The Wood Elf held a cup of coffee that warmed her hands. Lamia Scale was as rambunctious as ever, but being surrounded by people that were familiar to her washed a serene feeling over the young mage. Despite that, her leg still bounced up and down anxiously as she sat there among her friends. Curiously, the watchful healer kept a look out for anyone she knew. She wanted someone to talk to, not to vent her feelings, but to simply keep her mind occupied. The girl knew quite a few people from the guild, so there was bound to be someone.
Scales of a Tail [Daiko]
Sat Mar 09, 2019 9:33 am
The Wood Elf held a cup of coffee that warmed her hands. Lamia Scale was as rambunctious as ever, but being surrounded by people that were familiar to her washed a serene feeling over the young mage. Despite that, her leg still bounced up and down anxiously as she sat there among her friends. Curiously, the watchful healer kept a look out for anyone she knew. She wanted someone to talk to, not to vent her feelings, but to simply keep her mind occupied. The girl knew quite a few people from the guild, so there was bound to be someone.
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Sat Mar 09, 2019 10:15 am
… He was taught that it was other living beings, but he couldn’t quite see it for himself…
A few bones were laid on the table, since all the edibles was about to be converted into energy for the hunter. “*munch, munch*… N-Not hungry, Kerii?” he asked curiously, swallowing his food before trying to look as… non-odd as possible.
Sun Mar 10, 2019 7:17 am
He commented on how she didn't really seem to be hungry, and the elf just shook her head. "No, not really," said Kerii after taking a sip of her drink. "What do you got there?" She gestured towards the skull resting on his shoulder, acting like pauldron of sorts. This fashion was not uncommon among certain Wood Elves she knew, so it wasn't foreign to her, but it was admittedly more than a bit odd to casually see on a human. In her experience, people wore it as trophies, which was perhaps what Daiko was doing as well. If so, she would be surprised. Kerii never took him to be a hunter, but then again she didn't know him all too well to begin with. Perhaps this would serve as an opportunity to learn more about her fellow Scale.
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Sun Mar 10, 2019 10:44 am
She had eyed the skull in her question, indicating that she asked about that specifically. “It’s a flood swine,” he replied proudly whilst knocking on the skull with his left knuckle, “It crashed into my cottage and ate all my grapes… so I ate it.” With such a shining face akin to a child, he joyously proclaimed how he enacted revenge upon the wild animal by slaying it and devouring it like the predator that Daiko was. “It often tried to headbutt me, so I figured that its skull must’ve been sturdy and hard. Sadly, it’s too small to be a helmet, so a shoulder-plate it is.”
Coda started pecking the skull, making resonating cluck sounds like hitting a bone bell. “… C-Coda is very happy whenever you’re around,” Daiko curiously told Kerii, “I don’t know if you have a companion yourself or not, but you’re definitely attuned to nature in many ways than just your magic… wait, do you have a bird pal too? What’s his or her name? Are they, like, talon birds or lake birds?”
Sun Mar 10, 2019 11:43 am
The bird, Coda, began to peck at the skull, which seemed to remind Daiko that she seemed rather happy whenever Kerii was around. He noticed that she seemed to have a connection with nature that ran deeper than what was displayed in her magic. He also suspected that Kerii had some sort of companion, which was true, but it was not avian like he assumed. To this the healer smiled. "Well, I am a Wood Elf after all," she said in reference to her connection with nature. "And I did used to have a companion, but she was not a bird." The mage briefly reminisced about Sylvie. She was quite a playful creature, and she missed her dearly. They had formed quite a strong bond, but good things were not meant to last forever... "Which reminds me. How long have you had Coda?" She had rarely seen the two apart. They were doubtlessly something akin to best friends, which was something that she envied. She wanted that with Syl again, but alas, it was not possible anymore.
