Trick or Treat, Someone's Dead Meat

It had honestly been some time since Gaia had seen her husband. She wondered where he had been, if he was okay… the normal stuff a wife would worry about. She had at least sent messages to the West Fiore Trading Company to see if there was any update about him, most of the time she got side tracked by new members who needed her help a bit more. The life of a mage. She could only worry about her husband and hope he was fine. She sent one last message to her husband's company, asking them to pass along a message to him about meeting her in Ace of Spades for the pumpkin picking that they've requested others to join in doing. Honestly, she wanted to spend some time with him and enjoy being a married couple again… It had been too long without him to her.

In the spirit of the time of year, Gaia was dressed in a rather witchy outfit. She wore a black strapless corset that pushed her ample chest up some more, a short orange ruffled skirt, a pair of black and orange striped thigh high stockings, and a pair of black Mary Jane's on her feet. On her head was a black witches hat with a little orange teddy bear head shaped pumpkin hanging on the end, and a 'scary' face on the hat. Over her shoulders was a black cape that had a soft orange inside with yellow pumpkins, stars, and bats printed on the inside. Noya was simply wearing an orange scarf on her neck so she could move around at her leisure.

The two were waiting in the Red Dragon Tavern for Kyran while others were enjoying themselves with their ale and holiday singing. Gaia simply sat at the bar, sighing as she had a wine glass filled with red wine sitting between her fingers. The glass was decorated for the season with sparkled and painted bats and pumpkins and black cats around the outside and on the base of the glass. She found it to be rather cute. Noya was sitting next to her on the bar counter, munching on treats that Will had given her while the duo waited.

The tarot mage glanced over to the door as she sat at the bar. Honestly she wasn’t drinking the wine. It was just show in case Kyran did show up. She gingerly stirred her glass. Would he come? She hoped he would. He had something he needed to know. Taking a deep breath, Gaia wished she could drink the wine. But not yet. She could hold off her thirst for a while longer. As Kyran came in, she glanced to the door, and Noya perked up before she hauled ass towards the end of the bar counter. "Noya. Don't go running to strangers. It's not polite." She simply says and looks into the glass. She knew what she said when she noticed him out of the corner of her glasses. One sip couldn't hurt, right?

She brought the glass to her lips, kissing the rim of it when her name was finally called out. Of course he'd do so when she was going to drink. It was bad anyways right now. She grumbles softly to herself before she sat the glass down. She looked over as she took a deep breath. "Yes? That is I." She says with a dry smile. She watched his uncertain steps and took a deep breath, leaning against the bar with her cheek on her fist. "Do I know you, stranger?" She perked up her eyebrow, wondering what he'd say. Noya looked confused and quickly went onto Gaia's lap, as if protecting her. Or more her stomach. She rested a hand on her companions back, and takes a deep breath. Soon. Soon she could tell him.

"Oh wait! You're Kyran! Goodness! My husband has returned from a long journey! Will! Get him a drink for me please? I'm sure he needs one to tell me his tale! I'm simply dying to hear what had you gone for the past three months, my dear husband." Her voice was obviously over dramatic, and quite loud. The tone of her voice made most of the bar go hush. They knew someone was in trouble. The wife's scorn. The other males within the bar felt pity to Kyran, and wished him luck with whatever was going on.

Will, the bartender, set a couple cold drinks a seat down from Gaia, one of them was a mixed drink and was stronger than the others, in case he needed it. "What kept you from calling me or sending messages?" She asks straight up without looking at him. She looked to her glass again. There was a light pink lipstick stain on the edge from where her lips touched the glass before. Now she couldn't drink it if she wanted to. She needed to remember. She set the glass completely down and resisted the urge to ask for a water so soon. Not till she told Kyran.  

Gaia noticed he started to cry, and she bit her tongue a bit. She needed to calm down. Her hormones were already getting the best of her. She glanced over to him as he sat down next to her, listening to his words. “I didn’t know you were then… you just poofed.” She mumbled as she put her cheek on her fist while leaning against the table again. She looked to her husband and raised an eyebrow. Then came the waterworks as he confessed that his daughter died in his arms. She bit her cheek and turned herself towards the bartender. “Give me some apple or grape juice. Non alcoholic juice.” She clarifies before she turns to be directly looking at Kyran, placing her hand on his back. “You know that I’m here if you want to talk or grieve about her passing… I’m also sorry for acting like a bitch...”

