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Blossom had hardly knelt down near Lance to help make sure he was well before the klaxon call of the soldier outside, along with his very loud bell, rang through the air. Blossom startled to attention, looking back at Lance. She urged the tea close to him, wrapped him in the blanket, draped the towel over his head, and then hurried outside, still in her borrowed uniform.

Blossom could feel a cold shiver of panic down her spine. Estarcia asking for their aid? The two countries typically didn't communicate often, so what sort of pressing issue could be so large that they needed their help? Blossom bit her lower lip for a moment, then heaved a long sigh.

Goodness, something never wanted her to work at this place, did it?

Blossom poked her head into the building. "I'm going to go the Guard barracks!" she called to Aruna. "I-I'm sorry! I'll return the uniform later, don't worry!" And with that, Blossom was gone, a flutter of a pleated skirt and her long bangs. Call it altruism, a deep-seated need to protect people, whatever, but if someone was in trouble, the little Hero wasn't about to ignore it.

So she ran, heading first to her home. Vezra was going to be getting some more use.

The snowball fight had been a raucous one, for sure; Annis was still shaking snow out of her hair as she moved down the sidewalk, one hand in her jacket pocket while she loosened the snow out of her other sleeve. Her arm was linked with Loch's, the insides of their elbows pressed together as they trotted amiably towards the Hostess Cafe. What with him working at the place, they sort of needed to get there. Some gin doesn't sound bad, either...

The raven flicked a finger against her ear, sending a few bits of powder hitting the already-white sidewalk, when she heard a bell in the distance. Hm? She could hear shouting as well; something was happening. Annis gestured to Loch, and without another word, she was guiding him along towards the source of the sound. Annis heard similar shouting from another direction; multiple criers? Something very big.

Annis paused at the mouth of the town square to see one of the soldiers rattling a bell, and quite loudly, too. "...mbers are encouraged to join up! Let your loyalty be shown! Report to the Guard barracks to prepare! Hear ye, hear ye! Estarcia calls for Learania's aid!"

Well. Something very big, indeed.

Annis looked over to Loch, green eyes wide with a mixture of abject curiosity and uncertainty. "What do you suppose has happened?" she questioned, looking for guesses from the heron rather than certain answers; he was likely to know just as much as her, which was nothing. She paused, then grinned. "We aren't going to find out just standing here, are we? And if bad s**t's going down there, who's to say it won't find us here? Better just n** it in the bud before it can do damage elsewhere, ne?"

Annis flapped her wings twice to get the blood flowing more quickly; even with her feathers to keep the delicate limbs warm, they got stiff being held still for too long. She clasped Loch's hand tightly in hers, twining her fingers through his own dexterous digits. With that, the raven started to rush for the Guard barracks, pulling the poor grey-winged heron along with her.

Amelia hadn't ever actually made it back to Fefga's; she got distracted watching the people walk about, her hands shoved into her jacket pockets. She already felt better after emptying out her stomach, but a lingering uncertainty was sticking to the back of her thoughts. She and Rhys had discussed all sorts of things about the future, their future, when they had been on their honeymoon in Estarcia. She had had a mother once--a very long time ago, yes, but there had been other mothers to learn from within Silva, at least--and she knew some pretty pertinent facts to her own biology and development.

She considered this for a few minutes. Her eyes went up to the light dusting of snow falling from the sky and towards the ground. Blond locks of hair fell across her face as she abruptly stared at the ground, jaw set tight for a few long moments.

That couldn't be it. Not at all. They hadn't planned on that, not this soon...

She hesitated, body twisting to the side at the sound of a ringing bell. Only in times of alarm... Amelia trotted across the street and to the corner, where a soldier was making the same announcement as a handful of others through the city. Her entire stance froze for a few seconds, hands tightening into fists. They had only been in Estarcia just a couple of months ago... what had happened that soon to put them in such peril? Only an invasion... but by who?

She hesitated. She looked at the soldier, then turned her eyes to the general direction of Fefga's manor. Had she been nearer to the edge of town, the outline of the grand home would have been visible in the distance. As it was, she could only see windows and rooftops and cobbled stone everywhere.

Amelia stood still for another split second, then set off at a sprint for the Watch barracks. Her armor, her weapons, all at the Watch barracks, and then she could get to the Guard barracks, and then... and then she could fight.

I won't be a liability this time. I won't be a liability this time. I can fight. I can fight...

[[Long, but it's three posts in one. In short: Blossom's determined to help, Annis is curious and will probably find the fighting entertaining, and Amelia IS OFF TO PROVE HERSELF. Everyone's goin' to war!]]

