A Bored Day in Sabertooth

This would be a perfect day to see a small girl playing around outside. It was warm, but not scorching, with a light layer of fluffy clouds and a light whisper of a breeze. Mai had no work to do, and Miss Luna was off on a job, leaving the child with nothing to do. In a time like this, a normal child would be taking advantage of all the free-time off of what would be the equivalent of school to play around outside in the warm sun and meet up with friends. The problem was that Mai was not a normal child, far from it, and she knew few people outside of the guild to meet up with. It just so happened that many members of Sabertooth had been off on jobs at the same time, leaving Mai alone in her room.

The hollers of other children outside the Red Dragon Inn made Mai all the more restless. Beautiful days were boring for the God Slayer. She could eat the breeze, sure, but it tasted bland and flat. There was no chance of rain or lightning either, leaving her wondering what to do. She had already been laying in her bed for the past three hours. She was so used to Miss Luna's instruction that she woke up before the sun had even risen, eaten a quick breakfast, and rushed off to the proper guild hall of Sabertooth before remembering that Miss Luna had left the night prior. Even now, laying in her bed after a slow, mopey walk back to the Red Dragon Inn, she felt a tear well up in her eye. Miss Luna said that her job would not take long, possibly even returning later in the day or the next day, so Mai had no desire to go on a job of her own. Work was boring anyways, she thought. The non-guild guards were all scared of attempting to duel her, so she could not even train anyways.

"There's nothing to do if Miss Luna or Kenna or the other guild people aren't here!" she shouted, still lying on her bed. "I'd even be okay with Amalie being here because then I can practice my fwooshy-fwoosh magic, or at least get some tasty Frost Lightning, but Amalie's always with Miss Luna." She slowly grabbed one of her pillows, screaming softly into it as she kicked her feet around, messing up the bed she had so meticulously made to show Miss Luna her learning. Finally, she sat up with a start. "I still gotta find something to do! I know! Maybe Ratatoskr will want to play tag!"

She sprung out of her bed, nearly ready to sprint out of her door before she realized that her bed was still messy. She re-made it, though she sniffled at how it was not as perfect as it had been just minutes before, but she still slipped on her shoes and ran out the door, doing her best to ensure that she didn't slam it and break the wall again. She carefully looked at the doors, seeing the door marked "Luna Mira" right across from the door she had exited, which bore the name "Mai Stormschild". "Let's see...Miss Luna said that if I want to get to the guild hall, I go left, which means..." realizing this, she ran off to her right, ready to head for the portal to Yggdrasil. She quickly circled back to her room to grab the pouch of sweets for herself and various acorns and other nuts for Ratatoskr before rushing back off to the right once more. Seeing the hidden door that led to the Inn's interior, which would lead her into the town to find the portal, she smiled, slowing down to toss a small, round chocolate candy into her mouth. A moment after she had tossed it in the air, she was unexpectedly hit by a door swinging open, knocking the girl to the ground. She fell on her butt, the candy plinking helplessly off the top of her head.

She stared at the person who had emerged from the door that had made its collision with her. "Sorry! Miss Luna always told me to make sure not to walk too close to these doors because they can hit me if I'm not paying attention!" She then came to a realization. "Wait...if you're back here and in one of the rooms, that means you're a part of Sabertooth, right? I don't recognize you..." She pressed her knuckles against the side of her head. "Maybe Miss Luna or Kenna mentioned you at some point, I don't remember. Ah! If Miss Luna did mention you, please don't tell her that I forgot! Anyways, I'm Mai! Mai Stormschild! Who're you?" She smiled, tilting her head. She was still on the ground, but that did not matter to her. Maybe this person could alleviate her boredom.

---

WC: 821

Harriet had been trying to find her place in Sabertooth for a while now. Though, a while was more like a week or so. She had finally finished up her training after 2 years, and decided that it'd be best to continue it in a guild. It'd be less like training, and more like on the job experience. After all, that's what you needed. Life as a child assassin prodigy definitely did not help in that department. Also, the fact that she hadn't talked to a real life person in those years also contributed to the mess she was now. She wasn't nervous so to say, instead it was more like she was waiting for an oppurtunity to find some new friends. She had been hoping to start with a job, and hope that another guild member would tag along, but she felt that that shouldn't be the only way to find a friend.

