Dove Clan: A two-floor high building basically resting on the edge of Berlim. The building was in good condition considering it being around for ages. The bricks were aging, turning from red to brown, with cracks and weeds slithering the walls. Two pillars stood before the building with a dark green banner attached to them reading Dove Clan and their guild symbol, the soaring dove.
Entering the guild, to the right was a hallway that led to the children bed and bathrooms and a spiral staircase leading up to the master's quarters. To the left were stairs leading down to the guild's main hall. Round tables and chairs were scattered along the wood floor and couches rested against the walls. A bar was at the back with all kinds of beverages on the shelves. To the right of the bar was a door that led to the kitchen. On the wall was a board filled with chores, missions and jobs.
It wasn't anything fancy, but hey it was home to the doves. Well, what are you waiting on? Go on in.
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Intro: Helena, My Chemical Romance
7
A call to arms maybe?
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"So, what's it read mate?" Ricky asked as he stood over a boy who sat studying the egg.
Once the gang had returned to the guild, Ace and Alche took the kids out back to get checked on. After Belle had explained to them how the egg had responded, Ricky decided to take it to their personal specialist.
The teenager had russet skin with sandy brown, wavy hair cut in a mohawk fade with the hair pulled in a bun. He had droopy, turquoise eyes. He wore red, round glasses, a long, navy button down opened to show a red shirt, brown ripped pants and brown high tops. This meticulous, narcistic teen is the guild's brain. Though his smarts and wits help the family out of some huge binds, it's his smart mouth that keeps him in trouble.
"Hmm, it's written in Unnbo." the boy answered as he stared at the glowing symbols.
"Yeah? And?" Ricky grumbled, crossing his arms, waiting for an elaboration.
The boy huffed, "I know, I know, I'm incredible, right? That's why people find me reliable with these types of things, amongst others I must say," he enthused, waggling his eyebrows then looked up at Ricky, "but do you know anything old man?"
Ricky let out a deep chuckle and leaned down closer to the boys' face. "What I do know is that I was almost mean bait to a 50 foot spirit all for a person that doesn't exist. So, I would advise if you don't want to experience firsthand the end result from a fight between a flaming imp and a baby tweet, you'll start explaining and lose the lip." He warned with a growl.
After the mountain incident, the group were sent on a wild goose chase looking for Arius Sebastion, only to find they couldn't find him anywhere. It was like he didn't even exist.
"Alright Mr. Grumpy pants. You should really try my homemade-"
"Chop chop, Pretty Boy." Ricky growled, snapping his fingers.
Pretty Boy frowned then looked back down at the egg, mumbling under his breath.
The guild's door burst open. "MAMA'S HOME!" A voice shouted from the top of the staircase.
King, Nara, and Manna walked down the stairs. Everyone on the floor went silent and watched as they descended down.
Once at the bottom, Nara paused and slowly slid her gaze around the room calculating, then placed her hands on her hips. "Alright, what's wrong?"
"What makes you say that, luv?" Ricky asked, grinning trying to lift the mood.
She squinted her eyes, "Where are my babies?"
Just then, the back door to the left of the bar opened and Ace hurled through with his mouth fixed to tell Ricky something until he spotted Nara. His mouth clamped shut.
She slid her gaze to Ace, "Where are my babies, Acy?"
Ace hung his head with a sigh.
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Outside Doc's clinic...
"Hold up, wait a minute. WHAT HAPPENED!" Nara screamed.
Her, King, and Ace stood outside of Doc's clinic, a small hut behind the guild were their guild doctor, Doc, was working on the kids.
"What made you think it was a wise idea to send them that far away, especially without supervision. You should've gone with them. It was your mission." She continued throwing her hands around.
Ace dropped his head, "I know and I'm sorry. I didn't think-"
"That's just it, you don't think," She stopped then crossed her arms, peering hard at Ace. "And here I thought you were smarter than that."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," King said, stepping in between the two. "Baby, let's not be irrational."
"Irrational?! You know how it feels to lose a child, so don't tell me that I'm being irrational." Nara snapped, then closed her eyes slowly taking a breath. "I was way out of line, but how do you expect me to act when my children are in there hurting. Rockie's wrapped up tighter than a burrito."