She didn’t know what else to tell him. Not right now. She felt terrible for how she acted now… She then pulled him into a hug and put her head on his shoulder. “You’re terrible.” She grumbles as she reached behind her to her tarot pouch. She pulls out a stick and moves it in front of her to shove in one of his hands. “You have a new mission. Get good enough to protect us. For us.” She tells him. She was waiting for him to look at the little ‘gift’ she presented him. She puffed her cheeks as she looked to the wine she really couldn’t have, and put her hands on her hips with her body facing towards Kyran still. She had given him a pregnancy stick. A positive one. And if he were to look at her, her corset wasn’t too tight around her stomach, and it was pudgy.

“You have any idea how hard it is to keep my emotions in check right now?” She then groans after a juice was presented to her, and she goes to sip it, putting her undrank wine glass in front of his other alcohols so he could drink it for her. She wanted to grumble about things. “Already can’t even eat meats, and smell some of them. It’s gotten bad.” She pouts. She then pointed to him. “And yes, one hundred percent. It is yours. No bullshitting. Already went to the doctors. Three months as of a couple weeks ago. And too soon to tell it’s gender.” She held up three fingers as she set the drink down. She wanted to answer those quickly before he even thought of asking if she was serious and if she was sure. Now for the other kind of waterworks maybe. She did hope this distracted him from the misfortune of his daughter's passing. She wouldn’t try to block it out though.

The tarot mage held her husband to her as long as he needed to, even after she gave him the stick. She didn’t care if he got his tears on her cape, it was easily able to be washed. She waited for him to process what she gave him, and tried to keep a straight face before she started ‘ranting’ to him. She didn’t stop him from touching her stomach when he reached out for it. She felt bad for distracting him when he was upset about his first daughter, but she also honestly couldn’t hold back from telling him either. A bit of a grin was on the bespeckled mage’s face. “Yeah… I wasn’t sure if it was too… but here we are. Also, I’m sorry for acting kinda… bitchy…” She says as she glances away from him. She honestly wasn’t expecting him to tickle her, making her gasp as she blushed deeply and allowed herself to be picked up, trying to be squirmy though.

Their obvious change in attitudes had the rest of the tavern confused as they didn’t know if* someone was in trouble or not anymore. Some saw the pregnancy stick though and quickly figured it out, spreading the word around for the rest of the bar to be back to their calm again. When she was sat down in her seat again, Gaia smiled sadly to him. “I’m sorry I also wasn’t  there to help you through your daughters death sooner though… Though, I don’t know how much help I’ll be right now.” A blush was on her cheeks as she was trying to ignore his comments about him putting her on her back with a book. She honestly wouldn’t mind that, but she wanted to be active right now. She grabbed the wine and handed it to him. “At least drink this for me. One glass, it’s pretty weak wine. I could have drank a little bit of it, but… People would be mad.” She pouts. She loved her wine. She usually tried to score the finest for the tavern, more for herself, but for others to have as well.

Gaia watched as Kyran offered Noya her treats, in which the ferret eagerly jumped over to him and wanted it badly, already gobbling it the moment the box was opened for her to eat them. She blinked as she was called ‘queen’ by Kyran, but smiled softly to him. Of course there was a present for her. She would have thought he was sick if he didn’t get her one at this point. She blinks at the book and holds it delicately in her hands. A smirk came across her lips as she read the author’s name, then glanced towards her husband. “I hope Anon was compensated for this.” She giggles as she hugged the book to her chest. “I love it, but,” She pulls a paper that was on the bar closer to them. “We have to drop the book off at the house so we can go pumpkin picking. Found this flyer and thought, we should go.” She muses to him happily. “The patch is not too far from the house too! So easy walking distance!.” She claps her hands as she was honestly excited for this. Kyran wasn’t going to be able to reject her too. She was physically able to do all she did before. She just needed to keep her emotions in check.**

The tarot mage smirked as Kyran took the glass from her and muses. She batted her eyes up to him. “Well, I got a few things on Yona honestly. One, I’m your wife, two, I’m pregnant, and three, it’ll make me happy.” She leans against him before he called out to the rest of the tavern. When he was going to drink it, her eyes went wide at how he downed the drink. That was where she face palmed herself. “Kyran… you sip wine… unless you want to get drunk…” She groans to him. While she was groaning though, she was holding a smile and a laugh back from him.

When she had shown him the flyer to the pumpkin patch, Gaia smirks to him and puts a finger to her cheek. “Good. Send my gratitude to him too. I look forward to reading his book. And I was hoping you’d say so! But first, Will? Can I have a water to go, for Kyran?” She jabbed her thumb towards her husband and smirks some. Will had laughed as he grabbed a cup and stuck it on the counter for Gaia to grab. Noya was nuzzling up against Kyran when he had gone over to her, chirping at her masters significant other a bit.

