The Mages of Night

The time: midday. The location: Neptune Guild, Neptune Island. Within the grand castle that makes up the guild's headquarters, the Mages could be seen and heard going about their daily lives. Some were chatting, others were arguing, and possibly even fighting. And still there were some who were keeping to themselves. One such Mage sighed out of boredom, not knowing what to make of his free time. He laid out on his back over one of the tables as if it were a bed and stared at the ceiling with dissapointment. "Damn it!," he said, with disdain in his voice, "you'd think there'd be something for me to do right now!" The young man sighed out in protest yet again, looking rather fed up with all this sitting around. Now feeling bored with his own boredom, if it were even possible to begin with, the Mage sat up and continued to stare vacantly out into space as his brain tried to think of something to do.

One possible, and very enticing thought came across his mind. "OH! Maybe one of the ladies here would like my company?! Hehehe..." Shade chuckled with delight at the thought of even being in the presence of one of his fellow, female Mages. He grinned as his lustful feelings grew. "After all, there's nothing like being around a beautiful woman to cheer any man up!! Nooow..." Shade held his right hand over his eyes as his head darted to and from in search of any women for him to spend time with. "I wonder if Liliana's around here somewhere! She's always such a delight to be with!" After a second or two of looking, Shade came upon the crushing realization. "Huh? ... WHERE ARE THE BEAUTIFUL LADIES?!!" Having put his hand down from its position and leaving his mouth open to gape in dissapointment, Shade soon knew that either most of the female Mages were away on jobs, or were elsewhere on Neptune Island. Shade's body collapsed, facing forward, onto the table he was sitting upon.

"You've gotta be kidding... The girls are gone too? Now what...?" Shade returned to thinking of a solution to his boredom, and a solution to his newfound dissapointment. Having rested his left cheek upon the table, and raising his rear end in the air in a rather strange position, Shade came upon a decision. "...I guess i'll just take a job. Better than nothing, I suppose..." Getting up from his slump and having marched down to the jobs board, Shade scanned the posters for any decent work to do. While his eyes darted from poster to poster, Shade continued to think out loud to himself, not aware that he was even doing so in the first place. "Well, I haven't seen Draco all day, so I guess I can't exactly do something that requires a full team of Mages... Oh well, a simple job should be enough to kill my boredom."

That's when Shade found it, a job that he could do. He began to read the job's description. "A D-Class assignment... I wish it would be something tougher and more exciting, but I guess this'll have to do. At least it doesn't have any requirements and the pay is decent. And besides, a missing son sounds pretty damn sad to me, so i'd love to help anyway." After glancing over the poster, Shade ripped it off from the board and began to head down towards the guild's exit, with the poster gripped in his left hand. Unbeknownst to Shade however, another Mage had taken notice of him.

Yakan walked to shade "Hey shade did you take the D-Class job with the lost son?" Shade nodded his head to Yakan "Oh well do ya mind me joining? Since ide really like to help the father find his son plus looking for him wont be easy alone right?"

"Heh, sure, whatever floats your boat, Yakan! Though I have to admit, I am pretty damn surprised to see one of our own S-Class Mages taking an interest in going out on a mission with me of all people! You must be bored out of your skull as well! Hahahahahahaha!"

"lm not bored, I just prefer normal jobs since there more relaxing and not a pain in the butt" Yakan looked at Shade and then at the reward at the request "Hmmm looks like a decent jobs we can split the reward in half too so lets go"

"Eh?! Split?!" Shade looked at Yakan as if the man had two heads, having hoped to have kept most of the reward for himself. But in the end, Shade gave in and decided it'd be best to share with Yakan after all. "Fine, we'll share the reward 50-50, like you said. So that would be..." As Shade began to calculate the pay, Yakan had already begun walking, expecting Shade to get the message that they should head out as soon as possible. Luckily for Shade, what little understanding of social behavior he had pulled through in the end, as he took immediate notice and rushed after Yakan. "HEY, DAMN IT!! I'M COMING, I'M COMING!!" And with that little outburst, the two Neptune Guild Mages were off to complete their D-Class assignment.

