When it was demanded by the guard that their Guild Marks be shown, Hana was the second to show his. For him, it was a simple matter of raising his left hand to show Fairy Tail's mark in gold upon it. Axel, on the other hand, raised his shirt until the right side of his chest was shown, and he felt no need to make it possible for them to see Takara's. After all, if these individuals were worried about the status of a cat, they had more problems than could be solved by Mages. "They're being awfully careful for a group of people already suffering from a Curse."
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"Not really," mentioned Iris who completely understood this level of caution. "After all, you wouldn't want to invite someone in who might make it worse." she said offering a shrug. It would seem all standing humans had shown their guild marks and this was enough for the guard in the tower. Afterwards the gate began to move and the group of them would be allowed in. The chief of this group was waiting an old man wearing a partial cloak, looking like he'd seen better days.
"We were starting to think no one would actually come. We are sorry for the extra caution but it was necessary." the old man said which Iris waved off with a calm smile. "Eh, no problem. We understand, I'm Iris, that is Axel, this is Hana and the cat is Takara." she said gesturing to each person in turn. "We're here to help try and lift your curse so anything you can tell us would be helpful." mentioned the young raven haired girl.
After she spoke the old man looked at her a bit astounded. He didn't know what he'd expected, but such a diverse group of young people wasn't on the list. Still he wasn't really in a position to complain. "There are several strange happenings on the island not the least of which is this." the old man said extending a hand from beneath the cloak to reveal a demon body part there without fingers and instead clawed. Several other village members also stepped up as if to show that they were also similarly afflicted. "All of us are like this, we even become full demons under the light of the cursed moon." mentioned this old man. Such a thing was odd to Iris so she looked back at Axel, she'd never heard of moonlight being the sort of thing to cause this problem. "Your moon is cursed?"Comment
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"Maybe I could do something," Hana said, stepping forward when it was revealed that these people had demon limbs. If they were being afflicted by something, his Magic had a decent chance to be of use, at the very least. If nothing else, he could give it a shot. Axel had taken to looking around, even toward the sky with narrowed eyes. Nightfall would be very interesting in this place, he thought. "This doesn't smell right," he said, meaning this in the most literal of ways. "There can't be anything wrong with the moon. But..."
"Maybe..." Hana chimed in. "Maybe it's that sealed Dragon releasing an energy that bounces off the moon, back onto the island?"
"Seems legit."Comment
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Hana seemed to think he would be capable of doing something. And such a thing would be useful as a thought. But the more Iris thought about it, the more she agreed that something about this wasn't right. It was mentioned by Hana that perhaps the sealed dragon was leaking off magic and that was the thing likely causing the problems for the people on the island. It would make sense but that dragon had been sealed away for decades according to Axel so what difference could it be making now. Before Iris could go on to voice her opinion the Chief began speaking again.
"That dragon has been locked away on this island longer than any of us can remember. It's supposedly in the depths of the world under this island, there was a whole temple devoted to it in antiquity." said the old man. "But that temple is on the other side of the island. It's dangerous... so if you go there tread lightly." the old man finished up. "If you can break the curse without destroying the moon be my guest... we only wish to be rid of these demon forms." he mentioned. A small girl was in the corner crying about her hideous leg as an old woman with horns consoled her. Such a thing was a bit heart-wrenching to witness. "Sou ka..." came from the girl as she turned. "The temple seems like the best place to start, and if it takes until night fall... then we'll get to see what goes on here at night." said Iris. This was about as close to leadership as she got, normally one to take missions on her own, she thought it best to wait for the opinions of the others before moving out.Comment
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While the brief discussion between Iris and the village Chief progressed, Axel made his way toward Hana, leaning forward to whisper into the boy's ear. "Hey. Ever think Iris smells a bit like a Dragon?" he asked. Now that it had been mentioned, Hana scratched the side of his head and looked in the young woman's direction. "Yeah, kinda. I figured she just hung out with you a lot, and maybe it rubbed off." This response from the boy, while entirely innocent, rubbed Axel the wrong way initially. In fact, he briefly wondered what the child could have been implying, but he chalked it up to being mere simplicity of youth. Either way, the time had come to move on, so Axel stood and prepared to be off following Iris' lead. "Lead the way, Boss."Comment
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"Oi, I'm no one's boss. Well, not here anyways." said the Crystal Mage as she continued wandering about the island. She figured that she'd eventually come to find this temple she was looking for as she'd been given a general direction to look for it in. Still, something about being in this place felt oddly familiar more so than she was used to. She was walking along overgrown paths her fingers dancing over the blossoming flowers and tree trunks as if she belonged among them. Something about this entire place felt so familiar and normal to her. "I like this place." she said absently and almost to herself. During this time a single eye opened on the cat creature draped around Axel's neck. She spoke to him directly after hearing what Iris had to say and briefly watching the girl's behavior. "She's been here before..." she whispered in such a way that it'd come off sounding like a deep purr. "Oh well, at least she seems to know where she going."Comment
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"I wonder why," Axel said, and though his intentions were different, he voiced the statement in a sarcastic tone, as if to imply that one likely shouldn't enjoy this place. "I like it too," Hana chimed in. The younger Mage also seemed to be having a rather good time moving across this island, in spite of the apparent Curse it was afflicted by. While they were wandering, Takara stirred, and chose to immediately comment on Iris' apparent comfort level on this journey. "That's why she's leading. She was right at home the moment we got here."Comment
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"And you keep saying I'm mean~" Iris teased. She apparently didn't have any hurt feelings when it came to the things Axel said, but even so she looked to Hana and grinned as he chimed in agreeing with her assessment of this place. She'd give him the thumbs up as she continued to explore this place in a way which seemed most like she already knew and eventually they could come to an incline which had a temple like pyramid sitting at the top of it. She looked at it her brows furrowing as she took in the look of it. But even so something about this area felt odd... like there was something lingering him that she didn't want any part of. The temple was marked with a moon on the top, but Iris waited outside of it as if she didn't want to go in. A smirk appeared on the cat creature's face. "I wonder why she wouldn't mention it, but I figure she doesn't know. She's far too simple and too nice... to lie of her own accord. This is going to be annoying at some point... I know it." the cat finished up before going back to her closed eyes and relaxed position. She seemed not to care at all about anything going on here.