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Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:52 am
“Nice,” Daiko replied, “I bet she was a wonderful companion- *peck* ouch, I mean, maybe not as- *peck, peck* Coda, come on…!” The raptor was getting a little hysterical when Daiko talked about other companions as if she was jealous of them, but her predator mind didn’t process the fact that Kerii appeared companion-less now. And someday, Coda would hit the bucket too… it was saddening, but he had to accept the possibility. At least, it would be priceless to have Coda around for as long as she would stay.
“Since I was 11. 9-10 years ago,” Daiko answered to the blonde Wood Elf, “It was like yesterday when she plucked out of her egg and was all featherless and small… she was so cute- Coda, come on, she’s drinking.” The bird had decided to waddle over to Kerii and nudge her bird head on the elf’s cheek all passionately.
“Hmpf…” Now it was Daiko who was jealous.
Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:12 pm
Kerii took a few more sips from her drink as Daiko reflected back on when the bird was nothing but an egg; however, he interrupted himself when Coda decided to hop on over and rub against the healer's cheek. Once again, Daiko seemed to get embarrassed, and perhaps even a bit jealous. "It's fine," she giggled, rubbing the under part of the raptor's neck with her index finger. Turning towards her fellow guild mate, the elf crossed her legs as she began to speak. "You know, I've seen you around the guild a lot, so it's kind of surprising we haven't gotten to know each other yet." It was true. Kerii even fought alongside this man during the demonic incursion, but the most she could tell was that he was an easily ruffled fire mage with a fowl as a best friend. "What do you do outside of the guild?" asked the elf. Magic was a part of their everyday lives and just from that one battle she already had questions pertaining to that topic, but she thought that it would be best to steer away from that for now and try to maintain a casual atmosphere.
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Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:15 pm
He was finally done eating all the edible meat off this ox leg, so he put the almost skinny log of bones away. Then he patted his stomach and burped out a smoke cloud, smiling pleasantly. “Ahhhh… can go a month without another meal, I think.” It really felt as if his stomach was filled up with food, but he found it comfortable. He wasn’t starving anymore, and he preferred feeling sick full than deadly starving.
Kerii pointed out a good fact; the two Lamia Scale Wizards knew little to nothing about each other. Despite Daiko having been travelling everywhere in his early days in the guild, he was spending much more time in the guild lately. It was a little sad to think about; they could’ve been such good friends by now. Oh well, better start now than later. “Yea, that’s a good point… we both like nature and birds. We could become best friends…!” he expressed joyously, stating a rather small requirement that you had to like nature and birds to be best friends with this hunter. He would say that his best friend was really Káilètte, but Daiko knew little about friend hierarchies to even care. He also knew very little about making friends of his own gender, now that he thought about it…
But a friend like this sweet elven nature mage was definitely a big win for him, no doubt. He would happily write that down in memory.
“Outside the guild? Hehehehe…” he began to explain with a confident grin and laugh almost mischievously, whilst he reached for the line of skulls around his torso. He would pull it off his oak-green, sleeveless coat and put it on the table, showcasing the skulls of various small prey such as squirrels, badgers, rabbits and birds. Coda lifted her head up in curiosity, but she was busy keeping Kerii company. Besides, she was out of the danger zone, since she was, you know, Daiko’s probably best friend of all.
“I explore ecosystems, take swims in lakes, train Coda on how to hunt and catch mice - mice, not rats - and hunt for food,” he continued to elaborate his belated explanation. A little sweat appeared on his face, though, when he continued: “It’d be easy to say I hunt for sport, but I swear, I eat every prey I put down…” He was also a conservationist of some kind, wanting the forest to keep its flora and fauna from too much influence from this humble predator. Just like wolves, Daiko had become sort of a necessity back in Worth Woodsea, since he accidently scared off the wolves up there.
… Wait…
She was a Wood Elf. Maybe they were, like, super close to nature. Maybe she had an issue with hunters like him?! Even though she clearly showed signs of tolerance earlier, he couldn’t help but develop a sense of guilt, which was shown on his face in form of a saddened expression. He lowered his face to the table and spoke quietly, whilst dark clouds grew over his head: “… I-I don’t know a lot about Wood Elves, actually. Do they hunt too, or would they hang me the moment they heard about me…?” He just wanted to be on the safe side. Safe side for the best.
Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:50 pm
When the elf asked Daiko about his activities outside Lamia Scale, he replied saying that he spent time outside, trained Coda, and even hunted with the bird. Upon admitting so, the fire mage seemed to get flustered and said that he truthfully did not know if Wood Elves were fond of that practice or not. "You're fine," she reassured, letting out a laugh. "Plenty of Wood Elves hunt. In fact, it's pretty much part of their lives. I mean, I even grew up in Crocus and I was expected to know how to hunt with a bow." It was her father's attempt to preserve elven traditions and keep his daughter from traveling down the path of humans, but that evidently did not turn out so well. Fortunately for her, those lessons ended up to be beneficial, as the skills she learned came in handy on some requests. "I pretty much stopped hunting when I was a teenager though, sometime before I left to join this guild, though I didn't do it too often to begin with, though I assume it was different for you?" The healer couldn't help but notice how... normal this all seemed to be for Daiko. He confidently wore his trophies without caring what people thought and spoke about his hunts as if they were an everyday thing. She did not imagine many places in Fiore had cultures like this, so perhaps her guild mate came from another place.
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Sun Mar 24, 2019 11:58 am
Ah, she stated to have stopped hunting when she reached the adolescent years. For Daiko, hunting was way too important to let go of; especially since his stomach disliked many things other than raw, fresh flesh. However, he wouldn’t belittle Kerii because of this in any way. She was his guildmate!
“I hunted ever since my mum taught me how to… so over 10 years now,” Daiko told the pointy-eared elfie, “Then itsy bitsy Daiko Flayme picked up his mum’s bow and became a man…!” He saw lots of pride in fending for his own as an outlet to heal his pain over the loss of his mother. He believed that her way of living should be his too, as a way to honor her for her effort in raising him up in those 11 years.
“Hmh… aha,” he hummed in the revelation of another idea. He laid out a kite skull - fully cleaned by his hand and tools - and suddenly clenched his fingers. A small ray of incinerating fire emerged from the space between the thumb and index fingers crooked towards each other, functioning as a blowtorch to carve into the kite skull. “Since we’re newly claimed comrades, I want you to have this,” he told her before he just finished his work; a carved skull of a bird of prey with beautiful outlines and features.
“The sun’s finally sticking out, Coda,” the fire mage told his feathery friend. Coda began stretching her vermillion wings in excitement as she took off and flew out of the window, having Daiko follow after her as he looked towards Kerii and said: “Wanna see Coda in action? C’mon, I promise it’ll be fun…!”
Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:35 pm
An idea seemed to pop into her friend's head, and he began to carve into the skull that was previously on his shoulder with fire magic. Once he was finished, he gave it to Kerii. Now that they were well acquainted, it was a gift to demonstrate such. Frankly, the elf did not know what she would do with it, but it would be rude not to accept the gift. "Thank you," she warmly said, taking the skull. She examined it and pondered what precisely she should do. She wouldn't throw it away, but it didn't exactly go well with anything in her dorm room. Oh well, she supposed that there would be some use for it sooner or later. "I wish I had something to give you too," the elf said with a slight frown. She did not have any items on hand, and most things created with her nature magic were only temporary; however, she did not think it would be too much of an issue. She could find something to give to her guild mate another time, and besides, it seemed like he wanted to go hunting. If Kerii could not give her friend something at that moment, the least she could do was make him happy by agreeing to go hunting. "Sure!" she said, standing up. The elf took one last gulp of her drink before tossing it in the trash can. "I'm ready when you are."
