[Maruem]

The afternoon sun had gotten low after such a busy day, and yet so much still had to be done. It beat down on Maruem's back as he paused his work for just a moment, lost in recollection. It had been a truly serene day. The sun had shone brightly and unobstructed since dawn, with not even a hint of cloud to be seen all day.

Only yesterday, Maruem had been presented with an opportunity that formed a rather absurd sounding idea. He, who had always seen himself as a follower, a second in command type, would start a guild and stand as its proud leader. Ideally the leader of many strong men and women. An ambitions commander with eyes set on the pinnacle of the empire as a shield of the people.

He scoffed at himself, though he wasn't sure why. He had been alone too long. He had felt alone too long. The delusions he had come up for himself had almost taken root, but none of that was actually what he wanted. He had tried to convince himself that he had started his guild for noble reasons. That he would be a bastion for all the world. That was the only reason the Gaians would have for accepting Adventurers after all. If they served a purpose. His first week had taught him enough lessons in that short time frame that he felt like he was owed a diploma at the very least, not the least of which was where he stood in the world, what his existence meant to the common Gaian. He was a threat unless proven otherwise.

Granted, it hadn't been all bad, there had been some incredible individuals who were good to him, who saw the man not the malice. But the common Gaian wasn't like that. They were out to protect their own, and the Adventurers were an unknown they didn't know how to account for. So maybe, just maybe, if he formed a guild, and that guild made itself useful to the common men and women, Adventurers as a whole would be more welcome.

Of course, it wasn't like the Gaians just hated them out of nowhere. Some people called the first night of the Adventurer's arrival the Apocalypse, but it had yet to truly end. There were still bad actors, the guards still had their work cut out for them. And it was those bad actors that made every last Adventurers seem like a threat to most Gaians.

So here Maruem was, starting the guild, making up goals that would satisfy the masses and give his fellow lost souls a place to belong while serving a purpose. And he would stand as their leader, the Eclipse as Celeste had dubbed him. It was an uncomfortable position to be in. No, it was much more than that. It was mortifying. It made his face burn with embarrassment to hear the title, but the Gaians he'd spoken to ran with it, and many even seemed to like the sound of it. If it worked for them, he could bear it. If it served its purpose and created a good reputation for himself and his guild, then he would have to be able to.

All that was to say he couldn't admit to himself the real reasons he wanted the guild. He had inklings. He knew it would help feel a little less alone, but many of the real reasons hadn't yet entered his mind as conscious thoughts. The first week had been very trying for him. He had met some kind people, but the deep bite of loneliness couldn't be healed while all he did was work. He was still lonely. He wanted friends, he wanted family. He wanted a safe place for that family to live as a community and not have to worry about a roof over their head or a meal in their bellies. And he would ensure none of them were ever caught sleeping out in the cold rain or getting kicked awake by guards. He wanted them to have gold enough to spare to feel no twinge of fear or doubt. He wanted them to know this place would be waiting for them while they were away. In essence, all he wanted was to create a home. But again, these thoughts were not yet in his conscious mind, and likely wouldn't be for some time.

The evening prior, Maruem had gone to purchase this guild hall. There were many other options on the market but he had passed this building earlier in the week and it spoke to him. There most certainly would have been some good choices for him to sleep on if he had looked at the listings, but he had no need for them. He knew the home he wanted. Unfortunately, he also knew first choice also came a lot of necessary maintenance to bring it back to its former glory and functionality. Fortunately, for all the work he would have to put into the building, the agency gave Maruem bedding for all of the old rooms, along with several pieces of furniture and lights that had been in storage and had been taken from the watch decades ago, all of which they delivered to him about two hours after he started working inside.

Orion's Villa. That was the name he'd given to the guild hall that would house Astra's finest. The North-East Gate's garrison and watch tower once known as Balthazar's Watch. It was a cozy place if you ignored all the work that needed to be done to remove the years of neglect. Its original namesake was a Gaian commander who died protecting her people. It was a genuinely noble legacy that Maruem wished he could have upheld himself, one he wished to live up to going forward. The position of the garrison was convenient for its new purpose both as a place to receive jobs and as a location from which to quickly deploy its members on missions. The members of Astra would one day be able to be quickly deployed into the city to handle disturbances as an aid to the guards, out into the forest or surrounding fields to handle hostile mobs, or even to Tivoli for jobs or communication services. Three hours march was pushing it for a quick deployment but if they needed the help then so be it. Of course, that was all contingent on Astra even having members.

Maruem looked about the long ago emptied rooms. It was a bit sad to see at first. A home long ago lost to its inhabitants. However, even with the melancholy there was good there to behold. He was quite pleased with the lay out of the structure for one. The previous architect had a good head on their shoulders. The buildings and rooms were organized enough that things were conveniently accessible and yet separate enough that it was clear there were distinct areas of the guild hall. The large waterwheel in the Aniene river was in equal parts beautiful to look at, atmospheric to listen to, and practical for use in the crafting areas. The large greenhouse atop the structure ensured a steady supply of good foods and plants with healing properties should it be left in good and capable hands. And the courtyard behind the main structure was both enjoyable to relax in, and opportune for use as a training ground.

For the first several hours of the day it had seemed almost like the building was burning from an onlooker's perspective, so thick were the clouds of dust that billowed out of all the opened windows. But eventually the breeze carried it all away, and the building looked substantially better inside. After the sweeping and dusting, some of the furniture that had been delivered got a new home as Maruem carefully rearranged it around the house, making sure he did not scratch the wooden floors in the process. He cleaned out the stone ovens in the kitchen and spread the ash over the grass in the back in any of the spots where it was patchy. He was no master cleaner, and much of the work he had done would definitely need to be touched up, but he was proud of what he had accomplished.

He left the old commanders office for later, and aside from dusting and dressing the bed, did the same with the attached bedroom that would become his own. Moving on to the roof, it was quite nice. it was an open flat top with a large glass greenhouse overgrown with what appeared to be mostly weeds. Maruem was no plant expert however, so he could not be certain. He was quite drenched with sweat from all the work, so he took his shirt off and got to work with pulling only the plants he knew for certain were in fact weeds.

It was a large greenhouse, there was much land to toil over, and after about an hour and a half of constant tearing of roots, he had amassed quite the pile of plant matter. One armful after another though, Maruem walked large chunks of the pile to the edge of the roof and tossed them down to be taken care of later. After dropping another one of the loads, he noticed a figure standing on the street below looking up as if he were curious about whoever was throwing down the plants.

"Why hello there!"Maruem shouted down in a friendly and inviting way.

"How can I help you today?" Whoever it was, Maruem was the representative of this guild hall now, and he wanted to start with good impressons.

"Actually.. Give me just a second so we don't have to shout back and forth. Come on into the building, I'll meet you in the foyer." He invited the individual in before stepping back from the edge and jogging towards the stairs. Half way down the first flight he realized he had left his shirt up in the greenhouse. He ran back up and grabbed it, shaking any wrinkles out as he ran back down before pulling it over him as he went. Maruem would have to work on his presentation and hosting skills, this was his first guest and he felt a bit sheepish.

Word Count: 1725 (claimed at 1111)
Tags: Ciriodhul
Notes: House was payed in full, payment plan is just flavor

[Ciriodhul]

It had been a truly bleak day. The sun had gazed upon Romalia since dawn by now without any most-welcomed cloudy diversion. The city brimmed with business and Ciriodhul had been unable to find anything to do. In the past he had occasionally been able to find a party or he had got himself into enough trouble, so that people would want to help him. Today no such occasion had arisen yet. Not that he would have tried to find one. He has been in a depressed mood for days, aimlessly wandering the city. And now that the day was nearing its end, the godforsaken sun was slowly fleeing its accountability by approaching the horizon.

The shaman sighed. “What am I doing?”, he asked himself as if it were the first time today. “And where even am I?” Without realizing it the noise of the city had died down. The street or rather alley he was following was devoid of adventurers and landers alike. “I must be getting near the outer parts of the city. Let’s see. I am going east. Maybe I should turn back, before I end up in Tivoli.”, he thought and proceeded to go eastward. Although he knew that wandering around alone would not help his situation, he was attracted by the calmness of the mostly abandoned buildings, the silent streets and overgrown walls in front of him. Maybe, just maybe, it was important to breathe the beauty of this world once in a while. Finally the sadness buried within him was freed and he began to sob quietly but also relieved. He slowly moved his gaze upwards from the street below him to the sky above. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks and dripped to the ground. He stood there for a while, simply gazing into the blue vastness of the sky. Then he continued his stroll into the eastern parts of Romalia with a surreal lifted spirit.

The alley lead to a small river, most likely a confluent of the Tiber, and Ciriodhul decided to follow it into the northeastern outskirts of Romalia, until he stood in the yard of a comparatively large building complex, one of whose buildings had already partly collapsed into the water. Its high mossy tower made it clear for the shaman that he had accidentally stumbled upon an abandoned watchtower of the city. A few footsteps away Ciriodhul spotted a small pile of uprooted plants lying next to the wall of the main building, inside a few spots of red shining through. Intrigued the shaman and also pharmacist by crafting talent went closer to the pile and began inspecting it. “Red Clover”, read the description that popped up, when he picked up one of the thick, bristly red flowers buried under the rest of the weed, the pile was made of. To his knowledge, this could most likely still be used to enhance the effects of a healing potion.”But why is it on the ground and still fresh?” Just as he began to think about that question, another load of plants fell from above right onto the pile in front of him, some of which got entangled in his ponytail without him realizing it. Now it was apparent that this watchtower wasn’t as abandoned anymore as it had seemed. Ciriodhul stood up and wiped the weeds off his robe. Then he made a few steps backwards to get a better view of the main building’s roof, which was used as a very overgrown greenhouse. Not before long a shirtless, robust figure of a man appeared, throwing down another load of weeds onto the pile.

“Why, hello there!”, the man shouted down in a friendly way. “How can I help you today?” Before Ciriodhul could get a word in he continued. “Actually ... Give me just a second so we don’t have to shout back and forth. Come on into the building, I’ll meet you in the foyer.”

“Uhm, are you sure” I am not bothering you?, the shaman wanted to say, but stopped himself right in the middle of his sentence, since the man had vanished and was most likely not understanding a word of what he tried to say. Confused Ciriodhul made his way into the building, unsure of what was currently happening. He heard footsteps approaching from the stairs, before they suddenly turned away only to approach again. Finally the man from the roof reappeared in front of him, this time wearing a shirt over his muscular upper body.

“I really didn’t want to disturb you.”, Ciriodhul hastily began speaking, “I just lost myself in the city and found the pile of weeds. You know? Not every weed is useless. Anyways, my name is Fro-, I mean Ciriodhul, class shaman, talents pharmacist and housekeeper. May I be of assistance?” With the last question he bowed down, mostly to calm himself. Simultaneously his white ponytail followed the action and fell in front of his right shoulder, presenting to his host the red clover still entangled within, when he straightened his back again.

