The Ghost of Fiore

Cats and Kings

Have I mentioned how much I hate inaction? If not, well then, now you know, if I have, then it certainly bears repeating...

The streets of Balsam Village are lovely, they truly are; the trees are gorgeous, the roads are perfectly set up to be a tourist trap, and the air has always felt so soothing, but when I had already been between here and Magnolia about five times this week. I was feeling more than a little cooped up.

I could simply leave and go take out some monsters in the forest to kill time, but I had tested the old man enough lately, I really didn't need to push my luck... Because of that, I had latched on to the only intriguing thing that I could sense in the nearest five hundred mile radius, something I had noticed earlier during the Phantom Lord debacle. In fact, the only reason I remembered the mystery is because I was working hard on the guild, trying to distract myself from the stares of my guildmates who were more than curious when I found a bit of blood on the framing.

This itself wouldn't have been anything odd, seeing as how it was a construction site full of exuberant fairies, but this blood struck me as odd. I examined it, away from the others of course, and the realized the oddest thing about it, this blood wasn't human blood...

It wasn't animal blood either, which was my next thought, simply because that would be pretty common as well; no, this was something I hadn't encountered yet, but it tasted distinctly of fire, light, and some form of animal that I couldn't pinpoint. This, of course, caught my attention and since I was bored out of my mind, I got inordinately excited.

It took some time, but eventually, I was able to hunt down who the blood belonged to, it was the orange haired playboy who had the odd feeling about him. I had intended to investigate him further, but I had basically forgotten until that point that he had piqued my interest.

Now he was in my sights, meaning I was stalking him like a total creeper in the way that only I could pull off. 

He proved to be rather interesting, as it became apparent that something major was going on with him. I wasn't familiar with whatever species he was, but I assumed that phasing in and out of existence wasn't a common thing for them... at least, I hoped it wasn't, that sounded severely unhealthy.

Research only did me so much good, but I was familiar with getting accurate information out of minimal resources and if I was correct, which I was 90% sure I was, then the orange haired man was, in fact, a spirit... which was something I never thought I would say.

The Lion (it took time, but that's what his blood tasted like, don't ask me how I know that) had been spending quite a bit of time following around the blonde and taking on job after job that I could only follow him for partially. In fact, he seemed to be taking most of his jobs to Balsam village, which was the coincidence of all coincidences; though it seemed he had a reason for that as well.

I wanted to confront him, but I figured I should probably stay away, we hadn't spoken much and I didn't want to push him for answers. I mean, he was probably really stressed right now and he didn't need me sticking my nose where it didn't belong. If these were his last days, then I didn't want to make his situation more complicated than it already seemed to be... Hahaha, yes I did.

"Oi, Lion!" I called out as he got off the Balsam Village train station once again, causing him to jump about a foot in the air. That in and of itself was suspicious as I didn't use his name, nor did I make it particularly obvious that I was talking to him.

He spun around, his eyes showing panic as he searched for whoever had called out to him, "Hey!" I waved cheerfully, catching his attention.

I watched in amusement as he seemed to battle himself for several seconds, what the argument was, I had no clue, but my guess was that he was deciding whether or not to make a break for it.