After a long time they reached Pork Town and went to their client "So your the daddy whos son is lost?" Yakan said to the client who was worried "Yes my son wasnt seen for days im starting to get worried please you have to find him" "Dont worry will find him right Shade?" Shade pointed to the guild symbol on his forehead and smirked confidently. "Heh, got that right! Noone gets jobs done quicker and finds sons better than Neptune Guild!"

"Oh, thank you two so much!," the father replied, feeling grateful that these Mages had taken up his request. "Think nothing of it, old man!," Shade exclaimed, now beginning to go back into his old, socially awkward habit, as he went and made a rather impolite remark concerning the client. "Er... Old man?," the father half-heartedly echoed, not exactly sure if Shade even realized what he had just said.

"lgnore him sir, Hes god more bones then brains" Yakan said showing a happy look in his eyes while patting Shades head "But seriously he has bones then brains" Said Yakan and went back to his previous bored look "Yet he does bring some humor into the guild right lets get searching"

"Right!," Shade cheerfully agreed as he and and Yakan then went on in search of the missing son. But the two hadn't done so much as take five steps before Shade realized what Yakan had told the father. His eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, what do ya mean I have more bones than brains?!! You calling me dumb, Yakan?!!" In the end, despite his shock, Shade shrugged it off. He grinned a little as a thought popped into his head. While still walking alongside Yakan, Shade decided to tease Yakan a little, in response to the "more bones than brains" comment from earlier. "Ya know, Yakan. That's quite the statement from the guy who can't even read! Hehehe!" Shade chuckled a bit, feeling as if he had made a clever comment. Of course though, Shade forgot to take into account that he was teasing an S-Class Mage. Nontheless, Shade enjoyed the joke he made at Yakan's expense as the two kept on walking. From behind, the father could be seen scratching his head in bewilderment as he watched the two Mages head off in search of his son. "So those two are Mages from that Neptune Guild...? They sure are... 'Interesting,' to say the least. I sure do hope they find my son."

Yakan looked at Shade after his last comment "Actually i can read i only cant understand what doesnt really interest me like details and job requests, Unlike you who pays details to females more than his work" Said Yakan without showing any anger about Shades comment "Hey now, that's only because you don't understand just how great it is to be amidst such lovely goddesses, like I do!" Shade smiled happily as he began to imagine images of countless beautiful women in his head. He closed his eyes as he did, which caused him to have a rather foolish looking expression on his face. "One of these days, Yakan, i'm gonna have to explain to you just how wonderful women truly are. I mean, after all, you seem to spend a good deal of time with that Chloe woman, right? Or am I mistaken again?" Shade opened his eyes, ended his grinning, and shoved his hands into his pants' pockets as he continued his talk with Yakan.

"Yeah i spend alot of time with Chloe so? I like her shes nice afterall except when shes angry, And so you know i know how beautifull and important women are proof i was once married to the most beatifull woman in the world, And im not saying it as a compliment" Yakan looked at Shade after he finished talking and scratched the back of his head. Shade smirked in response, having taken a liking to Yakan's reply. "So you DO understand where i'm coming from. I see now... I have to say, Yakan. You're one lucky guy, as far as the opposite sex goes. To have been happily married to a woman like that, and then get to hang out with someone like Chloe... Hehe, I have to say that i'm a little jealous of you, man! I hope that a wonderful woman comes into my life soon as well..." After that last statement, Shade went quiet as he contemplated on that thought. His thoughts soon began to drift from one thing to another, until the job at hand returned to his mind.

"Heh, i'm sure i'll get lucky one of these days. Who knows? Maybe this job of ours will give me the chance to meet a lovely face along the way! OOH! Or maybe someone back at the guild will have heard of the awesome job we did, and want to go out with me! OH, THAT WOULD BE THE GREATEST REWARD EVER!" Shade's eyes appeared to look as if they were hearts upon that exclamation, as he held his hands together in hope that his wish would be answered. "You know what, Yakan?! Keep the money! I just want that as my reward!!" It was official, Shade's mind had gone straight into lovestruck territory once more.