---

Word count: 844
Total word count: 844
Tags: Maruem
Notes: I hope, this is sufficient for you to build upon.

[Maruem]

Music or Music

RMaruem, now fully clothed and eager to see where this chance encounter would lead him, reached the bottom of the last flight of stairs with surprising haste and vigor. He turned the corner and after a bend or two found his way to the foyer of his new guild hall. Up close, Maruem could take him in fully. The man stood before him was not of imposing stature or bulging figure, but a slender man. He was of average height, just a bit shorter than Maruem himself perhaps. He was slim, but not enough that it caused concern for his health. Maruem had had family with a similar build and they were simply blessed with a more efficient metabolism. His full head of long white hair was tied back in a ponytail that naturally guided the eyes to take in his simple novice robe, which stretched low to the ground just brushing his ankles. Of note on the way were the small bits of plant still caught in his hair and on his robe, making Maruem suspect that he had been a little lacking in attention while working on the roof.

The man spoke briskly, not wasting a moment under Maruem's scrutiny. He made it clear he'd had not intended to disturb Maruem, but was lost and had stumbled upon the pile of weeds Maruem had been working on ridding himself of. He shared some of his knowledge, commenting that not every weed was useless which made Maruem a bit embarrassed at his hastiness in tossing them all. He felt it meant this man had more knowledge of plants than he did, and he was probably unwittingly wasting some potentially valuable or useful resources. Perhaps this was an opportunity to make a friend with some knowledge to share.

"Anyways, my name is Fro-, I mean Ciriodhul, class shaman, talents pharmacist and housekeeper. May I be of assistance?"
With a name finally added to go with his friendly looking face, and with more information to absorb quickly on top of the base introduction. Maruem bowed back at the man, a low and respectful bow. Though as he did so he processed what he had heard and seen. He straightened himself with a chuckle and a warm smile finding its way to the corners of his eyes.

"Well, Mr. Ciriodhul, it is a pleasure to meet you, though it seems you did more than simply stumble upon a pile of weeds if your ponytail is anything to go by. Is it possible that in my focus on clearing the greenhouse of weeds I stumbled a pile of weeds upon you, an innocent onlooker, and continued to work completely unaware of the mistake I made? My sincerest apologies for the blunder on my part."

Maruem stood with his right arm raised and his hand resting on the back of his head as his shoulders fell slack while his face flashed with another smile, this one more sheepish and abashed than before. His shoulders rose once he remembered that he had neglected to make his own introduction.

"I.." he said subtly straightening himself into a more dignified posture. "..am Maruem, Leader of the Guild: Astra, and owner of this guild hall which you now stand in. My class is Gladiator, and as for my talents, I am a Carpenter and Sigilmaker for now, though I have been considering looking into the possibility of switching the latter out for something else. I can promise you that you have done nothing to disturb me, and have instead done quite the opposite in giving me hope."

"If it would not be too forward of me to ask of you, Mr. Ciriodhul, You are a Pharmacist, Housekeeper, and Shaman. Maybe it makes no sense to think so, but that combination of class and talents gives me the impression that you would know a thing or two about plants. To be perfectly honest with you, I'd only just begun moving into this guild hall earlier this morning, and have been clearing it out to make a fitting home for the many wonderful members I am certain will join someday. Astra is a guild I'm building with the ideal of providing protecting and healing to all those who cannot do so themselves." This was the first time Maruem had shared Astra's goals with anyone since the meeting at Caesar's Flagon yesterday, and this time it was a complete stranger. It felt strange to share his dream.

Astra was going to be the Shield of Romalia. It had to be. He wanted a family to take in, care for, love. Friends, a dog maybe, maybe a few, all sharing a home under this old barracks' roof, able to live in this world without fear of hunger or homelessness, loneliness or death. He was starting to see the cracks in the facade, but she couldn't crumble like this. Astra was going to succeed. She had to succeed, he saw no other way to get the security the adventurers deserved in this world, and it would give them some purpose and a way to help the Gaians, who needed it too. They had to form a shield. Maybe not the whole guild, and if it came to it, maybe just him even. Regardless, Astra as a name had to serve Adventurer kind and help give them a better place in Gaia. The facade held. It wasn't like Astra being a shield an entirely false or distasteful goal, but Maruem felt something in him straining. It wasn't he dream, but it was a means to achieve it, he had to make some sacrifices to get to where he someday dreamed of. He found his resolve. Astra would be a shield and he would have to lead it to that point.

"Would you do me the pleasure of helping me to sort through and organize the various plants that have overtaken my new greenhouse, and to dispose of the unhelpful ones? I am hopeful I did not make any mistakes with the plants I have already torn out, but fortunately I was being diligent in wanting to prevent regrowth, so I removed the plants with the roots as intact as possible. If I did make any mistakes, they should be reversible with enough hard work."

Word Count: 1050 (claimed at 789)
Total Word Count: 1900
Tags: Ciriodhul

[Ciriodhul]

Ciriodhul felt somewhat bad, when he observed his host bowing back to him. He was not used to people mirroring his own demeanor and he also did not believe he was worth enough to be bowed back to. However, his host straightened himself with a playful chuckle and looked at him with a warm smile decorating a trustworthy face. Frowin never had had a brother, but he felt like this moment accurately depicted the experience of having an older one. The man in front of him didn’t seem to mind the roleplaying persona the shaman had made for himself in the attempt to cope with the situation; instead he seemed to respect it while simultaneously not taking it too seriously. For some odd reason Ciriodhul felt for the first time, that it was indeed possible for him to find a home in this world.

He was snapped out of thought, when his host began to speak. With a kind of shyness and embarrassment Ciriodhul had not thought possible for the man in front of him he apologized for dropping some of the weeds upon the shaman. “How do you know?”, Ciriodhul wanted to ask, until he followed the man’s gaze to his own ponytail. Only now he realized that some of the red clover was entangled within it. He quickly picked the flowers out of his hair slightly wondering whether he looked untended, cute or even attractive with flowers sticking out of his ponytail. Maybe he should try purposely entangling flowers into his hair once. Then finally his host regained his composure and introduced himself, before the shaman could relieve him of such unnecessary guilt. The man’s name was Maruem, a gladiator, carpenter and still sigilmaker, and according to him he had just founded a guild, in whose guild hall they were currently standing in. “I can promise you that you have done nothing to disturb me, and have instead done quite the opposite in giving me hope.”, Maruem ended. 

“Hope?” Albeit being relieved that he didn’t disturb the guild master, the shaman was confused. How could he of all sorts of people give anyone else hope in his current state of pitifulness? However, he was too confused to get another word in and Maruem simply continued. Apparently he was thinking that Ciriodhul would know a bit about plants, since he was a housekeeper and pharmacist. It was true that this talent combination automatically gave him a bit more information about this world’s plant life than anyone with different talents, yet this knowledge was nothing more than talent-specific flavor text. In fact the pharmacist and housekeeper had not had the opportunity until now to properly work with his talents. Furthermore Maruem openly shared his feelings towards the future of his guild with him. Ciriodhul was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. Only a few moments ago he was aimlessly wandering the city and being depressed by existence itself. Now a fully-fledged, although fresh, guild master seemed to rely on him. This was made explicitly clear, when the man really asked for his assistance: “Would you do me the pleasure of helping me to sort through and organize the various plants that have overtaken my new greenhouse, and to dispose of the unhelpful ones?” 

What has once in reality been nothing more than an empty phrase containing the subconscious wish to have a purpose, had become a responsibility now, Ciriodhul could not shy away from anymore. He was still unsure, whether he could really be of help to Maruem, but he had to try now. Only partially listening to the rest of what the guild master had to say, the housekeeper patiently waited for him to finish. “Yes, of course, I gladly help organizing the greenhouse!”, he replied eager and insecure at the same time, “To be honest, everything I know comes from the additional flavor text my crafting talents provides me with. So I don’t know, how much of an assistance I can be, but I still have two hands at the very least.” He threw his hands up in the air as if he needed to proof it. Then his voice became more thoughtful as he lost his composure for a moment. Something about the situation and the man in front of him had touched his heart. “You know. I really envy you for your outlook on this world and your plans for your guild. It’s a great wish.” 

Abashed he grew silent for a moment. “What are you doing, Frowin? You can’t burden a stranger with your own inability like that!”, he thought, “Especially not, when you are the one offering help.” Out of habit Ciriodhul bowed down again. “I am sorry, nevermind that, I was offering my assistance, and that is what you shall receive.” He straightened up again and put on a faint smile. “Okay, at first I think, we should go through the weeds you already tossed down. The red clover in it can be sold in the city tomorrow morning. It is not a very rare ingredient and it’d be a waste to grow it in a greenhouse, when you can find it all over the place. However, it is still able to enhance potions, so potion makers should give you some bucks for it. After that we can turn to the greenhouse again, so that I can inspect what’s already growing there.” Everything he just said was nothing more than an educated guess based on the few fragments of knowledge he actually had. However, he was still quite confident, that this was the right way to proceed. Solving a problem was way easier than finding a purpose. “This is just a suggestion of course; it is your guild hall and greenhouse after all. Feel free to order me around if you believe we should proceed in a different manner.” 

---

Word Count: 978
Total Word Count: 1822
Tags: Maruem
Notes: Maruem Nii-chan! Just to clarify: I write from Ciriodhul's perspective. Therefore everything, that is told as if it were reality, is usually his perception (especially regarding other people). Looking forward to the next post.

[Maruem]

Music

The man before Maruem, Ciriodhul he had called himself, had fittingly rosy cheeks matching the little red flowers he picked carefully and diligently from his ponytail. One by one they came loose from his smooth and soft looking locks as his nimble fingers deftly untangled them without harming a single strand of his long hair. Maruem got the impression that before him stood a very thoughtful man. It seemed every movement he made was done with intention behind it. He was graceful and efficient, and clearly not only took care in his work, but in his presentation as well. Who ever this Ciriodhul fellow was, he had very quickly built a good impression in Maruem's eyes.

Almost immediately after Maruem's lips had shut after he finished his invitation and request for the Shaman to join him in cleaning up the greenhouse, he got a reply from his new companion. His reply seemed eager and forthright as he said that of course he would help with organizing. He seemed to down play his knowledge and capabilities in regards to the plant life and its care but Maruem was not particularly worried. He saw a bright little spark of what he though was excitement and hope in the man's eye, and he liked it. Even before he had a concrete idea for it, Astra was always meant to be a home for those without one, and as family for those who wished for one in this unfamiliar land.

