BoZV - Arc 2

[Sorrum]

"Adorable, huh?" Aqua replied to Silver. She was beginning to see how the dragons looked at humans. She wondered how they looked at her race as well. It wasn't a moment later until she was startled by Shin's appearance, much like the others. Although startled was becoming less of the vibe this man's appearance was giving; he always seemed to be sneaking up on them. Aqua had instinctively reached for her staff, but remembered it wasn't on her. Tension rose between Rion and Shin, but dissipated soon after.

Rion actually agreed to enter the fight, much to Aqua's pleasure, and Enfurnus's as well. It earned him Silver's ire, and they argued for a bit. Aqua more or less watched the two dragons bicker while eyeballing the stage where another man had gotten into Yung's ring. This time it happened to be a bestia. The result was looking to be the same as the last one, as the whole ring seemed to work in Yung's favor.

"Well...not much we can do about it now, can we?" Silver said. "I'll at least cheer you on...not that I approve or anything." Aqua hadn't been listening but it seems they worked it out. She smiled. Dragons were peaceful creatures at heart, she thought. Shin was gone and Rion had to wait until his fight started. So with that, Aqua stood up and stretched. "Let's see what else we can find in the meantime?" she suggested. The party filed out of their seats and followed her once more.

~

Back in the crowds, the sun had begun beating down on the crowds. People were waving pamphlets in their faces to fight off the heat, and even Aqua would wipe her face and shoulders with a bit of frost on her hands now and then. "We should find a way to beat this heat.." she said. Everywhere she turned too, tents were full, the shade under the trees was full, and businesses were demanding purchases before opening their doors and letting the cold air out. "They can't be serious about that last one.." she bemoaned.

After passing another block of people, one guy using his wind magic to blow his sweaty bits dry to the misfortune of those around him, Aqua noticed some large water tanks behind a table set up with some stacks of wooden balls. But there was no one around. She looked up at the booth's sign.

"Dunkin's and Dragons..?" She read aloud. She looked back at Silver and Enfurnus, trying to think of something clever to say, but couldn't under the sun bearing down on her, so she merely grinned. Her attention snapped to the stall though. Some people were arguing. One must have been the shop owner, who looked particularly familiar, and the other must have been the help.

"I'm telling you. You guys use the same water you put in that cider that you got out of those tanks, and for some reason you think it's okay to dump people from my race into it and hand it out to people as beverages?! It's disgusting. I'm not going to do this to these people, not without you telling them what you're doing."

"I have literally no idea what you're talking about, bub. Honeyfarm doesn't use that water in our cider, like at all. I will tell you that we are going to use that water when we make dragon-spiked cider ale, but it doesn't go into our main product, no no."

"....Was that supposed to make it sound better or something? I'm through working for you."

"What? But you signed a contract! I have it right here! See, right here on the fine print under-"

Before the man could finish reading the paper, the black haired man's eyes flashed crimson. In a flash, the written document being held by the shop owner was engulfed in flames. He yelped, dropped the paper on the ground and began stomping it out. When he looked up, the man was nowhere to be found. He stood still for a second before slumping forward. "Now what am I gonna do? The dragon was the main attraction for this stall.." the man whined.

"........" Aqua looked back at her companions. She was certain that she was the only one who had caught that exchange. After seeing Rion agree to battle the sumo wrestler, it was time to see what she could get the dragons to agree to. She wondered if her father would be proud of her diplomatic skills should she succeed. Of course he would, he was proud of everything she did, she scoffed internally.

"Hey you two, I've got an idea to beat this heat but I think I need your help first. Hang on, let me talk to this guy for a second." Aqua started. She called over to the vendor. The man walked over, his clothing, face and stature were all just like the cider vendor's. "Hey, we told some people about the cider you lent us. I've got a propos-

"Huh? I don't know what you- ohhh. You must be talking about my brother running the cider shop. Yeah, he's the youngest of us brothers. I'm the third born."

"Wait, what? How many of you are there?"

"There's 5 of us brothers in total. We all run various Honeyfarm events and shops around here. You can find just about all of us here today!"

"..Well whatever. Say, I heard you're in a tough spot."

"Yeah, my dragon just bailed on me, and for no good reason too! That scoundrel!"

"Well, I have two dragons right here. Tell ya what, you can use them in your game but the trade off is that we all get to jump in to beat this heat."

