It didn't take long for Momiji to insert himself into the vast network of the Hosenka hot springs & associates, though not many of the Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus guild members ... took to him. He was something of an acquired taste, and he hadn't had the attention to spend on his fellow mages in a way that would further inundate them to his whimsies. He had been too busy with his first friend made - a funny little beastie, ostensibly not appearing to belong with any of these like guilds, and therefore belonging to Momiji all the more.

A lady in the office base fielding adventurer requests was particularly enamored with the young, strange boy, someone in their years (and their cups) more easily entranced with the adorable foreign face Momiji wore. It was only half an act, all things considered, but fans of his theatre were friends of his. She was the one who slipped him a bounty request with a strange, slinky figure scrawled across it, delighting him with hushed tones and a wink of conspiracy that thrummed Momiji's little strings in the best way. Favoritism. He'd giggle all the way back to 'the Karstaag', prancing on his return and throwing himself in a twirl that linked with one of the dwarf's horns and spun him his full width. "Sta~ggy!"

He'd call, loud for how close he was. His tugging would even leverage them in the direction of their mark, the laughter behind his grin closing curtains on vibrant eyes to let his words speak their own colors. "Momo got a job ~ A job ~ A ʲᵒᵇ for ᵘ ˢ !"

"How is Staggy at beating up other beasties?" Lights sparked to life again and spotlit on the man. The Wizard of Oz and his great, bright face. "You're strong, right? Right? You're stronger? ₈ ₑ ₜ ₜ ₑ ᵣ?"

[ 330 ]

Karstaag did not collaborate with others often in the aftermath of his departure from the high seas. Long years as a lonesome wandering vagabond with no place to call his own, nor company that lasted longer than a few nights at best. Why then did the wayfaring dwarf linger in this place, in Hosenka? The answer came in the name of a tempest, incandescent viridian hue like fine emeralds gleaming from behind an unfathomable veil. It was a macabre fascination, atypical and abnormal to be so drawn towards a single treasure. "Mo~mo~"

Hands raise to seize a darling squall, rough fingers bound firmly around his waist to elevate the boy in a twirl - a swing aboard the merry carousel, as he clung so tightly to the dwarf's horns. His ears flit and fluttered at the first glimpse of the little princeling, with a hearty chuckle that intertwines perfectly into his intensity. An unruly resonance in their reunion after mere moments apart. "Wha's that, doll? Ya got a job do ya?" His molten eyes would follow the shift of his hands leading so excitably. The arch of his brow folds as he squints to look at the parchment with a hieroglyphic of some sort sketched upon it. It had a faint resemblance to a lizard, but the specifics didn't particularly matter to Karstaag. No, he wished to dwell and relish in the companionship of one he's come to enjoy so intimately. Staggy, as he was now known, wanted to spoil little Momo - to hear his new epithet drip from his lips with overabundant elation.

"Hmm... Old Staggy 'as been known ta beat up some other beasties from time ta time!" He rumbles a playful growl, wideset frame tensing his brawny arms to sweep Momo up and into his arms, feet dangling down to graze the floor as he's propped and embraced tightly. "Don' wor'y yer pret'y head, doll. Ye alrea'y know what a ferocious beastie ye 'ave~" A lecherous boast in the form of a promise - a vow to continue serving the princeling in all his affairs. Karstaag lowers the captive clutched so tightly in bestial paws, a frisky and mischievous wink to submerge smoldering lava before flashing a spirited grin. "Le's not forget what a good hunter you are are, eh, love~ Aye, yer real good at gettin' beasties~"

[399]

A glint of something dazzling beneath the night sky - beyond it if you looked too close, as the abyss that was Tachibana no Momiji stared right back until the atmosphere seemed to eat itself away. Making space for something far more encompassing. Oppressive. His words were so light for all the stones that weighed them, and the rock that was Karstaag weathered him with mirth & jolly. Momo liked it. Momo hated it. Momo『loved』it. "Staggy, Staggy ~ ♪" He continued to sing in his twirl until the dwarf was all but forced to take control of his body, giggling madly and throwing his arms around the other to squeeze tighter with every kick of his legs in the air. Even now he couldn't still.