Ever since she was exiled from her family, Harriet had wanted to find friends. She longed for it, and it's what gave her hope. Hope that one day she'd be able to stand up to her family, and a way for her to show that her decision was worth it. She wanted to show them that she didn't need them to succeed in life, nor the family business. However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she'd actually have to stand up to them through battle. She winced at the thought, but then washed those feelings away with the same tactics she had used in her training.

Whenever she had ever thought of a bad thought, she would let hot water run down her body from her head. She was able to create a consistent motion of water, that allowed her to listen to every droplet as it fell to the ground and rushed back up through the pipe. As she focused on these noises, it washed away her thoughts. So, whenever she had felt feelings of stress or fear, she knew what to do. She would close her eyes and imagine that process happening over and over again, blocking out every single other sound in the area. Though, this didn't affect her battle performance. It also taught her how to fight without some of her senses. Touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, and hearing. All these senses worked without the others, and could be used while the others were being used up. Not only did this exercise help her calm down, but it also allowed her to fight even better than she had with her family.

As she sat on the bed, looking at her sword, she put it in it's holder on her belt. She then stood up and decided to take a walk out through her room door. This was finally the day that she was going to meet someone new. With one step out the door, she heard something slam into her door. Looking around the corner of it, she saw that it was a little girl with blond hair. Harriet put on a look of question on her face, as she tilted her head. She didn't expect for someone as young as her to be in Sabertooth's residential area. Was she a child of one of the members, or was she a member herself. Neither option was too out of the ordinary, considering she was both in her past family. All she really wanted to know was why the girl was out in the building running around. She then checked out in the hallway to see if there was someone falling her. Yet, there seemed to be no one else here besides her and Harriet.

So, as she reached out her hand to help the girl up, she heard her yammering about someone she didn't know about. "Miss Luna." Was this her guardian, or someone she looked up to? If it was her mother, Harriet wouldn't really understand why she would be so formal about her name. This led Harriet to ask her first question towards the girl, asking her, "Who exactly are you here with? Is this 'Miss Luna' woman your mother, guardian, or friend?" She said this with concern in her voice, because she really hoped that the girl didn't have to take care of herself. It was hard for her, and she was 16 when she left. This girl seemed to be a lot younger.

wc: 739

Taking the nice girl's hand, Mai got up, brushing herself off and ensuring that her candies were fine. "Here with?" Mai asked, tilting her head. "I'm a wizard here! I'm Mai Stormschild, and I can do really cool magic with zappy electricity and stuff! Watch!" Perhaps against the better judgment of the entirety of the Red Dragon Inn, Mai opted to fire off a Tempest God's Bellow into the ceiling above her. "See? I can go all fwoosh fwoosh with bubbly bubbly clouds and stuff like that! Oh, and Miss Luna is my teacher! She's a really cool wizard here, too! She's got a lot of really cool and really strong magic and she's really cool and strong, too! I learn everything from Miss Luna, but...she's on a job right now...and I have nothing to do...and I'm boooooored! Do you wanna play with me? All the guard people are scared of trying to play with me, and it makes me sad, and everyone else I know is busy, and I need to get rid of some of my energy because Miss Luna says that if I don't, then I end up breaking things again, like the time I made the bed in my room go all boom-crash-pow!" She giggled to herself.

She hesitantly eyed her pouch of candies, extending one to the girl in front of her."Do you want one of my candies? I got these from a job in Bellum with Miss Luna, so they're really weird tasting! Ahh! Weird in a good way, I mean! They're really chewy and sweet and sugary!" This time, when she eyed her pouch of snacks for Ratatoskr, she was much more willing to offer to part with her snack. "If you don't want your candy and instead want me to have it, I have some snacks I was going to give to Ratatoskr, if you want those instead. They're icky and gross and healthy and they don't taste good." She squealed again, attempting to pretend as if she had not said her disdain for Ratatoskr's snack. "I-I mean they're really crunchy and have a...uh...well, they're nice and healthy, and you look like a big, strong, nice lady!"

