Bonding Time!

by placedesiredname

Even though all of them were capable of working together in perfect synchronisation during combat, Lunaris could feel the emotional detachment they had. For her, that was a big no-no since if Lunaris was going to be part of a group, she was going to be part of a close-knitted group. Thus, she took it upon herself to plan an outing. It seems as if fate had another plan.

This was written for animefave1

Keep in mind that this takes place before the rebellion so all twelve of the Guardians of the Gods are in their 'four star forms' and thus, are really weak. Take for example, Lunaris is just 'Dark Curse Lunaris' and is not yet 'Black Lotus Lunaris'.

Disclaimer: I do not own Brave Frontier. What I do own is my Brave Frontier account with my units in it.

*Story starts*

"The stars, where they ever this bright and pretty?" Ramna inquired with a breathy sigh. How long had it been since she had last seen the open sky outside of the bustling city?

"I don't think I've ever seen a sight this alluring in my life. We should do this more often," Farlon half-replied, in a slight daze. He felt mesmerised by the glowing sky above him, and he was sure that he was not the only one that felt that way.

Once again, it was a starry night, yet some individuals were only experiencing it for the first time that night. The large expanse of sky above glittered and shimmered, the incandescent bodies like the sun twinkling every now and then. This view could only be fully appreciated if a person was separated from the multitudes of towering buildings confined to the city which unfortunately, was where most of them had lived out their adolescent lives in.

Fortunately, the lovely vision was not wasted but admired that night by none other than the prominent figures from the well-known group highly regarded as the 12 Guardians of the Gods. All of them, even Rina and Zephyr, had to take a few moments just to breathe in the view.

Lunaris, being the responsible, mother-figure of the large group, had decided once and for all that the lot of them were too far apart and not nearly as close-knitted enough to be thought of as friends. Thus, she had planned out a night camp on a whim.

Of course, since it couldn't be taken for granted that the rest of them would agree to go on such an outing when it was not a compulsory thing, Lunaris had taken it upon herself to convince each and every one of them to make time for the sudden trip.

She could still remember the frustrations she went through to persuade most of their members, such as the capricious and whimsical Luly, or the practice-orientated and anti-social Ophelia to set aside a whole night away from their headquarters to spend time with the entire group. She even had to plead to Sodis to induce some of them, such as Signas, since with her being antisocial to everyone other than Sodis himself, Lunaris knew that she had no chance to get a grasp of the free-willed female.

To be fair, Lunaris realised how unreasonable she was being with her request to pull the whole group away from their cozy and snug homes just for some 'play-date' with its purpose incomprehensible by more than half of them. Most of them were so focused on their jobs that it seemed plain impossible that she could drag them all away from their work for an evening.

Thankfully, she managed get their word that they would show up. She could have only hoped that none of them would pull away at the last minute for whatever reason.

But that mattered little now that they had all settled down on their decided spot without too much of a fuss kicking up, disregarding the petty one-sided arguments between some of them since that was the norm.

"So, what's our sleeping arrangements? How many tents are there?" Rina abruptly cut in after she had snapped out of her dreamlike state. No matter how prepossessing of a sight the starry sky was, her priorities were set in order.

"I have brought my own tent. I'm going to stay by myself in it," Signas informed Lunaris. "There's no need to count me in on your prepared sleeping arrangements."

Zephyr head nodded in agreement. He disliked sharing stuff so he had the insight to bring along his own tent to avoid having to share with anyone else. It was habitual of him to always be prepared for anything so that in the case that he needed something, he did not have to ask someone else to borrow it.

The dark outline of the woman clad in black could be seen wincing. She had been so caught up with planning everything that she had completely forgot about that. She glanced to Sodis in a silent plea for help. She hoped that he had something, anything that could help.

Unfortunately, either he did not recognise her plea or had nothing to help her. His stoic persona could be perceived as either way but Lunaris knew Sodis too well to not understand that she could turn to Sodis for any help for that matter. That could only mean that she would have to admit to her unintentional mistake in front of all of them. At worse, she would have to call off this whole thing if no solution could be found.

