Colin's posts

"Well, I hate to say it, but the only other option is to... destroy it." Ash responded.

"When it bonds with someone, and is then forcibly separated from them, it becomes... well... miserable would be an understatement." he told her.

"We've had to destroy many in the past because people they bonded with died, and they became so aggressive and violent, they were classified as hazards to whatever ecosystem they were in." he continued.

"Besides, your Mom's pretty cool with animals, I'm sure she'll let you keep it." he then assured her, as the snake coiled up around her legs and torso.

"....yup, REALLY taken a shine to ya..." he muttered in confirmation.

"I really hope you can." Ash said.

"Because you are the ONLY one that now knows about this." he told her.

"Well... except for Emelie, but she seems to know EVERYTHING, so I don't really count her." he then muttered, shaking his head a little.

"Regardless!" he then said further, as the snake approached Lily, and coiled around her feet.

"Seems that reptile's gone and taking a shining to you for whatever reason." he told her.

Ash just sighed when he heard that.

"Great..." he said.

"That's just... great." he muttered.

"I... just... hm." he mumbled further, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I should have been more careful, damn it." he cursed lightly.

Ash was silent as he saw Lily come out from where she had been hiding.

"....oh..." he muttered.

"Oh.... ohhhhhh crap..." he mumbled further.

"Uh... right, then." he said.

"Two things." he told her.

"One... you need to see a medic?" he asked.

"And two... you... saw what just happened, did you?" he asked further.

Ash raised an eyebrow as he saw the spectacle... and heard Gerard's cries of pain, agony, and everything else. He called and begged for help, until he was completely muffled by the snake's innards, and Ash only released the rune once the snake had completely swallowed him.

".....hm." he muttered.

"Right, you obviously weren't threatened by him." he said to the snake.

"So WHO were you protecting...?" he wondered aloud, as he saw the reptile look in a specific direction.

Lily's direction.

Gerard just growled when he heard that.

"So what now?" he asked.

"You going to seal my soul away? Burn me? What are you going to do with me?" he asked further, a small smirk on his face.

"I wouldn't think of wasting my energy any longer on you." Ash responded. "And you're not worth my stealing your soul." he continued.

"So I'm not going to do anything." he said further, much to Gerard's confusion.

"THAT... on the other hand... might." then finished, pointing behind him. Gerard then looked behind him, and saw the same snake from earlier slithering up to him ominously.

"Seems your little friend that you brought in here has a bone to pick with you." Ash added.

"....what?" Gerard asked.

"What are you talking about!?" he exclaimed, as Ash suddenly bolted towards him, and slammed his fist into his stomach.

Gerard buckled over, and grasped his stomach, taking a few steps back.

"What.... what are you.... doing...?" he asked.

"My responsibility." Ash responded, a dark aura flaring up around him.

"This guild has a reputation to uphold." he told him. "And Cassandra takes this seriously. This guild is her lifeblood. And anyone who dares to jeopardize that will disappear." he said further.

"And Cassandra will be none the wiser." he continued, a small rune spreading out from his feet and freezing Gerard in place.

"She doesn't need to know about this, or any other incident."

The one turned around, and saw who had thrown the fire.

"Fyrane..." he growled.

"Fine." he said.

"Go ahead and turn me i-" he started to say, before Ash fired another blast of black fire at his chest.

"No." the Fyrane said.

"Cass trusted you, Gerard." he told the man.

"And you've gone and betrayed that trust in a very big way." he continued as he got closer.

"And there is only one fate for those that try and ruin Cass's guild and reputation." he added, his tone almost frighteningly dark.

Her attacker continued to fire randomly, and at one point, the mana was ahead of her, and missed her completely. However, it DID hit a tree that was nearby, which shoot it and rattled it enough for the small hard fruits it was growing to come raining down on her, making things even MORE difficult for her.

"AH-HA!" she then heard.

"I saw you for a moment!" they declared confidently.

"And I'm going to-" they started to say further, before a blast of black fire slammed into their side.

The figure did seem to have a bit of trouble locating where Lily was, but they were correct in guessing the general direction of where she had headed.

As they walked, they built up mana in their hands, and started to fire it in random places. Sometimes they got close to her, sometimes they were way off, and sometimes they almost hit animals that were hiding as well.

"I know I'll hit you eventually." they said.

"I'll keep firing until I do." they went on.

"Don't make me raze this area to the ground, girl." they then snarled.

Sure enough, a few more shots of mana were fired at her, and while she saw one miss her, and hit the tree beside her, another hit her in the back... in the same place that the previous shot had hit her... and sent her careening into the trees and bushes.

Once she was well-hidden in the vegetation, she saw the snake slither off into nearby underbrush, and a figure emerge from where the shots had been fired from.

"Goddamn it all." he growled.

"There was supposed to be nobody here." he snarled.

"Fyrane and Argento were supposed to be distracted by the other chaos, while I did my work HERE." he said further, as he started to make his way to where Lily had gone.

Once she realized the size of the reptile, she could see it was big. Pretty big. At least in terms of its width. It took both of her hands to get a decent grip on it, and when it slithered fully into view, she could see that it was at least twice as long as she was tall.

The serpent slithered about, not taking its eyes off of her, before it seemed to rise up some, looking into her eyes.

It was clear that it was not completely at ease with this situation.

However, it hadn't attacked her yet, it's sky blue eyes seeming to pierce into her own, in contrast with its dark jungle-green body.

As she looked around, she saw that the commotion seemed to be originating from a specific area, where the animals seemed to be going particularly berzerk.

Some were fleeing for their lives, others were trying to growl and intimidate whatever it was... but one thing was for sure, they were NOT happy about something.

And as she got closer, she could see why.

For the most part, the animals she saw were mammals. Felines, some canines, Rodentia, that sort of thing... but then she swore she saw a long slender body weaving between the underbrush.

A snake had somehow gotten into this particular enclosure.

@lady luna: Eh, fair enough.