The Village of Blen

[Crono]

Nova had stepped in front of Miss. Mei to protect her from anything that might fling off of the mess of clanks and bangs, she wanted her sheild but it of course was back in her room. She would have shouted at the vampire again if her throat didn't hurt from her first volley, her auntie and two Adventurers weren't inches away, and the battle was not rapping up as it was then. She watched as the shadow creature exploded into candy wondering why this felt so standard to her and looked at Aruna plainly as she gave her explanation. The young woman rubbed her temples, "Why didn't you just force them to give you money, that's a legal thing you can do. You could have used the money to buy candy that didn't drop onto the road... You know what, fuck it, have your road candy."

Nova turned to the Adventurers, looking at them shrewdly, she hated when people do inside jokes right in front of you, it wasn't like you were going to laugh at them. "Sorry about that. Head for the Will o' Wisp Inn if you want a place to stay. Hero Center is only three miles from here, so you would be able to make it on foot quickly." She turned to see her Auntie had gone, probably from the explosions, to meet a fimiliar face. Xian, that, guy... Odd one, reminded Nova of Yanazau, at least she could trust him not to blow anything up while she was busy with the Adventurers and Aruna.


Avon looked back into Ironweave's eyes, trying his upmost to hide the lost excitement, however it was clear that something had left his voice when he spoke. "Yes Sir..." A thousand times. He swollowed his disappointment and began, at first trying to get it so his unsheathing was a attack in itself. However he almost fell over lurching the heavy blade forward. Eventually he gave up and simply sheathed and unsheathed, passing the time by once more examining his sword.

Vona found it in a underwater temple, it was grayish green in color and had thousands of symbols covering it. According to the letter that came with it the entire plethora of symbols was a single prayer that warriors who used the sword would read before battle. It was also blunt, as to keep Avon from injuring himself like with his last present.


"Well?" The cat lept onto Mayor's desk. "Well what?" "Get it out." The old man stiffened, slowly reaching to a compartment in his desk that held a single, extremely important peice of paper. Then the door swung open, causing him to shove that peice of paper back into its compartment, close, and lock it.

The cat, with its back turned to Yanazau, had scraped gashes into the top of the desk upon her sudden arrival. It then turned to her and gave the yokai a piercing stare colder then death. Mayor looked at her and sunk in his chair slightly, that was his Monster Manual, now he was going to forget what it was and look up something scary. He fumbled with his words and tie. "Hello... Uh... I'm... Busy... Right now... So... Hm..." The cat momentarily broke it's stare to look at him grimly.

 

[Ko T'suno]

Xian's obsidian eyes seemed to brighten as Ms.Mei made her way towards him. "Hold on i'll come to you." Xian called as he placed his hand on the fence and leaped over. Had he thought about it he might of seen that the box would be in the way...luckily Xian's body was exceedingly light and he landed with only a soft tap as his cloth shoes made momentary contact before Xian stepped down off the box.


"Sorry.." he mouthed as he reached down and grabbed both the box and the sword before making his way up to Ms. Mei. "I brought you some Herbs" he mentioned as he held up the box and sword.


"Xian! How are you holding up? Come, let's talk inside. Heh, We have barely started eating, there's plenty of food if you need any." Xian heard Ms. Mei call as he saw her gesture to the house. "I am well, and you? How have you been?" He replied as he made his way up to her. A warm but partially artificial smile resting on his face as he had to consciously maintain the smile. "I see there are new faces.." He commented as reached Mei, he looked towards Nova and the others by the fence. Part of him felt bad for taking Ms. Mei from the group, but part of him honestly didn't care about them or their feelings. Turning to Ms Mei he thought about giving her a hug but decided it would be best not to….well at least he tried to convince himself that he shouldn't but as he internally argued with himself, his arms had moved on their own to offer the hug to Ms. Mei. By the time he noticed it was to late to take back the notion without looking like a Jackass.