When the couple left the bar, Gaia ended up starting to drink most of the water. She was sipping it while they walked and glanced to Kyran as he asked her how she felt about being pregnant. She took a deep breath as she brought the cup away from her lips. How should she explain it? “Honestly. I’m scared. With our jobs. It can get… intense, at times.” She says as Noya had wrapped herself around Kyran’s neck. “Of course I was shocked that I got pregnant though… Who wouldn’t be? Especially since we were sure…” Her voice trailed as she heard the caw and the fog came around. They were near the pumpkin patch. As he stepped away from her, Gaia just rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’ll go set this in the house, then be right back.” She muses to him as he seemed to start going off away from her more. She saw him starting to use some magic a bit and jogged to her house, especially since her staff was there. Yeah, she could summon it through her bag, but this could be convenient that she left it near the front door often.

She came back just as Kyran attacked the crows, and puffs her cheeks some. After he shot down the crows, she walked up to him with her staff, and tapped his shoulder. “Ey, forget about your wife already, did you?” She asks while her cheeks stayed puffed and she put a hand on her hip. “Next time, warn me, okay? Or Harmony may pop herself out of her card to yell at us again for not working together.” She warns as she glares down to him. She looks over at the crows though, and blinks.

They were starting to shake a bit and fuse themselves together. Gaia gasped as she took a step back, holding up her staff and glaring to the creature. This most definitely was not how she wanted to have this date to go with Kyran. “Next time I’ll just convince you to go on a job with me and call it a date.” She growls as she as getting rather annoyed that their actual dates were turning into jobs. Maybe an actual job would prove less stressful for her. Would the two ever get a proper date? She doubted it.

The bird mutant thing was giving off a cold chill as it looked like it was a brute of a mutant, and had long claws at the end of its fingers. He opened, Gaia supposed its mouth and let out some echoing, ghastly screams. She shook for a moment. This was like Spooky Forest with Masha all that time ago. She opened her hand and glares some. She had magic now, officially, nothing was stopping her. “The Tower.” Her voice was rather monotone as she glared at the beast, keeping her staff in front of her to protect herself, or at least her stomach. A card was in her hand suddenly, and it shimmered before a grey male dragon was before them. He just glanced towards Gaia and then towards the mutant bird before her. “Tower, that is your target.” She simply says, tilting her chin forward to let him get after it. “Kyran, do me a favor and keep it back please. And when I tell you, jump out of the way, please?” Tower had started to stand up straighter, showing how tall he really was, nearly eight feet tall, and was starting to suck in air. Gaia knew he’d collect enough air to be able to blast his spell at the mutant thing, provided that Kyran would move out of the way when she told him to. Tower was new to her. She never seen him in action, only told what he could do. So this would be a new experience.

Noya was obviously enjoying all the attention, even cuddling up to Kyran as he gave her the attention. When he offered the water, she seemed to take a little bit of it before she jumped back to Gaia. When they left the tavern and Kyran proposed Gaia taking ‘Less dangerous jobs’ she sighed. “Sweetheart… I’m meaning being a mage in general. I do plan to keep low on the jobs regardless, but things can always go wrong.” She puffed her cheeks out as she had a hand on her hip. Then he mentioned her summons. A snort came from her as she looked to the pouch on her hip. “Yeah.. they’ll protect me, and yell at me for even working even though I have practically nothing to do.” She rolls her eyes, but patted the bag regardless. Despite some of them having attitudes with her, they still worried and cared about her. A smile was on her lips as he kissed her cheek though. “And I don’t need other people protecting me. Only those with the guild symbol can get into Sabertooths guild hall… which your ‘squad’ would not be able to do. Sweetie, I’m pregnant, not a flower. And like you said, I have my cards. They’ll protect me if you’re not around.”

As Kyran explained that he was still getting accustomed to civilized life again kind of, she gave him a nod, and then another as he promised her to not fire off spells without a plan. “At least try to keep a level head when casting your spells.” She says as she looked to the crows becoming one. A snort came from her as he teased about her job-slash-date idea, and added onto it. She had rolled her eyes and let her summon charge up his spell. She watched Kyran as he seemed to summon gauntlets onto his arms and a floating crystal crown on his head while she prepares herself for Towers release of his magic. She honestly had no clue on how powerful this was going to be, so she could only hope. As she waited, she noticed Tower slowing down in his inhaling. She quickly looked towards the crow thing and shouts; “Get out of the way, Kyran!” Just as she said that, Tower released a beam of energy that blasted right into the creature, nearly vaporizing it it seemed since Kyran had also attacked it before him. The power of the blast had actually shot wind about, enough to shove Gaia back some and stumble a bit. She didn’t fall or anything though.

