Man… to have a sister was such a weird feeling. And knowing that she was out there, living her own life, felt even weirder. Yet, this feeling of having a family was so reassuring that it brushed away his remaining injuries just as his Take-Over Magic did. And knowing that his father, too, was out there… not giving a damn about him or Raeden… no, no, no, he wasn’t worth Daiko’s time. Forget him.

Daiko had stuck close to Blue Pegasus’ guild for quite a while now, simply attending to house chores and advising potential members. Sometimes, he’d even write a letter to Raeden and ask about how things were back in Magnolia, considering if he could borrow Christina and fly over there. It’d blow her mind, definitely.

There was another member of Blue Pegasus who needed his attention today, however. Coda shuddered a little at the thought, but she had gotten better at behaving around the giant water serpent than previously. Still, to think that the little steel worm back in Orchidia’s woods would grow that big when living in seawater… it was great that their old, scaly friend had gotten used to being around humans now, but he couldn’t even visit Blue Pegasus without needing a gigantic tank now… or occupy the entire pool!

That was why Daiko had simply visited the lonely snake out in the Azure Sea, and they had taken plenty of time to bond over volleyball, swimming contests (Daiko lost all the times), hunting for the freshest and juiciest tunas and even treasure-hunting. All the while they’d rest on the edge of the beach at sunset with the water serpent laying out and letting Daiko rest on its side as they both stared down the sun dip into a muddy pool…

At least, that was what it looked like when the sun set down the sea.

Today was going to be no different. Daiko had already prepared the bell branch – apparently, his scaly, blue friend really liked the sound of bells ringing, so the Fire Mage had kept on to that tidbit trivia and made the most of it. However… Daiko had to put the bell branch down for a moment. Snakey wasn’t here yet, and even Coda – who didn’t particularly like hanging around it – was cocking her head in confusion… and so was Daiko.

“… O-Oh no, no, no, don’t tell me he got lost… Coda, you know what to do. Atta’, girl!” he commanded, jerking his shoulder up for Coda to get a launch as she spread her wings and took on the role of scout as she was so proficient at. Flying away into the distant sky, Daiko internally wished that he was able to look through her eyes at one point…

Welp, with nothing better to do at the moment, the lad plopped his butt on the sub-warm sands and fetched for his flute – it was a gift that he received recently, and he was bent on making use of it today. A small one made of wood and easy to play, he released a simple, sharp melody across the gentle waves of the azure ocean… it was vastly better than shadowboxing aka accidently scaring tourists away.

WC: 537

”Pfff-”

He hit a wrong tone on that flute there. Frankly, it was because he heard a very familiar voice that sounded, honestly, a little worn out but still with the same playfulness that he could never escape from. Coda would’ve run wild at this point, flapping her wings intensely if she was present. Thankfully, she was on duty for the time being, but Daiko… he had missed her a lot. His eyes had grown even sharper, wider and full of intent as he turned his head to the side to spot a face he had missed so much…

S-She had changed a lot. No, no, her hair stayed the same, honey-brown nuance as before, but she had grown a little taller… or maybe it was just because of him sitting down at the moment. Either way, holy shit…

“S-… Sofia?!” he let out in shock, suddenly helping himself up on his feet and dusting sand off of his blue dress, “I-Is that, wait, yeah, you’re back! You’re back! It’s been so long, I don’t know where to start…!” Surely, he was going a bit overboard, but his emotions were spilling out of his mouth right now. Sofia had a special place in his heart along with some of the other Blue Pegasus members, especially since he opened it for her over two years ago…

Wait… she was his first kiss too? Well, that put things into perspective… and as if his feelings weren’t convoluted enough, damn.

“I look… more grown up now, right? Hehehe…” he couldn’t help but giggle at her compliment, finally starting to feel more mature-looking and adult-like after all this time. Albeit, some old habits were to die hard, he did truly mature in many more ways than one. Anyway, since she was so sweet to him, he wanted to return the favor – as maturely as he could, obviously. “Y- *cough* You look just as pretty as always, Sofi! I bet if Coda was here, she’d run amok…”

… Some habits did die hard. She looked so easy on the eyes that he couldn’t really keep his eyes still, but it had been so long since last time he met her that… that… he just couldn’t help himself. His eyes were on fire, reminiscent of the first time they met each other back in Orchidia’s big lake.

WC: 391
TWC: 928

Man, he was on point back when they first met… he had called her a mermaid back then. Later on, he realized how bold that might’ve been to say to a woman he had just met for the first time, so it threw him off balance for a few days… y’know, sometimes you’d just be haunted with memories of those small moments if you found them embarrassing, right? Especially if you only realized the embarrassment that you’d feel long after the act had been done…

But Daiko wasn’t that insecure anymore! He wasn’t that innocent or frail or easily flustered, for he had spent a good chunk of years in Blue Pegasus’ company up until now. While old habits from the veins of Lamia Scale refused to die, he had been bound to adapt just a bit to the… flamboyance of the Pegasi. I mean, he had gotten this fancy dress now! It reminded him of what his mother used to wear, and it was very comfortable too!

