Who Pulls The Strings?

Oak Town, City of Historical Relics, whether of humans, magic, or stories. There was a lot to be found here, especially if one was up for sightseeing. The town itself was a splendid looking place, built on a hill and picturesque in many more ways than one. As if to help accentuate the archaic ambience of the town, many of the buildings were designed in old architectural styles, although Beira could ascertain that some of these buildings were actually very old themselves. Even though Beira wasn't Fiorean, it was quite obvious to her that this town differed from many of the other ones she had been to in Fiore, as far as their design was concerned. But Beira had not come here to sight see and ogle at old buildings.

She had come to Oak Town, following a lead. The lead was uncertain, its details shadowy at best, but it seemed to be some sort of mission. Even though she could not tell what she was supposed to find, it seemed that whoever was responsible for this mission was interested in placing clues around that would lead the quester to the heart of the mission. The clues had brought Beira to Oak Town, and she was on her way to the temple in this city, reputed to have a library which held many volumes of history and lore.

Beira's reason for taking a mission as befuddling as this stemmed from two reasons: boredom, and a piqued curiosity. The mission clues talked about Asgardr and Jotunheimr, places that held some degree of significance to Beira. While she had never been to Asgardr, she had lived in Jotunheimr before being snatched through space and time to be flung into Fiore. Even if she was not going to come in contact with anyone who knew something about her past, the potential of this clue hunting mission to yield interesting information was something the Utgardian was quite unwilling to pass up. Although the mission didn't look particularly dangerous, going by what the mission client had written, it would most likely pay well, and for a bored person, treasure hunts could be fun. Despite the possibility that danger could be involved, Beira was undeterred, knowing that she had faced danger in the past, and had survived. Whatever this mission wanted to throw at her, she would certainly survive it as well.

It seemed the weather was planning for some indoor atmosphere, with the way the wind was blowing, and the ominous arcs of lightning which raced to and from in the skies above. All of that mattered little to Beira, though. She had been able to procure information concerning the Oak Temple's location from some of the indigenes of the town, and was headed there in quick steps, though of course, many would assume that she walked quickly just to avoid the rain which seemed to be an impending matter. Though rain was of little matter to Beira, the fact that normal people didn't go out during rainstorms would give her a greater excuse to remain holed up in the Oak Temple's library, while she searched for another clue, and took time to distract herself with the library's older volumes.


WC: 535/...

Oak town was always one of those nostalgic type of places that you could visit and always remember having a good time being there... if it were your scene. Being that she was always someone who had looked at the scenery of a location more than those who inhabit it, it wasn’t hard to enjoy a place for the atmosphere than it was for the inhabitants. The girl from the past would simply enjoy the view of the town from above or certain areas from within the limits that would show her how the world has shaped itself over the years even around the human interventions, if any even applied. But just being out back then was something that she found hard to enjoy, so taking her mind away from that and from the looks of people around her made her much more resistant to that of how people were now.

That was the thing about time. Be it the land or those whom walked on it, there was always time to help shape them all in some way. The fact they could change so drastically in the span of so little time was an exhilarating thing to see, and more to the fact that one could potentially see it in themselves how much they’d changed would only show of their awareness of themselves and even in others. It was for that reasoning, that she had done her first concert in Oak Town. It meant something to her to do so and though the venue was small, the publicity and feedback of her performance gave her the first chance for a full concert, it was all the more important that she try to show her gratitude for it, even if it hadn’t come off that way to some or even all of the people inside the town.

The idol had set up an outdoor stand for a chance to meet some of those whom she could call fans. Her attire choice had been a little more festively geared as a hint towards her next theme of concert, but she wouldn’t give that away to those she spoke to. But she had nothing but smiles and laughs with those she met. But of course, with the fans came those whom didn’t like her much at all. There were a few negative reviews on her, part of which by the way the internet had been only seemed to chastise those who had faults with the idol or simply just had something about her they didn’t like. It was quite a bit sad in some ways for them to do something online, however some seemed to be trying to get at her while she was out in public. Something as if she were going to be made a public embarrassment out of, more of the adults than anything.

While Sakura had sat at her little station, she had a little girl whom she was talking to in the moment. The girl was sick, asking Sakura some questions considering her condition and if the blue haired girl would want to come to an upcoming birthday of hers. Trying to recall the date in mind, a scent hit her nose. Rain? She couldn’t recall it being ready to rain, but the slayers nose was never wrong when it came to weather like that. ”Why don’t you do me a favor. I have to get going, but you send a message on my board, tell me your name as a reminder of this, and I’ll make sure to be there.” The spirit leaned in, telling this girl and making sure to hand her a note with a phrase to include so she could be sure the girl was who she said she was. A minute later, a man dressed in a suit had called out to those left and told them of the situation, which only came as the droplets of rain began to fall.

