When a Taiga is caught in a Storm [Social - Taiga / Mai]

Mai was not often fond of the times that Miss Luna had to leave on business, whether it be jobs or other sorts of business. It always made the fledgling Slayer sad. However, she was a big girl, and so she would just have to accept it without crying too much. Normally in times like these, she would wander around Ace of Spades in order to see what there all was around, but there would be, on occasion, be times that she felt the wanderlust her times with Papa ingrained into her mind. Before leaving the guild city of Sabertooth, she had told the owner of the Inn that she would be heading over to Era to see what sort of fun adventures the city of the Council would have in store. He accepted it, knowing that the reason Mai would tell him would be in case Miss Luna came back and was looking for her ward.

More often than not, seeing a small child by her lonesome on the roads of Fiore would be a marker for there being trouble afoot. Robbers and brigands and dark guilds roamed the streets, looking for easy prey, and seeing a girl skipping along by herself was the easiest prey there would be, one would think. However, Mai had now grown accustomed to not even worrying about these problems. Most would-be brigands at least had the capability of recognizing her latent magic power and could tell she was not a force to be taken lightly, and those that would attempt to rob or kidnap Mai would swiftly be met with a punch to the face or a Tempest God's Bellow before Mai would continue skipping along her ways. It seemed fortunate for others that the day happened to be a clear day, as being seen in a storm would be something that would only cause pain for others that would attempt to accost the Tempest Slayer.

Reaching Era with little fuss, immediately Mai got news of a sweets shop somewhere in the town.  After asking around, the helpful couple that pointed Mai in the correct direction offered to lead her over there, but Mai was a strong girl! She was able to find her own way! And so she did, though it was granted that she took longer than expected chasing after a butterfly. Just as the helpful man and woman had said, the store was there, with its doors and windows all bearing signs. Of course, Mai could not truly read what the signs said, but she immediately assumed that they meant that it meant that they were giving away free sweets for anyone who entered. She knocked on the door, to be met with an older-looking gentleman pointing at the signs before turning his attention away. Mai already felt herself get slightly angry at this, and she knocked on the door harder. The man looked up once more, pointing at his wrist with an irritated look on her face. He pointed at the sign again before returning his attention away from the girl again.

This was too much for the girl. Clearly this meant that the dumb stupid human running the shop was not willing to give anything away to her because she could not read. Her Slayer energy balled up in her right hand as she shook from rage. Fed up with not being fed, she punched the door open, shattering it into many pieces. The man stumbled back in shock, resting himself against the back wall in a panic.

"Hiya! What kinds of candies d'ya have?" Mai's rage had completely faded away as she hummed to herself, slowly wandering around the store in search of tasty sweets for her to munch on.

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WC: 623

Shortly after Mai opened the door, a man walked in behind her and scolded her on the rightness of bursting the door open. "But...I thought that he was trapped inside..?" She tilted her head in confusion before quickly pouting. "And he was gonna steal all those candies!" Of course, it would be a lie to say that she did not notice the very same person eyeing up a candy. She smiled before popping one into her mouth, much to the shop owner's chagrin. It was one of those candies that, for most, they would let sit in their mouths for a while and just slowly eat over the course of a few minutes, but Mai was much too impatient for such a thing. She crunched the candy loudly, revealing an even sweeter taste inside. "Mmm...cherry flavor!" She cheered to herself, a relaxed look on her face. She continued to skip around the store, trying out a bunch of different candies, completely ignoring the requests from the shop owner to have her stop.

"I feel like there's something I'm forgetting to do..." she suddenly said, stopping in her tracks. She pressed her knuckles against the side of her head, deep in thought. "Let's see...Miss Luna said this was something like...shopping? There was some other important part to shopping..." She shrugged, before turning to the man who had chastised her. "Ah! Don't tell Miss Luna I forgot!"

She was about to continue her rampage of eating most of the candies in the store when she stopped once more, spinning around to see the man again. "I dunno why, but I think you look a bit familiar...where was it?" She once more lost herself in thought, replacing her usual procedure of pressing her knuckles on her head with tossing another six chocolate candies into her mouth. "Wait! I think I know! You're part of Sabertooth, right? I'm in Sabertooth, too! Look! Look!" She spun around, showing off the purple guild mark on her shoulder. "I don't really know that much about you, because I've been training with Miss Luna and Kenna and if I'm not training I'm usually beating up that meanie Imai or I'm coloring with Gaia!" She giggled, unaware that her rambling likely meant nothing to this person, if he even was who she thought he was. She smiled, briefly offering a handshake before that very hand switched its focus towards a set of rock candies. She grabbed a whole handful of them, jamming them all into her mouth at the same time. It was the most efficient way to eat, after all, and because she was so surrounded by so many candies, she did not have to worry about having them last the whole day.

