Not Quite A Waterfall But Okay (Aster Intro)

Mountain climbing had been much easier when Asteris was in her big dragon form. Scaling heights, especially mountains, were easy when you were a giant dragon that could summon death. But in her small human form, it was decidedly much harder to scale the mountain. Asteris had found herself slipping, tripping, and stumbling her way up, partly due to the mountain itself and partly due to not being used to using human form. Her only reprieve from the litany of sudden surprised squeals and fumbling up the mountains was the fact that she had brought nothing with her as she made her climb. "This is stupid..." She muttered to herself as she looke back the way she came and briefly considered giving up. "No, I'm more than halfway up already, might as well keep going." Taking a deep breath she continued to move up.

There was a reason for Asteris not resorting to flight or body type advantage. It was to join the guild that had made its home at the very top of the mountain. Her reasoning was that if it was on top of the mountain then obviously the way up to it must be some sort of challenge. Aster didn't cheat challenges, overwhelmed them with brute force yes, but never cheat. Flying or making the climb easier in any way was cheating it in Aster's eyes.

Sitting at the side of the entrance, Luna was starting to get worried. On her way out of the castle, she started to sense a life force approaching the castle, at first she thought it was someone who was walking the path, she sat on a rock by the entrance, waiting. However on closer inspection, the life force was indeed strong and ancient, but she was wrong in the direction it was approaching from. Instead of from the path, waiting. She didn't judge the direction, but she did find it concerning that was the direction someone decided to come from. At best, she thought someone wanted to have some fun, or at worst, incredibly misinformed about the guild.

She checked her ilac every few minutes, her concern started to grow. A yellow liquidized drop of energy seeped out of her wrist before consolidating into a seed, before sliding into her fingers and tossing it at the ground. The seed burrowed itself into the ground before a twisted root arose, unwinding into a platform as the pink magic circle appeared. "I call forth from the forest beyond the horizon, the formless soul of the tree. Chuck." and a wooden two by four little over a meter long came out. "Hey Chuck, someone's trying to get up the mountain and I'm slightly worried. Could you please turn into a ladder as low as you can get?"

The Wooden plank seemed to flip itself as it moved to the edge, before turning into a ladder, with the top being mounted into the mountain by wooden spikes. The ladder slowly lengthened itself down to whoever was down on a small distance to the side from the climber. Chuck tried to extend himself as much as possible, but needless to say, the wooden being couldn't reach all the way down. "Thanks Chuck, you're a life saver, I hope not literally, but if it comes to it then I know literally."

Luna sat in waiting, to see who would arrive. The anticipation almost killing her.

From the top of the mountain came...a ladder? Aster tilted her head in confusion as she did nothing but stare at the ladder being presented to her. Of all the things to come from the top of the mountain, never did she consider a ladder. "What...am I supposed to use this?" Carefully shifting herself to the side, she got on the ladder and began to climb it as quickly as she could. "Hua!"At the very end of it she used the strength of her small arms to launch herself up, landing on her feet with a small wobble. "Whoops, guess still not used to this body yet..." She mumbled to herself as she straightened up and smoothed her dress.

"Right.." She breathed deeply. "Greetings! I am here to join the guild!" She declared, posing dramatically.

As the small girl had reached the top of the cliff, Luna was surprised, she was expecting some giant creature or something with a form that would be larger. However she saw the smaller being start to lose a bit of balance. She got up and quickly approached her, as she would try to wrap one arm around the back of the girl's shoulders as she would try to lead the young girl away from the edge and closer to the castle. The remark about not being used to her body clarified a few things ahead of time, yet the girl's aura seemed to be, familiar to Luna."Hello, let's just, get you away from the edge first."

Luna looked back at the tree spirit, who had already reverted into a wooden plank again, grateful for his assistance. "Thanks a bundle Chuck." Chuck turned into a sculpture of a hand giving a thumbs up, before his body dissolved into green specs of light that dissipated in the wind.

Luna turned her focus back to the girl, who claimed interest in wanting to join the guild. She was glad for having a new member join the guild, but she felt a great deal of concern for the well fare of the girl. "I'm Luna, the guild's resident healer and primary nurse. Can you walk, or do you need any help getting inside? Seems like you exhausted your body to it's limit."

Regardless, Luna would walk inside the golden castle, in the grand entrance hallway, Luna gestured to one of the benches to have a seat as she sat down herself, hopefully to learn more about the girl who was setting off Luna's sense of familiarity. "Have a seat. What's your name by the way?""

“Hm…” Aster stared at the plank for a few seconds as it had reverted back from it’s ladder form. “Useful, why didn’t you use that when we first met?” She said before she let herself be lead into the castle on top of the mountain. “Oh, no I’m quite fine, just still trying to get used to this body, I don’t use it very often so I really don’t have much experience trying to pretend to be human.” She explained to Luna. “But it is nice to know that this place has someone like you leading efforts on healing.” She gave a small smile, “I couldn’t have put a better person for the job.”

Asteris clearly remembered Luna from the time that the two had briefly worked together. “And look at that, five minutes in you have not stumbled drunkenly or called me draggy.” She said trying, and failing, to hide a chuckle. “Progress!” She complimented, giving her an approving thumbs up. “Just don’t ask to get on my back, letting you ride me back then was a one time thing and, well, I have a small back right now.” As if to emphasize her point, the strange wings on her back wiggled slightly.

Aster joined her on the bench and looked a bit put down when prompted about her name. “Aw, how cruel. Did I leave that little of an impression on you that you don’t recall me that well?” She dramatically put a hand to where a human heart would be and acted pained. She waited for a few moments to bait out a reaction. “Well, I forgive you but you have to feed me. I’m Asteris Kaiser, but I go by Aster sometimes.”

The girl's behavior was strange to Luna, she knew the girl seemed familiar, but the girl seemed to talk to Luna as if they had direct encounters. Luna rarely forgot a fact in her life, so she decided it would be best to simply see if she lets up any details that would clarify. Luna knew the girl's form was not her original one, and clearly sentient, which narrowed down the number. However mentioning of Luna's drunken behavior sent the wheels turning as she remembered the dragon.

As the dragon girl mentioned Luna riding her, Luna felt incredibly embarrassed as if a dragon said that, it would be fine, but coming from a tiny girl, it sounded wrong. "Could, you not mention me riding in that form, it just sounds, wrong."

Mentioning her name was like putting extra wood on the fire as Luna pulled out her iLac and pulled up the picture she took next to the dragon's head, she looked intensely at the eyes of the picture before comparing them to the eyes of the girl. Her jaw nearly dropped as the eyes were near identical. "I couldn't recognize you because you never told me you had a human form, or even you were a woman or a child in dragon years! Also, like that wood spirit and my healing abilities, the ability to sense the individual life force of someone weren't discovered until 12 days after we parted. I couldn't recall your aura because, well, I had a lot to drink that day..."

However she knew the dragon still wanted food, even if she didn't owe her anything, Luna would still oblige. She picked up the tiny body of the girl bridal style and started to walk towards the mess hall of the castle. "Look's like you're the one that's easy to carry now."The mess hall was a grand room filled with rows of wooden benches and long tables,with a small balcony near the top. Off too the side was a bar, which the kitchen was right behind. The mess hall was near deserted, mostly because the guild doesn't have the numbers to fill it out.

Luna set the girl down on a bench close to the bar, before she started to leave for the kitchen. "I'll be right back, just checking, is your metabolism fit to form, or is it still on a draconian proportion?"