Pumpkin Treats (event w/ Sanguine, Birch, and Leah)

Once again, he'd been fetched. He despised being fetched, especially when he was in the middle of something. Something, in this case, like laundry. He wasn't sure if and when the rest of these imbeciles washed their clothes since it seemed no matter what day of the week or what time, he was alone while he accomplished this chore. Perhaps he was the only one here that valued cleanliness. He wouldn't put it past Saraphina to throw out the outfit she wore instead of washing it, simply sending out Nadaline to buy a new one...

With most of this proper attire soaked in the washing machine, it seemed he'd be going on today's outing in a white button-up and brown pants. Not up to his usual standards, but he wasn't so vain that he couldn't dress down occasionally. With an irritated sigh and much grumbling under his breath, he abandoned his clothes in the washer and followed the guild master's personal servant. Birch new well enough that Saraphina wouldn't take no for an answer.

Nadaline broke off to gather more people, leaving him to make his way toward the meeting point. "So help me, if she's fetching that moronic clown..." his low voice rumbled in this throat as his precise steps brought him closer to the front of the castle. His mood would only sour from here.

As he exited the hallway and into the brighter area, he hardly needed to see what awaited before he knew what was there. That accursed bear. Birch could feel his sinuses begin to swell in the anticipation of its grubby, dander-ridden fur getting up his nose. Standing near it was the self-declared queen of this motley crew, still heeding his advice to wear black more often. This would normally please anyone else who had made such a successful suggestion, but Birch paid it little mind. It was an improvement over that horrid white, but he didn't feel any particular way about it. The cat ears seemed especially childish. And here he'd been hoping to see more of that fierceness she'd shown before.

Sneezing and announcing his arrival for better or worse, the curly blond male's form neared the carriage with a quiet sniffle. "What have I been summoned for this time?"


[379/1500]

Sanguine
Erring Rising {} A-rank

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Word Count: 624 words
Tagged: @
Muse: sleepy
Music: song name by composer

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Appearance: https://i.imgur.com/Hjs0exT.jpg

A slight humming of content and the sound of repeated taps against a wood surface rung out from the kitchen. The tapping sound was continual, breaking momentarily before it picked back up and in succession of itself had happened over and over. What was she doing in this moment? Well, a knife on a cutting board was not uncommon, but that she was cutting up vegetables and setting them aside in preparation for a rather large pot of stew had been her chore for the night. One thing she seemed to love doing more recently was preparing meals, and having switched chores with another maid at her given Will was nice to have as a head maid of the castle. She didn’t do it often, but when she had a craving to serve more than just tea, coffee, or snacks, this was something she just loved doing.

While continuing her task, she had been halted as she heard the maid approach. The sound of her queens personal maid and her own mentee brought a smile to her face, turning around to greet her back with an equal curtsy. ”Oh my, really? Hmm.. I was just getting dinner together for everyone.” She paused as the thought popped into her head. She turned to her side and opened the drawer, pulling out a book and setting it down next to the cutting board. ”I will go, but will you please inform the Queen that I will meet her down there? I must pick us up a nice pumpkin! We will have a nice pumpkin pie for dessert tonight. The stew shall be good to go once you add the vegetables into it and follow the directions after the step for it. Thank you, Nadaline.” She have another humble curtsy to the maid before she stepped away to change and prepare herself.

