[Ch.2] Cheshire Cat

[Gale]

It was a beautiful day in this small town in Fiore. This town was usually bustling with energy, but the large crowd of screaming girls was something completely different. "Talavon! Talavon!" screamed the group of girls at the top of their lungs. Walking in the middle of the crowd was a very handsome man with slicked back spiky, orange hair and green eyes. He wore a open green shirt with black pants held up by a white sash and tucked into brown boots. Strapped to his back was a large club like weapon called a konbo, as well as, a mask on the side of his head.

"Ah I never get sick this" said Talavon as he smiled and waved at his adoring fans. Walking through the town he finally came to the ocean side. Breathing in the salty air he couldnt help but close his eyes taking in the warmth from the sun. All of a sudden a large rumbling shook the area. Looking up at a large cliff he gasped as a large Guild house appeared out of thin air. "Whew there must be a pretty powerful mage up there to use Guild Forming. I have to go check it out" Swiping his hand across his face a deer mask with large gold antlers appeared over his. Crouching down he took off in a burst of speed running up the side of cliff. Jumping up he landed on at the top cliff quickly getting rid of the mask. Seeing that the door was open he just strolled in. Looking at his surroundings and the other mages he started scanning the Eternano of the fellow mages. Powerful they might be but one really stood out the man with the stone staff. Walking up to the man Talvon stuck out his hand. "Hello there you must be the Guild Master here the name is Talavon."

[Kyubey]

John looked at Puck skeptically, somewhat put off by his rather strange appearance, and the fact that the Dream Dragonslayer had apparently smelled him. He was surprised to hear that Puck was also a dragonslayer. John hadn't really expected to meet anyone else like himself in the tiny little guild.

"Well, Puck, I'm something of a dragonslayer myself, if that's what you mean. The Darkness Dragonslayer, if you want to be specific."

Following Puck's example, John raised his own hand, and gave a very small demonstration of his power. His hand was enveloped in a deep and pure black, creating shadows around it that swirled and intensified seemingly at random. Anyone very close to John might have felt a very faint pull towards the darkness, like something was pushing them into it. After giving what John felt was a suitable performance, the blackness faded away, and the hand returned to his pocket.

"Hope that answers your question."

John looked around the interior of the guild, closely examining every inch of it. He was neither impressed nor disappointed, ultimately finding the place to be average, as far as magically summoned buildings went. The important thing, though, was that he could easily picture himself staying there a while. It didn't look uncomfortable to him at all.

"So. There wouldn't happen to be any drinks around here, would there?"

[Sprite]

Puck's eyes lit up in amazement at John's demonstration of his powers. Another Dragonslayer! He young mage smiled in excitement, he had not known another dragon slayer besides his brothers, and they were gone now. Maybe this older Dragonslayer could answer some of his question.

But just as Puck opened his mouth to ask John what happened to his dragon, the tall man seemed to turn away and take more interest in the guild and pursuit of drinks. A bit dejected but still happy to have met another Dragonslayer, Puck turned and walked away. He still found the man's dreams and scent a bit suspicious, but he could investigate that later.

Speaking of suspicious, Puck narrowed his eyes slightly hearing Alden claim the bell tower for himself. Why?

"In that case..."

---

About five minutes later, if one checked they would see Puck knocked out and slumbering noisily on the staircase that led up to the belltower, sprawled comfortably all over the wooden steps.

[Hitotsumami]

Elrond listened to Qi eagerly, interested in this magic about keys. He had heard of the summoning magic before, but he had never seen it done personally. Key Summoning was truly something that was becoming more and more rare in the world.

"Well I'm not as interesting as you," chuckled Elrond, waving his hand. "I specialize in... I'm not too sure myself. Well, I have earth magic. As far as I know, it's been passed down in the family. As for my goal... I said so, creating the strongest guild."

Maybe Qi caugh it, or maybe not, but the last sentence sounded a bit unsure. Elrond shrugged, looking down, but suddenly looked up when a new individual entered the Guild.

"Oi, Tavalon is it? Come on in and have a drink!" A number of barrels sat behind the bar, full of delicious drinks. It was free for anyone, so Elrond took a drink himself. Afterwards, he wandered towards a bulletin board he hadn't noticed before and went to investigate.

It was a Guild Job board. However, it was empty except for a single note pinned in the center of the board. Elrond took it off the board and examined it:

"Greetings Renascence Guild.

I am glad to have a new and upcoming guild in the neighborhood. I wish to request your services and see just how impressive you are. I've lost my cat and I wish to have it back. It's name is Cheshire. I believe it's located in your own Guild. Please find it immediately.

Sincerely yours."

