August 16th, X799, 8AM: Poppy Village

"Oh, wow! What a cute little town!"

A young, excitable boy was currently walking down the western road of Poppy Village, his shining brown eyes stopping on every one of the quaint little buildings for a second before he continued to walk. Said boy was surprisingly seventeen years old, with tanned skin and a round, childlike face and short, wavy dark red hair. He stood at 5'5'' and was dressed in a navy blue jacket with fluffy, white trim along the edge of the hood, over a white t-shirt, dark blue suspenders that were holding up black shorts and dark blue ankle boots. His hands were covered by white gloves.

Even though one may assume that the boy was simply awestruck by the sleepy village, he was actually looking for something. Specifically a building that he heard about in the town closest to the west of Poppy.

"Hey, stranger!" Anna called out as soon as the smaller boy passed the Sprout Café. She was outside sweeping the small landing in front of the door and she smiled brightly at the young boy. "You look a bit lost."

The boy turned to her and greeted her with a friendly wave, practically bouncing over to her. "I'm not lost! I came here looking for a place called Goblin Grin!"

Anna's eyes widened for a moment and then she beamed giddily at the boy. "Well, it's right down the southern road, near the edge of town. It'll be on your left!" She pointed towards the southern road on the town square, which could be seen from the café.

He followed her gesture and then nodded. "Thank you so much! You're so kind!" he said with a small bow of his head as he turned towards the path.

"Tell the guild master that Anna said, 'Hi!'," she called as the boy walked off. "Tik is going to be so happy~!" She cheered under her breath, her eyes sparkling.

The small male walked through the town square, waving to a few people whose eyes seemed to linger on him. Even though the villagers looked a tad wary, the boy's smile was contagious, so they returned his friendly gesture and some even greeted him with friendly a friendly, "G'morning!"

He walked down the southern path, his eyes fixed on the mountains that stood over the town. He made his way to the end of the road, his eyes now locking on the buildings to his left. His eyes eventually landed on the rickety sign that read "Goblin Grin" and he grinned. "I found it!" He ran up to the entrance and knocked loudly on the door.

Silence.

He knocked again, while speaking under his breath. "Hmm… Maybe no one has arrived yet." It was fairly early in the morning. Maybe the Goblin Grin mages were late risers.

His eyes lit up when he heard moving in the building. It sounded as though someone was stomping around and after a few minutes, the door was swung open and Tik was staring down at the small boy.

It was obvious that the guild master had previously been asleep, as her hair was messy and the braid in the front was only loosely spun at this point. "Good… Morning…" Tik yawned, swiping tears away from her eyes.

"Good morning! My name is Carlos Riore and I would like to speak to the Goblin Grin guild master," the boy said, his eyes sparkling. He seemed to be oblivious to Tik's slightly grouchy demeanor.

Not that it mattered, because the moment she heard the boy's words, she perked up, practically shining as she placed her hands on her hips and stood up straight. "Well, you're lookin' at her! I'm Tik, the founder an' first guild master of Goblin Grin! Future toughest guild in Fiore!"

"Wow…" Carlos breathed out, his eyes wide and childlike. "The future toughest guild in Fiore… With such an awesome guild master, I'm sure it will be the toughest in no time!"

"Damn straight!" Tik said triumphantly. "Anyway, Carlos, what's your business with my guild today?"

"I would like to join your guild," Carlos said humbly.

Tik's jaw dropped. "My first guild member…" she mumbled under her breath. When Carlos tilted his head in a puppy-like fashion, she cleared her throat. "Well, welcome to Goblin Grin, Carlos!" She stepped out of the doorway and once Carlos entered the building, she closed the door.

"Did this used to be a café?" Carlos inquired, his eyes skimming the entire first floor.

"Yep," Tik answered, rubbing the back of her head and walking over to the counter, sitting on top of it and stretching. "Oh, right… Guild mark…" She mumbled under her breath, hopping up.

"I'll be right back, kiddo," she said, heading up the stairs.

Carlos nodded and sat down at one of tables.

Tik came back down with a large stamp in her hand and a grin on her face. "I gotta give you your guild mark. So, where do ya want it and what color?"

Carlos stood and tilted his head to where the front-left side of his neck was exposed. "On my neck and really pretty, aqua blue!"

