novelraw Chapter 327 - 269 - Getting Comfy
Chapter 327 - 269 - Getting Comfy
Waking up in an unfamiliar place drew alarm in a plant's heart. Holly quickly calmed herself--she was safe and sound. The PTRS guildhall was quaint, small even. They managed to get the last room with two beds. Even so, Solana slept on the floor, as usual. It was rare for MA Offices to have enough beds for how they all preferred to sleep.
Lee and Vivi didn't mind sharing their bed, while Solana and Holly did.
Solana never raised a stink about it, however. She didn't care about sleeping on the floor to make sure her Resonators were well rested.
Holly felt the slightest tinge of guilt at the arrangement, but the chef always brushed her off. It was strange, considering who Solana was. If anyone else heard the Leduc family heir was sleeping on old motel carpet, there'd be news stories about it for days.
Either way, that wasn't Holly's problem.
The young zalavan rose for the day. Vivi was missing, on her usual early morning run. Holly herself was still curious about the property they now called home and decided to get dressed for the day, to scope out the land.
After slipping on her usual wear, Holly stepped out into the early morning. There was a slight chill in the air. Thanks to the evergreen plants she grew atop her head, the little plant didn't mind the chill, in fact, it was rather comfortable.
She meandered into the fields. The tall grasses of central Lybertera were unlike anything she had experienced before. It radiated such powerful rhythm, one of her persuasion could get lost in it. She spun on her heel and fell backwards into a cushion of grass.
"I could get used to this," she whispered to herself as she allowed the morning sun to feed her. The chill of the winds gently tousled the grass surrounding the zalavan. Even the shouts of Mila and Vivi in the distance didn't disturb the peace. If anything, it was pleasant background noise.
"Home…" another breathy whisper escaped the plant girl as she allowed the morning to drift on by.
Holly woke up around noontime and sat up with a start. She need not worry about getting sunburnt, a plant such as herself fed on the warming rays of their day star. Instead of burnt, she found herself bloated. A shame, really. That meant skipping out on a delicious breakfast and lunch from her Maestro.
Her lack of actual food was the least of her worries, however. No, her primary concern was the worry her sudden disappearance may have caused. So, she rushed back to the guildhall. Thankfully, the hunt for the missing nature element hadn't been considered, yet. In fact, based on their absence, Solana and Lee either hadn't gotten up, or were relaxing in their room.
No, instead, there was a gathering of the minds on the front lawn. If by "minds" one meant fire, and by "gathering" a full out brawl was intended.
Yes, Vivi, Mila, and Rebecca had engaged in what could loosely be described as pleasantries. Pacifica stood on the sidelines with the hose, putting out small fires as they cropped up from the three girls continued scuffle. Taika lounged on a lawn chair, eating from a bag of potato chips while she read on her tablet. Her bag of medical supplies lay by her side, at the ready.
Emily and Shouri watched in equal parts amusement and exasperation.
"Is this uhhh, normal?" asked Holly as she walked up two the two Maestros.
"Usually between Rebecca and Mila, yeah," replied Emily.
The door to Emily's room swung open with a thunderous slam. "You bastards didn't invite me again!?" Albarich roared.
And then there was a fourth combatant in the free-for-all brawl.
"I'm just waiting for Kai to hear this and hop over," Shouri shook his head.
Holly looked to her new guildmaster. "Kai is?"
"Kangaroo, neighbor. He also likes fighting," Shouri replied.
"Ah."
The four Resonator scuffle continued, with no end in sight. As much as Shouri wanted to watch a bunch of magically enhanced people beat the living snot out of one another--he had work to do. Taika would reprimand them if they went too far.
"Come on, let's leave them to it."
Shouri sat behind the desk, Emily and Holly on either side of him.
"So, here's what we have going on here. We haven't taken many residents in, but we've at least managed to place the two we have gotten," Shouri explained to the newcomer.
Holly nodded. She had met one of the two already--Zephyr, the fairy. Quite a high profile 'rescue', given how rare the solar element mirages were in the wider world. They had quite the bit in terms of funds, too. A couple hundred thousand notes was nothing to scoff at.
"What did you have planned?" Holly questioned.
"Well, we want to get a second building," Emily told the plant.
"Eventually we want to have a bunch of facilities out here. Things like a pool, a gym, more housing like we have here," Shouri added.
The plant nodded, humming in thought as she scanned the screens. Banking information, their internal ticketing system, guild email box with a ton of unread emails. It wad quite the nice little set-up.
Now, if only they had more funds to work with.
Holly continued to eye the bank account.
"How about a cafeteria?" she suggested.
"Huh?" Emily and Shouri exchanged a glance, seeing their counterpart shared their confusion, they both looked to Holly.
"Think about it; you have a world famous chef in your guild. Wouldn't it be a crying shame if she couldn't flex her culinary muscles?" Holly smirked.
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The two Maestros gave it some serious thought.
"You think we could also work a clinic into the building too?" Emily questioned.
"We do have two healing attributes who both study medicine. It'd be real useful if we run into another situation like Dancer," Shouri considered aloud.
