In the guild, Daiko always found ease in eating his meals in a very populated room such as this floor. Sitting upon a table among some other people, the Fire Mage was grinding his teeth into a freshly killed ox’ leg, while the rest of it had either been a) eaten, or b) used to build or repair trophies and ‘jewelry’. Daiko was beginning to look like a real, wild hunter with pride; what looked like a flood swine’s skull was attached to his left shoulder like an armor plate, and his right shoulder was covered in a carpet of small feathers from Coda - she plucked her feathers a lot. One of his convictions passed down from his mother was to use everything in a slain prey and make all of it useful. Waste was a little detestable, even though he had some understanding of the ‘invisible’ forces that always left fallen and left-alone victims turn into bare bones by time.

… He was taught that it was other living beings, but he couldn’t quite see it for himself…

A few bones were laid on the table, since all the edibles was about to be converted into energy for the hunter. “*munch, munch*… N-Not hungry, Kerii?” he asked curiously, swallowing his food before trying to look as… non-odd as possible.

”Hmmh… hmh *munch, munch*” was Daiko’s response for now. Maybe, one day, when she was hungry, he could offer some pheasant. In the meantime, Coda came flying down and landed on the skull on Daiko’s left shoulder. She was as colorful as ever despite her plucking habit. She also began chopping off pieces of that ox leg that Daiko ate, while she casually eyed Kerii in such an interest that the Fire Mage rarely saw from her. In a moment of silence, Daiko switched his gaze between the two ladies… or well, between the lady bird and the lady mage before hearing a question from his elven guildmate.

She had eyed the skull in her question, indicating that she asked about that specifically. “It’s a flood swine,” he replied proudly whilst knocking on the skull with his left knuckle, “It crashed into my cottage and ate all my grapes… so I ate it.” With such a shining face akin to a child, he joyously proclaimed how he enacted revenge upon the wild animal by slaying it and devouring it like the predator that Daiko was. “It often tried to headbutt me, so I figured that its skull must’ve been sturdy and hard. Sadly, it’s too small to be a helmet, so a shoulder-plate it is.”

Coda started pecking the skull, making resonating cluck sounds like hitting a bone bell. “… C-Coda is very happy whenever you’re around,” Daiko curiously told Kerii, “I don’t know if you have a companion yourself or not, but you’re definitely attuned to nature in many ways than just your magic… wait, do you have a bird pal too? What’s his or her name? Are they, like, talon birds or lake birds?”

It was smart for Daiko to bring a small cup of water to clean his throat afterwards. The meat was rough and could easily get stuck at times, but his throat powers were undefeatable. Coda lacked gums, so she had to take small bites every time and then swallow the pieces like a baby bird. Daiko had very little knowledge about elves in general - he assumed that the Wood Elf that Kerii was were attuned to nature given the name, her magic and her overall confirmation of it multiple times… but did that mean that there were other types of elves? Sea elves? Maybe rock elves? Nah, that sounded too straightforward… maybe Sky elves?

“Nice,” Daiko replied, “I bet she was a wonderful companion- *peck* ouch, I mean, maybe not as- *peck, peck* Coda, come on…!” The raptor was getting a little hysterical when Daiko talked about other companions as if she was jealous of them, but her predator mind didn’t process the fact that Kerii appeared companion-less now. And someday, Coda would hit the bucket too… it was saddening, but he had to accept the possibility. At least, it would be priceless to have Coda around for as long as she would stay.

“Since I was 11. 9-10 years ago,” Daiko answered to the blonde Wood Elf, “It was like yesterday when she plucked out of her egg and was all featherless and small… she was so cute- Coda, come on, she’s drinking.” The bird had decided to waddle over to Kerii and nudge her bird head on the elf’s cheek all passionately.

“Hmpf…” Now it was Daiko who was jealous.

Coda felt joyous and spoiled when Kerii nuzzled her under her chin. The raptor’s eyes went all ‘=.=’ as she savored the feeling of being petted by a lovely elf thoroughly. Fairly, Daiko had no reason to get flustered; he just wanted to be polite to Kerii, but if things were settled well between the two guildmates, then perhaps he should really just relax and loosen his chains.

He was finally done eating all the edible meat off this ox leg, so he put the almost skinny log of bones away. Then he patted his stomach and burped out a smoke cloud, smiling pleasantly. “Ahhhh… can go a month without another meal, I think.” It really felt as if his stomach was filled up with food, but he found it comfortable. He wasn’t starving anymore, and he preferred feeling sick full than deadly starving.