She rubbed her head where the door had made contact. "Oh! I've told you about me, what about you? I haven't seen you around here yet, and Miss Luna said that if there's someone unfamiliar in this area, then they might be new! Either that or they've been here a really long time...or not that long of a time and I just haven't noticed them. Oh well! It's all fine! Maybe you can spar with me! Miss Luna said that even though I don't look like I'm powerful to a lot of people, I can pack a really mean punch! Although, Miss Luna also said that I shouldn't always punch everything...oh well!" She laughed once more, munching on the candy she had offered to the girl. It took her a moment to realize what had happened before she panicked and reached further into her bag for another one of these candies. Finding one, she offered it once more, sheepishly grinning at the mistake and hoping she would not notice something so obvious.

---

WC: 537
TWC: 1358

Harriet looked at the girl before her, frowning at the fact that the girl was a guild mage. Harriet doubted that the girl was worked as hard as she was as a kid though. After all, the girl did seem to be full of energy, more so than she was. Every day, she would sleep through most of it, trying to recover from the sores and bruises she had received from her assassin training. The training consisted of extreme training techniques that her family had passed down from generation to generation. They were meant to break the spirits of the children, so that they would be more susceptible to following through the family's business while also training them to kill. Even though the training did consist of fighting, it's main goal was towards the will of the person. A susceptible soul was different than a weak one, and a strong soul was different than a compassionate one. During the day, the young ones would fight their elders, while at night they would fight lowly prisoners. If they didn't kill the prisoners, the elders would go harder on the children the morning of. This caused the viscous cycle of beating down their spirits, but adding grit to them.

She could feel tension build up in her body as she thought of this, but then let go of it all. She realized that the girl was being treated well, and that allowed her to let go of her feelings. Though, there were a lot of other ways she could let go of that tension. It's just that that was the easiest solution for her at the moment.

So, with the girl offering her some candy, Harriet opened her mouth to say no, but the girl continued on with what she was saying before Harriet could successfully answer back. It wasn't until the girl had ate the candy that she realized that all the questions she had asked never had an opportunity to be answered. This was extremely adorable to Harriet. She had never seen a child so happy and carefree before. She wondered if this was how they were supposed to be, aside from what she was. If so, she liked it. Even with the annoying qualities of it, it had potential to be cute. With this in mind, Harriet smiled towards the girl and said back to her in a calming voice, "No thank you. Candy isn't really something I'm quite fond of, because of the amount of sugar in it. It get's me way too riled up for my liking. Thank you for the kind gesture though. Also, I actually am new to Sabertooth. My name is Harriet Artemesia. I had been training for 2 years before I joined, trying to get myself to a level where I could be a guild mage. It was tough, but it was definitely better than my life before. Now, I get to be a lot happier. Especially with people like you going around her." With that, her smile got gentler, as it showed a bit more vulnerability to it. Her face showed one of longing for a better past.

Soon after though, she realized this facial expression, and went back to what it was before. Just a regular smile, and nothing more. With this, she said to Mai, "I know you wanted to spar, but I'm not feeling to up for it today. How about we instead look around the guild hall. Maybe you could give me a little tour. This place is extremely big for one person to travel through all by herself. So, what do you say?"

Wc: 607

Truly this girl was unique. Something was different about her. "There are people in the world who don't like candy? But...but the sugar is soooo good and being energetic is super fun! Miss Luna says that sometimes its a bit too much, but I don't think so. Papa always said that my energy made me like a bolt of lightning! There's so much zappy potential if I get all energetic! Plus! Plus! Candy just tastes really good! Sweets taste like they melt in your mouth, and it's really fun!" She nonetheless could not fathom in her small mind the thought of someone not liking sweets. "Maybe she just hasn't tried the right sweets yet!" She rummaged through her bag for a moment before quickly closing it up with a squeak. "Oh, but Miss Luna said that if someone says they don't want something, I shouldn't try to make them say yes, so...more candies for me!" She rummaged through her bag for some of her own sweets, a frozen chip from Amelia's Frost Lightning, which she quickly gobbled up.