This bright eye'd housekeeper had far more potential than possibly even he believed, and Maruem was grateful to whatever force of nature had landed the man at his doorstep. If Astra would do some good for even this one person, then it would already all be worth dumping his entire saving on. Maruem chuckled cordially when the gentleman before him lifted his hands as if to show that he did in fact have two. "I appreciate that, Mr. Ciriodhul, though I am certain that even at the very least, you are far more than just a pair of hands." He said to the Shaman with a bright reassuring smile.

Ciriodhul's tone changed as he spoke even more genuinely and expressed his admiration of Maruem's goals and outlook with Astra and the world. He called it a great wish, before falling silent in a subtle display of what Maruem took to be embarrassment. "I am very grateful for that. Thank you very much. It was a kind thing for you to say, but I don't feel there is any need for you to envy another man's ideals. If you find an outlook or ideal which you admire, then you should feel welcome to share in it. Ideals do not belong to any one Individual."

Ciriodhul proposed that they begin their work by going through the pile he had already tossed and collecting the red flowers as well as any other herbs that may have uses Maruem was unaware of, and then proceeding to work on the greenhouse. Apparently the red flowers could be used to enhance healing potions so they may sell for a bit in town, but despite the relative confident with which he shared that proposal of a plan, he backpedaled a bit to offer Maruem more of a choice in how they proceeded, even giving him the option to order the kind man around as he saw fit. "Unfortunately, that just won't do. I'm not really the type to order people around. I can manage it in combat, and maybe if someone is slacking on their chores or other expected duties then that could be a time I step in as well, but you are my first guest here and I have little knowledge on plants and gardening. I will defer to you and follow your lead with this task."

Maruem was looking forward to seeing the Shaman in action. Despite what the man had said to him, Maruem had a gut feeling that the Shaman knew his stuff, and he was excited to see someone with actual knowledge of plants in action and helping to clear what needed to be worked. Surely the work would go much faster with two at it, especially if one of those two was a housekeeper by trade. Even if Ciriodhul was no expert in botany, any knowledge was better than none. "Well then, Mr. Ciriodhul, let us be off to the front yard to sort the plants I've cleared, and then we can discuss moving on to the greenhouse. Hopefully I didn't cause too much damage to the ones that are worth something." He stepped around the guest and opened the front door wide to let his guest out before following not far behind.

Word Count: 789
Total Word Count: 1900+789=2689
Tags: Ciriodhul

[Ciriodhul]

„Well then Mr. Ciriodhul, let us be off to the front yard to sort the plants I’ve cleared, and then we can discuss moving on to the greenhouse. Hopefully I didn’t cause too much damage to the ones that are worth something.”, the guild master said and opened the door behind him. Stuck in thought Ciriodhul turned rather slowly around to the door, when after a few seconds he had finally processed was Maruem had said. “O-oh”, he began his startled reply, “Don’t worry. They should be fine. They have to be processed anyway, so any superficial damage is meaningless.” At least that was, what he thought. It seemed illogical to him that the appearance of the red clover was in any way important for its effectiveness as a herb.

A bit embarrassed he accepted Maruem’s offer and went out the door the guild master held open for him. Meanwhile he reflected on Maruem’s comments on his rather awkward reply to the man’s request. It was obvious that Maruem seemed to put a lot of unwarranted trust in him. More importantly, though, he seemed to be the most kindhearted person the shaman had met so far, at least in this world. He reminded him of an old classmate and friend of his, who had died way too early, but with more confidence in his own abilities. The fact that he didn’t want to order anyone around appealed to the shaman, although he was unsure, whether this was indeed a good trait for a guild master. “Well, it depends on the kind of guild, I guess. It should be the perfect trait for a smaller, more intimate guild, which would definitely match with what he had previously told me about his plans.”, Ciriodhul concluded. “Actually, the more I think about it, this would really make for a perfect guild master for such a guild.”, he mumbled while going down the few steps of the front door’s stairs onto the yard and without noticing that he had said this out loud, albeit being most likely hard to understand for Maruem behind him.

Ideals do not belong to any one individual. From all the guild master had said, this sentence stuck in his brain the most. For one he was relieved his host hadn’t fully grasped the implications of what he had said. It was not that he didn’t want to steal Maruem’s wish; he envied the sole fact that Maruem was emotionally able to hold a wish of that kind. But made that even a difference? Was he really not able to hold that kind of wish? His envy seemingly proofed otherwise. Therefore shouldn’t he be able to share Maruem’s wish? Had he perhaps already been sharing the wish before he had come here, and what he really envied wasn’t the wish but instead his ability to act upon it? He would not be able to answer those questions right away. In front of him lay the pile of weed, which was submerged in the warm orange rays of the setting sun, that shone over the roofs of the city to their left.

If they wanted to finish the tasks they had set for themselves still in the daylight, they had to push ahead now. “I guess I should try to use her. Everything else would be irrational.”, the shaman thought to convince himself. Then he used the shaman’s beginner spell Summon Spirit. In front of him a small spirit appeared in the air and he held out his hands underneath it for it to stand upon. Spirits were able to fly, but since he often saw them sitting on other shaman’s shoulders, it was very plausible that they preferred not to. Ciriodhul’s spirit resembled a female cat faunri with equally long white hair, who for some reason wore a school uniform made of a black skirt and a white shirt without any shoes or legwear. He knew the person in front of him. Or rather, he knew which person the spirit resembled. It resembled Sola, the very best friend he had lost sight of after graduating school and more importantly the only girl he had ever loved until now. Not that he would have realized, when she had still been around him. Realization had come too late and now he had been transported into a different world, even further away from her. When he had first summoned his spirit, only a few moments after the apocalypse had happened, he had been so distraught at its appearance that he had immediately desummoned it. And for a while he had been emotionally unable to summon her again. Now weeks had passed.

“Thank you for answering my call. May I request your assistance in sorting out the red clover inside this pile of weed behind you?”, the shaman said as careful as possible. He didn’t know, how the spirit would react after being summoned the first time, after he had desummoned her in such a rush, that they hadn’t exchanged a word. “I don’t think that this is the first thing you should ask a girl, when meeting her for the first time.”, the spirit responded standing on his hands while curiously tilting its head to the left and folding its arms behind its back. “Technically it isn’t the first time.”, Ciriodhul whispered in an attempt to circumvent this kind of utterly embarrassing conversation, but the spirit just sat down on his palms, dangled its legs and gently replied: “We both know that it is.” “I am sorry.”, Ciriodhul said and bowed down; he had no other choice now. “It is a pleasure to meet you. May I know your name, milady? It appears that you have been chosen to be my spiritual companion.” With a faint pinkish glow surrounding its silhouette the spirit floated upwards in front of his face and mimicked his bow. “It is also a pleasure to meet you, young man, but you already know my name.” “Sola.”, he mumbled more to himself than the spiritual cat girl in front of him. Then the attention of Sola shifted to the shaman’s host: “You must be the guy saving this lost soul beneath me.” She was now sitting on Ciriodhul’s head. “In this case I gladly help you both sorting those weeds.”

---

Word count: 1050
Total word count: 2872
Tags: Maruem
Notes: Sorry for the long introduction of my spirit, I hope it is somewhat interesting to you. Feel free to proceed to the actual process of sorting out the weed.  It's your choice what you want to do with the following task or the sudden appearance of Ciriodhul's spirit. If Maruem doesn't do much Ciriodhul will simply instruct you to sort out the red brisky flowers (the red clover) and do the task.  

[Maruem]

Music

As Maruem held the door for the Shaman in his foyer, he watched his guest turn in a slow half circle. He appeared to be buried in his thoughts but after a short while he began to speak and uttered first a slow faint “O-oh” and then his more cohesive thought. “Don’t worry. They should be fine. They have to processed anyway, so any superficial damage is meaningless.” Maruem thought for a moment as he wondered silently if nicer product did not tend to sell for more even if it was just as usable regardless of its superficial appearance. But then, perhaps those in the potion making world were less picky and more practical.

His guest seemed a bit sheepish as he made his exit in front of Maruem. The new guild leader flashed him an encouraging grin. Maybe the man was just not used to being served, given his Housekeeper talent it was possible he was often in a position where he was the one serving others, whether by choice or by nature or otherwise.

There was a temporary quiet pause as the two men walked to the pile of the random assortment of weeds, red flowers used in healing potions, and potentially other medicinal herbs. The both seemed to have drifted to their own worlds as they lost themselves in thought, perhaps not even aware that the other was in thought as well as they walked toward their goal. While there was no way of knowing what was drifting through the Shaman's head, Maruem was reflecting on the things he had said, and how he felt about them even just moments after. He could be a bit impulsive and thoughtless in his words, but he meant well.

A friend had once streamed them playing Gaia together, years ago. His friend had shown Maruem a highlight from the stream where he was answering a viewer's question about Maruem's character and how he behaved in the game back then. "Well some call him a fool. Other's would instead say he's a kind soul. Me? I sometimes wonder if even he's aware of how he acts. He can be a bit oblivious at times. He's kind of an idiot." He ended his answer with a laugh as he joked about his friend, and Maruem laughed with him when he watched the highlight, but he remembered those words now, and though about how they applied to right now.

He planned to make a big guild, a strong guild, a guild he had described just yesterday as one that would some day protect the whole of Romalia. How could he reach those heights as a man who described himself by saying "I'm not really the type to order people around. I can manage it in combat, and maybe if someone is slacking on their chores or other expected duties then that could be a time I step in as well...". He was trying to be a guild leader in general and said he was not really the type to order other people around? Small wonder his friend had joked he was kind of an idiot, it would hardly surprise him if his guest Ciriodhul felt similarly after that poor choice of words.

In truth, Maruem was quite the natural when it came to delegation and leadership. It was not a lie by any means that he preferred not to order others around, but he tended to pick up pretty well on where people may be able to perform better or worse, and ask them to help in the areas where they shine or grow in the areas they struggle with to balance their performance more effectively. His approach was perhaps a bit too intimate for his goals. It was all well and good to learn where one or ten members shined, but get up to thirty, fifty, or one hundred and things would get much harder to keep track of.

In the back of his mind, Maruem heard a faint mumble come from his guest as he thought out loud, but he did not process any of it. Backtracking in the conversation he thought about how he had responded to Ciriodhul's admiration of his ideals. He felt his cheeks warm a little as he blushed at the thought of how he had acted like he knew what he was talking about. Of course ideals did not belong to individuals. He did not have to say it out loud. If his friend had been there, he definitely would have called him out and laughed at him. It was almost like he was trying to sound cool and put together, but in the moment that definitely had not been the intent behind it. Maruem was not a particularly prideful guy. When it came to pride, he cared a lot more if it was to do with someone around him than himself.

