Golden Past with a Tarnished Future

[Matsi]

<i>The war of the witches, daemons and Magistrait had long since past. That generation was all gone, none of them left. The barrier between them and making the same mistakes, gone. What would come of such a thing? Would they repeat their mistakes? Or would life keep going on in the slow pace that it had been going at?</i>


"CEOL!"
"Rhapsody!"

Serge barked happily, just as his SeaEagle Daemon did the same. The young man and his Daemon that they were yelling at turned. Rhapsody, the golden wolf like daemon let out a bark of a greeting and bounded towards the large bird that just landed, just as Serge bounded towards the golden wolf's human.

It had been at least a month since Serge had last seen his friend. Being a Gyptian and all, he wasn't one to stay in one place for that long of a time period. So now that he was docked again here, well, he had to visit with his "friend".

"Serge! Kasson! It's so good to see you!" Ceol sang out as he was embraced by the slightly shorter young man. Serge was beaming brightly on the inside, but kept his outward appearance calm, yet happy. He had missed Ceol farrrr too much.

Kasson, the sea eagle daemon, walked awkwardly on the ground as the wolf Daemon poked and prodded at him with her nose in glee. Rhapsody was pleased to see her old friend, and the..."friend" of her person. They were a good pair indeed.

"What are you doing here, Serge?" Ceol asked as he was freed from Serge's grasp and stood tall. His silver-blonde hair was a mess and covered his eyes, but he ignored it. He had other things to worry about, after all.

"The ship is docked for about a week. Hit a reef. Did some damage to it. So HERE I AM!" Serge beamed slightly and threw his arms in the air for a moment, making Ceol roll his eyes. Such a flamboyant man, this one was.
"Well! How about we go grab some drinks? I just gotta drop this off at the Valentine household."

Serge blinked a few times.
"Who's that?" He asked as he cocked his head to the side and Kass fluttered up to his shoulder, where he was almost too big to sit.
Ceol shrugged.
"Just a family that I was hired by. I do a lot of errands for them, occasionally some baby sitting or escorting, but thats about it. My dad knew Mrs. Valentine. They were raised together in the orphanage, ya' know?" He smiled slightly and fumbled with the delivery object that was in his pocket. He didn't know what it was, but it was important apparently. Then again, he really didn't care if it was important. What he wasn't telling Serge was how he enjoyed seeing the Valentine girls. Sure, it was a bit of a change since he had last seen Serge... but that was alright.

"Why don't you come with me? It should be a quick run. Then we can head to the bar," He said smoothly. May not be the best idea, but it would hopefully keep Serge happy.

Serge thought about the offer for a moment, then looked up at Kass. The two nodded, and were soon following Ceol through the streets.

[Knight]

Roxine & Shadow
Aren & Reya

Aren knocked lightly at the door, leaning lazily against the frame as he waited for it to open. The Valentine household knew him fairly well. He was a good friend of Roxine, the daughter of the head of this lovely household. Her half-sister, Alicia Valentine and Vincent Valentine also inhabited the place. But it was Roxine and Shadow that Aren and his Reya had come to visit. Of course, Reya was half asleep, snuggled up in Aren's arms with one wing covering her big brown eyes. Her true form, which she had settled on some time ago, was that of a Giant Golden Flying Fox. She was, however, slightly out of the ordinary for most creatures of that species and more adjusted for diurnal life than the nocturnal life of her peers.

The door swung open and Vincent Valentine stood. The crimson eyed man narrowed his eyes at the sight of Aren, having expected someone else, for sure. His daemon, the bearded vulture Luyu hissed at Aren as Aren wandered inside. "Thank you, Mr. Valentine." Aren said with a nod, always conscious of being polite to the man that would kill him as soon as look at him. Vincent hardly approved of the amount of time that Aren spent around here, and he was half convinced that the man thought he was trying to make a move on his daughter. But the thought couldn't have been farther from his mind as Aren wandered up towards Roxine's room.

Knocking on the door (again), Aren chuckled as Reya blinked and shifted her wing. "Oh, we're here!" The daemon said happily, climbed easily onto Aren's shoulder as he nodded happily. "Yes, yes we are. Now we just to have to wait for Rox to hurry her butt--oh, hey Rox." Grinning guiltily, Aren rubbed the back of his head as Reya laughed at her human's silliness.

The girl stuck her tongue out at Aren, rolling her eyes irritably. "Aren, c'mon. Ceol's coming by soon and I need to spare him the irritation of my father. He's not going to be a good mood with you around." Like Aren, Roxine was quite aware of her father's opinion of her companion, but Vincent didn't like any guys that Roxine was friends with, people like Celit included. Though he did have a good reason to dislike Celit - the guy had dumped her for her sister and then broke up with Sidra too. So perhaps her father had double the reasons to hate Celit. But she and Celit were all right friends now, though she wasn't sure she wanted to get close to him again. But that drama was really a thing of the past, along with most of their group of friends.

Shaking her head absently, Roxine wandered out the door, her daemon Shadow padding along at her heels. The black wolf with bright golden eyes wagged his tail as he glanced up at Aren and Reya. He wasn't much of a talker when it came to other people, however, so the male wolf stuck close to Roxine as she wandered downstairs, Aren hot on her heels.