She then realized that the girl had mentioned more than just the impossible thought of not liking candies. "You said your name was Harriet?" She investigated the girl, quickly spinning around her in a light-footed gait. Approaching her left hand, Mai sniffed. It was a habit of her time in the wild with Papa that Miss Luna was trying to teach her out of. "You seem like you're nice! I mean, you are in Sabertooth, after all! And Sabertooth has Kenna and now Miss Luna's here, and everyone I've met is super nice, so that must mean that you are, too! This guild makes everything really, really, REALLY fun! Kenna teaches me how to be a Slayer better, Miss Luna teaches me all sorts of things, even Ratatoskr is fun to try to play tag with!" On the mention of Ratatoskr, she pouted, looking to the side. "Just make sure you don't have anything really important that he can steal. Ratatoskr can be mean sometimes. Like the one time he stole my necklace. But he hasn't done that since, so it's all good! Plus Miss Luna said that I shouldn't try to beat up Ratatoskr because he protects the guild and all that, and Kenna said that Ratatoskr's really powerful even though he's really tiny!" She giggled. "Kenna said that was kind of like me! People always say that I look like I'm not a really good wizard because I'm really young, but I'm really good at beating up baddies!"

It was then that the recognition of Harriet's lack of desire to spar finally clicked, and Mai briefly got sad, though it was quickly alleviated by her cramming a few sweets into her mouth, though she would halfheartedly offer them to Harriet, though they would already be consumed by the time she would have an answer. "I was originally just going to play with Ratatoskr again today, but I can show you around Ace of Spades and Yggdrasil and all these other cool places!"

Mai then skipped past Harriet, heading into the Red Dragon Inn, not truly paying attention to whether her work as a tour guide was actually being utilized. Upon entering the inn proper, a few of the staff members and the normal patrons greeted her with a smile.

"Heya, kiddo! I think I've got the strength to stand up to one of your punches today!"

"Bruca, I don't think that's a great idea."

"Yeah Bruca, don't break up the establishment."

"Aw come on you already know there's a few people that can fix up the place in a flash! Like Luna! She can do that, right?"

The innkeeper sighed, continuing to wash the same mug that Mai had sworn he had been washing earlier in the day as Mai moped back into the Inn. Bruca rolled up his sleeves, jutting his chin out. Mai smiled as she wrapped her fist in Tempest, ramming a hearty fist into the underside of his head. He flew upwards, crashing against the roof and causing yet another dent in the ceiling. Bruca dropped to the ground, unconscious. The other staff members and patrons laughed at Bruca's failed attempt to look strong.

Mai squealed. "Ah! Sorry about that! Those guys always like seeing how strong I get!" Mai remembered something one of the town guards had done, and Mai flexed her arm, placing her other hand on her tiny bicep. "Everyone always says I'm really strong, but Miss Luna said that I can't ever go as strong as I can, because then some bad things will happen. I don't really know what she's talking about, but as long as Miss Luna says it, it's probably right. Oh, right! This is the Red Dragon Inn! There's not really much in Ace of Spades outside the guild hall and houses, but this place is fine, too!"

"I'd like to think that my inn is a bit more than just 'fine' when compared to some houses..."

"If there's people outside the guild, they get to come here to nap and get good food, and they might even get to talk to a member of Sabertooth!" She giggled once more, skipping outside of the inn. She was always excited to meet a new person, especially if they were in Sabertooth. Miss Luna said that Sabertooth was one of the nicest guilds in Fiore, so it must mean that all the people in the guild were super nice as well. Even when she stepped outside to be blasted by the warm breeze, it was no big deal for her. She was excited to be showing around a new friend around Ace of Spades. It at least was better than having to deal with the meanie Ratatoskr.

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WC: 967
TWC: 2326