Towards the end of his time to reflect he thought of his request in general. It was perhaps rather selfish to find a stranger whom he had assaulted with plant life, invite them in, and then almost immediately request that they help him with his work load. Whether it was sooner or later, he would have to repay the man for his generous help. Perhaps a home cooked meal would help even the trade. The brilliant orange evening sun shone down on the front of his home as Maruem found himself standing before the pile of weeds and herbs he had torn from the greenhouse above and tossed down below. The view of the sky was brilliant, and they probably had only a bit more than an hour before the sun began to set, and only slightly longer before there was no light outside save for the light of the moon, stars, and magic street lamps.

Maruem was no longer deep in thought, but he had work to do if he wanted help from the Shaman in his greenhouse before night fell. He focused most of his attention on the plant pile, with only a small portion of it available to pick up on any conversation that may come up. He was a quick worker and within only a few moments he had already found a nice groove he fell into that let him quickly sort out the red flowers.

The small bit of attention he had left available turned out to be worth while, as conversation did come up, but he had expected it to be between himself an his guest. He was thus very surprised when he head his guest talking to a feminine voice. Maruem was brought out of his rhythm as his curiosity got the best of him and he turned to see who his new guest was. Before him, rather than a young woman he had expected to see, was no one, just Ciriodhul. At east that was how it looked at first, and then he saw the figure of a little lady sitting on his guest's palms. "A fairy?" He thought to himself looking her over. She appeared to be a female faunry with white fur on her little pointed triangle ears and tail. She had the unusual attire of a school uniform with a black skirt and white shirt combo, though without any shoes or other leg wear as far as Maruem could see.

She dangled her legs over the side of one of his palms as they had an exchange, her speaking normally while Ciriodhul whispered his responses.He bowed, and apparently asked her for her name in his latest whisper, as she responded "It is also a pleasure to meet you, young man, but you already know my name.” Ciriodhul mumbled a single word too quietly for Maruem to make out, but soon after the little pixie's attention shifted to Him. “You must be the guy saving this lost soul beneath me.” She spoke to him as she had found her way to sitting on the Shaman's head. “In this case I gladly help you both sorting those weeds.”

"Oh excellent! You'll be helping us with our work little miss? I really appreciate that!" Maruem beamed at the new guest while he offered a pinky to shake hands with the little unknown creature before him. Whatever she may have been, it mattered little to him. She seemed kind and fun and even if they had not known each other long, it seemed she knew Ciriodhul and the more the merrier. There was no reason for Maruem to react any other way in his mind. "I suppose it would only be prudent to compensate the two of you for your help tonight. Once we're done out here what say you two to a nice home cooked dinner. I have some fresh boar meat I hunted not long ago that is ready to be cooked up, and from what I have heard, I'm sure it would taste quite good."

Maybe it was not the best compensation in the world, but a hand cooked meal was a comfort that belonged in a home on its first night, and sharing a meal like that with new friends was a welcome opportunity. Maruem sat down by the pile once again and got back to work sorting, though he was less focused on it than he had been before. "You know.." He said to the two companions as he worked. "I'm not sure if either of you have a place to stay, and maybe it is presumptuous of me to do so so soon after our chance meeting, but if you would like to, you're welcome to spend the night here tonight. Gods know, I have the rooms for hosting guests right now. It has already gotten somewhat late and once we're done with our work, with dinner coming after that should you accept the meal, well it'll be pretty late by the time it's all done with. Just thought I would make the offer in case you were interested."

Maruem picked up a little plant. one of its leaves was brown and dried up, and as he poked it the brown leaf cracked and crumbled. The remainder of the plant seemed healthy, but rather than a red flower, it was a mass of large weedy leaves. Maruem tossed it to the pile of discards as he continued his search for red flowers. Fortunately for everyone involved, there had not been that many of the red flower on the roof, so sorting them out was quick work.

Word Count: 1755
Total Word Count: 2689+1755=4444
Tags: Ciriodhul
Notes: I did indeed enjoy your spirit's introduction. She seems like a fun addition to the little party we've formed.

[Ciriodhul]

Ciriodhul was a bit startled, when he saw the big warm smile on Maruem’s lips being directed to his spirit. “At least someone is giving her the welcome she deserves”, he thought, still being disappointed at his own behaviour. While the spirit Sola indeed resembled his former friend of the same name, she didn’t seem to share the same personality. The Sola from his world had been more reserved or rather dreamier. Actually Ciriodhul was unsure, whether both shared the same personality. After all the only time he had really spent with her had been in the hospital and later in the school’s library. And although they had shared the same room for hours and even days at end for years, the most interaction they had had was reading side by side, no, simply reading at the same time in the same room. In the library they hadn’t even shared the same aisle between the many bookshelves; however, he had always felt her near him. Now that he thought about it, the books of the shelf he had usually leaned against had regularly pushed against his back as if someone had been leaning against it from the other side.

The now shaman was snapped out of his thoughts, when he realized that a muscled arm was now obstructing his field of view. Confused he almost expected to be patted on the head by his host, which made him blush for a very short time. Then Maruem moved his arm back without having touched Ciriodhul and the figure of Sola replaced it in front of his face, while she was making her way down into the pile of weeds. “A handshake?”, the shaman conjectured and got to work as well. After Ciriodhul had sorted out his first red clover, Maruem invited the two of them to a home-made dinner. Apparently he had been hunting not too long ago and had acquired some boar meat. “I really do not want to be an inconvenience”, the shaman instantaneously replied as if it were some kind of reflex. “You really do not have to compensate this little of an assistance.” He sorted out two more flowers. “It’s already enough allowing me to help.” Embarrassed by his own words Ciriodhul quickly continued: “What I mean is ...”

“... that he will think about it.”, Sola completed his sentence for him without even looking up, although he himself didn’t really know what he had tried to say there. Not knowing what he could reasonably add to this, the shaman fell silent and awkwardly focused on the pile of weeds again, while simultaneously keeping an eye on Maruem, who had also been fallen silent. Ciriodhul noticed that he was less thorough now than he had been before. At one point he tossed a perfectly healthy clover on the discard pile, before he realized his mistake and quickly recovered it. For a moment the warm, collected man sitting in front of him showed just a hint of nervousness. “You know...” He said to the shaman and his spirit. “I'm not sure if either of you have a place to stay, and maybe it is presumptuous of me to do so so soon after our chance meeting, but if you would like to, you're welcome to spend the night here tonight. Gods know, I have the rooms for hosting guests right now. It has already gotten somewhat late and once we're done with our work, with dinner coming after that should you accept the meal, well it'll be pretty late by the time it's all done with. Just thought I would make the offer in case you were interested.” Too surprised at what just had happened Ciriodhul was unable to properly answer, hence he simply continued sorting the weeds after a short pause trying to gather his thoughts. Then, after a while of sorting, thinking and failing miserably at both tasks, he replied. “Yes”, he said. “I gladly accept your offer. No, I gladly accept both of your offers.” He didn’t know, who had made this decision, but now that it had been made the fog in his mind started to lift. Sola flashed him an acknowledging glance as if it had been her, who had made the decision for him. For a short moment the idea of the spirits of this world being able to control their shaman seemed kind of frightening to him, then he flashed a glance back to her and for the first time after having been pulled into this world he genuinely appreciated her existence. Albeit only for a short time, until the memory of the real Sola settled back in.

“I am sorry, we gladly accept your offer. I’m still not used to having a companion. However ...” And while he said that, he stood up only to bow down. “... if you indeed let us stay the night at this place, I shall be the one compensating you. I don’t have much to give, but since I am a housekeeper, I am sure, there is more I can do besides helping with the greenhouse.” Despite doing his best to resemble the proper attitude of a real housekeeper he had no idea, whether he could really be of much help yet. However, he was willing to learn his craft somehow if that would mean he could stay with Maruem for a bit longer.

With regained focus it didn’t take long for the three of them to finish sorting out the red clover from the pile of weeds. “Splendid, now that that’s done we should store those flowers somewhere and probably make our way up to the greenhouse, right?”

---

Word Count: 945
Total Word Count: 3817
Tags: Maruem
Notes: I am finally back! I hope it lasts.

[Maruem]

Ciriodhul and his companion, Sola, seems quite close. At first Maruem had felt a bit crest fallen when it seemed like Ciriodhul was trying to find polite way to decilne his offer of a meal, but it seemed that the two before him had a way with eachother, and Sola finished his sentence while leaving the possibility of them accepting open. “It’s already enough allowing me to help.” Those were Ciriodhuls words to him. They spoke to a very generous heart. Maruem admired those words and what they said about his quest as he continued to work on sorting the weeds.

It took a while for Ciriodhul to respond after Maruem's bigger offer, one of a place to stay for the night. It was admittedly a rather forward offer for one to make to a stranger, but he had a home now, one with more rooms then he knew what to do with until he gained members, it only made sense that he could share them, especially with guests as helpful and kind as the one before him now. as time dragged on and no reply came, he began to wonder if mayhaps he should ease off of the offer as it may all just be too much offering for the kind Shaman to accept.

Just as he began to consider opening his mouth to make it easier on the Shaman, he heard a simple one word reply. “Yes” Ciriodhul said. It felt as though a weight had been lifted for Maruem. “I gladly accept your offer. No, I gladly accept both of your offers.” Ciriodhul shared a glance with the little Sola and then spoke again. “I am sorry, we gladly accept your offer. I’m still not used to having a companion. However ...” he stood up and bowed low as he spoke. “... if you indeed let us stay the night at this place, I shall be the one compensating you. I don’t have much to give, but since I am a housekeeper, I am sure, there is more I can do besides helping with the greenhouse.”

"It seems..." Maruem said with a warm chuckle breaking out from deep in his chest. "...that our relationship will be one brimming with generous gestures Hahaha. This is a good experience for me. I haven't ever really been a leader before. I bought this barrack so that I could start a guild as I mentioned before, but I did not mention that as of yet yet the only member of that guild is myself. Having you here, its a good learning experience on how I may some day interact with members. I'm a bit of an Idealist. Saying thinks like 'I'm not really the type to order people around' is all well and good except that as a leader it's to be expected of me, and I guess I just haven't fully prepared for the road I'm headed down. It's nice to have someone here who I can delegate a bit with, and learn what it is I'm in for without actually being in charge or anything like that."

As he spoke, Maruem's hands sorted plant after plant with a surprising efficiency for someone so busy monologuing. It did not take long for the triad to sort out the remaining red flowers from the less useful plants. With that done, they were now ready to move on. Ciriodhul shared the same sentiment aloud. "Indeed! That was much quicker than expected. Ciriodhul, if you wouldn't mind, I can show you the way upstairs. There are a couple turns inside to get to the stairs so no need to get lost trying to find them. I already did that enough this morning." He laughed at his past self a little remembering how several hours before he had been so lost in his new home.

Maruem walked his guests to the front door, which he had left propped open. They went down the hall for a little ways before making a turn to the right after passing a double door that was slightly ajar from his prior cleaning. If anyone were to peer inside, they would find the sun bathed mess hall he had cleaned and reorganized earlier. Maruem was quite proud of how he had managed to avoid putting any new scratches in the beautiful wooden floor of that room.