A frown was on her lips as she looks to where the lord crow thing was just before Tower blasted it to nothingness, then over to Kyran to see if he was okay. As she had looked for Kyran, a scarecrow in the patch to her left had started to slowly moving. Tower had looked over to it at first, thinking he saw something, but looked away when he didn’t see anything moving, thinking he was seeing things. The scarecrow moved again and started pulling itself off of the stake it was on. The stake it was on had a scythe at the end of it, and it instantly grabbed it as it started to go over to the couple, planning to come up behind Gaia. Tower had turned around again a moment later and seemed to start inhaling air once again. The tarot reader didn’t notice anything at first, but seeing how Tower was reacting, she turned around to see this scarecrow. Her eyes grew wide before she held up her own staff.

It was laughing maniacally, and it was rather unsettling for the short haired tarot reader. Was it her emotions getting out of hand already? She honestly wasn’t sure if this thing just scared her, or if her hormones were heightening her fear. She couldn’t think of that. “Example A. What was supposed to be a calming pumpkin picking, has turned into a disaster of a wreck by some scarecrow wanting to terrorize us.” She sighs rather deeply, hanging her head for a moment before she holds up her staff and ten basketball sized lotus made of fire appeared around her. Pointing the bladed staff towards the scarecrow, all of the fire lotuses seemed to go right after their target, starting to set it on fire a little bit. It started coming at her faster now, and swinging around it’s scythe rather wildly. There was no thought to how it swung it, it seemed. She gasped as she quickly tried to scurry away from it. Flaming scarecrow wasn’t good for her, especially since she was actually starting to cough from the smoke from it. Bad choice. No more fire for now. It affected her too much for the time being.

A smile was on the little tarot readers face as she nods up to her husband. Of course they can do this. No way would she let it not work in their favor. As to her family issues, she hoped she no longer had anymore. Unless Kyran was meaning them right then with their family of three to be. When they were fighting the bird thing, Gaia was glad Kyran had heard her call to him. She would have felt absolutely terrible if he hadn’t. She honestly wasn’t expecting Kyran to suddenly sprint past her towards the scarecrow, mainly because she was coughing from the smoke being too close to her still. She watched as her husbands lance was in the scarecrows chest and things exploded with the creature. That seemed delightful.

Gaia snickered to him as he was in between them and took half a step forward, but thought better of it. A slightly burning scarecrow wouldn’t be too fun for her current state. Though, when Kyran finally finished it off, she made her way next to him and pushed her weight on his shoulder to kiss his cheek. “My hero.” She teased before the fog rolled out. She sighed a bit. Honestly, she was tired already. She took a couple steps back and held up her staff to block her front, or at least her stomach. Then Kyran got hit by a ball of shadows?

The reaper pumpkin head thing showed up after he had been hit by, what she assumed, one of his spells. Tower was actually still charging up his spell. He didn’t release it due to Kyran being in the way before. She looked up towards the dragon. He may have to throw that one in the air… She looked towards Kyran as she notice him hit it then trap it. What was he doing? She was utterly confused. She smirked as she rolled her eyes. At least he was helping keep herself and the baby safe. She glanced towards tower with her smirk, and just pointed towards the pumpkin king. Her lotus was still flying nearby too, but not too close. She pointed her staff towards the pumpkin guy thing, and both tower and the lotus smashed into the creature. Gaia stumbled a bit from the force of Towers spell, but she kept steady. Raising her other hand, the tarot mage called out another card; “Harmony.”

She glanced over towards her husband just as a content looking white and purple female dragon with her eyes closed and arms stretched out to either side of her with an extra-long tail trailing behind her came out of the card that zipped out of Gaia’s pouch. The dragon opened her eyes and immediately looked towards Gaia. “Kyran needs healing.” She tells the dragon as she patiently watched for a body to appear through the smoke. Then it came. It wasn’t dead yet, and it wanted to attack more now. Tower poofed as his time was up. She grits her teeth and holds her hand up again. “Earth King Dilong!” The card that floated up and shimmered out a two-toned, brown/green, male dragon holding a disk with a five-pointed star in his claws that matched the image in the card. “My lady, it’s been a while.” He tells her as he sees the pumpkin going after her. “I suppose that’s my target.” He mutters before he broke his disk in half and crushed the crumbs into the earth before they came out as geodes and stabbed the pumpkin in multiple places.

The crystal spikes stabbed the pumpkin head and seemed to dislodge it from the body.

Seeing that sight, Gaia’s shoulders slumped, her staff slowly lowering finally as King Dilong and Harmony were in the area around her. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes? Why were there tears?! Gaia’s seen this a good few times! She was utterly lost as to why she was crying over the ‘death’ of an enemy that seemed to want to maul her. She looks over to Kyran, seeing if he knew why she was suddenly crying. Or if he’d come give her a hug regardless. She needed something herself now. Her emotions were getting out of hand for her to deal with.