Good lucks and goodbyes coursed through the air as Rei stood at the town's main entrance and exit. Evelyn stood near her, saying her goodbyes to her parents and friends who had come to see her off. Sky was hovering in the air next to Rei, crossing her arms with a slightly impatient look on her face. The trio had been trying to leave for at least 10 minutes, but they were stuck there where nearly the entire town had gathered to see them off.
Rei had already said her goodbyes to Vik and Lucas, and they were standing toward the front of the crowd waiting to watch their adoptive daughter leave.
"Alright, I think it's finally time we leave," Rei announced when Evelyn returned to her side after she finished talking to her parents.
There was another round of good lucks before Rei waved to the crowd and turned to walk out of the town. Rei could still hear everyone's chatter even as they made it a little way down the path that led through the forest that surrounded the town. Though it faded soon and she let out a sigh.
"That took longer than I expected," Sky stated with an annoyed huff.
"What did you expect? Mayor Walters had to make a speech and Kaleb needed to dramatically tell me that the town would be fine without me and Evelyn couldn't leave without saying goodbye to her parents." Rei said, only earning an eye roll from Sky.
"So, what exactly is our route to Era?" Evelyn questioned.
"I'll show you exactly what it is when we stop, but we're gonna be walking pretty much all day today. Our plan is to make it to Lyca before sundown and eat there. We'll also sleep there before leaving early in the morning." Rei explained, earning a nod from Evelyn.
"Yes, then once we get to Bryxton, we're going to have our first train ride of many," Sky said.
Rei tensed and glared at Sky, "I don't see the point of trains. They don't do anything and they're death traps. Why should we have to ride in them?"
"Because otherwise, this trip would take much longer than a month or two," Sky retorted, crossing her arms.
"I would rather travel across Fiore on foot than on trains," Rei growled, also crossing her arms.
"I'd rather not do that," Evelyn said, earning a glare from Rei and a nod of agreement from Sky. "What? No one but you would want to travel across all of Fiore on foot instead of riding vehicles."
"Whatever," Rei grumbled.
The next few hours went by quickly for Rei as they made their way in and out of the forest that covered the hilly landscape that Lotus and any towns within a 20-mile radius of Lotus. Though, her energy wasn't shared by Evelyn, or even Sky, who had gotten tired of flying and was laying on top of Rei's backpack. Yet, somehow, Rei was able to keep the two from bickering too much and they eventually made it to the small village of Lyca before the sun had even started setting.
Lyca was a small village, even smaller than Lotus, that was completely surrounded by forest, much like how Lotus was. Only Lyca wasn't on the water like Lotus. It was also like it was in the forest instead of in a clearing in the forest. Trees were everywhere, in between and in front of buildings and Rei almost felt like she was still in the forest and hadn't just walked into a town.
Rei had been to the village once when she was younger and had wanted to explore the towns around Lotus. Lyca was the furthest from Lotus out of the towns she visited, meaning everything after Lyca was new territory for the dragon slayer, which excited her.
"Let's find somewhere to eat, I'm starving," Rei said as they walked through the town. The townspeople seemed to be eyeing them a bit suspiciously, though Rei didn't pay too much attention to it as they wandered into a small tavern.
"Hello, welcome to Lycan Tavern-" the man who was standing behind the bar greeted, not looking at them at first. But when he did, he tensed up.
Rei glanced around the small tavern. There were people at nearly every table, though that wasn't saying much since there weren't more than ten tables at most. Everyone's eyes at turned to them and the air that reeked of alcohol seemed to go still when they walked in.
"Hello!" Rei chirped with a small wave, not disturbed by how 20 or so people were staring at her.
"Rei, that is no way to walk into a tavern full of people clearly on edge. You can't act like you own the place." Sky scolded with her hands on her hips. Rei rolled her eyes in response and Sky sighed before floating over to the bartender, "I apologize for her behavior. We're traveling from Lotus and were hoping to get something to eat."
"Lotus? That small port town just east of here?" the bartender asked, earning nods from each of the trio. "What are the lot of you doing here? You've heard about the dark wizard attacks, haven't you?"
"Well, have you heard of the Lotus Storm Dragon?" Evelyn cut in before Sky or Rei could say anything.
"The Lotus Storm Dragon? The wizard that can bring storms of any kind?" The bartender questioned, his eyes widening slightly.
"Yeah, I don't know if the rumor has reached this town, but the Storm Dragon is gonna start a guild in Lotus to deal with the dark wizards," Evelyn said with a smirk.
"Lotus is getting a guild?" One of the men that were sitting at a table questioned, earning the group's attention. Rei noticed he was the only one at his table that didn't smell like alcohol.
