Kai went ahead of Daiko by a day as she traveled before him. She finally made it to Hargeon as her cute nose cute smell the salty supreme of the ocean. How many people travel throughout that ocean and appeared here or left here for that matter? So many people come here to leave and enter Fiore. Sure there was a guild here, but this place was so much more than just that. If it wasn't for this place then most of the shipping goods never will arrive due to it being more difficult to deliver. She loved the beauty of this place and wanted to go to the beach with her future lover - whomever that may be.

''I can already see it. Us going to the beach and I'll see all these beautiful women.'' He started to say as he wasn't in her shirt this time.

''I'm bea-''

She was interrupted. ''I was talking about everyone else.'' It finished.

''Oh I see. That is alright. If I am not beautiful then that is his wish.'' she replied to her dear Skeleton Amulet. Of course it did hurt a little, but she saw herself as at least decent when it came to appearances. Many people were afraid to talk to her or at least say what they really thought. People didn't care enough to. Like the Kyam boy who admitted to not caring about her well-being as he was there for the jewels. Her lips curved in a small smile as she felt used a little.

''No, I must stay positive... for his sake.''. Whispers escaped her plump small heart-shaped lips. Her heart was beating slowly as she went up ahead towards the Church to see if there was some food before her and Daiko left to the sea. Kai didn't want to talk about any of it or think more on it till he showed up. Hopefully, he knew where she will be at due to how they met.

''I smell crap... Wait it's your bullshit.'' The skull spoke as she glared at it with her jeweled eyes. ''Shush! Don't speak such words around the Church.'' Kai spoke softly in her sweet French Accent. ''What are they going to do, Curse me? Done.''. Kai glared darkly at it and suddenly it started to shut up. Out-of-no where her facial expression went back to soft as she went inside the Church. This one was quite small, but it was nice and good enough to help people. That's what mattered to her. Her blonde hair was up in a bun with hair flowing out like some waterfall. Her bangs were parted two-way evenly. The length of her bangs were to the bottom of her chin. Ever since she woke up from the year and so Coma Kai didn't bother in getting a hair cut. She felt like her hair was apart of her in a whole different way.

Her eyes searched for people, but there were none which made her turn away and leave the Church. Her stomach growled loud enough for her to heart it. 'I should get food... Soon.'. It was a simple thought as she trotted off into the part of town where they had bakeries and all the other find places with food. She didn't know what she wanted so she then stopped and waited for Daiko against the building with a triangle shaped sign with a fish on it. She didn't know what it was about or what was in it. Kai just used it as a post to lean against.

610/3000

As Daiko ventured down to the south, he saw clear changes in the weather. Goodbye ice-cold winds and snowy flooring - the snow melted away from his view, exchanged by greenery and warm sunshines blasting through from the heavens. After having just gotten used to the cold up north in Orchidia and Sieghart, Daiko was more than relieved that he had reached half way of his training session with Kai. About Kai, she travelled ahead of him, so he had to meet up with her at their next destination; Hargeon Town. The port town with sea visible from the window and an exotic atmosphere that just called Daiko home.

“No more frostbites, no more shaky skin,” he mumbled in utter relief and joy. He could surely take on the next challenge under these circumstances, even if Shahrbaraz had been a sneaky asshole and snuck in a giant serpent or two. The worst that would happen would be Daiko burning them alive, not even bothering to eat them as he detested serpentine creatures. Of all creatures, those really hit his nerves. He was way more used to fur-covered or feathery beings of the wild that emitted their own heat and didn’t rely on sunrays to warm themselves up… and that didn’t feel like leather bags.

Upon entering the main way into Hargeon Town, Daiko smelled the salt of the sea from even miles away. Hargeon wasn’t that big of a town, but they held a key role in the export and import of Fiore’s goods from sailboats and ships. For once, Coda actually began flying around, basking her wings in front of any interesting object that met her gaze. First, she flew towards a couple hanging around on a bench and relaxing - her sudden flapping and squawking shocked them to the point of annoyance. Daiko had to apologize for Coda’s behavior; she really couldn’t help herself, could she?