"Hey dad, we'll get whatever Ceol's bringing by today!" Roxine said as she wandered past her father. Vincent snorted, shaking his head, but he turned and wandered away upstairs without a word. Roxine heaved a sigh of relief and flopped down in one of the chairs, shoving her silver bangs out of her eyes as she glanced at Aren. "And what brings you to this neck of the woods, scholar boy?" Roxine teased with a grin.

Aren shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Is it a crime to just stop by and visit my friend?" He replied, absently scratching Reya's head. The flying fox had already curled up in his arms again and was absently waving one wing in the air, far too easily amused by herself. She was practically Aren's opposite in that respect, absorbed in herself and almost ditzy, in comparison with the observant Aren.

Roxine rolled her eyes, "Aren, if you came by just because you wanted to see me you would've wasted a hell of a trip. So just own up, pretty boy." She leaned down to scratch Shadow's head absently. The black wolf's tail wagged as he leaned against her side.

Sighing, Aren grinned. "You caught me. I need some help, Rox." He shifted Reya slightly in his arms before continuing. "There's this guy..." Aren trailed off absently, the meaning in his words unmistakeable.

And Roxine had to laugh. "You know I won't be any help, right? My last boyfriend dumped me for my sister." And last she'd checked, he was happily in love with a fortune teller, and she was truly happy before him. Besides, they had a very lovely errandboy of sorts and Roxine was happy with that. But she wasn't exactly experienced with guys.

Which was something that Aren didn't seem to understand.

[Matsi]

Serge was quiet as he followed Ceol to a fairly nice house. He snorted slightly. Houses were for the boring. He liked the open sea, where Kass could spread his wings and float along side of the ship. That was the real life. That was a real home... Well, thats what he thought at least. He hadn't really grasped the idea that "home was where the heart was", so he was missing out, not that he knew it.

Ceol hummed to himself as he wandered up to one of the doors and knocked lightly.
Serge only snorted slightly.
"What's wrong, Serge?" Kass asked as he adjusted his footing on his person's shoulder. The eagle's deep voice was low and quiet, barely auditable to his person.
Serge shook his head. Nothing was really wrong. He just... wanted to spend this time with Ceol, that was all. To make matters worse, he had a feeling that he wasn't going to like who Ceol worked for. What if it was another attractive guy? Worse yet, what if it was a woman?! Serge knew that Ceol wasn't totally like him, and that the young man still found women attractive, which disgusted him, but it also worried him. Had he been replaced? Was that why he took this delivery boy job?

When there was a small pause after his knock, Rhapsody scratched at the door and sniffed along the floor of it. Her golden tail waved happily as she could smell the scent of the familiar people and Daemons. But, there was another scent. Who was that?

Her blue eyes moved to look up at Ceol, and the young man looked down at her.
"What?" He asked, but Rhapsody only blinked and looked back at the door as the sound of it opening reached her ears.

"Afternoon, Miisssstttt.....Miss Valentine," Ceol said as he stumbled over his greeting. He wasn't expecting to have Roxine open the door. Typically it was her father or mother.

Serge glared. It was a woman...

[Knight]

The soft knock on the door rescued Roxine from anything too awkward. Shaking her head at Aren, she wandered towards the door, Shadow hot on her heels. The wolf's nostrils flared and the daemon's tail wagged slightly at the familiar scents that danced under his nose. He knew the people that stood at the door, if only in passing.

Rubbing Shadow's head absently, Roxine reached to open the door, blinking when her gaze settled on her father's favorite pet errand boy (otherwise known as Ceol) and a stranger. "Afternoon, Mister Ceol." Roxine answered his half stuttered greeting with a snort of amusement. She didn't think that she looked much like a mister. And Aren probably agreed with that statement, didn't he? Since he had never shown any attraction to her. Which was probably a good thing.

Shaking her head slightly, Roxine stepped aside, "Well, come in, come in." She gestured vaguely at Ceol and his companion, eyeing the man's bird daemon curiously. She wasn't sure what type of bird it was, in all honesty, but it was pretty interesting looking. Perhaps, then, he was a gyptian. After all, her father had been, for a little while, and his daemon reflected that. Well, most gyptians she had seen did have bird daemons. But they weren't like witches, where bird daemons were a requirement.

Aren had told her stories of a gyptian whose daemon had been a lazy, lethargic clouded leopard.

Speaking of Aren, the young man wandered towards the door as well, shifting Reya's weight awkwardly. She was a bit too large to be clinging to him like that. Not that he would have said anything like that to the other half of his soul. But Aren was distracted by the sight of a rather attractive blonde man standing outside their door. He raised an eyebrow, glancing at Roxine. "Which one is Ceol?" His voice was a half whisper, quiet but not inaudible if the other two were listening.

Roxine glanced at her friend, "The one with the weird hair." She muttered in reply. It didn't take much more clarification than that, honestly. Ceol's hair was quite distinctive, along with the rest of his appearance. But his hair was the first thing that many noticed, so it was the identifying attribute that she presented to Aren.

Ah. That was good, because he looked weird and the other guy was actually kind of cute, Aren thought to himself with a smirk. "Lovely to meet you two. My name's Aren, and this is Reya." He said smoothly, inclining his head as he stepped aside, hoping that they'd decide to come in. The blonde one was too cute for them to just be standing around outside.