." Her gaze shifted from the rafters to the Poison Dragon Slayer again, giving him a keen smile of cherry lips and pearly whites.

"Sol. . . what a lovely name. . . reminds me of something, I just can't put my finger on it, though," she responded to him. "Oh? The Poison Dragon Slayer, even lovelier. . ." The smirk grew wider on her lips and she crossed one leg over the other, clasping her hands in her lap. However, the sound of a test wasn't all that appealing to her, but if it was more of his fancy, then she would complete it. Her gaze shifted over the crowd of Basilisk Fang members, who all crowded around fireplaces still, muttering to each other. Mori then looked back at Sol, watching as he beckoned one of the members to come over to where they were. She remained silent as the man talked with the other, leaning back into the seat until at last she was finally addressed. The man on the other side, well. . . he didn't look quite pleased as to what was going to happen with him.

"Names are names, Big Boy, they don't mean a thing to me. . . it's when the one who says the words proves true to his intentions," she stated. Ahmoria stood to her feet and walked over to man, curling her fingers around his chin and lifting his face up to look at her. She turned his face from side-to-side lightly, green eyes boring into the man's soul as she looked him over. A sweet, succulent scent filled the air from an unknown source, until closer inspection would reveal Ahmoria emitting the smell. The man's face before her began to turn red as the fragrance suffocated him, his breathing quickening as his heart began to race. Mori let his face go and the man dropped backward into convulsions, foaming at his mouth as he gasped for air. "Pigs don't deserve quick deaths," she muttered, straightening her stature as the man's body stilled from its motions.

Crossing her arms, she shifted her body slightly and glanced at Sol, "you said something about a drink?"

WELL LATE AT NIGHT WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING,

"Well, the sun doesn't always have to be something that is bright and shining," Ahmoria explained to him. While it was true the sun was much of a symbolism for that as it was for anything else, it was also a devastating creation. At any second, the sun could blow up and kill the entire world, burning everything and anything that is in its path. The sun was just as much of an enemy to the world as the people that contaminated it like the plague had of Europe. "For instance, the sun isn't just something that is pretty and can momentarily be looked before it blinds you permanently, it's a wicked thing as well. We see the universe as our own, but in reality, the sun is a gaseous entity just waiting to explode and kill all that are in it. You just have to remember, there are always two sides to a story, don't judge it before you've heard them both."

However, her explanation had quickly come to an end, her attention brought toward the word "gardens" that left Sol's mouth. "You have a garden? Oh, would you please take me to the gardens? There must be so many exotic plants there!" she exclaimed. The very thought of being able to see someone else's gardens made the young plant demoness ecstatic over it. She could already imagine all of the different flowers and trees that were contained inside of that very garden. "How many poisonous plants are in there? I absolutely adore plants that are beautiful and deadly all at the same time." Ahmoria bounced on her feet a little, but quickly caught her child-like demeanor over the plants and settled herself down. "I mean, that is, if you're willing to show me the gardens you own and... if you wouldn't mind... I do need a place to stay... I could stay in the gardens and tend them for you..."

Yet, the mechanical gears of a creation rung into her ears, once again drawing her attention toward something else for the time being. Mori silently watched as Panzer came into view from the shadows, growling and creeping toward the lifeless man. Its jaws unhinged and grabbed hold of the body before dragging it back off into the shadows to dispose of it. She blinked and continued to watch the empty space where the creature had been, slightly intrigued by it. However, she was drawn back to Sol when he began to speak again, explaining to her that Panzer was harmless. "Oh, it's okay, he doesn't scare me at all; I have my own pet, Romaham, who's likely just as deadly as Panzer is." Chuckling, Mori turned her attention to the bartender, "get me your most toxic thing you have, poisonous or otherwise."

After which, the woman glanced back at Sol and played with her hair, pulling it over one shoulder to expose the left side of her neck. "Right here, if you don't; seems like an awkward place, but I've always loved my neck and a little blemish there won't hurt it."