Elrond blinked and reread the paper. He couldn't believe it. Could it really be a quest already? He smiled with joy, stuffing the paper in his pocket. He jumped up on a nearby table and called at the top of his lungs. "LISTEN UP EVERYONE!"

He hoped it would catch the others attention, and he continued: "We've got our first quest you guys! We have to find a cat! And get this, it's in our Guild! His name? CHESHIRE! Let's find him!"

[Mise™]

"Hmm... Maybe." The punk was wondering something as he still gazed upon the painting of this fabulous man, who had apparently been part of Fable 100 or so years ago. Then he moved the painting a little and looked what was behind it as if he was looking for a hidden safe or something along those lines. Why he was expecting something to be hidden there? Who knows.

"Nope." There was nothing there.

Now the punk figured out it was time for him to now leave this crazy guild behind and instead look for a much more legitimate guild. Again he didn't want to get much attention and tried to just casually walk away so that no one would pay much attention to him. However things didn't go quite as the man had wanted as after taking a few steps he stumbled upon something invisible and fell on the floor.

"What the hell?!" The punk shouted. He was now lying on the floor, hurt and his nose had begun to bleed from the impact.

[Shark a' Pult]

In some short time he had managed to at least get a good idea of the layout of the tower, and figured out roughly where he would actually "live", but Alden still wanted to clean the place up before he actually started moving things around and setting stuff up. There was a lot of dust, dirt and cobwebs up here, and he wasn't about to be spending any extended amount of time amidst it. Before anything else though, he needed a broom and other cleaning supplies, and they weren't going to be found up here.

Having taken off his full travel-attire, the mage hunter was without his over cloak or helmet now, as there was not a need to walk about the guild fully decked out. His sweater and pants were enough, and he went to head down the stairs.

---

That's just sad.

While clomping down the staircase he nearly tripped over the sleeping Puck, and Alden stopped only for a minute to try and make sense of what the dragon slayer was doing of. In the end he decided to ignore it, partly because it wasn't his business but mostly because he just didn't care. Grabbing ahold of the hand rails on either side of the steps, he simply hoisted himself over the sleeping mess and down to the next portion of stairs which were unoccupied.

After that he continued his descent, until he reached the bottom floor. Everyone was going nuts for various reasons, apparently something about a big painting and a lost cat? Again, not anything he was really concerned about at the moment, and simply went to look for a broom closet or other cleaning supplies. He had a feeling something like that would probably be in the kitchen or near it, so that was the first place he went to look, heading the direction opposite of the main entrance and to the back portion of the building where the kitchen actually was located.

[CJ]

"The strongest guild," Xing Qi repeated. She had heard those words before but she wasn't sure where. They seemed almost uncharacteristically menacing of the new guild master. Still, she was starting to like him. She hoped he wasn't just trying to be nice in his flattery.

The small mage looked on as Elrond went about his business. She noticed Talavon walk in (well, she heard his fans first) and tried her best not to stare directly at him. She was well aware of who he was, but did not want to feel shame at being associated with his fans. So she focused back on the guild's first "mission."

"Oh, a cat?"

Xing Qi had considered summoning a spirit to look ahead with the others for the cat, but she decided to save her energy in case it was needed later. Instead, she slowly stood and balanced on her cane.

"You all should go on ahead. I'll go at my own pace."

There was no embarrassment or sadness in her voice. She simply stated the fact and carried on toward the bell tower stairs. She passed by Alden with only a brief glance. She lifted her cane and poked Puck, passed out on the stairs.

"Are you alright, sir?" Xing Qi asked casually.

[Sprite]

As Alden hoisted himself over Puck, a slight furrow appeared in the young mage's brow and he mumbled to himself in his sleep as he turned over. Falling into deep slumber once more he seemed to relax despite his odd choice in sleeping location.

When Xing poked him with her cane, he yawned loudly and sat up stretching. Despite the fact that he had only been asleep for perhaps ten minutes, he looked positively vibrant and well-rested. He gave the Celestial Spirit Mage a friendly toothy smile and extended a hand, shaking her cane as if were her hand, though not too roughly. He could tell she relied on it as if it were a third leg.

"M' names Puck! Puck Mayvill, you were Xing Ruby right?"

In response to her question, Puck gave another yawn and clambered to his feet, flipping acrobatically over head to land behind her, now off the stairs.

"I'm fine! I just have a tendency of falling asleep in weird places, though...just between you and me."

Puck leaned in and whispered conspiratorially into Xing's ear.

"I'm sleeping on the stairs so I can keep an eye on that Alden fellow, he's suspicious."

Perking up as he heard Elrond's jubilant cries, Puck gave a grin and smacked a fist into his open palm, apparently fired up at the prospect of a cat hunt.

"Alright! The Quest to find Cheshire the Cat is a go!"

