[Team 2] Sea, Air, and Land [Fibi, Eero, Aranea, Stefan, & Mia]

OOC Note:

Hello everyone. As you may know, this event is our first Cross-Guild Event.

If you need to refer to the rules and conditions of the job, they may be found here. Rules and Conditions

If you require more background information about the area in which the job is taking place, you may find it here. Background Information

The primay objective of this thread is to collect water, air, and soil samples within the area known as Tsak Ordahic. As the team leader, it is my responsibility to spawn enemies as needed. Other than that, we have latitude in how we accomplish the task assigned to our team. With that being said, let us begin.

-Tsak Ordahic-

Riding her new Winged Lion summon, Leona landed on a grassy plain on the outskirts of the area known as "Tsak Ordahic", which was an area that was sealed off and inaccessible to everyone... until very recently. Leona dismounted the lion and dispelled it, instead calling upon her harpies to serve both as protection and as an early warning system in case some of the local fauna tromped in looking for a snack. Since she was alone, she would need their protection until more of her team arrived. Wearing her green-and-gold outfit and wearing her Argent Gloves and packing her Nightshade Machete and Silver Longsword, Leona was prepared for anything.

Well, almost anything. She had dealt with a lot of enemies over her career and had even dealt with infected wildlife back in Beanstalk Forest, but she had never dealt with anything on this scale before. Leona was glad that she would be working with teams for this job because the thought of encountering infected wildlife that gave even West Fiore Trading Company's strong mages pause was more than a bit concerning to the Silver Wolf Guild Master.

"O FABLED HARPIES, O SISTERS THREE! LEND YOUR STRENGTH UNTO ME!" Leona called out. The three harpies soon appeared in front of her and took wing.

"Hey girl, are we going to fight right away?" Sylvia asked.

"You know we are, sister. That's why we're here." Daphne snarked.

"We're not under attack right now, so I think we're good." Sandy commented.

"We don't have to fight just yet. I just need you guys to keep an eye out for trouble until my team gets here." Leona informed them. The harpies were visibly surprised.

"You're running with a team this time?" Sylvia asked.

"Like, of course she is. Remember when we had to fight all those annoying elves? It's like that, but only, like, without snow. Those elves were SOOOOOO annoying!" Daphne commented. Leona could not argue with the black-haired harpy about Santa's elves being annoying. They threw snowballs packed with a solid core of ice that hurt upon impact and giggled whenever they hit someone in the face.

"I'm glad that's over. It was annoying to have to dodge snowballs and hear their endless giggling." Sandy chimed in. Again Leona could not argue with her harpies. They may have sounded like modern teenagers, but they had valid points.

"We're not getting paid to flap around. Let's go higher!" Sylvia instructed. She was the first of the trio to ascend.

"Like, we're not getting paid at all!" Daphne retorted as she followed Sylvia higher into the sky.

"Well, here goes nothing." Sandy commented before following her sisters.

Leona pulled out a few notes she had taken on the area and began to read them to familiarize herself with Tsak Ordahic.

-Tsak Ordahic was a secluded island that was northwest of Tolgalen.

-Its name meant "The Plague Area" in some old language that she had never heard of.

-West Fiore Trading Company had decided to investigate the "lost" region and had called upon Fairy Tail and Silver Wolf for help with the investigation.

-The area was contaminated by a plague that had infected the local flora and fauna, making travel dangerous even for strong mages. Even with two Gods of Ishgar in their ranks, West Fiore Trading Company had called in Fairy Tail and Silver Wolf for more manpower.

-It had wildly varying terrain features like grassy plains, rocky cliffs, and more, which meant that no one terrain type was dominant.

The information in the notes was all Leona knew at the moment. She would have to learn the rest as she went, but first she had to wait for the rest of her team to arrive before she began investigating. She had sent up her harpies to act as an early warning system and they had not seen anything yet, so she was still as safe as she could be on a plague-infested island. It was then that the blonde had a sudden thought. The Silver Wolf Guild Master really should have procured a map of the island before coming here.

[Word Count: 690]

Ike found himself a little nervous. It would be his luck to finally join a guild just as they were gearing up to head into some spooky disease ridden area. Not only that, but the actual Guild Master was present on this job, so the pressure was on to make a good first impression! As he approached the meeting point for the group, the first and middle fingers of both hands messages his temples. The young man wasn't one to care too much what others thought of him, but darn if all of this didn't feel too important not to stress over! Even worse, there had been a train ride here, which had his stomach in knots. Barfing was the least of his troubles, though. From what little information he had, coming into contact with whatever ancient nasty still hung over this place, he could literally catch a death that would make motion sickness seem like a walk in the park.

Why was he here again? His pulse was racing just thinking about it.

Oh, that's right. Because he was a decently high ranking mage that wouldn't waltz into death like a newb. Well, not due to inexperience, anyway. He could handle his own! In fact, being guildless for so long had assured him that he was more than capable of keeping himself alive. The only reason he joined one now was because his landlord moved and he lost his place to live. That's what he told himself anyway. It wasn't because he was lonely at all. Nope! Preposterous!

Trudging through the field, wrought with trepidation, Ike's entire countenance changed once he saw figures ahead. First impressions. Right. The onyx haired young man stood a little straighter once in view, each step unhindered by fear or reservations. It wasn't a cocky walk. His chest wasn't too puffed up. He wasn't strutting any feathers, but he did seem strong and confident...or at least he was putting forth his best effort. Usually it was quite convincing.

"Yo!" he called upon approach, grinning broadly and lifting a hand in a casual wave. "Ike Fukunaga, reporting for duty...or something like that," greeted the young man, carmine hues darting between the three present. Never having seen his own guild master before made this feel awkward. For some reason he'd thought something about the person would jump out at him and scream 'Guild Master!', but it didn't. Had he been expecting a general's hat? A badge like a sheriff? Walking on stilts? All of that was dumb, but his mental image hadn't been far off from that. Talk about an overactive imagination! His head tilted down ever so slightly, threatening a laugh but managing to avoid it with a wide grin instead. "I'm new to Silver Wolf. Very new," Ike added, reaching around the back of his head to give it a sheepish scratch.

[WC: 479]

Starting Appearance:

Aranea would have been to Tsak Ordahic sooner, but she the celestial spirit had to catch a little breakfast first. She wanted to be sure she would not even be tempted to snack on her teammates during this important mission. The celestial spider knew she could hold out. Because she never risked feeding on the dreams of wizards in the first place. Wizards were too dangerous,  but there no point in even risking temptation. Besides she considered her oath not to prey on anyone working for or under the the protection of the WFTC to extend to the WFTC's allies. Safely satiated on dreams, that would not be a problem either way.

