Dark Moon Guild

After he had himself calm and collected, Nicholas made his way back to the office, where Carena was waiting for him. He pet her on the shoulder and laid his head against her. "I'll be fine..." He reassured her.

Carena licked his cheek and looked him deep in the eyes. "Hun, if you don't want to be here, then we can leave as soon as possible if you'd like." She said, her voice gentle and motherly.

"No, it's okay. We can't leave after we just got here." He replied, removing his glasses to rub his eyes.

Carena nodded and reached a large paw out, pulling him into a gentle embrace. "Everything will be all right soon, love. You'll see..."
 
"The strongest?" Nina curiously ponders as she rubs back her hair a little. "I'm only a support mage, so my job is to make the strong even stronger, or heal injuries on the field in general, hehe! I've tried using some combat magic, but that never really was for me... I'd say the strongest below Leone is probably Jasmine here, but you never really know in this guild. People are always surprising you!" Nina says with a playful prod to Jasmine and a light smile, then her eyes flick around a little to see the drake's tail beating from Leone's office again.
"Hehe, I've seen tons of pets, but that's the first time I've seen a drake bought into the room! I've heard some of them can be quite cute when they're tame..." Nina said with a faint smile, taking a delicate sip of her water.
 
"I see..." He went into deep thought again as his shirt began moving around his neck. And suddenly a ferret with a tiny scarf pops out of his shirt to survey what was going on. "Ah, morning Hier! I suppose I should introduce you. He may not be able to talk but he always seems to get people to understand what he's saying." Hier came all the way out and started sniffing everyone before realizing there was whiskey and lapping some up.
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Mina had opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the woman talking again, clearly setting something off in Leone. As he turned every which way and apologized, attempting to retreat back to his office for a moment of privacy, Mina looked up to him from her seat and gave a light nod from under her hood as if to tell him that she understood, and was patient. She would simply wait for him as she had been until he managed to recollect himself in private.
 
After Carena released him, Nicholas turned and, with a bit of doubt, headed in the direction he saw the other new recruits go. He could have sworn he heard alcohol mentioned in one of their conversations. And even though he wasn't much of a drinker, he hoped the numbing effects of whiskey or vodka would be able to hold him out long enough to be able to socialize properly.

Almost reading his thoughts, Carena snorted and followed closely. "If you're going to drink, try not to get in over your head. Will you, love?"

Nicholas nodded silently in response, pulling off his glasses to clean them.

They stepped into the large bar, gazing around at all the new and senior recruits sitting around drinking, talking and laughing.

Nicholas froze, a large pit forming in his stomach.
 
"Heehee! Aww, isn't he adorable?" Nina coos as she watches Lief's pet sniffle around the group. She then titters quietly as she watches the pet lap up some of the whiskey on the table. "Ohhh my! Is he a big drinker?" Nina asks as she reaches out, unable to resist stroking behind Hier's ears quickly before putting her hands back to herself with a blush. She was an animal person, and loved nature and cute animals, that sort of thing.

She then sees the man with the drake standing there, seemingly feeling very awkward. She gives a small smile in the man's direction, waving to him shyly. Looking at him closely, the man with glasses seemed to be feeling very uncomfortable, so Nina gets up and approaches the man with a light smile.
"Hello! I haven't seen you around before, you're new, right?" Nina says with a friendly smile. She then turns to his drake. "And I haven't seen many drakes before, especially a tame one like this! My... she's beautiful!" Nina admires, her nature loving side coming out again for a moment.
 
"Big for a ferret I suppose." He picked Hier up and he scurried up and down his arm. Hier makes a face of conetentment when he is stroked. "Well, he already likes you." Hier notices the drake and gets into a battle position ready to fight with the ferocity of a ferret.
 
Carena preened at the compliment, stifling a small chuckle from Nicholas. "Y...yeah, we just got here today." He said, barely containing any confidence. Again, he silently cursed himself for being too awkward around other people. "I...uh..." He stammered, begining to blush.

"Oh my..." Carena interrupted, bending to the girl's height. "I'm Carena, love. And this timid thing here," she nuzzled the boy next to her. "Is Nicholas. We are very pleased to meet you. If you don't mind, how long have you worked for the guild?"
 
Jasmine looked at the ferret, before using her magic to unequip the gauntlets. She slowly held out her hand for the ferret to sniff. She was not much of an animal person. The only animal that got along with her was the wolf in the forest but Leone wouldn't let her keep it.
 