Once redressed into her new attire, the maid spread her wings and took off ahead of Saraphina and the others entrusted to go with her. Normally, she would just go as she had last festival, however with her wanting to make a surprise trip, she instead chose to make a special errand on top of it all. Stopping short of the pumpkin patch, she walked forward, Hood still up over most of her head and approached. She looked in costume and the wings didn’t stand out much at all, thankfully. The Demi dragoness then picked up a rather large pumpkin and approached him. ”I would like to purchase this pumpkin, sir.” She announced with a cheerful smile. He looked at her, then to the pumpkin and just nodded. “10 jewels, miss. And your costume is nice. The wings look mighty real.” He commented, looking over them as she dropped the money into his hand and nodded. ”Why thank you. Have a nice day!” She brightly smiled at him before turning around and walking back in the direction she flew in on. The sound of crows had her looking up, but she continued to pay them no true mind until they had begun their descent. Like rats to cheese it seemed, they wanted her or the pumpkin and they began to bug her by pecking and squawking at her. Getting annoyed, she let them scratch at her until she drew blood and in one fell swoop of an explosion, they were blown away and dropped like flies. The farmer looked on in shock from the sudden explosion, followed by a casual continuance of walking away, setting down the pumpkin in a safe place for later. The sound of the next opponent was approaching and she felt like a bit of corporal punishment was necessary for her queen to have a good time out of the castle.

IVYLEAF33

Leah was dabbing the beads of sweat away from her forehead and neck as she sat on the bench, a sword hilt that alternated between white and silver resting on the bench beside her. With one hand moving the white cloth across her face mopping up the sweat, the other hand rested on top of the sword hilt. Despite the cloth occasionally blocking her view, her eyes were set dead ahead, fixed on a very particular spot across the training courtyard. And that very particular spot was a scene of absolute carnage. It was littered with broken bodies, all made of some magical blue substance, and had originally been training dummies.

While she refreshed her memory on where she had slashed and cut through the dummies, the substance they were made out of eerily resembling the feeling of cutting through human flesh, the dummies by virtue of the memory magic woven into them slowly began inching closer and closer to each other, part by part. This process would continue until they were whole again, providing the users with a practice target that could be reused over and over again until the magic wore out and just stopped working.

Her reverie was broken by the near-quiet footsteps of Nadaline as she approached Leah at the bench. Tracking her movement with her eyes but otherwise staying still, Leah didn’t give the Queen’s handmaid the attention she needed until her heels clacked conclusively on the ground when she stood just beside Leah.

A summons had come for her, one that she was required to accept, as was the case in this castle for the mad, this guild for the insane. Sighing, Leah nodded once after sparing the handmaid a glance and waited until she left before she picked up the sword hilt and slotted it into a sheath behind her waist. A quick run to her room allowed her to freshen up with a blast of freezing water and a quick of change of clothes, before she made her way towards the courtyard where Nadaline had said Saraphina would be waiting.

Her arrival was quiet, being the norm for the female assassin and she quickly assessed everyone in the immediate surrounding. The huge polar bear bearing its owner’s carriage with its owner caressing its head while wearing a happy expression, and the only other person she would call sane besides herself in this whole place. He had spoken up, the words reflecting exactly what Leah had in mind. She merely made her appearance known, a black mask obscuring the lower half of her face while wearing a black sleeveless Kevlar armor on the top, a pair of black cargo pants and black boots.

[450 / 1500 words]

The allergy afflicted man had been intent on begrudgingly obliging her wishes but refusing the bear carriage ride in favor of using his tree portal to get him down the mountain, but the arrival of a surprise addition to the party had him reconsidering. While his feelings about Saraphina were wildly varied and usually negative like his opinions on most of his other guildmates, the only other person his very being didn't balk at was silently joining them. This seemed to change his mind, enough that he got into the asinine cart strapped to the filthy arctic creature.

Since Leah's unconventional arrival at the guild, Birch hadn't seen much of her, which he found himself regretting a bit. As far as he could tell, she might be the only other sane person here, and frankly, he related to her in several ways. Warriors would always recognize their own spirit in others. It was something that brought sense of respect and comfort. Honestly, the celestial phoenix didn't appreciate his own reaction to the woman, but he seemed to lack control over it. Perhaps it have served him better to avoid her entirely, but it was too late. They were already going down the mountain.