The celestial spider came to a hover, see others already gathering gathering below. Without giving away the secret of being an exiled celestial spirit, she was going to have to use something besides her own magic. That would give her away, if the transformations did not. It was a secret she was gonna have to keep even from allies, if only because it was a secret she had not been cleared to share with many of her own guildmates. If guildmates couldn't know, then allies from other guilds probably shouldn't either. It could raise certain questions that might make for poor team morale.

She pulled the Wand of Celestial Dreams from her pack, forged in the Celestial Spirit realm as it was, it was still safer to use in front of mortals than her own magic. That is if she meant to keep her secret secret, and she did.

Aranea descended, landing a short ways away from the others. The irony of fighting to save a wasteland from becoming more of a wasteland made her snort and smile. Sure Earthland was a beautiful place, but to an exiled celestial spirit, it really was just a wasteland waiting for her to fade away into oblivion. The celestial spider hoped that helping the mortal keep it from becoming a wasteland for them too would be a first big step in earning back the Celestial Spirit King's good graces and favor.

She drew the silver gate key from her hip, and held it up in her free hand. "Close, Gate of the Celestial Spider!" Anyone who knew anything of celestial wizardry would know there was no magic flowing through the key she held, but she shifted to became a blonde human girl, appearing to be somewhere in adolescence.

Shifted Appearance:

She didn't have to consciously remember to slip into her Lucy persona once shifted to human in appearance. It was a persona she had pretty much grown into naturally in her relatively quiet time in the West Fiore Trading Company. Lucy replaced her silver key back on the chain about her hip.

The blonde girl gave her cheerfully colored wand a playfully confident spin in her hand, and finally approached the others already gathered. She smiled, "Lucy Van Pelt at your service. I'm from the WFTC, but I'm still relatively new so I don't know of there's anything I can add that we don't all already know, in case you were hoping I had more answers. If not, you cam forget all I just said, and I'll just give a simple hello. Nice meet you or see again. The ball was a busy place."

WC: 551

OOC: Stefan will not be joining us because of lack of Internet. Fibi has gone on hiatus due to real-life issues, so she will not be joining us either. The team will now consist of Leona, Mia, Ike, Eoduun, and Lucy.

BIC:

Leona watched as Mia, Ike, Eoduun, and Lucy Van Pelt arrived. Leona only knew Mia in passing from the Fairy Festival and knew Eoduun well since he was her Guild Ace. The rest of the newly arrived mages were unknown to her. At least she was no longer alone on the outskirts of Tsak Ordahic in case some of the mutated creatures decided to greet their guests. She had mages of varying power levels with her in addition to her harpies, who were still watching for trouble.

The blonde decided to greet the new arrivals starting with Mia. She would need their help to get through this job intact. She also needed to start being a leader. A good way to start was by trying to build a rapport with those the Guild Master hoped to lead.

"Hi Mia. I'm sorry I didn't get to speak to you more at the festival. I'll need your help for this job because we're in uncharted territory and we need to work together to succeed." Leona said to the mage. She was a Fairy Tail mage who she was not very familiar with; their first meeting was at the Fairy Festival and it had not been a lengthy one. They had only met briefly and exchanged a brief greeting before the crowds separated them. Now Leona and Mia would get a chance to work together. She hoped that she would not let Mia down when the Silver Wolf Guild Master needed to rise to the challenge.

"Hi Eoduun. I'm glad you made it out here. We really need to start looking into hiring a transport company for future jobs." Leona said to her Ace with more than a little embarrassment on her face. She had forgotten that not everyone had a flying summon to use for transportation. Judging from what she had seen of Eoduun during their train ride from Capital Crocus ages ago, he had a hard time riding transportation of any kind because of motion sickness... she wondered why that was. She then turned to a dark-haired youth named Ike, who was new to Silver Wolf. "New" as in he had only recently joined the guild before going on this job.

"Hello Ike. I'm glad that you could make it out here. I know it's quite the first day for someone who just joined, but we'll make it through this job together." Leona assured the new guy. For a new guy he was remarkably strong... his magic signature was as strong as the blonde's, which was more than a little interesting. Oh well. She needed all the strong mages she could get for this job because Leona could not be in two places at once.

"Hi Lucy. I don't remember seeing you at the ball, but like you said, it was busy and people were everywhere. I'm glad you're with us." Leona said to Lucy. She had seen Lucy at the ball in Tolgalen, but like with Mia at the Fairy Festival, their meeting was a brief one. Everything at the ball was a blur, so she did not even remember if the two had spoken at all. They would more than make up for that oversight on a job in hostile territory.

Leona stood around like she wanted to introduce herself but she decided against a big speech. With the exception of Ike, everyone on the team knew who she was. Maybe an introduction would be a good idea after all. Just a short one.

"For those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Leona Jarnefeldt, Guild Master of Silver Wolf. I'm the team leader for this expedition and we're here to collect air, water, and soil samples in this area for future study." Leona briefly addressed the group. She then took her backpack off and brought out the numerous sample containers that had been graciously given to her by West Fiore Trading Company. They had saved her the trouble of procuring some from Silver Wolf, which was just as well since the blonde had not yet mastered the logistics involved behind such a large-scale venture.

"We'll need to be careful since this territory was only recently opened to us for exploration and we don't have maps. We need to stick together and keep an eye out for trouble since the plant life and local animals have been infected with a disease that is currently unknown. If you see anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to inform your teammates." Leona told the group. Everyone would need to work together and pull their weight. Leona was no exception. As a Guild Master, she would need to look out for both her own guild members and the members of the other two guilds of the alliance. Most of the burden of making the job a success would fall on her, but she could handle it because bearing the weight of responsibility was what Guild Masters did.

[Word Count: 826]
[Total Word Count: 1,516]

Ah, so the guild master was a short blonde girl named Leona. Simple enough. His imagination might be wild, but he wasn't disappointed or anything. Actually, it was a relief that she wasn't overtly intimidating. Not an actual twelve foot wolf covered in scars, or a big beefy man with a braided beard and a bowie knife bigger than his thigh. Why did he even just think that? Hopefully there were no telepaths around.

So this would be their group of explorers. Usually when he thought of exploring, he preferred to do so alone and in places decidedly less gross. Not to say he hadn't explored some pretty nasty places, since submerged ruins with stagnate water can be pretty bad, or if the sewer gets inside....and just the fact that tombs and ruins generally have bodies inside in various states of decay. All that said, this was still different. There were no maps. Everything was covered in disease. There was probably no treasure in there. Sometimes the thrill of discovery was its own treasure, but he held out hope for some ancient valuable to pop up that he could snag either for himself or for the guild. One that wouldn't get everyone killed if they touched it, preferably.