"'Kay," Tik said, pressing the stamp to his neck. A few pale blue sparkles floated around it and when she removed it, there was an aquamarine blue asterisk on Carlos's neck. "Welcome to Goblin Grin!"

"Yay! I'm so excited!" Carlos said, running his fingers over the guild mark. Knowing it was there made him happy. "I'm sure we'll be best friends, Tik!"

Tik grinned. "Yep!" She sat down on top of a table and leaned back on her palms. "You sure are excitable, aren'tcha?"

"I'm just so happy! I can wait to meet more of my guild mates," Carlos said, bouncing on his heels.

A drop of sweat rolled down Tik's forehead at the mention of more guild mates. "Tch. Yeah, about that… You're kinda the first member, other than me…"

"Oh. Really? I'm the first normal member of the guild?" He asked, bouncing on his heels even more. "That's so cool!"

Tik chuckled under her breath, watching the boy with slightly concerned eyes. She wasn't sure why, but the boy reminded her of a puppy… So damn happy and bouncy! Not that it bothered her. It was better than getting someone who didn't want to talk for her first member. "Oh! Right. I need to give you a quick tour o' the guild," she said, standing again. She blamed her airheaded-ness on the fact that she hadn't had time to wake up yet. "It ain't much, but it's a guild hall!"

"Okay," Carlos said, following her into the kitchen, to the hall where the bathrooms were, upstairs and then finally, into the basement.

The guild master stopped in the middle of the room and sighed. "Do you got a place to stay in town, Carlos?"

"Nope," Carlos responded. While most people would probably be a bit let-down by the state of the guild hall, he was giddy. It was a guild hall! With a bit of furniture! And a kitchen! And soon he would make lots of friends! It was perfect!

"Well, you're welcomed to stay here, with me and whoever else!" she responded, pointing to the beds. "That one is mine!" she added.

Carlos skipped over to the bedroll that was to right of Tik's roll, near the eastern wall of the cellar. There was one empty bedroll beside him, so he would have people on both sides of him later. "Then this one will be mine."

Tik grinned and reached into her pocket, pulling out a keyring. She then plucked off two keys and handed them to him. "The bigger one goes to th' guild hall and the smaller one is for your lockbox! You don't gotta pay rent until we start gettin' more missions. If you need money, you'll have t' go around town with me and work!"

"I'll get to meet everyone in the town that way!" he said with a bright smile. He then surprised Tik by running over to her and hugging her, tightly. "You're such a great guild master, Tik!"

She wanted to thank him, but his hug was so tight that she couldn't breathe. "Tch…" She winced, pressing her hands to his shoulders and pushing. When she felt how hard his arms felt, she wheezed. "C-Car-Carlos…"

"Oh, sorry!" He apologized, bouncing back. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"

There were already bruises setting in on Tik's torso and she sighed, grimacing. "What the hell? Are your arms like, fuckin' metal or somethin'?" she asked a bit rudely.

"Yep!" Carlos responded, shrugging his jacket off to reveal that his arms were made of silver metal, with the joints covered in black, leathery material. There were ventilation slits on the forearms and large, clear lacrima on the shoulder plates. "See?" he asked, slipping his gloves off as well to completely unveil his arms.

"Oh," Tik said, blinking. She hadn't expected his arms to actually be metal. She noticed the lacrima and then chewed her lip for a moment. "What're the lacrima for?"

"They allow me to channel my magic into my arms. It's called Cyber Arm Magic!" he explained. "Like this!" He then held his palm out and after a few seconds of charging, a bright blue magic bullet shot from his palm and almost instantly blasted a small hole in the western wall of the basement.

Tik gawked for a good minute before shouting, "That's so fuckin' awesome!"

"I know! My arms make me super-strong in combat!" Carlos said, clapping his hands together. "I can't wait to fight something!"

"I'm sure we'll get a mission, soon!" Tik said. With both of the mages hyped up at that moment, it was quite possible that they could be heard from outside of the building, too. She calmed down for just a moment and suggested, "Why don't we go walk around Poppy some? Try to do some advertising, or somethin' like that."

"Okay!"


The two Goblin mages left the guild hall and walked around the town after that. In between talking to the villagers of Poppy and making sure that their guild was known, Carlos asked Tik some random questions.

