~ 1x1 with HoleyPaladin [M]

[Owl0430]

As the kitsune passed through the wall between dreams, she reflected on her behavior during her previous, numerous hours spent in the waking world. The first thing she noted was that she needed to seem more grateful to Heinrich for saving her life- twice. Besides.. though he likely did take a peek at her bathing form, as any man likely would, akira highly doubted it was intentionally- at least, not at first anyways. Therefore, if he had seen anything, she couldn't be angry for that. Truly though she was grateful that he had chosen to save her life again, even if it cost her her modesty. After she got over that thought, she moved to her next thought; why had she asked Heinrich not to let her ears or tails exactly? Oh, wait, never mind, that was it. Though it felt good, she didn't like being treated like an animal- though, reflecting on it, he likely didn't mean it in that way... and again, it was a rather pleasant sensation.. so maybe she'd allow it.


Another thought came to mind- he had mentioned bathing.. together... for safety. While She understood the reasoning, and it was logical, she just didn't feel comfortable with the idea. The only ones who should be able to see that much of her would be herself and if she was to ever marry someone. Then again, depending on how much he had seen earlier, was there even anything to hide at this point? Still, if it ever came down too it, she'd want a curtain of sorts between them.
Though she couldn't deny to herself she was attracted to him, though she would still get to know more about him and would want to be in less of a life or death situation before she'd even consider acting on the feelings. Though from what she knew, what wasn't to like? He was kind, attractive, and he seemed caring, as well as strong. The more instinct driven part of her also determined that if it ever came down too it, he'd be a wise choice in partner and likely a good father to any children.

It was then she finally looked up and took in her surroundings. It appeared to be a classroom of sorts. However she couldn't pick out who the dreamer was... none of their energies fit that of a dreamer. However, looking at the other females of different races in the room, she inspected the outfits carefully. Gosh, was that really how students of these kind of schools dressed? Wait... it was a dream. She was one of those students at the moment. Praying her conclusion was wrong, she felt the skirt of her outfit and had to suppress a noise of worry. However, she failed to realize the worst part was yet to come.

The worst part was when she finally discovered who the dreamer was. At first, all she heard was his voice. Then she seen his face a hoped it was a long lost twin. However, it was Heinrich. And he was the dreamer, as she could tell from the spiritual energy he was giving off- non dreamer characters didn't give off spiritual energy due to not having an actual physical form. Therefore not truly existing in the waking world. Hissing underneath her breath, a heavy flush made its way to her face due to the outfit. The skirt barely reached the middle of her thighs, and the top was rather tight for her
Preference .

Well, on the bright side, maybe this was a chance to get to know him better. As long as he didn't realize it was actually her in his dream, not just a look-a-like of her in the dream. Though she wished her ability was advanced enough to use dreamscaping. Anyways, if her presence was realized or not depended on him. She had gotten in, so she had been welcomed into the dream. The only question was if it had been Heinrich's subconscious or not. Even if it was though he was smart and could figure it out. ' just got to hope for the best' she thought.

[Holeypaladin]

Standing aside to allow Archmage Lasauar to take over the class, the eyes of Heinrich drifted over the assembled students, admiring some of the more attractive girls in the class. Naturally, his eyes drifted over the pretty kitsune, able to see a bit more of her figure thanks to the apprentice robes. As he was looking at her and thinking, the setting of the dream morphed into an outdoor scene, with Akira, Heinrich, and several of the students now at the entrance to a combat arena.

What was most remarkable wasn't necessarily the arena itself, but the city surrounding them. It was built on an island which soared high in the clouds, with endless sky just beyond the horizon. Being closer to the sun, the temperature was quite a bit higher than that on the surface world, which explained the shortened apprentice outfits along with the other fashionable attire for teens and young women. Essentially, the standards for modesty were much different in this city than in Akira's kingdom.

The teacher had changed as well, and was now a knightly figure much like Heinrich himself. "For your first combat in the Arena, we'll be pairing new students with more experienced warriors," the instructor was saying. "Heinrich, pick a first year mage to support you in the pairs competition."

At the words of the teacher, Heinrich's eyes scanned the students and settled on the kitsune. A smirk crossed his face. "Akira," he said. "I choose you." Waving for her to follow him, he began to approach the gates of the arena, pausing someone before entering. "This is the Imperial City," he explained to her. "In the Arcane Knight program, we all had to achieve an A rank in the Arena ranking system in order to meet graduation requirements. Fights aren't fought to the death, but since this is a dream, you can't exactly be hurt anyway. Ready to play?" His words betrayed the fact that he had not only come to realize that this was a dream, but also the fact that Akira had been drawn into it through a sort of Oneiromancy.