Well, ********, that bell sounded like the end of his relaxation time. And, yep, that was it.... war?! What the hell, how did he manage to come into a town right before they decided to go to ******** WAR?! Fuuuuuuck. And.... that little girl was going running off saying she was going to the "Guard" or something. Were they even sending kids off to war? Well damnit. If this lot was bad enough off that they were sending kids off to war while other people - his eyes flicked to the nagina, then to Ganon before resting back on the doorway - they probably needed some help. Eh. Wasn't like he had anything better to do. Or like he was in any danger, pff. Maybe there were a few oddities in this town but he doubted many of the others on this continent were anything but human. And, therefore, not really a threat.

So the wolf got up from his position - rather comfortable position, shame he had to move - shook himself, finished off the water in the bowl, and trotted towards the door. He glanced back over his shoulder and gave a soft chuckle. "Have fun." Then he was off, moving his way through the snow outside to try and figure out what he was doing. Something about "guild members". He didn't know about any guild. Obviously there was a Thieves' Guild and a Mages' Guild and a Blacksmiths' Guild and such, but from the looks of things this wouldn't be any of those. So what the hell kind of guild was this? A freak guild, it looked like. Whatever. He wasn't part of it, he was just along for the ride.

Now, which way to go? The girl had run off in some direction, but she was going to the "Guard". Sounded like a military force, so not his business. And he wasn't sure which direction the main gate was in. Well. That meant he was a little lost. Ask for directions? Pah, that was a joke. Asking for directions was for people who couldn't find their way. He was a wolf, a natural-born tracker. The day he couldn't find his way out of a city was the day he'd skin his own hide. So he raised his muzzles in the air, giving a light sniff; his ears twitched lightly, catching small sounds off the wind. The smell of metal, and the faintest twinge of sweat; and the sounds of swords being checked in scabbards, the hilt of a spear clanging against a piece of armor. That would be where they were gathering at. Rain turned in that direction, moving down the street at a leisurely pace and garnering a wide berth from civilians nearby. All right, all was good.

"What?" Edward turned in his seat and saw a soldier announcing a message. "Well, I haven't had any work for some time....." Edward sighed, "I guess hot chocolate can wait." the Myrmidon got up out of his seat and headed towards the Guard barracks.

A small tremor, and the cacophonous ringing of a bell. Not the botched efforts of a simple bell-ringer, oh no. This was... this was much, much less than normal. Rei shuddered, rising to his feet as he tried to shrug off the discomfort. He couldn't have been the only one who heard that, so he expected Soren to be at least a little concerned, as well. When the Druid looked out the window, he let out a small gasp of shock. He'd seen all sorts of grotesque creatures, but he'd not seen anything like this, before!

While he'd heard about some sort of nightmarish bell tower monster from others in the Host Club, it was much, much more unnerving to behold than it was to imagine. In hardly an instant, Rei had decided that there would be no time to waste. He'd dismissed the call to arms to aid Estarcia as something he would not need to trouble himself with. Things would work themselves out in that little affair, and if he didn't have to go on an international hike just to destroy some poor souls that decided to ruffle the wrong feathers, more power to him.

But this conflict? Rei had no idea how many able-bodied combatants were out and about in the town, since a call to arms probably did away with most of the familiar faces. So, the Druid decided that it would probably be in the best interest of everyone in town if he gave a few blasts of arcane fury to this abomination. This, of course, led him to frantically pass by the table that he placed the tomes on, and take only two: Fenrir and Verrine. Between the both of those, he shouldn't be facing a shortage of magical energy any time soon, he hoped.

The Druid spun on the heel of his shoe, and began to walk for the door. As he gently turned the knob and swung the door open, Rei was met with fleeing civilians. Lucky commoners, they didn't have to actually fight anything or keep up on their various methods of destruction. Rei couldn't help but envy their simple lives, until he thought about how much crap they probably went through while the guildies were fighting for their lives. Yeah, tangent effectively shot and left for dead in the middle of some remote woods.

"I'll... I'll be back when this thing is dead, I guess!" Rei playfully said to nobody, before sprinting down the street, towards Molina's massive self. Already, he had that prodding feeling in the back of his skull that he'd forgotten something. Of course, he didn't forget about those rambunctious twins, but they'd be insane to wander about with this thing on the loose- Wait, they were a little insane. Rei irresponsibly shrugged it off, though. They couldn't engage in quirky antics if actual chaos was occurring... right? The Druid only laughed to himself and prepared a casting of Fenrir. As soon as he'd be close enough, Rei would unleash as much power as he could onto this monster, since something that pointlessly destructive would indeed need to be stopped, before it harmed somewhere important, like the manor or the library...

