robkelk Wrote:Zaphira/Arf?***
It was just a tiny little trickle. Fate barely noticed it at all to start, because it was so small. A lifetime ago, when she'd been younger, the drain would've been a noticeable impairment of her capability. But she was older, and much more efficient with her magic these days. She'd learned other ways to accomplish things than raw power, and her own capacity had naturally developed as she grew older. She wasn't the same little girl she had been back then.
Thus it was that it was only when she was noticeably winded after a particular training session that Fate glanced at her magical output to see where the extra drain was coming from.
And when she figured it out, she had to smile slightly.
***
"Oi, Zafira! Where are you?" Vita called out, looking around the house. "You were supposed to be helping with training!"
She blinked at the large, dusky skinned man who walked out of one of the hallways to meet her. Zafira'd been in his wolf form a lot lately, and truth be told, Vita had started to wonder if the old dog had forgotten he had a human form. "Oi. Where were you?"
"Stuck," he answered simply, walking on by her. "Is the training already over?"
"Yeah, it is. We managed to handle without you, even if Subaru had to be our test barrier rather than you. It's good for the kid. And stuck where?"
"None of your business," he said, just as simply, before walking upstairs, tail wagging lazily.
"...none of my business? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Vita wondered, before glancing over at the hallway he'd walked out of as Arf walked through, yawning....and using one of Hayate's robes that was, to say the least, not fitted for her current figure. "Mornin', Vita."
Vita's brain took in Arf's current figure, at least part of her brain marked "Repressed Issues With Physical Template" growling something uncharitable about over-endowed bitches. "...wha?"
"Oh, I guess it's mid-afternoon, isn't it?" Arf said, looking at the clock and stretching. The robe, had it been belted, would probably have been engaged in a colossal and Herculean task of trying to keep Arf's endowments in the areas demarcated by public decency. As Arf had neglected to bother with the belt, she simply flashed Vita without really meaning to.
"Bwha?" Vita replied, eloquently, as her brain began to catch up with the sequence of events that was going on and put them in proper sequence. "You..."
"Mmm?" the familiar asked, ear twitching curiously. "Whazzit?" she asked, turning around with a dog biscuit currently halfway through being snacked upon. Zafira chose this particular moment to come back down the stairs, having apparently finished whatever bizarrely quick shower he'd taken. Vita looked between the two, her brain popping as several years of pre-conceptions about her comrade and fellow Wolkenritter came down around her, not even noticing as the door opened behind her.
"Uh, Hayate? I think Vita broke," Arf said curiously, as Hayate looked at the two of them much as Vita had. Later, she'd make a mental note to chastise Fate for letting Arf suppress such a natural wonder, and ask if she still had any of her mother's notes on creation of familiars. For the moment, however, only one line came to mind as she looked over at Zafira, who was slightly worried by the amusement dancing in his master's eyes.
"Zafira, you dog!"
***
A little more humor, since the last two have been more serious/WAFF-laden. And really, given the stuff we see Fate up to in previous seasons when Arf's operating at full power, Loli-Arf is just a horrible waste for the explanation given.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."