[Event] Contrast of Desert and Winter (Akeya Kuusai/Eilidh O'Maoilriain/Song Talea)

Event Details:

When Akeya heard that two people from Silver Wolf were going to Sakuramori to celebrate the Winter Solstice she'd quickly used the connections between their guild and her own to give herself the opportunity to tag along. The reason for this action was a combination of curiosity and some concern, although perhaps not directly concern for them as the situation as a whole. Sakuramori was always a place both mysterious, wonderful and potentially dangerous. It was a forest overflowing with magic and a close connection to the realm of spirits, with as result that a lot of strange things could be found there.

And considering that every time an event came along something was bound to happen Akeya wanted to know what would happen if mayhem broke loose in a place which was already rather dangerous and difficult to predict. Would the forces that inhabited Sakuramori oppose whatever winter-based trouble would arise or would they combine to give all the mages present a real headache?

She didn't know but she was going to find out. For now the dragoness was standing outside the forest edge waiting for the two mages from Silver Wolf to arrive. From what she'd heard one of them was a drider who enhanced her physical abilities with her magic, and the other was a human girl who possessed both light and dark magic similar to Akeya herself. Of course magic which allowed one the usage of both light and dark was not unique to her: she knew of at least one drider who also possessed a similar magic. But it was still something which piqued her interest.

For some strange reason the three mages weren't the only ones who'd decided that Sakuramori would be a good place to spend the Winter Solstice. About a hundred meters away from the dragoness's position people had put up tents and stalls to celebrate the darkest time of year on the outskirts of the very magical forest. The assassin figured they'd have to stick close to those people so when trouble broke out she and the other two would be around to prevent any casualties.

WC: 355
TWC: 355/1,500
@Eilidh O'Maoilriain
@Song Talea

Eilidh shot through the sky, racing above the landscape towards the winter festival in Sakuramori. Draconic wings seemingly formed from the night sky itself propelled her through the air, and thousands of tiny scales made up of the same magic as her wings made sure that even if she were to make a mistake then she wouldn't be seriously hurt by a crash. Eilidh's laughter echoed as she swooped left and right, spinning and looping as she flew, feeling intoxicated by the feeling of flight and the beauty of the landscape beneath her. She had heard people talk about Sakuramori before of course, but the descriptions didn't do the forest justice. The sparkling colors and almost fantastical landscape was breathtaking, and the feeling of ancient magic thrumming just beneath the facade, while not as dark as the forest near the cursed lands she grew up in, reminded Eilidh of her home.

She did have to admit though, it was strange that their would be a solstice festival happening here of all places, especially since there were no real human settlements in the area as far as Eilidh knew. Maybe the festival would be run by spirits and the various creatures of the forest? Beastfolk certainly existed in regular society, who was to say that even more interesting beings who decided against joining in with the modern world weren't out there? After all, Eilidh's people had certainly kept themselves isolated...

Eilidh's flight leveled out as she shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of thoughts of home before she ruined her mood for the festival. Luckily that was also when she caught sight of the clearing the festival was being held in. After performing one last loop in the sky Eilidh shot down towards the earth, landing with a solid *thump*, throwing up snow and ice as she landed. Eilidh didn't bother to dismiss her scales and wings as she began to look around, knowing that she was supposed to meet up with two others, a Drider from her own guild and a woman from Fairy Tail that had only been described to her as "Draconic", everyone chuckling and saying that she'd understand after she met her when Eilidh asked for more details.

WC: 374
TWC: 374/1500

Song may have looked similar to a drider, but it was certainly not what she was. Being a spider person from the desert, the young girl didn't have a drop of drow in her. It was only natural for the girl to be mistaken for a more popular race of spider people though. The driders did look more similar to her kind than another well known type of spider person, the jorogumo. Her physical abilities and senses were enhanced by magic, but it also wasn't the only reason. The blind naturally had more enhanced senses, something that lessons can help them take greater advantage of. The blindness was part of her magic, making it easy in her home city for those in charge to find out who was born with the correct abilities to be trained to eventually become a desert ghost. It was a goal she had long since abandoned, or perhaps never truly wanted to achieve in the first place. Then again the term drider sometimes was also used out of context from its original meaning, a vague reference to all types of spider people who fit a certain half spider half person sort of look.
None of this mattered though, as the girl really had no idea about any of Akeyas thoughts. All the younger Talea knew of was that she was going there to do a job. Work was something the young girl took very seriously. She didn't pop up in any flashy way, her abilities being the opposite of such. Her presence was naturally low, her training making her even harder to feel out. She silently walked over, hard to notice despite the bright color of her shirt. It was easy to find the group she was supposed to meet up with. She quietly made it to the group, not making any sounds until close to the others. Once there? "Hello I'm Song Talea from Silver Wolf! It looks like everyones here? Unless this isn't the right group. I haven't met any of you before, so I don't know your feels."

Words: 346

Both of Akeya's companions for the evening of the festival showed up in their own way: the girl who'd been described to Akeya as possessing powers of light and dark quickly showcased exactly that as she flew in on wings of night, apparently enjoying herself before she'd even joined the festivities. The dragoness watched her descent, giving her a quick nod before switching her attention towards the other mage.

This one, the spider person, had decided to take a more subtle approach. Which was more in line with Akeya's usual line of thought although she hoped this wasn't the kind of scenario where they had to treat the people of the festival as an enemy. If Song had managed to surprise Akeya she didn't show it, the midnight-scaled dragon woman folding her arms as she listened to his introductions. Once the spider was finished she followed up, figuring she might as well explain her take on what they were doing here.

"If you're from Silver Wolf then this is the right group. I don't know whether you guys were debriefed for the mission at your guild but I'll summarize:" She raised one hand to point at the festival going on behind her with a clawed thumb. "Some humans decided that it would be exciting to hold the Winter Solstice celebrations here, a highly magical forest. Given that Winter Solstice is already a time of the year where certain types of magic are at their peak that's asking for trouble, so we're here to keep an eye out in case things go wrong."

Akeya's emerald eyes darted between Song and Eilidh. "For my part I have little interest in the festival, so I'll be keeping watch. If you two want to enjoy the festival be my guest: it's not unlikely that creatures from the forest are mingling with the citizens, so you might find trouble coming from the inside rather than the outside." Her own opinion was that she could most likely take care of most issues herself, but she wasn't going to discount having additional personnel in the area, especially since even an anti-social person like herself knew that telling people they weren't needed was bound to insult them. And she wasn't supposed to antagonize people from Silver Wolf, given that they were allies.

"From what I understand everything is allowed to keep the people safe as long as you don't disrupt the festivities. We also don't know what kind of trouble might show up so don't hesitate to contact the rest of the group if you come across something you aren't sure you can deal with by yourself. Any suggestions, or would you rather stop listening to me going on about the mission and enjoy yourselves instead?" The corner of her mouth quirked up at that while she also raised one eyebrow, as if daring them to take her up on that offer.

WC: 484
TWC: 839/1,500