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What? No more then that? Sue-chi wasn't very fond of Kalilah was she? Did she do something to make her mad? Should Kalilah not have asked her about her tribe? "S-Should I not have asked..? I'm..I'm sorry" Sue-chi probably couldn't hear her since she was talking with the chief. After all, that was the main reason why they were here in the first place, to fix things between Learania and Adliana...not to play and make friends. The look on Kalilah's face soften just a bit. Was it bad if she wanted to make friends? But the swordmistress didn't want to make anybody angry.

Smile and good things will come! It will..right? At least....the people around her will be happy. She tried to keep her smile up and when she felt she couldn't keep it up, Kalilah backed up a little away from Sue and the chief, it was none of her business for the time being how things were going to be resolved. She turned around and knelt down to the ground, drawing random pictures with her index finger.

However, the little sword user could still hear the conversation between Chief Songhua, bird man, and Sue-chi. While that was going on, the others that came with were mingling among each other until things were cleared up and settled. Kitty people with cats and lions...Mr. Red-head with a snake lady...its lonely, Kalilah thought. She shifted her weight and sat down on the dirt, still drawing random things in the dirt and erasing them with her hand.

...

She wanted a cookie.

It had been a few minutes when Skrimir realized that he had been yelling a whole lot but not saying much at all. Lyre had merely shrank uncomfortably, tail bristling in surprise. Quite a few passers-by had been staring at them, but when Skrimir had finally realized that Lyre had no answer for him, and that Tibarn had moved on without him, he relented.

For once out of a handful of times in his life.

Sitting out of the way, he felt the wave in his brain dying. It had been a thunderclap in the beginning, and had hung unpleasantly in the air the entire journey with the Hawk King. But seeing Lyre, and for himself that she'd done no wrong-- it felt more real.

The trouble was, he really still preferred to doubt. If what had been said was true...

No, he did not want to think about that at all. It was a nasty lull things had sunk into. Lyre still loitered around, likely not quite sure if he was truly angry or not, or studying his odd behavior. Really, Skrimir didn't care, or didn't care unless she had something useful to say.

The action had turned to this Songhua guy; Tibarn had left him a while ago, and really, there had to be a reason to be dragged all the way out here amidst all of these horses and grasslands. Skrimir, after a few moments of considering leaving and finding his own way back, decided to approach Tibarn again. Inaction was the worst possible option, he thought.

It's a battle, he told himself. A backwards, insane battle where the entirety of this not-Tellius is against you, and you need to sort it out. But you can't bite or claw or tear at an entire world. There had to be a different way to make a stand...

Skrimir might have dreaded it, if he had been a different man. And so the itching feeling in the back of his throat was pushed away. He hadn't been kicked around by his uncle over matters of so-called effective diplomacy for nothing. Even if he was loathe to try, that seemed to be the battle at hand, because no one seemed to be fighting back when he was yelling, anyway. Lyre certainly hadn't.

The words stuck in his throat as he approached Tibarn and the chieftain. Oh, if he only knew how to gain a vantage in this sort of battle.

Oujay continued to stay quiet as the group continued traveling through Leera. As he looked around, he can see more and more glares coming from direction. But for some reason, this tension feeling he was having felt like nothing new. Of course, there was always tension somewhere during his travels with Lord Roy as they passed through Bern territory. He felt like he wanted to get through this town as fast as he can.

He tried to get his mind off of the tension by looking around wondering what other people in the group were doing. He looked around at the group who were in their own little conversations as it seemed. He didn't have anyone to talk to.

The group seemed to have stopped and he looked at the incoming figure. The man seemed to have some sort of aura that released all the tension that he felt that was increasing by the second. He wondered who that man was. Oujay learned that the nomad guy was a chieftain. The Chieftain to talk with Sue and the Hawk King, Tibarn was his name? Oujay still wasn't sure of everyone, but he has heard of him. He looked around the group again and it seemed like a couple more people appeared into the group.

He saw the nomadic girl sitting down, seemed to be kind of lonely. He kinda of wanted to talk to her so she wouldn't feel lonely, but he would have a tough time as he was really shy still. But her sitting alone was a bit sad. He shook his head and knew that he was going to have to get rid of his shyness sometime and why not try now? Oujay started to walk over to the nomad girl. Oujay stood near the girl and was hoping that he wasn't going to freak her out.

"Umm, hi," he said to Kalilah as she was drawing things in the dirt. He knelt down. "What are you doing?" he asked. He obviously knew what she was doing, but Oujay had no idea what to say and that's all he could think of. "What's wrong with me," he thought to himself.

Ah...things had been resolved peacefully between Lyre and Prince Skrimir. Lord Tibarn was chatting with Chieftan Songhua, and the others just milled about. Sunil noticed their guide, that green-haired swordmistress Beorc, was poking at the ground with a finger. Poor Beorc. He had noticed that she had wanted to chase that butterfly he had seen earlier, but couldn't because she had to get them here.

The blue kitty wandered over to where Kalilah was kneeling (there was another Beorc next to her, and he seemed to be worried about her too) before he knelt down on her other side (since Oujay had knelt down on the side farthest from him). He then reached into his traveller's bag before he pulled out a smaller bag. The scent of fresh cookies seemed to be coming from this smaller bag. He had grabbed them before wandering to the North Gate before they went on this adventure, and he figured now would be a good time to have some before they went stale.

Sunil fished a single cookie out of the bag and held it out in front of Kalilah.

"Cookie?" he offered.

Oujay waved back to her as she greeted him back. He just looked at her as it seemed to be she was pondering, but suddenly she threw her arms in the air and pouted as she yelled the fact that she was bored really loud. He did not expect her to be this lively. "Umm..." he said as she circled around him. He had no idea what she was doing and he was a bit confused. His head just followed her around as she walked in circles. She stopped and tugged on his sleeve. He learned that her name was Kalilah.