"That would mess up the flavor- I mean, I don't see why not." The man opened the gates up and brought down the ladder for Enfurnus and Silver to climb up. He mumbled something about having to change the name of some ale to a mixed variety, but it was too quiet for Aqua to discern clearly.

[Arashi]

As they walked along, Silver glanced around at everything. It was just such an incredible sight to behold, still. She still stuck herself close to Rion, but she was slowly getting a bit more comfortable at this festival thing.

Aqua talked about it being hot, but Silver didn't find it to be particularly hot. In fact, the weather seemed perfect to her. Her clothing was thin and her thin-bodied human form was not exactly as great and as built as her dragon form was for keeping warm. This caused her to simply shrug in reply.

Enfurnus, though, nodded in agreement. All the walking was making him quite warm.

Soon though, Aqua would say something about "dunkin' and dragons", and then looked at herself and Enfurnus with a smile. Uhhh...

Silver then tilted her head and listened to the rather odd exchange going on, and Aqua joining in on that exchange. She had absolutely no clue what this was for or why it existed, just that someone seemed to be angry. That seemed to be possibly a dragon, judging by how he spoke and used fire...interesting. Then Aqua volunteered herself and Enfurnus for something.

"Wait wait what am I doing?" Silver looked at Aqua, then Enfurnus, and then to Rion, a tiny bit frantic. It didn't look like anything dangerous, but she was still super confused.

Enfurnus sighed, and then laughed a bit. He, on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on here. While he wasn't exactly fond of doing this sort of thing, he would play along for now, mostly because he wanted to get Silver in on it and make her have a little fun. Or maybe just anger her. It was worth the gamble.

"Oh it's nothing. Get in there. You'll just sit there and get splashed a little bit. Come on now lets go get in." He looked at Aqua and smirked, and then went behind Silver and grabbed her shoulders, then gently shoved her along over to the ladder.

"W-what, hey!" Silver protested, but Enfurnus was too strong for her to really resist much.

"It'll be fun. Come on. I'm gonna do it too so you know it's nothing bad. You wanted to see the festival right? This is part of it." He looked at her with a grin.

"Okay I guess..." She sighed, then climbed up the ladder and got inside of the tank, sitting on a platform inside of it. She gave a sort of "D:" look to Rion once she was inside of it. After Enfurnus was pleased with his actions, he went over and climbed in to the other tank, but first he took off his shirt and put it on the ground. If he was gonna do this, he would at least have a dry shirt.

Silver looked over at Enfurnus in a confused manner. Why did he take off his shirt? This was just a splashing or something, right?

[Swim]

Terra accepted her glass of honey cider eagerly. Her favorite drink was a variety of honey wine and that was a bit harder to come by. The sweet satisfying taste filled her mouth and she let out an audible sigh of contentment. Apparently it was too sweet for the rest of the party though, with Rion being the only other one to enjoy the drink. Shame, if she were able to find a bottle of mead at the festival that could've been fun to split later on. After thanking the vendor they moved on into the theatre where the ring was about to begin.

~

Yung Feng turned out to be quite the eloquent speaker as well as performer, and he certainly had a strong grasp over earth magic. Terra narrowed her eyes and studied his movements carefully watching him swim through the earth like a fish would water. How exactly was he doing that, and was it a skill she might be able to learn herself? It certainly would have made tunneling out of that cave quicker and less painful. Despite wanting to keep a low profile in Eulene Terra found herself wondering how her own skills would compare. After all, she had her own tricks, and her style of fighting was nothing like sumo wrestling. She watched his first contestant being thrown out of the ring and decided she would have evaded Yung's attack differently had it been her in there...

As she mentally fought the fight in her head Enfurnus and Frida began calling for one of their party to test themselves against the sumo master. Terra's inquisitive visage vanished immediately and was replaced with one of apprehension, she did not want the attention. Luckily they settled on Rion and after enough goading and playful mockery, with Shin laying it on extra thick, the light mage agreed to sign up. Apparently there were quite a few contestants willing to step into the ring, which Terra found surprising considering Yung's imposing physique and the skill he'd already demonstrated, and they'd have to return later.

By now the sun was shining brightly and causing everyone to sweat. Terra was glad to be wearing her tank top, her cloak would have been far too cumbersome in the heat. Every now and then a breeze would blow but it was infrequent as they walked among the merchant stalls. Frida did come across an interesting attraction though. "Dunk tanks!" Terra laughed, she didn't know the last time she'd seen one of those. Probably not since she'd been a little girl. And now she and Enfurnus were convincing Silver to climb into one. Silver protested, apparently she wasn't familiar with the concept and had an aversion to getting wet. This would be fun to watch.

