Chapter 2

The sound of metal on metal caused the massive train to come to a screeching halt as it drew to a stop at Edelweiss Station. The clinking sound of the metal wheels making contact with the rail died away slow as the train stopped completely.

The loud horn sounded twice as the conductors set about opening the doors and allowing the passengers to jump off. As the main crowd moved off and the station was all but empty, a single annoyed conductor stood waiting to close the door to his carriage.

A fluffy gray Exceed, dressed in a blue hoodie and orange shorts, flew out. The Exceed was holding a flyer as well as carrying a bag. He seemed to be waiting on someone.

"Come on Faith, this is it. We're here." The Exceed called out excitedly.

"Slow down Kipper, you know how trains make me sick." A voice responded.

A young woman apprehensively exited the train holding onto her stomach as she stepped off. The slim yet curvy traveller managed to catch to the conductor's eye as she walked away, only for the conductor to earn a glare from the Exceed.

Catching her breath she set about tying her long pastel yellow hair into a ponytail that came to rest on her upper back. The amber eyed young woman wore a white halter top that showed her stomach and a red, high waisted skirt that flowed to above knee and with white roman sandals.

"Faith, it's chilly. You should put your hood on." Kipper said as he rummaged through the bag before tossing Faith a hooded red vest.

"I don't feel cold." Faith responded.

"Edelweiss City is known as the city of winds because of the different airstreams from the mountains that flow through it." Kipper explained.

"Fine, I'll put it on." Faith yielded putting on the red vest.

"Are you sure about this place?" Kipper asked as Faith took the bag and flyer from him.

Faith stared at the flyer which looked like it had been through a battle. "We were in Begonia Town; you were flying in the air causing mischief when this flyer flew into your face. I was just about to ask you if you wanted to join a guild when you came crashing into me with this."

"Maybe we would be better off joining a legal guild rather than an independent guild." Kipper suggested.

"Don't you know, independent guilds have more freedom? They don't have the council breathing down their necks." Faith responded. "Can I have my necklace now?"

"Normally you keep this very safe, why'd you give it to me today?" Kipper reached into his hoodie and pulled out a leather string necklace that had a sunset orange scale and a small dragons tooth on it.

"That train ride was pretty bumpy; I didn't want to mess it with my motion sickness." Faith said. "I'm still a little woozy, that's the price of travelling on the cheapest train available."

Kipper lifted his paw to hand back the necklace but as Faith reached out he quickly backed away.

"Kipper, what are you doing?" Faith asked.

"You've always been faster than me but after a train ride, I'm the faster one." Kipper boasted.

"Stop being so mischievous, my current state is only temporary remember." Faith reminded.

As Kipper reached up to hand the necklace to Faith a hooded figure ran between them, knocking down Kipper and pushing Faith aside. The person was clad in all back from head to toe.

"Just because you're in the city doesn't mean your manners go out the window!" Faith muttered.

"Faith, he grabbed your necklace!" Kipper shouted.

Without words, Faith took off running as Kipper activated Aera and flew after.

XXXXX

The second floor of the Howling Winds guild had several rooms; some still had beds and were reminiscent of how the place was when it was still an inn while the others were being used for storage.

Katherine had given Merric a single room in stay in while he found his feet in Edelweiss City. The temporary head of the guild had expected to get some work out of the young man but was left exasperated by the results.

"It's almost one o'clock and he still hasn't gotten up." Katherine muttered as she stared at Merric's door.

She knocked but got no response. Again she knocked but this time with more force and slight annoyance.

Not bothering to knock a third time she open the door determined to give the young man a piece of her mind. Whatever lecturer she had in mind went out the door when she opened the room.

Stacks of books and papers lay strewn across the room. The small desk that came in the room was covered in different maps and pens. The flyers that Merric was supposed to handing out were scattered around, he had been using the backs to scribble notes.

There on the single bed, wrapped in a blanket with a book over his head was Merric.

"Just look at him sleeping so peacefully. He must have spent all night reading." Katherine marvelled as she waved her hand.

Using minimal telekinesis she quickly pulled the blanket away, unravelling Merric and sending him crashing into the stack of books at his bed side.

"Ouch." Merric moaned as he picked himself up.

"You were supposed to be downstairs helping me five hours ago." Katherine scoffed.

"Five hours?" Merric muttered as he looked at his alarm clock. "This says its still 6am."