"So… Tik… How long has you been a guild master?"

"Not even a month," Tik responded with a smirk.

"What'd you do before you were a guild master?"

"I was a member of a guild called God Hand! It was a really, really awesome guild with some of the most badass mages around!"

"Really?" Carlos asked, the same sparkle returning to his eyes. "We should go there one day and train with them!"

Tik's face dropped for a second. "Me and th' guild master ain't really getting along too well right now," she said lazily. She then curled her hands into tight fists. "That bastard and his smug ass face!"

"Hm? I'm sure you two could overcome your differences if you tried," Carlos said, patting Tik on the shoulder. He had put his jacket and gloves back on, but now that she knew, the woman could feel how his hands were cold and hard.

"Tch." A vein swelled on Tik's forehead. "Not until I can rub it in his face how damn awesome Goblin Grin is!"

"What're some of your favorite things?" Carlos asked, changing the topic almost instantly, his mind bouncing between questions. "And what's your magic?"

"I dunno. I like bright colors, warm weather and meat," Tik said with a shrug. "And I use Hazard Magic! The best damn Hazard magic around, to be exact!"

"That's so great! I bet you're really strong, too! You've got such nice muscles!"

Tik laughed. "You betcha'. I was right on my way to S-class back in God Hand!"

"Wow!"

He kept on with the questions until Tik finally let out a long sigh and stopped in front of the Sprout Café. "We're gonna work here for th' day. Why don't you try askin' Anna some of your questions?"

Carlos's eyes lingered on the café until a thought flashed in them. "Anna says 'Hi.' She told me to tell you that when she pointed me to the guild hall."

Tik chuckled under her breath, entering the café. She liked Carlos; she had no reason not to like him, but he asked a lot of questions and she was almost certain that he had more energy than anyone she had ever met before.

The villagers of Poppy seemed to agree with Tik as well. Anna let him help her with taking orders while she served food, stating the bow may be a bit too bouncy to be a waiter. Tik helped out in the back, but every-so-often, she would hear someone comment on what a bright ray of sunshine the mage was.

At the end of the day, Anna paid them in food and even a bit of jewel this time, talking to them as they chowed through the food. Carlos had thanked her at least five times already, but he had finally calmed down a bit.

"You two are so cute," Anna spoke with a smile on her face. "I hope the rest of the mages will be as colorful as you two!"

"I'm sure they'll be the best mages ever!" Carlos answered happily.

"Hm-hmm," Tik agreed, her mouth currently stuffed with food.

"And I told you that you would be getting new members, soon," Anna added, her eyes shifting from Carlos to Tik and back again. "I'm so proud of you."

Tik and Carlos didn't have time to thank her, as the door to the café opened and a petite young woman walked in with a large, black cello case in one of her hands and a simple, light brown backpack on her shoulders.

"Is this place still opened?" she asked in a gentle, innocent voice.

"Sure we are!" Anna said, standing straight and smiling at the woman. "Didn't think I'd see two unfamiliar faces in the same day. What a special occasion for Poppy!"

The girl smiled brightly, her bright amber, round eyes sparkling. Along with her bright eyes, she had short, messy blonde locks with a thin braid on each side and a messy fringe across her forehead, pale skin, and a thin, toned figure with a lack of curves. She was dressed in a loose-fitting, gray sweater and a thigh-length, navy colored, layered skirt that was held up by matching suspenders, along with knee-high white socks and red sneakers.

"This town is so peaceful… I love the charm it has," the woman said, walking into the building.

"Yep. We're known as the Village of Sleep in some parts or Sleepy Village, take your pick," Anna said, returning the smile. "What brings you here, anyway, traveler? Music, I presume?"

"Oh, yes~ I was making my way to Narcissus to perform," the woman responded. "However… I think I may stay here for a bit. My heart is drawn to it!"

"Do you use magic?" Carlos asked, hopping up and bouncing over to the girl, light in his eyes. "I'm Carlos, by the way! I'm happy to meet you!"

The woman laughed lightly. "I'm Saluka, but you can call me Salu if you want. And yes, I do. How did you guess?"

"I didn't guess! I was just hopeful!" Carlos said. "And I'm sure we'll be best friends, Salu! And you have really, really pretty eyes!"