Of course, in the company of someone as dangerous as Sofia, Daiko felt like he was dragged back into the dragon’s den and left to brace himself for the wyrm’s overwhelming feast. That was just… just the kind of tension that he used to feel in the presence of her and Alisa long ago, but once he had grown a little more and realized his true thoughts and ideals, that tension turned to excitement.

And that excitement was tickling him deep in his belly like a swarm of wasps. It was difficult to suppress, but he tried his best. Although, as if intentional, Sofia’s simple act of just standing there drew his eyes all around her – feeling the strain behind those eyeballs of his, only then did he manage to avert himself from ogling too much and, instead, draw his focus back to the azure sea.

“N-No, of course not… Coda’s my friend. Forever!” he clarified to her with a soft pout as his gaze met hers again, bewildered that she’d even consider such a scenario – even in fun, he’d never let go of Coda… not until she had become bones and protein due to age. “She’s just gone out to try and find Bluey… we used to hang out here at the shore each week, but they weren’t around today… m-maybe he got heartache ‘cause you left him! You gotta apologize to Bluey when he or she returns, okay?” Obvious to him – possibly only to him at the moment – he was talking about the azure-blue serpent of the sea, whom he had neatly nicknamed Bluey due to the clear fact that he had forgotten what Sofia had named him… her… also, they never checked its sex. Was it the one to lay the eggs or the one to bring branches for a new nest?

W-Wait, that only applied to birds…

“You and Bluey haven’t hung out in over a year now! I-I know that you got your hands full for the time being, but… Bluey really missed you. Beasts feel loss, too.”

WC: 511
TWC: 1439

Man, getting on their bad side would bring bad forebodings… luckily, Daiko had somehow managed to work his charms unknowingly. Sofia surely had gotten fond of him, and he and Alisa were friends for life at this point. If anything, he was pretty lucky to even be able to call them his friends… Blue Pegasus was like a very festive clan now.

Anyway, back to Bluey.

“U-Uh, it’s been… t-two weeks, almost,” he revealed to the returning snake tamer, causing both his brows to subsequently dart up in deep thinking, “Wait, now I think he’s in trou- o-oh, I can see Coda! Hey, girl, what’d you spot?!” Coda, who had finally entered their field of vision, began twirling in the air and dart herself towards the right… on the right way, one would be able to reach the smaller ports of Hargeon where private boats would dock. She was revealing that she had spotted Bluey near those ports, but from their position, the serpent wasn’t visible… which meant that Bluey must’ve been located further into the sea, yet still in that direction.

“…” Watching Coda’s sudden brake mid-air and her chaotic basking was a bad omen, “Hey, hey, hey, he’s in trouble… he’s still alive?! Okay, go back and help Bluey out then! We’ll catch up!” Once that command was given, Coda spun around the air one more time to build speed before cutting through the air to the right and slowly disappearing from their view again, which would be detrimental if they weren’t able to track her route. “Bluey’s near the private docks - you should be able to follow up, right?” In worst case scenario, he was willing to use his fire wings to fly himself and Sofia all the way – screw the exhaustion, he had trained plenty enough to be able to withheld the transformation for longer periods of time.

WC: 313
TWC: 1752

”Coda!” the Fire Mage commanded with a single exclamation of her name, watching the bird who carried that name fly in a wavery fashion to symbolize the effects of floating on the waves of the sea. Daiko took a glance at the motions and concluded the cause of worry. “… A ship is after Blue. I think a crew’s hunting her down!” Did people outside of the guild know about the water serpent and his… her… wait, it was a his, yeah, his relationship with Sofia? It wasn’t encouraged, exactly, to hunt down people’s companions in any manner whatsoever, so maybe it could be explained as a misunderstanding?

Then again, to hunt Blue down now of all times was weird. She had called the sea her home for quite some time, now.

“Roger!” was his last word to Sofia before he took off on his burning wings that granted him the ability toy fly over the waters and approach the destination that Coda had pinpointed. It was mostly azure-blue seawater until a big, wooden ship came to view and revealed a horrifying scene – it was Blue, the serpent in the waters who had grown much larger over time, and he was struggling against steel wires and ropes having been slung around his serpentine body. The desperate roars from the creature beckoned Daiko to charge down at the ship’s deck, the impact alone sinking the ship by a couple meters.

However, it was just to catch his breath. Daiko paid no mind to the sailors and leapt once more, landing on Blue’s neck and beginning to tear the wires off with brute force, one by one. In witness of that, the sailors called for their long-shooter – a tall, one-eyed ginger carrying perhaps the longest musket of mankind – to snipe Daiko off of their catch.