Yakan looked at Shade "You dont know what im gonna do with the money do you?, Well i might as well tell ya, I donate the money to an orphanage since i dont really need any money and stuff" Yakan then stopped scratching his head "And im not as lucky as you think, About the whole wife thing." Upon the news of what Yakan would do with the jewels once they got their payment, Shade snapped back to reality and listened to what Yakan had to say. " I see... That's very noble of you, Yakan," Shade said with complete seriousness. He then continued to listen in on what else Yakan had to say. Once Yakan was finished, Shade looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "Oh? How come? Did you go through some horrible divorce or something?"

Yakan apeared sorrow "No divorce we were never close to that, Not even one bit, What happens was...." Yakan took a deep breath and looked at Shade "She died along time ago by a dark mage." Shade's eyes began to grow big at first, but just as quickly as they had grown, they began to shrink back down to normal size, as Shade absorbed the tragedy in what Yakan had to say. "I see...," Shade solemnly replied, with a sort of despair in his voice. He turned his head away so as to stare at the road ahead of them. "What a horrible thing to happen to you... I get what you mean by not being so lucky now. I'm... Er, i'm sorry for your loss... Yakan." Shade continued to look down the road as he walked alongside Yakan, now being reminded of just how painful losing a loved one could be. After all, Shade had lost his parents at the tender age of 9. While he had gotten past the mourning stage already, it was still sad for Shade to think about whenever he would be reminded of it. Shade spent the remainder of his time just looking down the road (and often letting his head droop a little as well,) not exactly sure if there was anything he felt like contributing to the conversation.

Yakan looked at Shade "Its been 7 years since then, I miss her but i cant stay stuck at the past forever, And we cant stay here forever too we need to start looking around cmon every second counts." Shade picked his head up to look at Yakan. He nodded in agreement. "You're right. We should focus on the present. We have a job to do and it's our responsibility to make sure that we get it done." With that, Shade tried to cheer himself up again, in order to have the necessary energy and determination to find this missing son. He began to swivel his head left and right as he tried to look for this missing person. As he did, his thoughts began to wander again. "You know, this is probably the first time i've ever gotten to really get to know Yakan since joining this guild. I mean, normally I don't spend much time with guys as opposed to girls anyway, and with him being an S-Class Mage, I bet he's usually much more busy than I am. But to be honest, I kinda like hanging out with him. I never expected Yakan to be such great company." Just then, Shade realized something important that he had ignored up till now.

"AH! Wait a sec, Yakan! Do we even know what this guy looks like?! We could be searching for a needle in a haystack, for all we know!" Yakan turned to Shade and showed hima picture "The father gave me this picture before we left guess i forgot to tell ya, Anywho hes short, blonde, blue eyes and brown clothes along with a green coat." Shade's eyes began to show signs of him being a bit dissapointed at Yakan for not telling him sooner. "...You forgot to tell me?" Despite this, Shade returned to the matter at hand. "Oh well, as long as we have a lead on who the son is! Now we just need to find this short, blonde, blue-eyed, brown clothes and green coat-wearing guy and bring him back to the client!" Shade bumped his fists together as he began to psyche himself up for the search. "So then..." Shade went back to moving his head to and fro again, in pursuit of the person who matched the identity of the son, among the crowd of people that Yakan and him were standing in. "Where IS this guy?"

Yakan looked around and tried to match the people to the picture "Well there all grown ups and this picture shows that hes probably 12 to 13 so lets look for the short ones" Yakan kept on looking around but couldnt find anything. Shade went over to Yakan and took a closer look at the picture, to see that Yakan was right. The son looked rather young in appearance. "Ah, you're right! So that narrows down our search a bit..." Shade then went back to scanning the crowd of people around him, but now paying more detail to the children in particular. "Nope, not him... Not him... That's a girl... Not him... Girl again... Not him..."

Yakan went to Shade and pointed at a tall tower that was placed in the middle of the town "Look at that tower, The son might just be there, Here look behind the picture its says 'The only high enough place in this place for suicide is the only tower within it' The son might be in it"