Chapter 3: Moving In

Chapter 3: Moving In

"So, you want to join Phoenix's Eye?" Feng, Guild Master of Phoenix's Eye, a tall, slim, elderly woman who wore a loose red martial arts uniform to complement her loose-hanging grey hair, regarded Tyria with interest.

"Yes, ma'am - uh, master?" the TechType Mage stammered.

"Well, in that case, I have two questions for you," Feng declared. Tyria gulped.

"What colour do you want your guild mark in and where do you want it?" she smiled.

"R-really?"

"Master!" Sarah interrupted. "It's a little more complicated than that," she shook her head, folding her arms impatiently.

"Oh, of course. You aren't a violent criminal or anything, right?" Feng cheerfully smiled.

Tyria gulped.

The barmaid groaned, stepping out from the bar and taking Tyria's hand. "How about you come with me, and me and Fernando can get everything paperwork-related sorted out?" she suggested, waving over a slim man with orange hair and a large hat.

~P's E~

"So, you decided to join after all," Pierce smiled as Tyria took a seat next to him, proudly showing off the new pink guild mark on her shoulder.

"I guess there was no reason not to. And I didn't have anything better to do anyway," she shrugged.

"Fair enough. Oh, by the way, this is Kit. He's my sidekick," Pierce casually introduced the vulpine yokai perching in the table next to him.

"Yeah, I'm his - wait, whaddya mean, sidekick? I'm no sidekick!" Kit protested.

"He's certainly feisty," Tyria nodded, chuckling. She picked up the sandwich that Sarah had prepared her while she got the official matters out of the way. "So, I have to ask. Krakens are some of the most dangerous and troublesome monsters out there. I've never heard of one that could even tolerate humans, let alone someone having one as a pet,"

"Inky isn't a pet, none of my beasts are," Pierce corrected her with a frown. "But, as for why she's friendly towards me, I did hatch and raise her from an egg. As far as she's concerned, I'm basically her mother,"

Tyria blinked. "Ah . . . what?"

"You're gonna need to go into more detail," Kit suggested with a grin.

"Oh, alright," the Tamer wizard nodded, beginning his story.

~P's E~

It was more-or-less two and a half years ago, and Pierce and Boomer were on a job routing a group of animal smugglers. They were accompanied by an adult wizard named Russell, because, unlike Fairy Tail's Makarov, Master Feng didn't believe that preteen wizards going on jobs without adult supervision was safe. Luckily, it was usually easy enough for the boys to get someone to come with them.

The three were riding a giant origami crane created by Russell's Paper Magic, gliding on the wind above a procession of square carriages, each covered with a tarpaulin.

"Every single one of those carriages holds a captured beast. It pisses me off so much," Pierce frowned.

"Why are they covered?" Boomer questioned.

"Because this is illegal. If the poachers had the beasts in plain view, the Rune Knights would capture the poachers and release their captives," Russell explained.

"Wait, so how did the job happen if no one knew about it?" the juvenile Sound Wizard asked.

"Because they got careless," Pierce replied. "They kidnapped some aristocrat's pet winged cat and the guy sent out a request for him to be rescued. It was trying to track him down that resulted in uncovering this smuggling ring,"

"But, is it really so bad? Sure, we need to rescue the cat, but all the other animals they have down there are wild, they don't belong to anyone. What's the harm?" Boomer asked.

"Because they've got endangered species that can't survive in captivity dealing with horrible, inhumane conditions. They're going to die a slow, painful death if we don't rescue them," Pierce frowned.

"But they're monsters," Boomer pointed out. "And they aren't even tame ones like yours!"

A heavy wooden flute appeared in the Tamer's hand and smashed into his forehead. "Do you really want to pick a fight with me about a monster's right to life? Because I will go there," he growled. "Enough waiting,"

With that, he pressed his flute to his mouth, one-handed, and played a tune. With a burst of fire, the great red phoenix emerged from the portal; smaller, but still large enough to carry someone. Pierce leapt off the flying piece of origami and landed on Raya's back. "Alright, let's torch these guys!" he declared.