Growing a little more antsy about just how dangerous this was, Ike stooped as his guild leader explained more about the mission at hand. He pulled up his socks from inside a pair of worn hiker's boots, then tucked his cargo pants down in the boots themselves. Once he was standing again, he unrolled the sleeves of his blue button up and tucked them into thick gloves he pulled from his backpack, all in attempts to minimize skin contact. Finishing touches of a teal scarf tied around his neck and a brown outback hat on his ebony head made him look the part of a seasoned adventurer. Stepping forward, he wasted no time loading some of the empty containers into his bag to jingle along with sample taking tools, snacks, and plenty of water.

Crimson eyes popping from person to person, he took an in depth look at his partners along for the ride. He sense Leona was probably on equal footing with him and also seemed accustomed to trekking out in the dirt, so that was a comfort. The younger blonde named Lucy seemed out of place to him here, but he tried not to judge. Most thought him incapable due to some of his quirks, so perhaps judging books by their covers irked him a little and spurred him not to make the same mistake. The other male of the group seemed a bit green around the gills and they hadn't even started yet. Striding over, he gave him a light pat on the shoulder for encouragement. "You okay, buddy?" he asked with an easy smile. Ike was a friendly fellow, so hopefully the spiky haired boy wouldn't be alarmed. "I have some peppermint in my bag if you'd like some. It helps," he offered, a knowing expression on his face. He pulled a couple peppermints from his pocket and held them out, waiting for the answer either way while his attention went back to the area beyond Silver Wolf's guild master.

The pleasant expression faded somewhat as his eyes drank in the scene spread out before them. What little plants in the way of grass and weeds could be seen were dreary versions of themselves, somehow narrowly clinging to life after all this time, yet not growing any stronger than a half step from death. The sickly hue of putrid greens and browns added a dismal gray hue to everything his eyes landed on. The smell was funky to say the least and seemed to be something his nose couldn't go blind to. Lovely. Other than a weak breeze that rustled the crusty foliage, no movement was immediately notable from their current position. It'd be best for them all if there really wasn't anything alive and infected in there as they took samples. Since Ike hadn't been present for whatever event set this ball in motion, his brain idly considered what would make the guild alliance suddenly so interested in such an ancient cesspool to risk so many members from all to put it under a microscope. Perhaps as the expedition marched on he'd be filled in more.

[1208]

Lucy snickered to herself as she looked around at their surroundings. Horrendous and stench-filled as they were she had to admit it at least brought truth in advertising to the wasteland mortals call home. Her face remained grim, her gallows humor only highlighting the desperation for survival that her life in exile was with or without the plague.

She realized, whether or not celestial spirits were susceptible to this plague or not, it would rob her of the thing that has sustained her in decades of exile from the Celestial Realm if it spread beyond this quarantined island. Dead things do not dream. No mortal dreams to feed on equaled meant she would lose her battle to resist fading to oblivion. The mortal world is not kind to celestial spirits who cannot go home. That was all the motivation she needed to do her best today.

Lucy listened carefully to Leona, it sounded like the situation was as bad as it had sobbed back in Tolgalen. She mentally kicked herself for not grabbing a few containers herself on the way out. The spirit decided her human form would be more hindrance than its disguise was worth in this mission. Now that she's had introduced herself, she goes it would be easy enough pass off the change as a summoning like she usually did.  Reaffirming she still had her wand with her, Lucy took her silver key in her free hand. Holding the key aloft, she turned it as if opening thin air, "Open, Gate of the Celestial Spider! Star Dress: Aranea Form."

Again, those who know celestial wizardry could note the lack of magic power flowing through the girl's key. It remained inert, though Lucy underwent her transformation just the same. Blonde hair turned lavender and twisted up into twin beehives Her fair skin pulsed briefly once, turning a deep, deep purple and her dress became a lighter purple. Blue eye took on pink glow that grew until the view of each eye seemed heart shaped. Two extra pair of arms sprouted from her sides, along with a set of butterfly-like wings.

Shifted Appearance:

Slipping her key back to hang from the chain about her hip. She went to Leona to obtain her share of sample containers. Lucy smiled to Leona and all her teammates, "In case things get to hectic to say this later, on behalf of the WFTC, even though I'm technically a recruit, I wanted say thank you. All of you. Maybe together, all of the teams, including ours, will figure this dilemma out. Here seems as good pace as any to get started."

Lucy wandered a few steps over and knelt to the ground. Her wand transformed itself into a dagger that she used to loosen up the earth and/or sand. Using the flat of the blade, she scraped a small sale of it into one container.  Closing that container, she fluttered a few meters overhead. Her lower set of hands held another container open and ready. She spun around, catching air in the container. The spirit capped it off, and fluttered back down to host just badly of the ground.

She let her swagger turn back to a wand, while four of her six arms were busy packing away her other empty containers, and two new samples. Lucy quietly wondered how many they would need. Looking on around again, this place seemed a whole lot bigger thinking about it in terms of the mission. "That's two down, and so many more to collect. So... So, so many, many more. Is it me or does this place seem bigger than it did before? Either way, not a problem."

WC: 613
Arcadia WC: 1164/3500

Leona saw that the group was all here, so she did not waste any further time in elaborate speeches. She watched as Lucy transformed herself into Aranea, a dark purple-skinned mage with two extra sets of arms, butterfly wings, and lavender hair plus eyes turned into heart shapes and glowing pink. Leona had never seen a transformation like that before, but she had only met Lucy today, so she really did not know what the West Fiore Trading Company mage was capable of.

Leona knew how to get water and soil samples, but there was a problem. How did she go about collecting air samples? Was there a special place where she could obtain one that was not compromised by their very presence? If there was, how could the mages collect it safely? That was a question to ask the group.

"Does anyone know how to collect an air sample?" Leona asked the group. It might have made her look dumb, but she could get over dumb questions a lot easier than she could failing their part of the mission. The group she was leading had to have all three types of samples collected, not just one or two types. She hoped that someone would give her an answer soon so that she did not stand around looking like a dimwit for too long.

She saw where Aranea had already collected a soil sample of the area that they were in, so that was one soil sample that the group had obtained. Now they needed at least one water sample, which should be easy because they were not too far from the shore. However, Leona did not bring any special toxic protection or disinfectant with her, so getting a water sample would be kind of risky. Still, it had to be done. As the group leader, she could not shrink away from doing her share of sample gathering.

