Finally Found it (Garts' Introduction)

If there one was thing that was giving Garts any sort of comfort during this blizzard, it was that the being within his eye was probably suffering from the cold as well. Well....at least he hopes. Garts shook his head to focus back on his situation, which was him being stuck in a blizzard, on a mountain with no food or water, with no clothes suitable for this climate, and no shelter. "Honestly, this could be worse. At least this time I'm not being surrounded by a pack of wolves.", is what Garts mutters to himself. To which as soon as he muttered that sentence, he heard howling directly in front of him. 


"Really gotta stop tempting fate.", he groans, and tenses his body in preparation for another fight with a pack of wolves, which if he is honest, happens far too much for his taste. However, he quickly noticed there was a couple of wolves, three that he could see as of now, and these wolves were a translucent blue, and the most confusing of all was the unmistakable light of intelligence in their......slightly see through eyes. One wolf stepped closer to him, sniffing him, and gave a confused look to his eyepatch before it walked back to the other two. For a few seconds nothing was happening, and Garts could swear these wolves were having a conversation with their eyes, until the wolf from before looked towards him then motioning its head in a "follow us" gesture, before the three began walking off. "Hmmm, well.....not like I got any better option.", he then began following the wolves, "Lead the way possible hallucinations."


Thankfully the wolves were not hallucinations of his mind, and they had instead to a barrier. He could also see that beyond this barrier was a building of some sort, which he realized was mostly likely the guild hall. Garts turned around to thank the wolves for escorting him there, but they seemed to have vanished. "Aw, and I just came up with some good names too.", Garts sighed, he then turned back towards the barrier and walked through it. He first noticed that the temperature turned from a deathly cold to what could be considered a cool Autumn day. Garts sighed a breath of relief for this change, and then looked towards the guild hall, more specifically, the entrance to the guild hall. He walked right up to the door and right as his hand touched the door handle, he paused. "I mean, if you're gonna make an entrance, might as well make it a memorable one.", and with that opened the door just barely, just enough that there would be no resistance to what he was about to do. He then took a step back, raised his right led, and kicked the door open with all his strength. The doors slammed open, revealing Garts with a wide smile on his face, and took a few steps inside, took a deep breath and shouted, "HELLO SILVER WOLVES!"

Tick tick tick tick

The dragon slayer was hunched over focusing on the noise as she looked through a stationary magnifying glass into the guts of the pocket watch. Despite her looking down on such trinkets, the fact was in her short time with the guild she had already grown bored outside of jobs and patrols. Smithing was a steady process to improve, but she needed a break from it. And so she found herself here over the broken watch. Broken because she may had shoved someone a little rougher then intended. Not her fault they were stupid enough to not introduce themselves properly. Forced to pay for a replacement, she decided that she might as well see if she can fix it. It was a trying issue though, and Reina's patience had never been the best. Still their was something so interesting about the aspect, and it made the tedious work more bearable. Now this main hand not moving, that was unbearable! Though if she just moved this gear a little to the left...

The sudden sound of the guild double doors slamming open below caused Reina to instinctually duck her head, which meant slamming her eye into the outer metal of the glass. She muttered a few choice words in Draconic, the tongue most dragons speak, as the grunts and hisses turned into steady breathing as she searched for something cold. Going to a window and opening it up, she scooped up some snow to press against her right eye, bringing some comfort. She would toss it back out after the moment passed. While she wanted to examine the mark left from the impact, she was more fuming about who caused the sudden noise to break her concertation.

Down below the noise would attract one of the workers helping to keep much of the guild's facilities up and running. He would see the new stranger, and looked about ready to welcome him. Then he spotted Reina coming down the stairs, and suddenly turned away as if something needed his attention right at that very moment. Reina herself was in her chainmail with a bison fur layered over it, walking down the stairs her red eyes would bore into the newcomer, as if they held fire in them. She was already not pleased by the sudden loud bang, but now she could see the snow print they left on the outside of the door. Even if it was a shabby door for her standards, it was still her door, and no one dirties her things. 

