Meanwhile, outside the blacksmith; Rina was enjoying her time poking Esmeralda's bubbly cheek, a small dragon looks very much like a small green lizard with wings, chewing on chicken.
"Eii eik aie aik! eik!" Esmeralda squeaked at the Elf, which translated to "Thigh meat is the best!"
Coming out of the blacksmith; a sound of light metal could be hear under Mei's feet as she smiles so lively.
"This is better than I thought, I like these!"
Pearl glanced over with no comment; knowing his sister can only be dealt with if he forced new equipments on her, she got a bonding or confident issue with old ones he supposed. All the while Rina stood smiling at the two, whom she always enjoyed the chemistry of.
"Where's Marc?" Pearl asked, recounting the change he got after the purchase.
"Huh..." Hands on her hips, Rina moved her eyes around the streets in response to Pearl's question, she shrugged. "Must have been lost." Completely oblivious to the fact that she and his daughter left him.
The four looked at each other, but soon shrugged showing little concern.
Going on for a nice walk around for opportunities; Pearl was far most the busy one, managing the team's economy, negotiating with the most genuine business smile he could squeeze out, planning and making sure there's money for consumables, rations, night stays and pocket money. While on the other side of town, Mei and Rina was chewing down on a sandwich when all of a sudden; they turned their head and locked eyes, nodding slightly.
"The 3rd store served better sandwiches." Mei put the whole thing; almost the size of her palm inside her mouth in one motion. Finishing her sandwich.
"So fishes from the 6th stall, candy from the first and sandwiches from the 3rd." Rina answered with one hand holding the very full and bored dragon who was laying on her back, belly ready to burst. "Now we know if ten or more years later we'd comeback for a tour."
It's not bold to assume that this is how the girls spent their pocket change, just wanting to try and have reasons to try as much food as they want. One thing to keep their minds off all the strange things happening lately, like being fugitives, raising a dragon, having arguements, not enough sleep and all of that... And the bonding too, they suppose.
"Something on your mind?" Mei covered her mouth to hide a little sound arising from the chest. Before noticing the elf's pair of lips slightly opened up as if ready to say something.
"Indeed." Rina answered, still keeping her sight straight forward in her path. "I don't get eyed as much here compared to Sulkos. Marc did say something about Alcray being more open towards racial differences."
"Oh, that sounds nice, maybe we could meet some more elves and demih-"
"Keep walking."
As Mei was finishing her sentence, she felt a cold sharp tip point at her lower back.
"Keep talking."
"-umans, don't you think?"
Not turning her back around to look nor try to make any movements, Mei kept on walking as insisted. Rina, who was walking right next by does not seems to notice anything either as they both turned a corner into an alleyway during the chat; making whoever behind to turn with them.
"They won't like me." Rina finished up her sandwich and dust her hand on Esmeralda's skin, which does not seem to bother the kid.
"Do you think the giraffe fathoming's the bearings?" Mei asked.
"Yes, tales said the giraffe believes penguin need not aid." Rina answered.
Without another explaination to the random words they just said, immediately right after; the knife pressed against Mei back made contact with some light metal and flew upwards to the air. Before Mei spun around and charged up another kick straight at the stranger's abdomen, sending them backwards to the ground.
It was a shorter hooded figure, whom immediately stood up and tried to get away. But as they wanted to do that, the environment around seemingly worked against their favor, as the wind blew in the opposite direction, causing every step they ran to be nullified, sending them backwards to where they first stood, strangely enough they noticed; the trees in their view does not bend with the wind, as if only the space around them was affected. Before another stronger gust of wind sent them flying backwards, into Mei's who immediately got them held up from behind by the arms in a T-pose.
The wind also knocked the hood over, revealing a young woman; almost a girl, younger than the both of them, she was already beaten up-looking with a displeased expression. Strangely enough she does not speak a word; not a plead, a question, a sorry or even a curse, just plain silence and a small aura of hatred.
"You don't seem to do your own hair." Rina crossed her arms when Esmeralda crawled up to her shoulder as she rhetorically questioned the girl, a strange question, leaving the small dragon confused as "why the last three sentences these people speak have no meanings, giraffe? penguin?"
Indeed, the girl's black hair was weirdly cut to the nape, almost like by a rough blade, not by a barber nor self cut.
"Why did you target us? Do you know us? I think we don't look that rich." Mei lowered her voice and started questioning herself, not wanting to make a scene out on the streets; the real reason why they took a strange turn back then.
"No, you do. You do look kind of rich, that hat alone can sell well if you pick the right store." Rina chimed in snarkily, before getting in a more serious tone. "Answer or we will turn you in."
"Tsk." The girl finally speak up, glaring over to some random direction, avoiding eye contact as well as trying to hide most of her face. "Do it, I will just get out eventually, I'm not new there."
Rina, Esmeralda and Mei exchanged a look, not knowing what else to do other than just turn her in. It was when someone appeared; Pearl entered the alleyway and walked towards them with no luggages or groceries visible, only a cheap sandwich on hand. As he assessed a strange situation; two of his fellow teammates ganging up on a young girl, who already looked beaten, skinny, exhausted and with a knife near the ground, Pearl pushed his glasses up and speak up.
"Thief?"
"Surprise?" Rina questioned back instead of an answer.
"No."
"See I told you we looked rich."
Not knowing how to respond to Rina's comment, Mei took a second to think before letting the young girl go, giving her one push on her back; enough to get her tumbling a few feet, not enough to make her fall. Knowing she's being release by either dumb or kind people, the young girl covered herself up with the hood again and make a run for it, not before accidentally bumping into Pearl on the way.
"She'll harm more people." As if to question Mei's decision, he simply asked while walking forward and fixing her hat, which was off-centre a little bit.
"I feel like... I needed to do that, as if that was the right thing to do... New gloves?" Mei answered, looking upward to her cute, quiet younger brother, who is getting taller by each day it seems.
"I trust your instincts." Hearing Mei's questions, he put up both of his empty hands, covered in a pair of dark gloves. "Yes, medium elemental resistence."
Being mages, Pearl and Mei don't treat themselves with much defense or heavy armor, those usually goes to Marc. The siblings got leather and other light fabrics, energy conducting and magic resistence. Pearl himself wore long sleeves with normal gloves, while Mei's sleeves only extented to the elbows, in which she used longer gloves that covered the rest. Marc got gauntlets and in Rina's case... She exposed most of her arms, to get more a feel of her surroundings and weapon intimacy, she does dress quite discreetly on every other part, except for her neck which showed a burnt mark.
"Kiek..." Esmeralda said, which translated to "I want cool equipments too." Yet she's too lazy to say that in her human form, knowing she'd have to walk when she'd rather be transported in her smol dragon form.
While chatting about what's the deal with the girl was, they got a walk back to their carriage, in which a crowd was slowly gathering.
"Oh boy..." Rina looked from a distance, through the people gathering to convey what's happening back to everyone else.
"Marc's in trouble, I see."
When they got past the crowd, whispers and chatters could be heard as the sight shows a horse laying on the ground, hurt. A bit of observation tells that a wealthy looking man's horse was kick by the team's horse, which Marc was now trying to calm down both their horse and the owner.