Welcome to Gaia! ::

 

((sorry guys. Am away from my laptop this weekend and am replying via phone))

" Amity, wait!" called out Xiu after the frei. It would not be a good idea to be separated from one another like this. Especially when none of them would know what they would be up again next.

Leaving the two humans to catch up, Xiu hurried after the young frei.

But keeping up with Amity proved to be quite a feat in itself. Fully packed, throngs of people were blocking the narrow street; often causing a blockage when someone atopped to inspect an item on sale. It was during one of these situations when the sudden tragedy struck.

Momentarily forgetting Amity, Xiu noticed the puffy swelling that appearing across the man's features. Was he having an allergic reaction? If so, could he possibly help the human?

Focusing his gaze on the human, Xiu tried searching for the cause of the reaction with an intention of removing it if possible.

Meanwhile someone from the crowd was thumping the poprman on the back with the hopes ofaking him cough out whatever it is he had eaten.

Amity's mouth had gone dry as the commotion in the market began, only catching part of what happened but still being able to tell something was very wrong. The reaction of the rest of the team as they arrived only confirmed this. Louis at least gave her a sense of direction.

"O-okay." She started to bring up the compass but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up. Ronan had come up next to her.

"I'm coming with you." Not a question. A statement of fact.

Giving a shaky nod Amity looked back down at the compass, seeing where it was pointed now.

Whatever it was that was hurting the man, it was not poison as Xiu had initially suspected. Despite his best attempts, the man was still choking and by the looks of it, the crowd was getting thick. Looking around, Xiu spotted Amity, Ronan and Louis close to the hapless fruit seller’s stand. Was this the work of a fel essence?

Floating as quickly as he could through the throng, Xiu reached the group looking slightly breathless. The look of the faces of his team mates told the Sigel that a fel essence was indeed close at hand. And that it was in fact residing amongst the magically cultured fruits.

But which one?

“He’s turning blue!!” shrieked a woman close by.

“Step back! I know the Heimlich maneuver! “a young man from the crowd commanded as he stepped forward.

This was good, it meant that the crowd would not be paying Team B much attention as they searched for the missing fel essence. But how would one do that? Smell? Texture? Taste?


There were several plates of freshly cut fruits on the countertop and only a few of these plates had been sampled. And since no one else had been choking on fruits, they would need to look for a plate with only a single slice missing from it. Picking up a plate of freshly peeled clementines, Xiu turned to Amity. “Is the compass reacting?”

Then noticing that the Frei possessed very bat-like features, Xiu hesistated for only a moment before suggesting “I…don’t suppose you can tell if any of these fruits smell off?”

Amity's ears perked up at Xiu's question, quivering slightly. "I can try."

Carefully hovering by each plate the bat took a sniff of each sample of fruit, seeing what she could pick out and keeping an eye on the compass as she did so. Most the time she could smell fruit on the other side of a room, if not farther, and she often was able to pick out rotten fruit just by smell alone, but this time she wanted to make sure to match each fruit correctly to its smell. An acute sense of smell didn't matter if she couldn't be accurate with it.

“Get away from there!”

For a moment, Xiu froze; like a deer caught in the headlight or a child with his hand in the cookie jar. With his mind racing as their options became very limited indeed, the Sigel considered the scenario. They had just found the culprit. Or rather the compass had definitely pointed to the plate of apples. But now they were being noticed by a very agitated storekeeper and the crowd wasn’t likely going to be sympathetic to a bunch of suspicious persons. Not when there was one of them still choking on the floor.

Acting fast, Xiu grabbed couple of notes from his wallet and tossed them onto the display counter. “Someone grab the apples! Let’s go!”

Ronan snatched up the rest of what Louis wasn't able to get, Amity finding herself grabbed and pulled along by his other hand as Ronan ran after the others. Once they got to the truck he didn't wait, jumping into the back and pulling Amity in next to him. They could bottle the essence once they were away.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to go home after this!" Mental trauma, injured bystanders, and almost getting arrested? He was so done with this day.

Staring at the innocuous looking fruit in the jar, Xiu turned to look at Louis, Amity and Ronan.

"What say we take a short break away from all of this madness?" the Sigel asked as he tucked the newly obtained fel essence back into his backpack. "I know a quite a nice ice-cream parlor close by. It is beside Wendy's Flower Shop and Gardening Supplies just down this street,"