She would grab a rag from a nearby cart as she walked up to the stranger. Stopping a few feet away from him, she angled her head to look up at the stranger in the eyes. "First, you will clean the snow you left on my door." She started, tossing the rag in his direction and continued. "Then, you will tell me your name, and why I, ahem, what is your business here." Despite feeling the need to toss his ass down the stairs at the moment, she remembered the suggestion that she should first hear why the person is here before acting. She then silently hoped they acted in a way that would warrant a fast and violent departure.

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Reina watched with scrutiny as he cleaned his foot print off the front door before closing it and tossing the rag onto the cart she pulled from. He also apologized, which meant that she was not going to have the pleasure of tossing him. She didn't let her disappointment show though, her arms still crossed with a impatient expression as the stranger spoke. He went by Garts apparently, and wanted to join the guild. To both find a place to belong(Stupid statement, he could had gone to any human place to do that), and for his eye. 

Reina's expression would actually change from her previous impatience to a look of genuine curiosity, her arms uncross as she looked into the odd eye. Usually human eyes were white with some variety of color, but his was pure black. The only thing to stand out in the inky black were two red circles, one smaller inside the other. He made it a point that apparently it was a curse that he wanted broken. Then with a suddenness he covered it back up with his eyepatch, and looked away as if in thought. Reina's mind was still on the nature of the eye when he seem to come out of his moment with a joke and a question.

"I am Reina Darksteel, daughter of Chalybe the living furnace. And if you intend to stay here you will do well to remember my name." She said with as much pride as the height difference between the two. Reina would then close that distance by grabbing Gart's shirt collar and pulling him down closer to her face, though her attention was clearly focused on the eyepatch. "As for this 'curse', you should just pull the eye out if it's that bad." Her finger was close enough to barely touch the eyepatch, as if she was considering doing it herself. But as sudden as her grab was she would release him, letting him stand fully once more as she turned her back to him, her gaze set on the counter. "You!" she demanded, and the same man from before raised his head meekly, "H-hi Ms. Darksteel, I was just getting some forms for-"

"Never mind that, get this guy sorted away."

"I uh, can't. I'm not in the guild system."

"Scoff then find someone who can. I'm busy."

"S-sure I think I saw mercury around the corner. I can go get-"

"NO!"

Reina's last statement came out with far more dread then she would had liked, and a old wound flared up from under her scalemail. After stealing a quick glance around, she hurried over to the desk, the man promptly moving out of her way. She tore through it's contents and paper's carelessly until she found what she was looking for. With it she would then return with it before standing in front of the man. She would had handed it over to him, and after he accepted would pull out a folded up paper and unfurled it. On the paper was some kind of walk through written down, and she read a bit before returning her gaze to the man. "Follow me, when we get to the room begin to fill out the form." And would had began to lead the man upstairs.

After a few minutes, reina would open a door to a unoccupied room. Inside the room was neatly organized and prepped for a new member, signs of it recently cleaned of dust. It had a single window looking out to the front of the guild were many would walk through, a light snow would fall in contrast to the raging blizzard many face on the mountain. She herself would wait near the doorway for him to fill out the paper she gave him. On it was a form to get information about a new member. A lot of it was standard; Legal name, preferred name, Date of birth, and so on. They were also a few optional sections, such as the user's magic and any prior affiliations with any other organizations. 

While she waited, she would ask a question, her tone of curiosity. "What's so bad about the curse? The eye is more interesting then bland human eyes."

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As Reina states her name, Garts thinks to himself, 'Well, she certainly is prideful, but for some reason I don't think it's misplaced', and then is abruptly grabbed by the collar, to which he notices Reina looking at his eyepatch and inching a finger ever so closer to it, while also asking the reason as to why Garts does not simply rip the eye out if he finds it to be a problem. He was about to respond, but within the next moment she lets go and suddenly tells this, rather nervous, man to grab the papers needed for him to officially join the guild. Although, when the man had stated he was not within the guild's system, and had suggested getting someone called Mercury, Garts could not help but notice the reaction that such a name had instilled within his.....friend? Well at least he hopes they could be friends. He shudders to think what this 'Mercury' person is like if they can make Reina here react in such a manner.