Making the decision to not be frightened, she vocalised her inner conflict, "To tell the truth, I have completely forgotten to bring any tents. For that matter, I didn't bring any sleeping bags either."

Cue the shocked expressions and the gaping mouths from the more expressive members of the group. Lunaris could practically read their minds. The Lunaris, had forgotten something? Unheard of. And what were they supposed to sleep in if there were not any tents? Sure, they could survive through it since all of them were trained warriors but this was supposed to be a fun night out, not an uncomfortable one. Surely, they couldn't all fit into two small tents meant for, at most two.

Even if they were not in any danger from anything out in the wilderness, what if it rained? Even if they were strong enough to fight against enemies ten times their sizes, hypothermia was not so easily defeated. Not to add in all the bacteria floating around on the soil. Getting sick was not a laughing matter if it could put any one of their lives in danger.

Plus, the concept that what they were lying on could be animal poop was frightening in on itself.

Glances were thrown at each other. Maybe they should just call this off and let bygones be bygones. Rina voiced that exact thought out.

"I don't think that this is a good idea. We should just head back to the headquarters. I don't think that this is worth the risk." Even if Rina supported Lunaris's line of thought to some extent, the drawbacks to her plan could be crippling. After all, one never knew with how fickle the gods could be. There could be peace and normality one day, where the next could be brimming with fights amongst the gods. All 12 of them had to be fully prepared for what the next day could bring.

But Lunaris was not to be so easily sidetracked. This kind of group outing was only seen once in a blue moon, that is, never at all. She had to find some way to get tents or even sleeping bags would do. She could not possibly depend on Signas's or Zephyr's tents to fit in all of them. If only there was a passing god that could help them.

Suddenly, there was a loud boom and a crash that followed it. All the members of the 12 Guardians of the Gods quickly fell into defensive stances as they sought out the cause of the unnatural sound. Even though it was nighttime and therefore there was no light source other than the moon, Lunaris, being the master of shadows, could perfectly make out the figure of an unarmed, small female. Since she had been trained to never underestimate enemies, her guard was not let down even if the girl was little.

She quickly signaled to the rest of the group that she wanted them to stay back while she checked out the 'intruder'.

Keeping herself low, she slowly made her way to the figure in the dark, trying to come off as unthreatening. Finally closing the distance to a fair ten metres, Lunaris called out to the female.

"Excuse me but, can you be so kind as to inform me who you are?"

The figure brushed her long hair to the side while replying," Would you be so kind as to tell me who you are? Don't you know any manners old aunt?"

Her mauve coloured hair glinted in the dim light from the stars and the moon. Her face was devoid of any noticeable imperfections and her slim and lithe figure was graceful, giving Lunaris the impression that she was a tiny ballerina doll. Her eyes were of a deep purple-ish blue that shone like the stars. The attire of the svelte and willowy female could only be described as a singular colour which was purple. Dark purple. Very dark purple. It was apparent that her favourite colour was purple. Even if they did share similar interests in colours...

At that 'old aunt' comment, Lunaris felt herself stiffening. Did she look that old? She was sure that even if she looked older than her age, she was still in her early twenties. She had failed to recognise that it was dark and that the girl probably couldn't even see her face.

Calming herself down after the initial feeling of defiance, her serene voice rang throughout the quiet grasslands. After all, the eleven guardians were doing their best to remain quiet until any sign of danger. "You can call me Lunaris. May I know who you are?"

"Weellll… just call me Crystina, everyone does here. And by the way, that loud noise just now? That was the sound of my merchandise," the one dubbed as Crystina answered with her impish and haughty tone of voice, causing her to sound pretty irritating to the listeners.

She pointed to a previously unseen mass. It was pretty amazing how none of them had noticed it considering that it was more than twice Crystina's size. The bulky thing had what looked to be rods sticking out every which way. It was no wonder that the thing had created so much noise because it looked to be packed in a very wild manner.

"Soooo, do any of you guys want to buy these items. Their all on sale tonight, great deal. And let me tell you, I myself am a pretty well know seller renowned for selling only the top quality merchandise for a cheap price," Crystina continued with that condescending and patronising voice of hers. It was as if she was purposely trying to get on their bad sides.

