Welcome to Gaia! ::

Thatz cocked an eyebrow, resisting the urge to snatch away the letter and see for himself.

Was the news really all that bad? What could it be? Some sort of secret the Demon Clan had finally unleashed upon them? A strategy that had suddenly rendered all their hard work useless?

It couldn't be that the entire party was decimated-- Bierrez would have sooner died as well than retreat alone and call for help. He was stubborn that way; every bit as proud as Rath. Thatz had often wondered if Cesia had once returned his affections, even as it was obvious the new Fire Knight still, to some extent, felt them. The two Fire Knights were certainly similar enough.

He forced himself off that train of thought; there were more important issues at hand than stale gossip. Besides, if he really wanted to know, all he had to do was trek down to the kitchens and ask the first maid to come into view.

So what was on the letter? And, more importantly, would he be able to pry any more information from Ruwalk before the later debriefing? While it would probably not keep any information from him, the anticipation was going to drive him insane. Thatz sighed lightly, grudgingly admitting defeat, and nodded.

"Okay. Do you know when he's supposed to be back?"

"Caracas!"

The shout lit up the slowly warming air, one of the Dragon Fighters breaking away from the small cluster still standing around the guild building and trotting up to the tired newcomer.

"What's the news? How'd the fight go? The demons still running?"

The blonde fighter nodded wearily, looking around him for a source of water. The ride had been tense and dry and he had had little time to rest after the fighting and cleaning up before setting off.

"Good." He entered the building, his friend trailing eagerly after him. Heading towards the pitcher of water and spare glasses on a table in the back, he continued speaking. "Good." He poured himself a drink and gulped it haistily down.

"Good," Caracas repeated a third time, the events settling slowly into place, "until afterwards. We didn't lose anyone," he said at the other's confused expression, "and no one was that badly wounded. What'shisname, new guy with black hair, he got a spear through his arm, but they patched that up. That was the worst of it."

Santiago grinned, the smile spreading across his clear face. "We got lucky, then."

Caracas' head slowly shook, a confused tic forming between his brows as he poured himself a second glass with a more steady hand. "It was after the battle. There was this one Demon..." His voice trailed off.

"I don't think I'm supposed to tell anyone." Caracas finally explained, forcing himself to keep quiet. The vision of Bierrez chasing him, sword drawn, with more fury than even Alfeegi had ever been able to conjure up was a good deterrent.

But still... Caracas bit his lip.

"I'm off duty," he stated after a minute, "come with me to the bar."

”No,” Ruwalk shook his head lightly, “but I bet it will be within the hour since he sent a fighter to deliver the message. We should already be in the throne room, Teceous and I, when he arrives.” The Yellow Officer finished, nodding once towards the darker dragon in the room when he mentioned the other’s name.

Ruwalk never missed Teceous's slow movements or slightly red eyes. Hejust hoped that his friend was ok... it would be over soon anyway and they would leave the infirmary.

((*just got permission from the RP Mistresses to post* <333))

The interior of the bar was warm: wood paneling over the floors and walls, thick wooden beams making up the ceiling. Small bunches of herbs and flowers hung from the banisters, and mostly empty tables were scattered across the spacious room. Light spilled in through the wide glass windows, and the bartender could be seen clearing away freshly washed dishes behind the counter. He glanced up as the two Dragon Fighters walked in and nodded a greeting; it was commonplace for the off duty Fighters to gather in his establishment for food, drink, and a good word.

They seemed tenser than usual, however, and he kept quiet, listening casually.

Caracas sat down at the bar, motioning for his friend to join him. He dug a couple coins out of the deep pocket of his uniform pants and pressed them to the counter.

"You gotta keep quiet about this, but there was something weird about the dead."

"What do you mean?" Santiago remained skeptical and would have voiced his feelings had it not been obviously so urgent that Bierrez himself had been worried by it.

Listening patiently as his friend picked up the mug of cool alcohal that was placed before him and drunk deeply, Santiago crossed his arms loosely over his chest. This had better be worth it. Those had been his coins.

Caracas placed the mug down, then immediatly picked it up again, taking another wide swallow.

"One of the demons... he had still been alive after the fighting; it was over pretty quick... he..."

It was probably very lucky the bar had been slow that day. The Dragon Fighter was soon making no attempts to keep his voice low, and the tale he told of sickly honey and thick light was disturbing, to put it mildly.

Even so, it was heard by at least two others in the room and it was not long until the story had spread to the other working class members of the Dragon Clan.

((I would be scared out of my mind if half youkai teceous was staring loomingly over me...>>> Not really <3 XDD *pounces Tec*
Tec: -_- ))

Teceous countinued to stare at Rune before shifting his gaze to the wound, watching the wound small and then vanished. But between watching it, his eyes shifted to Luwalk. The black officer was going to speak up, saying something about his lack of choice in the matter and how they pretty much came here right after the match, but instead kept his mouth shut.

"Thank you." Said the man of little words. Teceous then turned, and left the infirmary, now standing just a bit outside of the room, waiting for Luwalk while he untied his white muscle top and uniform top from his waist, putting it back on.

A dark hue glanced up to the sky, through a nearby window, his eye half covered by his large bloodied hand. Just staring at the bright sky made him a little dizzy. Mentally, he found himself cursing the youkai, but with his head bowed a little, he laughed to himself while leaning his shoulder against the wall.

The black officer paused in his sly laughter. He turned a few more shakes of laughter falling from his shoulders as his bloodied hand dropped from covering his face. He had a cocked smile, almost like a mix between a smirk and a smile, on his face as he looked to Luwalk. He shook his head a little, his black bangs falling into his eyes as his hands slid into his pockets.

"Yeah...The irony in my thoughts brought me to laugh..." That small cocked smile then slipped into a smirk, one of Teceous's usuals.

The black-haired half youkai's smirk remained as he took a few steps, closing the distance between himself and Luwalk. His eyes narrowed a little as he was about seven inches from the other's face, but even with his eyes narrowed, you could see the very vivid scarlet glow of his eyes.

His eyes trailed from one of Luwalk's orange hues to the other, then down the Yellow Officer's fair skin to his lips then back up to his eyes, that sly smirk grew with a slight c**k of the edge of his mouth before he turned away from the other dragon, heading slowly in the direction of the near-by stair case.

The half youkai paused in his stride, turning his head slightly, that faint red glimmer still in his eyes as he watched Luwalk, allowing the smaller officer to catch up.

A young ravenette maid had just moved around the corner when she spotted Luwalk and Teceous, She watched the black officer as he moved away, then Yellow officer turned to follow. She giggled and quickly turned to her companion, hiding behind the corner. "There's Luwalk-sama~" The other maid just rolled her eyes.

See, what had happened what Sen got distracted by her friend, well, not distracted, see her friend was carrying all the clean linen for the infirmary and called Sen over, asking her dearly for her help, and Sen didn't say no, and Ryokou even encouraged her to go.