Reflected Light

He had been able to check up on many of his friends after the Spark Bird arrived, but one person in particular had eluded his efforts to track down. Vervain had assured him of the young woman's safety and good health, at least, but it wasn't the same as seeing her with his own eyes and, besides, the wounded expression he had caught before she had disappeared from the Spark Bird celebration had left a lingering ache of guilt. Several times he had tried to track her down, only to be interrupted or foiled by circumstance or timing.

This time, though, he was determined to see it through. He had returned to his den in the Glade to finish moving a last few items to his office in Loreseeker's Hall when his foxy nose had caught Edy's scent, fresh enough that she must have passed through very recently. Sneezing - the pollen was a bit overpowering - the long-legged fox had traced her path with some difficulty towards the Oasis before transforming back into a man. The birds filled the air with song as green leaves unfurled gloriously from every tree and bush and plant in an ecstasy of new life and energy while bright flowers turned their petals to a sunny afternoon between showers.

He knew she was close, but he didn't want to surprise her and risk getting his eyebrows - or worse - burned off, so he called out as he stepped from the trees and towards the clearing around the oasis, looking around curiously. "Edy? Are you here?"

The not-teenagers emotions were like the fiery magic she possessed: hot and potentially devastating, but always short lived. Thus far Edy hadn't found a kiln that could contain her fire more than a handful of moments, so while her youthful emotions burned bright, then also burned out quickly.

"Who's asking?" She chimed back easily enough. It sounded a good deal like Jigano, but he wasn't the only one in this world with those sweet tenor vocals (every asshole seemed to have the voice and honestly, it was a bit tiresome), but the bard seemed to come by it honestly enough. Or at least he had the backstory to back it up.

Clad in an outfit that actually looked more or less appropriate for a former soldier (indeed, it was her soldier garb that she'd come through the portal with), Edy held a small metal object in her hands. Twisting her torso to and fro, then shaking the device in her hand with youthful frustration as if blunt force trauma was the panacea to any problem.

Relieved to hear his friend's voice in confirmation that he had followed the right trail, Jigano walked forward more confidently, heading in the direction it had come from. "Just a humble bard, my Lady of the Flames," he answered, stepping around the clump of oversized ferns that had hidden Edy from his view. He gave her a flourishing bow - one of his finest - and rose with a smile as he walked closer, hopeful that her bright voice indicated that she was in good humor.

Her soldiering clothes looked good on her, but then, he'd yet to see anything like bad on the fashionably rebellious young woman. She had the body to pull off most looks well, something a bard could admire. Whatever was in her hands was new, though, and he tilted his head curiously at it - and her. Isuma chose that moment to pop her head out of the hood-nest he'd sewn onto the back of his overtunic, her owlish face peering at Edy curiously as she echoed her companion's pose.

"What brings you out into the wilds of Caido today? Hunting chorus bees?" he teased tentatively with a smile.

"Humble, huh?" Edy snorted with a grin as the bard made his way into the bit of glade she currently inhabited. Bobi gave prrrrt of greeting—the closest thing to a purr she could manage—before continuing to stalk some bug or small rodent through the underbrush.

With a wide and delighted smile at the appearance of Isuma, Edy lowered the compass and took a step closer. "What in the fuck are you?" She cooed at it, before glancing towards Jigano to supply the answer.

"Monster hunting, obviously." The not-teenager replied with an adventurous grin. "The guild got given this compass. Supposedly it glows and points towards rare mythical creatures. But we get given all sorts of junk, so I'm just here to see if it actually works."

Not one to beat around the bush, Edy gave the bard a pointed stare. "So. You're one of those shifter-races huh ?" It wasn't as though the mage was racist, despite her upbringing, moreso it seemed a strange thing to have just left out of his narrative given all the time the pair had spent together. That, and a man would have been a hell of a lot more useful in fixing a perch than a fucking fox was.

"Moderately humble," he corrected with a charming grin, including Bobi in his bow of greeting and humming hello to the growing kitten. Isuma wriggled out of the hood and on to the pads he'd sewn into the shoulders of his overtunic for her, tail twitching with cheerful curiosity as she Reep!ed a bright hello to Edy's cooing, stretching forward as far as she could - until Jigano raised a hand to catch her from overbalancing. She happily flowed into his hand - almost overflowed it, now, though she still had her kittenish plumpness. Fledgling feathers were beginning to grow amid the downy ones that covered her fluttering wings, and Jigano grinned down at her before setting her on the ground so she could go investigate Bobi with a happy chirrup of greeting.