And wait, what? Lunaris recalled her referring to them in plural, so that meant that she knew that they were there. That showed that either she was greatly skilled to be capable of doing that or Luly did not even bother trying to hide herself from Crystina. She never knew when such a troublemaker was in the group. Both ways, there was no reason to hide anymore seeing that Crystina did not come off as a direct enemy of their group and she already knew that there were more of them.

Lunaris could already see most of them stepping out of their somewhat crouches, throwing away any pretense of there being only Lunaris.

"Wh-What?! Why are there so many of you guys? I only saw Lunaris along with that small girl!" Crystina cried out in astonishment. She made some exaggerated movements of surprise, presumably to further enhance her incredulity.

Welp. That was just a waste. Though maybe that was for the better to reveal themselves sooner than later to avoid suspicions. Well, it was not like they weren't suspicious in the first place. Unless, Crystina was really that gullible.

"We are the servants of the gods, the 12 Guardians of the Gods. We are here not on a request from a god but on an outing together. Currently, we are facing the problem of the lack of sufficient tents or sleeping bags. I don't suppose that you carry any of the named items on you, do you?" Sodis, taking the role of the leader from there, stepped forward to be within touching distance of Crystina.

"You're just in luck then, I have just the correct wares with me," Crystina was back to her pompous attitude with her smirks and her confident flipping of bangs. The fact that she was in the presence of the well known group was seemingly disregarded.

She pulled out the canvas and steel rods from under the giant fabric covering her commodities.

"For a price of a favour from your whole group, I'll give you my two largest tents that would surely be capable of accommodating all of you. Great deal huh?" Crystina uncaringly thrust out what must be at least worth half a million zel.

Even faced with such a deal, Sodis was not easily tempted by her crafty nature and instead tried to bargain for something that was not so large as a favour.

"I can just pay out front for your goods instead of your price. I have some zel with me now which I'm sure would be more than enough to pay you," Sodis refused Crystina's set price of an unknown favour.

Unfortunately for him, Crystina was not about to take a no for an answer. Here on out, Crystina diverted from what a real seller acted like. Instead she forwent her previously haughty personality and started acting as if an entirely different person.

"Sodis, my old, old friend. Don't you see what I'm offering you? This could be your chance of a lifetime to be able to actually owe a favour to someone as great as I. I'm used to getting what I want, and you're not about to change that. What I want is the capability to call on your group at any given time and have you serve me. I'm even giving you my handcrafted merchandise, what more could you want? Are you really going to deny me this?" Crystina demanded, like the context of what she was saying, she was speaking in arrogant tone of voice, as if expecting them to agree with her. The underlying threat in her words were not missed by any of the guardians.

Lunaris could feel the anger burning inside of everyone, and she was sure that Sodis could too. The silent protests could be heard as clear as a bell. What right did Crystina have to speak in such a fashion. Only gods had the right to do that, and even they were cautious about it. Their inaudible rage at Crystina blinded them from discerning that she had known Sodis's name even though he had not introduced himself. Only the sharp-witted Zephyr caught that tiny piece of information before he filed that away.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but the manner that you are speaking in is very impolite and rude. I get that you want me to agree with you, but for this matter, I will have to disagree in that I cannot accept your proposal. We hold the right to attack you now that you have made your underlying threat to us," Sodis retorted, making sure to keep his tone as serene and calm as possible even though he was boiling with rage inside. He did not voice the vulgarities and expletives that he thought on the inside since propriety and duty came as a priority.

All twelve of them had fallen back into slightly defensive stances, ready to attack on command. Even though they had come prepared for a camp, all of them had brought their weapons along in case of surprise attacks from their enemies. None of them knew who Crystina truly was, as according to her plan. To carry out her intentions, she only needed to prod their patience once more before they all snapped.

