Near The Old Guild House

"Hey! I said; stop it!" Blake jerked his head away from Baba's hands as the petite woman still held in his arms was trying to braid his hair in a similar fashion to her own.

"Hehe! Oh, come now, you'll look a lot better if you do and you've got the hair for it." Baba giggled, wrapping some of Blake's red hair around her fingers. "It might get in your eyes sometimes if you're not careful."

"In that case, I'll just cut it," Blake muttered, the last thing he wanted to think about right was having a makeover especially after he remembered that he left the others alone with that Mordecai guy. "Then again Saffire and Gram could eat him alive if he tried again...huh?" He thought then looked down to see Baba twisting around in his arms. "Hey, didn't you say you were comfortable like an hour ago?"

Baba stared up at Blake with a blank a face. "You were thinking about the others even though you have me right here in your arms, Mama's a little jealous is all." She faked a whimper as her cheeks got pouty.

"Oh, so you can get jealous? Neat, but you and I had half a day's worth of eachother, so I want to hope that's enough to keep you over until the next one. Don't want to get too clingy right?" Blake asked the childishly upset face looking at him. "I mean come on, I've been carrying you for like an hour, isn't that enough?"

"Hmm? I suppose that's true and it is as always impressive to see how strong you are, Hubby, hehe!" Baba giggled as she poked at Blake's arm. "I wonder if you could handle me when I'm a bit 'bigger'?" She added with a hand hovering around her chest.

"You better not mean what I'm thinking," Blake warned with a redding face, but the Ala shrugged and went back to enjoying her ride. "Ugh, at least we're home?" Blake shook his head and looked forward glad to see that they were about to reach home and hopefully find out that nothing went wrong while he was gone. "Wha?"

"What's wrong, Hubby, you look like you saw something weird?" Baba asked, seeing Blake's reaction to whatever he saw then took a look for herself. "Oh?" Was the shape her mouth made as before them, was the sight of a large black snake-like creature with eight short legs running down its inky black scale bounded body. It had a crown of spikes around its head and from its agape mouth dripped green sludge that seemed to suck the life out of anything it touched.

"*pant* Son! Of! A! *pant* Bitch!" Mordecai yelled to the sky up above and for some reason had a blindfold over his eyes. "Fuck you!" He was kicking at the dead snake thing repeatably with one of his swords stabbed in its head.

"Oi! I think it's dead." Gram pointed out with the tail of this snake thing in his mouth chewing on it lightly.

"Are you sure?" Saffire, in her Dragon form, asked, holding down the seemingly dead monster with her claws.

Then out of the cart's side door came Risabeel holding her hands over her eyes. "Has the fighting stopped?"

"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Blake yelled at the everyone at just what the hell happened and was about toss Baba in the air.

"Huh?" Mordecai wheeled around to Blake's voice and pulled off his blindfold. "Hey! You're back! We just fought this Basilisk!" He smiled, pointing at the dead body before violently ripping his sword out its head. "HAH!" Then stabbed it right back in one of its eyes.

Toxic Monster, Basilisk: A reptilian monster that has the appearance of a giant jet black snake with multiple legs running along its body. It is often called 'king serpent' due to the crown of spikes that appear around its head and can grow to various sizes either being as large as a normal snake or a small Dragon.

Basilisks are known for the extremely powerful venom that they produce in almost very part of their body and often leaving a trail of death and decay in its wake. Some myths even say that they can kill anyone with but a glance, however, despite its powerful weapons, a Basilisk can get easily scared off by the scent of a weasel.

Items forged from this monster's Ore are impured with the same deadly poison of this monster, that a user should be careful with.

"I can see that...but WHY!?!" Blake wasn't as carefree with any of this and was mainly looking at Mordecai for an answer.

"What are you looking at me for? When I got here, they were fighting it!" Mordecai turned the blame on Gram and Saffire.

"Huh?" So Blake looked at them now, but Gram was still trying to eat away at the Basilisk's tail. "Isn't that poisonous?"

