Souru (Started)

"If I may, your honor," replied Aeo.

He then stepped up and announced The Festival's story for all to hear.

"The Festival is an extraordinary event that only happens once in a great while. During this time, there is an abundance of joy amongst all souls. Booths are set up by many to allow others to play games for a small fee, children laugh and play, and many others celebrate in their own unique ways."

Aeo paused for a moment to allow his audience to catch up.

"However, there is a great reason for this magnificent holiday. It is because of the coming of the great Comet of Iyuzaki. During this time, it is said that great and mystical things take place. Some of them are positive and some are negative. The people of Fiore celebrate like it is their last day alive because they simply cannot tell if it really is or not! The suspense is a wonderful way to bring upon more myths and legends that create an even greater festive mood. This year, an even greater spectacle shall take place. Due to Iyuzaki's celestial path, it is going to create an eclipse that is only observed once in a great few eons! This time, who knows what will happen to us?"

Aeo then stepped back into the crowd, thanking Guild Master Yu Kurosaki for her time.

All in all, Raiden was very pleased with the way his booth turned out. The townspeople he’d hired to help get it up and running had done a pretty good job. It was a red tent, small enough to blend in but bright enough to be noticed. Leaning on the ground beside it was a small cardboard sign with the words ‘Forunte Teller’ written on it – spelled incorrectly; of course, he did hire peasants after all...

He looked around at the other booths that were being set up for the festival. Hiroshi’s tarot card reading booth was being set up just next to his; Hiroshi's tent being black. Some other booths that were scattered around the place held games for the little children, and others held trinkets or food to be sold. From the corner of Raiden’s eye, he could see the town’s circus troupe just arriving, with all it's wild animals, acrobats and fire-eaters, and jugglers. There was even a grand stage being set up at the centre of the square where some of the S-Class mages of the guild would participate in mock battles later on in the day. Raiden could hardly wait.

With a scoundrel’s grin on his face, he rubbed his two hands together in excitement.

This was going to be one heck of a festival.

Hiroshi set Ryu on the table, letting the hatchling stare at him in the eye as he set his cards directly between them. He whispered, "Alright, my little one. Let's see what you got. One berry for luck, five berries after you're finished."
The little dragon snapped its tiny jaws the second the promised first berry landed in its mouth. After Hiroshi fanned the cards, Ryu picked out three with its tail within seconds, smiling like it was eager to get five more berries for a snack once the work was done.
Lance said lowly, "You're out of your mind, Hiroshi. There's no way that little mutt of yours can read your cards."
Hiroshi hissed, "For the last time, Ryu's a dragon hatchling, not a dog. Now be quiet so Ryu can pick who the cards should be for. It's trying to help me practice. If I hear you call Ryu a mutt one more time, you and I are going to have a mock battle during the festival and I'll make sure you get what you asked for."
Ryu made a noise that was the closest it could to a chuckle, then looked around with its big blue eyes. After a while, it pointed its snout at Syca.
Hiroshi took the selected cards, then flipped one over. He said calmly, "You once uncovered your power at a young age, but because of the village you once lived in you were forced to suppress your power." He flipped another card. "You're here now to embrace your power and understand it more." He flipped the final card, then looked at it with a puzzled expression. He never seen this card in a reading before. "You might end up achieving your goal and raise a family of your own someday."
Ryu scurried towards Hiroshi, looking like it was impaitent for its snack. It whimpered a little.
Hiroshi put his cards away, then put his hand in front of Ryu with five berries as promised.

Hiroshi took the selected cards, then flipped one over. He said calmly, "You once uncovered your power at a young age, but because of the village you once lived in you were forced to suppress your power." He flipped another card. "You're here now to embrace your power and understand it more." He flipped the final card, then looked at it with a puzzled expression. He had never seen this card in a reading before. "You might end up achieving your goal and raise a family of your own someday."

Syca looked around, seeing Hiroshi staring at her. "Was that a prediction?"
she asked. He gave a slight nod. "May I hear it again, please?" she asked. Hiroshi complied and repeated the cards again. After a moment, syca smiled and said, "Your prediction of my past was accurate, and your guess at my present is correct too, but the future is absolutely wrong." she smiled again, a lot more cheekily this time.