In a fashion that only a true mastermind could act in, Crystina continued to speak. "As if you bunch of freaky, guardian-wannabies could ever hope to take me on and win. I'll have you know that I have slain countless of gods prior to now. While you may think that you guys are the cream of the crop, the hard truth is that you're all just for show. Just a bunch of losers who can't fight to save your lives, let alone mighty gods. I'm going to be brutally honest with you that the chances of you winning against me is zero percent. It'll be the best to just go along with my demands."

Even if Sodis was supposed to be a rational and calm leader, he could not deny that currently, all he wanted to was walk up to Crystina and strangle her. Those feelings were encouraged by the fact that he knew that the rest of the guardians felt the same. Thus, it only took a moment of hesitation before Sodis readied his two axes and charged straight at her followed only a second later by the rest of the guardians with their respective weapons of choice.

The brief clash, if it could even be called a clash, was overwhelming. The difference in strength vast and tremendous that it would have been an insult to Crystina to call the beat down a fair fight.

The twelve fighters together were hopelessly overpowered by the single sylphlike frame. The fight was so short that if you blinked, you'd miss it.

A tremendous gust of wind had been cast at them, causing small cuts and scratches while simultaneously pushing them back. After the initial wind, something akin to a small tornado had formed, sweeping all the guardians off their feet and onto their backs. They had continued to get up on their feet but the waves after waves of forceful air caused them to lay battered and beaten on the green grass. They were helpless against the intangible weapon. Even the great magical powers of Luly could not help them against the attacks.

They lay panting and wheezing on the ground, hapless heaps of bodies powerless. Even the most rained of them could not help but gasp for air. It felt to them as if the oxygen in the air was suddenly exhausted. Like the oxygen was no longer 21 percent of the air but instead a meager 1. What was the extent of Crystina's powers? What was minutes seemed like hours to them as the oxygen depletion got to their heads and they began to feel drowsy with dizziness setting in.

"Do you now see the difference in our powers? Trying to stand up to me was a foolish thing to do indeed," Crystina smugly said. Noticing that none of the figures lying on the grass were paying her any attention, she tsked and with a dramatic flourish of her fingers, the dense air became full of oxygen again.

All of them took in a deep breath of air again, relieved to find that they could breathe in the sweet air again. Their purple faces soon returned to their original colours within the few minutes that Crystina gave them to recover. Not allowing themselves to appear weak or indisposed even after their loss, they quickly got to their feet again. The sudden rush of dizziness once they stood up left them swaying to the sides and speechless once Crystina began to speak once again.

"Now that you guys are conscious, I can finally speak to you. You all don't have a clue who I am do you? You think that I'm just some random country folk. The truth is that I'm actually the Gale Goddess Crystina, manipulator of all things air. Any questions before I go on?"

Ramna's jaw dropped open. She had heard of the mystical goddess Crystina who was shrouded in mystery. She had thought that it was just a myth passed along by her ancestors so she had never thought that she was real.

"You're the Crystina? The woman who is rumoured to be the saviour of my forefathers? That Crystina? I thought that you were just someone made up!" Ramna shouted in surprise.

"Girl, you're a thousand years too early to be addressing me so informally. Show some respect to those higher than you. I thought you were supposed to be a guardian of the gods? Aka, me? Come back when you yourself make a goddess," Crystina replied, shedding her previous personality and taking up a calmer, more mature one.

Realising the disrespect that she had just shown a goddess, Ramna turned a bright shade of red as she his her face behind her blue bangs.

Deciding that it was his turn to speak up, Alyut asked," Is there a specific reason that you dressed as a commoner and attacked us? Was this a test of our skill?"

Crystina snorted, trying but failing to stifle her laughter at the absurdity of Alyut's thought. She tried to regain her previous stonelike face but failed miserably as she degraded into full blown laughter. She obviously was not comfortable making stern faces.

Glances were thrown between each other. What exactly was so hilarious to Crystina? They did not get it at all.

"Excuse me, but could you answer my question? I don't see what's so funny about what I said," Alyut asked, clueless about her thoughts.

Crystina gasped, tying to get her breath back after her not so dignified roll on the dirty ground. "S-S-Sorry, b-but what you said, it's just too much." She reverted back to her previous laughter, unable to control herself.