Green flames erupting over his arms up to the elbows, Puck made to simply blast through the wall of the upper floor and back into the guild but seemed to remember something and lowered his arm, letting the flames die down. He turned to Ruby with a probing smile.

"Say, Xing. Before we go looking for the cat, may I ask if you have a dream?"

[newb23]

West had followed the rest to the guild when the other mages had left. It was quite surprising to see a guild pop out of nowhere but West didn’t show any sort of emotion. Instead he simply went inside and took a look around. He didn’t really pay attention to much in the guild building though he noticed some pictures of what he assumed use to be the guild that use to live here. Not wasting much time West went about looking for a room to live in.

After wandering for a bit he found a room that seemed quite suitable. Inside was a small bed and a closet on the opposite wall. There was a nightstand next to the bed, on it sat a picture of a young boy. Picking up the picture West quickly placed it inside the nightstands drawer. Looking about the room West noticed a case underneath the bed and bent to grab it. Pulling it out it looked as if it were a case for some sort of instrument.

Opening the case West was actually quite surprised to find what looked like a brand new saxophone sitting in it. Curiously West placed his hand upon the instrument and than wished that he hadn’t. Almost instantly the instrument seemed to get angry, vibrating violently before blasting West out the window of the room with a ear shattering sonic blast. Landing some feet away from the guild West sat up quickly and shook the glass out of his hair. ”Well now I know. No touching the stupid angry saxophone.” Picking himself off the ground West made his way back inside just in time to hear Elrond say something about a missing cat.

[Kuro]

It was the sudden sonic blast that woke Dofun up from his slumber on the first real bed he had felt in a long time. The clown, fully dressed and masked, sprung up and made an acrobatic flip out of his bed and onto the floor. It was amazing that he was able to do so, especially with the low ceiling. "Well well well, that is one alarm clock that I hope I never have to hear again! Of course, with the way things are going, i'll be sleeping in beds made out of babies and woken up by musical rainbows. Ooh, oh what fun!" Despite just waking up, his voice was just as loud and cheery as ever, save for that one thing he said about babies and rainbows, in which his voice had taken a much more sinister or mischievous tone. He hadn't even said those things to anyone in particular and hopped out of this room with a hammer in hand.

His room was on the first floor, so he didn't see Puck's antics. What he heard, however, was the new mission.

"Ooooooh, find a cat, a kitty kitty? Of course! Here kitty, here kitty kitty, come on out little one, where we can roast you for bru-er, kitty kitty! Meow! Meow!"

Again, his voice had been high and happy until the one morbid statement, in which this time his voice had been temporarily threatening. He walked around the guild, his hammer still in hand and his masked face looking this way and that to find the furry objective of the day.

[CJ]

"Xing Qi Ruby, yes," she responded, looking puzzled at the way he shook her cane and then bounded over her. She had never seen that sort of interaction. "It's good to meet you, Mr. Mayvill."

Xing Qi was even more confused at Puck's accusation of Alden. There were a lot of strange people at this guild but wouldn't someone like John or Dofun be more suspicious than the gunslinger (as she thought him to be)?

"A dream?" she asked. "Well, I guess I had a dream once. I was a little girl, playing in my backyard, when there was this terrible blizzard... Oh, I think you mean a goal."

Xing Qi laughed nervously and brought out her two golden keys again, dangling on an equally gold link.

"I hope to collect the rest of the Chinese Zodiac Gate Keys. I only have two now, the Horse and Snake. They're extremely rare so I don't think I'll be able to collect them all. Not to mention some have been missing for a very long time now."

Puck might have been able to see the dream Xing Qi had before was dimishing and distorting. Her elaborate clothing was gone. The figures behind her faded away until only two remained, the Horse Giant and a normal sized figure.

"I think I'd be able to work with what I got to make this guild something special," she said with a rather fake hope. "You're very interested in dreams, aren't you, Dragonslayer?"

[Hitotsumami]

"That's right everyone!" called out Elrond. "A cat! We've gotta find it! If we fail our very first job as a Guild, what would everyone think of us!?"

And with that, Elrond rushed off to find the cat. The first place he looked was back in his office, since he was still curious as to why there was nothing located in the office. As he entered, he heard the door slam shut behind him, and then, in the corner of the room, a long, thin, purple cat appeared.

And it smiled at him.

"F-Fou--" but Elrond couldn't finish, for the cat with lightning speed dashed at Elrond's face, entering his mouth and clawing his way down his throat. Elrond fell down to his side, grabbing his stomach, clenching it in pain, and then stopped.

He gave a small cough, then stood up, looking around. Then he turned around and opened the door.

"It's not in here you guys! Keep looking!" And he smiled.