Salu blushed brightly at Carlos's comment. "Thank you~"

Tik stood now, a grin on her face. "You could always join Goblin Grin if you're looking for a place to stay!"

"Goblin Grin?" Salu questioned. Her eyes then landed on the asterisk guild marks on the two mages and her face lit up. "There's a mage's guild in town?"

"Yep! You're lookin' at the guild master!" Tik said, pointing to herself with a cocky grin.

Salu's face held a look of deep thought for a few moments, her eyes going to the ceiling as she hummed lowly to herself. After a moment, there was a flash in her eyes and she smiled warmly at Tik. "Okay~ I'll join Goblin Grin!"

"Magnificent!" Carlos cheered. He was once again bouncing on his heels excitedly. He then turned to Tik and leaned against her shoulder as he grinned at her. "We've got another member! Now we're up to three!"

Salu giggled and when Carlos's words seemed to really hit her, she asked, "Are we the only members right now?"

"Yeah," Tik started, "but don't worry! We're a really new guild and we'll get tons of members, soon!"

"Mm-hm!" Carlos agreed.


Tik and Carlos waited for Salu to eat as well before the three mages parted ways from the Sprout Café and headed down the southern path towards the guild hall.

While Tik tucked her arms behind her head and seemed a bit relaxed, Salu and Carlos both seemed to be taking in everything about the village. Both of them were quite cheery and bubbly, but where Carlos seemed to jitter like a puppy, Salu was a bit more serene. However, every-so-often she would randomly outburst about something, such as seeing a flowerbed with vivid red-her favorite color-poppies in it or seeing a small cat on someone's roof.

Tik led them to the guild hall and unlocked the door. She then gave Salu the same tour as Carlos, but she held off on taking her down to the cellar. She left the two new mages in the first floor and headed upstairs, coming back down with the stamp and two filing folders.

"First, Salu, where do you want your guild mark 'n' what color?" she asked with the stamp in her hand.

"Hmmm…" Salu seemed to think for a few moments before she pulled down the left side of her sweater and pointed to her collarbone. "Here, in red, please."

"A'ight," Tik nodded, pressing the stamp to the smaller woman's collarbone. There was a small burst of bright red sparkles and when she removed it, there was a bright red asterisk over Salu's collarbone. "Welcome to Goblin Grin, Salu!"

Carlos cheered again, while Salu giggled. Her eyes then went to the folders that Tik had placed on the table that they were sitting at. "What are those for?" She asked in a sort of childlike manner.

"Oh, right," Tik pulled out two black pens and then sat down, handing each of the mages one of the pens and a folder. "Somethin' for the Magic Council. Don't want 'em pesterin' us, so I need to get you two to fill out these documents. I gotta send them copies of it."

Both of the mages opened the folders, noting that the form was pretty standard stuff, like full name, birthday, age, gender, magic, etc. Salu got to work right away, while Carlos seemed to struggle a bit with picking up the pen. He had to grip it a couple of times before he successfully picked it up and as soon as he started writing, a loud SNAP! was heard as the pen broke in half.

Salu let out a small squeal of surprise and Tik sat up straight, her eyes locking on Carlos.

"I'm sorry…" Carlos said, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead. "I'm not very good with small objects like this. I can still write with it, though." He started writing to prove this. It was still pretty obvious that he was having some problems, as his hand moved a bit too widely when he wrote and he kept having to stop and use both hands to adjust the pen.

"If you're having problems, I'll help you if you want," Salue offered kindly. "Apart from the signature, I'm sure it doesn't matter who writes the form."

"Thank you, but I've got it," he said with a small laugh. "My arms are made of metal and I've only had them for a few years, so I'm not that good with doing little tasks like this yet. It's good practice, though."

"Your arms are metal?" Salu asked. Her face then lit up. "That sounds really neat!"

"It is!" Carlos agreed. "It's how I fight. By the way… How do you fight, Salu?"

"I use Reverberation Magic!" She said. When both of her guild mates looked at her with questioning eyes, she continued. "It works by manipulating airwaves and…" She noticed that she wasn't connecting with her guild mates so she stood and reached under her skirt, freeing a two inch long throwing knife from a strap that was on her thigh.