Past the doors and up the stairs he went, turning in the second floors hallway to continue up the stairs to the roof. Up top, a cool breeze blew through the trees not far from his home, and a small flock of birds flew overhead. The view of the city was not terrible either, though the truly great view was from up in the watch tower. "Well Ciriodhul, Sola, we're here." He smiled back at them and led them into the greenhouse.

A little river cut into the stone of the floor ran around, through, and between the plants of the roof top garden. "I unlocked the waterwheel this morning. I was astonished to see that it still ran so smoothly despite years of disuse, but its incredible that it not only serves to power things down below, it also brings water up to here!" He showed off the greenhouse's inside almost like a small child excited over a secret hideaway they had found deep in the woods, the gentle babble of the little stream a soothing companion to his excited descriptions of the various pretty plants he found here, but knew nothing about.

Eventually Maruem got a hold of himself as he realized that there was still much to be done and he sheepishly faced his companions. "So anyways, this is my greenhouse! I honestly have no clue where we should start but if you have any ideals, please do not hold back Mr.Ciriodhul, nor you Ms.Sola." He said to the little mistress with a smile and a wink.

Word Count: 987
Total Word Count: 4444+987=5431
Tags: Ciriodhul
Notes: Sorry, bit of a busy week, hopefully you enjoy~

[Ciriodhul]

Maruem affirmed Ciriodhul’s idea to move on to the greenhouse and offered to lead him upstairs. Apparently it was easy to get lost inside the big building the shaman had only yet seen the entrance area of. “Understood. I will be right behind you.”, he replied with a polite and also genuine slight smile on his lips. Confronted with such a benign but lively problem he had no other choice. Thinking about getting used to this building in the next few days himself motivated him to get lost in it as well. Before he could leave with Maruem, however, he had to take care of the red clover they had sorted out. Leaving it outside could very well lead to a gust of wind undoing their previous work. Since he was still kneeling in front of the weed piles, he used his arms to shove the red flowers unto his robe and used it as makeshift bag of some sort while quite literally disrobing his bare legs underneath the moment he got up. Only shortly after he was back on his feet, Sola decided to be carried the same way and gently lowered herself into the flowers as if they were a bed. Ciriodhul could feel her weight dragging his robe down, although she seemed to be surprisingly light-weight. Seeing the spirit mindlessly lie in the flowers, while their stems entangled themselves in her white hair, made a beautiful and yet saddening picture. For once her demeanor was very similar to his beloved human Sola, who was now living her life in an entirely different world.

The shaman followed his host to the front door and then throughout the building to the stairs. He made sure to memorize the layout of the house as well as he could. The stairs were located just after the double-doored entrance to a big, bright dining hall to the right. Finally they stood on top of the roof. Ciriodhul could feel a cool breeze embracing his bare legs, which almost began to shiver. “Well, Ciriodhul, Sola, we’re here”, Maruem proudly proclaimed and led them a bit further into the garden. “I unlocked the waterwheel this morning. I was astonished to see that it still ran so smoothly despite years of disuse, but it’s incredible that it not only serves to power things down below, it also brings water up to here!”

While Maruem spoke of all the features and plants of the greenhouse and showed everything to the shaman in an overjoyed manner, Ciriodhul had the time to look around and assess what they were dealing with. They stood on a stone floor, which was divided into different sections by six sunk-in, approximately one meter wide beds with different shapes. The greenhouse itself was roofed by a glass dome, which was set upon the outer walls of one elevated bed, that went around the whole room, which was more or less shaped like an elongated cross with the angles of an octagon. The beds were horrifically overgrown by all kinds of plants, which seemed to be mostly weeds on first glance. Here and there Ciriodhul could spot more of the red clover in his robe. One of the tasks he would have to do first would be checking the flavor text of all these different kinds of weeds to see whether one or more of them could be useful. He did not particularly look forward to it. The watering system Maruem had briefly mentioned intrigued him. The water was brought up by small buckets attached to the paddles of the building’s giant waterwheel, ran around the elevated bed on the room’s sides and made its way to the beds inside the room via little rivers diverted through the elevated bed, coming down in waterfalls from its walls and cutting through the stone floor until it reached a small reservoir in the center. The intriguing part, however, was how the water found its way into the soil of the beds: Whenever the little rivers ran around part of the beds, what seemed to be the case for about half their respective perimeters, small wooden pieces were embedded inside the walls between the water and the soil in consistent spaced intervals. Ciriodhul could only see them clearly in the spots Maruem must have already freed from the weeds. It became clear they would also have to take a closer look at those, since they were most likely meant to equally wet the soil with just the right amount of water through most likely little holes in them. The whole watering system seemed to work somewhat similarly to modern drip irrigation. Loosely embedded coverings in the ground even indicated deeper canals running to the water reservoir and therefore a draining system underneath the beds. Whoever built this greenhouse must have had a vast knowledge of self-watering systems and gardening work.

“So anyways, this is my greenhouse! I honestly have no clue where we should start but if you have any ideas, please do not hold back Mr.Ciriodhul, nor you Ms.Sola.”, Maruem finally ended while facing the shaman and his spirit once more. “Well, first of we need to find a place to safely store these flowers.”, Ciriodhul replied embarrassed about the fact that he was still carrying them around in his novice robe. After that issue was dealt with, his bare legs were robed again and Sola had complained about losing her flower bed, he continued: “Honestly, I believe we should quickly check these small rivers running throughout the greenhouse. With all this water coming up here for quite some time now we should take a look at whether the system is working smoothly.”

Without waiting for his host’s reply he began inspecting the canals in question and asked Sola to do the same from the other direction. The first few canals Ciriodhul inspected seemed to be working properly, albeit sometimes they were partly blocked by accumulated dirt, which had most likely been swept there by strong rain but did not seem to be much of an immediate problem, although they would have to clean the canals after getting rid of all the plants. Not long after they had started, Sola shouted from the other end of the roof garden: “Hey, listen! You might want to take a look at this.” Her voice was concerned enough to make Ciriodhul rush to her side. Sola was standing in the now very wet soil of a very overgrown spot of one of the lower beds and pointed to the side of the small canal running around one side of it. In the place one of those wooden pieces regulating the water flow into the soil should have been, there was nothing else but a relatively large gap diverting a relatively large amount of water into the earth. In fact all the wooden pieces between this river and bed were missing diverting way more water into this bed than most likely all other beds combined. “That could be a problem”, Ciriodhul mumbled and took a glance at the deeper canal to the other side of the bed by removing one piece of stone covering. His fear was affirmed: There was no water draining out from under the bed.

“Maruem? I think it might be best to shut off the water supply to the roof for now. The drainage of this part of the bed doesn’t seem to be working and I don’t want to take any risks of where this water will be going, when the soil is filled up, and it is currently filling up fast.”

---

Word Count: 1267
Total Word Count: 5084
Tags: Maruem
Notes: Yay, here we go. Hope it was worth the wait.

[Maruem]

Maruem turned again after winking at the tiny lady in her bed of crimson growths. He was not sure how he had missed the red flowers the first time, his wonderment over being able to exhibit his new home to someone else must have served as an impetus for his already childlike attention span. Certainly in a moment of relative levity and high spirits it was easy to forget the practical matter of actually doing something with the flowers one sorts with new friends. It was high time he did his share. "Oh shoot! Sorry I left all those to you. Thank you for carrying them all the way up here Ciriodhul. And a 'thank you' to you as well, Miss Sola, for helping him."

Ciriodhul spoke up about finding a good place to store the plants and Maruem stepped further into the greenhouse in search of a suitable place to set the flowers. With their roots mostly intact they could still be replanted with time, but that could wait a little longer, just putting them down for now would be enough. The stone wall of the two main beds extended into a round central room with little streams trickling low in the groves between the stones of the floor. It was intentionally so, and they all converged in a pool in the center, both of the room and in the middle of four smaller elongated beds which rested at ground level. The plants reached high up and created almost wall like barriers of greenery between sections of the room.

He turned to the left and stepped into a horseshoe shaped bed he had cleared many of the weed from. the soil was still very loose from having many of the smaller plants torn out. it was perfect for getting the job done, back home the flowers could go. "We can set all of those red flowers down here and replant them as you see fit". Maruem helped Ciriodhul unload the cluster of flowers from his makeshift robe pouch, careful to disturb Sola as little as possible while he carefully grabbed handfuls of crimson growths. It did not take long with the two of them working diligently but slowly to avoid damaging anything.

"That went pretty smoothly all things considered. I agree with your recommendation, though I can't say that I really know what to look for. If you and Sola could take point on inspecting the canals that would be appreciated. I can get started on cleaning this side while you start over there if that works for you?" Maruem suggested while indicating with his index finger. With that seemingly sorted. He got to work walking from one opening to another, pulling out sloppy clumps of dead plant and bug matter that had been hydrated for the first time in a long while. With most of them the solution was simple.

He was decently coordinated as Maruem, he had learned, even in areas of sport or whatever resembled what he knew as sport most closely in this world. Though in the real world he had never been blessed with skill for games like basketball and football, here they came naturally, and one after the other, the globs of mushy gunk landed in the pool in the middle of the greenhouse with a satisfying 'ploop' noise. One after another, until he had almost cleared the entirety of the canal in the side area around the garden table. He was just getting into the groove of things when he heard a voice raised on the other side.

It was the higher of the two voices. No, not Ciriodhul, it was the little fairy lady he had as a companion. She wanted them to look at something, though Maruem could barely hear her delicate voice from across the room. Maruem heard the rush of cloth over the gentle trickle of the streams in the greenhouse, and followed close behind. He caught up to the others quickly but did not really see the problem. They were muttering to each other about the canals as they inspected one after the other around this bed and Maruem just stood there looking dumb and feeling dumber.

"I um... I'm not sure that I understand the issue. Isn't the goal for the soil to be wetted by the waterflow from the canals? I mean that entire side is just soaking up as much as it can handle. Especially after i unclogged the holes from all the gunk in them." Maruem soon learned the mistake of his thinking as Ciriodhul explained the issue.

"Tell you what, so I've been up here for a couple of hours but honestly I'm still a stranger in my own home, and I haven't seen anything that indicates the water can just be shut off. Trust me and I'll be back in a jiffy, hopefully with the water off by then." Maruem was not one to hesitate, but his plan seemed a bit dumb to be honest. Surely a lone man could not stop a water wheel on his own, especially one of Poncelet design, a type of undershot waterwheel that was more than twice as efficient that it's competition, though what it was doing in a world set prior to the 1800s he had no clue.