"This, my friend, is Isuma, and she's a gryphon," he explained, watching his little one fondly. Something between an owl and a snow leopard, her pale coloring that had been so protective in winter now stood out starkly amidst the vibrant greens of new growth. Edy's answer drew the customary raised brow, tempered with a grin as he echoed her "Obviously," with a teasing wink. But before he could follow up on that she drove straight to the point, lest he get too comfortable thinking that all was water under the bridge.

He winced, but nodded, although the motion was jerky. It still wasn't easy to admit, even to his closest friends, and he sighed as he tucked his hands into his wide sleeves, seeking a little comfort. "So it would seem," he agreed, wincing again at how easily the not-quite answer came. "Before... that night... I hadn't shown or told anyone. It was..." he hesitated, frowning, and looked over to the blue waters of the oasis so that they reflected in his eyes. "Even knowing that it's seen is normal here doesn't change that I spent a lifetime on my world being taught to hide that aspect of myself. To never let anyone know what I really was. Only a single living person still knows my secret, there. It is... not something that is anyone's business but my own, I feel," he finished softly. But Edy had no time for melancholy or sob stories, so he shook his head, raising his eyes to give her a lopsided smile. "Though now I suppose there are three here who know, regardless of my intentions. I'd appreciate it if you would kindly keep the information to yourself, if you would. Now, are you sure someone didn't just try to pawn a broken compass off on you? I rather like the story behind it, though!"

"Guess i'll add gryphons to the list of shit I didn't think was actually real." Edy murmured with amazement. The sound of the chick halted Bobi's prowling, and she turned around with wide skeptical eyes to look at the dollop of cream in a world suddenly bright with green. Trotting forward, the feline stretched her neck out, whiskers wide and tufted ears uncertain. Raising a paw, she tried to booooop the small creature on the top of its head. Her claws were in, but her muscles were coiled, ready to attack if/when this fluffy and feathered ball turned into the apex predator Bobi was 98.9999234234234% sure was lurking inside.

No, Edy was not one for sob stories, but she listened patiently enough. Not one for secrets, Edy's initial reaction had simply been that Jigano was keeping her at arms length. He called on her when her services were needed, and when they weren't? Well. Their 'friendship' was merely full of need-to-know information. Indeed, the display of the three musketeers around the spark bird's perch seemed to suggest the same. But .... at the same time, Edy kept some shit buried too, and while she didn't like to admit it, what the bard said about certain things not being anyone's business struck a chord in her. "Keep what information to myself?" She said with a playful grin that quickly turned-shit eating as she bobbed her eyebrows and topped it all off with a cackle.

"I mean, I dunno. It did glow, and I followed the arrow, and now its stopped." She said with a youthful shrug, tossing the compass towards the bard with no prior indication, expecting him to catch it without warning.

"And land sharks," Jigano murmured, suppressing a shiver at that particular memory. But Isuma was happy for the attention and even more for a new playmate. The bobcat kitten and the owl-faced gryphlet examined each other with curiosity, though Isuma seemed happier about the introduction while Bobi appeared wary. The gryphon peeped curiously when her fellow kitten's paw raised, turning her head up to follow it - and then squeaking in delight when the boop fell on her small beak instead. She turned an excited circle in place and then tried to return the favor, stretching a taloned foreclaw forward towards Bobi's nose. At Jigano's quietly cleared throat she remembered the 'rules' and curled her toes in, so if Bobi let her, she would boop the bobcat with a tiny knuckle rather than a sharp talon.

It was a welcome distraction before the awkward admission. The first, really, that he had made to anyone in so many words. Luckily it was Edy he was talking to, bright and bold and forthright. His smile turned to a grin as she cackled - a grin that slipped as he was forced to react to the tossed object with reflexes that had been honed over his last season and a half on Caido. He managed to catch it deftly, at least, and raised a brow at the offending arrow that seemed disinclined to lead the way any further. He tapped it with a fingernail experimentally, then looked around, as if expecting the Spark Bird to descend in all her fiery glory.

There was no bird immediately visible... but there was an oasis, and he glanced from Edy to the water with a grin flickering at the corners of his mouth. "Some sort of water monster?" he hazarded a guess, as much teasing as sincere. "Like a... a lake dragon or serpent of some kind? One that's coiled up and sleeping at the bottom of the oasis to hide from your fire magic?"

"The hell is a land shark?" Edy asked with a half-grimace and half smirk, making her lips twist in an interesting sort of way.

As Isuma tried to reciprocate, Bobi watched, lips plump and ready to hiss the instant the little ball got too full of herself. Edging back into her coiled body, Bobi endured the extended paw, immediately springing playfully into the air as if lightning had just been thrust into her veins. With a prrrt!, the bobcat darted towards Isuma's tail, wanting to quickly pounce on it then dart away. Should Isuma follow, the much faster and older feline would slow her steps, allowing herself to almost be caught before darting away. If not, she'd continue to badger the small chick until she picked up on the game. It wasn't like tag was particularly hard to figure out, after all.