He should go have a dip in the sea after this part. It had been… years, yeah, since he visited the beach in Hargeon Town. He remembered that Blue Pegasus held a beach party here. Flashbacks of his poor attempts at winning anything passed by, and he slowly regretted even trying to remember. Why… just why was he so good at remembering all the awkward moments? It was unnecessary yet regular for most humans, wasn’t it?

Coda then flew towards a sandbox inside someone’s backyard where children were playing with spades and action figures. Her arrival to them was less shocking than back with the elder couple, because they were more fascinated by the arrival of a medium-sized raptor than anything else. Daiko’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the children’s assumed parents approach from inside the home. He whistled and called Coda back to him before the parents came out in fear of their children being near a technical predator (Coda, not Daiko). Despite the bird being oblivious to the situation that she had brought herself and Daiko in, the Fire Wizard was quick to bring her back and excuse the family as he dashed away.

Maybe he should just eat something. If the dark lad was in doubt, food often helped… but he didn’t have his fishing rod with him as Shahrbaraz, that ass, still had all his equipment. Therefore, he simply braked by a fish shop with a huge triangle and- was that Kai over there?

He decided to just buy a filet and eat it as he approached his Lamia Scale guildmate. He saluted and greeted: “Wassup *munch*” He would plan to finish his filet before beginning the next part of Lamia Scale’s re-training regime.

WC: 611

He casually munched down his filet in front of Kai who appeared to have no issue with him eating so carefreely in the beginning of another training session. Train, train, train! That was what his schedule looked like for the moment thanks to Shahrbaraz the Rock-Solid Bird Whisperer. How he convinced himself to make Coda so lazy and dumbfounded in such a short amount of time up to Daiko’s training season was priceless. Yes, he actually believed that Shahr-lad had a role in this… a man to blame for the laid-back bird brain that kept pecking his hair for food.

Unlike Daiko, Coda’s food habits were found only on one side of the food spectrum between raw, wild kills and delicate, prepared meals. Her diet consisted of raw meat and fruit seeds, and she had little to no interest in a steaked filet with such a crispy, bread-like surface. Despite the possibility that the surface was cooked bread - and birds were under the misconception that they liked bread - Coda minded it none of her attention and business and was more interested in what Daiko’s hair was hiding deep down. At the very least, the Fire Wizard had a cheap, mobile haircare system. Nice job, Coda…!

Daiko just briefly got a look at Kai’s necklace upon having approached her earlier. Its shiny, jewel eyes shone from afar, and… uh, yeah, that was it. Daiko wouldn’t really want to dwell too deep into mere jewelry that he had little profession at. His own necklace wasn’t formed as a skull, anyways; it was round and carried a feather insignia. His mother gave it to him. Did Kai’s mother also give her this oddly fascinating amulet or necklace of hers? He was almost prompted to ask, but then he remembered that they had to go and begin the challenge already…

They had to swim…

Don’t fret! Daiko had done the smart thing and actually practiced swimming back at Worth Woodsea when he realized, back at the Blue Pegasus Festival, that he sucked more than an anteater in an ant farm at swimming. Spectacular, little fire boy overcame such an inconvenient weakness out of pure dread; it was haunting him, pushing his sanity way over the wall for brief moments. Imagine having to fight a huge, blue serpentine creature in the ocean? Wouldn’t it be a delight to be able to swim? It would save time and worry, and you would be able to punch the monster from several more angles than from the beach sand alone.

He was also donning his dark-green swimming trunks. Those were necessary if you wanted to swim, did you know that? Daiko didn’t before - he assumed water to be some harmless substance to his normal wear, and he didn’t see the formality in wearing different, distinctive and suitable sets of clothes for different scenarios and occasions. However, he did now, and he wasn’t too late to buy any trunks to swim in or anything. His issues were handled efficiently, thank the Lord…

Kai began walking towards the beach ahead of him, and he decided to follow suit. If he had used any thermal vision on her, then he would have realized how awkward it was for a boy to accompany a lady who was about to change clothes in front of him. To keep himself on the proper plane of occupation, he flung off his clothes quickly and put them nicely on a stack near him. At last, he was only donning his swimming trunks and necklace - that would obviously mean that he was ready to swim out into the ocean and approach the targeted island not too far away from here.