---

A few moments after that, a cat, a purple, thing, cat, appeared before Jupiter after he tripped over something. Turns out he did in fact trip over the cat, and the cat didn't look too happy about it. It had a cross looking frown on his face. It's claws were out and it was hissing angrily at him.

As for Qi and Puck who were busy talking at the table, an exact clone of the other cat, also frowning and angry, appeared out of thin air and landed right on Qi's lap.

Alden, who had went to the kitchen, would also come face to face with the same cat who was sitting in a rather large cooking pot, peeking over the edge and hissing wildly at him.

And just the same as the others, a cat would appear in front of all the other Guild Members, no matter where they were located in the Guild.

Elrond, who was in the main area smiled and said. "There they are! Let's get them!"

And the cats attacked.

[Mise™]

No one seemed to care when the punk fell on the floor and hurt himself. That was quite okay for the man himself as he didn't want to get much attention right now. Though he was a bit surprised that no one didn't even seem to even glance over him despite making a lot of noise.

As the punk got up there was one question on his mind: "What just happened?" He wasn't a clumsy kind of guy or at least that's how he thought of himself. He was sure that his foot had hit something there, but his eyes couldn't see that something.
At first the punk was thinking that someone has played a trick on him, with some sort of magic, but soon realized what it was that actually had made him trip over: "A cat?"

"Those guys talked about finding a cat as their mission. I guess this must be it..." The punk figured out. "I'm not going to hand it over to those guys though. No way. I just need to figure out who gave them this mission and then return it to them..." The punk had it all figured out. It seemed like he could get some easy money from this with the cat just being there right in front of him. It was much easier than the missions he usually had to do. In fact the punk thought this might have been the easiest mission he had ever done, with the only possible danger there being the Renascence members objecting on him stealing their mission.

The punk tried to lift the cat and just carry it away, despite it being very aggressive and even attacking him. A few scratches going along with his bleeding nose wasn't going to stop him. One thing he hadn't realized yet was that there were multiple cats in this guild house and they all appeared to be roughly the same.

[Sprite]

Puck smiled sheepishly and scratched at his head, a bit embarrassed at his mistake. With an elaborate and playful bow, he smiled at Ruby and righted himself.

“Of course, Xing Qi Ruby, my mistake.”

As the girl held forth the golden keys, Puck leaned in, his eyes wide in wonder. He hadn’t seen many kinds of magic, having grown up apart from other mages. But this was amazing! Golden keys to unlock the gates that led to the world of stars…a Celestial Spirit Mage. Puck should his head in amazement.

“Your magic is something else Miss Ruby.”

Raising an eyebrow in alarm as he saw the girl’s dreams beginning to diminish, Puck shook his head furiously and pointed at Xing with a frantic energy.

“No no no! Any dreams is achievable if you only hold on to it and have the will! You will find all Twelve of the Chinese Zodiac Keys, Miss Ruby! I Puck Mayvill will personally see to it your dream comes true!”

At the Celestial Spirit Mage’s inquiry, Puck grinned and jabbed a thumb at himself.

“Why of course, I am the Dream Dragon Slayer after all! Everyone’s dreams are in my interes- CAT!”

The sudden appearance of the Cheshire cat on Xing’s lap interrupted Puck. Crouching down ready to fight as the cat attack, Puck merely swung his arms forward, aiming to simply grab the cat and hold it away from him. His hands however were once more ignited with the energetic emerald flame and he aimed to simply smother the cat with the odd green dragon fire.

“Sweet dreams kitty, this’ll only hurt a bit!”

That was an overstatement. Puck’s flames generally did not cause his targets any pain or burning sensation unless they were completely able to ignore its sleep inducing effects. In a way the flame was a sort of sedative and painkiller. But Puck’s hope was to simply subdue and capture the cat altogether.

“Dream Dragon’s Sleeping Grasp!”

[CJ]

"Oh no. You can buy a Celestial Key any place if you look hard enough. My magic's really common. Your magic, Mister Dragon Slayer, is something you should be proud of. It's truly rare."

Xing Qi sat down on the stairs to rest as she listened to Puck's promise. He was an ecstatic one alright.

"You think I could really find them?" she asked with a sigh. A slight hope rose up in her as the figures began to appear again, though still faded.

The summoner nearly gasped as a sudden weight bore on her lap. She looked down slowly at the strange cat and heard Elrond's majestic command.

Before Xing Qi knew it, Puck was already trying to grab it. Her face turned bright red as she began to become extremely nervous having the Dragon Slayer so close to her.

"I'll get it," she started as she tried to bat his hands away. It was only until then she noticed the green flame dancing around them. Her body began to feel numb and dense. She had felt this sensation before, but it was somewhat terrifying, coming from a source outside her own.

Xing Qi fell forward, threatening to squish the cat under her frame.