[Owl0430]

Looking around at the setting, it wasn't long before she had to watch as the setting shifted. Now they appeared to be on a floating island of sorts. It looked.. quite different than what she was used too. Not a bad different, just .. an interesting different. Everything from plantlife to architecture was different. Though she was startled by the lands ideas on what was modest.

It was in the moment she was frowning at the length of the skirt again that she heard Heinrich speak. Instantly she blushed slightly, due to her outfit. " hmm.. it appears you've realized i'm actually here, and that this is a dream. I giveyou credit, your dream is interesting, but.. really? Must the skirt be so short? Anyways, it's your fault i'm In your dream to begin with, you're the one who let me in. Though you don't seem to be complaining. "

Akira then smirked, her pupils going to fox-like slits. " I'm indeed ready for a fight. Sense it's a dream i'm not bound by the restrictions I have in the waking world. Meaning I can go all warbeast on this arena without the need for a catalyst. Nor will I feel my fatigue from reality. It's been a long time sense I've been able to achieve my warbeast form."

Smiling she placed an eager hand on his shoulder. " if it's a fight you want, a fight you shall recieve. We may be mainly mischievous, but like anyone we crave a fight every now and then. "

[Holeypaladin]

Listening as the fox confirmed his own intuition and spoke to him, the knight nodded as she spoke to him. "One of the lessons they teach at that school is the dangers of oneiromancy and uninvited guests within your dreams. I must have subconsciously invited you in... normally my dreams are warded against hostile creatures such as night mares, also known as succubi." Smirking at her comment regarding the skirt, he simply shrugged and said, "It looks good on you, though. Plus it helps deal with the heat, somewhat. Plus it's not like any real people can see you except for me."

He chuckled as she spoke of her readiness to fight, giving a nod of approval. "That's the spirit..." he remarked. "But even still, having a supply of catalyst on hand would be quite normal for a student in this sort of training environment. Check that reagent pouch on your belt... it should be full of the stuff." Placing his hand over hers as she put it on his shoulder, he remarked, "We're on the same team, silly. Our opponents are over there."

Entering the arena, he pointed over to the opposite gate, where two elf siblings were preparing to fight them. "Two elves... a knight and an archer," he pointed out. "Brother and sister, most likely.... but can you tell which is the male and which is the female?" It wasn't exactly an easy thing to determine, as the male elf was incredibly pretty and could quite easily pass for a female, especially from far away. "I'll charge in, you roast them with sorcery." With that, Heinrich conjured forth a shield which hovered in front of him without having to be held in his hand, deflecting an arrow that the archer fired in his general direction while he used his Foundry circuit to conjure forth a polearm and charged. The elf knight placed herself between him and the archer in order to defend her brother, which was exactly what Heinrich wanted, as it put the elves on the defensive.

[Owl0430]

" hm... nightmares? You might have to teach me your trick to getting rid of those. " She stated solemnly before continuing. " yes, I have the ability to enter the dreamscape of others, but i can only do so if i'm welcomed in, the dreamer is unaware of my invasion, or if they are too weak to fight me off. Unfortunately my abilities aren't yet advanced enough to dreamscape. I cannot change aspects of dreams, or script them. " though the kitsune blushed at his comment about the outfit. " thank you, but your flattery is unnecessary. I am already quite aware of your opinion on the outfit. You really need to get better at your poker face, Heinrich. You are quite terrible at hiding your opinions. As well, there are ways to deal with the heat besides the short skirt."


Listening to his words quietly, she indeed checked the reagent pouch, thrilled to see a few foxglove blossoms. Picking one up, she held it right up to his face. " remember this flower, Heinrich. Keep an eye out for them in the waking world. " taking down the flower Akira spoke again. " of course i know i'm not fighting you. I'm not a small minded toad."

As they entered the arena, first thing she did was analyze the opponent. So these were elves? Interesting. Heinrich must've had fun, getting to hang around and spare against so many different races. " hmm.. the archer is female, correct?" She mused. Afterwards she nodded, pulling a few petals of the foxglove flower and eating them. " let us do this. Though, my apologies if for some reason I frighten you. We are called war beast in this form for a reason " she spoke before closing her eyes, a spiral of fire engulfing her. Once it dissipated, in Akira's place was a large, two-tailed fox with black fur, much larger than Heinrich himself. the ends of its tails and ears silver, with a few gold markings on its face and shoulders. One eye was silver, the other gold, but both pupils were no more than slits watching as Heinrich battled , she eventually jumped in, using her ice ability to cover he ground beneath her opponent to hinder their mobility.She however dug in her claws as she ran, aiming a sphere at the archer.

[Holeypaladin]

"There's a common misconception about nightmares... most people will consider and bad dream to be a nightmare," the knight explained to the kitsune's remark about nightmares. "A true night mare is a type of demon... a seductress who feeds on impure desires in men. There's an incubus variant as well, which preys on pure young maidens instead. So long as you stay in my dreams, they should leave you alone, however," he added somewhat jokingly, unaware of the sort of dreams the girl had been having prior to entering his own.