"If it was, then I should be dead right now?" Gram asked back, finally biting off a bit of the Basilisk's tail and swallowed. "Meh, salty." He muttered, but still went for another bite.

"Goddess damn it," If he could have Blake would've facepalm at the wolf's answer then looked up at Saffire but said Dragon was just glaring at him. "Wait? She's not?" Instead, she was glaring at Baba still in Blake's arms, making him roll his eyes as he let go of Baba with her floating in front of him. "Happy?" He asked, but his eyes went to Saffire's left shoulder where a sizeable bite mark covered in that green sludge from the Basilisk. "Uh, you are okay?" Blake had to ask since although Saffire seemed pretty much okay, the fact some of her scales were dropping off was worrying him.

"What? I'm fi-fi-fi-fi-*sniffles*" Saffire tried to answer Blake but suddenly went into a small sniffling fit.

"Fi-!" Blake was about to finish for her when he got covered in a plume of smoke from a sneezing Dragon. "-ne."

"Oh, dear! The Hot-head caught a cold. I didn't think you Dragons could get those?" Baba wondered out loud as she blew the smoke away. "One of the most venomous monsters in the world, huh?" She added, moving over to the Basilisk's body.

"Thank you, Baba," Blake muttered, wiping some soot out of his face and left Saffire before she let out another sneeze, hopefully not a firey one. "Risabeel, please tell me you know how this happened?"

"Sir Blake, welcome back, and yes and no to your question?" Risabeel bowed her head at seeing Blake, and after he rolled his hand for her to go on, she continued. "Ah, yes, you see as we arrived back here while you were out with Baba and we came to find Nash being wrapped up by that beast over ther-"

"Nash! You alive!?" Blake called once he realized he didn't see his horse around, but thankfully Nash whipped his head around from behind the cart and neighed at Blake. "Good, we don't need Gram to pull the cart just yet." He joked, getting Nash to blow air at him. "You know I love you!" Blake blew some air back at Nash and went back to Risabeel. "Go on."

"Y-yes..." Risabeel was left slightly bewildered by Blake's and Nash's interaction but carried on. "Immediately Gram and Saffire tried to battle the beast as best they could resulting in Saffire being bitten..." She soon waved a hand at Mordecai. "...then, Sir Mordecai came to help acting as bait to lure the beast in order to allow Gram and Saffire the chance to hold it down."

"And that's when I stabbed it the head and twist!" Mordecai finished for Risabeel while mincing what he did with the blindfold pulled down.

"You know that thing about the death gaze is a myth, right?" Blake pointed out, catching the arm, Mordecai was holding his sword in then got rid of his blindfold.

"Really? So, I was jumping around like an idiot while blind for nothing?" Mordecai asked half joking and half serious. "Could've died either way but still..."

"Hey, I said; it's a myth. It might be true and you jumping around like an idiot was a good thing or not and it was probably funny as hell! I kind of wish I was here to see it, heh!" Blake grinned at the thought of this annoying thief trying not to get killed by a giant snake thing and left the thief scowling. "Hey, come on, now! I haven't even told you to buzz off yet, so that's good, right?"

Mordecai's scowl went away at that being replaced with a wide grin. "Aww! You're finally trusting me!" He cheered, playing out a bit even reaching out to swing an arm around Blake's neck.

"Hey." Blake held up a hand to stop him right there. "I said; I'm willing to listen to you, but after that's done you buzz off."

"Damn, you're more of an asshole than I am. how do you have friends?" Mordecai asked right to Blake's face making the smith's face go blank. "That's not a good answer, but whatever let's get down to business shall we!"

"Here we go..." Blake thought, crossing his arms, ready to hear whatever Mordecai had. "The hell?" But at seeing Risabeel getting kicked out of the cart door by a small sandal wearing foot made him do a double take. "Mari, be nice!" He yelled at his little sister as he went to help Risabeel up.

"Blake! Did that Granny do anything weird to you!?!" Mari quickly ran up to Blake and held the sides of his head turning him this way and that as if he got tossed off a cliff face and was left there for a few days then glared up at Baba who was lazily floating by. "Hmm!"