"At least they're alive," King said grabbing her forearms sympathetically. "It could always be worst."
Nara nodded, then calmly walked towards Ace and lightly grabbed his shoulders bringing him down to her. She kissed his forehead and sighed, "I love you, Acy, and I'm sorry for what I said. Thank you for bringing them back."
"I love you too, mama." Ace said back, hugging her tightly.
"Aww," King cooed, wiping a finger under his watery eyes.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Yeah, I hate to break up the sentiment there," Ricky said from the back door, his face set in a deep frown, "but you need to come hear this."
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In DC's main hall...
Ace, King, Nara, Alche, and Ricky all stood around Pretty Boy who sat at a table with the egg laying in front of him. The symbols were shining brightly.
"These symbols was known as an old language called Unnbo. It's an ancient language spoken by magics some time from the dusty past," Pretty Boy snorted as he lectured. "Anyway, back in the day, magics would use their source to place messages on all kinds of jewels or any valuable possession and send them out to communicate with other magics. It started during the Palooza war, when Magic's had to be smart when sneaking out codes. The messages will only react to a magic's touch, something about source-to-source bonding or something. I don't remember all the history on that stuff. This is my first time actually seeing one in person. It's really extraordinary when I think about it." Pretty Boy ended with a whisper as he was mesmerized by the egg before him.
"What's it say?" King asked.
"Well, there are a couple of-"
"No. Let's not ramble around the bush like you do." King cut the boy off. "What does the red egg say now?"
"I was getting there if you'd-"
"Honey," Nara calmly said, "your family was hurt today and whatever is on that egg has something to do with it. Whatever it says, you need to tell us."
Pretty Boy lent back in his seat and crossed his arms with a huff. "This one was a little tricky. Normally the message would be clear and direct. This one pretty much seem to be asking someone to join them and/or it's declaring war."
"To join them in war?" King asked.
Pretty Boy shrugged, "It's unclear, which is weird."
"Yeah, it is. Weird and fishy. Who was the person who wrote this mission?" King asked looking over at Ace.
"He doesn't exist," Ricky threw in, "or doesn't want to be found. We searched and asked all over for him at the destination he'd put down, but nobody knew anyone named Arius Sebastion."
At that, the symbols started changing, flashing into new ones. Pretty Boy bent forward to read it. "Okay, it's definitely declaring war and it's definitely summoning us, or well someone. The rest is still pretty unclear about with who. I can't make nothing else out of this except for the word mister."
"Does it normally switch like that?" Nara asked pointing at the egg.
Pretty Boy shook his head, "Magic wasn't that advanced back in the day and besides, even for it to be reacting at all means that the person is still alive. This had to have been made recently."
The group went silent as everyone around tried to take in what was being told to them.
"So, someone's declaring war on us?" Nara asked.
"Either that or they're inviting us to go to war. I never said who it was against. Like I said, it's unclear." Pretty Boy frowned.
"Or you just suck at this." Alche said grinning.
"Pretty Boy sucks at nothing." He calmly snapped back. "I am incapable of sucking. Sucking is beneath me."
The adults snickered childishly then burst out laughing. Pretty Boy glared at them rolling his eyes.
"Okay you guys. This isn't the time to be laughing here." Nara stated gaining everyone's attention. "I don't care who it was. My babies were hurt. Was this a coincidence or a set up?" She asked trying to see if there were any coming danger.
"There's a strong possibility." Pretty Boy spoke up.
"Well. Either way, looks like we have to get ready for a fight then." Alche said, winding his shoulder around in a circular motion.
"Got that right. This means training starts now. And I mean for everyone. Today just proved it." King declared sternly.
"No, today only proves that we need to keep a closer eye on our children." Nara argued back.
King raised his right hand, dismissing the others, then gave his wife his attention once they were gone.
"King, we almost lost our babies today and here you are talking about training them for a war that we don't know is coming."
"No, we almost lost them because they're not properly prepared for fights like today." King crossed his arms. Nara mimicked him, sassily crossing hers too. "Baby, we've been over this far too long. I've allowed you time to pamper and coddle those, but now it's time for them to grow up. Trouble is a brewing, honey. They're stronger than you think they are, you're just blocking them from their true potential."
