Rumia floated gently out in the breeze, watching the moons floating above, as the Master that had called her here slumbered, having not considered for even a moment slumbering in the pile of straw that had been apologetically offered, with the explanation that she had been expecting something simpler of the summons.
Not that she took any offense, having slept in meaner conditions, but being so close to a slumbering, vulnerable Master was... it would be tempting. Just a nibble, just a bite, just a feast~ And then she would have to quietly leave before someone noticed that she was still here, and the Master wasn't, and started asking unfortunate questions, and then brought in shrine priestesses.
No, it wasn't a good idea, but she could still turn the situation to her advantage somehow, if she-
Rumia shook her head awkwardly, having just lost her train of thought. No, better not to meddle with the Master, no matter how tempting and vulnerable, instead... hm, she would have to think-
Rumia took a deep breath, ignoring her growing headache as she watched the moons. Her mood had begun to sour for some reason, and she thought for a moment about sneaking, creeping, through the window and back into the room where the slumbering Master remained, unguarded and so frail~ No, she had the feeling, for some reason, that it was a bad idea. Hmph, never mind then...
There was a soft tittering below, and she peered through the dimness to see a fair-haired human couple relaxing beneath the moonlight, and her mind turned towards a course that would not require her to endure the pain brought by focused thought. She floated down.
"Oh, sir Guiche~" The girl giggled, cheeks flushed with the wine they were sipping. "This was such an excellent idea, a rendevous beneath the starlight..."
"Indeed, their merry twinkle has captured many a heart. But I, for one, am more enraptured by the sparkle of your eyes, my dear."
The girl giggled at the man's heavy-handed seduction attempts, pressing him for more wine.
"I like the moons, here." Rumia said simply, in lieu of an introduction.
"Indeed, their shine is... eh? Who goes there!"
Rumia floated forward, darkness slightly deeper about her than the rest of the night.
"... You are that Louise's familiar." He said, recognition delayed until he realized the girl before him was not connected to the ground. "Feh. Be off, I've no interest in dealing with you."
"Is that so? But I was watching the moons, and heard your merriment. And now I am hungry."
"Be off, I said." Guiche insisted. "Stubborn familiar. If you hunger, rouse your master, or find a servant, I care not, but do not trouble me for the repast set out for myself and my flower of the night."
The girl swooned, and Rumia noted that her clothes were of a substancially poorer quality than the Guiche's own, but thought no more of it.
"Hm. But why should I go, when the means to filling my belly already lies so near at hand?" Rumia asked, tilting her head to one side.
"Peh. You do not listen, when addressed by nobility. Such will end poorly for you, and my patience is not limitless, for even a classmate. This is the third time, and so shall it be the final: begone with you, else I shall effect your removal personally."
"Is that so? Scary, scary~ Such a cruel boy, behind the pretty face~" Rumia jibed, acting and reacting without thought, as came naturally to youkai.
The Guiche rose with a lurch, snarling at the insult.
"You dare speak so, to your betters, familiar?"
"Not at all! When I should find someone my better, I'll indeed hold my tongue~"
"Valkyrie!" Guiche barked, drawing a rose and twitching it as a form of brass and edges rose from the dirt. "You have offered me insult, familiar, and I shall not stand for it. I'll have satisfaction carved from your flesh."
Rumia laughed delightedly as it moved to the attack, floating out of the way of its cleaving strokes and broadsword, pivoting and whirling, and... through! Then, behind it, reaching and lunging and... and very quickly floating upwards instead, as the Guiche brought a second Valkyrie to form and substance, a broadsword of its own sliding through the space she had occupied a moment before.
"Foolish familiar." Guiche chided. "At any time, I am capable of controlling up to four of my lovely warriors. Certainly, of course, I need not waste the full extent of my power on the likes of you."
In some part of her brain, Rumia sighed, predatory nature having written the Guiche off as 'too much trouble'. That didn't mean, however, that she couldn't keep playing.
"Fun~" She declared happily, continuing to float away, just ever so slightly out of reach of the Valkyrie's strikes, leading him onwards. "Play with me, sir Guiche!"