Kerii pointed out a good fact; the two Lamia Scale Wizards knew little to nothing about each other. Despite Daiko having been travelling everywhere in his early days in the guild, he was spending much more time in the guild lately. It was a little sad to think about; they could’ve been such good friends by now. Oh well, better start now than later. “Yea, that’s a good point… we both like nature and birds. We could become best friends…!” he expressed joyously, stating a rather small requirement that you had to like nature and birds to be best friends with this hunter. He would say that his best friend was really Káilètte, but Daiko knew little about friend hierarchies to even care. He also knew very little about making friends of his own gender, now that he thought about it…

But a friend like this sweet elven nature mage was definitely a big win for him, no doubt. He would happily write that down in memory.

“Outside the guild? Hehehehe…” he began to explain with a confident grin and laugh almost mischievously, whilst he reached for the line of skulls around his torso. He would pull it off his oak-green, sleeveless coat and put it on the table, showcasing the skulls of various small prey such as squirrels, badgers, rabbits and birds. Coda lifted her head up in curiosity, but she was busy keeping Kerii company. Besides, she was out of the danger zone, since she was, you know, Daiko’s probably best friend of all.

“I explore ecosystems, take swims in lakes, train Coda on how to hunt and catch mice - mice, not rats - and hunt for food,” he continued to elaborate his belated explanation. A little sweat appeared on his face, though, when he continued: “It’d be easy to say I hunt for sport, but I swear, I eat every prey I put down…” He was also a conservationist of some kind, wanting the forest to keep its flora and fauna from too much influence from this humble predator. Just like wolves, Daiko had become sort of a necessity back in Worth Woodsea, since he accidently scared off the wolves up there.

… Wait…

She was a Wood Elf. Maybe they were, like, super close to nature. Maybe she had an issue with hunters like him?! Even though she clearly showed signs of tolerance earlier, he couldn’t help but develop a sense of guilt, which was shown on his face in form of a saddened expression. He lowered his face to the table and spoke quietly, whilst dark clouds grew over his head: “… I-I don’t know a lot about Wood Elves, actually. Do they hunt too, or would they hang me the moment they heard about me…?” He just wanted to be on the safe side. Safe side for the best.

Oh, okay, phew… surprisingly, it was widespread according to Kerii’s explanation for Wood Elves to hunt. Maybe… maybe they were like him. Lots and lots of hunters under the blue sky enjoying life and duck hunts. Daiko’s admiration for their hunting claim only grew when Kerii stated the expectation for her to know some bow and arrow. “… Oh, that’s so cool!” he almost spat out in joy and recognition, “I used to have this awesome bow myself, but unfortunately, it broke a year ago…” It was a fine, wooden-carved bow that he called Zephyr, but it was of the past, and he had done well without a proper bow up until now. A branch and some collection of spider silk was enough - plus his magic’s capability of melting silk (which was way more difficult than he thought). The purpose of melted silk? He would explain that later.

Ah, she stated to have stopped hunting when she reached the adolescent years. For Daiko, hunting was way too important to let go of; especially since his stomach disliked many things other than raw, fresh flesh. However, he wouldn’t belittle Kerii because of this in any way. She was his guildmate!

“I hunted ever since my mum taught me how to… so over 10 years now,” Daiko told the pointy-eared elfie, “Then itsy bitsy Daiko Flayme picked up his mum’s bow and became a man…!” He saw lots of pride in fending for his own as an outlet to heal his pain over the loss of his mother. He believed that her way of living should be his too, as a way to honor her for her effort in raising him up in those 11 years.

“Hmh… aha,” he hummed in the revelation of another idea. He laid out a kite skull - fully cleaned by his hand and tools - and suddenly clenched his fingers. A small ray of incinerating fire emerged from the space between the thumb and index fingers crooked towards each other, functioning as a blowtorch to carve into the kite skull. “Since we’re newly claimed comrades, I want you to have this,” he told her before he just finished his work; a carved skull of a bird of prey with beautiful outlines and features.

“The sun’s finally sticking out, Coda,” the fire mage told his feathery friend. Coda began stretching her vermillion wings in excitement as she took off and flew out of the window, having Daiko follow after her as he looked towards Kerii and said: “Wanna see Coda in action? C’mon, I promise it’ll be fun…!”