"You got it!" she agreed, having overheard everything from within the flute. "But first, we should light Boomer's ass on fire," she growled.

"As much as I'd like that, they're riding a giant piece of paper. Russell, at least, doesn't deserve to be sent down in smoke," her wizard replied. "Take out your anger on the poachers instead. We should start by sabotaging the wheels,"

"But I want to set them on fire,"

"Later. Let's go!" Pierce commanded, and Raya nodded, conceding the point. Flexing her wings, she swooped into a dive, streaking along directly above the dozen-strong train of carts and trailing a cloud of fire from her beak. The blaze engulfed the undercarriages of the carts, charring the wheels, each of which immediately discovered that they no longer had the strength to support their load. One by one, the carts collapsed to the ground, stopped in their tracks.

"Hey, is that a phoenix?" one of the smugglers gasped. "It looks so pretty,"

"Imagine how much we could sell it for," another mused.

"It's decided, men! Capture that phoenix!" the man in the lead cart shouted, lifting up a net. The net magically extended, and he stood up, swinging it towards Raya as she passed by.

It caught around her head and immediately pulled her out of her flight, sending her crashing to the ground in a heap. Pierce was flung clear, crashing to the ground in an heap. The net hen shrank again, tightening around her neck and sending out a wave of tentacle-like ropes, which wrapped around her body and constricting her wings against her chest. "No - no!" the phoenix gasped, choking out words through the ropes around her beak. "No, not like this!" she pleaded, starting to hyperventilate and frantically struggling against her ropes as bandits emerged from the lead carriage and encircled her.

Pierce looked up in panic, pressing his flute to his mouth and ignoring the dirt that had accumulated on it. He played, reciting from memory the tune that returned Raya to the artificial pocket of space within the flute. The phoenix vanished, ropes falling to the ground, empty.

"Where'd she go?" one of the poachers blinked dumbly.

"Damnit, Raya's down after that. I hope she's okay," Pierce gulped, but shook his head and played, on his flute, a tune with a lithe and fast beat, which seemed reminiscent of pan-pipes. A portal opened, with a new monster emerging.

Of course, 'monster' was a subjective term. If not the the pale blue colouration of her skin, the newcomer could easily have passed for human. She wore a thin black jumpsuit and wielded twin daggers that looked like they were made of black rock. "I take it ya need some help?" the mermaid grinned.

"Yep, that would be appreciated, Crystal," Pierce nodded. "Kick some butt,"

"You got it," she winked, before charging forwards and crashing into the enemy forces. "Water in the hole!"

The Beast Tamer wizard cocked his head inquisitively. "Doesn't the phrase go 'fire in the hole'?"

"Not the way I do it," Crystal grinned, throwing her daggers into the air. They span, end over end, up into the air. Involuntarily, the bandits looked up to watch them.

And while they were distracted, the mermaid generated a spinning wave of water that threw the bandits in every direction, dispatching them all in one fell swoop.

"Oh, I get it," Pierce nodded. "Okay, you keep looking for bandits. I'll start opening the cages," he declared, rushing towards the charcoaled cart and pulling away the tarpaulin.

The three heads of a chimera immediately roared at him. "Hey, calm down. I'm here to help," Pierce coaxed it, finding the door.

"So, how are you gonna break the lock?" Crystal asked while engaging a bandit that had appeared from the other side of the cart.

"Good question. But I've got an idea," he grinned in response, opening the holomagical settings window of his Requip magic with one hand and grasping the lock with the other. With a wave of his hand, the lock vanished, a small image of it appearing in the window.

The mermaid looked over in surprise. "Did you just Requip the lock?" she blinked. The bandit took advantage of her distraction to launch a surprise attack - only to find a blue fist in his face, sending him sprawling.

"Yep," Pierce grinned, opening the door. "There you go. Enjoy freedom,"

The chimera tentatively stepped towards the door, curious, and expecting some kind of reprisal. When none came and it successfully emerged into the open air, the lion head looked back at Pierce and growled a guttural "Thank you,"

"It's my duty as a Beast Tamer wizard to do everything I can to help the creatures of this world," he nodded in response.

