In the Eye of the Beholder

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

I nodded at Balenth. "Much better. But I can't help but wonder why they were staring at us. Do I have something in my hair?" I asked, wondering if I had had something on my dress or such. Balenth looked normal, not having anything wrong with him that I could see. The group had been made up of people around Xion's age, at least that's what I guessed. So about sixteenish. Maybe it was just a joke. Either way, I was happy to be away from them.

[Calmay]

Balenth looked at Axel just to make sure there was nothing strange on her. She looked the same that they did when they left the inn. It must have been some sort of joke that was. He leaned against the wall. He always liked to relax after he had eaten his meal. His stomach growled as it disagreed with all the movement. "Looks like we are stuck here a couple minutes. I need to let my body digest some of this found before we continue." Last thing he wanted was to get a stomach cramp because he rushed himself. He held back a yawn. He then came to a realization that he had developed some bad habits after eating. It left him wide open to attack.

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

"Okay. I said, smiling. I felt a bit better knowing (well thinking at the very least) that it had just been some stupid joke or something. After all I was paraniod at times, getting the trait from Roxi. Sometimes the adopted trait did me some good, but most of the time it just gave me headaches.

As I heard footsteps, I turned to see another one of those guards."Step away from the girl! The innkeeper has reported that you may be harmful to this little girl! the guard said and it was quickly followed by a few other guards. I quickly made my way next to Balenth, hugging him around the waist lightly.

[Calmay]

"Listen, the inn keeper had this all wrong. You see I'm Axel's cousin and I am in town for a visit so I decided to go see her. I do not know when the next chance I will be able to meet up with her again." He patted Axel and protected her like she was relative. After all she his descendant so he was telling a half truth. He looked at the guards taking count which one was where. Each one of them had a weapon on then and Balenth had only his magic. He would have to take one from a guard if needed. "I just want to take her back to the inn so that she could rest. You can come if you want."

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

After a moment of awkward silence, the head guard nodded and shooed away the rest of the guards. He told us he would esort us to the inn and quickly lead the way. The whole time the guard was silent until we reached the door to the inn, saying goodbye.

I made my way up to the room, to find Xion and Kairi eating the wierd stuff called sushi. I couldn't understand why she liked it. It was some sort of raw fish with other stuff in it and to me was too slimy to eat. But what caught my attention was Aqua, sitting on a bed.

"Welcome back Axel and friend~" Aqua said, the half demon waving once. Aqua was painting her nails with some sort of special polish, one that didn't smelled bad like the other ones. They were striped with pink and black expertly, seeing as Aqua was so good at painting nails.

[Calmay]

Balenth was shocked at the amount of people that were travelling with Axel and most of them were female, he did not check what sex the animals were. No wonder the innkeeper was suspicious about his appearance. An adult male around all these young woman, well some only looked young. He looked at the new female. He made a list of what the others were already, an angel, a mage, a shapeshifter, and an assassin. He wonder what was left. There were demons, vampires, dragons, elves, and so many other species. He eliminated many of the other species because he features did not fit into her appearance. He might as well make a guess of what she was.

"My name is Balenth. If the guards ask you later I'm Axel's cousin." Last thing he needed was the guards asking them who he was just to double check his story. He did not want to confront the guards today. "Let me guess. You are a demon." He did not know her name, but she was not a dragon in a human form since he did not feel the same presence he had felt from the red dragon earlier.

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

Aqua smiled at Balenth's words and Xion nodded, still eating. Xion was about the only one that had manners and usually Roxi laughed about it. "Close~ I'm a half demon. The name's Aqua if you were wondering. Got it memorized?" Aqua said, tapping her temple with her fingers when she said the last sentence.

Kairi, on the bed next Aqua, yawned and in the process showed us her teeth. It was funny how Kairi looked to scary to most when she was harmless. That is, unless you hurt Xion. And that is when you were maimed by the pretty white wolf. "You smell like dragon. Am I right? Aqua said, sniffing the air a moment before speaking.

[Calmay]

Balenth was surprised that his guess was almost correct. He just picked one of the remaining groups he could not eliminate. He was glad that Axel had someone that had had mixed blood in their group. They could stick together if needed. He looked at Aqua she was right, he was a dragon. "Yup I'm a dragon, question is what kind of dragon am I?" This question was much harder. There were many times of dragons and different colored dragons. He wondered how she would reply.