Taking a sample collection jar, Leona carefully walked to the shoreline and bent down a little, being careful not to let her exposed fingers touch the water. She let the water flow into the empty jar until it was halfway full, then carefully tilted it up and twisted on the lid, making sure that none of the water dripping down the side got onto her fingers or her clothing. Leona held the wet half of the jar up in the air and let the wind dry it off because rubbing it on the grass to dry it might be a terrible idea with the mysterious disease-causing agents everywhere.

"OK, we've got a water sample. Once the jar dries, I'll put it away so that I don't have to hang onto it the whole time we're here." Leona announced to the group. After forgetting to arrange transportation for Eoduun and the other group members again and asking how to get an air sample, the blonde was off to a somewhat bumpy start that took a slight upturn when she got the water sample. She needed to keep the momentum going and keep doing things right so that she could do some much-needed repairs to her image. Her thoughts were interrupted when she looked to the interior of the island. She thought that she had seen something very big.

"Hey guys, did you see anything that way?" Leona asked the group in a serious tone, pointing towards the interior of the island.

[Word Count: 575]
[Total Word Count: 2,091/8,000]

Leona Jarnefeldt rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Leona Jarnefeldt' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

As everyone got to work, so did Ike once Eoduun turned down his offer of help. There wasn't much to say, which saddened the social young man, but he'd deal. This wasn't exactly a party. Perhaps the general threat of disease and hellacious demise was putting people off. He much preferred enjoyable chatter to distract him from that fact himself, but he was equally used to working by himself in smelly places full of death.

Though some of the others had already gotten the basic samples, perhaps the explorer in Ike gave him some different ideas. The little blonde that turned into a confusingly cute spider probably had the best solution for collecting the air samples Leona asked about. He could think of no better way to get it, same for the water from the nearby sea's edge. That left plant samples, deeper soil samples, and maybe collections of puddle water of any other strange substances he came across. Plucking out a tool that seemed closely related a gardening spade, the onyx haired man wandered off a little ways from the group. He pressed fearlessly deeper into the apocalyptic terrain, looking for a particularly juicy piece of earth. He wanted to get sickly blades of grass along with about ten inches of dirt directly under it. This took a few moments to do, but soon he had a pretty good looking sample in one of the larger jars. Trading the jar for a larger collapsible shovel in his bag, Ike started intently digging in the same spot. Every so often he stopped to put a small sample in a little jar, labeling them by depth before adding them to his collection. Soon he struck mud, which was normally pretty boring, but this would provide a dual sample of both soil and water. His digging quickly came to an end after that. The shovel clanked loudly against bedrock, signaling an end to his task for now.

Poking his head up out of his hole, Ike peered around like a meerkat. He hadn't heard the alert to possible threat, so he didn't quite understand why everyone was suddenly serious and looking off in the direction Eoduun was pointing. Blinking carmine eyes for a second, he hoisted himself back onto equal footing with his team mates, wandering somewhat closer. "Hey, what are we staring at?" he asked, not seeing anything particularly. Was it a direction they had noticed something odd to gather? In any other situation the experienced mage would have assumed an enemy, but he had seen no evidence of life since he got here. The silence was actually deafeningly eerie. He didn't know the back story of why they were all gathered here, so he'd falsely assumed the only danger was contaminants.

Regardless of the answer, Ike summoned a small, clear jello cat. It jiggled in its cute and translucent glory, the only color on it being its golden eyes. It scampered off in the direction all the eyes were aimed, determined to find out for himself what was going on. He could see through his Jello Kitty's eyes as it pounced along. It had gone quite a few meters away when Ike finally saw something that caused him to suck on his teeth. "Aw, crap," he muttered, proving his former assumption extremely wrong. "Guys, we got monsters here!"

[1766]

Aranea fluttered over to a dead tree along the edge of the beach. The celestial spirit thought she could get an easy sample of vegetation from the gnarled ghost of a tree. All she had to do was scrape off a bit of its bark. The complication came from not wanting to touch it with even one of her thirty fingers.  Trouble was, without at least one hand holding her target branch steady, her dagger only nudged the branch around.  Hacking at the branch with her dagger only made it bounce around. She did get a bit of the end to break off, but it did not fall anywhere near the waiting container.

The spirit was going to have to risk holding it somehow. Using the folds of her dress, the only thing she had handy, Aranea held the branch firmly in place. It was easy enough to whittle a couple sample shavings off into a waiting container two of her other hand held below it. After capping the container and slipping it into her pack, Aranea gingerly scraped any potentially contaminated  particles off her dress with her dagger's blade.

Glancing around to her teammates, Aranea was feeling glad to lend a hand in collecting these samples. It had been so long since she's had been called on to help mortals, she had forgotten how good it could feel. As long as any trouble kept its distance, this mission might not be so bad. Any creatures that threatened her team would surely threaten to expose how weak the mortal world had left the once mighty celestial spider after decades of barely surviving. Her magic just was not what it once was. Exercising it for more than mere survival a couple times before joining the WFTC had helped her regain a modicum of her former strength. That was partly why she had decided to chance working with mortals again. It also seemed the only way to prove herself worthy of going home again.

From the power she sensed of each of her teammates, the spirit was certain she would disgrace them with what she could contribute in any fight. She could not even use the Wand of Celestial Dreams to its full potential anymore. That's why her heart sank when the others called out warnings of trouble. For a split second, she thought they had caught onto her and means she was the monster. That heart pounding thought was quickly dismissed, the spirit turning her glowing pink eyes toward island interior. That was where the others seemed to think trouble had retreated its head. The celestial spider returned her dagger to one of its default toyetic wand forms. Her mystic gaze picked up movement, but she was not sure what it was. She fluttered away from the tree to get a closer look, though she made sure not till stray far from her team. The spirit narrowed her eyes, wishing she could discern when the landscape was lying to her as easily she could know when a mortal was lying.

The land below hid its menace well. Everywhere she looked to the ground below, was covered in naught but death and decay. It felt like it could be anywhere down there, but then her glowing mystic gaze caught sight of movement. She was not exactly sure what it was, but she knew it did not have friendly intentions. Aranea's top pair of hands gripped and leveled her wand toward the threat and unleashed its fury. "Starry Sunfire Spray!" A spray of fiery stars spread out from the aim of her wand to shower their would be attacker(s) in flame.

WC: 609
Aranea WC: 1773/3500

Leona watched as the mages following her lead prepared to engage the enemy that was lurking in the bushes. As the strongest mage in the group, it was her duty to be the first to fight the enemy and protect her fellow mages. As Aranea used a fiery spray of stars to attack whatever lurked in the interior of the island, Leona directed her eyes in the sky to take a closer look at whatever it was that just knocked down a couple of trees.