She glanced over at Enfurnus who was also climbing into a tank, part of an agreement he'd made with Silver so that she'd protest slightly less... And that was also fun for Terra to watch. The man was cut, and not just from the battle scars Silver had given him. He was a picture of fitness, a quality shared by most military men. Terra mused, he actually reminded her of a certain young colonel who'd passed through Delbray a couple years back.

Terra bent down and picked up the ball eyeing the target to the right of the tank. It looked like she'd have to hit the target in one attempt. Not that there was anything preventing her from retrieving the ball and trying again, but that wasn't how she wanted to do things. A fun idea occurred to her and she decided she'd give the dragon a false sense of relief before soaking him. But first, a little playful taunting was in order to raise the stakes. Silver seemed to be fidgeting nervously while Enfurnus sat calmly on his plank of wood, apparently ready to accept his watery fate. "Are you ready Enfurnus?" Terra called mockingly, hoping to build both his and Silver's apprehension. "You're gonna go in hard and come out dripping wet!"

Before either of them could respond in protest Terra tossed the ball up in a playful spin, caught it and fired it toward the target as hard as she could...! The tarp absorbed the impact and the ball bounced harmlessly into the grass. Enfurnus looked down at it and had time to bark a short laugh before Terra stomped her foot on the ground and bounced a rock into her still outstretched hand and hurled it, this time hitting the target directly in the center and dumping the dragon into the freezing water. Enfurnus came up soaked and sputtering, apparently he'd still been laughing as he fell. Terra grinned and glanced over at Silver, treasuring the look of fear that was now painted across her features.

[Arashi]

Enfurnus raised an eyebrow at Terra as he just sat on his plank and waited for her to do her thing. He kind of already accepted what was going to happen at this point though. Totally worth it however. She retrieved a ball, and then got in to position. And then seemed to be taunting him. He smirked.

"What, this is how you thank me for carrying you? I see how it is." He jokingly scoffed.

Silver watched the entire exchange, picking up on the words "dripping wet". What was that supposed to mean? Enfurnus said they would just get splashed a bit. She continued watching.

Terra then threw the ball and....missed? Enfurnus laughed a bit at that.

"Come on, is that all you got? You can do bet-" And then he was cut off by Terra picking up a rock and hitting the target with that, dropping him in to the water with a splash. He coughed up a bit of water he managed to swallow after bringing his head back above the water; he was tall, so after the initial shock of the fall he was easily able to stand up in the tank's bottom. He glared at Terra for a moment, and then laughed.

"You got me. Congrats." He smiled a bit. The water was actually pretty darn cold; a bit colder than he would have liked.

Silver watched the whole thing and her expression went from mild concern to slightly terrified. Enfurnus said she would get splashed, not dunked in the tank of water below! She looked to Rion with a look of "help me".

She didn't have time to really say or think much else though...

[Sorrum]

Aqua stifled her laughter over Terra and Enfurnus's exchange. It was nice to see they were having fun. She took note of Enfurnus's.. physical attributes. He should wear shirts less often, she thought. She then turned to her target and the same grin from before graced her face again.

Aqua tossed one of the balls in the air, catching and repeating the effort a few times. "Y'know, traveling and seeing the world is why I left The Frontier. I'll be honest though, seeing a dragon get dunked in a water tank wasn't on my list." She chuckled. The next second, she caught the ball and hurled it at the target, striking it just off center with a metallic thud. Silver's already shaking form yelped as she fell into the water below.

[Arashi]

Silver didn't have much of a chance to look at Aqua before she was dunked in to the freezing cold water with a slight yelp. At least, it seemed freezing to her. She splashed around for a bit in a slight panic, and then realized that she could simply just stand up. She didn't tower over the water like Enfurnus did, but she was still certainly standing. And shivering in the cold water.

Her expression could be best described as a sad puppy that didn't want to take a bath but was forced in to the tub anyway. She just kinda awkwardly stood there, going ';_;'.

Enfurnus made his way out of the tank, his body now dripping wet. He picked up his shirt, but...didn't bother putting it back on yet because that would kind of defeat the purpose of him trying to keep it dry. He walked over to Terra with a devilish grin on his face.