"My name is Ou-" he was cut short as her attention suddenly turned somewhere else as another person was also in their presence. "A cookie?" he thought as the person offered it to Kalilah. She instantly attacked the cookie. He blinked as she seemed to scarf down the cookie as fast as possible.

"What just happened," went through his mind as Oujay just blinked at the sudden change of events. She was running around him, then attacked a cookie, and now she was touching the ears of the person who offered her a cookie. He blinked again as he didn't expect her to be this lively. She also seems to be easily amused.

Oujay chuckled a little bit. Wait, a chuckle? Oujay surprised himself that he actually chuckled about something. He rarely talks with people and so he rarely laughs or chuckles about certain things. He felt a bit better about himself as it seems that he is starting to climb up ladder, or was it stairs? Doesn't matter, he was working his way up to get rid of his shyness.

Oujay looked at the person whom Kalilah was grabbing the ears of. "Umm... are you okay with her doing that sir?" he asked as he was unsure if anybody would really like a random girl touching their ear.

Whispers blew in the wind. 'That's Songhua.' '...He's a Chieftain, what is he doing here?' 'He's with them... He's not on Adliana's side.' The people were mouthy worms.

Eyes carefully watched the Chieftain walk away from the Learanian group. The citizens pretended not to notice the conversation that was taking place, but they were all too intent on keeping track of what the visitors were doing. The words spoken could not be made out, though. Nobody knew what business the prestigious Songhua really had with the group. But imaginations ran high. People will think whatever they wish to think, when ill feelings cloud judgment.

Awkwardness continued. There was a typical hectic atmosphere that existed in all towns all around the world, and yet a hint of silence managed to peek through. Glares seemed to make noises fade away.

The group had only themselves. Their escort had walked away. Whether the group wished to or not, they began to migrate down the street, due to common hustle and bustle. The lead eventually came near a fountain. Suddenly, a familiar face appeared. It was the man with the blue bandanna from before. His face held malice. He stepped forward, purposely getting in the way of the young, long green-haired nomadic girl's horse. The horse let out a cry, and the man jumped back. "Watch it!" He narrowed his eyes. "You.. you think you can just go wherever you please?! You think you're so great?! You're no nomad... you're just Learanian scum!" The Learanian citizens looked over at hearing this. "You come in and kill off tribes as you please... are you here to continue the job? ARE WE NEXT?!" He suddenly pulled out a concealed dagger. "Like hell we are!!" He raised his dagger above his head, then lunged forward, bringing the weapon down toward the girl's leg.

Gasps and cries rang out at what happened. People began to run about, making it hard to see if the man had successfully stabbed the girl or not. Women screamed and dragged their children inside. Other Adlians, ones who supported the stance of the man with the blue bandanna, pulled out what weapons they had as well, even if it was just a plank of wood that happened to be laying near them. Learanians did the same. The commotion caused people to come out of buildings to see what was going on. Some joined the fighting. Drunkards staggered from the taverns, throwing their drinks every which way, coating the street and people hit in a sheet of alcohol. At first, Learanian citizens targeted Adlian ones. However, the chaos soon blinded the people and they began attacking anyone they saw. Some people could be talked to and be persuaded to stop fighting, but most were deaf to any such attempts.

People are truly stupid.

The Tempest King

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........ Never in all of Joshua's life, had he seen someone get so excited about a cookie, the way she fell upon the cookie like a Skrimir on a helpless bear made him want one now.

She made that cookie look like the most delicious thing that had ever been conceived, if Learnia had an advertising company she’d definitely be the chick in all the cookie commercials, and the swordmaster silently shed a tear once it had been eaten. In fact Joshua's momentary cookie obsession had caused him to not even notice Edward trying to get his attention, snapping out of it as the cookie disappeared from view into the smaller girls stomach, he turned towards the myrmidon and gave a small wave with his hand.

He opened his mouth to say a greeting and then quickly closed it when he realized something, he couldn't remember who this was, but the man knew Joshua's name... and he was pretty sure they'd gambled together, looking at Edward now he seemed like the kind of guy who would lose all his money and then make a puppy dog face, yes Joshua was sure now he'd given this man a "Lesson". Perhaps it was time for lesson two, he'd had his eye on buying a new belt. But before he could get the man's name (or the contents of his wallet) a riot broke out and suddenly everyone had a weapon.

Riots he could handle, Joshua had always been a bit of a trouble starter, he had a tendency to go to taverns, get drunk, and then start bar fights. And what was a riot if not a brafight that was located outside? So not even bothering to unsheathe his weapon or try to talk someone out of it, he was in the fray.

A plank came towards his face wielded by some hotshot, he didn't care of the ethicsity, all he knew was that some dumbass was trying to knock him out. Bending over as he stepped forwards underneath the heavy-handed swing, Joshua came up with an uppercut that connected on the assailants chin and lifted him up off his feet. Looking up at the sky from his back the plank wielding man would see a boot coming down on his face before being taken out of the fight.

Taking a step back off the man's face, Joshua quickly bent down to retrieve the attackers makeshift weapon, he didn't want to draw his sword as that could just make the situation worse Taking a few steps backwards in order not to be drawn into the townspeople’s fighting anymore then he had to the swordmaster found himself by the cookie eating swordmisstress, the laguz and the shy looking fellow, he looked over to wherever the hell Edward had gotten to and called out, speaking to those he was near as well as Edward.

"Hey, make a circle. Then we can keep moving through this... Hwah" As if it punctuate the period on the end of his sentence, a man charged at the group then with a knife held high.

He got a face full of plank for his trouble. "Try not to kill anyone... Deborah will blame me for it."


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