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Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:11 pm
“Alright, betting big time, Coda… *whistle*,” the Fire Mage called at her, having his command reach Coda’s hearing organs and setting her in hunting mode. She dived down like a dart as if she already spotted something darting through the grass. Upon having her sharp talons drill through a random object, she swung it up in the air to toss it over to Daiko. The Fire Mage was just as tricked as Coda, since the object was inanimate - just a lump of grass that a creature had collected as a distraction, most likely. He ran a little to try and grab the object, and once it spread out on his hands, he realized the mistake.
“O-Oh… o-one more try, Coda! You can do this!” Daiko encouraged the bird. It wasn’t exactly magic to hunt other creatures; mostly, you just needed a weapon and luck. Even a lion only got a successful hunt every 7th time or something.
This time, the raptor tossed up a legit creature. Daiko thought it through and used a Minor Thermal Vision, coating one eye in a magic circle that transformed it into a glowing yellow eye, to see if the object emitted any heat signatures. And it sure did, even though it was dying by Coda’s claws. Once the Fire Mage grabbed it, he had turned out to have caught a hedgehog. Those tasted great if you had the patience to remove all the spikes off of its skin. Some spikes drilled through his skin, though.
“… These are difficult to prepare,” he admitted to Kerii, “But they taste very good- shit, my hand is impaled. That's a first... *argh*” He just now spotted the spikes drilling through his right hand due to the impact of the falling hedgehog. He looked at it in an expression of displeasure more than pain. He simply pulled out the spikes one by one before speaking: “So what do you think of Coda’s skill? Quite top quality, right *ouch* and she's getting better at singling out the rodents and mammals since I *ouch* don't like eating reptiles *ouch*... uhm...” He wasn't one to panic so quickly - haha - but his hand was bleeding.
His eyes pointed up at Kerii's like a sad pupper. It was weird; he would usually ignore the bleeding and live on... but he knew damn well that she could heal. He just wanted to see her use her magic, too. Maybe she could teach him how to use healing spells, right? It wasn't too farfetched... right?
Sun Mar 31, 2019 8:15 pm
The trio left the guild hall and went in search of a spot were the fire mage could show off the raptor's skills. They came upon an area with tall grass -- the perfect place for tiny reptiles and rodents to hide from predators. Daiko whistled a command to his bird, and just like that, she darted towards the ground, only to come up with a claw full of grass and dirt. Her friend did not seem too disappointed about Coda's failure and encouraged her to try again. On the second attempt, Daiko seemed to use a spell that covered one of his eyes briefly. Kerii curiously looked as Coda flew at the ground once more, this time successfully scrounging up a hedgehog; however, the duo seemed to be too excited, for when the Lamia caught the animal, its spikes painfully dug into the palms of his hands. The elf flinched at the sudden movement and bit her lip as she saw blood start to come out of his hands.
Daiko asked Kerii what she thought of his bird's hunting skills. As he talked, he picked out the splinter-like spikes. Once he was finished, she instinctively reached for his hands. "Let me see that first," she said before answering is questions. They were minor injuries, but she didn't want to leave him even in mild pain. She cupped her hands over his and emitted a squirt of clove oil that would wash away the blood and seamlessly heal the wounds. "Better?" she asked, retracting her own hands. "And I think Coda's hunting skills are good. You two just need to be a bit more careful when handling whatever you catch," said the elf, referring to the little hedgehog incident. Once she was finished her sentence, she lightly tapped her chin in wonder. "What was that spell you used earlier?" As she recalled, Daiko used fire magic. In her experience, it was typically used as offensive means, but perhaps the Lamia's had a little something special to go along with it.
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Sat Apr 06, 2019 11:09 am
“B-Better…” he spoke gratefully and with a soft blush of gratitude, “Thanks, Kerii… wow… it’s as if it was never injured in the first place.” He closely inspected his hand and its textures; no apparent scars and no signs of blood loss. Kerii did compliment Coda’s hunting skills, too, and the raptor wasn’t far away to hear that. Once when Coda landed on Daiko’s shoulder again after a few rounds in the air, she chirped happily at the sweet words.