"Here, I have something for you." He walked right up to her, and then proceeded to shake his head, spraying water from his soaked mess of hair all over her. He laughed, then looked at Silver, who was still standing in the tank in disbelief...and laughed even more, but tried to hide it.

"Hehe, she's going to kill me isn't she." Enfurnus scratched the back of his head.

[Bloodbane]

Rion followed along with the others as they enjoyed the sights and sounds of the festival, though before long even he found himself wiping away the sweat from his forehead using his forearm. "Well, this heat won't be around much longer..." He said, chuckling a bit. With the town being in the mountains, the winters tended to be colder, though this weather did appear to be milder than most autumn seasons. Fortunately, it wasn't long before Aqua appeared to not only locate a dunk tank, but convince the event runner to let the entire party in on the attraction. "Heyy, now that'll cool us off..." He said with a bit of a grin, before looking over and seeing that Silver appeared to be very curious and confused, which only made the grin grow just a little bit. "Relax, it'll be fun!" He smiled, before Silver and Enfurnus made their way into the tanks, at which point Enfurnus explained what was going to happen.

A couple times in the process of anticipating what was to come, Rion noticed that Silver was giving him a rather concerned look, which he responded to with a quick thumbs up and smirk. Before long, Terra also mentioned what was about to happen, causing a chuckle to escape Rion as she dunked Enfurnus, only to laugh just a little harder as Silver looked even more concerned. "Don't worry! It'll be fiiiine!" He called out, before sure enough Silver was sent into the cool water, freaking out for a second before standing up and looking rather downtrodden even as Enfurnus laughed.

"... I'm sure it'll be fine. Might wanna dry her off, maybe?" He said, before looking back to Silver and smiling again. "Oh come on, it can't have been that bad..." He teased, though looked to Aqua and Terra. "All right, who's going in next?" He wondered aloud.

[Swim]

"Ack, no!" Terra cried in false protest as Enfurnus shook his wet hair dry over her, the spray actually felt pretty nice. Then they shared another laugh over Silver's reaction, she seemed to be paralyzed by this shocking turn of events and hadn't moved an inch. She was trying her best to look pitiful, which really reinforced the humor value for everyone else.

"Hehe, she's going to kill me isn't she?" Enfurnus chuckled, fighting hard to stifle his laughter a bit.

"No, no," Terra laughed, still amused by Silver's reaction; the expression on her face still hadn't faded. "Now you know her ultimate weakness, just keep a bucket of cold water handy to fend her off."

Still, it was probably time for her to be a good sport and accept her just desserts, and she'd much rather it come in the form of a dunk tank than what Rion would go through later. "I'm up next" she declared, striding up to Enfurnus' now unoccupied tank of water and seating herself on the plank. "Which one of you wants to try dunking me?"

[Arashi]

Silver stood there for a few more minutes, looking mildly offended, then began to make her way out of the tank while Enfurnus spoke with Terra.

"Pffft, I already knew that. She can swim, but she hates it. Why do you think I wanted to get her in there so bad?" He laughed. He then walked over and grabbed a towel from the booth.

Silver looked over and noticed Rion smiling at her, though, and soon he commented on how it couldn't have been that bad. She walked over to him and sighed, smiling a very small bit. She was cold and soggy now, but she had to admit...it was kind of funny how unexpected the dunk was. She hated having wet clothes, but it didn't hurt her, and it was something she had certainly never experienced before. What strange technology this was.

Enfurnus walked up to her and handed her the towel, grinning. She responded by punching him in the arm, though somewhat playfully.

"Thanks a lot, jerk. And put a shirt on! Gross!" She laughed a small bit and began drying her hair with the towel. Her clothes would probably take a bit to dry, but she could at least soak out as much water as possible. Unlike everybody else though, she was a bit cold now.

"Nooo, I don't want a wet shirt like you. I'm good." He replied to her and laughed at her punch.

They behaved quite like brother and sister.

Silver then waited to watch the next victim. That would probably make her appreciate this dunk tank a little more. She put her hands on her hips and looked at Rion with a playful smirk.

"...So if its not that bad why don't you go in then~?" She grinned.

[Bloodbane]

Rion sighed lightly, keeping a smile on his face and shaking his head as Enfurnus explained how he was trying to get Silver into the tank. "Oh, is that what it was..." He chuckled again, before Silver finally made her way back over to him, eventually smiling back before her and Enfurnus talked to each other a bit. As the question hung in the air regarding who would join Terra next, he looked over at Silver, lightly tilting his head. "Oh-ho... so you want me in there next, huh..." He said, grinning just a bit, before shrugging his shoulders. "That's fine with me--" He began, before Terra spoke up from her position on the tank.