"Well... in terms of actual missions, I've worked for four and a half years. If you count for when I used to be a waitress, then seven years, but that doesn't really count, hehe!" Nina says with a light smile as she notices the boy with glasses' shyness. Nina knew how he felt; she used to be extremely shy around the guild too. But nowadays, she liked to call it home and generally felt comfortable here.
"I'm Nina, nice to meet you both! I work as a support mage for certain squads full of the combat types. It isn't often we get such a friendly drake around here, hehe!" Nina ends with a shy twiddle of her hair.

She was a little taken aback by the height and size of the drake, and even more so of how graceful it talked and how polite she was. Nicholas was also in an understandable condition of being socially awkward and such, and Nina was wondering privately how the two bonded.

She giggles at the ferret as it seemingly gets ready to fight the large drake. It was quite a funny and cute sight to see.
 
Skylar frowns as memories and visions of the past and future flash through her mind at his words.
"That is what you think...I know for a fact just how wrong you are... I'll go now, " she whispers before hurrying out of the office and crashing into a boy and a Drake in the process.
Skylar looks at the drake and apologizes to her using her thoughts, which she connects to the drakes.
"I am so sorry, please forgive me. I am not usually so clumsy," she tells the man hastily,her eyes golden and as totally sincere as her kind voice.
 
Leone stared after the new recruit as she left his office. A dull ache spread in his bad wing, and he ignored it to the best of his ability. He felt violated in a way. It was like that woman had seen right through him. She saw something that he'd kept hidden for many years now. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself that he had a job to do and that he couldn't waste time dwelling on old ghosts. Forcing himself to lock away his pain, he returned to the woman who had been kind enough to wait for so long. "I'm sorry about the wait, Miss. I just got back from a long mission and it seems things have piled up in my absence. How may I help you?" Here was the gentleman that had been struggling to keep up in the crush of people who'd just joined the guild. His eyes gave nothing away of the previous conversation.
 
Hier, startled by everything crawled back in my shirt and went to sleep. "Ah...A bit too much for him to take in"
 
"R...really?" Nicholas stammered. "So...people here go on missions and such?" He took deep breaths, trying to slow his heart rate. Maybe he could learn to control his abilities better by contributing to the guild, he wondered.
 
Jasmine requipped her gauntlets. "So what brought you join our guild."
 
"Yes, and there are some... easier missions if you're a little nervous! Besides, usually the high levelled missions only go to the very best... whilst I'm skilled, I'm no good on my own, you see!" Nina replies to Nicholas as she takes another shy sip of her water, rubbing under her yellowish eyes a bit.
"Whenever you think you're ready to try a mission, just let us kno- oh!" Nina suddenly jumps as she sees Skylar crash into Nicholas and Carena, and Nina stifles a giggle with her hand.
 
Nicholas nodded as he listened. It might be good for both him and Carena to do large jobs for the guild.

"Ah, well..." He said responding to Jasmine, when he was interrupted as the woman crashed into him. Seeing her so apologetic took him completely by surprise. "Oh! No...it's fine. It happens to the best of us..." Once again, he began feeling socially awkward. He needed a drink, else he would have another panick attack...
 
Mina bowed lightly to the man and entered his office gesturing towards the door as if asking if he would shut it so they could have a moment of privacy. After a minute or two of the situation calming down, when she could hear no one by the door, She finally spoke to him once more. "It's been a long time, Leone." She said softly, her pale hands reaching up and pulling the hood from her face and dropping it over the backs of her shoulders. She softly tucked a few strands of dark hair behind her pointed ears. Being an elf, her appearance hadn't changed much over the years, save for a scar that went across her right cheekbone, ending about a half an inch from her nose. She didn't say anything afterwards, waiting for his response, curious as to what it would be, and if he would even remember. She stood only a few feet from him with a tall posture, despite her below average height.
 
"I'm not sure really...Once I heard about thos guild I felt like I needed to be in it. I can already tell I've made a good choice."
He smiled warmly at her, and took another drink of his whiskey and started coughing because of the ferret fur. "ECH! I forgot he got into this...."
 
Leone shut the door when he saw the woman's gesture. A curious frown crossed his face as he studied the cloaked woman. He felt something stir inside of him, though he was afraid to believe what he heard. Wouldn't that be a cruel joke. But, no. Those pale hands gently removing the hood and revealing the face that he'd been trying to drive out of his mind since the day he woke up in the infirmary without her. The shock had been too much for him to contain. His eyes wide, taking in every feature of his long lost and thought to be dead friend, his mouth gone dry and left silent... The daemon was truly rendered speechless for a long and agonizing moment. A million and one questions banged around in his head, until the start of one finally escaped him. "... How....?" He fought off the urge to race up to her and hug her, realizing just how long they'd been apart. His common sense returning to him, he cleared his throat, but still words were struggling to find the way to escape. He looked at her, hoping she would explain how she was here.