"Go look where the trees fell and tell me what you see!" Leona telepathically directed her harpy sisters.

"OK!" Sylvia said while flying towards the site. Daphne and Sandy followed close behind to do their mistress' bidding. Once the winged trio reached the approximate area where the trees fell they began circling overhead like vultures circling the carcass of a recently deceased animal... or a recently deceased human.

"What do you see? Do you see anything?" Leona asked the trio. They continued to fly overhead.

"Are you sure that something was even here? Cause like, I'm totally not seeing anything!" Daphne answered.

"I see where the trees were knocked over, but I'm not seeing anything else." Sylvia chimed in.

"Me neither. I thought that I saw a flash of white, but I'm not really sure." Sandy added her report.

"I'm looking into it, guys. Keep a safe distance while I send a summon in to check it out!" Leona warned everyone. While her harpies kept watch, she raised a hand into the sky and called upon the pharaoh owl that fancied itself an incomparable master of surveillance.

"PHARAOH OWL SUMMON!" Leona called out. A small tan owl flew down, landed on her right forearm, and turned its head towards her while stretching its wings.

"What would you ask of me?" Ramses inquired with a twist of his head.

"My harpies believe that they saw a flash of white in those woods. However, their wingspans are a bit too wide to fit in the forest canopy. Could you go in and check it out?" Leona asked the owl while pointing towards the woods with her left hand. It closed its eyes and emitted a small hooting laugh.

"Of course I can! I can fly where others cannot!" Ramses triumphantly declared. He stretched his wings and gave another small laugh. Leona was hoping that Ramses did not just bite off more than he could chew.

"OK. Good luck and if you run into trouble, don't hesitate to get out of there!" Leona advised the small owl. He flapped his wings and took to the sky, flying towards the circling harpies and diving down at the point they were circling. Leona waited for any information he could obtain.

"I am seeing footprints on the ground near the fallen trees. They appear to be considerably bigger than those of a human." Ramses began an initial assessment of the site. Leona was starting to get a bit worried about what they would be up against. Tsak Ordahic had many mutated creatures that called the island home and this was the alliance's first encounter with them.

"The footprints are forming a trail that leads deeper into the woods. I will follow them and inform you of what I find." He said to her. Leona waited for a new report from her diminutive eye in the sky and looked towards her harpies, who were still dutifully circling the area she had assigned them to keep an eye on.

"This is like, so boring! There's nothing there!" Daphne complained. Leona ignored it and listened for Ramses to report back on what he was seeing.

"I am following the trail of footprints and they end at a clearing. I have spotted a giant white beast with four arms, two of them normal and two of them shaped like tentacles." Ramses reported. Moments later she heard another note from the owl.

"It has spotted me and has begun pursuit. I fear I cannot outfly it in time!" Ramses reported. The harpy sisters stopped circling and began to dive down to protect the owl but were too late. Leona heard the owl give a panicked hoot before she felt it dissipate.

"Like, no way! That thing just killed Ramses!" A distraught Daphne informed Leona. She and the other two harpies flew above the beast and stayed out of its reach. Leona saw more trees crashing down and felt the earth shake a little as something came stomping out of the woods. The blonde did not have words to describe the abomination that was facing them.

It looked like it had a split head that doubled as jaws. True to Ramses' word, the beast had two normal arms and two tentacle arms below the normal ones. It had an enormous tail that was almost as long as its body and thick legs that were comparable to telephone poles. What was that thing?

"THERE IT IS!" Leona called out. She pointed her right hand at it and fired a Wind Bullet, but the beast ducked down and the Wind Bullet hit the top of a tree and broke it. The beast roared at her before Aranea's attack hit; despite making a hit the spray of burning stars did not seem to have too much effect. Fighting this beast would be a team effort.

Bone Chimera:

Bone Chimera HP: 240/300 (-60 HP from Aranea's Starry Sunfire Spray spell)

[Word Count: 927]
[Total Word Count: 3,018/8,000]

The man covered in contaminated dirt everywhere but his unshielded face continued to look on, offering no more information on what his sneaky little jello cat saw despite seeing it possibly before the others. Lowkey he was hoping it would just continue trudging into the woods away from them, but it wasn't meant to be. Between the little girl blasting stars blindly and Leona's owl snagging the mutated beast's attention, it was no surprise to the red-eyed man when the horrible creature came lumbering out into plain sight. He unsummoned his clear kitten of jiggles, feasting his own eyes from his proper perspective on their foe of the moment.

"Uugh...things with head-tails are never good," Ike uttered with a dramatic sag of his shoulders, speaking as if from experience though he didn't elaborate. In truth even he wasn't sure why he said it. There had been a brief glance of dark knowing, but it dissipated as quickly as it came on. Regardless, the thick tail protruding from the back of the creatures skull-area was unnerving, seeming like a nonsensical placement in all practical biological senses. Given the fleshy tone, no matter how putrified, Ike got the vibe that this abomination had evolved from the humans that once lived here. Did the plague cause this, or was this a consequence of ages-long quarantine?

Either way, the onyx-haired man didn't hesitate to move on the fearsome creature. His impetuousness was always a source of both admiration and disdain, but he was who he was and accepted it. Nothing would be accomplished by staring at the foul beast other than it getting the drop on them and gaining the opportunity for the first attack. He'd much rather keep it on the defensive, assuming it had any thought processes at all. Turning into red jello for just a second before disappearing from sight, with a sugary POP! he teleported closer to the beast, ahead of the others. Holding up his hands toward his right shoulder, he stood for just an instance in expectation. Shortly jello coelesced into a grape scented missile launcher, sputtering out a volley of heat-seeking projectiles upon their foe in hopes of blowing it up and charring the pieces!


[2134]

Aranea fluttered back and upward, her glowing pink eyes and deep purple features lines with revulsion at what she saw after her spray of fiery stars cleared away. Celestial spirits come in all sorts of shapes, but to see what was once mortal human so twisted... It informed even the celestial spider. At first glimpse, she wondered if she was still within the dreamscape of her last mortal snack. That thing was real though, as much as it appeared to have walked out of a nightmare.

Worse still, the magical blast from her wand barely singed it. If she head began alone, Aranea would be flying away right now. That combination of terrible hands, if they could sill be called hands, tentacles, and whip-like tail on its head was not conducive to her long term survival. Not so long ago, the celestial spider would have skedaddled, and left her teammates to fend for themselves.

For the first time, the wayward spirit felt some real progress in her self, in her journey back into the Celestial Spirit King's good graces. Despite being the weakest link on the team, she felt like she should not and could not let her mortal teammates down. It was a small step, but a measurable one, and it gave the spirit hope.