The chimera considered this, before flicking its snake tail and tapping a box with it. "Open. Look. Help," it requested, before turning and trotting away. "Bye,"

Pierce frowned, looking at the box. It was secured by a set of ropes next to the spot where a bandit rode on the cart. He untied it and carefully pried it open.

Nestled inside, in a bed of straw, was a large, black egg. Pierce carefully scooped it up, and inspected it. "I wonder what kind of egg this is?"

"Me and those other two guys took care of all the bandits," Crystal reported, gesturing at a spot down the line where Boomer and Russell were finishing off the last of their foes.

"Great. Let's get the rest of these cages open," the wizard nodded.

"What are you doing about that?" the mermaid asked, looking at the egg.

"I'll stow it in my Requip space for now. We can figure out a way to incubate it when we get home," Pierce declared. "Now, can you help me with the cages?"

~P's E~

"A month later, it hatched into a baby kraken. And that was that," Pierce shrugged.

"Huh. I guess you can find anything if you rob the right people," Tyria mused.

"It wasn't robbing, it was rescuing," the Tamer defended himself.

"Keep telling yourself that," Kit smirked.

"Hey - where was Kit when you did that?" she asked.

"Haven't you been paying attention? I can only have one of my friends outside the flute at a time," Pierce pointed out.

"But why? It's not like you need to use magic power to sustain their presence here," Tyria asked.

"It's more of an operational restriction than a problem with magic power. The flute is only capable of summoning one beast at a time. My magic power's only used to make them stronger,"

"Well, that's dumb. So no matter how strong you get, you'll never be able to summon more than one at a time?" she frowned.

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Pierce shook his head. "I might be able to, if I could find a magic blacksmith skilled enough to upgrade it, or if I could replace it with another, stronger magical artefact, but for now," he shrugged. "It's the best I got,"

"I guess that makes sense," Tyria nodded.

"Yeah," the Tamer shrugged. "So, you picked out your first job?"

"No. I don't really know where to begin," she admitted, looking at the massive job request board against the far wall. "My TechType magic is kind of specialised,"

"Well, just pick one and give it a try," Pierce recommended. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"My first job could be a total failure," Tyria gulped.

"Would that be such a big deal? Everyone starts somewhere," Pierce shrugged, biting into a piece of chicken.

"You don't get it! If I don't nail my first job, then I can never undo that! I'll always remember my first job as being a total failure!" Tyria wailed, shaking her head in dismay.

Pierce rolled his eyes. "Jeez, drama queen much?" he snorted. "If you're so worried about that, then maybe you should find someone who's used to taking jobs and go on a job with them. You'd split the reward, but it's a good way to rack up experience,"

"Really?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement. "You want to go on a job with me?"

"Whoa, hey, I didn't say that," Pierce protested.

"So you don't want to?" Tyria followed up, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears.

"Uh, um, I didn't say that either," he continued, before a chortling noise interrupted him. Kit was rolling on his back with laughter on the table, engulfed by hilarity.

"What's so funny?" his wizard demanded of him.

"You're in a 'no right answer' situation," the yokai giggled.

"Oh, alright. I'll go on a job with you," Pierce admitted. "But let's call it tomorrow, okay? I'm still getting the new recruit used to being with me, and I was planning to spend the afternoon with him," he decided. "Hey, why don't you come over? If we're gonna work together, you should meet my friends anyway, just in case something happens and you end up alone with one of them," the Tamer suggested.

"I guess that makes sense. Alright," Tyria agreed.

Pierce smiled. "Okay then, let's go!"

~P's E~

"This is your house? Wow, how much rent do you pay for it?" Tyria gasped, looking at the two-storey building.

"Oh, I own it," Pierce explained..

"Seriously? How could you afford to buy a place like this?" the TechType mage gasped.

"Oh, I got it at a steal. See, the place is haunted, so the landlady was happy to get anything for it. She practically gave it away. Just fifty thousand jewel and I'm the sole owner," he grinned proudly.