He follows her into the room she had opened the door to, and had begun to work papers he was given, but stops when he hears her ask that question. ".....Well, I guess you wouldn't be the first to ask that, although you are the first to word it in that way specifically.", after saying that Garts reaches up to his eyepatch and runs his fingers over it. "To start, I wasn't born with this eye, nor did I choose to get it. It was forced upon me, and its cost was the death of my father and mother. I don't even know why I was chosen, I don't even know the name of the group that did this to me.", with that said Garts sighs and mentally prepares himself for her reaction. "As for why I never simply ripped the thing out, well, it's easier to show you.", with that Garts turns around to face Reina and lifts his eyepatch revealing the eye. Garts raises his right hand towards the eye, and grabs it. There is no visible reaction on Garts face even though he is, rather harshly, gripping his eye, and with a swift motion Garts removes the eye. No sign of pain or discomfort appears on his face when he removes it.

No blood or anything of the sort exits the socket when it is done, and the eye itself is clean, as though it was barely connected to the body. The eye, and the veins with it are also very odd, the eye itself appearing to just be a black orb with those red rings forming the eye, and the veins that seemed to be connecting it look as though they are made of a sort of glass. Within a few seconds, the eye seems to become dull, and then quickly turns to ash. When that happens a new eye, same as the one that was removed, can be seen reforming within the empty socket on Garts's face.  

"That is the main reason why I'm going to such lengths, it isn't that easy to break. And.....sorry about showing you that, but I found it's much easier to prove it can do that by showing rather than telling.", and with that Garts turns back around to finish filling out his papers. "As for what the curse actually does it.....it can corrupt magical energy, and has been doing that to my body's own. It just feels wrong, like someone else is using my body as a magical container, like my magic isn't my own anymore.", and with that Garts turns back to Reina and hands her the finished papers. "So I guess there are quite a few reasons as to why I'm not a big fan of this eye", Garts gives Reina a big grin," but I do hope we can get along well despite this. I hope to make some great memories with you and your guildmates Reina."

Reina had adjusted her position on the doorway to lean on it as she waited for him to fill out the paperwork. It wasn't something she really was accustomed to doing, but it was preferable then meeting her again. So she listened to Garts tell his tale with boredom on her face, until he brought up the death of his mother and father. Her attention piqued, she continued to listen of how mysterious the eye was to him, the identity of all involved were a mystery to him. It honestly was tragic to Reina. Sure she never had a mother figure growing up but the loss of her father, no matter how impossible it was, would definitely devastate her. Not to mention he had no idea who to blame or go after, she was going to ask her own question before he decided to show her why the curse couldn't be removed.

By removing his eye

His eye, without so much of a flinch

The dragon slayer had no poker face and that was more clear in that moment as she stared at the eye in the palm of his hand with eyes as wide as plates. He casually held it out for Reina to examine which against her will she did. So it was a small comfort to see it suddenly dull and fade into ash, until she looked at his face. In the empty eye socket where the eye was, veins and flesh morphed and intertwined together to form the eye anew just like before. Their was a noticeable look of disgust on her face from the process, and it held as he continued to explain the eye. Though truth was she was barely paying attention to him, her mind trying to process what had happened. She never quite knew people could be able to do something so painful so easily, hell she wasn't sure if a dragon would do something so casually as he just did.

She was broken out of her thoughts with the papers being held out for her. Her eyes looked down on the application being held out to her as she slowly looked back at Garts face. It was unnerving to see him smiling and friendly after such a display. I don't want to be here I don't want to be here I wish I wasn't here I wish- "Miss Darksteel?" Her attention suddenly snapped to face one of the Silver Wolf staff responsible for keeping the facilities up and running. "Your wanted at the front, something about-" Reina didn't wait for the brunette to finish as she rushed past the lady staff with Gart's application hastily snagged, this time more then happy to be called on.

The staff member looked confused at Reina's departure before turning back to Garts. "I'm sorry she's not exactly a people person. Don't worry though! The rest of the members here don't share her...quirks. Anyways dinner is currently being served currently, it should be the hall on the left of when you walked into the lobby. Theirs no rush though if you still need to settle into your room. And...welcome to the guild!" She would then politely excuse herself after making up for Reina's lack of a welcoming, returning to her tightly kept schedule.

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