It sounded like bullshit, but given the rest of what Edy had recently learned to be true, there could very well be some sort of monster hidden at the bottom of the oasis. Wiggling her fingers and letting fire bloom from the tips, Edy shrugged vacuously and grinned. "I am prettttttty powerful." She agreed with a happy grin.

"Hey, so guess who got a promotion?" She tittered cheerfully as they walked on, loosely following the compass as it loosely pointed towards...something. Probably.

"Teeth," Jigano said succinctly, with a full grimace and a gaze full of shadows. "And hunger. I didn't even see all of it - just the jaws. I saw..." he hesitated, letting his mind drift back to that snowy night, the starlight and snow and the wolf... "It came up beneath a wolf. A big wolf. Teeth as long as my arm, and a mouth wide enough to swallow the wolf whole, not even blood left." In spite of the warm breezes of spring he shivered, ice trickling down his spine. "And then it just... disappeared, back beneath the earth again. Like it was diving back into water. Not a trace left..." Not that he'd stuck around to look for it. Hell no. He'd tucked his fluffy white tail between his legs and run straight to Rory's farm to hide in his friend's barn.

Luckily their companions were providing a welcome diversion from that particular memory. Isuma jumped in surprise when Bobi leapt back, then was caught caught off guard and off balance when the bobcat reversed direction and pounced on her long, fluffy tail. She squeaked in protest - or maybe delight - and as her fellow kitten retreated the gryphlet scampered in pursuit, neither as graceful nor as fast, but so very determined as she peeped happily and made pounces that inevitably landed short of the swift Bobi's paws.

Edy's boast was met with a grin, and nod of respectful acknowledgment. "You're my favorite bodyguard for a reason," the bard agreed cheerfully. He tilted his head at her fire, a curl of an idea in his gut as he lead the way at a steady amble in the direction of the arrow. "Speaking of fire... I don't suppose you'd have any use for a spark bird feather?" he asked tentatively. "You did more work than I did, getting the perch repaired. By all rights it should have gone to you." Of the four of them he had been the least useful, and the least deserving. He still felt a pang of guilt that he had somehow come through that night without an outward scratch when Amalia and Rory had been wounded so terribly. Perhaps being in foxform had protected him somewhat, or maybe the monsters had simply delighted in scarring the minds of some while they focused on the bodies of others. Regardless, as useful as the feather could be, there was no doubt that it had a greater affinity to the fire mage than the fox.

Edy wondered if the bard was having a senior moment given that his description of the landshark was far less illustrative than she was used to. However the seriousness of his tone made her pause respectfully, listening to the details with a bit of a grimace. "Well first off, fuck that." Edy said when he'd finally finished. "Secondly ... I don't like how fast my shit-that-shouldn't-be-real list is getting, so let's pause this for now." She added with a grin, as if not talking about it would somehow solve the problem.

Edy returned the grin with a cheeky snort. "Is that reason that everyone around here seems incompetent or just dumb?" She asked with a pointed stare, before laughing. However as he mentioned the feather and the distribution of work, her laughter died away and she just shook her head. "Nope. Got all I need right here." The not-teenager replied, though whether she meant all she needed in terms of magical fuckery, or in some deeper sense, was unclear. It was probably the former though. Probably.

"That was fucked up, attacking each other and whatnot. Next LongNight I'm hibernating the fuck away from everyone." Then pausing, she narrowed her eyes thoughtfully for a moment. "Or...I guess since I run the bar now, I can't really do that. Well. I've got a year to think of a plan B, because I sure as fuck don't want a repeat performance of any of what happened, both inside and out."

Jigano raised a brow at Edy's vehement rejection of the Land Shark and everything about it, but nodded with enthusiasm. That was not a night he enjoyed recalling, though now he'd at least shared the experience with an official Monster Hunter. Though if she really didn't want to add to her list of "weird shit I don't want to deal with" maybe they shouldn't be following the glowing magical compass?

Ah well, too late now! And besides, Jigano was curious if it would lead them to anything at all, or just in a big circle around the oasis.

"Well... they're... still learning," Jigano amended tactfully, though he winked at his friend as he said it, playing along with her joke. Probably a joke. It was hard to tell with Edy sometimes, but he enjoyed how she kept him on his toes. Her friendship wasn't one he was in any hurry to lose, and he was willing to part with the precious feather for it, but his Lady of the Flames preferred her own fire, and he gave a little half-bow to her, not missing a step as he accepted her refusal. "Much more versatile than a feather anyways," he agreed with a grin, offering her the opening with gentlemanly courtesy.