Tyria's mind locked onto one part of that sentence that Pierce seemed to think was unimportant. "It's haunted?!" she demanded. "Where's the ghost?"

Kit once again shifted back into view in the visible spectrum, perched on his wizard's shoulder. "You're looking at him," he winked. His bearer flinched, causing him to lose his grip and fall to the ground again. "Careful!"

"I told you not to do that!" he huffed in response. "But yeah, the so-called ghost was actually Kit, who was happy to make nice after I showed him what my magic could do," Pierce grinned, slightly darkly.

"We didn't get along all that well at first, but I guess we just got used to each other. And now we're best friends!" Kit agreed. "Well, that's a bit of a stretch," the Tamer sweat-dropped. "Anyway, come in!"

Upon entering through the brown front door, Tyria was stunned. "The entire ground floor is one empty room?" Sure enough, aside from the door, windows, and a staircase leading to the upper level in the far-right corner, the entire ground floor was completely featureless.

"Well, yeah. How else would my larger beasts fit in here? Inky sure won't fit upstairs," Pierce pointed out. He Requipped his flute. "So, shall we get started on the introductions?"

"Sure, I guess," Tyria shrugged, a little nervous. "But can we hold off on your phoenix? I think she'll probably still be a bit mad that I, y'now, tried to shoot her,"

"Alright, we'll save Raya for later," Pierce conceded. He pressed his flute to his lips, returned Kit, and played the tune to summon Inky. In a flash of black light from the portal, the kraken emerged into the large room - and seeing how much space she took up, Tyria really could appreciate that the space genuinely was needed.

The kraken extended an inquisitive tentacle towards the dark-skinned wizard. "I thought she was a bad guy?" she asked Pierce, confused.

"Not really. I was wrong," he admitted, shrugging.

"So, she's good?" Inky blinked her massive eyes.

"Yep. She's gonna be a friend of ours from now on, okay?" Pierce smiled, patting her reassuringly.

"I don't think she likes me," the baby kraken's voice wavered uncertainly, and her wizard looked over to see Tyria frantically dodging away from the advancing tentacles. "Stop that, Tyria. She just wants to play," he reprimanded her.

"I've seen her playing before, and I don't like it," she gulped.

"I think she'll just need some time to warm up to you, Inky," Pierce patted Inky reassuringly, and she nodded in understanding as he lifted the flute to his lips. "Okay. Bye now!" she waved, and vanished.

Playing a different tune, another being emerged. "Hey, I was asleep," Knox complained.

"Oh - sorry. I'm trying to introduce everyone to my new teammate. This is Tyria," Pierce explained to the hunched brown/black werewolf.

"Hi," Knox waved.

"Hi?" Tyria cluelessly waved back.

"Okay, I've met her. Can I go back to bed now?" he asked. "Fine," Pierce rolled his eyes, sending him back into the flute and playing a different melody.

Crystal emerged, the blue-skinned mermaid landing in a crouch, daggers in hand. "So, introductions, hey?" she grinned.

"Crystal, Tyria. Tyria, Crystal," Pierce introduced them.

"Can we take this upstairs? The couches are more comfortable," the mermaid requested, tucking her daggers into the sheaths at her hips.

"Sure. I was planning to show her around anyway," Pierce nodded, moving towards the stairs. "Come on!"

Crystal chuckled, following him. "Is she moving in or something? Won't that put a damper on 'us'?" she winked suggestively.

"What 'us'?" Pierce flatly responded. "Crystal's nice and all, but she's a shameless flirt," he briefly explained to Tyria.

"Aww, come now. I'm not that bad, am I?" she pouted, making every effort to be cute.

The group reached the top of the staircase, entering a living room. There were two doors, one leading into a small kitchen and the other to Pierce's bedroom. "And no, she's not moving in. You should see about renting a room down at the Nest, though," he suggested to Tyria.