Once at the base, his sharp eyes caught sight of the maid from the autumn festival fighting off some crows. A tiny part of him shriveled in horror at the sight of so many feathered creatures meeting their deaths, even though he hardly identified as an avian of any conventional type. His people had been all but human for millennia now, only using their feathered forms in emergencies or ceremonies for the most part. Still, there was some deeply engrained aversion to watching birds be murdered.

Packing his vague sense of horror back up into his mysterious and stoic depths, Birch exited the carriage after Saraphina. "Mm," he hummed, the noise somewhere between irritation and tired acceptance. Of course, the corpses were fusing together. Why not? A relaxing day in the settlements. A fun day of pumpkin picking. None of these things were activities Birch enjoyed these days. Maybe once upon a time, but now his time was best spent chasing power and regaining what was taken from him, but it didn't matter. That's not what was going on here. Of course, everywhere Errings Rising stepped foot, unreasonable amounts of chaos followed.

With a small amount of bemusement, Birch watched his childish leader manifest a bow and arrow he'd never seen before. This piqued his interest. A new power? As she used it, a frown was produced on his lips. Ah, she wasn't exceptionally skilled with it. How disappointing. Saraphina seemed aware of her lack of control as well since she seemed to be sulking. Sticking to swords might be wise, though if she were able to really buckle down and practice, it might be a worthwhile skill. However, his opinion of her ability to be serious and pull something like that off wasn't high and would remain abysmal until she proved otherwise.

Once the amalgamation of crow corpses had shrieked its last ghastly wheeze and returned to being truly dead, Birch approached it and nudged it with one of his pristine wingtip shoes. It was magical in some way clearly, and for a rare instance in the presence of so many eyes, Birch showed some interest. After rolling up his sleeves into neat cuffs at the elbow he stooped, using something that looked like a popsicle stick to scrape some samples of the creature into a vial he'd had stashed in his pants pocket. The blond was an exceptionally secretive creature. Most probably had no idea he had a laboratory inside the castle, and if even if they did, they'd find the door always locked.

Standing back up to his tall stature, he turned to take stock of the surroundings. Not a single pumpkin had managed to be picked by the recently arrived company, a fact he found rather amusing, though his face would show no trace. No, all they'd accomplished so far was being accosted by pumpkin patch regulars. Speaking of, he saw the scarecrow with the scythe now as well. A wicked smirk spread over his mouth and narrowed his eyes into dangerous slits. Now that he had a bit of his former glory back, he was itching to try it out.

In a flash of brilliant light, he was gone, reappearing behind the possessed man of straw. A flurry of white-hot feathers ripped through its torso from behind, lighting the bits of bone-dry straw on fire. While it wasn't enough to down the creature, it heavily damaged it. Releasing some of his magic was nearly euphoric for the man like he was coming alive after a long sleep. Purple and black energy wafted off his hands, turning this hands into things more closely resembling claws. The darkness spread slowly up his arms. He dashed forward to rip his hand through the smoldering scarecrow's chest, sending a burst of cosmic energy with hopes to rip it to shreds. However, it seemed he was out of practice with his magic as well, since the burst did little to halt the patch guardian. He blamed the allergies for muddling his brain. An attack like he'd just done would work magnificently...on someone with a heart in his chest. This scarecrow had nothing but straw and a thirst for carnage. Its head spun around backwards to eye Birch up close, swinging its arm unnaturally backward with the scythe. The blond narrowly had time to bend backward out of reach, feeling the cold blade graze his cheek and draw blood.


[wc: 941 || total: 1320/1500]

Leah kept her silence throughout the journey down the mountain, being tightly packed into the carriage and all. It was a slow ride, with the lumbering movements of the polar bear creating too much unnecessary swaying that the female assassin had wished she had just voiced her refusal to board the damned thing. However, the ride also provided her a chance to meet with her benefactor, the one who had brought her into the castle when she was inflicted with a fatal wound, probably the only other normal person in the guild. Unsure of what to say, she just maintained her silence.