Oh yeah, a day in the forest was fine. Hiking up a mountain to find a small, specific gem in a rock biome was fair to say the least… but the tests got far more severe by time. This was the spirit of Lamia Scale; as he had concluded himself several times, this guild was full of monsters. He wanted to be a monster as well… in the good sense, though. He didn’t want to go around and murder people like a run-a-wild werewolf or bloodthirsty dragon. You would know what he meant by that.

As he dipped into the sea, he made sure to follow up behind Kai. The ocean was as brilliant as he remembered it - so deep-blue, like swimming inside a sapphire. The poof animals were jellyfish, minding their own businesses with their long tendrils that Daiko promptly tried to avoid. Those could burn you if you annoyed them too much. This also reminded him of the giant serpent - oh boy, if he got attacked by another blue serpent dragon snake thing down beneath the light zone of the ocean, he would scream and make it deaf. He had enough of lizards - they were annoying to look and touch, and he just wanted to stay away from them. Let Daiko live his life without giving him post-traumatic stress disorder, please!

He saw some land in the distance in form of dark areas on the horizontal field of vision. Assuming that it was the island that he swam towards, Daiko torpedoed himself across the water by flapping his legs and arms furiously, gaining speed underwater until he had to swim up to catch a breath. This also begged the question; where was Coda? After having stuck to his shoulder all the time, he would have thought that she wouldn’t even let go underwater - thankfully, Coda was still smart enough to take a flight above the sea surface, saving herself from a dip in the saltwater.

As he made himself strand, he slowly crawled up the island on his knees in a weakened fashion, wanting a quick breath after the long swim. His vision was also blurred by the saltwater, so he saw not that clear where he was crawling towards as he decided to plump his head flat on the sand floor… or on top of Kai, either in her cleavage or back depending on- hahahahahahahahahah…

“A-Are we there…?”

WC: 1022
TWC: 611 + 1022 = 1633

It took a good moment before Daiko pushed himself up on his feet by almost burying his hand into the sand floor and pushing himself upwards in a push-up-like fashion. The island appeared before him, and the blurry vision faded away quickly… and as he witnessed the natural beauty of this landscape - an island in the vicinity of the mainland - Kai expressed her admiration of the area. “Yeah, it really is… there are large trees further ahead in the shrubbery,” he replied. He turned silent and eyed the distant areas consisting of wooden ecosystems and some palm trees. Coda soon came flying from behind them above the waters with her vermillion-red wings basking graciously as she squawked at them. Daiko waved at her, so her eagle eyes knew where to land. She descended pretty quickly in an arc and launched her talons around Daiko’s arm. He was able to brake her landing with only a little moving back by the landing force, but she was now on the surface with them… on his arm, that was.

Kai explained to them that the objective of this training was to find an apple - a specific apple with the details told to Daiko back with Shahrbaraz. Apparently, it was yellow with white stripes, and it was difficult to find such a type of apple here. This test would strengthen the Lamia Scale wizards’ tracking and overall tracing skills. They would be like hounds and wolves tracking down prey in the woods… with the difference being that instead of living prey, it was a plant. A fruit… wait, were fruits technically alive?

Daiko’s tracking was honed through years of tracking down wounded and wild prey, but it was different with actual plants, fruits and vegetables. Since their scent strongly depended on the type of fruit, he had trouble just sniffing the air and tracing down the smell - besides, he had never seen this Epurian Apple before.

“I would have tried smelling it down, but… I don’t know what an Epurian Apple smells like,” Daiko explained to Kai as he rubbed his chin, “Instead… hmh… Coda, dear, could you find it?” The bird responded by pecking his cheek with her eagle-like beak, which actually hurt a little. “O-Okay, okay, there… uhh, we should just find it the good-old way; look for clues.”

WC: 391
TWC: 1633 + 391 = 2024

Oh well, Kai was positive about his suggestion. Daiko deserved a goodie point for that one, then - usually, he would debunk his own suggestions, but by time, he grew more and more confident. He gently petted Coda’s neck as she squawked softly in response. Her beak pointed up in the air and she turned her head in inhuman angles by the nice petting. She really enjoyed it… but they had a mission to complete. If they could find a random, yellow with white stripes apple in the forest in front of them (or more like a shrubbery given the size of this island), then their tracking skills would most likely gain a solid level-up and not disappoint them in the future. Man, Shahrbaraz got all the key elements in this intense special training, and further and further into the schedule, Daiko felt less and less pressured by the surrounding hold of the elements against his favor.