He kind of overheard Kerii’s words earlier. He didn’t expect anything in return other than her friendship. And since that was set… uh, well, thank you! He would treasure it. Now, he just went out to look at Coda embracing the air above them with a joyful squeak. Who knew that eagles could squeak… anyway, it was time to see what Coda could pick up from the wild shrubbery that covered the guild. Since Lamia Scale was all greened up with vines, leaves, bushes and animals - it was kind of a product of nature at first sight - Daiko was curious to see what type of rodent or reptile that Coda could grasp with her talons.

“Alright, betting big time, Coda… *whistle*,” the Fire Mage called at her, having his command reach Coda’s hearing organs and setting her in hunting mode. She dived down like a dart as if she already spotted something darting through the grass. Upon having her sharp talons drill through a random object, she swung it up in the air to toss it over to Daiko. The Fire Mage was just as tricked as Coda, since the object was inanimate - just a lump of grass that a creature had collected as a distraction, most likely. He ran a little to try and grab the object, and once it spread out on his hands, he realized the mistake.

“O-Oh… o-one more try, Coda! You can do this!” Daiko encouraged the bird. It wasn’t exactly magic to hunt other creatures; mostly, you just needed a weapon and luck. Even a lion only got a successful hunt every 7th time or something.

This time, the raptor tossed up a legit creature. Daiko thought it through and used a Minor Thermal Vision, coating one eye in a magic circle that transformed it into a glowing yellow eye, to see if the object emitted any heat signatures. And it sure did, even though it was dying by Coda’s claws. Once the Fire Mage grabbed it, he had turned out to have caught a hedgehog. Those tasted great if you had the patience to remove all the spikes off of its skin. Some spikes drilled through his skin, though.

“… These are difficult to prepare,” he admitted to Kerii, “But they taste very good- shit, my hand is impaled. That's a first... *argh*” He just now spotted the spikes drilling through his right hand due to the impact of the falling hedgehog. He looked at it in an expression of displeasure more than pain. He simply pulled out the spikes one by one before speaking: “So what do you think of Coda’s skill? Quite top quality, right *ouch* and she's getting better at singling out the rodents and mammals since I *ouch* don't like eating reptiles *ouch*... uhm...” He wasn't one to panic so quickly - haha - but his hand was bleeding.

His eyes pointed up at Kerii's like a sad pupper. It was weird; he would usually ignore the bleeding and live on... but he knew damn well that she could heal. He just wanted to see her use her magic, too. Maybe she could teach him how to use healing spells, right? It wasn't too farfetched... right?

Once Kerii cupped her hands around his injured one, he noticed with interest how some oily extract covered the injuries. It felt strangely tingly, but he could feel the effects immediately; the pain soothed away, and the blood disappeared whilst the holes patched up. Usually, wounds like these took more than days to recover, but Kerii healed them up in just a few seconds. Unbelievable.

“B-Better…” he spoke gratefully and with a soft blush of gratitude, “Thanks, Kerii… wow… it’s as if it was never injured in the first place.” He closely inspected his hand and its textures; no apparent scars and no signs of blood loss. Kerii did compliment Coda’s hunting skills, too, and the raptor wasn’t far away to hear that. Once when Coda landed on Daiko’s shoulder again after a few rounds in the air, she chirped happily at the sweet words.

Kerii then asked about the spell that he used. It was likely time to tell about his magic. “That was a spell that enhanced my vision… I possess a ‘Take-Over’ magic - I think it’s called that - where I transform into a phoenix and grow out fire wings and lots of other cool things,” he explained to the blonde elfie, “So I just transformed one of my eyes, so I could see as sharply as an eagle. Pretty cool, don’t you think?” He decided to demonstrate once more by sweeping a hand across his face, turning both eyes into orange-reddish, sharp-looking phoenix eyes. The magic circles that popped in and out in front of his eyeballs signaled the use of magic.

“With these, I can see you in these weird colors. They change according to your body heat, so I can see you even in the dark, and easily among colder objects... but I can't heal or anything, I think that's your unique ability... b-but I'd like to learn how, somehow.”

Kerii pointed out a good… point, yes. His Fire Magic or Takeover Magic in comparison to her Nature Magic differed in many areas, so they didn’t have the exact same accesses to certain types of spells. It would appear that due to nature being able to recover itself, it could also recover others. Fire only burnt away other things and spread out. That was probably why many of his spells leaned on offense. So did that mean that he could never learn any healing spells?