It was not going to be easy to get in close to that thing where she could deliver some real damage. The creature's hands and other limbs looked like they could easily tear the wings off this little celestial spider. She hovered just overhead, slowly circling the creature in hopes of finding an opening, and she finally caught one. It's focus turned however briefly toward Ike when those heat-seeking projectiles struck home. Aranea/Lucy dove in from the side, while it was distracted. Her magical wand transformed into a heavy black mace that she controlled with four hands. The mace's heavy spiked black metal head was charged to the brim with sparking electrical energy. She delivered a hard, fly-by blow to its face. The combination of the mace's mighty blow and the electrical discharge that charred the creature's entire head left a greater than might be expected impact. The electrical energy arching all over and part way down to what passed for the thing's shoulders.

Aranea/Lucy swooped back up just barely avoiding the creature's counterattack, it's massive head tail slicing through the air. The speed and force behind its appendage would have been devastating had it landed, the spirit feeling the air the near miss fanned at her. The part of her brain that had ensures he had survived these many decades, exiled in the mortal's wasteland screamed, her heart pounding at such a close call. Yet now that she had the creature's attention, there was no reason to let it focus back on any of her teammates.

There was no way she was going to fly back in for a second strike with her mace as she flew up to avoid a second swipe of the creature's tail. She darted and bobbed about in the air, looking for any way back in, but she was fended off or driven back every time she thought there was an opening. Her flight path probably resembled that of a fly pestering a much larger creature, all over the place as she tried to find another opening, while just staying out of harm's way.

It was frustrating, not getting back in close again, but Aranea/Lucy realized, keeping the creature's focus could be every much a help to her teammates as delivering another blow of her mace. To make sure she kept its attention, she let her mace slip back into the form of a toyetic wand once more. The blast she would use was technically the same spell she had already used, but being a wand with its power based on the ever changing, surreality of dreams it couldn't take the same form twice in a row.

Again she leveled her colorful wand at the creature, just out of the reach of its tail, and unleashed another blast, ”Narwhal Blast!” Filling the exact same cone and dimensions as her fiery star spray, the wand unleashed a blast of ice sculptures, shaped like narwhals. The whale-shaped sculptures flew with their unicorn-like tusks aimed like icy lances for the creature's tough, bony hide. If that didn't finish it off, it should keep its attention focused on her a little longer to give her teammates any opening they needed.

WC: 748
Aranea WC: 2521/3500

OOC: Eoduun has withdrawn from both the Cross-Guild Job and from Silver Wolf, so the team now consists of Leona, Ike, and Aranea.

BIC:

Ike and Aranea responded to the creature's attack with offensive measures of their own. Ike fired off an impressive pyrotechnic display of heat-seeking projectiles from a grape-scented missile launcher that he formed out of gelatin and fired from his shoulder. Aranea took a more hands-on approach and first hit the creature in the head with a mace that emitted an electrical discharge upon impact, then a "Narwhal Blast" spell that released a conical spray of ice sculptures shaped like narwhals... whatever those were. Leona had no idea what a narwhal was, but the sculptures looked like someone had put a spiraling horn on a whale's head. She was a desert dweller who had little knowledge of aquatic animals... that was her story and she was sticking to it.

Leona watched Aranea fly away from the creature before it could flatten her with a swing of its thick tail. Leona had to step in before her teammates got hurt and she had to answer to their Guild Masters why their mages had gotten hurt. Well, Ike was with Silver Wolf, so that would not be quite as awkward as explaining to Ruvel why Aranea got hurt. It was time to bring out a big-ticket spell to put an end to the beast before it harmed her teammates.

The blonde waited until Aranea was clear, then aimed the fingers of her right hand into the shape of a gun and fired a Wind Bullet. The silver marble-sized projectile slammed into its chest and knocked it to the dirt, where it rolled over onto its chest and struggled to get up. Leona would need an attack that could defeat it for good before it could recover.

Leona put two of her fingers together and turned them on their side, pointing them towards the downed creature and focusing magical energy into them. When the spell was ready, she fired a horizontal silver tornado at the creature that rushed towards it. It was so busy struggling to get up with the aid of its tail and its arms that it could not get out of the way of the Silver Tempest spell. The tornado slammed into it and depleted its life force with the power of the buffeting wind contained within the column of air.

Leona's harpy sisters flew down to check the status of the creature so that neither the Silver Wolf Guild Mistress nor the mages under her care had to get near it if it was only pretending to be dead.

"Sylvia, Daphne, Sandy, check to see if it's dead!" Leona ordered telepathically.

"Way ahead of you, girl!" Sylvia answered.

"Like, is this necessary? Leona and her friends dumped on it with their magic and that spider chick hit it in the head with her mace! It should be dead!" Daphne commented, clearly reluctant to fly anywhere near the white beast the three mages had just defeated.

"Just because it should be dead doesn't mean that it's really dead." Sandy chimed in. The trio lowered themselves down to the creature and began to prod it with their talons. It did not stir, but like Leona they were not entirely convinced that it was dead. It could be just faking death and waiting for an opportunity to lash out at the surprised mages.

The harpy sisters poked at it some more trying to get a response, but they were not getting a response from the creature. Either it had been knocked out or it was truly dead. With the spells that Ike, Aranea, and Leona had used, it should be dead for real.

"Is everyone OK? Did anyone get hurt?" Leona asked Ike and Aranea as the harpy sisters were satisfied that the enemy was truly dead and flapped their wings to gain altitude. The trio flew to treetop level and kept climbing until they were twice the height of treetop level. Leona kept an eye on the beast while waiting for the mages to answer her question.

They did not look to be hurt, but Leona wanted to cover her bases because the trio would have to work together if they wanted to survive this job and successfully complete it. Ike and Aranea were handy to have around because they were not afraid to fight when trouble came looking for them. Leona would need them as much as they needed her because the threats here were too great even for a Wizard Saint to handle by themselves.

[Word Count: 764]
[Total Word Count: 3,782]

Bone Chimera HP 240-163.5 (Mace attack and Narwhal Blast spell)= 76.5 HP
Ike's Spell: ?
Leona's Spells: Wind Bullet (-150 HP) and Silver Tempest (-140 HP)= 0 HP

One Bone Chimera was defeated.

"I'm fine, but that thing isn't," Ike snickered, though his eyes roved over his body to make sure. Nope! Just dirt on his clothes from digging. After a glance at Leona and the spiderfly, the jello mage wandered over to the carcass Leona's harpies had just confirmed dead. Plucking out a vial, it seemed like a sample was ripe for the collecting. Just a sliver of nasty once-human flesh would probably delight whatever scientists he assumed would be working on this whole debacle. Ike couldn't claim to know anything about it since he had only literally just joined and was going with the flow.

