Beneath the promising morning sun, on an unnamed Magnolia sidewalk, with spirits momentarily subdued only in anticipation, the dust woman, a cripple craving to experience all life had to offer, fixed to run.  Not until she had witnessed every tiny miracle and memorable detail in this city would Fleo cease her daily tours.  After making sure her bandages and headrag were tight enough to discourage the wind from snatching them, Fleo bunched up and took off.  Unlike most city-runners, whose utmost aim was to conserve energy during their job, Fleo never ran at anything less than full tilt.  Naturally, this frenetic pace posed some hazard to pedestrians, but on the third day of the sorceress's stay in Magnolia the everyday commuters were already learning to work around her.  In a city that played host to the grandest guild in Fiore, the townsfolk had adapted to the everyday strangeness that ran amok through their streets everyday, and many felt pride for the eccentricity that only their city could feature.

Nevertheless, Fleo felt anxious to leave the cobblestone, marble, and clay behind her.  However controlled her sprint and however adaptive the civilians, she yet preferred the solitude and freedom of mobility offered by the shingled sea of roofs.  On the first day, ascending to this less-traveled level proved tricky, but only two days turned out to be sufficient for Fleo to get a feel of how to move in the town.  Today, she rounded a corner, barreled beneath an arch, and dashed headlong into a dead-end alleyway, startling a gray-muzzled mutt dozing in the shade.  [color=C2B280]“Funjin Bakuhatsu!”[/color] she shouted at the bricks, echoing off them and persuading the dog to leave.  A ball of condensed dust materialized in Fleo's palm, which was lobbed and subsequently stuck to the wall.  The dusty woman pushed off her legs, loosening their composition ever-so-slightly to achieve some extra spring, and soared up to where the bomb adhered.  Her feet made contact on either side of it, and she pushed off it.  What came next, the daredevil knew, expected to be quite a risk, and it thrilled her.  [color=C2B280]“Haha ha!”[/color]  Fleo snapped her fingers and the dust orb burst with concussive force, sending her flying in an arc out of the alleyway and across the street, whooping all the while.  To her astonishment as much as that of any onlookers, Fleo landed upright on the roof of a furniture store, and after a moment spent appreciating her own daring stunt, she took off again, feet pounding across building after building until the roof she stood on was her home.

Any other day would have seen her drop lackadaisically from the roof to the ground, casually letting her dust legs absorb an impact that would crush the bones of normal humans, but today marked a new routine.  Construction had begun on the guild's third floor, so it was the easiest thing in the world to literally drop in on the second floor.  The particular room into which Fleo descended, she was proud to know, was her own.  When Master Jamie had offered a temporary room until the new apartments were completed, Fleo had jumped at the chance.  Already she had become quite attached to her cozy little niche, filling it with her belongings at random.  Nothing screamed home more than a mess.  With the thin layer of dust coating most of her possessions, the room seemed as if it had been lived in for months.  Pausing only to grab her coat, Fleo left her room and headed to the guild's first floor, curious as to what the day might bring.  Hopefully she wouldn't be sparring with Damian again; without magic (that is, without any more magic than her arms and legs, which she had successfully disguised by feigning appropriate pain when hit) there could be no hope for her.  With Damian so demoralizingly good at it, she quickly lost the will to continue.  There would never be a time that Fleo would fight without magic, that much she knew for certain.  Plus, she had spotted Damian running around Magnolia at the same time as she, which somewhat detracted from her own individual experience.  The obvious fact that he ran as part as a routine, and not a free-run like Fleo, succeeded in consoling her.

When she reached the ground floor, she waved cheerily at James, mimed punching a fire wizard named Raghu in the face, and performed a double take.  The sight of Karn in a dress, Candy stealing a hunk of his cake, and Trinity petting his head like she would a pet, nearly overloaded Fleo's brain.  Wide eyed, she walked stiffly and swiftly to join one person whose sanity she was fairly certain of.  Her overly-dramatic shocked expression remained as she seated herself beside Felix.  A couple of seconds passed before she found her voice.  [color=C2B280]“Sometimes it can be hard to tell if this place is a wizard guild or a looney bin.  Next thing you know people will start saying that there's such a thing as [i]magic[/i]!”[/color]  She screwed her eyebrows up in a mock expression of horror, then flashed a toothy, silly smile.  It then vanished, replaced by her usual, easygoing brightness.  [color=C2B280]“Hey, wanna grab breakfast someplace?  I saw this sweet pancake shop on the way here.  Well, actually, I didn't see it—just smelled it as I ran across the roof.  I'll bet it's hella good though.”[/color]