"This I don't like." she said staring at the temple. She knew it had been her idea go come to this place, she still didn't really want to enter this building. What Iris couldn't know though, was that there were regular people moving about on the upper terrace of the temple. An area not reachable from this side... and they were preparing an odd ritual as the sun began to fall towards the western horizon.Comment
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"I keep telling the truth, too." Soon enough, the four Fairy Tail Mages approached the sought-after temple of Galuna Island. Though Iris stopped moving forward, Axel continued toward the entrance. "Probably, but... it'll be fine," he said to Takara en route. When it seemed Iris would not progress, and Hana would remain at her side, he spoke up from within the temple. "Don't make me have to do the whole job myself, and have to deal with transportation. That's the whole reason I didn't take the job before."Comment
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"No you aren't... I'm not mean. You're projecting your mean onto me." she said turning to stick her tongue out at the young man. But this giggle worthy moment would soon enough be left behind as they reached their destination. And though Iris and Hana had come to a stop. As the young man kept walking past her and inside he claimed that they shouldn't make him do all the work and deal with transportation. A bit of nervous laughter came from Iris as she took the first of another set of steps forward. "Eh, Hana took care of the transportation part so it should be fair. But I won't make you do the whole job by yourself." she mentioned. "For the record though... I really don't like this place... it makes me uneasy." she said but she kept going anyways. She couldn't well completely back out of the S-class mission she'd be drafted to go on. Takara had been quiet for a few moments but yawned and rolled just a tad on Axel's shoulders. "I know it will be. But I am easily bored of waiting... I want to see what she's hiding already. It's part of the reason I agreed to this in the first place."
As they entered the place seemed to be in ruins. The floors looking like they could barely support the weight of a single individual, but still she persisted. "Should we find a way to the top... or try and see what's underneath it?" she asked. It seemed to Iris that one wouldn't build temples unless they were to house things. So either there was something on top of it, or something underneath it, but regardless there simply had to be something here.Comment
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"We could do either," Axel said as he came to a stop, waiting for the others to catch up to his location a few meters ahead. "We could even do both at the same time. But, that ain't my call, Boss. It's yours." This was all Axel had to say, causing Hana to raise a brow as he approached. "This whole time, I've been thinking the boss thing was a joke."Comment
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As they moved further in, Iris got something of a response to her inquiry. It wasn't exactly what she was looking for and caused the raven haired girl to palm her face, as their youngest companion went on to explain that he hadn't thought Axel had been serious with his 'boss' references from earlier. A bit of a chuckle would come from Iris as she shook her head from left to right. "Of course he wasn't joking. But I don't like being people's bosses. I also really don't like the idea of splitting up... because it'd be my luck that I'd go off exploring and find a freaking dragon. Not something I really want to deal with... so~" she thought about it for a second and after looking around at the walls and the interior of the temple including a single light shining down from the center she made a decision. "To the bottom." it would seem that Iris' niceness and simplicity didn't exactly outweigh her ability to make decisions.
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"I meant to say we could just wreck the whole place, and get a glimpse of both the top and the bottom, but that's fine either way. Ikuze." Since Iris had made her decision, Axel stepped forward and looked into the light shining through the temple. Turning his body into lightning, he moved down the space through which the light shone. Hana watched this happen, but had no way of doing such a thing himself. "Does he expect us to go the long way down?"Comment
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Iris didn't seem to have any thing to say, to Axel's apparent thought of plan. Perhaps she was the more suited to do this sort of thing as her first thought wasn't just to completely wreck things. 'I don't envy Sis, having to deal with someone like Axel constantly breaking things.' she thought. As Axel chose his method down, Iris and Hana were left above. A few seconds of thought made Iris decide how she intended to get down and as such she began to use a magic likely unknown to her friends as she hadn't used it in front of them before. As the magic was cast the ground softened it began to swirl according to Iris' will. This would in turn create a very long and soft slide which would follow the light down below but also be a very quick and rather fun way to get lower. "Liquid Ground~" she mentioned rolling those blue eyes of hers. "We get to go down the fun way." she said extending a hand to Hana and if the blonde boy took it both she and him would be sent down the swirling slide at high speed until they reached the bottom.
Below was actually a huge cavern covered in odd crystals and somewhere in a large room would be a frozen lump of a sealed dragon.Comment
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Hana watched as Iris exhibited a type of Magic he'd never seen her use. It was always interesting to him, seeing the more seasoned Wizards of Fairy Tail utilize their abilities, especially when they were new to him. "Sugoi! I didn't know you could use Earth Magic!" the boy said as he looked at the slide of softened rock. With nothing more to say, he took Iris' hand and traveled with her down the slide, toward wherever it was Axel had ended up.Comment
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