Another moment passed while they all ruminated on the thought.
With no dissenting opinions, Shouri nodded. "Alright, let's see what everyone else thinks, and then we can talk to Cheryth."
"A cafeteria?" Vince blinked with surprise.
"It sounds very nice!" Miro exclaimed.
"We won't have to make food for ourselves anymore? Count me in," Colette beamed.
"You don't have to do this for me, but I'm sure Lee will be excited to have space to work as well," Solana added.
The sentiments were shared by all of the Resonators too, confirming PTRS' first big project was to be a cafeteria with a small clinic.
"We can draft up a proposal and send it out to Cheryth to see what she thinks tomorrow," Shouri told Holly and Emily.
Given they had spent the majority of the day planning and talking to everyone, it was no surprise that the evening snuck up on them.
"Let's go hunting tonight!" Holly declared. "We spent all day talking about spending money--let's go make some!"
"Colette, Vince, and Miro can stay here?" Shouri asked Emily.
"Yeah, sounds good, you can bring your girls, and I'll get my knuckleheads," Emily added.
"I'll grab my seeds, I can have Solana, Lee, and Vivi stay here and work on foodstuffs," Holly told the other two.
Shouri paused to consider that for a moment. He snapped his fingers in realization. "Right, zalavan just need plants to fight, forgot about that."
Holly grinned, glad she didn't have to explain.
"We gotta trade this back in, bossman," Rebecca groused as they still had the twelve-seater van from Jenteri.
As usual, she and Shouri had the front seats. Taika and Pacifica had the seats directly behind them, with Holly seated between Shouri's other two Resonators. Emily and her trio took up the back two rows.
Truthfully, they could have brought Colette and her duo, or Vince and his; but Colette was deep in school work, and Vince needed a break after his near brush with death. The selected group would be more than enough.
The van arrived to the northern hunting grounds, a different haunt than their usual choice. Shouri figured they had already made enough ruckus there with his various stunts.
It was time to get a new crowd used to their shenanigans.
Shouri and Emily walked with confidence past the line. A couple of Maestros who bounced between the different grounds recognized the two, and just dismissed them along with their posse of Resonators in tow. Many others had no idea who these people were that just entirely ignored the line.
This included the MA Office reps checking people in.
"Hey! You need to--!"
"PTRS, we're going in ahead," Shouri said, flashing a tuner and continuing his forward march. Emily flashed a tuner alongside her fellow guildmaster, adding a small giggle as they brushed by the bureaucratic process, and into the woods.
The nine-strong group gathered in a small circle, Holly watching with great interest with how these Maestros conducted themselves. She wasn't sure what to expect, and it threw her for a loop with what happened.
Emily simply agreed she'd wander around with her trio and hit any hot spots or people that needed help.
Shouri on the other hand--
"Famiglio Incendio, Lento."
One spell cast and a massive fox made of flames burst forth next to Rebecca. The massive rhythm beast stepped over and laid down next to Shouri.
She then watched the boy hand off Rebecca and Pacifica's tuners and call a second spell.
"Rilevare l'intenzione, Rubato. Same arrangement as usual."
With three nods, Shouri's trio of Resonators split off, all in separate directions.
This left a Maestro and a Resonator--Shouri and Holly--and the questions on the lips of the plant.
"Why?" she asked.
Shouri smirked, a soft chuckle escaping his lips. "People think Resonators are helpless if they take out the Maestro. I want to make sure they never feel that--I love them too much to let their grief consume them."
Holly didn't have words. She began her own journey on her own, only her seeds by her side. That never afforded her any advantages, she could still be pinned down and stopped despite all her preparation.
Only practice got her to the point of feeling truly comfortable on her own.
Even she still sought the company of a Maestro. If something happened to Solana, Holly would fight to the very last blade of grass in her reach. She understood the logic with that in mind.
"So, what are you going to do then?" wondered the plant girl, her gaze drifting down to the resting rhythm beast.
A wicked grin rose on the guildmaster's lips. "Wanna cause some trouble?"
"WAAAAAAHHHH!" Holly screamed as the massive fire fox tore through the woods, blazing through at blistering speeds, despite carrying two passengers. Shouri was nonplussed, and urged the beast through the woods with the same ease that he drove a car.
"HOW ARE YOU SO CALM?!" yelled the nature element.
"I TRUST THEM!" he shouted back.
They jumped over a group of hunters who gawked at the two atop the massive rhythm beast. Shouri spun the beast around and charged the Scherzando the group was hunting.
"Come on Holly! Head in the game!" the Maestro laughed.
"You're insane!" the zalavan shouted, reaching into her bag. "Ghiacciolo, Fortissimo!"
"Oh! Cool!" Shouri laughed at his own pun, as he gripped the solid rhythm in front of him, channeling his own into the beast. "Lanciafiamme, Fortissimo!"
While Holly was punching him for the bad joke, fire and ice tore through the ranks of the Scherzando, leaving a group of hunters absolutely baffled and dumbfounded at the odd occurrence that turned a mundane evening into a memorable one.