"I'm not interested in love. I find it extremely boring and tiresome."
Hiroshi looked surprised at this, his eyes widening.

Meanwhile, Raiden returned from the festival grounds, having finished his "inspection".
He noticed the guild master there and hurried over, surprised to note that Hiroshi was talking to the new girl.
"Mistress Yu! It's been a while since you were at the guild."
"It has, hasn't it? I missed it while I was gone." "So, what are we doing?" he asked, turning to Sky.

"Well you see I'm going to make snow sculptures at my booth and give them to people! I'm really good at it too! Do you want to know the best part? Do you, do you, do you?" Sky said to Raiden with a crazy grin on her face. Wait when did Sky not have a crazy grin on her face.

" Sure Sky what's the best part of your booth?" Raiden asked.

" It's going to be snowing all around my booth that way people know it's my booth and they can enjoy the snow as well! Everyone loves snow right, so it should be great!"

" Not everyone loves snow Sky. Some people actually find it cold you know."

Sky looked at Raiden, her face full of shock. " Not love snow..... how could someone not love snow? Well I'm going to ask everyone I see if love snow and I'll show you that everyone loves snow!"

Lance walked up to Raiden as Sky ran off and said" Great now you've made her go crazy. She's going to go around annoying everyone now. Good job Raiden"

" Hey, I didn't know she was going to go crazy, ok."

" She goes crazy whenever you think of the idea that some people don't like snow. You should have known that."

" Well it's to late for that." Raiden said with a grin on his face "At least I won't be the one that she disturbs"

Farther off Sky had found Aeo "Aeo, do you love snow?" Sky asked. In the distance Raidens and Lances laughter could be heard.

Raiden glanced over at Hiroshi who was still sitting at the table, flipping over tarot cards.

“Would you like me to read yours?” he asked Raiden, noticing his stare.

“Uh, no thanks,” Raiden said politely.

One side of Hiroshi’s mouth turned upwards into something resembling a smirk, “Why not, are you scared about what the cards might say?”

“Scared? Me?” Raiden scoffed, “Never,” he lied. Of course, the truth was that Raiden was afraid - for a valid reason. The last time he’d had his tarot cards read to him, the outcome had been pretty scary.

‘You will die at the hands of your enemy...’

The tarot card reader’s voice still echoed inside Raiden's head sometimes when he’d see Hiroshi fiddling about with them. Raiden needed no reminding of the bleak future that supposedly lay ahead of him. Easily changing the subject, he turned back to Lance.

“Figured out what you’re doing in the festival yet?” he asked.

Lance glared over at Hiroshi. “Well, apparently, that one over there plans on challenging me to a mock battle if I call his dragon a mutt one more time.”

A scoundrel's grin appeared on Raiden's face.

“Call his dragon a what?” he asked Lance.

“A mutt,” Lance repeated, not sure why Raiden hadn't heard him the first time.

Raiden mockingly stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it about. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that, call his dragon a what?”

“Are you deaf? A mutt!” Lance bellowed. “Call Hiroshi's dragon a mutt!”

The next thing that was heard was a fist thumping down hard on a table.

“That’s it!” came Hiroshi’s angry voice. He approached Lance with a deadly glare. “I’ll see you at the battle...” With that, he marched off, leaving Raiden in a fit of roaring laughter, and Lance with his mouth gaping wide in horror.

“This festival....” Raiden gasped between laughter, “is going to be epic!”

Lance’s eyes narrowed in on Raiden. With eyes like daggers, he shouted, “Raiden, you’ll pay for this!”

Still laughing, Raiden ducked just as Lance flung a bowl at him, only just missing his head.

“You’ll have to catch me first, my friend,” he said with a wink.

"It seems so many of these activities are without true meaning to this event," muttered Aeo.
"That is why I must show them the true extravagance of this event!"

He then unveiled what would soon be his booth. It was a place where, if others payed a small fee, Aeo would increase the brilliance, brightness, and colors of the comet. Thanks to the light magic that he still retained, he could do this with ease. He also included a telescope-device that would enable others to view the comet up close, with a small fee of course.

