Welcome to the Madness

Well, this was the end of the line. She'd spent the last of her Jewel getting this far, and the train had ended in this little town mid-Fiore. This far enough? she silently asked herself, hoping she was far enough away from the destitute village where she'd grown up, near to the Neutral Grounds, that she could start a new life out here entirely.

Although judging by the fact that she had maybe enough Jewel in her pocket for a meal (and certainly not enough to continue travelling), she wasn't exactly off to a great start. This was the story of her life, and something she was quite accustomed to, but that didn't exactly mean that she wanted to stay in a state of always-being-poor and having to steal to live for the rest of her life.

She also didn't want to always be in a state of being afraid of this weird new power that seemed to follow her around. Magic, went the whispers (along with the frightened or suspicious stares). It wasn't that her village had hated magic users... well, maybe a little bit. But what she seemed to cause was nigh-well uncontrollable and scared the ever-loving hell out of others. And with good reason, she inwardly grumbled.

She'd heard rumours that there was a magic guild somewhere around here, though. Actually, she'd heard of a few such guilds in this area of Fiore. It was just her dwindling Jewel that had determined she'd be getting off the train in Magnolia. You could go ask for help from the guild for-

I don't need help! Besides, they'd want me to pay for help. Don't all guilds do that? 's how they get jobs! Kel stuffed her hands into the pockets of her worn hoodie as she argued with herself.

Maybe just explore then? Maybe a wizard will see you or something?... or maybe you can find a job.

That was an encouraging thought (along with the possible realization that she could probably find a pocket to pick if she got desperate enough), and so Kel left the train station, pulling her hood over her head despite the pleasant breeze and looking around curiously at everything. She'd never been this far from home before... this might still be Fiore, but everything was so much different!...

Kaseki wandered through Magnolia Town, a ritual he did quite often. He always took the long way home, looking out for interesting people. He started to brush past people who smiled when they looked at him. "Look! It's Kaseki!! Long live Dragon Fang!" cheered the towns people. "Aye! Long live Dragon Fang!" Kaseki replied. His group had grown immensely in power as well as size, but that wasn't what he wanted... he wanted something else.

He wandered the town following aura, yes aura, the power of mages. He could feel them all around him. He looked and saw an interesting girl. He loved the scent of jewels, he carried them all the time. However this mage... whatever power she had or was destined to have, bore a weak scent of the rocks. He figured he would intervene.

Kaseki quickly made his way to the girl and lightly tapped her on the shoulder from behind. "Hello there. I'm Kaseki, do you need... help?"

From the background was more towns people cheering the name from before. Kaseki looked at them briefly and smiled in response, but he looked back at the girl. "I'm going to guess you need money, so you must be starving and or lost."

It wasn't every day that someone managed to sneak up on the petite teenager and surprise her like that. But when it did happen, everyone with working eardrums in the nearby vicinity of said teenager tended to hear it.

Kel screeched and leaped an impressive distance straight up, whirling around to face her assailant mid-jump and scurrying to a safe out-of-arms-reach distance. Walking wooden skeletons weren't something you saw every day... "WHO-what-holy-!-what the hell?! Who are you?! What are you?!" Unless she was hallucinating (and given that she hadn't eaten yet today, that was a very real possibility), this was either somebody in a weird-as-hell costume or some magic spawn.

Or maybe she was delirious from hunger and there was nothing out of the ordinary here.

Hunger-hallucinations didn't usually include smells, though. And the sudden, powerful scent of roses seemed to be coming from this guy. Less than a day in and Magnolia had already been the cause of severe mental scarring for the scrawny teenager. At least the wooden skeleton had introduced himself (itself?) around Kel's startled screeching as "Kaseki". So it had a name. That was something. And it was sentient and intelligent. And from the sounds of it, pitied the teen in front of it.

Kel had never been very receptive to the idea of pity.

"I'm not lost!" she quickly said, not noticing or caring that she sounded a fair sight too defensive to be completely believed. "I'm, uh... exploring! 's it. I don't need no help!" Of course, that was precisely the moment that her stomach picked to set up a pitiful (and noisy) growl, demanding nourishment from its impoverished owner. Kel squeezed her eyes shut with embarrassment before stuffing her hands back in her hoodie pockets and scowling at the world in general. "Hmmph."

"I told you, my name is Kaseki. Some call me the Demon of Life, but most call me the 'Plantman'." He reached into his pockets and pulled out a gift in each hand. One was a brown circle, the other a red item. He offered them to the girl.

"I know hunger. I lived through it in the first thousand years of my life. Now, would you like a cookie or an apple? I also have other fruits such as pears." Kaseki could feel the grumbling of the stomach of the girl.

"Take it." he added

"Huh? What kinda name is 'Demon of Life'?" Kel warily eyed the gigantic skeleton above her, muscles twitching as her instincts geared her up to run. Most of the time when she got yanked into an extended conversation with anyone when she wasn't ready for it (... so, like right now) it usually meant trouble for the teenager-

... but he was holding out food. Stubborn and prideful though Keldae could be, she was also famished and needed to save the few Jewel she had left. And a cookie wasn't something that she got her mitts on often.

Deciding that scary-as-hell appearance notwithstanding, this guy was probably okay, she quickly snatched the offered food from the skeleton's hands and perched herself on top of a nearby barrel. The cookie was gone in about fifteen seconds, and the apple was halfway through being demolished before Kel finally decided to speak again. "You some kinda ghost or summin'? How are ya a thousand years old?" She hadn't been so focused on getting something to eat that she'd missed that little detail, after all.