A knife was drawn from his bag, long and sharp and appropriate for any proper adventurer to have. As if just to make sure, he poked a hindquarter with his blade, making doubly sure it was deceased, then crouched fully and sunk the sharpened edge unto the rotten skin. "...ew..." he grumbled, dismayed that it wasn't as easy to slice a hunk off as he thought it'd be, but why had he thought he'd know what it'd be like? It wasn't like he'd gone around skinning people or testing the resistance flesh gave against knives. With a couple grunts, he nearly had his sample when the beast jerked and hissed! "AAAIIIIEEEE!" Ike screamed as the kneecap he'd been positioned near flung into him and tossed him to the ground where he scrambled back in the manliest display of fearlessness every displayed. "It's still ALIVE! AHHH!" He lay prone with his arms up to pointlessly guard himself against a point-blank attack by an even more zombified abomination, but nothing came. After a few seconds of terrified wheezing and fighting the flurry of black dots invading his vision that threatened to rob him of his consciousness with every rabbit-like beat, he hesitantly lowered his arm. There was the Bone Chimera, still laying there lifeless, albeit in a different position, tongue out in obvious death.

Well, this was a little embarrassing.

Clearing his throat, he reached for the knife he'd tossed in his panic, grateful to see the slimy sample was still clinging to the blade. It took a moment to locate the vial, but once he did he placed his sample in it and tucked it away into his bag. Ike remained crouched, idly wiping the putrid blood and skin remnants from his knife onto the ground so he could store it away too. "Haha, cadaveric spasm...caught me off guard! Nothing to worry about," his sheepish voice lilted over the barren plagued land toward his two teammates, hoping he hadn't falsely alarmed them too much.

Straightening, he walked closer to Lucy and Leona. He put on a grin that could mean a multitude of emotions, all of them self-deprecating or humorous or apologetic. "So...what's next on the plans for this mission?" he asked, hoping to move on from his not-so-shining moment.


[2617]

Aranea came to a hover, the celestial spider glad the immediate danger was over. Seeing how thoroughly they devastated the plague-borne abomination, Aranea was feeling a little bit extraneous. The celestial spirit knew better though. They all had a role to play, and there was no telling what other dangers this place held. There was no guarantee they could all be so handily decimated or that all challenges would be combat related.

She would be keeping an eye out for whatever else this plague twisted land had wrought on its other denizens. Just the experience of being out here, working with mortal wizards again, and not fighting or running from them was worth slogging around this dangerous place. If it was not enough to impress the Celestial King, she could still regain a little bit more of her former glory. Retraining her badly atrophied magic power reserves was a great way to fend off the ravages of the mortal world. That was rain enough to be here.

When she saw it jerk and Ike yelled his warning that the creature was still alive, Aranea transformed her wand back into a mace. This time her versatile weapon was alight with flame instead of sparking with electricity. She raised the flaming weapon overhead with her topmost set of arms, ready to fly back into the thick of battle. Her heart racing, she felt a little silly for thinking that if had been to easy, even for only a second.

Watching the Bone Chimera remain motionless, the spirit breathed in relief. She shared in some of Ike's embarrassment, and yet a small part of her was still unnerved looking down on the twice dead thing. Enough so, that after Ike had finished collecting his sample, Aranea/Lucy flew down to it. Reverting her mace back to a wand, she hooked it in a loop at her hip to free up all six of her hands. "I'm sure it really is dead, but no reason to take chances.

Celestial Spider Webbing:

Aranea/Lucy held all six of hands toward the plague abomination, quickly beginning to cover it in celestial spider silk. Her spider silk was the same deep purple as her skin and barbed in hearts all along its length. Once the abomination was covered thoroughly, she decided cocooning it to the ground was not sufficient.

Four of her hands stopped producing the spider silk to roll the Bone Chimera over, so her two other hands could bind and wrap it up into into a purplish, silken mummy. Once she had the whole thing bound up, she produced one more strand of silk to trail off one end. She lifted the whole cocoon up by this strand, and flew it up to a dead tree. A couple last dabs of fresh spider silk helped her stick the strand to one of the stronger branches. That was where she left the cocooned Bone Chimera to hang.

The celestial spider breathed some real relief, and flew back down to the others. She smiled, "That freaked me out a little too. And it came little too close with that... tail? I was lucky to get in close enough to hit it all. It would not have taken more than a coupe hits from that thing to put me down." She landed and listened in on what they might so next.

WC: 555
Aranea WC: 3076/3500

Leona watched in silence as Lucy used the special ability of her alternate form to trap the deceased creature in webbing as an assurance that it was really, truly dead and not just faking it for a chance at an attack when their backs were turned. Leon did not mind in the slightest. The three harpies kept their distance as Lucy finished encasing the deceased enemy in purple webbing and then took it a step further by weaving a cocoon with her webbing. To finish the job she then hung the cocoon from a tree branch with a strand of silk.

Leona was more than a little impressed with Lucy's display of her alternate form's abilities. Lucy did not yet have the raw power that Leona possessed, but the West Fiore Trading Company mage had versatility on her side. She could use the silk as a natural repelling cord to safely descend from high places with little fear of the "cord" snapping in mid-descent unless it was subjected to enemies trying to sever it. She could use it to make an instant carrying basket, to make an improvised sled to drag someone to safety should they get hurt and be unable to move on their own, or to make anything that required tying objects together. The only problem with the improvised sled was the stickiness of the web material, but that was a small price to pay for versatility.

"I'm glad everyone's all right. I don't know if that... that thing was human to start with or if it was the result of someone dabbling in some science they should have left alone. I'm sure there's more of them deeper in the island's interior, so we need to be careful." Leona said to Ike and Lucy as she watched the newly made cocoon wave gently in the breeze. Her gaze turned to a patch of upturned earth where the creature's feet had struggled to find purchase in the ground to get back on its feet. She saw what looked like earth with small glowing green chunks embedded it in. That was definitely a soil sample she should collect for the guild. Leona set down her backpack, pulled out a sample jar, and approached the area with caution.

"Watch out for that dirt, Leona! Something's not right about it!" Sylvia cautioned her mistress. Leona took the lid into her right hand and positioned it over her fingertips to protect them from the soil. She brought the mouth of the sample jar over the patch of soil she wanted to collect and wiggled the mouth back and forth to break up the soil. She continued this until the desired sample with the glowing green chunks embedded in it landed softly in the bottom of the jar. Leona then brought the jar away from the rest of the earth and put the lid over it. Hopefully that would be enough to keep whatever was contained in the glowing green chunks from infecting her or the mages with her.