She elaborated that it was the beauty of magic to be so diverse in many areas. Maybe Daiko shouldn’t try to focus on all the things at once, but perhaps focus on what his magic does best; damage. As saddening as it sounded to have a phoenix’s powers but no healing abilities, Daiko was ready to accept that if he began focusing and getting better at his destructive spells. “… You got a good point,” he agreed, “I should try to focus on what my magic does best at… which is burning down things, for the most part. Although, it’s useful enough that I can see heat signatures like this.” He rolled his head around a little to look at the woods and the Lamia Scale building with his heat-vision.

“Okay, Coda, go to Kerii and do what she asks you to,” he asked the feathery hunter. Coda nodded intelligently and flapped her wings before leaping in a long, soaring jump to softly land on Kerii’s shoulder. “Now you try to hunt! Coda’s very smart, so she can understand what you want to hunt down. Just point towards a location and she’ll search for any prey in that area.”

Coda was all eyes on Kerii to see where the pretty elf would point at. It would be the first time that a person other than Daiko would lead her hunting ground, and of course since it was the elfine, the beautiful blonde with pointed ears, Coda was excessively eager to impress her. Like impressing the dazzling princess with a heroic act, although hunting rats and rodents wasn’t exactly heroic in her sense. Maybe…

The moment Kerii’s finger was raised to point at some shaking grass blades, Coda spread her wings and shot through the air ferociously. She darted through the air molecules in a streamlined form whilst arcing down slowly to catch the assumed prey by surprise. Daiko watched with wide eyes, his hands having clenched in excitement. Coda quickly found out that the waving grass was just the air, in the end… but first tries were often prone to failure. But she wouldn’t let Kerii down, even if the whole world was on her wings.

Therefore, she continued into the shrubbery and mid-tall oak trees. At one point, she disappeared… Daiko got worried, and his voice revealed that: “W-Where’d she go? How far was the prey that you spotted… kind of amazing to see that far, actually.” Another few seconds passed, but whoever had functioning sense of hearing could hear the screams from some stranger in the woods. And the screams intensified with every second, as if they got closer and closer. Well, as a matter of fact…

Coda was pretty darn strong for a raptor the size of a falcon. She managed to pull another person across that long path towards them just to impress Kerii? Daiko yipped in shock. “C-Coda?! That’s not, he’s not prey!” he rebuked the irresponsible bird with hands flying around him, “O-Oh man, oh shit, I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t- we didn’t- I didn’t mean to, w-we were just training-“

“W-Whew… w-why am I pulled over here? Don’t tell me that this kite-looking hawk is going to feed me to his kids,” the elder male expressed. Daiko had helped him out quickly and shooed Coda to let go of his shirt with her sharp talons. Luckily, no real damage was dealt to him other than the shirt and its holes… oh, this was bad.

Once when the elder eyed Daiko, and Daiko eyed Kerii, the Fire Mage chuckled a little. “S-Sorry… I think Coda wanted to impress you and brought a much bigger prey,” he explained. The elder laughed cockily and spoke up: “Big prey, eh? Big price, eh? He could find a better price than a retired old man… but for such young and pretty girl like her, I can’t blame him.” With a formal nod, the elder man nudged Daiko to let him go. “Anyways, I’ll try and dash outta here before I get caught again. I’m no bird food, I tell you…”

“We… we could always try one more time, Kerii.”

Coda… that bird was unpredictable even for Daiko. And he had lived with her for years now! Yet when she had brought back a grown man from the bushes, he was both awestruck and terrified of what the bird was capable of. If only she was a little better at concentrating… it was weird to think that Kerii, somehow, made Coda feel slightly agitated or ambitious for something. Or did Coda like her that much? More than him? Really?!

Oh, wow, he soon realized what he was thinking. It was a sense of jealousy that travelled through him, and although he was unaware of it before, it became more and more apparent to those around him… and to himself. Taking a deep breath, he rebuked himself internally and watched as Coda darted towards the next target that Kerii pointed towards. Doing an arc in the air, Coda firmly cut a piece of the grass field off during her dive, and she flew right back up with the prey in her beak.

“Nice…” the Fire Mage complimented. Coda headed back towards Kerii with what appeared to be a dead, blue-scaled lizard in her beak. The bird would simply drop the dead lizard, letting it fall right for Kerii’s face as she assumed that the nature elf would just grab it with her mouth or something - just like Daiko!