"That clock is not ticking." Katherine sighed.

"Huh, you're right." Merric replied examining the defective device.

"For a while I doubted whether you were Jagen's son but now I'm certain you are." Katherine complained. "So how's goes the recruitment process?"

"I handed out most of the flyers but the response has been lukewarm. Edelweiss is not a magical inclined city." Merric sighed.

"That's why your father choose this place. He said we could monopolise the work here." Katherine stated. "Where did all these books come from?"

"The room across the hall, these are my fathers." Merric yawned.

"Well, first you're going to clean up this room, then you're going to clean up yourself, then you're going to get back to looking for more members." Katherine stated. "Do you understand?"

"Yeah, yeah." Merric nodded.

"You better complete at least two of those or you're not getting dinner." Katherine added.

"What about breakfast and lunch?" Merric asked.

"You slept through those." Katherine pointed out.

XXXXX

Faith sprinted through the streets of Edelweiss giving chase to the thief who had snatched her necklace. She did her best to avoid people, ducking and weaving between them. Kipper flew overhead keeping track of the thief.

"It's like his a shadow." Faith cursed as pursued the thief.

Indeed the fleet footed chain snatcher did move like a shadow, light on his feet and agile beyond normal human limits. The thief snaked around a corner so swiftly it was as if he was part of the wall itself.

Faith skid on her tip toes as she tried to take the sharp turn and keep up but the blind corner turned out to be her downfall as she ran into someone. The impact of the collision saw Faith and the other person fall to the ground.

"Today is not my day." Merric moaned rubbing his hip.

"He's getting away!" Faith sprung up and ran when she saw Kipper waving frantically from the air.

"You should at least apologize when you knock someone over!" Merric yelled as he followed.

"I'm sorry okay; you don't have to follow me." Faith apologized as she glanced over her shoulder and saw Merric.

"You're forgiven but truthfully I'm more interested in that shadow." Merric admitted.

"You saw…" Faith paused as she jumped over shopping trolley. "…it?"

"It caught my eye around…" Merric responded as he copied Faith's leap. "The corner."

"He stole something important to me." Faith admitted as she cut across the street narrowly avoiding two carriages.

"Oh, so that shadows a th…" Merric wasn't so lucky and got clipped by the carriage tripping him.

Faith just gave Merric a glance but knew she couldn't afford to lose anymore ground so she continued running.

Merric picked himself up and covered his body in lightning effectively turning him into a living lightning bolt. "Lightning Boost!"

Faith continued to chase and felt as if she making ground as the thief came out of his shadow form and was now physical. She figured that he must have been running low on magic and was conserving it.

She wanted to resort to using magic to bring down the thief but knew as long as there were people around she couldn't unleash any of her strong spells without endangering anyone.

Her eyes lit up when she released that the shadow had turned onto an empty road with no one around to be hurt by excess fire. Faith gathered golden orange flames in her hand as slide to a stop so she could take aim and scorch the thief. The thief then reformed into a shadow on the ground.

"Faith! Dark alley up ahead!" Kipper screamed from above.

Faith hadn't gathered enough power, she needed a few seconds more but within those seconds she knew that the shadow would slip into the dark alley way and be lost to her. Before she could react a yellow flash of sparks blurred past her and put itself between the shadow and the alley way.

The bright sparks deterred the shadow away from the alley causing it to try and scurry across the road but now Faith was ready with her attack.

"Sun Dragons: Sun Flare Blast!" She called out as she threw the ball of flames and hit the shadow resulting in a burst of golden orange flames in the middle of the road.

Faith ran into the street and in the middle of the fading flames was her necklace.

"Did you kill him?" Kipper asked descending from the sky.

"No, the attack wasn't that strong. He must have ditched it; I guess he wasn't up for the trouble." Faith smirked. "Thanks for your help."

The sparks of lightning disappeared gradually as Merric approached Faith and Kipper. "No problem. Sucks we couldn't catch him."

"That's a pretty neat trick there mister." Kipper said.

"The names Merric, Merric Williams." Merric greeted.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kipper and this is Faith Greenfield." Kipper responded in kind.

Faith gave Merric a nod not really having anything more to say to the stranger.

"I should…" Merric mumbled before he keeled over.

"Are you alright?" Faith asked standing over Merric.

"I need to get back." Merric mumbled trying to get up.