With the rain falling down heavily from the sky, it seemed to be a good time to go relax and read. If anything could take her mind off things and give her a peaceful unwinding if her day, reading by the window with the rain sounds as they tapped against the window had been a huge help of hers in her past. The idol strolled leisurely in the rain, enjoying it as each droplet on her clothes and skin were absorbed in quickly, making for a nice and lovely free meal for the slayer. Once she was inside, she made her way around the place, trying to find something she could read that piqued her interest. As a spontaneous choice, it was hard to tell if she was here for any specific genre of books or if she could possibly find something.

Beira had the Oak Town temple in sight when the rain began to fall. It was that sort of rain that started out gently, being a little bit more than a drizzle, although with the looks of the dark skies above, one would be a fool to assume that the rain would continue to fall in as gentle a manner as this. Still, Beira was not keen on running to get out from beneath the threatening sky. That would be most improper behavior of someone of her standing. Of course, the average woman could not command the sky. All the same, if one could not command, at least one could defy. That was an Utgardian maxim which she had learned a good many years ago. The God Slayer could not help but chuckle and shake her head. There were some things it was futile to fight against. Still, it was never to be heard that an Utgardian accepted their fate docilely, without having even the least thing to say or do about it.

As though waiting for the God Slayer to get out safely from the threat of getting drenched to the bone, as soon as Beira stepped beneath the roof, there was a sudden roar as the rain intensified dramatically, pounding with relentless assault on anyone or anything which had the positional misfortune to be placed directly in the path of the driving rain. Beira wanted to shout in victorious defiance at the rain, having managed to escape it at the last second, though on second thought, she decided against that, realizing that if the sky was indeed possessive of a rational and sentient component, it had been favorably biased towards her to have allowed her to escape the driving rain which now mercilessly attacked everyone beneath the open sky. In any case, there was no way she could relate her gratitude to the sky, so she just shrugged slightly as she drew back the hood of her cloak, which had been drawn up to keep her head from getting fully soaked by the rain.

"Lucky escape, ya?" a middle aged man said to her, having himself managed to get under the shade of the Oak Town temple's roof just before the rain began in earnest. It seemed that quite a number of people had chosen to take shade beneath the overhang of the temple's roof. Seemed they would end up having some minutes, or hours (depending on how long the rain decided to fall) shaved out of their daily schedule, seeing as they were just standing there and moping at the rain. Beira turned to the man that had addressed her with a nod. "I guess that makes two of us, then," she replied, before walking into the temple, and hoping he didn't follow her. Fioreans were strange. You'd see people encouraging small talk among strangers, saying that it was a sign of social warmth to be able to engage strangers in polite conversation. For all that, children were admonished not to talk to, or interact with, strangers. Why couldn't they just make up their minds?

The temple interior was spacious and comfortable, at least if one could judge by sight alone. Everything seemed well arranged and in proper order. Beira made a note to herself to do some sightseeing in the temple, after she had found out whatever clues were available to her in the library. The library within the temple itself was quite easy to find. Soon enough, the Utgardian had passed beneath the watchful glare of the librarian, and was walking among the eaves of books, looking at the spines for signs of any clues. Despite the fact that she was no longer outside, Beira still kept her cloak wrapped around her body to avoid too many stares. The attention was nice every once in a while, but on a day like this in which she did not desire to draw attention to herself, as that would only make it more difficult to do intelligent work as far as sorting out clues was concerned, she would keep her body concealed for the meantime. Temperature meant little to her, so she could not be bothered about being too hot, or too cold.

There were quite a few people in the library, but none stood out so much as a girl in an elaborate dress, with sow-white hair and striking blue eyes, and having incredibly smooth skin... it was difficult for Beira to think that this person was not made of pottery or some such artificial substance. She observed the girl over her shoulder for a little while, before remembering that Fioreans thought staring too much as being rude, so she turned away. The clue she had directed her to an area far to the back of the library, where there was not a soul to be found. On a lone table lay an open book. Curious, Beira walked over to read it.

Meanwhile, the idol would receive a note from an unknown person. The note would slip over her shoulder and flutter to the ground in front of her, as though someone behind her dropped it had gently on her shoulder. If she turned to see who had done it, she would see nobody. The note was a folded piece of old paper, and if unfolded, carried a single sentence of only four words: "Beware the cloaked woman".


WC: 902 words
Total: 2238/...