Nara stared at him for a while, way too quiet, before she slowly turned around and headed upstairs.
"Bae. Baby, come on," King called out to no prevail. "Just hear me out love."
"She'll be back, brotha." Ricky said, stepping away from the wall he was leaning against. "They always do. She just needs to cool down first."
King sighed. "I thought I told you to leave," he grumbled then dropped down in one of the wooden chairs.
"I thought you knew me better than that." Ricky said, taking a seat across from him.
"I just don't see why she's so against training them." King rubbed his hand down his face. "I mean, I understand not wanting them to get hurt, hell I don't want that, but they're older now. Too old actually and they're getting stronger. I can see it, but...," he paused with a deep sigh.
"Oh no, I agree with you, brotha. Today wouldn't have happened if they were up to par. They should have handled that spirit. It was too easy. Went out just from Alche falling on'em." Ricky chuckled.
King laughed along, "He's still wild as ever."
"Oh yeah. Definitely." Ricky agreed as he went in deep thought. "What are we going to do about the egg and this so-called pending war?"
King shrugged, "Nothing we can really do right now but prepare. Train. Practice."
"So tomorrow then?" Ricky asked, a smile growing on his face at the master. He held out his hand.
"Tomorrow," King agreed smiling back and clasped his hand.
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Later at dinner...
Dinner that night, which normally was filled with loud laughter and chatter was dull with some of their members being absent. The day really had put a damper on the family's mood. Belle sat alone at a table, picking at the food on her plate. The sound of plates hitting wood had her looking up to see two people joining her.
To the left was a boy with yellow skin. His eyes and hair were fiery red, and his hair was pulled in a low, messy ponytail. He wore a red, sleeveless jumper which showed his chest and red warmers on both wrists. His feet were bare, and his red guild sig. was on top of his left foot.
Beside him was a girl with green skin. She had chin length, auburn hair and slanted eyes completely black. She wore a black crop tank, her black guild sig showing where her navel would be, dark red mini-skirt with fish-net tights and brown gladiator sandals.
"Hey Queen. Hey Champion." Belle quietly greeted looking down at her plate.
"Are you doing okay?" Champion asked, looking concerned at the water mage.
"As good as I am going to be," Belle mumbled then sighed. "I'm just feeling a little down I guess."
"If you are feeling the down, then you should go visit Mr. Doctor. He would medicine you and you will soon feel, um... the okay." Queen said with a serious face.
Champion chuckled at the girl, "Everything doesn't have to be checked on by Doc, Queen. Some problems are better solved by just talking." He then peered at Belle lifting his brows. The older teen always had a way of getting people to talk, and it really came in handy when someone just needed to vent.
Belle sighed, letting her fork hit the plate. "I just feel like I should've done more. I was completely useless out there and because of that, Rockie. K.O. Maya. They were all hurt. They could have died. Fighting is not in my nature, but we are magics and it is kind of our job. But here I'm-" Belle stopped shaking her head, then picked up her fork and started back playing with her uneaten food.
"Hey. Come on, don't be like that. It was your first time in a situation like that, but for what it was, you guys handled yourselves well." Champion said. "It takes practice, trust me. I was ten when dad took me on my first mission. Some magic was holding a couple of people hostage. I ended up going in headstrong and winded up missing the target and setting the whole place on fire." Champion laughed and beamed when Belle rolled her eyes and slowly smiled.
"To be frank, that didn't make me feel any better." Belle said beaming a side smirk.
"What next happened?" Queen asked, enthralled in the story.
"Thankfully we got the people out in time to go and catch the guy. People feel like just because we have the ability to produce magic that handling it should come naturally, but they're wrong. It takes practice, sometimes even years, to master honing your magic. We just have to learn from our mistakes and keep fighting." Champion stated, softly yet so wise at the same time.
"Ooo yes. I agree on all of that." Queen nodded her head, smiling as well.
Belle looked at them and nodded slowly, fully smiling now, then started eating her food.
...Brain break...