"We'll help you." Kipper offered as Faith reluctantly agreed.

XXXXX

"I can't believe you collapsed in the middle of town because you were hungry. You're just as bad as your father." Katherine sighed as she placed another plate of rice in front of Merric. "I expected you to go to a restaurant or café if you were hungry."

Merric was sitting at one of the tables in the guild hall with Faith and Kipper.

"Using Lightning Boost kicks my whole body into overdrive, even my metabolism." Merric defended himself.

"Thank you for bringing him here." Katherine smiled at Faith and Kipper. "Are you sure I can't get you anything?"

"No thanks." Faith shook her head.

"We don't mean to be rude but we have somewhere we have to get to." Kipper explained.

"Oh, that's too bad. Again, thank you." Katherine replied.

Faith and Kipper got up and were on their way out as Katherine pulled out a larger piece of light grey material.

"When you're done eating I want you to hang this outside." Katherine said unravelling the banner to reveal the Howling Winds guild mark in white.

"That symbol!" Faith exclaimed before covering her mouth.

"This is Howling Winds guild?" Kipper asked as he pulled out the flyer from his hoodie.

"Yes, the one and only." Katherine stated.

"I thought this was an inn." Faith chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Merric asked as he ate a spoonful.

"Don't chew with your mouth open." Katherine scolded.

"We came to Edelweiss to look for Howling Winds, we want to join. This flyer reached us all the way in Begonia so we took it as a sign." Faith answered.

"I guess you did do a good job." Katherine complimented as she walked behind the bar counter and pulled out the guild stamp. "What colour do want your guild mark and where?"

Faith thought hard as she walked up to the bar counter. "Orange and on the back of my neck." She said as she moved her hair aside.

"Same for me." Kipper exclaimed removing his hoodie.

"This feels strange, being part of a guild at last." Faith remarked.

"I guess it's time for some proper introductions." Katherine spoke.

"Right, my name is Faith Greenfield, I'm 23 years old. My magic is Sun dragon slayer magic and this is my Exceed Kipper." Faith introduced loudly and formally.

"You already know me, Merric Williams, 19, I use lightning magic." Merric said.

"And I'm Katherine. I'm currently in charge until the current guild master, Merric's father returns." Katherine added.

"I have to say, you look so young considering you have a son Merric's age." Faith complimented.

To this Merric burst out laughing.

"Merric is not my son. I'm your age Faith, I'm twenty three." Katherine shrieked as she pulled out a palm mirror from behind the bar counter and began checking her face for wrinkles.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you." Faith tried to apologize.

"Just be glad she didn't send a plate flying at you." Merric commented.

XXXXX

The dimly lit streets of Laburnum Town offered little in way of shelter from the harsh winter snowfall that fell over the town. The only place that offered refuge for a person who had little to no money was a dingy 24/7 diner.

A young girl trudged through the snow and entered the small establishment to try and warm up. As she walked through the threshold she could instantly feel the difference. When she entered the diner and was not surprised that the inside matched the outside.

The windows were smudged and not well maintained. The pies left on the counter under glass domes appeared to be a few days old. The tables were made from cheap Formica tabletops with chips, scratches and names carved in them.

Behind the main counter was a gum-chewing waitress in a one-colour uniform holding a coffee pot and she was pretty much bored out of her mind.

Compared to the other more thug-like patrons, this young light brown haired girl with two short pigtails stuck out like a sore thumb. Dressed in only a light green shirt and jeans she shivered as she sat in a booth and watched the door.

The smell meat grilling made her stomach rumble but after examining her small purse she only had enough money for a cup of coffee.

The waitress poured the girl a small cup of filter coffee before returning to her station. The girl picked up the hot cup of coffee and took a sip before the sound of the door opening caught her attention.

Two brutish men entered the diner but only found an empty booth with a hot cup of coffee on it and no girl.


Authors Note:

I hope I did well on this chapter. Going forward I will try and introduce more OCs in chapters during this Introduction Story Arc.

If you have any comments, criticisms or thoughts, leave them in a review.

If you think I'm not portraying your OC's personality properly, let me know so I can improve on it.

OC submission:

All the OC's submitted so far (pre-23 Oct. 14) will appear in the first 9 chapters which is the Introduction Story Arc (if everything goes according to plan).

I'm opening the OC submission again for characters that will appear from chapter 10 onwards. Use the form on chapter 1.