WC: 303
TWC: 2055

Daiko was a bit slow on spotting the sniper, but he had his attention on freeing Blue from the shackles coiled around him. These cowardly wires melted away at the Phoenix Mage’s hands, which were able to carve through them like burning ties off of shoes. He wasn’t planning on dodging any bullets – that would only let the bullets hit Blue, and that was a total no-no. No way in heaven or hell would that happen… besides, Daiko had completely rehabilitated. His previous prowess would recover any injuries he suffered through.

…

It turned out that Sofia came in clutch, riding on an even faster being of the sky- was that a Pegasus?! A real Pegasus! Wait, Daiko had seen a Pegasus before, right?! His subconscious beckoned him to confirm that, but he was ultimately blanking on it – this would likely have been his first encounter with one, and it was nothing short of abnormally majestic.

And she managed to just slap the bullet away at that speed. Thankfully, Daiko wouldn’t have to tank any projectiles today, so he finished removing the last wire attached to Blue and then jumped back onto the ship’s deck. His landing caused the wooden floor to crack up, almost catching on fire if not for the Pyromage’s sharpened mastery over the element of fire.

“What the hell’s the matter with you people?! That’s our catch!”
“That’s our companion! He’s not game – go hunt some other fish or whatever!”
“Tch, why do you people keep on insisting on telling us what to do, huh?! You want all the goodies for yourselves, is that it? I WON’T HAVE IT!”

With a rally of approval from the sailor’s crew, Daiko’s veins became very apparent on his forehead. “I wouldn’t be so brave right now, if I were you…!”

WC: 301
TWC: 2356

Holy shit, another serpent appeared out of nowhere! Was that Blue’s mate- oh, wait a second, that was Sofia’s Magic! She still possessed Water Magic from back then; Daiko had almost forgotten about that… but comparing her pranks from back then to the spell now, she had come a long way…

As a matter of fact, even the ship itself took fatal damage from that water serpent spell. The wooden deck had almost been cleaved in half, and Daiko had sought refuge on Blue’s safe, secured neck. It was morbidly exciting to mount the giant serpent like hiking up a hill, and given by the short grunts emerging from the serpent’s mouth… yup, he or she still remembered them! Those were friendly groans.

Many of the crew members were flailing in the waters now, while a few unmoving corpses were still planted on the crashed deck. The ship itself was slowly sinking with holes on its bottom pouring saltwater into the quarters. Despite water often being able to strengthen wood, Sofia had done the exact opposite to this poor crew and their sailing lady…

“… S-Scary,” the Fire Mage commented with a cold-sweated look on his face, “Hey, Blue, let’s fetch the rest and bring them back to shore…”

…

“B-Blue? Bluuuuuee?”

Blue wasn’t responding to him. Instead, with a jab of its neck, it swung Daiko up in the air and caught him by his collar with its fanged lips. “W-W-Wha-Blue, p-please, we can play catch later…”

Instead of heeding his words, Blue floated forward towards the maternal guardian riding the flying horse. She had changed a bit since last time, but Blue… recognized her. Upon approaching closer, Blue’s heavy breath was strong enough to blow back her hair, almost in an intimidating manner. And then… that soft, short grunt escaped Blue’s lips, causing Daiko’s eyes to shine.

“Awwww, Blue missed you…!”

WC: 313
TWC: 2669

Blue let out a long breath in relief and joy over the reunion. This was its sweet mother who took it in after the death of its mother… whose murderer just happened to hang under its maw at the moment. Yet, what would’ve been a traumatic experience seemed to the beast as nature going its way. Hunt or be hunted, or something like that.

“… Safe to say, we’ve all grown one way or ano- w-waaahaaaaaaaaaaaaahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Daiko was about to comment, but the swift swing of Blue’s maw had him twirling around the air like a toy. Seemingly, the giant serpent had grown quite a playful habit, most likely trying to mimic the playful nature of its new mother. Still, the momentum he was swung around at caused the poor bird boy some nausea, and he had to protest: “S-Slow down, pleeeaaaaaaseeeee… I-I’m not that- urghh…”

At the end, the serpent gently held Daiko still, curious as to why the Take-Over Mage was looking nauseated. His eyes were empty for energy, his stomach ached and his soul felt like escaping his body once more. “S-Sofiii… can we go home now? I need a nap…” the Fire Mage beckoned, “You got plenty of *hmmg* things to do with Blue now… oh, make sure you feed h-her-him-uh… okay, that’s it, I’m checking-“

As if protesting against that decision of his, Blue swung him around some more until he was silenced by more nausea. Afterwards, the giant, blue serpent swam across the waters, aiming for the shores of Port Hargeon with an exhausted bird mage hanging by its jaw.

WC: 266
TWC: 2935
[EXIT]