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 Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:12 pm
 If Lea's memory served him right, making a left turn at the corner of the bakery store right over there should take him to the exact same alley where he had stumbled upon the calico kitten a week ago prior to the Hallow's Eve Ball in Lumena. He had actually meant to come and pay the young feline a visit as soon as he was back in Makai, but the classes that had been rescheduled to make up for lost time due to the recent festivities usually drained him plus there was also homework to contend with.
Peering down at the contents of the plastic bag that he was carrying in his right hand, the young mononoke began to wonder if the kitten would still be there. It wasn't unlikely that the creature could have wandered off to another part of town during his absence, especially if the provision of food seemed to be a one-time off thing only on his part from the kitten's point of view. No harm trying his luck regardless though.
Feeling a slight draft as he made the turn towards his intended destination, Lea smiled wryly to himself and pressed on, the cold not really bothering him one bit and on the contrary, refreshing against the exposed areas of his skin given that he was only wearing a sky blue short-sleeved polo shirt and dark grey bermudas today. Winter would come soon enough and he was looking forward to seeing Kei and Lulu once again when winter break came around. He heard the soft jingling sound first before he actually saw the owner of said bells and stopped right there and then. Xerxes. The name of the other mononoke he had met back in Lumena came instantly to his mind. ... but what was he doing here?
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:30 pm
 Xerxes made his way down the street with a bit of a skip in his step as he walked. The bag that he carried bumped against his hip as it swung along at his side. At home, he had three cats, but while he was attending Makai Royal Academy, they felt a long ways away from him. He would get to see them again when the school had a break and allowed students to return home for a time. But until then, it was such a very long time to go without the usual feline company that he had grown used to while growing up. It was, therefore, not surprising that one day when he was exploring the various shops during off hours that he grew attached to a small calico kitten that he happened to come across in an alley.
With the Hallow's Eve ball recently and catching up with school work, Xerxes hadn't had the time to come down to visit the kitten until now. He hoped the kitten had been all right during his absence. Ever since he was little, even before discovering his Mononoke powers, Xerxes always had a love for cats, which was why he had begged his mother to allow him to adopt the three stray cats that now lived in their house. He probably would have asked her to let him bring home more, but his mother had been quite firm about only allowing the three cats.
Footsteps caught his attention, and his ears sprang up as he listened to them. The bell on his earring gave its familiar little jingle whenever his ear moved or as he walked. He glanced about then his gaze landed on someone. A familiar face! "Lea!" he called out to the other Mononoke. He grinned as he waved to the other boy. "Funny meeting you here." It was an odd place to be meeting another student from the Academy. Why was Lea heading down the same alley as he?
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 5:49 am
If Xerxes had been skulking in the alley for whatever reasons that were unknown to him, he sure was doing a less than impressive job at the moment, what with the way he was waving to Lea to try to get his attention in addition to how the bell attached to his ear had given his position away almost instantaneously. The dark-haired mononoke was no stalker nor creeper; there was no doubt about that. With his left hand raised in mid-air, Lea smiled and waved back to Xerxes as he made his way further down the alley to join him.
"Xerxes, good to see you. How have you been since the Hallow's Eve Ball?" Words really couldn't even begin to express just how glad he was for the stroke of good luck that had brought them all together in Lumena and then to the ball subsequently. He didn't think that he would have enjoyed himself that much if he had stuck to his original plan of going alone. And to think that they would still be strangers at this point had any of them decided to do things differently at any point. "So what are you doing here?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:51 pm
Xerxes grinned as he reached Lea. All the chaos of the Hallow's Eve Ball felt so long ago now, but at the question, the memories came crashing back to him. His smile faltered somewhat, and he played absently at the zipped on his puffy orange vest over his black turtleneck. "I've been good," he answered. "Slowly getting back into the whole school routine again. What about you?"
He shoved his hands into his pants pockets. They were bright orange to match his vest and cut off just above the ankle. The plastic hooked around one arm made a crinkling noise as it swished at his side. He grinned sheepishly. "There's a stray cat around here," he admitted, wondering if Lea would find his answer silly. "I come around here sometimes to feed him." He glanced down at his feet, digging at the ground with one toe of his shoes. Then he lifted his head, curiosity in his red eyes as he peered at Lea. "Were you on your way somewhere?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 2:46 am
Lea was beginning to wonder if he should have thought better than to mention the Hallow's Eve Ball when he saw Xerxes' smile faltering some at the mention of it. Come to think of it, it hadn't exactly been very long when the fear of one being possibly targeted and having his/her heart stolen was still very real and permeated throughout the entire town. It made him wonder at times as to the fate of the earlier victims subsequently. Nothing came up in the news and people all seemed so eager to put everything behind them as if nothing had happened.
Directing a wistful smile Xerxes' way, he bobbed his head up and down a few times as he listened to him speak, his eyes sliding from his face to the bag that was hooked around his arm in the hope of sneaking a peek at its contents whenever curiosity got the better of him. "Good to hear that. Well, I suppose you could say the same for me. In fact, I think I've hardly had time for anything else other than classes and sleep."