"Or... maybe you can get Aqua back first, while I drop Terra." He teased briefly, before taking hold of one of the balls. "Hope you're ready...!" He said, before throwing the ball through the air, the sound of the target being hit coming first, followed by the splash as Terra was dropped into the water.

[Sorrum]

Aqua chuckled as Silver climbed out of the tank. She too was soaked now, and her normally cloaked appearance having been shed for the days events, her clothes stuck to her form. Aqua then realized that her own figure would be in plain sight shortly. "Haha, we're all going to need to get warm clothes after this." She joked. She took Rion's when prompted. She was hot like the rest of them, or perhaps more so.

"If that seat's open, I'll go~" she quickly stepped into the tank and sat down on the ledge. Her legs were long enough to just barely dip her toes in. It was a bit colder than she was ready for, but not nearly as cold as the ice she could toss around. She felt a shiver go up her leg though, and she suddenly regretted setting herself up for this. "Haha, well, let's get this over with."

Meanwhile, a gathering of people had come by and, seeing how this group of people was jumping in to beat the heat, were now talking to the vendor to work out some kind of dive into the tank themselves. He seemed a bit more content with this, as he negotiated prices with the volunteers and the customers.

[Arashi]

Silver nodded at Rion when he asked if she wanted him to go in. She thought it would be funny to see him get all wet like everybody else. She already decided she didn't want to be the one to dunk him though; she would feel kinda bad for that, even though the others didn't seem to have any remorse. It was all just fun and games, no matter how odd it seemed to her. The water sure was cold though. She shivered a bit.

Before Rion could get in though, Terra seemed to want to go in and set herself up in the tank, and Aqua sat herself in the other tank. Rion then said she could get some revenge on Aqua. She didn't really want to, but...Aqua was in the tank already, and maybe it would be fun...

First, she watched as Rion dunked Terra, mostly to learn how to do it.

"I'm sorry in advance!" She yelled out to Aqua.

She then went and picked up a ball, then tossed it at the target. She hit it near the center, causing it to drop Aqua in to the water. Silver tilted her head a bit, then laughed. It was kinda funny watching them fall as a result of hitting the target...

[Swim]

"Which one of you wants to try dunking me?" Terra had asked, "Common, I want one of you to get me wet!" In response Rion knelt down to pick up one of the balls. Perfect. "Alright, show me what you can do with those balls," she called to him, not at all encouragingly. "Wait, you're using that arm? No, use your good arm-!" Splash. One and done, not even any banter. Rion apparently liked to finish things quickly.

Terra stood up, her top now clinging to her awkwardly, she hadn't really had the option to remove it as Enfurnus had done. Oh well. The water felt nice to Terra, she thought it felt cool without being cold. Hopefully it would help her beat the heat as the festival continued into the afternoon.

[Bloodbane]

Rion laughed after dunking Terra, definitely not wasting much time after her bit of playful taunting. Once Terra was dunked, he looked over to Silver and nodded before she managed to hit the target and dunk Aqua as well, causing him to laugh before waiting for the two to get out of the tank. "All right, all right... now it's my turn!" He said, making his way onto the platform before looking out of the glass and grinning. He did not pay much attention to who ended up picking up the ball, focusing more on preparing for the drop, which came fairly quickly and drenched him in the cool water at last, a wide smile on his face as he flipped his hair back before making his way out, shaking off some of the water but otherwise letting his clothing cling to him; to say nothing of it being somewhat tricky to remove a shirt with the armor on his arm, he saw no real reason to show off his form unlike Enfurnus.

"Well... I think that'll do us for a while, yeah?" He said, before looking to the vendor and nodding with a little wave. "Thanks again!" He said, before looking around for the next big attraction the group could head to.

[Sorrum]

Aqua watched with mild anxiety as Silver reared back and hit the target. She plummeted into the water below, instantly her body was overwhelmed by the water's chill, and missed the warm sunlight. She stood up really fast and held her arms out like a puppet, letting the water drip off her. "Ah it's colder than I thought it would be!" She climbed out of the tank and started shaking the water off of her while walking back to the others.

"N-nice shot though, I guess." she shivered to Silver. "Uh, maybe we should go find some clothes soon?" She suggested.