She then aimed the throwing knife at the wall across from them and called out, "Reverberation Magic: Tenor Tremor!" Instead of throwing the knife, a faint red magic circle that seemed to be quickly cracking like glass appeared over it and once the circle shattered, she let it go and it flew into the wall with a sharp, head-splitting screech.

Tik and Carlos instinctively covered their ears, but their gaze followed the knife, which was now embedded into the wall.

"See?" Salu said with a slight smile on her face. "That's what my magic does~"

"So amazing!" Carlos said, his eyes sparkling. He watched Salu with admiration as she walked over and attempted to pull the knife from the wall.

She tugged at it a few times before she eventually resulted in pressing one of her feet to the ground and then putting all of her strength into removing it. When it still didn't budge, she let out a small, nervous laugh. "I'm not strong enough to get it out."

Carlos hopped up, rays of light practically shooting off in every direction from his body. "I can do it!" he said, as he bounced over and then, with little effort, yanked the knife from the wall and handed it to Salu. "See? I'm really strong!"

"Amazing~" Salu commented, her eyes now holding the same look of childlike admiration that Carlos's had held earlier.

Tik chuckled under her breath watching them. They were silly and cute to her. She was already starting to like her guild a lot!

The rest of the night passed by with Carlos and Salu finishing up their forms and then the three mages changing into their sleepwear before heading into the cellar. Tik was now dressed in nothing but her normal tube top and a pair of neon orange pajama pants, Salu wore a pair of blue cotton shorts and an oversized black t-shirt, and Carlos wore an oversized red t-shirt and black shorts.

Tik ran through the situation with the dorms with Salu, who seemed overly excited and took the bedroll right next to Carlos, putting her cello in the corner beside it. The two mages then stared for a good few minutes at the larger hole in the wall before Carlos finally asked.

"Why is there a huge hole in the wall?"

"Heh," Tik grinned. "I forgot to mention, but there are apparently hot springs not far south of the village. If we can dig there, then Goblin Grin'll have their own natural bathhouse. Consider it the first planned renovation for this place!"

"Ooooh~" Salu stared at the hole. "That sounds wonderful~"

"I don't like water too much… But I bet everyone else will love it, so I'll help dig the tunnel when you want!" Carlos said.

"Maybe we can work it on some tomorrow," Tik replied with a grin.

With that, the three mages tried to go to sleep. Tik fell asleep almost instantly, snoring softly and Salu was dead quiet, thinking about the days to come. Carlos tossed and turned and after about an hour passed, he sat up.

"Hey… Is anyone awake?" he asked a bit loudly.

Tik's snoring stopped and she groaned, but didn't respond. After a few seconds, her snoring started back up.

"I am… I can't sleep because I'm so excited," Salu said, sitting up as well now.

"I know. We're really mages now. We filled out the forms and have guild marks and everything," Carlos said, running his fingers over his guild mark again. "And we have a guild hall and awesome guild members!"

"You're so right! I love you and Tik so much already!" Salu said with a light giggle.

"Me, too!" Carlos said agreeably.

Tik groaned again. "Tik's not gonna love either of you if you don't get some sleep. Mages… Need… Sleep!" she grumbled out.

Carlos and Salu both giggled and fell back into their bedrolls. "Don't say that, Tik~" Salu responded.

"Yeah. We're too great for you not to love!" Carlos said, rolling over and smiling at her.

Tik let out a long sigh. "Get some sleep, you two…" she continued to grumble.

While both of the mages giggled again, they complied, falling into a comfortable silence before finally falling asleep.


The next morning, the mages were up bright and early, mostly thanks to Salu and Carlos, who seemed to wake up with no problems at all. Tik forced herself awake, let the other two mages take turns with the showers and then went to shower herself.

She came down to the smell of eggs and toast, as well as noises from the kitchen and walked in to see Salu cooking while Carlos was cleaning off his hands with a washcloth. Her eyes fell to Carlos's feet, where there was egg everywhere.

"You tried to crack an egg, didn'tcha?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head. Why would this kid think he could do something like that if he couldn't hold a pen without breaking it?

"It looked easy when Salu did it," Carlos reasoned.

Salu giggled. "He almost had it." What she didn't say was that her definition of "almost had it" meant that at least he got the egg opened.