Leona then put the sample jar into her backpack and put the pack onto her back. She then brushed off the bottom with her hand and turned to face Sylvia, who had descended to meet her for a face-to-face conversation.

"We're not seeing anything else yet, but the island's interior is like a forest. A weird, creepy forest. We don't have any idea what else could be hiding in there, so be careful." Sylvia warned Leona.

"Thanks. We'll need eyes in the sky, so stay up there and keep a watch out for any more of those things." Leona requested of Sylvia and her sisters.

"OK. Just keep in mind that the thick forest canopy means that we might not be able to dive to the rescue. I'd suggest bringing out another summon, one that can get around by means other than flying." Sylvia suggested to Leona. Leona did a quick mental rundown of who she could use. The jackal could work as a tracker, but it was far too weak for a fight with the likes of that white four-armed creature. She could use the Winged Lion because it could fold back its wings and move about with the ease of a normal lion. Or she could summon Sky Champion Rafale since he had a humanoid shape that let him walk like a human in addition to fly.

Leona raised her hands above her head, focused her magic, and called out the words to the chant.

"SKY CHAMPION SUMMON!" Leona called out. Soon the green-clad champion arrived and stood up to face Leona before brandishing his energy blades. Sylvia seemed to be attracted to him because she was blushing.

"What would you ask of me?" Rafale asked her.

"I need you to walk with us while the harpies keep a watch for danger in the sky." Leona told him. Rafale simply nodded and put away his energy blades.

"Very well then." Rafale replied before a blushing Sylvia took wing to rejoin her sisters, who were flying overhead. Leona faced the other mages who were with her.

"I'm ready to move on when you guys are." Leona said to Ike and Lucy. With the harpies watching the sky and Rafale with her, the mages should have little to fear from the denizens of the forest... at least in theory. What would actually happen once the trio walked into the forest was another matter entirely. Still, Leona was ready and willing to face the challenges that stood in front of them.

[Word Count: 950]
[Total Word Count: 4,732]

"Heh, that's one way to make sure he stays put," Ike commented, giving the webby girl a toothy grin and a vigorous thumbs up. At least he hadn't freaked out and been startled alone. It was a small consolation, but he'd take it.

The jello mage idly stood by as Leona had her summons attempt to look ahead, and seemed to be coming up with some sort of plan. He zoned out a little, red eyes roaming the landscape and wondering what other gross mutants were just waiting for them to step into their long-held territory. Being here and researching was probably for good reason...and the greater good at that, but he couldn't help but think they were poking a hornet's nest. This place had been quarantined for a ridiculous amount of time. They were the hostile trespassers here, messing with things and drawing attention from probably docile creatures simply existing on their will to live and overcome the worst situations.

Considering that everything still alive in this environment would have already endured ridiculous hardships, Ike could only imagine how much stronger their foes would be. The man was filled with jittery energy all of the sudden. Standing here felt like they were making fish in a barrel of themselves. The urge to keep moving while on high alert was so strong before he realized it his feet were moving toward the trees beyond the cocooned carcass. So, despite his and Lucy's scare just moments before, Ike seemed as ready as ever to get to work, and that meant diving headlong into the unknown! "Come on, guys! We gotta get more samples, and I'm sure that thing isn't the only thing living out here. The quicker we get everything, the faster we can leave this stinky place behind!" he whooped, hopping over rotting bushes and crunching long-dead leaves as he went. As scary as it was, he was almost daring these plagued lands to do their worst!


[2944/3500]

Lucy smiled between Leona and Ike. The danger of this mission had instilled a sense of camaraderie in the celestial spider that she had not felt with any mortal for decades. It felt mind of weird. If the rest of them managed to survive this whole mission, she would have to see about finding other jobs to do with mortal wizards.

The celestial spider had survived these many decades alone in the mortal wasteland by avoiding danger as best she could. Now it seemed, that to build the kind of rapport with mortal wizards she needed to demonstrate her worth and readiness to be allowed to return home, she would need to purposefully seek it out.

For now, there was still the living nightmare that surrounded them to deal with. She had personally visited the dreams of countless mortals, and few of them could compare to wear this magical plague has wrought. Her predatory side, the side that had ensured Aranea enough mortal dreams survive these many decades of exile, could not help but take a few mental notes.

Lucy stayed on foot as they all headed into the forest, and deeper into the living nightmare. Watching Leona's harpies disappear over the canopy quickly ruined her of some of that good feeling. There was room to maneuver beneath the forest canopy, but very limited. Even so, she fluttered up into the understory, because that had her the most nervous. If she was the one on the prowl, that's where she would set her ambush from. It looked like Leona, Ike and Rafale had the forest floor covered, and the harpies had the sky above the canopy covered. That left it to her make sure they were not surprised by anything lurking in the understory branches between the canopy and floor.

In the dim world beneath the canopy, the soft pink glow of her eyes was all the more pronounced. Everything in front of her and partly around her would be bathed in weak pinkish tint. The soft bathing light flickered occasionally with her blinking. The falloff of the glow was a few meters ahead and a couple meters behind. She would flit from branch to branch, hovering where she had to, before picking it out the best way forward.

The celestial spider was never further overhead than five meters up. Usefully, she was more like one to three meters up in three branches. If her path through the branches wound carry her further away from her teammates than that, she would do back down to the forest floor instead. The spirit would then follow along, until she saw any promising low branches to flutter back up to.

Along her way through the understory, she found clusters of round puffy fungi. At the slightest bump, the puffy fungi released cloud of sickly glowing spores. She fluttered back in wide eyed horror to avoid the glowing spore cloud. Drawing her wand, Lucy aimed and cast a single fiery butterfly that grew bigger the further it drifted from the wand. It was not until after the spores were incinerated in the butterfly shaped flames, that Lucy realized she had been holding her breath.

Aranea/Lucy willed her wand into the shape of a dagger. Pulling a sample jar from her bag, she put three hands to work collecting a simple of the fungi. She flew up a little higher to find an undisturbed cluster. Then holding the jar in one hand, the jar lid on a second hand, and her dagger in a third, Lucy hacked the cluster free of the trunk. The jar was held just beneath, making it ready to swiftly seal the jar closed before it gave off spores. The celestial spider gathered a sample of dead tree leaves from the understory to for thoroughness sake.

She fluttered on through the branches keeping an eye out for any other trouble.

WC: 650
Aranea WC: 3726/3500