Gate of the Mountains [Intro/Open]

The boy was sitting in the back of the Guild's kitchen, munching on some leftovers. Business as per usual. Not too long ago he felt like having a bit of a snack, so he walked downstairs, into the kitchen. His bird companion was out and about, scounting for people or hunting some food for himself. The boy was eating some chicken soup out of a glass bowl, while he was reading a book. It was no study book, or a research tome, or even his notebook. It was actually just a fantasy novel that he found laying about in the library and decided to give it a try. The story was about a girl and some glass throne in a giant glass castle. Love, magic and ruthless killing all made appearances. He would have to read it until the end. It was also obvious that there were more books in the series, so he didn't expect too much out of the ending, if there even would be a proper one. The boy was almost finished with his soup, when Soho flew in. The head chef glared at the bird, but didn't throw him out. Eero was allowed into the kitchen with no problems, but an animal was a bigger question mark, due to the hygiene standards. Soho landed on Eero's shoulder and the latter pet his head. Soho lowered his head and let out a soft sound in contentment. The bird would then point towards the exit of the kitchen, in the direction of the Guild's entrance. "Another one, Soho?" The boy would ask a somewhat rhetorical question. Eero knew what Soho wanted from him. The bird nodded and screeched in agreement. The boy would quickly finish the last two spoons of the soup and grab the book he was reading. "Thanks for the food!" He would thank the chef who waved at him as he headed for the entrance hall.

Eero was kind of surprised to see an another person enter the Guild's grounds so soon. Maybe he shouldn't be. Perhaps the word of Silver Wolf had started to spread and it was slowly bringing in new people. New researchers. New fellow guildmates. Whatever the cause was, it was good for the Guild. Eero would enter the Guild's entrance hall from the side where the dining room and kitchen were. He saw the stranger entering the building. The stranger was clad in a white cloak, that seemed semi-warm. It was quite in the contrast with his red hair. "Greetings traveler!" The boy would greet the other. "I am Eero and I welcome you to the Guild of Silver Wolf. Is there anything you are searching for?" Eero would present the Guild and offer help, once more.

So the stranger was indeed interested in the Guild. When he noted on its location, Eero would just shrug a little. "It does well to protect the Guild from intruders and also sifts through people with wrong intentions." The boy would explain. Though he enjoyed this sort sense of privacy that the Guild's grounds had. From behind him, Eero heard a familiar voice, Leona. He was glad that she showed up, since Eero didn't hold any too high of a rank within the Guild and thus he couldn't perform any official business. When the stranger introduced himself as Loki, the boy would nod.

The boy would turn his head towards Leona. "I think the Guild joining process is your stage, Leona." He would say and step back. Eero was about to turn to face Loki, when Soho would let out a screech and fly off. "What..?" Eero would turn to where Soho had flown off to and the sight he saw was quite something. Standing behind Loki, there was a strange person in a suit, at least Eero hoped there was a person inside there. Soho would be holding onto the person's hand, that was in a position as if he was attempting to strike Loki and holding him back from striking. Eero's posture immediately turned into a wary and ready-to-strike-back stance. "What is the meaning of this? How did you get in?" He would ask the intruder in a firm voice. Eero couldn't get too worked up, however. He couldn't let his other self get loose.

Eero wasn't sure what he had just witnessed. After a few cheesy lines, the suit behind Loki evaporated and revealed the man who was inside. /"Whatever just happened.."/ At least there was indeed a man inside, as per Eero's wish. As the suit evaporated, Soho lost his grip on and circled above the man. He was clad in a suit and had bright, green hair. Eero could tell for sure that he hadn't seen him before. It seemed that the man knew Leona, though. The boy wasn't sure what to make of the situation. Loki, on the other hand, was very much unimpressed with the prank or whatever the man was trying to pull. Eero thought that he could probably relax, so he would wave at Soho to come back.

His bird companion was still wary of the man, but flew back to Eero and sat on his shoulder again. The man placed his question upon Leona about him and the newcomer. "I'm Eero, member of Silver Wolf." He would reply for himself, expecting Leona to elaborate a little on the man's question. "Pleasure to meet you, I guess." The boy would mumble the second part under his breath. Maybe the man thought himself funny, but in Eero's eyes that wasn't the type of comedy he enjoyed. Especially when it came to pulling such pranks on newcomers. Thankfully, Loki really wasn't fazed by what just transpired and hopefully wouldn't think less of the Guild because of it.

Leona had her knife drawn, but once the threat had revealed himself to be a man in a suit, she put it away. She apologized and offered Loki space to ask questions about the Guild. However, when the man said that he had 'unique' sense of humour, Eero had to agree. /"It's certainly 'unique', alright."/ He thought sourly. Nothing more funny than a prank that involved a threat to hurt somebody. The man walked up to him, introducing himself as Desmond Troy. Apparently he was a member of the Guild aswell. That meant that he must've been one of the people who joined fairly recently and didn't have time to meet them quite yet. He apologized and offered a handshake. Eero accepted it, out of politeness. What Loki said , though, was true. Such pranks could go downhill very fast, especiall if there was a rash or temperamental person with them there. Which, in this case, thankfully wasn't.

The redhead then took up on Leona's offer, wishing to know more about the Guild than was just publicly known. The boy would nod, but staying quiet. It was understandable that Loki would want to know more if he was to join them, but it was not a question directed completely at him. Eero would leave the answering to Leona, unless he was called out to add or clarify anything.

Leona explained the basics of the Guild to Loki. Their goals and the like. She gave him a good roundup of what he could expect from the Guild, if he were to join. Loki then explained that he is well interested in the research itself, so the alternatives were not exactly needed for him. Eero was glad to hear that. Instead, Loki raised a different question. A rather interesting one, at that.

The newcomer seemed to be interested in the Guild's member count. Loki explained that he preferred working in places with small amounts of people. Eero reckoned that the same could be said about the most of their members. "We are relatively small, at the moment. But we seem to have been attracting some new people as of late, though." The boy would chuckle and nod towards Loki. "But yeah. Ultimately, there's not that many of us." Eero would add and look at Leona, seeing if she wanted to add anything to what he had just said.