Time with Friends (Levia)

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

The grandfather clock's pendulum swung to and fro, the librarian keeping a keen eye on the Prinnies that had no doubt invited themselves after Sophia and Princess Parfait told them about it. How the demons of another world managed to come here to Levia so freely, he wasn't sure, but he didn't mind too much. At least, not yet. They seemed to be goofing off more than they were reading: spinning in place, making faces at each other, falling asleep. Only three seemed to do any active reading: one in a yellow scarf, oggling at a Sports Illustrated magazine; another in a suit and shades, turning the pages of a massive calculus book frantically and writing down notes on a piece of paper; and one that... well, she didn't look like a penguin, but she had a magical girl-esque uniform, complete with a jacket and hat that looked much like a Prinny's... hide.

 She was pretty engrossed in her book about animal anatomy. Xavier could only guess she was about 16, just from looks alone. Guessing her true age, if she was a prinny like the others, would be more difficult. She seemed to be enjoying herself as much as the others, so he didn't bother interupting her. Instead, he turned his attention towards the Vegas brochure he got from Alex and Sarah, enjoying the pretty pictures of neon lights and giant casinos.

 For a brief moment, he smiled before he heard the door open, and two really familiar voices.

 "Eeeeee, is this the place? It's huge! Gloria would love it in here! Oh, I can't wait to tell Xavier about Shelby and Manhattan and all the food we baked for him and-"

 "Sarah, one thing at a time! I'm a bit concern about parking the Cossack Catcher outside; everybody is staring at it... I think they're convinced it's some sort of demon."

 "Oh no! We'll just have to explain about that later! But hurry, hurry, I don't want him to eat the cookies we baked all cold! Nothing's worse than a really cold cookie.

...Unless it's cookie dough ice cream! Yum~! Ooh, I think I see him over there!"

 Before Xavier could even blink, books were moved off his desk as baskets full of cookies, wrapped in plastic and tied up, were plopped on. The kind white mage and her paladin companion, Sarah and Alex Triden, left more gifts than he'd ever imagined. Ursula above, just how many baskets of baked goods did they have? Three, four, five...

 "Hiiiii, Xavier!" Sarah said cheerfully as she set down a sixth basket, this time with brownies. "We brought you a lot of food, since we made a lot!"

 "And by a lot," Alex added with a tinge of embarassment, "we mean a lot. We kind of went overboard with baking, and before we knew it, we were wrapping it up and decided to visit. Sorry for dropping by without so much a warning."

 Xavier oggled at all the gifts before saying in a quiet voice, "O-oh, don't worry, don't worry at all! And thank you for all the gifts, although I don't think I could possibly eat them all..."

 "You could always eat a few a day," said Alex as his mage friend opened up a bag of chocolate chip cookies and took a small bite out of one. "But nevermind that! How have you been, Xavier?"

 "Never better, I suppose." Nibble, nibble. Chew, chew. "I still haven't found Envy's whereabouts yet, and so recovering the artifacts will be harder than I thought..." Another bite as his mouth twisted into a frown. "I was hoping to recover them sooner rather than later, but alas... I've also been looking into Vegas a little, since it does have a reputation for being called 'Sin City'..."

 Alex shook his head with a smile as Sarah wandered around the library for a few moments to pick books off the shelves. "Haven't changed a bit, have you?" he asked. "Duty always on the mind, never taking a moment to relax."

 The mage crossed his arms, looking rather cross for a moment before sighing and slumping down onto his desk. "I-I-I guess. It's my fault that the artifacts were stolen, and I have to get them back, before... before..."

 "Don't worry!"  Sarah, returning with cookbooks about baking monster-sized cakes, couldn't help but pipe up."We'll help you find them, and even if they do do something awful with them, we'll just set them straight! That's how we've always done it, even back in 2011, right Alex?"

 "Definitely!" the tiny knight agreed, pumping his fist up in the air. "There was a lot of action in 2011, and we handled it all pretty well, even if some of it was pretty dreadful! Although..." The knight put a finger to his chin, puzzled, as he added, "I'm not quite sure if we solved the mystery of just why that sheep made a mess of my apartment..."

 "Oh, yeah! That reminds me: Xavier, we never told you about the super evil guy, the Lord! He was the worst, almost on par with Pestus! Maybe even worse! He kept bothering us and corrupted people and-"

 "Didn't it take the great efforts of WALL to help take him down?"

 "Yeah, before he got defeated by the power of friendship~!"

 Xavier stared at the two in shock, shamelessly whacking away the prinnies that caught sight of the cookie gifts and attempted to sneak them away. "G...go back for a moment: What did you say about a wall defeating this ultimate evil?"

 And so, both white mage and tiny knight worked together to explain just how exactly the Lord showed up and made life pretty horrible in Manhattan 3 years ago, and explained just what happened in that fateful fight. Xavier listened intently to their talk, even as they sometimes veered off topic and spoke of different adventures that happened in 2011, and even went on to talk about Zoofights itself, the main reason they were all drawn to Manhattan. The prinny girl caught wind of it and sat close to the couple and their friend, swinging her legs back and forth as she followed along. Soon enough, they had a crowd of prinnies listening in about Jonesy and Erebus, Sine and Zephyrus, Oceanus and Widow Maker, and many, many more of the old guard Kobbers that protected Manhattan from harm.

 When their tales ended, Sarah said with glee, "And now, everybody else carries on the tradition of beating up baddies and hanging out every six months, from May to October! We're all gonna meet up again next May in Vegas, and we're gonna same thing, and we're gonna have a ton of fun!"

 "And it may be best to get as much rest and relaxation now," said Alex, "It becomes terribly hectic during the season, and we'll be dealing with more than just the Sins. I doubt they'll do anything so soon after Pestus was dealt with." And with a smile, he added, "So don't worry, alright, Xav?"

 Xavier opened his mouth to protest, but he closed it quickly. Hard to argue against any of that. Instead, he contented himself by nibbling on another cookie. The idiot hair couple smiled  for a moment before they could hear distinct yelling outside. Before the trio could react, some of the prinnies waddled towards the windows, taking a peek outside.

 One such prinny turned to the group, flailing about and saying, "Doods! Doods! We just saw a dragon! A huge, black dragon! Like, dood, that's rarer than finding a Lugia!"

 Xavier and Alex turned to each other, both pale as a sheet. Noticing this, Sarah couldn't help but ask, "Um, you guys? You look like ghosts! What's wrong?"

 The two exchanged glances and started whispering in each other's ear, ignoring the pink prinny girl that leaned in to listen. When they were done, it was Xavier who spoke out loud first.

 "U-Um.... Sarah? You know how in many cultures, a black cat is bad luck?"

 "Yeah, although I don't see why. They're so cute! I think Antoniette has one..."

 "Well," Alex spoke nervously, his idiot hair drooping like a sad flower, "black dragons are kind of like that for us, since they're so rare... "

 "Usually, they stick to the shadows... caves and stuff. To see that one is active and outside..."

 Sarah and the Prinny girl tilted their head simultaneously, confused. Alex and Xavier paused for a moment before they spoke in unison with fear in their voice.

 "Something's wrong, and we're going to find out about it, one way or another!"