"Is there a reason I should be dishonest with my opinions?" the knight remarked, though he found her blush to be quite adorable, taking it as a sign that she did appreciated the flattery despite her claim that it was unnecessary. He looked at the flower and frowned. "You are aware that we'll most likely forget this dream a half hour after I wake up, right? That's how it is with most dreams, at least..." Smirking as she was able to identify which elf was female, he said, "You cheated and used your nose, didn't you?"

Her warnings about frightening him proved unnecessary, however, as he showed no visible reaction to her transformation and focused on the fight at hand. The elf knight was using a traditional sword and shield style of combat, which was effective on the defense, but limited her reach to the extend that he needn't worry about her posing much more of an annoyance.

The archer, however, soon began to imbue his arrows with arcane magic... and while an ordinary arrow stood no chance of penetrating his armor, one imbued with elemental energies could prove to be quite dangerous, should it manage a direct hit. His shield deflected another arrow, and while he appreciate the patch of ice that formed at the feet of the knight, the elf girl proved to be quite agile and soon slid off of it and back on to solid ground. She even managed to block the sphere of energy that the kitsune had directed towards her brother, intercepting it with an impressive display of elven reflexes.

Heinrich delivered a heavy blow to the elf girl's shield, strong enough to stagger her with the sheer force behind it, before spinning away and twirling the polearm, impacting the back of the archer's legs and sweeping him off his feet. Once again attempting to protect the archer, the knight recovered from the smack to her shield and rushed directly at Heinrich. "Shochraos," he incanted a simple spell in the Draconic language, striking the shield once more with the tip of his polearm and sending a jolt of electricity through the knight, yet her armor seemed to be magically warded against electricity and perhaps other elements as well, so the shocking magic had no visible effect on her... except to keep her attention focused on him rather than on the kitsune.

[Owl0430]

The fox frowned as he spoke of night mates and incubi, staring at the ground in silence. Well... hopefully he wouldn't mind a nightly visiror..or remember her visrations. She didn't want Heinrich to get a mostly wrong idea. She just... mostly didn't want to keep having the night terrors she was having.

" yes, I am quite aware of the fact we shall forget most of the dream, but sometimes one can remember bits and pieces. Hopefully this flower shall make a big enough impact you shall remember it ." Though, if there was time after the fight before they awoke, she wouldn't mind giving Heinrich a hug, though hopefully he wouldn't remember she let her feelings show if she did. " yes, I did. Though had I not the guy would've been quite hard to tell apart. I wish he was real though, he is quite pleasing to the eye.

As the fight went on, she noted how the elves were mainly focused on Heinrich. Yes, he was attacking more, but it still irritated her, as if they thought she didn't pose a threat. However, as one of the arcane-infused arrows almost struck Heinrich before he swept the archer of his feet, she noticed an opening. Growling, she cast ice shards through the air before using her fire to turn them to steam, forming a smoke screen of sorts. Afterwards she took a leap over to the archer, picking the elf up in her jaws. She held him tightly enough to prevent the use of the bow, but loosely enough as not to hurt him- granted he was smart enough not to wriggle about too much.

Keeping the archer in her jaws, she stood in a defensive stance, watching the knight with caution,,prepared for fight or flight. Though, something about the sword and shield reminded her of the kings men, and her near death experience, causing her to growl again, but lower, more hostile.

[Holeypaladin]

The fact that the kitsune had said that the elf archer was pleasing to the eye somehow made Heinrich want to pummel him all the harder despite the fact that the knight was the bigger threat in this case, though this ultimately proved unnecessary as the kitsune used a creative combination of fire and ice to create a fog cloud that allowed her to pounce on the unsuspecting elf. As he was picked up in her jaws, he was considered "dead" since the fox could have easily chomped him in half rather than carrying him lightly, meaning the knight was the only threat remaining.

It was actually quite brilliant of the elf girl to consider Heinrich to be the bigger threat... normally, a war beast form of a kitsune would draw quite a bit more attention than a man, but the girl knew enough about kitsunes to realize that she only had two tails, indicating she was on the low end of the power spectrum for her kind, and enough about knights to realize Heinrich was an Arcane Knight in training... though in truth, he had since graduated from training and this dream was more of a recollection of his academy days.

The angry growl of the kitsune wasn't lost on him, but the knight went ahead and said, "I'll take care of the elf," appraising her as she charged with her shield held high to protect herself from his polearm. Rather than using the polearm, however, he released it and instead grappled the elf girl by her shield and brought her down to the ground. Once he had a hold of her, her superhuman agility was useless and he was able to use his superior physical strength to overpower the girl, soon gripping her into a submission hold which he held until he was determined to be the winner of the fight.