"What's the Nest?" she asked in reply.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know. The Nest is the official place where Phoenix's Eye guild members are supposed to live, though only about half of us actually live there. It's like an exclusive long-term hotel," Pierce explained. "You should definitely see about getting a room there,"

"Oh, okay," Tyria nodded. "I suppose I should," She looked at the clock lacrima on the wall. "Oh no, it's four o'clock already? Crap, if I'm gonna get a room I'd better get going!" she squealed, rushing towards the stairs. "It was nice seeing your house and your friends, Pierce! I'll see you tomorrow!" she called over her shoulder.

"But wait, you didn't even get to meet - oh, forget it, she's gone," Pierce sighed.

"She moves fast, huh?" Crystal commented, sidling over to her wizard and sitting on the couch next to him, a little too close for his liking. "So, now we're alone, hmm?"

"Go away!" Pierce commanded, playing his flute, and the mermaid vanished.

~P's E~

Tyria, having gotten directions at the guild hall, paused outside the Nest. It was a building that was in the shape of an omega symbol, encircling a large courtyard. The entire building was four storeys tall, and while several doors lined the ground floor, she knew that the double doors at the far end of the courtyard were the ones that led to the reception. The left side of the building was the girls' side, while the boys were on the right, and the fact that the right half was painted blue while the left side was pink - with the exception of one patch that, for some reason, had been crudely redone in green. Tyria looked at this spot in confusion, but shrugged it off and entered reception.

"Hello, and welcome to the Nest!" the receptionist smiled. "You're that new member, Tyria, right?" The receptionist had scruffy green hair and wore a pink blouse. "I'm Ariel. Hi!" she waved. "I take it you're going to be wanting a room?"

"Yes, that would be nice," the wizard nodded, watching as Ariel produced a form. "Alright, so your name is Tyria Zechtian, right? What kind of magic do you use?"

"It's a rather new kind called TechType," Tyria explained.

Ariel chewed on her pen thoughtfully. "I don't think I know that one. Could you demonstrate?"

"Sure. TechType: Tectonic!" she commanded, raising her right arm and letting it transform into the blue-and-silver pneumatic club.

"Oh. So it's a kind of transformation magic? And you have complete control over it?" the receptionist asked for confirmation, and as Tyria nodded, she smiled. "Good, I won't have to pencil in anything special for you,"

"Huh?" Tyria blinked.

"Oh. Some of our patrons don't have total control over their magic, or their magic is innately dangerous enough that we have to take measures to make sure nothing gets broken. A fire wizard, for example, would need their room fireproofed before they moved in. And a water wizard like myself needs to make sure that their room is immune to water damage,"

"Makes sense. You use water magic?" she nodded, interested.

"Yep!" Ariel beamed, dropping her quill and producing an old-style fountain pen. She clicked it, and a thin tendril of water emerged. "I'm not all that strong, though," she admitted. "I need the pen,"

"Well, you have nowhere to go but up," Tyria offered supportively. "You think so?" Ariel grinned. "Thanks! Okay, I think I've got the paperwork done. Rent is $80,000 a month, but it isn't due until the end of the month, so you have a couple of weeks," she explained.

"Good. Because I'm broke," the new tenant admitted sheepishly, looking over the papers. "Room 2C on the second floor of the girls' wing?" she read.

"That's the one. Enjoy!" Ariel waved with a cherry smile. Tyria returned the gesture, walking towards the stairs on the left side of the building. "I guess I should get settled in . . it's a shame I don't have many possessions. I guess that's my first mission; make enough money for rent and use anything extra I earn to buy some fun stuff," she smiled, opening the door to her room.

It was spartan in nature, with nothing but a plain bed in one corner, a small desk with a chair and a wardrobe. "Well, everyone starts somewhere. Maybe I should have spent some time looking around town to see if there was anywhere cheaper," she sighed, dropping her bag and sitting down on the bed. "All I even have is a change of clothes and a couple of trinkets from home,"

"Well, everyone's gotta start somewhere," an unfamiliar voice came from the entrance. Tyria looked towards the door inquisitively, seeing a girl with pink eyes and white hair, dressed in a black coat with a bone shirt and beige jeans. "And I think I might be able to help. Plasticmake Pictureframe!" she declared, drawing a rectangle in midair and forming a frame out of magic. She tossed it to Tyria, who caught it in surprise. "Now you just need a picture," she smiled.