Tik stretched. "Where'd you get food to cook?" she asked.

"I went to the store~ Someone in town had a cute little stall set up in the town square," Salu explained cheerfully. She then grabbed three plates and divided eggs, toast and jam between everyone. Tik helped her take the plates to the common room, where they sat together at a table to eat.

"What's the plan today, guild master?" Salu asked through her food.

"I wanted to head into the mountains to look for somewhere to call our trainin' grounds," Tik explained. "I'm sure there's a field somewhere around there where we can all practice our fighting skills." With that, she grinned. She was eager to train with someone soon.

"Sounds like fun," Carlos responded.

"I just hope we don't have to go up too high," Salu said, a bit of worry in her eyes.

"Don't worry 'bout it! I'm sure we won't have to," Tik said with a cocky grin.


They left the guild hall and headed into the mountains, with Carlos and Salu sticking close behind Tik as they walked.

The three chatted rather loudly about various things, mostly how tranquil the village was and how hospitable the people in it were. It was so warming and while there were a few skeptics that didn't want to hear anything about the guild, many of them were just as excited as the mages and made it clear that they would help in anyway needed.

Tik instantly cut the conversation when she heard something from the cliff above them; something that sounded like footsteps. Bright green magic surrounded her hands and she said in a rather arrogant voice, "Lemme handle this."

Salu stepped behind Carlos, while Carlos flashed Tik a grin that let her know that he had confidence in her.

Instead of walking the rest of the way up the trail, Tik jumped up, grabbed the ledge and pulled herself over it. Instantly, she was met with the tired gaze of a man.

Said man had messy black hair that was swept back to reveal his oval, dark brown eyes that were locked on her. He had tanned skin and was only an inch or so taller than her, with a lean, muscular build that was dressed in a striped, gray cardigan over a white t-shirt, black jeans that were held up by a black leather belt with a dull silver fox buckle and black low-cut boots. He had a black backpack over his shoulders.

"Good morning," he greeted formally, though his voice sounded just as tired as his eyes.

"What the hell are you doing up in the mountains like this?" Tik asked. Her magic materialized around her fists, turning into radioactively green acid that dripped and sizzled when it hit the ground.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said formally. His arms remained at his sides as he watched Tik. He then let out a sigh and averted his gaze, seeming like he didn't have time for her.

Tik glared at him. "Yeah, but I asked first. Now, answer my question unless you want your ass kicked!"

"I'm simply traveling… What is the harm in that?" the man responded with a shrug of his shoulders. "I didn't know there were other mages in this area, however. It has been a long while since I encountered one."

Tik continued to glare at him. "Why do you look so sad?" she eventually asked, finally figuring out what seemed off about him to her.

"I have my reasons," he responded, his eyes darkening for a moment. "I'm still trying to figure things out myself."

Tik didn't drop her guard, but she spoke in a slightly less harsh tones. "I won't ask about your past, but whatever it is, I'm sure wanderin' alone in the mountains ain't solvin' it."

"Maybe you're right," he responded. He then bowed his head slightly. "My name is Nyxus, by the way."

"I'm Tik, guild master of Goblin Grin." Tik said. She got the feeling that the man wasn't bad after all; just lost. In some prophetic bullshit way, but lost. She'd met plenty of people like that in her life and while she didn't understand it, she knew they usually weren't bad people. Some people just had things in their past that boggled them down… Or something like that.

"A guild master?" Nyxus asked, tilting his head. "Is this Goblin Grin currently recruiting?"

"Hell, yeah," Tik responded with a grin now. She was certain now that he wasn't bad. Besides, she would never be against getting another mage!

"Maybe you're right about wandering around not helping much… A guild would be a nice change of pace, I think. So, I would like to request to join your guild, Master Tik."

"Hell yes!" Tik seemed excited now. She dropped her magic and threw a fist into the air. "Goblin Grin has four members now! We're making hella progress!"

Nyxus smiled at her. "Such a small guild right now. I'm eager to meet the other two members."

"A'ight! Follow me!" Tik said. Nyxus was an odd change after recruiting Salu and Carlos. He was a bit more mature and his voice was softer. It made her think about what other kinds of members she would be getting soon.

She led Nyxus down the trail, where Carlos and Salu were waiting.