Kerii then asked about the spell that he used. It was likely time to tell about his magic. “That was a spell that enhanced my vision… I possess a ‘Take-Over’ magic - I think it’s called that - where I transform into a phoenix and grow out fire wings and lots of other cool things,” he explained to the blonde elfie, “So I just transformed one of my eyes, so I could see as sharply as an eagle. Pretty cool, don’t you think?” He decided to demonstrate once more by sweeping a hand across his face, turning both eyes into orange-reddish, sharp-looking phoenix eyes. The magic circles that popped in and out in front of his eyeballs signaled the use of magic.
“With these, I can see you in these weird colors. They change according to your body heat, so I can see you even in the dark, and easily among colder objects... but I can't heal or anything, I think that's your unique ability... b-but I'd like to learn how, somehow.”
Sat Apr 06, 2019 11:37 am
The fire mage demonstrated the spell once more, this time making both of his eyes glow orange. "That's amazing," she said in awe. None of her spells could do such a thing, but then the Lamia brought up the point that his magic lacked abilities to heal and such, whereas that trait was unique to Kerii's magic. He actually expressed the desire to learn healing spells, which came as a shock to the elf. The surprise was evident on her face. "Your magic and healing?" She tapped her finger against her chin and pondered on that idea for a few moments before shaking her head. "I don't know many offensive magics that can also heal, or at least heal as well as one specialized for that purpose," Kerii began, "but that's the beauty of magic. It's so diverse that some can heal while others focus on fighting or hindering their enemies in another fashion. We're not exactly meant to fit every role." Another point crossed Kerii's mind. "And besides, you wouldn't be able to heal yourself with magic. I can only heal other people, and the same seems to be true with some other healers I've met."
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Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:08 am
She elaborated that it was the beauty of magic to be so diverse in many areas. Maybe Daiko shouldn’t try to focus on all the things at once, but perhaps focus on what his magic does best; damage. As saddening as it sounded to have a phoenix’s powers but no healing abilities, Daiko was ready to accept that if he began focusing and getting better at his destructive spells. “… You got a good point,” he agreed, “I should try to focus on what my magic does best at… which is burning down things, for the most part. Although, it’s useful enough that I can see heat signatures like this.” He rolled his head around a little to look at the woods and the Lamia Scale building with his heat-vision.
“Okay, Coda, go to Kerii and do what she asks you to,” he asked the feathery hunter. Coda nodded intelligently and flapped her wings before leaping in a long, soaring jump to softly land on Kerii’s shoulder. “Now you try to hunt! Coda’s very smart, so she can understand what you want to hunt down. Just point towards a location and she’ll search for any prey in that area.”
Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:28 pm
The fire mage looked over to Coda and asked the bird to follow Kerii's commands. A curious look appeared on the elf's face as Coda fluttered over to her shoulder. This time, it was her turn to hunt. Evidently, Coda was intelligent enough to understand not only Daiko, but others as well. All Kerii had to do was point in the direction she wanted the bird to go and give a command. "Really?" she asked, glancing skeptically at the bird. "I've never hunted like this before... but there's a first time for everything I guess." The healer had not hunted for years, but she distinctly remembered being alone in the woods with a bow and arrow to catch her prey. She hadn't recently hunted with a partner, much less an animal. This method was new to her, so she was fully expecting it not to go as smoothly as when Coda and Daiko did it, but she would at least try.
The elf crossed her arms and peered at the tall grass. She looked for any signs of rustling. It was still for the most part, but then she saw some blades of grass quiver rather quickly. Perhaps it was the wind, but the Lamia wasn't going to take any chances. "There!" She pointed towards the patch of grass in hopes that the raptor would fly after it and pick up an animal of sorts.
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Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:51 am
The moment Kerii’s finger was raised to point at some shaking grass blades, Coda spread her wings and shot through the air ferociously. She darted through the air molecules in a streamlined form whilst arcing down slowly to catch the assumed prey by surprise. Daiko watched with wide eyes, his hands having clenched in excitement. Coda quickly found out that the waving grass was just the air, in the end… but first tries were often prone to failure. But she wouldn’t let Kerii down, even if the whole world was on her wings.