 

[slayerbat]

Joel sat at his fishing spot watching the boy practice, and gathering the fish he caught into his holder. Even as someone that rarely ever touched a sword he knew that Avon was sloppy and more likely to hurt himself then save anyone. Joel kept count as the boy sheathed and unsheathed his sword. He silently thanked Vona for having the presence of mind to give her brother a blunt sword so he wouldn't hurt himself too much. "Where's that spark Avon? You can't tell me you thought that I'd be showing you flashy moves right from the start. You need to practice my boy, I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you'd be able to tell how important being able to always find your sword is. Speaking of, after you manage to make it to a thousand I'm going to have you strike a scarecrow a thousand times."

 

[Ythania]

Yamazaru pressed a hand to her chest in mock offence. "Are you trying to get rid of m-" she was cut off by the cat.

There are rare moments where Yamazaru actually lets out her inner demon, and genuinely looks like she wishes all manners of torture onto your poor soul. It's the same expression that she uses whenever she locks gazes with the dastardly feline which haunts the mayor. Undoubtedly, Yamazaru hates that cat with every fibre of her being; it was the first cat she ever encountered, and it has permanently ruined her original idea of getting a pet. Yamazaru's lip lifted up in a silent snarl and her tail twitched, all three hands clenched into a fist. The duo had a tense staring competition until the careful stammering of the mayor interrupted their silent death threats.

Thankfully, Yamazaru wouldn't have gotten this far without having an extraordinary amount of self control, which she used rather skilfully to stop herself from wringing the cat's neck there and then. The Yokai's shoulders slumped, she pulled a smile, and sighed "Mister Mayor, I really do hate your cat." In irritation, she turned towards the bookshelf again and started 're-organising' the books. For a moment, she was silent, but the yokai never kept quiet for long.

"Well, surely I can help out? If you're busy, I can probably help lighten the load! Teamwork and all that, riiiight?" she crooned, sauntering over to the Mayor and peering at his desk, pointedly ignoring the cat and the gouge marks on the wood.

 

[IntrusivePenDesperateSword]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Nothing in Miss Mei's posture changed as she made her slow and careful steps towards the approaching Xian. Once he approached within an acceptable distance of her, she stopped, looking up to stare at the box he was offering her. Her stare broke into a smile. She did like herbs. While it was a bed of spices, and not herbs behind her house, herbs were just as lovely additions to it. "Thank you so much, darling," she thanked him, lightly placing her hands around the box.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"How we are? Oh yes, can't complain. Keeping my farm, and all. Blen is thankfully a mostly peaceful village." Being completely honest with Xian, Miss Mei explained it as it was. There was little that happened, and she was ok with that. Noticing Xian's gesturing towards the two newcomers, she couldn't help but smiling just a little wider. New people were always nice, but these two had this peculiar charm to them, and despite the fact that they were adventurers, Mei hoped they would stick around the town for a while. "Oh, yes, those two! Charming youngsters, just arrived in the town, in fact!"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Miss Mei accepted his hug. In fact, as fast as she saw it coming, she spread her arms wide and moved to meet him in a tender embrace. Her weak muscles weren't fit for hugging tightly, but it was nonetheless a hug. Once done with, she again pointed to her house, smiling in Xian's direction. "Now, please, you must be tired from your journey. Do come in, and rest yourself!"[/BCOLOR]

 

[Ko T'suno]

"Thank you so much, darling," she thanked him, lightly placing her hands around the box."A thousand welcomes Mad'dam, I hope they are useful, they are suppose to be medicinal." He returned smiling back as he slid the sword from the sash that had been holding it to the box.

"How we are? Oh yes, can't complain. Keeping my farm, and all. Blen is thankfully a mostly peaceful village." Xian smiled slightly as he heard Miss Mei answer his question.

"Well that's good, if only everywhere was as peaceful." He replied before he heard her continue. Her smile seemed to grow larger as she discussed the two newcomers.

"Oh, yes, those two! Charming youngsters, just arrived in the town, in fact!" He heard her exclaim with a kind of excitement that made Xian curious as to the origins of the two, but before he could think on it he was pulled from his thoughts and into a hug he had nearly forgotten he had started. "She's warm." He though silently as he wraped his arms around her snuggly. As the hug ended and Miss Mei pointed to her house Xian nodded. "Yes of course." He agreed as he moved and made his way towards the house.