His smile faded to a slight grimace as he shook his head, disliking the memories of that night, even as he faced them with a grim resolve. "I don't like things getting in my head," he said, voice low. "For exactly that reason. I used to be able to do something about it..." His knuckles grew white around the compass, and he had to force them to relax with a sigh. "Well. Next year you'll be the wise old woman of the bar, keeping all the impulsive young bucks in check, right?" he teased her, bringing his smile back with a bit of an effort. "Congratulations, by the way! Vervain told me you were taking over. Does this mean I should call you "Boss Edy" now?"

Edy snorted with a mischievous grin. "Of all the compliments I've ever received, more versatile than a feather is probably the weirdest." She said with a bright laugh. It was perhaps a lucky thing that Edy had wanted for little growing up, such that the lost-trinkets from the Spark Bird were not something she lusted or pined for. It also helped that yes, she was more impressive than a stupid feather was.

As Jigano mentioned more of his lost magic, the not-teenager nodded with a solemn understanding. "Maybe you can again? Sam's boyfriend does the animal and magic thing, and if a sad idiot like him can do it, obviously you can too, yeah?" That it was a touch more complicated than that was either not something Edy considered or something she thought Jigano could overcome. If Remi was the benchmark after all, Jigano could surpass him easily.

"HAH." The Launceleyn barked as she shook her head. "No way I'm ever making it to old age. I'll die before I get even one wrinkle." She said with the confident arrogance of the very young.

Frowning at Jigano, Edy raised a brow with a snort. "You're a bard from another world entirely and the best you can come up with is Boss Edy?" She said, tilting her nose up as if offended and put out that she even had to continue this conversation. "Go on, try again." She urged with a grin and flash of white teeth. "No one is saying your job is on the line or anything...but no one is saying it isn't, either."

"Really?" Jigano asked, genuinely surprised. "I'll keep that in mind. I feel like we can definitely improve on that. I'll add it to my list of things to research," he decided with a playful grin. Gods most fortunate, but Edy was a balm for his weary heart. Finding weird compliments for her would be a delight amidst the seriousness of everything else on his plate at the moment.

The comparison to Remi had him snorting, however, not even pretending to be graceful as he continued ambling in the direction the compass led them. "You may be right," he conceded. "Though the local gods seem to be enamored with him, which might be why. The question is, am I willing to pay the cost they'll charge for it?" He shrugged philosophically, deftly stepping over a tumbling Isuma as she reep!ed with delight and flipped back onto her legs to bound after Bobi once more.

"Die? When you can just burn the wrinkles away?" he continued to tease his friend. The sudden frown caught him by surprise, however, and he snorted right back at her in a perfect mimicry of her own disdain. "Everyone's a critic," he told Bobi mournfully before gathering his dignity about him and pretending to straighten his collar before sweeping Edy his very best royal courtier's bow. "Very well then, I shall refer to you as the Rathskeller's duchess of drunkeness, our most brilliant baroness of the bar and queen of cocktails, legendary for your fire, fornicating, and flammable liquids." He rose with a cheeky wink, tossing the compass back to her almost as an afterthought. "Though you'll always be my favorite Mistress of the Flames to me!"

"I'll hold you to that." She trilled in response with a happy wink. Edy wasn't the type to fish for compliments in any genuine sort of way. Her self-confidence was nearly as big as her hair was, but she wasn't going to turn her nose up at a few well-worded phrases from Jigano either.

Edy didn't know what the gods didn't or didn't like (though, Remi? whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy), and so she offered the bard a boney shrug. "Well, if anyone is able to negotiate them down to something reasonable, I bet you could do it. I hear good things about the starry one though. Ronin and Bastien seem fairly taken with her, but knowing those two idiots that might not mean much."

With a playful gasp, Edy raised her fingertips to her cheeks as small puffs of fire appeared. "Really? Is that a thing?" She asked, seemingly ready to give it a go. At the sound of her name, Bobi halted her prancing around Isuma and looked, offering the bard a yowl of acknowledgment before trying to boop the griphon-chick on the head to reignite their game.

"Legendary for my what now? What was that between fire and flammable?" She shot back, colour high in her cheeks as her eyes glittered with mischevious amusement. "Now Jigano I am shocked to hear that you would even concern yourself with such things." She said in a mocking stage whisper.

Snatching the compass easily out of the air, Edy gave the bard a mega-watt smile. "As long as I'm your favourite something, that's good enough for me."

Looking down at the compass, head tilting slightly, Edy re-oriented herself slightly, sticking her tongue out of her mouth for comical effect, as if readying the needle direction was somehow difficult, before setting off again. "This'a way!"