"~Oh so scary~ but don't worry I didn't do anything he didn't want me to do." Baba teased back at Mari, wiggling her feet Blake's way making his face go red.

"What does that mean?" Mari asked with all the innocent of a child her age in her eyes.

"You do not need to know about that," Blake told Mari, patting her on the head a few times.

"Hmm!" Which left Mari pinning the same glare she was giving Baba on her brother.

"Ugh, Bread!" Blake snapped his head away from Mari and found Bread looking out from inside the cart. "You still have your knife?"

"Y-y-yea." Bread answered shaken and little by Blake, suddenly calling him out and produced a knife from his pocket. "Why?"

"Get to cutting." Blake pointed at the Basilisk's body, leaving Bread confused. "*sigh* do you see any Ore laying around?" Blake asked, and after quickly look around, Bread shook his head. "Then where do you think it is?"

"You want me to get near that thing!?" Bread yelled back at Blake sure the Basilisk was dead, but it was still leaking that vile green sludge out its mouth, killing most of the planets around it.

"Hey, you aren't going to get Ore that easily all the time. And, yea, I'm not training you to be a monster hunter or anything like that. But it's good to know an extra skill sometime. Mari's going to help you, so you should be fine," Blake explained, throwing a hand to Mari. "That should keep her busy from asking me anything about what happened with Baba..."

"Kay!" Mari cheered, ducking back into the cart and came back with a cloth mask and knife of her own. "Come on!" Then grabbed Bread by his arm and dragged him off to the Basilisk with Os following behind.

"Is that safe?" Mordecai asked Blake with a hand held up, watching two kids cut up a dead monster.

"Mari? Yes, Bread...? I don't know? It's not like I told him to crawl up inside of the thing." Blake shrugged, it should be fine mostly, kind of, maybe...then again Reiner was a lot worse than this. "But weren't you about to tell me about this big plan that was going to be good for both of us?"

"Good! You stay on track, and I like that!" Mordecai smirked, giving Blake some finger crossbows. "So? Ever wanted to start up a guild?"

"A guild whatever may that be?" Risabeel asked curiously looking towards him for an explanation.

Mordecai was all set and ready to answer Risabeel. "Well, then my dear it's jus-"

"A group of people that usually share a common goal and work together to achieve it, like merchants or think of all the crafters of Gorz as one big guild with that Orc as the leader. Most of them nowadays are made up by adventurers looking to make questing easier," Blake cut in and explained to Risabeel, leaving Mordecai to suck on the inside of his cheek. "What? I've worked with a few guilds before, and I'm not really interested in joining one if that's your plan."

After Blake got done, Mordecai was giving Blake a seldom look and seemed a bit defeated. "You stole my chance man," He muttered, kicking a rock at his feet. "But it's a good thing you at least know a bit which is going to make this easier!"

"Easier? I already told I'm not joining your guild." Blake retorted already finding this as a waste of his time, but that smirk coming to Mordecai's face got him thinking. "Wait? If that's not it, then what is?"

"Heh, I'm not trying to get you to join up with some old guild! What I want is for us to start our own!" Mordecai declared, throwing his arms in the air. "Huh?" But instead of getting collective cheer of 'hell yeah!' or 'Alright let's do it!' all Blake did was stare at him blankly. "That's it?"

"Well, what you do you expect? Me joining a guild and making one is the same thing, and I'm not interested in that, I'm a blacksmith, not some upstart hero trying to go down in history as the great savior of the world," Blake explained, bringing a hand to his chest. "My job is to make the items for those heroes, that's it."

"Ugh..." Mordecai was trying to think up a way to get Blake in on this and found himself looking at Risabeel. "...well? This is a way for you to he-" But a swift hand shutting his mouth close stopped him.

"Oh, no, no, no. You're not using that one again." Blake wiggled a finger on his free hand at the thief. There's no way in the Underworld he was going to let this guy use Risabeel to get an upper had on him. "Huh?" That is until said Demon tapped him on his shoulder. "Goddess damn it!"