When they finally arrived, Leah was treated to a woman she had often seen in the guild, fighting through a horde of crows, and the crows were dropping at ridiculous rates. Wasn’t this trip to pick some pumpkins? The pumpkins were all there on the field, but this woman was taking her time to fight the crows instead. But the crows were the least of her concerns. As the crows died and dropped to the ground, they were slowly fusing together to create a gigantic monstrosity, seemingly made out of the dead crows.

Leah frowned at the sight, her right hand already moving to her sword hilt by her hip, pulling it out at the same time that their queen had moved forward with a bow and arrow in her grasp. The look on Leah’s face was one of disapproval, watching the queen wield the weapon with the skills of an amateur. The arrow trained on the monstrosity was shot forth, only hitting its target out of sheer luck when the monster made an unexpected turn. Pissed by the attack the monster advanced towards Saraphina but the guild leader was no softie. Another arrow was released and missed its intended target before she gave up on the weapon and instead went with brute force, putting the creature down with a sword.

On the other side, Birch had also leapt into battle, finding his target in the animated scarecrow across the field. Feathers, Leah had realized, when she watched Birch tear through his target with unrestrained brutality but the scarecrow had proved that it was far stronger than how it looked. Being undead and all, the way that Birch had tore through it did nothing to stop its attack and as it slashed with its scythe, the scarecrow managed to score a hit on the man even if it was nothing more than scratch on his cheek.

Sanguine rejoined the battle and with a ferocious display of magic completely reduced the scarecrow to nothing, breaking it down so thoroughly that even undead and unable to feel pain, it was unable to stand back up to fight. But it still wasn’t the end. A dark fog began to descent on the group of four standing in the pumpkin field, tendrils of dark mist snaking between the pumpkins at their feet, while the skies began to rumble ominously as it darkened. Leah’s ears twitched as she heard something behind her, and leapt away just in time as a large black claw slashed through where she had been earlier, obliterating the pumpkins in that particular spot.

“Wow, how amazing can it be to encounter you while we are here to just pick pumpkins,” Leah spoke drily, before releasing the energy within the hilt in her right hand. Blue light flashed from the hilt and took on the form of a sword as the female assassin threw herself into battle. A rounded disk of light appeared around her left wrist as she moved forward, eventually revealing itself to be a shield. Leah completely threw herself into the fight as she took on the new monster, a large pumpkin for a head with a body shrouded in dark fabric and long black claws at the end of its hands.

The female assassin moved agilely across the pumpkin patch as she fought against the slippery foe. The Pumpkin Patch King swooped through the air with ridiculous speed. More often than not, Leah would find herself unable to parry the slashing attacks with her sword and had to raise her shield to defend instead, putting her on the back foot but she would always return the attack with renewed vigor. There were times when the Pumpkin Patch King would catch her off guard with a powerful burst of dark energy and then comboing with a few slashes, but the female ninja fended off the attacks successfully.

Despite her swordsmanship, it was a hassle to keep close to the Pumpkin Patch King as its claws were the main source of trouble for Leah. The dark energy she could deal with, but the slashing claws oozing some sort of poison pushed her right to the edge of her senses, putting a strain on her while engaging in this high-end battle. To gain some advantage, Leah pulled away from the Pumpkin Patch King and formed a large windmill shuriken. It was a larger than normal shuriken, with four curved blades and a ring in the middle. Grabbing the weapon by the central ring, Leah swung her arm forward to send it slashing through the air, spinning rapidly in a curving arc before cutting into the Pumpkin Patch King. A splash of dark energy was caused by the cutting blades, causing the monster to roar loudly.

After exchanging several rounds of attacks, Leah decided that fighting the monster through conventional means was taking too long. A talisman appeared between her index and middle finger and with a flick of her wrist, Leah sent the yellow strip of paper flying straight at the Pumpkin Patch King. The talisman stuck itself to the monster’s chest successfully and what looked like a flimsy piece of paper showed its worth as one of Leah’s best moves when it suddenly exploded, blowing away the dark fog around them as well as causing the Pumpkin Patch King to shriek.

