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[color=gray][h2]Kage[/h2][/color][/center]

After her, admittably interesting, conversation with Jack, Kage wandered outside. She had a couple of errands to run, but they would be quick. The reward from her last job had been quite heafty; she was going on a shopping spree. First, she headed to a tailor to have a few holes in her clothing mended, then to a cobbler to get a new pair of shoes, for her old ones had worn out. From there, she stopped by a book store and picked up some new books, then she wound her way back to the guild to pay rent for staying there. Why she didn’t do that first, was because she simply didn’t want to.

Now she found herself with both ample time and money. Then again, time was something she never found herself in short supply of. She wandered about the city, getting to know the layout, and checking anything that seemed mildly interesting. She was also curious as to why the whole town seemed to be wrapped up in the excitment for the upcoming S class trials. What was the big deal? She wondered. 

Listening to people was a hobby of hers. Listening was different from listening. Then people lisened, they hear things. When people Listen, they understand things. While the difference was not immediately obvious, Kage found that when she Listened, life was generally more interesting. Listening is a knack. A knack that not many people seem to understand. It involves closing one’s mouth, and opening their mind. In her experience, people did the opposite. They open their mouths and close their minds. 

Of course, if everyone Listened, then silence would be the only thing heard, redering Listening pointless. What a conundrum.

As Kage slipped around town like an errant shadow, she Listened. Most of what she heard was the usual small minded talk. What the waether would be like, who was cheating on who, old men complained about easy people had it these days and the general day to day talk of a town. But here and there were fragments of interesting information. A man who went missing a month ago, then showed up in the same clothing he disappeared in, completely unchanged, claiming he had only been out for minute. A supposed dragon sighting three hundred kilometers west of there, the candy shop off a cetain back street had the best sweets. Fascinating things, even the small minded talk. Every story was like a fragment of a larger Story, pieces to a infinite number of puzzles, that were in turn piece that fit into an infinite puzzle. Who is to say what all the pieces, once assembled, would look like? Kage supposed that it was not for her to know.

Presently, it seemed that a whole crowd of people were gathering in the center of town. Kage checked her shadow. It was about time for the announcement. Out of idle curiosity, she sidled towards the throng. On her way there, she noticed Guildmaster Arianna gliding through the sky. What would it be like to fly? She wondered. Why was man to crawl along the face of the ground? To experiment, Kage decided that she was walking along the fuzzy green roof of an endless blue abyss. She bent over and stood on her hands to hold on for dear life. What a amazing point of view. People walked on the green sky above, while birds fell sideways through the blue ground below. The whole sky seemed to funnel into the sun, as if anything that fell would be consumed by its heat. She swung that way to the edge of the upside down crowd, in the shadow of a great oak stalactite, so she would be within earshot. After all that effort, she didn’t want to miss anything terribly important.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like it was. The guild masters made some announcements, amazingly unaware of the impending fall below them. The people cheered, and Kage watched a balloon have the sense to break loose and fall. The balloon, at least, knew which was was down. Unlike all the obvious people walking on the ceiling.