If they did not have doubts about Crystina's mentality by now, they sure did then. I mean, she had switched personalities so much by then that they were 100% sure that she was crazy. Even then, they could not afford to ignore her even when in her fit of laughter because of the large difference in power that she had were only able to stand there awkwardly.

Even after a gracious two minutes, Crystina was still panted with the occasion giggle here and there. It really made her seem immature and unlike the personality she had tried and failed to take on just now. As if she had just realised what a position she was in, she quickly straightened up and tried to brush off the soil off her clothes. Her face fell into emotionless facade once again, making everyone present really question her mentality.

"I'm sorry for what you guardians had to see. I assure you, I do not usually act that unruly. Allow me tell you my true intention of this visit. The gods have decided on something important after a long drawn debate that had lasted over the past century."

I have to warn you that there is a high chance of war in the near future, and many deaths of gods and humans alike would occur if so. After witnessing firsthand the extent of your power, I have no doubt that you would be including in that death toll."

While I am prevented from giving you the details, what I cando is give you ample warning. I expect you to surpass your current level of skill to attain powers alike to a god. Be prepared for the fight, as it could happen anywhere between next week, or the next decade," Crystina gave them a small, comforting smile.

"It would be sad to see such lively and powerful spirits pass away before they reach their prime. I can already imagine the greatness that you can achieve. Have faith in yourselves, and remember to fight for the greater cause in this upcoming war," Crystina assured.

"Any questions?" She was back to her original bubbly self.

She left a beat of silence before she continued on,"No? Well then, I'll be off. Don't forget the tents the next time, I won't always be here to provide for you if you overlook this again."

All of the unasked questions continued to rage in their minds. Who exactly was Crystina? Why did she warn them? What did she mean by 'join the greater cause'? Who was taking part in the war? Was the war gods vs. humans? Could they trust her words?

It seemed as if all those would be unanswered. Instead of staying broody along with the rest, Grybe went on to find the tents that Crystina had left behind. They all lay neatly piled on top of each other a fair distance away, making it simple for Grybe to pick the tents up to bring them back to their undestroyed campsite.

The whole group silently made up the 8 tents, filing away in their own order without any loud or brash conversations going on. Signas in her own, Sodis and Alyut sharing another, Raydn and Farlon taking up another, Luly boarding with Lunaris and a private one for Zephyr. Ophelia and Rina took another one with Grybe and Ramna in their own, separate tents. The atmosphere was subdued, and Lunaris felt like the camp had been ruined.

Despite the setbacks that today had, she was already planning in her mind how to improve the next get-together. After all, how could Lunaris allow herself to give up after one failure?

With the presence of the knowledge of the war looming over them, it was not surprising that they could not find sleep easily. Instead, they all lay awake, thinking of the improvements they needed and the power gap between them and a real goddess.

Even with the threat of death, they all managed to get their well deserved rest after the long, tiring day. What would happen next would be entirely up to the gods, not them. They could only find peace in the fact that they were one as a whole, an undivided team of twelve.

Little did they know that soon, even that small comfort would be gone since they would quickly split into two warring teams. But that's an entirely different story.

*Story Ends*

Notes: I had no idea where I was going when I wrote this. I originally was going to have Crystina be a ditsy blonde girl who just so had tents with her and generously decided to give them to Lunaris and co. As you can see, that did not happen at all. In my opinion, this turned out pretty horrible since I did not have many units actively playing a part in this.

My Brave Frontier account info:

Player name: PDNnH

Player ID: 1720938878

Usual leaders: (A) Ultor, (L) Zelnite

Current level: 152

Current Arena rank: Cherubium

Add me if your usual leader is Elza/Zelnite/Tridon/Ultor.

Notes: I had no idea where I was going when I wrote this. I originally was going to have Crystina be a ditsy blonde girl who generously had tents with her and decided to give them to Lunaris and co. As you can see, that did not happen at all. I give a shoutout to animefave1 who inspired me to write this fic. In my opinion, this turned out pretty horrible since I did not have many units actively playing a part in this.