__________________________________________________________________________
Changes have been made to Aeo. He is now at the set height of 5 feet, 5.5 inches.
He looks pretty much the same throughout the story.
He now uses only light magic. (Because he is in his human form.)

Well, thought Knight, I'm tuckered out. She crawled under the table and was out in seconds.

Blade blinked, never having encountered a person like this. He bent down to peer at her, and while her body was lost in folds of a sweatshirt many times to big for her, he could see that her face was so peaceful as she breathed in, and out. Someone called from the crowd in the guild, "Get that girl up! She's got a battle to prepare for!"

It was Lee, briskly walking over to the table under which Knight napped. He poked her face a couple times, but when she stirred the tiniest bit, hastily retreated his hand. "Hey kid, wanna wake him up for me?"

Blade shook his head - he was starting to understand the game. "Her," he corrected.

Lee made a face. "You're no fun. I guess I'll get Raiden to do the spoon trick again... that worked suprisingly well for everyone but Lance." He got up to find Raiden, but Blade was feeling either incredibly brave or incedibly stupid. He spoke up.

"I'll try," he volunteered.

Lee stared. No one besides Dragon, the Guild Master, and of course, her brothers had ever volunteered to do such a thing. Even her own father handed the job of waking up to someone else. In the end, Lee shrugged. "It's your funeral. Anyways, we need her quick. Dragon's just got back from his journey and he's resting. She'll need to change into her costume and get fitted for the magic braces."

"Braces?"

"You don't think we'd let two S-Class mages go all out in the middle of town, do you? Magic braces help them... tone it down a bit."

Blade nodded, then turned his attention to the sleeping tom-boy. He thought through what he had seen so far. Obviously, she didn't consciencely attack her friends, yet in that period between full awake and full asleep, she seemed to work on instinct. Is there a way to skip that phase? thought Blade. His hands automatically shifted through his pockets. Would either of his Zodiac Spirits do the trick...?

Maybe. He had nothing to lose (except his life, he supposed), so before he could back down, he grabbed his left hand with his right, positioning two fingers on the mark closer to his hand. Light blue designs crawled from the wrist to the elbow, and he traced them.

"Gate of the Hare, I open thee." A magic circle appeared before his arm, fluctuated and expanded."Tokki!" In a soft glow of white light, a small black bunny appeared at his feet. It wiggled its nose.

"Hey Tokki," Blade greeted. "I need you to do something for me..."

A whisper later, Tokki hopped over to the sleeping girl under the table, cuddled up next to her face and-

"ACHOO!!"

The force sent the little rabbit flying into Blade's arms. Knight sat up, bumped her head on the bottom of the table, and mumbled groggily, "Did someone say that Dragon's back?"

Hiroshi paid no attention to the others. He had his eyes on Ryu, locked in eye contact like a staring contest. Hiroshi whispered, "Let's have another try, Ryu. This time, two berries for luck and four berries afterwards. You know what to do, so do it." He gave Ryu two berries and fanned out the cards on the table.
After Ryu ate the berries, it picked out three cards with its tail. After Hiroshi put the rest of the cards back as a deck, Ryu looked around the room and pointed at Raiden with its tiny snout.
Hiroshi singsonged, "Raiden, you just got selected for another practice round." He took the selected cards, then flipped one over. His voice went calm. "There's darkness in your past and someone was the cause of it, but I don't know who or why." He flipped the second card over. "Here you are, training yourself since you've been here since your youth." He flipped the final card over, then looked at it for a moment. "You'll have revenge on the one who blackened your past, but you'll do that with the help of another troubled person."
Ryu tugged at Hiroshi's sleeve impatiently.
Hiroshi put four berries in his hand and offered it to Ryu, who ate the berries in a hurry.

Aeo decided that he would also take part in these duels that have been happening.
He brought up his right hand and created around himself a pillar of light. Beckoning the attention of many others, he asked a simple question.

"Would anybody be willing to battle me?"