Regardless, he had to act, and quickly by the gravity of Ciriodhul's tone. Maruem tightened the knot of his knotted belt with a quick tug and bolted out the door of the green house. "If you hear something break, I promise it won't be me!" he shouted on his way out. He turned the corner around the side and without a moments hesitation jumped up onto the railing at the edge of the roof, running along it to an area of roof exposed behind the greenhouse. it was enough of a length for him to build up more speed and leap from the edge of the roof.

Straight toward the waterwheel he flew, until the flying turned to falling, and just as he began to dip before the level of the roof, Maruem's hands found purchase on the sides of the mighty waterwheel. IT groaned at his weight, but although it was rotating upwards on the side he landed, the soaked and algae covered wood was slippery even against his rough hands. he slid down the curve of the wooden wheel before finding himself with his feel on an outcropping parallel to the wheel. He let go and moved to the other side to instead fight the wheel as it was coming down.

He thrust his arms out above his head and braced them against a spoke beam of the massive timber ring. It kept going, and going, first forcing him to bend his arms at the elbows before it managed to drag them level with his chest, then his abdomen, then his hips. He strained, the veins on his arms swelled, and the wheel once again groaned loudly as his feet slid against the rough stone beneath them. He could feel the blood begin to rush to his head but he felt certain he had heard a triumphant shout just as his hearing began to dull a bit from the blood surging to his head and the strain wearing his person.

He released the wheel and it picked up speed again gradually, but the water coming down the other side was much greater in volume than it had been before. "Well then, I guess Mr. Shaman figured it out, unless it was that Sola who spotted something again." He groaned deeply as he felt the immense drumming of his heart beat slowly begin to return to a normal volume and intensity. He suddenly became aware of how shaky his legs felt and the noodle-like sensation he felt in them brought him to his knees as he began to recover on the ground.

After a bit longer sitting there, he felt the strength returning to his limbs, though he knew the weight of a river would not be kind to his poor biceps in the morrow. He got up onto his feet and made his way toward the backyard, cutting through a big hole in the wall from where the old barracks had fallen through. He walked though the peaceful courtyard and with a loud creaking sound he opened one of the back doors, before turning to make his way back up the stairs to the roof.

His body ached a bit more than he would have liked as he took the last few steps up the stairs and felt a cool breeze rush over his sweat glossed forehead and neck, the air sending a chill down his back. He walked over to the big glass building and peaked inside. "Seems you got things fixed up nicely Mr. Ciriod! Good work!" He said jovially, the pain in his muscles completely shielded by his normal warm and kind demeanor. "Now please. explain to me how we can prevent the issue from coming up again, if you could."

Word Count: 1510
Total Word Count: 5431+1510=6941
Tags: Ciriodhul

[Ciriodhul]

Ciriodhul weirdly felt at ease, when it became clear that his host had even less of an idea what he was doing than the shaman had. It made him more approachable and even more likeable than he had already been and above all did it show that Ciriodhul could really be of help to the kind man, which swept away his last remaining fears of proving to be just a burden to him in the long run. While the shaman put the covering back into its place and Sola was gracefully washing her mud-covered feet in one of the nearby rivers cutting through the stone of the floor, Maruem ran out of the greenhouse after explaining that he didn’t know how to shut off the water supply to the roof yet but indicating that he had a hunch to how it was possible. Ciriodhul did not think much of it at first and believed he was simply making his way to the place where he had previously unlocked the waterwheel.

“If you hear something break, I promise it won’t be me!”, Maruem shouted shortly before he left the greenhouse and shortly after Ciriodhul was on his feet again. Now he was confused. “Hear something break?”, the shaman repeated muttering to himself. “What ...” His train of thought was interrupted, when he saw a shadow behind the glass dome dash towards the position of the waterwheel. He couldn’t see clearly what caused the shadow, because the sides of the greenhouse were still overgrown by tall weeds, but the shadow had unmistakably been of human size. A loud wooden thud penetrated the glass walls followed by an equally wooden aching and screeching of machinery coming from the same direction the shadow had disappeared into. At first Ciriodhul had trouble to trust is own perception. Then after a moment of paralysis he realized what Maruem must have done. “Did this guy just jump from the roof to manually hold the waterwheel in place?”, the shaman asked out of shock without meaning to address anyone in particular. “That isn’t too surprising, is it?”, Sola replied nevertheless while suddenly standing on his, through her wet feet now soaked, shoulder. Desperately trying to confirm the situation Ciriodhul bolted into the direction the sounds came from, hopped unto the elevated bed and waded the weeds to press his face against the glass while completely ignoring the spirit’s successful attempt to misuse him as a towel. Unsurprisingly the angle at which he could look down wasn’t big enough to see the bottom of the waterwheel, which had noticeably slowed down by now. Simultaneously worried and impressed by that extraordinary feat he began frantically looking around the greenhouse to help Maruem in some way, until his gaze found its way to the water supply line coming from the water wheel into the greenhouse. “Why didn’t I think of checking that, before I say something that makes Maruem almost kill himself?”, he thought and began inspecting the inflow of water. The water itself was brought up by small buckets attached to the side of the waterwheel, which faced the building. It was subsequently collected by a wooden conduit parallel to the waterwheel itself. Bucket after bucket the water poured into it. Orthogonal to the collecting conduit another wooden conduit was attached to the collecting conduit’s center and led the water into the greenhouse and its canals through a small opening in the glass dome. Inspecting the leading conduit further, the way the leading conduit was attached to the greenhouse and the collecting conduit caught Ciriodhul’s eye. It seemed to be attached by a simple push-in connection. He tried to lift the near end of the wooden waterline out of its socket, which proved to be rather easy. He then gently pulled at it, until the conduit disconnected with the collecting one. All of the water that was brought up by the waterwheel now flowed out of the resulting opening and created a tall but slim waterfall next to the waterwheel. “Yay! You did it!”, Sola shouted triumphantly and threw her arms up in the air, while the shaman secured the leading conduit by pulling all of it inside and putting it parallel to the glass in front of the glass dome opening. Gradually the water wheel picked up speed again; therefore Maruem must have noticed that his guest had found a solution.

“That was one exaggerated victory cry for such a simple solution. I feel almost bad having brought up the issue in the first place. I hope Maruem is okay”, Ciriodhul said partly ashamed by the absurdity of the situation he had apparently caused by having used a way too urgent tone earlier and partly relieved that he had found a permanent solution to the problem this quickly. “Does it matter?”, Sola replied smiling elfishly. “A victory demands a victory cry, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose so”, Ciriodhul said sheepishly. One could not argue against such logic. The adequacy of an emotional reaction was subjective after all. Only now that the shock about Maruem’s sudden action had worn off and the situation had been defused, the shaman fully realized his wet left shoulder Sola was still standing on. “Tell me next time, when you need something to dry yourself”, he said and carefully picked her up by closing his hand around her fragile upper body. “You’re gonna catch a cold like this.” The spirit felt light and smooth to the touch while her cat tail tickled him a bit. He transferred her to his dry right shoulder and sat her down. When he turned his head to the side to look, whether her bare legs and feet were still wet, he could see a sheepish red taint on her cheeks, which made him blush a little himself. In an awkward silence Ciriodhul used the sleeves of his robe between his fingers to gently rub Sola’s small and yet beautiful feet and legs dry. While he was doing that, emotions overwhelmed him that were actually directed at the Sola of his own world and therefore most likely rather unbecoming of the relationship between a shaman and his spirit. He still could not help himself but enjoy this little substitute of intimacy he had wished for for a long time now. After some time had passed and Ciriodhul had finally finished drying Sola’s feet, which had probably taken more time than it should have, Maruem reentered the greenhouse and rescued the shaman from his own complicated and confusing feelings for his cat-faunri spirit.

“Seems you got things fixed up nicely, Mr. Ciriod! Good work! Now please. Explain to me how we can prevent the issue from coming up again, if you could”, his host said cheerfully, albeit having jumped from the roof of a two stories tall building just a few minutes ago. “Well”, Ciriodhul started his reply awkwardly while checking Maruem’s body for any signs of injury, “that is probably a lot easier than you would think. Let me show it to you.” He shyly showed Maruem, how the water from the waterwheel was brought into the greenhouse and how you could just remove the conduit leading the water inside and thereby stop the water supply of the greenhouse. “Regarding the issue of too much water flowing into that one bed: I guess more of these little wooden pieces controlling the water flow into the beds must be stored somewhere in the greenhouse, on the roof or even inside the building. If I am correct, there should be different kinds of them allowing a different amount of water to trickle through them. Therefore it would only be logical, if there are enough of them to fill the little openings between the beds and rivers multiple times over. We just need to find them. Maybe you know where to look for them or you’ve already found them and didn’t realize what they are yet. Alternatively, we might have to commission replacements by a carpenter or even an artisan. However, this can wait, until we took care of weeding the beds and cleaning the rivers and drainages.”

Although one of them had just slowed down a giant waterwheel by sheer muscular strength, there was still a lot of work in front of them, while the amount of sunlight hitting the floor of the greenhouse had reached zero by now. “If you don’t mind, I’ll start by assessing the value of all the plants that are growing up here, before we start the weeding process. Sorry to send you downstairs again, but you could get us some candles or other light sources in the meantime. It doesn’t look like the sun will be helping us out a lot longer.”

---

Word Count: 1455
Total Word Count: 6539
Tags: Maruem

[Maruem]

Maruem felt a bit embarrassed when Ciriodhul rather timidly explained how simple the process of stemming the water flow was. It was as easy as just raising a wooden channel that brought the water from the buckets on the wheel into the back of the greenhouse. The courteous shaman then explained that the issue of the flooding water beds could likely be easily solved so long as there were replacement wooden slats as covers for the channels, which he assumed would be somewhere in the greenhouse, if not there, then somewhere on the roof or in the building down below. He was, unfortunately, wrong on all counts, Maruem thought to himself as he continued to listed, not wanting to interrupt his guest, who still seemed to be moving in the right direction with his reasoning. There were indeed different kinds of them with different hole counts and Maruem had in fact found them not knowing what they were.

"Alternatively, we might have to commission replacements by a carpenter or even an artisan." The Shaman said. Maruem chuckled at this. "Nay, I doubt you'd need to commission me for such simple work. I'll do it pro bono publico as needed from here on. I happen to be a rather low level Carpenter, though I do look forward to a time when my services are required in a more professional capacity." The Shaman finished by saying that could wait until they were done cleaning the rest of the greenhouse of weeds and clearing out the drainage.

It was clear that they still had a lot of work ahead of them, both in clearing the house as a whole and in simple making the greenhouse something for plants to actually grow comfortable in. But that could be saved for later. The sun was falling just past the edge of the wall of the city, and the light in the sky was showing they did not have much time before it got too dark to work. Ciriodhul asked him to go get some candles while he began to assess the value of the plants before weeding started. "A counter offer, Mr.Ciriodhul. Unfortunately the house did not come stocked with an abundance of candles, but its good that you reminded me I need to buy those when I go into town tomorrow to register you as the first member of the guild, provided you still wish to accept the offer. I'll make sure Ms.Sola is registered as well."

