A Quiet Morning

[Hitoshi Gilespi]

Hitoshi leaned against the rough bark of one of the trees in the courtyard, the soft morning sun streaming down through the thinning autumn foliage of the trees above him. It was a Saturday, and most of the school was still asleep at this hour, which was how Hitoshi liked it.

His sister was supposed to meet him here—at her insistence—but Hitoshi wasn't especially worried that she was late. He was comfortable reading in peace in her absence.

[Peace Emberlain]

It would be pretty hard to read in Peace. Next to Peace, however, is where Hitoshi has found himself.

Peace had finally found himself a set of friends at this new magic place, and he was thrilled, so when Hitomi asked him to meet up at some random tree at balls o'clock in the morning, he didn't ask too many questions. He was kind of grumpy, yeah, but... that wasn't her fault.

The giant werewolf boy quietly came up beside Hitoshi and stood, wondering where Hitomi was. In theory, he figured, if this was the wrong tree, her brother could tell him, right?

[Hitoshi Gilespi]

At first, Hitoshi assumed that a particularly tall tree had just moved into his light; while they were typically stationary out of laziness, it wasn't as though the trees at Dunehelden hadn't been known occasionally to move of their own volition.

He looked up, however, and realized that rather than a tree, the source of his lack of light was a person standing between him and the sun. A very tall person, who Hitoshi vaguely recognized as one of Hitomi's friends.

"Hitomi isn't here yet." Hitoshi looked back down at his book. "I'm guessing you're looking for her too."

[Peace Emberlain]

Life was easier when his presumptions were correct. Peace gave a small nod and found a bit of tree to lean on that wasn't in Hitoshi's way.

"Yeah. Do you know where she is? I don't know why I'm supposed to be here."

It was a nice morning, outside of being morning, at least.

[Hitoshi Gilespi]

"Your guess is as good as mine," Hitoshi said dryly.

Truthfully Hitoshi did have a few suspicions. It wouldn't be the first time Hitomi had tried to set him up with one of her friends; even after he and Brennen had started dating, Hitomi seemed insistent upon introducing him to every available male that she knew.

"It's possible she overslept. She's not typically up this early."

[Peace Emberlain]

Peace shrugged. He didn't really know what to say about that, and he didn't know Hitoshi very well, so there wasn't much to say.

So he stood and waited.

And kept waiting.

Birds chirped in the trees, answered by the faint yelling of a bird-shifter from way off at the dorms. Peace yawned.

And waited.

After what felt like an hour but was probably more like five or ten minutes, he shifted and looked at Hitoshi.

"So uhm. What're you reading?"

[Hitoshi Gilespi]

Hitoshi had almost forgotten Peace was there in the silence, his attention held rapt by the book in front of him.

His jaw tensed at the interruption. But this was Hitomi's friend, so he supposed he should at least pretend to be civil until he Hitomi finally showed up.

"A b—" Hitoshi was halfway to saying a book when he hear something loud crash somewhere in the distance, and his hands went instinctively to pull his book closer to his chest.

"What was that?"

[Peace Emberlain]

Peace immediately stood up straight, his ears perked and nose pointed towards the disturbance. He didn't actually have wolf-senses while he was human, but he sure did have some of the instincts.

There was another, smaller crash, and off towards the town he could hear someone yelling- possibly two people?

"Dunno, but it sounds like somebody's in trouble." Peace hesitated, glancing at Hitoshi with an unsure expression, then dashed off towards the sounds.

[Hitoshi Gilespi]

Hitoshi frowned and pulled himself to his feet. He considered staying where he was. It was probably safer that way, for one, and he wasn't sure if he cared what was going on so much as he cared that it didn't effect him.

But there was a chance that it was something that would effect him. It might be his sister, though the chance was slim.

...Actually, it could have been one of his cousins. That was significantly more likely than Hitoshi wanted to admit.

Hitoshi gathered his things and headed cautiously after Peace, prepared for the worst.

[Winds]

The streets between the shops and the castle were broad and sunny, made of packed dirt and paving stones and sometimes stranger things that the many splendiferous vehicles of Arcadia could drive down in style carrying goods. They were even busier now than they had been over the previous month or so, gearing up for some celebration or... something. There had even been normal cars and what looked suspiciously like a U-Haul heading towards the castle.

Busy was nice. Broad and sunny was less so. There was just about nowhere Winds could hide, and if there was nowhere to hide, he really didn't trust the chances of running from an angry centaur. He was trying. Very hard. The bastard was smashing into flower-boxes and apple-carts left and right, but gaining. It didn't help matters that he was visibly holding the bag of dried flower petals the centaur was insisting were stolen.

Winds was nowhere near stupid enough to steal from the fae- intentionally at least- but she didn't think yelling about it was going to change anyone's mind, either. There was an old-fashioned carriage not too much farther down the road, its underside deep in shadow, and if he could just distract the centaur and get over there...

[Peace Emberlain]

Unfortunately, just as Winds slipped through the crowd towards the thought of safety, Peace came barreling around a corner looking for the source of the problem. For a brief instant it looked like they were going to collide- Peace found himself staring straight into the wide and angry eyes of what he figured must be a girl just long enough for her to toss something at him and dive out of sight.

He found himself in the middle of the wide street holding the... whatever it was, nearly tripping over his own feet as he came to a stop. A burly centaur limped over- one Peace knew from a shop nearby selling magical botanical stuff- with one leg stuck in a bucket, pointing at him and looking furious.

"YOU! You've caused enough trouble! You'll be lucky if you make it to the sherriff at this point!"

Peace, for his part, stood there and blinked. It was definitely way too early for this.

[Hitoshi Gilespi]

Hitoshi skidded down the side of the hill, reaching the edge of the street just in time to watch a stranger lob something at Peace before racing away.

He knew the shopkeeper, though not well. He debated not getting involved, but suspected his sister wouldn't be very happy with him if he let one of her friends take the fall for something he didn't do.

"It wasn't him." Hitoshi resisted the urge to add you idiot to the end of that sentence, but he certainly did think it. "We came when we heard the noise. The person you were chasing ran away."

[Peace Emberlain]

The centaur seemed much more startled by the emergence of a second person than by Peace. He frowned deeply, looking between the two of them and not quite dropping his hand, still pointed accusingly. Around the group, shopkeepers were poking their heads out and surveying the damage.

"I know hiding things magic when I see it. I'm not going to be fooled by a simple glamour."

Peace frowned. He still felt like he didn't exactly understand the chain of events here, but he knew what he should do. He took a step forward and held out the bag. "I don't want it."

The centaur blinked, then snatched it back. He glared down at Peace. Peace, increasingly irritated, met his eyes.

There was silence for a long moment as the two stared each other down, broken by a long, low growl from Peace. The centaur startled and stepped back.

"All right- but don't be thinking I won't tell the law about you two."

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