Standing up, he looked over to the fox girl. "Let's go on a date," he said. Now that he was aware of the fact that he was dreaming, he could control the direction of the dream in a way, and the surroundings shifted to a different scene, restoring Akira to her two legged form and providing her with another outfit... of civilian fashion, this time, suitable for a date and still just as revealing as the civilian fashions the other girls in town were wearing.

"You like fried tofu?" he guessed, offering the girl an arm. "You'll want to stay close and hold on so we don't get separated. The streets are crowded and there's no telling what lurks outside of my own perception. Some of my subconscious includes things you definitely don't want to see." He had heard something about fried tofu being a kitsune's favorite food before, though he supposed it didn't necessarily apply to all kitsunes, and didn't want to make up Akira's mind for her if there was something she preferred more.

[Owl0430]

The fox looked between Heinrich and the elf knight angrily, a sort of inner rage showing in her eyes. As Heinrich said he'd take care of the other elf, she growled in protest, but in the end reluctantly obliged, lying down and dropping the elf archer, keeping a paw over his chest though.

However, heinrich's choice of words after the battle left her dumbfounded. Not entirely because she may or may not find him attractive, but more or less due to his choice of words.. and of her clothing. Though she pouted a bit as she glanced at her now humanesque form, missing the feeling of power that came with the war beast form, though the pupils of her eyes still remained slits, as she was still on guard from the battle. " hmph... yes, i'm rather fond of fried tofu...." she stated, examining her clothing . The skirt was too short for her liking, and the lillac colored top, as pretty and soft as she though the article of clothing to be, cut too low for her preference.
" be warned right now my eyes are upon my face. Should I catch you looking elsewhere, I promise you I will turn you in to charcoal."


She then listened to him quietly as he spoke of not getting lost in the crowd. " honestly, what could be so bad in your dreams that could frighten me more than my own night terrors? You underestimate my will and my experience in the horrors of life and dreams." She stated with a frown, shuddering at the recollection of what she had been dreaming about prior too arriving in heinrich's dream.


She had to admit though he couldn't of chosen a better location . The scenery was breathtaking, at least to her. The city was much more advanced than anything she had ever heard of, let alone seen with her own eyes.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight nodded, taking hold of Akira's hand and squeezing it gently as he began to lead her through the crowded streets. "I know a place you might like, then," he remarked, weaving his way through the rather confusing looking streets in a familiar manner. He smirked somewhat as she suggested looking elsewhere, thinking up another way to interpret those words in a different way than she had intended. "You don't want me to look at other girls?" he remarked. "You don't need to worry, though... these girls are all figments from my memory... you're the only real girl here."

Frowning as she mentioned her own difficulties in life and dreams, the knight commented, "If there's one thing I've learned... it's that no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse. Best not to tempt such things... but if your dreams are so troublesome, you can just chill in mine from now on." Glancing around the crowd, he noted several other couples walking together, sometimes hand in hand, other times arm around the waist, and so on. While there were plenty of same-species couples, there were also several noteworthy mixed couples.

"On our free days, everyone would go out on dates in the city," he explained to the fox. Nodding in the direction of the elf archer from earlier, on an obvious date with a small male with fairy wings who was under five feet in height, he added, "Those types of relationships are common and accepted among elves as a sort of population control measure. The academy girls had a strange fascination with 'yaoi' as they called it, which I never understood, personally."

Passing by several other couples, Heinrich noted the elf knight from earlier had a much smaller and more slender figure without her armor, and was on a date with a much older looking human male who had to have been an instructor rather than a student. There was also a neko on a date with another male human, along with a wizard surrounded by no fewer than three adorable bunny-eared girls who couldn't keep their hands off of him. Coming from such a background, it was no surprise that Heinrich saw nothing wrong with the same sort of relationship with a kitsune as some of the other mixed couples shared.

"Here it is," he said, leading her in to a building emanating the scent of exotic foods. "This is called a restaurant... it's like an inn or pub, but a bit more fancy, and without the option to rent rooms for the night." He didn't think restaurants exited yet in Akira's own kingdom, but inns and pubs most certainly did, so they were a close comparison. As he showed her into the room, an exotic foreigner in a kimono bowed forward at the waist and showed them to a table.

Pulling out a chair for the kitsune, Heinrich sat across the table from her and showed her the menu. "You pick a food item from the menu and they'll prepare it for you in the kitchen and bring it out for you. I figured you might like that dish called 'kitsune udon'." The kitsune udon he was referring to consisted of wheat noodles and fried tofu in a dashi based soup sauce. He had secretly always wanted to take a kitsune to a restaurant that served kitsune udon, for obvious reasons.