She tried saying something more to the man, though the words were all but unintelligible from the mass of candies she was trying to eat. She still had the feeling she was forgetting something important about the "shopping" process, but she could far from remember what that thing exactly was. Rather, she felt surprisingly confused by why she had a bag of jewels tied to her waist. Taking her attention off of the process of eating the rock candies, she began her pursuit of trying to catch the bag, each time Mai reached out with both hands it escaped. It was almost akin to a cat chasing its tail, or so Mai had been told a few times. All the cats she had known in the jungles her and Papa lived in had really big tails, and they never chased those. Either way, she had completely forgotten about the man that was next to her that she was in the middle of a conversation with or the man who constantly was complaining about his door and his candies.

---

WC: 633
TWC: 1256

Mai once more tilted her head at the other Sabertooth wizard. "Your name is Tiger? I'm Mai! Mai Stormschild! What kinda magic do you use? Miss Luna says I'm a God Slayer! I eat water and wind and lightning-" She jammed more candies into her mouth. "-and candy!" A whimsical smile flashed across her face. She began to muse to herself, "But this guy's name is Tiger...tigers taste good...nummy nummy tigers..." She began to slightly drool, subconsciously jamming a few more chocolates into her mouth, much to the chagrin of the old man in the store. Once more, unaware of what she was doing, Mai slowly wandered over to her fellow comrade and bit him on the forearm lightly. It was not enough to break the skin, but Mai was hoping it was enough to get a taste. When she found out it was not, she snapped back into reality and nearly sprinted over to a container of hard candies, which she failed to stop for in time, crashing into them with aplomb and sending candies scattering everywhere. Mai was dazed by this sudden occurrence, and vowed to get revenge. Of course, that revenge was also to eat the hard candies that had now been scattered on the floor everywhere.

Her mouth now filled to the brim with candies, she half-walked, half-waddled over to Taiga. Though it was hardly intelligible due to the candies, she said, "Why aren't you at the guild hall much? It's really fun! You get Gaia and Itori and Kenna and Miss Luna..." her voice trailed off for a moment as she swallowed some of the hard candies, coughing as she did. "Wait, no! Miss Luna is mine! You don't get to play with her!" Mai's face grew into an angry pout as she stated her "claim" on her parental figure. To say that Mai was protective of Miss Luna would be an understatement, though it perhaps should have been that Miss Luna was protective of Mai. Nonetheless, Mai pouted with her mouth, though her eyes did still hold the aura of questioning, trying to ask the strange tiger-man the reason he never was around the guild hall.

---

WC: 362
TWC: 1618

Taiga froze in position for a moment, not because of learning that the young girl's name was Mai Stormschild but because she happened to mention that the magic she used was called God Slayer magic. "G-od Slayer?" Taiga asked softly, he knew what she said but it was as if he was trying to make sure he hadn't heard it incorrectly. He had heard of God Slayer magic before and knew that it was something that shouldn't be messed with, if anyone had this kind of magic, you might as well forfeit. It was more surprising that a young girl such as Mai had this kind of magic. He had completely ignored the comment of tigers tasting good, not intentionally but more because he was still reeling from the previous information he was given. It was like he was in some kind of shock and when the young girl bit him, it finally broke him out of his daze. "Hey!" He called, pulling his arm away and wiping the drool from where Mai had bitten him.

The young mage watched as the girl sprinted off, crashing into the candy that went everywhere and in response all Taiga could do was shake his head. "You are definitely lively." He said, stepping up from his position and walking over the the fellow guild member. He tried to listen to her as she spoke but couldn't understand what she was saying because of all the candy in her mouth. "Wanna run that by me one more time without the candy in your mouth?" He smirked, this smirk disappeared rather quickly however when she became angry for some reason. Taiga had no idea why she was suddenly angry and he in return grew confuse. "Your mood swings are going to give me whiplash." Taiga stated, kneeling back down again so that he was at her height again.