"A new person!" Carlos started before Tik could even speak. "Hi! I'm Carlos!" he greeted, running up to Nyxus and grabbing his hands.

"Greetings, Carlos… I'm Nyxus," Nyxus responded, a kind smile forming on his face. "And my, aren't you happy?"

"Yep! I love meeting people!" Carlos replied. "And you're really handsome!"

"Thank you."

"Hi, Nyxus, I'm Salu!" Salu greeted, walking up to him as well. "I hope we can be really great friends!"

"Greetings, Salu," he responded with another smile. "There is a lot of energy in this guild. It's refreshing."

"Yep!" Tik said. "Well. You two, welcome Nyxus to the guild! We're up to four members now!"

"Welcome~" Carlos and Salu greeted together.

"Thank you," Nyxus replied formally with a bow of his head.

"I'll give you your guild stamp and stuff when we get back," Tik started, placing her hands on her hips. "Right now, we're lookin' for a place to train!"

"I don't think that we were far from a good clearing," Nyxus responded. "Follow me."

The Goblin Grin members obeyed and Carlos skipped to catch up with him and bounce beside him. "So, what kind of magic do you use, Nyx?"

"Arc of Gems," he replied with a smile. "But I'm not perfect at it, so most of the time, the gems burst after a few seconds."

"I bet it's really pretty~" Salu commented.

"Yep! I can't wait to see it!" Carlos cheered.

They walked while Carlos asked all three of his guild mates various questions about their preferences, such as food and colors. There was a lot of various tastes in the guild. Tik preferred meat of any kind, Salu seemed to love sweets, especially chocolate and lollipops and Nyxus seemed to have more refined tastes in various teas and coffees.

Nyxus led them past the place where he had met Tik and into a small cluster of trees and up one smaller foothill, to a fairly large clearing, with only a few trees and shrubbery here and there.

"Would this work, Master?" Nyxus asked, stopping in the middle of the clearing.

"This is fuckin' perfect!" Tik said. There was plenty of room and no noticeably long drop-offs, meaning if someone was knocked off of the training grounds, they wouldn't fall very fall. There was even a small path across the clearing to a small overhang, where she could potentially oversee training sessions, if she wasn't involved with them, of course.

"Hey… Watch your language, master," Salu scolded a bit childishly.

Tik wrinkled her nose at the girl and then continued. "Alright… That settles it! This is the Goblin Grin official training grounds! It's only an hour away from the guild hall, so it ain't too far away and it's got plenty of space!"

"So… Should we train right now?" Carlos asked, bouncing on his feet.

"Sure! Let's do it!" Tik responded, her hands bursting in magic once more.


Author's Note: There you have it folks! Three mages introduced. Though I'll be introducing Nyxus more next time. :3 Hope you all enjoyed lots! The training between those four will be shown at the beginning of next chapter~

The Summit Project Notes (IMPORTANT; PLEASE READ ALL OF THEM!) :

-DEADLINE: We have decided that the deadline for people with reservations to get their application in will be MARCH 1ST! This should give everyone plenty of time to get their characters in, as that will be over a month to work on the app. Sorry about this, but we want to start planning and world building and all that fun stuff and we'd prefer to have all of the characters in first.

-OC LIMIT EXPANSION: Yep. You guys can now have a total of 3 OCs in the project, preferably all from a different guild. So, if you've sent OCs to two of us, you can send OCs to one more of us! However, please remember that my slots are COMPLETELY filled and MyDearWatson (Seahorse Crest) has very limited slots left. Origm2012 (Ragnarok's Call) and Dreadburner94 (God Hand) still have quite a few slots opened, so if you haven't sent an OC to one of them, feel free to go reserve a slot with them! Please remember to read the info on their profiles and use their forms~

-SLOTS FILLED: I mentioned this above, but in case you didn't catch it, Goblin Grin is full for now. I'm not accepting anymore characters unless a reservation was made and I'm not accepting anymore reservations, either. I'll open slots later, most likely, so stay tuned if you want to submit to me!