Kaseki gave out a whole hearty laugh, "Haha! That's a funny one, you make me seem so young!" He stopped to look at the girl, "The answer is that I'm over 2 million, but that doesn't matter. I still feel like when I was a human... a six year old I believe."

Kaseki always had food in his pockets for his daughters, Yuna and Maria. They always appeared ti be hungry and he made it a point to be prepared. Sometimes, however, the cookies would go days uneaten and grow stale. He always handed them out when he got a chance. And he always baked at home, it was... a hobby.

"What brings to here? I haven't seen you around? Perhaps you are new here? What was your name? Do I ask too many questions? I'm sorry..."

Nightken was walking around Magnolia in his usual bar-tender suit. Most of the residents of Magnolia know who he is. One of the fruit venders tossed him two apples. "Those are on the house for all you and Fairy Tail does for us." He said before moving his cart along. "It does feel nice being recognized." He said before taking a bite out of one of the apples, then putting the other in his pocket and continuing to walk around town. After a few minutes of walking around he saw someone sitting on a barrel talking with what looked like a skeleton. Since he was in the area he figured he better check it out and started to walk towards them.

"Gawsh, you're old." Kel tilted her head to the side, studying the skeleton-man/provider-of-cookies studiously. "You made of magic or summin'?" Magic had to be the only way she knew of to make someone live for two million years. The oldest person she'd met before this had been eighty-seven when he'd died, and he'd looked his age. This guy talked like someone way younger, though, and Kel found herself blinking at the onslaught of questions.

What'm I gonna say to him? she silently pondered as she drew her knees up to her chest, the apple core now devoid of edible fruit and discarded on the ground beside her. She didn't feel like giving her life story to everyone who asked, but this guy did give her food. "M' name's Keldae. You can call me Kel. 'm explorin' around an' just got here." If he was magical, maybe he could point her to a guild so she could learn about this weird and scary power she'd seemed to have picked up... but Kel didn't like having to ask for things. She'd find where to go herself!

Or maybe it'll come to you, muttered a small part of her mind as she suddenly felt a magic presence nearby. She looked over her shoulder and saw another strange guy coming toward her and Kaseki-whatsisface. This guy at least looked like a normal human. So maybe Magnolia did have some relatively-normal people here! No telling yet what this guy wanted, though, or even if he was coming to check her or Kaseki out, so she decided the best course of action right now was to observe carefully.

Kaseki smiled, "It's a story for another time, but I will tell you the short version. Long ago in a world not too different than this, I was a young boy. I received the gift of water and fire from these godlike beings. Then as I left my town two spirits came to posses my soul. As they took me over, they took parts of me with them. Those two demons turned me into a spirit like them. They made me... me." Kaseki looked up as a man approached them. He seemed to be friendly. Kaseki smiled as he neared them. He could feel that this man was also a powerful mage. He let his cloak fall a bit just to reveal his left shoulder. On it, bore the scar of his last guild...

It was the remains of the tattoo from Lamia Scale.

What made this different, was that that tattoo was not made with ink, or magic, but simply a tool that engraved the lime thing onto his body.

And Kaseki would bear it for life.

Walking up to them Nightken noticed that the skeleton looking guy fits the reports that went around Magnolia about a creepy looking person who shows up at night from dark alleys, but the girl he hasn't seen around town before. "Haven't seen you around town I'm Nightken from Fairy Tail it is nice to meet you and with you I've read the reports about you scaring people at night by coming out of the dark alleys." He introduced himself keeping an eye on the skeleton like person.

... Huh? That story didn't make a heck of a lot of sense to Kel. Spirits and demons and gods? It all went way over her jaded little head. Frowning, she tilted her head at the skeleton in confusion before returning her attention to the newcomer. Normal human, dark hair, looked not too much older than her...

She rested her chin on her knees, watching the newcomer. "I ain't from here," she said in answer to his mention about not seeing her around before. "'m explorin' around here." She paused, thinking with what she'd heard him mention and nearly missed. "Fairy Tail... 's a guild, right? Like for magic users 'n them?" She knew there was a guild near here, although she wasn't sure if it was actually the legendarily-destructive Fairy Tail. Not like she'd really been here long enough to figure out where the guilds were, though- she'd been in Magnolia for all of about twenty minutes before Kaseki surprised her. Hardly enough time to orient herself with the town.

"What the holy hell...?" Kaseki mumbled to himself as he heard the reports. He knew Fairy Tail wizards were strong, but he felt like this was a made up accusation, something that angered him deeply. "First, I am not made up of bones, I'm made of Ironbark. Second, I am never here in town at night. And lastly, I never hang out in alleyways." Kaseki was becoming irradiated. After all of the good he tried to do... he still get labeled as a criminal. "So I assume that my record of what I did while in Lamia Scale is not existent? Well that's a shame, I thought saving a ton of innocent lives meant something these days, but I guess not."

Kaseki looked at his new friend before leaving, "Keldae, before you join a guild, I recommend learning about them all. Do not join simply because of one mage... Fairy Tail is great, but perhaps Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale of even the secret Eclipse Soul would fir you best." He looked at the man for a moment, "You come here and simply profile me because of my looks, without even knowing my past... pity."

And with that, he walked away.

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