 

[Crono]

The two visitors had accepted Nova directions but the male stopped as he seemed to realize something. "The horse... It had all our things..." He looked back at what was now a speck on the horizon, a look of dread was on his face. "I'm sorry. We'll have to be leaving now..." He turned to the woman to see a face of rage, and ran as fast as he could back down the road, he after the horse and the her after him.

-----

Nova watched the two and shook her head, nothing would change, adventurers never stayed for more then a moment. She gave Aruna one last glare, it was probably at least half her fault they left. Staying or not, the adventurers had helped Nova, she could charge Kerr for advertising. At least she thought she could.

Nova began heading to town in the direction of the Will O' Wisp Inn. She was pretty sure charging someone for mentioning their business wasn't actually legal, but she was willing to try. Honestly she should be giving money to him for some of the things had screamed at him while drunk. She knocked on his door and raised her voice, "Yo Kerr! You awake? Came to charge you for advertising fees!"

------

Avon arm was sore as he reached one thousand. He had a few words he had heard from Nova he wanted to say, but wouldn't dare speak them at somebody, that was just plain mean. He didn't reply to Ironweave when he had spoke to him about loosing his spark. It was hard to have one when all you have to look forward to is hitting a scarecrow. Speaking of which as he rubbed his arm he approached his new mentor and waited, feeling rather certain he already knew he was done. Maybe he was right, maybe Avon was taking this too fast...

------

The cat had stared deep into the yokai's killer gaze, it's black slashes of pupil like dark pits themselves. A message would worm its way into the back of Yamazarau's mind: "I can't wait for when your gone..." Once their contest was over the cat laid its tail onto Mayor's hand, a very good idea conveniently popping into his brain. "Oh, you, want to help? Alright..." He opened a drawer on his desk and took out a heavy stack of documents. "Here you are... There's another desk uh, over there." He pointed to a much smaller version of his with a much cheaper chair, a ink bottle, and a quill. If he could just get her over there, he would be able to sign the document and that would be that.

 

[slayerbat]

Ironweave knew Avon was done as he pulled out another fish for his catch. He could tell the boy was sore from that exercise, and that he was probably already thinking of quitting. It took him back to when he was a youth learning how to use his silk as a weapon. How terribly difficult it was at first, since he had to learn every knot before he could even begin trying to use them. Ironweave shook his head a little as he stood up, picking up his basket with the fish he caught. "Lets head to the inn so you can take a quick break while I eat my breakfast. I know that learning the basics are difficult and hard, but when you master them, you'll be glad you did." Joel starts walking in the direction of the inn fish and rod in tow, "I won't blame you if you want to stop now, but the path of a hero is never easy. For what it's worth you did well. Most people can't even keep their sword straight enough to sheathe it after so many times. You really do have the potential Avon."

 

[IntrusivePenDesperateSword]

"My dearest Nova over there and I had just begun eating you see," Miss Mei continued, taking extra care into walking right beside Xian. He was a charming young man, she thought, leading him towards the old, patchy house she called her home. Aside from the rest of the farm. And Blen in general. One hand on her back, the other she used gesturing to Xian whenever what she said called for it.

Once they reached the house, she held up the door for him and pointed inside. "The food's on the table, dear. Enjoy yourself!" As soon as she had sent Xian in, a strange buzzing noise caught her attention from above. On top of that, or rather her chimney, were several insects swirring around. They appeared to be up to no good. Straightening her back to get a good view, she spoke up to them. "Good day, isn't it, dearests? Is there a good view from up there? Oh, I can only imagine it is. You have yourself a nice day in your nest!"

With that she returned to her guest, letting insects nested up her chimney trouble her no more. Or rather, at all. Instead she simply brushed past the small rooms of her humble home, until she reached the kitchen. Sure, a lot of damp had gathered in the roof of the room from the clogged chimney, but moisture damage aside, what did it matter? As long as those insects had a safe place to live, Mei didn't mind.