"Mmh ... mhm! Mhm! A beastie for Momo and Staggy to ... kill!" His arms flung from the dwarf's horns and neck to splay out in the air, a victorious display for the forgone conclusion they had drawn. It was okay, wasn't it? It was okay, right? They were told to, so Momo could do whatever he wanted and Staggy couldn't get mad at him. He beamed directly into his eyes, letting his arms drop in a sudden fall that pointed with excitement in their target direction, leading Karstaag to the mark's last sighting in the hot springs; one building, abandoned for the help of adventurers, where the 'beastie' lay resting in its pool. "A good thing, hai, hai? Momo's ... helping!!" Another raucous motion, laughing loud enough to echo among the stars.

Then he wriggles in Karstaag's grasp just to run his face with slow bumps of his nose up the side of the other's, breathing too hot, too heavy against one of those large animal-like ears. "Hhhaa ... Momo's the bestest, Staggy ... but poor, poor Momo, too cute to fight." He'd about whine, airy on every tone to a wistful drawl. His speech still came stilted, popped through his lips with a pleading look. Then curiosity. "You look sooo strong ... are you stronger than Momo, Staggy?"

It was rhetorical. It had to be rhetorical, because there was cat's-eye in Momo's unwavering little gaze; the only thing about him not vibrating in the moment, tracing a lithe finger beneath that stout jaw. It was only a second before it flickered, sending him laughing again. "Off to adventure! Yay, yay ~ !"

[ 430 ]

A gasp, a gulp that consumes the blitheness that wholly penetrates the atmosphere. The cheerful melody of his nickname gliding, fluttering from those soft lips as the boy worships his horned crown with such affection. Karstaag was eroded by the whirlwind, gusts battering him, consuming him wholly in tempestuous love. Momo was the type to love absolutely and Karstaag consumed it absolutely. "Mmmm... I just adore the way ye sing me name, darlin'~" Reverb in the growl that slips from lips clenched so tight between his teeth. He stares down in reverence at the boy cradled so snugly in his arms, constricted in impassioned embrace with paws that take advantage of such vulnerable flesh. Eyes flash with a parched ache, spilling over into cheekbones that twitch under the strain of a smile cracking his exterior. Karstaag could eat him up. Right here, right now. But, business was business - pleasure would come later.  

"Aye, let's go kill the lit'le beastie..." Karstaag deprives himself from the harmonic discord of the princeling's laughter and vivid hydrangeas that gaze up at the dwarf so ardently, to follow the lead of his finger directing them to their objective. A jolly little hum that catches in his throat, echoes and pulses in the lift of his chest, heart thumping against Momo's frame. He lets out a hearty chuckle, blaring loudly to drown out the cacophony of nature beneath the vastness of night. "Momo is such'a good lad, aren'tcha?  Always helpin'. Good boy~" He'd coo his praise with a bestial rumble that colors the edges with a tinge of depravity. He coddles him so devoutly, coveting like the fine emerald he was.

Karstaag leans down to bake in heated breath, leaning into the dainty fingers that glided across his rough, bushy face, a playful nibble that lowers into a blistering kiss that sears pinkish lips - sunburnt from such torrid breaths. He devours Momo's elation - consumes it. "Alright, alright, love~ We got a job ta do now, aye! Ye lit'le cutie~" He'd release his little prince, fighting back all his uncouth urges, a gentle tap of his fingers against the boy's slender frame, eyes intensely burning with covetous desire. "Stick close ta yer Staggy, aye?" It was pointless to say, knowing full well that nothing could really control the little whirlwind if something struck his fancy in the moment. Karstaag swings the door open, the swivel of it hinges and the crash of wood upon an unseen boundary.

He trudges through the entrance, enveloped by silence and shadows alike, a hand gripping for his axe as he tilts his head to peek inside and then back around to Momo with a toothy grin. A hiss of a creature emerges from the abyss, warning the duo. "Le's get th' beastie so we can get paid an' go have some fun, aye, darlin?"

ᵐₒᵐₒ ᶦₛ ᵃ ₉ᵒₒᵈ ₆ᵒᵧ ツ!! Momiji was beside himself with certain lionization. He became almost as ferocious as the 'beastie' that carried him in such strong, coarse paws, let alone the wicked creature they were heading to slay. It was trapped in his heart. In every pound of his chest, aching through his throat smothered by gulps of air that came between every fit of manic laughter or keening noise the boy-creature made. His eyes were too bright. Their source was innocence and ecstasy, obsession, in inequal measure, alternating with every blink until his every gaze was smote anew. He flexed his fingers over the broad form of the dwarf, testing and teasing and trailing and grabbing through handfuls of beard or tufting ears or the source of that deep rumble; his chest, his teeth, his throat.