"You think this is a game, wretch?" the noble child snapped back. "My Valkyrie will cleave you in half!"
"Maaybe~" She agreed. "If that is so... then you win! What better game could there be?"
Guiche muttered dire imprecations to himself as he pressed on, the golems only ever coming, at most, a hairs-breadth from Rumia's skin as she cheerfully egged him on, off the well maintained grounds and into the forest, through leafy trees and between solid trunks, where a time or two the blades of his Valkyrie would become lodged for a moment. Minutes passed.
"Ah... I'm bored, sir Guiche~" Rumia declared.
"Do you think I care ANYTHING for your mood, wretched little beast?"
"Is that so...? Hm~ Well, let's play a different game, now, sir Guiche. A fun game! Seek me out where I hide~"
"I'm not playing games with you!" Guiche insisted, as Rumia floated above the canopy. "... Ugh. Foul little familiar. I shall have to have words with Louise about its behavior. For now I..."
He paused, a slow sense of realization settling in as he looked around scenery that would only be vaguely familiar to him at best in the daylight hours, and was utterly alien under starlight.
"I... where am I? Which way is out of this forest?
In the meantime, Rumia had drifted down to the place of the rendevous, where the girl had polished off the rest of a bottle on her own, and was eagerly setting into some manner of pastry. She watched for a moment, as the girl licked cream away from rough-looking fingers.
"Hello~" She called out, and the girl gave a start, peering blearily out into the darkness through what was no doubt a drunken haze.
"... Sir Guiche?" She called hesitantly. "Is that you?"
"Not so~" Rumia answered. "Poor sir Guiche is alone and cold, lost in the wood..."
The girl didn't seem to particularly care. Hm. How interesting!
"Will you help him, the poor lost boy?"
"... What help might I be?" The girl asked blearily. "Sir Guiche is a noble, his magics will see him safe."
"Not so, if he has lost his wand~" Rumia said, without hesitation. "Dropped it, the rose, perhaps in a babbling brook, where a fish took it and swam away. He would be helpless and afraid~"
The woman gasped in sudden horrified dismay, the tale seeming perfectly reasonable to her through the alcohol clouding her reason.
"Oh no! Poor sir Guiche..."
"I could guide you to him." Rumia said flippantly. "Would he not be indebted to you, hm? I wonder what he might offer his rescuer~"
The girl's eyes flashed with a sudden, momentary greed, and she rose to her feet, staggering as the world whirled about her.
"Follow my voice~" Rumia called eagerly as she floated away, the girl stumbling drunkenly after her.
She led her into the forest, calling back mild encouragement and suggestions of how pleased Guiche would be if she found him, only to stop as they came to a halt in a small clearing.
"... Ah?" The girl moaned in confusion. "Where are we, miss familiar? I hear no brook... I see nobody. Is sir Guiche not here?"
"So he is not~" Rumia admitted, and lunged.
Guiche found his way out of the forest some time later to find all the pastries eaten, and Rumia smiling as she finished off the last off his wine.
"Ah, sir Guiche!" She declared cheerily. "You've found me~"
"Wretched familiar." He groaned in exhaustion. "... Where is Anna?"
"The girl?" Rumia asked, tilding head to one side before smiling. "I said where you were. And now she is gone~"
"She went into the woods? Alone?" Guiche asked, eyes widening. "Why... it's dangerous! Wolves travel these forests at night. She could be dead now!"
Rumia shrugged idly.
"That may be so~"
"Do you care nothing for it? Ugh... I will pray to the founder she returns safe, else I might be held responsible. I should cut you down where you stand..."
"Hm? Perhaps Sir Guiche would like to play again~"
Guiche snorted in profound disgust.
"I will still have my satisfaction of you... but at a place and time of my choosing. We will duel in the walled enclosure of the Vestri Court, at high noon. You'll not make a fool of me again, running and hiding in the dark like vermin."
Rumia tilted her head, then smiled as she floated up and away, leaving Guiche to puzzle out how to deal with the mess made of his picnic.