Syca stepped forward. "I'll do it," she shrugged. "I need to get a hang of my powers again, anyways." Many people around the guild gasped. "Oooh, this should be interesting! Bets anyone?" asked Raiden. "What are you thinking you little purple haired freak?" asked Lance, grabbing her arm. "Do you have a death wish?" Spark asked, almost lazily.

Aeo eyed the purple haired girl thoughtfully Maybe I should go easy on her.... he thought, a frown greasing his pale brow. "Oh, and, if you're thinking of going easy on me, don't bother. You'll only regret it." she said, shaking off Lance.

The guildmaster looked at the diminutive young girl. She was the picture of complete confidence, not worried in the slightest as to what could happen if it went wrong.

"Whenever you are ready dear child. You may make the frist strike." Aeo said, his voice effortlessly thundering around the room.

Aeo then started to absorb the energy from the sunlight cast upon him. After a few seconds, he became a blinding light. Many others shielded their eyes, only to find that Aeo had become something made entirely out of light. He then emitted five glowing orbs that closely orbited him in different directions. These orbs then centered themselves around his back and then took the shape of phosphorescent wings.

Spoiler

Angel-of-Light-4d30971ca65ec.jpg (77.98 KiB) Viewed 374 times

The shining entity of Aeo in his light form spoke now, repeating his pre-transformation words. "Whenever you are ready dear child. You may make the frist strike."

Aeo’s light reached even the costume room where a woman called Honey and her several assistants were fitting Knight with braces. Honey looked up when she saw the flash, and shook her head.

“Someone go tell those kids to wait for the stage! Then they can show off as much as they please. Sheesh.” She shook her head once again and gave an exasperated sigh. “Impatient, they are.” One of her assistant ran out to quiet them down, and Honey returned to her task.

Blade sat in a chair in the corner of the room, watching the process. Knight was already in her costume – a silvery material with armor-like accessories. She was leaning against the wall and had her wings out. Both pairs, the smaller black wings on the bottom and larger white on the top, were spread out along the run of the wall to save space in the small room. Knight had her arms crossed, leather straps embedded with small silver pieces fixed to her wrists and the base of her wings. Blade assumed these were the magic braces.

Honey was busy weaving white flowers through Knight’s lower pair of wings.

“When is Dragon getting back?” Knight asked. It was the first time Blade had seen her show anything more than a sleepy expression.

“Any minute now, dear. Once we get him set up, you should have enough time for a couple practice runs before the actual show.”

Knight smiled. “I feel like I haven’t seen him in forever…”

Blade cocked his head in confusion. “I’m probably being little annoying here, but did you say that you practice the battle?”

Honey smiled. “It’s not really a battle. More like… a play. Knight and Dragon both have characters, and all their moves are choreographed.”

“So then what do they need the braces for?”

“Sometimes young mages – especially the more powerful ones – have trouble controlling their strength. The braces help.” Honey switched to black flowers now, and started fixing them into white feathers. “The first battle is the only one choreographed, just to start off the celebration. The rest are basically real battles.”

Blade was starting to get this, starting to be excited for the play. And he was also interested in this Dragon. What kind of person is he?

"Excuse me!" said a voice coming down from below.

Aeo looked down and saw a young man by his side.

"Battles haven't started yet. After this first fight, you may brawl to your heart's content. Until then, just watch." said the same young man who stood below.

The light around Aeo and his wings themselves dissolved into thin air and appeared as if they had become translucent shards of gold, fading away in some unfelt wind. Aeo then stepped back into the awestruck crowd.

"No, you can't steal my booth idea!" All of a sudden the silence was interupted by shouts coming from somewhere in the crowd. Everyone turned to see Sparki and Sky. They appered to fighting. "Come on Sky why can't you just do something else?" Sparki said. "It was my idea first!" Sky said in response. "What seems to be going on here?" Someone asked as they emerged from the crowd. "Guild Master Yu Kurosaki!" Everyone said gasping. "Sparki's trying to steal my booth." Sky said. "Well why don't you two work together? Yes I belive that's a great idea. You two will work together on your booth." With that Guild Master Yu Kurosaki walked away into the crowd. Sparki and Sky just stood there, stunned at what had just happend.