-TO PEOPLE WITH RESERVATIONS FOR GOBLIN GRIN: Please check restrictions on my profile! I don't want Gravity/Vibration/Electromagnetic/Floaty-stuff/etc. Magic and I don't want any more really cheery/upbeat/innocent/happy/bubbly characters! I'm going to be really strict on the latter restriction. I simply WILL NOT accept any more characters with this type. I'm sorry. It won't mesh well and it won't be any fun for readers who don't like those types of characters. Send me some crazy or brooding characters or tomboys, super-determined characters. Or highly intelligent, super-quiet. Something along those lines.

Credits:

-Carlos – puffypuffin3

-Salu – TheLonelyAnon

-Nyxus - Zades

Questions:

-How are you guys enjoying it so far? Got any favorites yet? Any suggestions? Creators, how'd I do?

Next Chapter Preview:

Watch Nyxus, Carlos, Salu and Tik train and then meet 3-4 new Goblin Grin mages! The next chapter will probably be out within two weeks~

Review Responses

As always, thank you guys so much for the reviews! Lots of love from me and I appreciate every single review! If you haven't read my fics before, you should know that I like to be interactive, so please, feel free to message me or leave reviews with questions. Anything like that. Lots of love! 3

-Dreadburner94 – Thank you~ Tik is really fun to write!

-Momochan77 – I'm happy that you're looking forward to it~ Goblin Grin will have lots of interesting mages. :3

-Meteorthunder3 – No problems~ Read them in any order you want. :3 And I adore writing with original characters~ 3 And yeah. A lot of planning goes into scenes like that, but they are so much fun! It will hopefully give readers an odd level of anticipation, getting to see all angles to the guilds. :3

-XLil MEkoX – I'm happy you're looking forward to it~ Thank you so much!

-TheLonelyAnon – She is! But that was intentional. And I'm interested to show how she acts to people who are older than her. And yeah, I'm trying my best to convey that Poppy Village is a little sleepy town, sort of like something you would see out of Harvest Moon. And yes, Goblin Grin shall rise!

-KingKatsu – Thank you so much and that means a lot to me! I hope the project doesn't disappoint! :3

-Resmesh – It is quite the challenge, but bold moves are how Tik rolls! I'm happy you're looking forward to the project. :3

-potentialauthor18 – I'm happy you like the flavor of the guild. I kinda think that a lot of the characters for Goblin Grin are darker outcasts or free-spirited wanderers, and that was what I was going for, I think. Thank you~

-ColdBurn-3 – I'm really happy you're looking forward to the collab. And thank you so much! I'm happy you like Goblin Grin.

-madmissY01 – Thank you~ It was something that was mentioned to me a couple of times, but we finally made it happen. :3 I'm happy you're looking forward to it.

-FrozenBlast13 – It is definitely going to have lots of interesting development. All three of the other authors in this project are awesome, so you should have no fear in working with them and you should definitely read their works. And with the smaller town and guild hall, I was aiming a lot for progress with this story and hopefully that will show later in the story~ Thank you~

-Archanea – Thank you~ And yeah. We got our plans together for it fairly quickly, I think. And I agree~ Hopefully it will be quite amazing. :3 I'm happy you like Goblin Grin~

-Ogrespi – Yep~ Four stories were all posted around the same time. I don't know if we'll always post together, though. O3O we'll have to see how it goes. And I'm happy Tik is growing on so many people. And building a guild is quite interesting and fun. I love planning progress milestones for the guild. :3

-Death Obelisk – Thank you so much~ I don't know if the updates will always be at the same time, but we'll see. :3 I'm happy you're looking forward to the story so much. :3

-AkumaXHwaorang – Yeah, we got our thoughts together fairly quickly. It will be one hell of a project~ So much fun! It will be epic~

-Sakura-Fiction – I agree that this is quite awesome~ I'm having so much fun with it. :3 We got our thoughts together fast. :3 I'm happy you're looking forward to it.

-MyDearWatson – Thank you and I'm happy you like Tik~ I think that's what I was going for with her. She's just a goof! :3

-Taiyoko – Thank you~

-Hikari-Chimedekina-Neko – Thank you so much~ And collabs are lots of fun! 3 I'm happy you like Tik, too~ Thank you for the OC~

-Ikariko – I'm so happy that you're so excited~ We love seeing all the excitement for the project and how well-received it is~

-Origm2012 – Thank you~ Tik has no control button. She yells a lot. My guild is very loud. O3O Poor mages that like peace and quiet. TwT