"Yup! We're actually heading through here for that reason." Rei said, the entire tavern's attention back on her. "We're on our way to Era to get the guild approved."
"Wait does that mean..." The bartender started, looking at Rei with wide eyes. "Are you... the Storm Dragon?"
"Oh, yeah, that's me," Rei replied with a sheepish laugh.
It seemed like the jaws of everyone in the tavern dropped and the air seemed less tense. Sky let out a sigh, "Could we just get something to eat?"
"Of- Of course," The bartender stuttered. "Uh, take a seat anywhere, I'll bring you a menu right away."
"Thanks," Rei said with a smile before leading her trio over to the only empty table and sitting down. She took off her backpack and set it on the ground under the table, next to her feet. The bartender came over to them and handed them three menus, which were surprisingly nice considering the tavern's whole vibe. Rei blocked out the whispering and muttering that was happening at every table in the tavern as she was instructed by Sky not to order anything too expensive. After Rei and Evelyn got Sky's approval, they ordered food and were able to get through dinner without any trouble from the locals who were in the tavern, who had eventually got bored of staring at the group and just went back to what they had been doing before Rei burst in.
The trio was relatively quiet while eating - other than Evelyn's rambling about her magic and how her training has been. Rei had found herself ignoring Evelyn and shifting her attention to the conversations of the people at the other tables. Not many of their conversations seemed that interesting, someone in the town getting married, how annoying taxes were, and something about a guy who climbed a tall tree. Though, there was one particular conversation that caught her attention.
"Did you hear what happened to the Maydwell twins?" A man who had one of the longest beards Rei had ever seen asked two other guys and a woman who was sitting with them. Their table seemed to have the least powerful alcohol sent hanging over it.
"Who hasn't? The girl got attacked, right? Mira?" The woman questioned.
The bread man nodded, "Yeah, I heard it was pretty bad."
"Wait, I didn't hear about this," a man with dark purple hair said. "What happened?"
"Apparently the twins got into an argument or something and the girl ran off into the woods. Then she was attacked by a dark wizard." Beard man explained.
"I heard she nearly bleed out to death," the last man, who shared the smell of something that was burning - Rei guess he probably used fire magic, said. "Some people think it was the Vampire who attacked her."
"That's horrible," the woman mumbled. "I bet Malcolm felt terrible after it happened."
"Yeah, and it has everyone on edge. They're Lyca's strongest wizards." Beard man said. The fire wizard gave him a look and he said, "What? The two of them are stronger than you, Eliot, and you know it."
Fire man scoffed and said something that earned a sarcastic comment from Purple man, but Rei tunned it out and turned her attention back to Sky and Evelyn.
"Hey," Rei started, interrupting Evelyn's rant about how she'd train on their way to the Magic Council. "This town is being attacked by the same dark wizards as Lotus is."
"That doesn't surprise me," Sky said. "A lot of the towns around here have been under attack from the same dark wizards as Lotus. It's a shock that the magic council hasn't put more pressure on guilds to take the job requests in this area with how long it's been going on. And it's gotten much worse in this past year."
Rei let out a sigh and pushed her now empty plate forward before laying her head on the table. Rei tried to think of something to say before the silence got too long, but Evelyn beat her to it, "What happens if the magic council doesn't let us make our guild?"
"What do you mean?" Rei questioned, lifting her head a bit so her chin was resting on her arms and she was looking at Evelyn.
"What do you think I mean?" Evelyn retorted. "What if we make this whole trip to Era and the magic council is just like, 'nope, you can't put a guild there, that's not allowed'?"
"Why would they do that?" Rei asked, narrowing her electric blue eyes at Evelyn.
"There's a number of reasons that could happen," Sky answered for Evelyn. "There's not enough funding, we went about the process wrong and should've started an independent guild before going to the council to make it a legal guild, or simply because you're too young and immature to be a guild master."
"Hey, I'm not immature!" Rei exclaimed, lifting her head up and causing everyone in the tavern to turn their attention to the strangers who had wandered into their town.
Sky sighed, "A lot of the time you are."
"That's not true!" Rei replied defensively.
"I think I'm more responsible than you, Rei," Evelyn commented.
"I'm sorry, but that's the biggest load of crap I've heard you say in a while," Rei retorted.
"Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch," Sky agreed.
Evelyn huffed and crossed her arms, earning an eye roll from Rei before she said, "Let's head out now. We need to find a place to stay so we can leave early in the morning."
The trio got up from the table, paid, and Rei said goodbye to the people in the tavern while Sky quickly asked if there was an inn in the town. Sky then ended up leading the way to a small inn and they got a room after dealing with an innkeeper who seemed extremely cautious of them.