"Sir Blake, I do understand that is not something you by any means wish to do, but would it not be wise to take up such an endeavor? Many hands do light work, and if you would label yourself as an adventurers guild, then you would likely be able to gain a great amount of Ore and gold while showing your work to the masses." Risabeel pointed out a few of the benefits she thought Blake would get out of starting a guild.

"Mmm! Hmm!" Mordecai muffled through Blake's hand as he was mentioning over to Risabeel while giving her a thumbs up and okay signs.

"I guess your right about that stuff and my old man was in a guild back when he was my age and still gets work because of that...but, I don't want to do everything he did..." Blake thought out loud, still holding Mordecai's mouth shut then looked at the others. "...hey, what about that rest of you guys!?"

"Only if Os gets to be the mascot!" Mari cheered hands covered in Basilisk blood.

"Ossss!" Os seem to think the same as it slid out of the Basilisk's mouth starting to look like it a little even hissing too.

"Found it!" Bread at another part of the Basilisk held up a greenish black Ore. "I don't think I get a say in anything right?" He asked, looking at Blake, who nodded back at him. "Whatever."

"You tell me what to do, Alpha." Was Gram's answer as he was going around to all the bit of meat that the kids had dug out of the Basilisk. "Still salty."

Next up was Baba currently laying on top of the cart. "Hmm? As long as you make time for me, I'm fine with whatever you do to make some extra coin."

Finally, there was Saffire who was still suffering from her cold caused by one of the most toxic monsters in the world. "I don't ca-*sniffles* what y-y-y-yo*achoo*!" She sneezed out a stream of fire that set about half of the Guild House's roof on fire.

"You guys are useless in decision making..." Blake muttered to himself while trying his best to ignore the fact that there was a fire burning its way across the top of the Guild House. "...that's just going to add to the money I need to pay to fix this place and in that case having another way of getting some coin would be nice..." He was starting to admit that maybe having a guild under his belt wouldn't be that bad. "...hmm?" He let go of Mordecai so he could cross his arms to think it over some more.

"See! It's all good for both of us! You get some fame for showing off your items on quests, and I get a place I can hide out at when the City Watch is on my ass, and we all get some coin out of it!" Mordecai beamed, seeing as Blake was finally coming around to his plans. "AH!" That is until he got lifted off the ground by Blake grabbing at his shirt collar. "What gives!?!"

"And why the hell would I let you in on this?" Blake questioned the thief, holding him in the air. "You know you're acting way too friendly to us even if we helped you get away one time."

"Uhm? Because I'm the one who brought it up in the first place?!" Mordecai yelled at Balke as he tried to get out of Blake's hold. "Hey! Like I said the first time we met after that, you guys get my kind of fun, and I've been looking for friends who aren't going to stab me in the back for once or brush me off as a bad thing so far you've got one of those down."

"Now, now, Hubby, aren't you being a little bit unreasonable with him?" Baba cooed, coming up to help Mordecai out of this. "I mean compared to when you met us; he's harmless."

"She's right, I tried to eat you," Gram agreed, sniffing at the air a little. "And don't worry I've got his scent so he can't get away even if he tried anything and at that point, we can just..." He trailed off as he snapped off one of the Basikil's leg.

"Uh, I'm having second thoughts about this..." Mordecai was starting to have some regrets in trying to push this on Blake since most of the smith's group was made of monsters that didn't seem to give a damn. "I don't like that smile you've got there..." He looked down at Blake who seemed to have noticed his panic.

"Heh, you're afraid, and it looks like you don't have anything to back yourself up with, which means..." Blake let go of the thief and held out a hand to him. "...I don't have to worry about you just yet."

"Again, you're a bigger asshole than me," Mordecai smirked before taking Blake's hand in his, and they shook. "Now what do we about that..." He pointed at the raging fire that was the roof of the guild house. "...there's a lake about five minutes that way." And thumb was swung down a path leading into some trees.

"..." Blake just looked at it, taking in the sight and for some reason, he had a small smile on his face. "I need to get a water monster on my side."

Chapter End