"That being said, I may not have the candles needed, but I know where the slats we're looking for are. This guild hall came with a small lumber yard and wood working lodge. The channel slats were in there, though you were correct that I did not recognize them for what they were before. I'll grab a few stacks of varying styles and bring them up here while you clear the channels a bit more, what say you to that offer? No need to install them tonight, but it will be useful to have them all up here conveniently ready to be used." Maruem finished with a look like he was ready to go. He admired the shaman's work ethic. It seemed like the man was willing to work late into the night to get the job done. Although it was a bit hypocritical knowing he had a similar habit, he would have to watch out for Ciriodhul to make sure he did not overwork himself, but it was hardly the time for anything like that.

"I'll grab those channel slats quick and be back to grab you in a jiffy." He said with a nod as he stepped back, turned, and walked right into a tall plant. Startled, he tripped over to the side of it so as not to damage it, and caught himself from falling all the way with his other foot. He turned around again with a red face, hoping the shaman had been already busy working and had missed Maruem's embarrassing display. "I'll be off then." he said with a nervous chuckle as he turned around once again, cautious of any other rogue plants out to get him, and made his way out the glass double doors into the great expanse of roof.

A slight breeze blew over the trees and gently kissed his tired arms as he stepped out into the evening air and took a breath to calm the chuckle that rose in his chest out of equal parts humiliation and being able to make fun of himself for his poor awareness. Some birds flew toward the golden light, hidden behind the fourth story room that was the guild master's office. It's overhanging dark windows were too high up to see into easily, but it was an admirable and yet somewhat imposing building now that it cast a long wide shadow over him. "Being a leader still is still terrifying, I see. Gods... I wish Kat was here, she always knows what to do. This seems so overwh- I mean its whelming I guess, cause I'll make it work somehow, but having her here would definitely make things a lot less intimidating. I hope she's doing alright." He thought to himself, some of it mumbled aloud, though barely audible, and other parts just in his head as he made his way toward the stairs this time. One just was enough for the day.

He stepped down into the dark house and looked around at all the empty bedrooms waiting for friends to come occupy them. "Soon enough, things will be better, more lively, more full. Astra is making progress. And for the first day of existing as a guild, a day which was supposed to be just cleaning... Well for someone who wasn't even looking for new members just yet, I am very content with already having someone join up." The worn wooden floor boards creaked softly under he feet as he stepped off the stairs into the common area between many of the member's future rooms.

He turned and went further down on stairs that ran parallel to the set from the roof, but facing the opposite direction. Down in the main open common area of the hour he opened on of the doors to the courtyard, and stepped out under the overhang from the second floor which wrapped around roughly half of the courtyard's perimeter. He crossed the wide expanse and made his way past the ruins of the old barracks to the large lumber lodge. Sure enough, there were plenty of slats in one of the corners, some still dirty with wood shavings and dust.

He grabbed them in stacks of 6, the thick slats of wood making that the limit for his robust long hands. to hold steadily. With a swing he would smack the stack with light force against a workbench's edge, knocking the loose dust and debris off of the squares of wood before lowering them into his pouch. Once he felt he had enough in the pouch, he repeated the process a few more times and placed them one cluster on top of the other into a stack of around thirty slats.

Grabbing them with both hands on the bottom and his chin as the stabilizer for the top, he turned and walked out the door into the much darker would outside. The sun had not set quite fully just yet, but it really was not far now, and the shadows were much darker. Even the back of the tower that was the guild master's quarters did not have any golden light on it anymore. He pushed the door shut behind him with the side of his foot and make his way back through the courtyard into the house. There were a few magical lanterns that came with the house and lit up the main rooms of the interior with a pleasant glow, but it was dull because he had not had the chance to reconnect them all just yet. It would be foolish to leave valuable magic lanterns behind in a place like this, but they were given back to Maruem once he purchased the house, and they were also the thing that prohibited him from being able to store more slats in his bag.

Up one flight of stairs, he went, the second floor even less lit than the bottom one, but still it was nice to actually see the color of the rich brown wood as he turned to go up the third flight. He made it to the top before turning his head to see if any gold remained far off on the distant horizon, but his beard caught the edge of one of the holed of a board and it tumbled down the stairs with another one shortly behind. Fortunately it was just the two and he did not lose the whole stack, but he placed the stack down at the top of the stairs and ran back down to grab the renegade boards before coming back to the roof and adding them to the stack. Without lifting it, he looked, and the sky was dull, but there was the faintest hint of light far off.

He raised the boards and walked the last few meters into the greenhouse, where he set the boards inside the building, just past the doorway. Grabbing the boards from his bag as well, he came out to around one hundred and ten. Not bad for a single trip. "I'm back!" he cheered into the glass building. "If you're all good to go, why don't we find the two of you a bedroom in this big place? Or dinner if you'd prefer to start with that." He smiled merrily at the two guests just as stars began to glitter faintly far above them.

Word Count: 1640
Total Word Count: 6941+1640=8581
Tags: Ciriodhul

[Ciriodhul]

Ciriodhul was a bit embarrassed that he had already forgotten Maruem’s crafting talent in such a short period of time after their introduction. He had the very much unneeded talent to be quite inattentive while other people were introducing themselves to him. Sometimes he even managed to forget their names quicker than what was socially excusable; not that that kind of thing was ever socially excusable. But now that the crafting talent of his host was directly connected to the reality of the situation and actually came in quite handy, the shaman was sure he would not forget it a second time. Instead of following Ciriodhul’s plan, Maruem offered an alternative way of going forward from this point in time: Because there apparently weren't many candles inside the building, he would buy some the next day, when he had to go into town for the shaman’s guild registration anyways. “I’ll make sure Ms. Sola is registered as well”, he said and paused for a moment. A pause Ciriodhul used to chime in for a moment: “Oh, that is very generous of you, but I don’t think that should be necessary. Sola is my assigned spirit and should therefore count as my familiar game mechanic wise.” He took a short look at the spirit in question. “I do understand your reasoning, though. Now that we are living in this world, it seems odd to just see her as something like that. I believe there is quite a private discussion coming up between the two of us to fully determine our future relationship.” He took another look at Sola, who tilted her head to the side in confusion. Most likely she knew about as much about their situation as he did. Then Maruem continued with conveying his own plan to him. In the end they agreed that Maruem would go downstairs and grab a few of the wooden slats they needed and which he had found not knowing what they were, while Ciriodhul would stay in the greenhouse and take a look at the different kind of weeds to see whether there was an additional kind they would want to keep.

“I’ll grab those channel slats quick and be back to grab you in a jiffy”, his host said, before he turned around, almost ran into a plant and defied that fate by almost falling around it. Ciriodhul had no other choice but to genuinely smile at this display of mindful clumsiness. Many people would have walked straight into the plant not minding their own disrupting presence, however, the man in front of him clearly cared about this world and the life in it. Embarrassed the man gave Ciriodhul another nervous look and thereby uncovered his blushing cheeks, although he should have been proud of this trivial and yet deeply kind blunder. “I’ll be off then”, he said with a nervous chuckle and finally went outside. “I have made up my mind, Sola. This will be the man I will offer my Undying Servitude”, he said, while still displaying a gentle smile. “Don’t you think that is a bit, I don’t know, rash?”, Sola questioned in a half-serious manner. “Well, to a degree it was a pun”, he replied while gazing into nothingness. “Okay, let’s get to work. Feel free to make yourself comfortable on my shoulders or wherever you enjoy being. I don’t think you can be of much help for this task.”

The shaman started with the elevated bed making his way around the room to check each plant he could differentiate from the others for its value. As he had expected this was a quick task: Trigger the information pop-up, skim over the flavor text and affirm that there was nothing of value to the plant but its ability to overgrow your evil neighbor’s garden quicker than they could call the police on you. In the meantime Sola was literally all over his body, most likely because she understood Ciriodhul’s proposal to make herself comfortable on him as a complimentary ticket to find out what the best spot to do so was. Weirdly he really didn’t mind her doing it, although she tickled him a few times and he still had to grow comfortable with carrying another being around. When he had finally made his round around the room he focused his attention on the four beds next to the water pond in the center of the greenhouse. He had already checked both of the other ground-level beds, when he went past them while inspecting the elevated ones. To his surprise the pond still held water, albeit the water surface was slowly lowering towards its bottom. Sola took it nevertheless as an invitation to jump from his head – that’s where she found her way to last – into the water, of course still fully clothed.

“Are you serious about that?”, he asked her confused and paused for a moment in front of the pond, while he watched her swimming around. “Your clothes will be soaking wet, when you come out of there and it’s not like you’ll be able to dry them in the light of the moon.”

“You told me to ask you, when I would need a towel again”, she replied almost playfully. Again he couldn’t argue with her logic, although he was surprised that she intentionally wanted him to dry her again. Had she previously enjoyed it? Wondering about this question he went back to the plants. “You know, it is really lonely and boring on the other side”, the spirit said after a moment of silence and the sounds of splashing water behind him became more quiet. “Well, that answers a question I have had. I wanted to ask you whether you wanted to be desummoned after a while to maybe attend your own business. But if you enjoy it at my side, I won’t force you to leave it. I’ve messed up our relationship enough that one time. And although I am most likely technically your master, I want you to be able to decide, whether you want to be desummoned or summoned.” He heard another splash from the water, much louder than before. Then he felt a sudden dull impact on his head. Sola seemed to be kneeling on it on all fours and he felt cold water dripping inside his hair and running down his neck. “Do you mean that?”, she almost shouted in an overjoyed manner. “Yes”, he replied, again confused by Sola’s unpredictable behaviour. He felt how she deeply bowed down, still on all fours. “Thank you”, she said with a fragile and breaking voice. When he grabbed her from his head to be able to look her eye to eye, she wiped some tears of joy away. He let her stand on his hand in front of his face. “Are you okay?”, he still asked to be sure whether his interpretation of her tears was right. She nodded. Then his gaze fell upon her body. The spirit and its clothes were unsurprisingly dripping with water and to the shaman’s embarrassment the white shirt behaved a bit too natural for a summoned magical being. Sola didn’t seem to mind and made no attempts at covering her upper body. Ciriodhul wasn’t sure, whether that was due to the intimacy a bond between a shaman and spirit meant or whether it was due to her being a cat-Faunri and therefore displaying the same mindless, playful nature as her animal counterpart. He didn’t have much time to contemplate this question, since Maruem arrived just at that moment. Or had he already been there for god-knows how long?