Therefore, she continued into the shrubbery and mid-tall oak trees. At one point, she disappeared… Daiko got worried, and his voice revealed that: “W-Where’d she go? How far was the prey that you spotted… kind of amazing to see that far, actually.” Another few seconds passed, but whoever had functioning sense of hearing could hear the screams from some stranger in the woods. And the screams intensified with every second, as if they got closer and closer. Well, as a matter of fact…
Coda was pretty darn strong for a raptor the size of a falcon. She managed to pull another person across that long path towards them just to impress Kerii? Daiko yipped in shock. “C-Coda?! That’s not, he’s not prey!” he rebuked the irresponsible bird with hands flying around him, “O-Oh man, oh shit, I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t- we didn’t- I didn’t mean to, w-we were just training-“
“W-Whew… w-why am I pulled over here? Don’t tell me that this kite-looking hawk is going to feed me to his kids,” the elder male expressed. Daiko had helped him out quickly and shooed Coda to let go of his shirt with her sharp talons. Luckily, no real damage was dealt to him other than the shirt and its holes… oh, this was bad.
Once when the elder eyed Daiko, and Daiko eyed Kerii, the Fire Mage chuckled a little. “S-Sorry… I think Coda wanted to impress you and brought a much bigger prey,” he explained. The elder laughed cockily and spoke up: “Big prey, eh? Big price, eh? He could find a better price than a retired old man… but for such young and pretty girl like her, I can’t blame him.” With a formal nod, the elder man nudged Daiko to let him go. “Anyways, I’ll try and dash outta here before I get caught again. I’m no bird food, I tell you…”
“We… we could always try one more time, Kerii.”
Sun Apr 28, 2019 6:58 pm
Daiko was taken aback by this as well and stammered as he asked where his bird could have gone. He then made a comment about how her eyesight must have been good, to which she gave a casual shrug in response. "I didn't really see anything other than movement in the grass, but anyway, does Coda fly off like that often?" On the subject of her sight, the Lamia supposed that being a Wood Elf did have its perks. She was connected to nature, and as such often seemed to be more attentive than the average person in such environments. Of course anyone could do the same if they practiced enough, but it was in her blood. She was raised to appreciate and recognize nature, and she was sure that many other Wood Elves would say the same regardless of whether they were raised in Athalran or not.
When Coda returned, she was carrying a person. An actual, living, grown man. Daiko yelped and quickly became flustered. He stumbled over words as he apologized to the man for his bird. The man was clearly angry, but luckily appeared to be completely uninjured. Of course, the same couldn't be said for his clothes which now had jagged holes in them from the raptor's claws.
After the man left, Daiko asked if they should try again. "Sure," the elf replied. Turning to Coda, she spoke again. "I appreciate the gesture, but please don't bring back a human this time." Well, that certainly wasn't something the mage thought she would ever say. Now that, that was out of the way, Kerii supposed that they should try this hunting thing one more time before moving onto something else. She looked for another moving patch of grass, and when she saw one moving abnormally fast, she pointed her finger and instructed the bird to go after it. Hopefully this time, she would come up with a smaller, less-human prey.
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Sat May 11, 2019 7:12 am
Oh, wow, he soon realized what he was thinking. It was a sense of jealousy that travelled through him, and although he was unaware of it before, it became more and more apparent to those around him… and to himself. Taking a deep breath, he rebuked himself internally and watched as Coda darted towards the next target that Kerii pointed towards. Doing an arc in the air, Coda firmly cut a piece of the grass field off during her dive, and she flew right back up with the prey in her beak.
“Nice…” the Fire Mage complimented. Coda headed back towards Kerii with what appeared to be a dead, blue-scaled lizard in her beak. The bird would simply drop the dead lizard, letting it fall right for Kerii’s face as she assumed that the nature elf would just grab it with her mouth or something - just like Daiko!
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