For a moment, the Pumpkin Patch King stopped its unceasing swooping around, giving Leah enough time to pull off another series of hand seals. From the ground, a magical array manifested around the Pumpkin Patch King and chains of magical energy shot out from the magical array, fastening around the Pumpkin Patch King’s neck, shoulder and wrists. It continued to writhe about, trying to free itself. The struggle took a toll on Leah as she did her best to keep the monster restrained while waiting for the others to land the killing blow to the accursed monster.

[1090 words]
[Leah's WC: 1540 / 1500]

A peeved Birch stepped backward to keep the distance between himself and the maid with the nasty acid spit magic. "It's fine," he rumbled in a low tone, habitually reaching up for the handkerchief that was usually in the breast pocket of his waistcoat. However, when his hand only patted the thin fabric of his button-up, he remembered he was not dressed as usual. With the back of his hand, he smeared the blood from his cheek the best he could, which only helped a little.

He was still not up to his own standards. It was as if he'd completely forgotten how to fight with magic. The physical ability from training was still there, but the flow he'd once had with his own magic abilities was still missing. Birch had looked like a rookie, and it incensed him greatly. Even his battle instincts had dulled to a point that it was as if he'd never been a soldier, though he still firmly held the memories of someone who had experienced war first hand. Really of all things, a maid had had to come to his rescue? It was enough to turn his stomach.

At least the next few moments served to take his mind off of himself. A pesky fog rolled in, causing him to cough a little as he breathed it in. It was a strange thing, perhaps it was a species thing where as the particles of moisture made their ways to his lungs they became irritated. He started to move to try and find its source and perhaps redeem himself, but it seemed Leah already had that covered. It was hard to see all of her movements until she blew the fog away, but what he did see was impressive. Maybe he was a little biased. Once she had the Pumpkin King restrained, seeming too exhausted to finish it, he'd started to dash in to use the long spear of darkness forming in his shadowy hand. It seemed the queen would use this time to practice her archery instead, so he held off at a distance to the right of the creature, ready to pounce in case she missed.

And miss she did. Birch barely managed to suppress an eye roll, but soon it'd be apparent that his own decision making skills were questionable today. He thought he was at a safe distance, even considering her abysmal aim. However, as one of her arrows swerved drastically, he heard the hollow thunk as it flew right into his chest. His previous dry coughs were now sticky and wet as blood was added to the mix, dripping down his chin. For a few brief moments he still stood there like nothing had happened, only widened eyes showing any reaction. He even noticed her last arrow managed to hit its target, destroying the gourdish wraith and ending their battle for the day. It was funny how sometimes the body needed a few moments to catch up with events. Once it fully realized the searing pain of the blade tip interrupting his heart's beats, his strength washed out of him and he landed on his knees. As Bertrand and Saraphina realized what happened and rushed toward him, he heard her words clearly despite his fading life force. Wasn't it obvious? "Odin would be...lying if he told...you that," he growled haltingly, falling over and rolling onto his back, so not to push the arrow even deeper. There was no fear in him, however. Why would a celestial phoenix fear death? Sure, the process inbetween lives was annoying, but it was nothing he hadn't endured before. How embarrassing, though. First he'd forgotten how to effectlively fight the undead and received a face scratch, and now he was dying in front of everyone. Angry eyes focused on Saraphina, looking extra moody just before the light left them and he died.

His body remained for only a minute or two before it dissolved into a large pile of ash. As the wintery breeze wisped over the pumpkin patch, the ash scattered to reveal an ebony egg with glittery golden swirls in its shell. It was rather large, but not so much that it couldn't be carried. And thus one of his carefully guarded secrets was revealed!

[wc: 712 || total: 2032/1500 event complete]