The streets were busy with a lively tempo as people flocked to places they were supposed to be, finding things they were supposed to do, and one young Pegasus would be there, muddled through the crowd, unknowing of what to pursue first, and how to deal with the day. The markets always attracted hoards of people who’d crowd amongst themselves as soon as the morrow drew its first sunrise. They’d bargain with the merchants to give up their coins for better prices, good were shipped all the way from the high seas, and the temperament of traders gloated around as they load and unload their galleons.

The Pegasus hunter found the trades to be mysteriously wonderful thing, where the system is carefully understood and accepted among the rest. But those with the most vile of intentions aren’t exempted from even the grandest of things, and while the trades delivered good deals, there were also humans who’d label themselves the weeds of the system, riding on the ideal jewel-gathering process known as an economy. The lancer edged her head one way, avoiding the passing look she garnered from a heftily bearded man as he lugged around with his box. The pirate would stare at his uninteresting form with one bulging eye before assuming his former walking pace, briskly hurling whatever the contents of the crate was into a corner of the road.

Hours of waning through Era streets and eating meals at diners had finally led her to the end of an empty street, a large park gleaming from afar. A slight breeze rustles the leaves making them fall to the solid ground one by one. The air was warm, the beams of sunlight glowing onto her skin. Flowers were vast, as they concealed the freshly cut green grass where the children are playing and adults talking amongst one another. The park was the kind of place where she sought stillness—at least more than those crowded streets in the piazza. Deciding to enjoy the tranquility, the woman sat herself on an empty bench, watching the view unfold before her. Even from this distance, she could still see the minute-sized humans scattering about, and even the clamour from the market.

It wasn’t until her most desired peace was interrupted, which didn’t even last for a minute, by a young child who came running towards her and tripped over her foot. ”Watch it, will you?” Her voice was loud and stern, clearly displaying her frustration. Perhaps it was her cold demeanor that frightened the kid, or maybe it was just her words, but nonetheless, it ended up making him weep. ”Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She threw up her hands in the air, rolling her eyes literally to the back of her head. That was why she hated children. She had never been good with them, nor even imagined herself to be approaching them but what was she to do now that the kid was sobbing in front of her?

Kill me.

The hunter silently prayed to the non-existent gods above, hoping that at least someone would come save her from this nightmare.

“Snowflake!”

She heard someone called her name. Her head spun towards the direction of the source, with a hint of anticipation that it would be the kid’s parents or whatsoever, as long as the child was away from her—even if a dragon bellowed at him—she would be fine with it. Instead, it was a glimpse of pink; the one that she had seen when she was in Orchidia and eventually came to pretty good terms with her. Truth be told, she was the only bubbly person Snowflake could tolerate; somehow it was her presence, she supposed, that made her feel like she had known this woman for years. ”Faye,” she looked up at the other female, and for the first time, she felt like pleading for someone’s help, desperately. ”Get rid of this kid.” She hesitated and added, ”Please.”

If she wanted, the woman could have done the puppy eyes to her — the kind that young ladies would act towards their beaus if they wanted something, not that she’d reckon it would work on Faye, but it was too cheesy for her to attempt anyway. It seemed like Faye’s method of silencing him did work a bit, until the child spotted his parents from afar and pushed through the arms of her acquaintance and ran away, wailing once again. ”Begone, hideous creature!” she screamed, albeit silently, as she cupped her hands around her mouth. ”I didn’t do anything, I swear! She did!” The frost mage yelled over the distance, sneaking a look towards her peer, curious as to how she’d act on her joke. Throughout her years staying in Fiore, she had learnt the ways of making jokes and pestering people from travellers and her colleagues alike, though her facial expressions didn’t do much in helping her becoming social.

”Good that you’re here.” Snowflake’s composure festered slightly in awkwardness from what just occured, a pregnant pause stopping the flow of conversation, with nothing but the seagulls singing their ungraceful bird songs in the backdrop. ”Now, why’re you here anyway?” Out of all the people she’d met, she certainly didn’t expect to run into her at the park. It truly seemed that Era was now the hotspot and it was highly likely that she would run into more familiar faces in the coming days.

”Oh, that will help a lot,” the woman chuckled, and she was almost surprised at herself for finding something as silly as this ridiculous. It was something about the pinkette that she could naturally let her guard down, even more so, smiling all ears and laughing with her – something that she rarely does with people around. Perhaps, it was just herself who was growing more and more accustomed to the presence of people and though, she couldn’t say Faye was her favourite person just yet, it was for certain that they were on better terms that she had initially thought.

Eyes wide, it took her quite a while to process her thoughts in; the fact that Faye was hugging her like a bear. ”Umpfh.” The female grunted, due to the impact from Faye’s hug which somewhat caused her legs to fumble about, if not from the shock of even receiving a hug from someone in the first place. The silver duelist remained dead still, her arms outstretched forward, not sure what she was supposed to do in the middle of a hug. Her body was stiff, but it wasn’t then she slowly began to relax her shoulders and tugged onto her dress, in a form of returning a hug. ”I know,” she almost said jokingly, a small smile emerging onto the curve of her pink, plump lips.

It certainly wasn’t often that she would be told how much she was missed while she was gone, and she couldn’t lie – it felt really good.

”Did you do anything interesting while travelling?” she directed her question to none other than her partner standing before her. ”I went to this place called Astera. Quite the shithole,” she shrugged, the ends of her lips turning into a small frown. It was true that she often loses contact with her guild mates before even realizing, and there was no other way to maintain communication except sending letters. ”Perhaps, whenever one of us starts travelling we should send a letter, or just travel together.” She wouldn’t mind sticking with this girl right here, since she had basically been stuck with her since they met, except for the time they parted ways not long ago.

Snowflake always preferred to be alone, but she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to be around someone or have someone as her go-to person. ”Nothing much really, I met a few interesting people on my way here to be honest,” she chimed in. Her fateful encounters were always amusing to her, albeit she was always thankful for them, as they gave her an opportunity to socialize with other people except those from her guild, and it was one thing that she needed to better herself at all times. ”But, I’ve been bored to death recently with nothing to do. Even the books don’t help anymore.” Being a rather conservative type, she spent most – if not, all – of her time burying her head in novels, journals and books of all sort, but somehow, she’d been losing interest in them much faster than she’d noticed. Perhaps, she just needed a change of pace to do something out of the blue to get her back on track. ”And you? What’ve you been up to lately?”