The shrubbery paid Daiko little mind as he was used to how a forest was usually constructed - the dangerous things hid themselves on the low ground, and he was safe on the high ground. He would venture into the shrubbery and eye a random boulder next to a palm tree before sprinting up on it and using the boulder as a ladder to climb up to the top of the palm tree. His eyes were quick enough to spot a random serpent, but he simply watched Coda grab it and kill it instantly with her talons. Eagles and other birds of prey were masters of snake-killing, and the poor serpent had no time to actually attack with whatever weapon that it had in its disposal; whether that was poisonous fangs, strong body, powerful bite force etc.

“The forest is stretching out from here,” Daiko informed Kai wherever she was able to hear him, “Coda, please fly around and find the apple.” The bird just looked at Daiko, having no idea of what type of apple that it was. She had never seen the apple before, so…

“Y-You know, yellow with white stripes- what am I doing, you need to see it beforehand, don’t you…?”

WC: 362
TWC: 2024 + 362 = 2386

Daiko took a quick moment to enjoy the view from the top of the palm tree before leaping down to Kai. The island’s contour could be fathomed in its entirety from up there, and Daiko could also look back to see the waves of the ocean from where he swam to this place. Across land, sea and sky… that was a phrase that his mother used to say. He would have to embody that quote of hers in his quest. “Coming dooooooown…!” he warned Kai as he simply leapt off the palm tree while Coda came flying down with the dead serpent. She had bit off its head and thrown it away, given that the poison bag was stored inside of it. The rest of the snake was completely edible for her.

Once landing on the rather muddy ground, Daiko sped up a little to catch up to Kai. He accelerated at first in about 0.6 of a second, then he was approaching her at a still velocity, then he made sure to brake next to her. A moment of silence passed by afterwards, in which Daiko wanted to say ‘So…’ as a way to stimulate the conversation engine. However, Kai was more proficient in that area; she asked him about his goals in the guild and out of it. With such questions, it was often expected that he had a clear answer like that straight arrow that he was. What was his goal, again…?

“I just want to get stronger and have a lot of fun!” he ultimately answered, “You know, perhaps reach a power where I’ll be able to spar with Shahrbaraz on a daily basis… become a famous wizard… get a wife and kids… and all that pleasant stuff.” He gently petted Coda’s fluffy plumage with a finger as he continued: “And also… maybe open a bird shop in Orchidia. That would be fun…!”

WC: 317
TWC: 2386 + 317 = 2703

Walking around, they both tried looking for the apple like… well, wolves? That wouldn’t really be the preferred mascot for Lamia Scale, though… or maybe they would. Wolves worked in packs, they were excessively durable, and they could take down impressive prey. An elk or an ox would have no chance against a pack of hungry wolves with experience. Daiko didn’t see himself as a wolf, though… that wasn’t his exact favorite.

His ears were filled with delight as Kai spoke up the location of the apples. Without any clues, they magically found the apples in a quick time! That was more than impressive in the Fire Wizard’s eyes! “W-Woah, that was quick…!” he expressed in awe by the confirmed sight of the yellow apples with white stripes across them. They looked like round, yellow fruit tigers. Coda was also amazed by the discovery and suddenly flew up to the crown of the tree where several other animals including ants, a couple of squirrels and a hummingbird were resting. They gently greeted the bird in animal language, while one of the squirrels addressed its admiration on Kai.

Daiko was a tad taken off guard by her next command. “W-Wait-“ he spoke up in haste as he quickly fathomed the situation, then strolled to the area underneath the tree crown. He would wait for Kai to drop the apples - and as some giant monkey on a fruit spree, he dashed from position to position in order to grab the apples without having them fall to the ground. A total of 6 yellow, Epurian Apples were caught by his grasp. Luckily, there were enough for him and Kai to have a bite of it - he hadn’t restored his fruit reserves in a while due to the travel, and he had to take a bite.

Despite the absurdity of it, Daiko let Kai keep the 4 other apples underneath her suit. Haha…

WC: 321
TWC: 2703 + 321 = 3024

[exit]