Something in his mind clicked when the other mononoke mentioned something along the line of a 'stray cat' in the area. ... oh. He should have been observant enough to pick up certain features such as the feline in question being relatively well nourished in addition to welcoming human contact as subtle signs to suggest that someone had actually been feeding it all along. Not that it mattered anymore at this point. Was what Lea thought as he reflexively shifted the bag that he was holding behind him so that its contents were well out of Xerxes' line of sight. Wouldn't be a good thing to overfeed the kitty, would it?
"I see. How long have you been doing it?" He blinked at the red-eyed mononoke's question next, emeralds meeting rubies very very briefly before he let it drop to the ground. "I um... I was on my way back to the dorm after a quick trip to the grocery." And you happened to take a detour through this very alley. Yeah right...
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:49 pm
His tail twitched in a nervous fashion behind him. He didn't like to remember the fear brought up at the Hallow's Eve Ball. At that time, he had been far too terrified to do anything to help. Not that he could have done much even if he hadn't been paralyzed with fear. There weren't many spells that he could perform well and even less that would have been helpful in that situation. But he didn't like to dwell on those thoughts. He put a bright smile on his face to hide any show of those thoughts.
Xerxes nodded and laugh. "They sure like to keep us busy at the Academy," he agreed. It was nice to have this moment of free time to relax away from his studies. Sometimes the amount of work made his head feel like it might explode from having so much knowledge crammed into it all at once. But somehow, he was managing to keep his head above water, so to speak, and his grades hadn't suffered too badly thus far.
An ear twitched forward as he heard a rustle of noise behind Lea. He leaned slightly sideways like he was trying to get a good look behind the other Mononoke. He lifted a curious brow at Lea, wondering what he might be trying to hide.
He shrugged as he played with the zipper of his puffy orange vest. Not too long," he answered, trying to think back to how long it had been since he started feeding the stray cat. It was definitely sometime after his first visit down to the shops with Riba when he came across the poor kitten. "A month or so, maybe." He gave Lea a suspicious look at his answer. If it was only groceries that he bought, why was he trying to hide it behind his back?
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:48 am
"Yes. Though I'm not so sure if that in itself is a good thing if the students have a tendency of dozing off in the middle of class due to lack of sleep." Lea pointed out. "How long has it been since your enrollment? Are you due for the Grave of Fairies Trial soon?" It was true that the Academy had a lot to cover in the curriculum that spanned over 3 years for the majority and 2 years for the talented few. But there were some things in life that couldn't and shouldn't be rushed no matter what.
Lea didn't exactly like hiding things from people. Certainly not from a fellow mononoke like Xerxes whom he had come to know. Friends never lied nor hid anything from one another. Right? "Does he always turn up around here?" Trying to pretend that he hadn't noticed the suspicious look that the other mononoke was giving him, Lea took a step back. "I mean... he's a stray so there's a chance that he could have wandered off elsewhere right?" He reasoned, not realizing that the plastic bag that he held was on the verge of splitting open and emptying its contents onto the street until the glass bottle of milk fell and landed on the ground, shattering upon impact with a resounding crash.
...
... rats.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:55 pm
Xerxes laughed. "That's true," he agreed with a nod of his head. The bell attached to one furry ear jingled as it bounced from the action. Lucky, he hadn't been caught doing so in classes, or at least, not yet anyway. There were times when he couldn't keep his eyes open no matter how much he tried because he was simply too tired. But that was another reason for the trip down to the shops. Other than feeding the stray, he wanted to take a break from school work, and a visit to the shops seemed like a perfect thing to take his mind off school work for a while.
He pondered over the question. "Hm, a few months now, I think," he said, hardly believing it had been that long already. Sometimes, it felt almost like it was yesterday that he was leaving his home to attend the Academy. "I was thinking of trying for the first time." He played again with the zipper of his puffy orange vest as nervousness bubbled up in him. "I'm not sure I'm all that ready for it though." He chewed on his lip. He still hadn't discovered anything that might be his special magical ability. "I'll just give it my best though." He grinned widely. "What about you? Are trying in the Grave of Fairies trial too?"
"Usually," Xerxes answered, looking around for the stray cat. "Every time I've come to feed him, he's been here. Almost like he's expecting me to show up." He stared curiously at Lea, pondering over the questions. They seemed normal enough for conversation, but something about them was nagging at his mind.
CRASH!
The sound made Xerxes jump, the hair on his tail puffing out and his ears flattening back against his head. He blinked and looked for the source of the sound, which wasn't hard to find. On the ground behind Lea, the shards of a broken glass bottle lay scattered in a pool of milk. He stared at it before lifting his gaze to Lea. "Ah!" he let out a sharp cry. "Was that my fault? I'll go buy you another bottle!" He thought he could afford it. He tried to manage his allowance well and still had some saved up after buying some food for the stray cat.
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