The bell was fairly familiar to Rhys, as well; after all, Renault was the Saint who brought the darn thing down. How could he not hear about it?

He'd been discussing matters with Host Club members~Party at the end of the event, how to rake in more gold, blah blah blah. They'd just gotten to the idea about having somebody pop out of a cake (seriously, nobody in Eyris would ever have suspected Rei popping out of a cake to flirt with customers!) when DONG... DONG... DONG...

Anybody could see it coming.

"Ahh, hell!"

Looked like he'd get his chance to "defend his wife" sooner than he'd have guessed. (On a side note, it also looked like Rhys COULD, in fact, curse.)

It also looked like he'd be using Antaram again, after all--the tome was already out in Rhys' hands by the time he bolted out the door. It's already open, he thought to himself as he ran outside. Was somebody else in here?

One person he hadn't been talking to was Rei.

But, if he couldn't see Rei, it was hard to miss Molina. He just needed to get a bit closer, and whack that bell again with Antaram. That should do the trick!

He could spot Rei and Nils--Rei seemed to be building up a Fenrir, and Nils was supporting Rei. Very well. Then he'd add his bit to this three-man vs. monster melee.

"Thousand petals, blowing... swirling, eternally! Antaram!"

No, the spell had not yet been changed (Rhys hadn't thought of anything to change it into, and he sometimes wondered if that's what Jyoti would have wanted). But it was still effective as ever, and the petals soared off towards Molina (as in the bell itself) like so many X-Wings toward the Death Star.

Even if the destinations of the Death Star and Molina were very different, the objectives of the X-Wings and the petals of Antaram were virtually the same.

Clara was making her way back to the Duke's head when it happened. She heard the bell ring. She turned around and looked at the tower. She could only see the tip of it though, so she got up in a tree to see more of it. She didn't know what was going on, but she was sure something wasn't right. Her hunch was right when she saw something come out off the bell.

"This isn't good." She mumbled. She saw more of the goo come out. She knew she was going to have to fight. She had stuff with her though. what was Clara going to do with that. As she was thinking about what to do with the stuff she bought she heard an explosion. The tower was falling. Her eyes widened as she saw it fall. She didn't even think about where she was going to put the stuff. Clara just went and hung the bag the held the stuff on a branch.

She saw the beast forming. She knew she needed to do something. She removed the weights that were on her ankles then the ones on her wrists. She was training to be a fast swordswoman after all. The weights also did help a little in the strength department as well, but speed was her main focus.

The ringing from the bell got worse. She saw the creature that was there. It was a big one. Clara looked a little scared, but she wasn't about to show it. She jumped out of the tree and ran to the creature with her sword in hand. Then came a scatter of petals. That must be a spell. When she got there, she noticed there were only 4 other people there to stay and fight. There was a green hair boy. He looked familiar. Then there was a guy with orange hair and white robes. There were also a guy and a girl with blue hair they look like they were for support.

"Does anyone have any idea what that thing is?" She asked as she took off her jacket and tossed it to the side. She then put a hand on the hilt of her sword.

I shall now demonstrate the law of Sacae...
all our tribesman banding together against our invaders!

Sue was at her bow shop, getting incredibly good business. People were crazed about the sales that were going on this time of year, so the Nomad Trooper decided to knock a few gold pieces off her prices. It did wonders for getting people to show up and look at hand-crafted nomadic bows. They were said to be more durable than the ones that traditional Learanian blacksmiths made.

And then the bell started to ring in an ominous tone. Normally, when bad things start to descend upon cities, the shop keepers wouldn't look up until whatever it was terrorizing them was already in front of them. Sue didn't stand around though, she quickly flipped the sign on the bow shop, and then grabbed one of the finer short bows she had made recently. She could make up for the costs much later.

Quickly getting upon her steed, Andre, Sue went against her instincts to run away from the monstrosity that anyone could see by now. She rode towards Molina, and even from a far away distance saw the colors and shapes that would be her friends when she got a lot closer. Rei, Nils, Ninian, Rhys, and a female myrmidon that the Nomad Trooper was not yet familiar with. "Everyone, tell me! What's happened... what in the name of Father Sky is that?!"

We're part of a story, part of a tale...

... Sometimes beautiful, sometimes insane...

... No one remembers how it began...