"Uh, who are you?"

The girl's eyes widened. "I forgot to introduce myself again? Damnit," she shook her head in irritation. "So stupid!"

"I wouldn't say that," Tyria hastily reassured her.

"Yeah, I know. I wouldn't either, because I'm great and everyone knows that, and you'd better not forget it!" she suddenly snapped with a crazed look in her eye, before instantly reverting to her cheerful smile. "Anyway, I'm Blanca. Nice to meet you!" she grinned.

"Nice to meet you too," the TechType wizard replied, a little unnerved.

"Wonderful! Enjoy your stay here!" Blanca radiantly smiled, before her expression turned dark. "Or else," she growled, and smiled again as she called, "Bye now!", and vanished down the corridor.

Tyria blinked, unsure what to make of her strange neighbour. "Well, I guess this is my new home," She thought of the guild hall, of Master Feng and Sarah, Pierce and his beasts, Ariel and Blanca, and a smile slowly grew on her face. "I think I'm going to like it here,"

~P's E~

"Welcome once more to Doctor Kit's Documentaries! Give a rousing cheer for your host, the yokai you all love, me!" Kit grinned. "Today we'll be talking about, uh . . ." He paused, ripping through pages. "Too irrelevant, too spoiler-y, we haven't even met him yet, canon already covered that, um . . I guess we can discuss this one," he shrugged.

"Alright! Today I'll be telling you about how the two guilds of Magnolia, Fairy Tail and Phoenix's Eye, relate to one another!" he declared.

"Fairy Tail's been around for both more and less time than Phoenix Eye. It got its start with First Master Mavis, back in X684. Which means that they're actually currently celebrating their one hundred year anniversary," the yokai noted.

"Phoenix's Eye, on the other hand, was originally based in a different town, called Diamauros. In this way it predates Fairy Tail, as it was started more than two hundred years ago and was actually one of the first ever wizarding guilds. Unfortunately, a dark guild attacked the town in X729 and destroyed most of it, including the original guild hall. The survivors of the attack took over an old barn in Magnolia and refitted it to serve as a new guild hall. Unfortunately, it was only after they got all settled in that they realised Magnolia already had a wizarding guild, and by then it was too late to pack up and move somewhere else. In this sense, Phoenix's Eye is also younger than Fairy Tail. Luckily, Fairy Tail didn't mind the competition, and welcomed the newcomers with open arms. The two guilds immediately struck up a friendly rivalry, each constantly attempting to outdo the other. In fact, this rivalry gives both guilds motivation to constantly reach for new heights, allowing them to springboard off each other. Both Fairy Tail and Phoenix's Eye actually have each other to thank for a large amount of their reputations," Kit explained, showing a backboard that demonstrated the two guild halls seemingly (somehow) playing a game of vertical leapfrog. "Not that either will ever admit it, of course," he chuckled.

"Of course, that's not to say that they don't butt heads now and then. As friendly as their rivalry may be, it's still a rivalry, and one that both guilds take pretty seriously," Kit bumped into the blackboard, knocking it upside-down and revealing another screen that was titled 'Phoenix's Eye's Plans to Sabotage the X784 Harvest Festival,' "Oh, uh," Kit hastily knocked the board over, removing it from the camera's sight. "Nothing to see here, folks! That's all for now, see you next time on DK's Ds!"

He frantically whispered to the cameraman; "How much of that do you think they saw?"

A/N

A/N

Well, that definitely wasn't foreshadowing the ways that Phoenix'a Eye will interfere Laxus's plans to take over Fairy Tail. XD

Apologies, but at present OC Submissions are all closed. Reason?; Overuse of tropes, flaunting the rules, and harsh, unwarranted criticism. Sorry, but I think I'm better off making my own characters. {shrugs} I guess this is what I get for going on the internet. XD

Now that that's out of the way, nothing else to say, so peace!