He wouldn't be the one to call order to their adventure. As Karstaag kissed him he'd 'surrender' with the claws of a vixen pulling the dwarf closer, giggling. He hooked him, kicking his feet free in the air. His every sound was a gasp, a squeal. "Ah, ah ~" Momiji chittered, rubbing his face back and forth to further entice his beastie until the older man's vestiges of self control won out. Only a pout in return. Momo had to reason he didn't want to miss the main event - the dwarf would still be here in the throes of the salamander's death. "Momo won't go anywhere." His look said between the lines: Karstaag couldn't get far from him, anyway.

"O ~ tay!", announced Momo, his hand having fished the gun from his holster somewhere in the apex of their little passion and hung it carelessly from a spry finger. He swung it back and forth across the boundary of the building they'd enter, leaving little room for sanctuary as the air dampened but the atmosphere stifled from the look in his eyes. They'd drag long and predatorially through the shadows until flaring orange-red met them back from the deep recesses of darkness, an ear twitching in response to the coming hiss.

This served to draw Momiji up somewhat, straightening in a rise that'd cast his eyes down through half-lids and argue their own brightness in turgid dark. Karstaag had taken his steps forward, but Momiji could hear a challenge in any language - even beasttongue. He'd reply in kind off the end of a maddened cackle, the brays of a hyena and the hiss of a palm-sized tiger, and then he'd be gone; the promise just made forgotten in lieu of the hunt, fading into the silence with grace. It was only the flash of his muzzle that gave him away some meters in the distance and to the side, sparking a true illumination in the room of the magic bullet that crashed into a screeching shape. It roared, tossing flames in a wide arc at both boys from the surprise and rage, further lightening their two shapes and the grin that had overtaken Momo's peculiar expression.

[ 532 ]

It was expected but perhaps not so suddenly. The echo of a hiss must have been a resounding provocation to Momo's wagging ears. A Pavlovian response to the very act of intimidation. It was the first shot fired to signal the beginning of the hunt, but surely not the last. No, it was only mere seconds in the wake of his invasion that the air was drowned in the cacophony of gunfire - an escalation of force by something more ferocious than the beast ever aspired to be. Momo was the apex predator cackling, heralding doom in his volatile dance of death. Karstaag loved this part of him; the purity of chaos. "Aye, I shoulda know better..." He shakes his head, bellowing a hearty laugh that lingers in the undertow of gunfire and hissing flame. "I really do adore ya, love... Staggy is comin'..." A hand clenches the hilt of his axe, a quick rotation of his shoulders before he braces for the storm, closing the door behind him so that there could be no escape for marked prey.

Molten eyes meet under the veil of darkness, a pained flicker interrupting the flow of flames in the salamander after taking a hit from Momo. Reality must have started to sink in for the creature. It lashes out, a spike in its ferocity in defiance of its inevitable end. A gooey ember spits from its mouth, emitting a glare that spotlights the silhouettes of each predator in the belly of the beast. It misses its mark, splattering against the wall behind Karstaag, the sizzle of bile and smoldering heat boring a hole in the wall that permits a bit more light. "Aye, darlin', I'm gonna go in fer a swing o' me axe!" A huff, and growl in his decree, bestial and reveling in the hunt.

Little hobbles of his legs as he carries his bulky frame towards the creature that had diverted its attention towards the cackling tiger once more. The clang of steel on fine marble floors litters the quiet chords of death. His eyes would pierce the nebulous blackness, shining vividly through the nebulous blackness until he encroached on the monster that dwelled within it. A hefty swing of his axe and the clash that followed in its outcome. The salamander hisses and thrashes about, the spray of its blood staining steel and splattering the floor alike. It was a light wound, a grazing cut along its indiscernible shape. Karstaag staggers, wincing in pain in the exchange of blows as bubbling ichor percolates out of the gash in his armor. "Ack, bloody bastard got me...!" He curses through his teeth but laughs all the same. The pain was an afterthought, just another scar to chisel his rough hide, meaningless and all too familiar to bother with.

The salamander had wrestled itself away from the dwarf's clutches for now, but it still had nowhere to go and there was little refuge to find in the shade now while hunted by two. "It's hurt, love. Don' let it scurry off..." A twisted smile overlaps the twitch of pain, a snarl in the enkindling.

[526]