Balenth sat down on the same bad with Kairi. He was not afraid of the wolf. It could not have been more dangerous than the dragon that had earlier. He did notice that he kept on thinking about the dragon. He must have been regretting not killing the dragon when he had the chance. The dragon would most likely want revenge for such a defeat. He was going to have to be careful for the next while. He was tempted to pet Kairi, but he held himself back.

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

Aqua held up a painted nail and sniffed the air for a moment. Xion and I watched on in amusement. Aqua had the best nose I had ever seen. After another a moment, Aqua smiled. "Ancient dragon? And some darkish color, like gray or black or something. she answered sticking her tongue out.

Kairi sniffed Balenth again, remembered his scent, and got up to get closer to Balenth. She loved to get petted and wanted attention. Kairi laid down right next to Balenth, plopping her head into his lap. I laughed. "She loves attention, so go ahead and pet her." Xion said, smiling as well.

[Calmay]

Balenth was surprised that Aqua got it correct. He was hoping that she would get it it wrong. He liked it when people got it wrong. "My scales are black. You win." He petted Kairi admitting his defeat, this half demon was much better than him at identifying other races. Of course there was nothing to feel bad about there were things that Balenth could do that other people could not even attempt to do. He turned to Axel. "Do you have anymore members that you are not telling me about. It seems that every time we return to the room there is someone new that I have not met." He had no problem with that, but he was wondering if there we any actual males in the group. With so many females it looked like they had something against males.

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

I laughed at Balenth's question. "We recruit a lot of members. Not all of us stay here but there's more. You'll meet them all one day." I said, laughing. We were all kind of a small guild full of misfits. It was rare that there was more then one or two or a species. Though most of the time we travelled wit ha few people and never really spoke again. But they still counted.

[Calmay]

Balenth continued to pet Kairi. So there was more people in the group then he had met. He was not going to take time from his day to meet each one of them. He would eventually meet them if he stayed around Axel. Thinking of so many people made his think about the village that was by his lair. They had started off small, but the as time moved on more people started to gather together and the village grew in size. He did not even realize how large it had become if he had not left him home because he had been bored. "It must be hard to remember all the names of the people that you meet. Even I need to be selective on which names I remember and it can get so hard sometimes."

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

I smiled as Xion stood up, Kairi jumping down from the bed and Balenth's lap. "Hey guys, Kairi and I are heading out to Obsur. Need anything?" Xion asked, Aqua shaking her head. Aqua preferred to shop for herself. But I raised my hand.

"Can you pick me up a few herbs for a potion I'm working on?" I asked, before Xion nodded. I listed off a few herbs before Xion opened the window. She waved goodbye and Kairi ran out the door. Xion then jumped from the window and unfurled her wings, flying with Kairi on the ground underneath her.

"So Balenth, how did ya meet our little Axel? She's not very good at making friends."[/color] Aqua said as I closed the window.

[Calmay]

Balenth thought about how he had almost crushed her earlier today. Who knew choosing that spot to land will allow him to land on the ground. If that white dragon had not bothered him he would not have had so much fun today. "I almost crushed her while landing on the ground. I was trying to get aways from another dragon and when I saw her I had no choice but to change into a human to not crush her. I then proceeded to lecture her." Some people would have just let the human to get crushed, but she looked so young so he had not crushed her. He did wonder how Axel had met other people. He doubted that it was like his first meeting with her."How about you? How did you meet Axel?"

[{{Roxï-kun-+]

Aqua laughed at how Balenth had met me this morning. It was a pleasent sound one usually wouldn't relate to a half demon.

"I actually met Axel is a funny way as well. It was when I was pratically glomped by Kairi. Kairi came from nowhere and just jumped right on me. She started licking my face and we were in the middle of the street right outside the window. Axel came out of the inn, looking for where the wolf went. So you could say I was the one crushed in our meeting." Aqua said, smiling at me.

I remembered that day as well. I had been taking Kairi to go shopping with me since Xion hadn't been able to take her with her on one of Sora's missions. When I saw Kairi on top of Aqua, I had thought she was biting the half demon. But she actually had been licking Aqua all over. It had been really funny.