“I’m back!”, he cheered into the glass building. “If you’re all good to go, why don’t we find the two of you a bedroom in this big place? Or dinner if you’d prefer to start with that.” Ciriodhul quickly took Sola and put her through the collar inside his robe, so that only her arms and head were still visible. He could feel her water cold little body pressing against his breast and her weight through the collar pressing against his neck. At least he would also be able to dry and warm her at the same time while doing this. After that he hastily turned around to face his host, who was merrily smiling at the two, and thereby revealed his cheeks, that had turned completely red by now. “H-hey! I just finished checking the plants. Sadly everything but the red clover is next to useless. On the bright side that means weeding this place out will be a lot easier.” He finished his sentence and looked Maruem in the eye as if to proof his own composure. “Oh, right. I think finding us a bedroom would be nice. There’s some unexpected business between us that has to be dealt with.” It was almost comedic how he was able to describe the simple action of finding a way to properly dry Sola’s shirt in such a vague, easily misunderstood and yet overly formal manner.

---

Word Count: 1508
Total Word Count: 8047
Tags: Maruem

[Maruem]

Maruem took in the sight before him with much joy. At times he had worried that maybe Sola's teasing irritated Ciriodhul, but based on how the shaman had so gently nestled her at his breast, the concern seemed unfounded now. It was not a matter to be taken lightly to let someone so close to your heart. "It seems almost like the two of you may have worked out some of what you needed to discuss." He said with a goofy wink. Sola had clearly gotten soaked somehow, despite the water channel from the wheel still being disconnected, possibly there was still water in the basin in the middle of the room? Ciriodhul's robe was becoming darker and darker with the water from her as she leaned there inside his collar.

With a face like a tomato, Ciriodhul explained what they had achieved in the time he was gone and as it turned out, amongst a few others, he had begun tearing out the only plant with any actual value when he began his weeding. "Well that definitely says something about my skill as a gardener." he thought quietly to himself. "Well that's good to know, though I would like to keep a few of the bigger plants if it's feasible without impeding other plants growth too much. They create some nice natural divisions that serve the greenhouse well, and they seem the be some of the older ones as well."

When Ciriodhul explained that finding a room would be preferable as he and Sola still had more to discuss, Maruem stepped to it. "Come then, let's be off to find you two that room. Important things should be handled promptly... sometimes." Maruem made his way out of the greenhouse and rested a hand on the door until the shaman carried the small fairy familiar out with him. He slid both of the doors of dark oak and glass panes so that they shut with a dull thump against the threshold before sliding a key into the lock and turned it until there came a faint clicking sound.

"Here." he said to his newest guild mates, as he handed the little key decorated with leaf ingravings to Sola. He leaned down a bit to speak to her, not condescendingly, but just to be eye level with the small summoned being. "Can you keep watch of this so either of you can come up here whenever you please? I have a copy of my own, and I figure it's a nice enough place to spend time that there is scarcely a reason you should have to rely on me to get in. This is a part of your home too now, after all."

Maruem straightened his back and gestured for his guests to follow him downstairs. He reached into the magic pouch at his belt and pulled out one of the magic lights and placed it into an empty sconce on the wall. with some fiddling it fell into place and he tugged a bar on a hinge over the light with both of his pointer fingers. With a faint whisper the light blazed into its radiance glory and the room was brighter. "I have a few more of those lights I still need to set into their rightful place. All of these bedrooms are available for you to pick, there are thirteen in total on the floor. They are all unlocked so feel free to pop in and take a look around them, Once you find the room you want just take the key from the nightstand and keep it with you. Oh and also, if you turn that corner..." he said as he pointed to the southern corner of the room, in the direction of the greenhouse. "... you'll find the other six bedrooms, as well as a maintenance room for the waterwheel shaft and a balcony overlooking the courtyard and backyard. I'll get that part more lit up quick for you while you explore these rooms."

Maruem left Ciriodhul to explore the rooms in the common area with his small companion while he went into the section of the second floor under the greenhouse and worked on getting it more lit up as well. "One, two, aaand three. Alright, that should do it for this portion." He walked back into the common area and fitted in the second missing light for that section before announcing that he would be right back up to check on Ciriodhul's progress.

Stepping down to the first floor, Maruem installed a couple more lights down the hall that passed the mess hall, the smithy's room, and the kitchen, leading slowly but surely to the big bath room. There were a couple of large in-ground tubs in there and he figured his guests would appreciate a little bit of luxury in a world that was scare in such things for adventurers like him right now. He stepped into the kitchen and used the small hatched in the corner to quickly chop up some kindling and lighting a bright little fire in the the water heater. Soon enough there would be plenty of steaming water for the bath. He stepped into the bathroom and sure enough, the baths were empty as he had left them when he cleaned them out earlier in the day.

How leaves had gotten into that room, Maruem had no way of knowing, but when he had first entered it, the baths were filled with stagnant old tea of long fallen leaves, and it was rather tough to scrub the tea stains from the nice tiles of that room. He Installed two lights in the bottoms of either bath, and a couple in the walls as well. and then let water rush into the baths by turning a couple of valves. The warm hum of the pipes as water rushed out and began to fill the basins of ceramic in the floor reminded him of normalcy and home back in the old world.

Maruem followed the trail of lights back down the hall to the stairs in the middle of the main room of the first floor, and up to those stairs second floor. Still standing on the stairs he turned to face the shaman, one hand resting on the railing. "I set up a bit of a surprise for you and Ms.Sola while you were picking a room. If you follow the trail of lights downstairs there's a bath waiting for you. There are a handful of clean towels on a shelf in the corner for you as well for when you're finished in there."

He stepped back down to the first floor and made his way back into the kitchen. He lit the stove and got a kettle of water on it to have some hot water for tea, and then pulled out a nice old cast iron skillet and melted a fat glob of fresh butter on it. He sizzled up some bacon and the smells of the smoked pork strips was more than enough to make his mouth water. He set the bacon on a thin clean cloth to absorb some of the excess grease and got to work on toasting up some slices of bread in the bacon grease and butter that remained behind after the bacon had cooked. Then he grabbed a block of cheese and grated thick crescents of light golden cheese onto the slices of toast, still on the skillet. After folding the other of the toast slices over the cheese to form Ciriodhul's grilled cheese sandwich, he pulled the skillet closer to the edge of the oven top so it was no longer gaining as much heat and did not risk burning the bread as much, letting the residual heat of the break and cast iron do the bulk of the work in melting the cheese into a stretchy creamy deliciousness.

He sliced the sandwich on a diagonal, creating two right triangles with three thick slices of bacon on his guests plate to ensure there was enough for Sola. When he was done setting the plate he still had a little time before they came out and cut a piece of bread into mini slices, making a mini version of the same sandwich so that Ms.Sola did not have to just share with Ciriodhul. He decorated both of the sandwiches with little sprigs of dill and set them up on a counter in the kitchen, all set for once his guests got out of the bath.

Maruem left the kitchen and went through the dark mess hall to the front chamber and then to the front door, locking it from the inside with a latch. He went back into the lit room behind him and up the stairs to the second and then third floors of the villa. He walked along the top of the roof in the opposite direction from the greenhouse and down the narrower section of rood toward the guild master's quarters. Entering a door he stepped down some stains as the height of the floors in the library were not the same as the rest of the structure.

Around the balcony of the second floor of the library he walked just until he reached the stairs and then he climbed up one flight of stairs to an empty floor, and then up another flight to the top of the whole complex, the guild master's chambers. He stepped down a relatively short hall and into the office before turning to his right past the dim fireplace and, now in the guild master's bedroom, he went to the back corner and climbed the ladder up to the top of the roof where he had a rather gorgeous view of not only the glowing nightlife of the city, but also the glistening and mystifying night sky far above.

He laid down there on the small flat top of the complex and laid for a while, reminiscing and counting the stars. Somehow, it reminded him of that first night, when he and Kat had huddled together in a strange new land and he had endured a tirade of snark from his friend, who had been very clearly stressed and anxious about the bizarre circumstances. They had not talked since the morning after, when Kat had recommended that they should split up and explore the world and make their own way. Looking back, it was probably the only plan that Maruem finds himself actively disagreeing with and regretting going along with, even now a week later.

Enough was enough, they had to talk, but maybe not at a time Kat may be asleep. Maruem decided it best to just leave a message instead of calling. If Kat was awake he would be able to respond to it quickly, and if he was not then the message notification would be less likely to wake him than the call notification. Maruem began to type the first few words and then saw that there was a voice message feature. "That seems much better for this, it may remind him a bit of when we were in VCs together, before all the chaos and craziness of this place". He deleted his typed beginnings of a message with a few rapid spam clicks on the backspace button before clicking the record button to get started.

"Hey there bud... Man. this has been a hectic past week. I hope you're doing well, even if just to spite all of the world for this happening. To be honest, splitting up day two feels like it was kind of a mistake, but I also got to a pretty messy place housing wise for a while and then work kept me real busy so maybe, just maybe there was some good from it if you found a warm bed and some free time, you probably did, people tend to like you, for all the shit you give them, hehe." A long pause overtook Maruem as he processed what he wanted to say and got wrapped up in his own feeling of inadequacy and anxiety over this world. His optimism had its limits, and it was tough not to reach a point where it could scarcely be stretched more thin from such a rough first week.

"I miss you man. It kinda really sucks that we didn't talk... There were plenty of nights were I really wanted to, but I didn't want to burden you with my shit so it felt like it made more sense to just keep quiet until you decided to call. I guess I could have guessed that that would take a while. But hey! I uh.. fuck how do I say it without it sounding crazy..." Maruem hesitated, it really did sound crazy, especially from him, who had always been the second in command type, not a leader: "I have a guild? I mean not really. I have a guild hall, but it has one member after just a day and I wasn't ven trying to recruit yet, just doing some fall cleaning, so maybe there's a chance of this thing not collapsing in on itself before it even really starts. It was an impulse thing, I went to a bar and met a lander guy and... actually it's a long story, I think I'd like to tell it to you in person, but yeah, I have a home here now, there's beds and a roof and it's still kind of a mess but I cleaned it up some. There's even a gigantic library with a warm fireplace and I just know that you would love it there. Get back to me when you have some free time. Sleep tight. Nini~"

With that, he clicked the button to end the recording and send the message. After a brief moment of loading the recording was sent, and he waited for a few moments for a response. He looked at the time in the top corner of the UI to find that it was surprisingly late, and he crossed his fingers that his message had not awakened the little fox faunri. He began to suspect that lying around waiting was not the right strategy, and so he went back down into the building below, slowly making his way back into the kitchen. "Sorry for leaving, I had to contact a friend quick, how was the food?" He asked, hoping that the guests were still there having just finished their food.

Word Count: 2419
Total Word Count: 8581+2419=11000
Tags: Ciriodhul
Notes: So I understand this one is not only longer, it takes place over a much longer period of time, and in a way somewhat railroads Ciriodhul a little to just go along with Maruem's whims. If there's any part you feel I should remove or change so we can explore it in more detail or alter the course some, that's completely understandable. I do hope you enjoy regardless :3