Sia had to admit, making a horrible first impression on a guild she had admittedly looked up to as a child wasn't exactly her favorite part of the day. Nor was how only only moments after Gideon's "friendly" offer of his hand Sia's attention was stolen by the gasps of startled pedestrians and a rather loud thud. She- and several of their little group- turned just enough to see Cross sprawled backwards across the ground in a rather unflattering position.

'That's one...' she commented mentally.

There was a running bet in the guild that Cross's stupidity was the sole result of how many times he'd been flying into something. Sia honestly believed it. His current record- jobs excluded- was nine times in one day.

"Really, do we have to claim him?" she heard Oren demand under his breath.

"Unfortunately," she muttered in response, no real insult meant in her words. "It'd be a crime to sick him on someone else, we'd probably be arrested."

Oren snorted, drawing a half-smile to Sia's lips. At that same moment, Cross drew himself dramatically to his feet, clutching his chest in exaggerated pain.

"You sure pack some power behind that magic, huh?" he called out, that ever present grin on his face. "I knew I picked the best of the bunch!"

Fried- who'd been looking relieved at the distance now between him and Cross- looked considerably unhappy with this declaration. Rather than grace it with a response, however, he turned on a heel and started for where the majority of the two teams stood. Evergreen's amused expression was aimed in his direction as the man approached, one brow cocked questioningly.

"Making friends?"

If looks could kill, she would have dropped right there. Bixlow, having only been a few feet behind Fried, began laughing as a response. It was a rather unsettling sight, the man's hole tongue becoming visible through the action. Sia shuttered sightly; Oren looking no more pleased by the sight than herself.

"As Evergreen said," Laxus commented, easily ignoring the strange puppeteer. "You're not needed. We can handle the job ourselves."

"Wait," Bixlow cut in, his laughter suddenly stopping as a wide, just as unsettling grin crossed his face. "Don't be hasty, Laxus! This could be fun!"

"Fun, fun, fun!" his puppets echoed.

The expression on Laxus's face was far from convinced, rather he looked as if he was about to leave the conversation there. Sia was tempted to ask Gideon if they could do the same. She'd heard a lot about the Thunder God Tribe and how impressive they were, but that one just unnerved her. Loathe as she was to admit it, Sia had never been the type that was fond of strange puppets, creepy dolls, or the like.

"I don't see how..." Laxus began.

"Fried obviously wants to spend more time with..." Bixlow began, pausing as if to recall Cross's name then moving on without concern. "That guy, and I say we let him!"

"Bixlow--" Fried muttered, his hand falling to his sword.

"Teams," he continued, seeming not to notice the way his teammate was eyeing him. "It'll be fun."

"Fun, fun, fun!" his puppets echoed once more.

"...Gideon..." Sia began, obviously far from fond of the idea.

"That's perfect!" Cross spoke up and Sia practically jumped out of her skin.

He simply shrugged at the frown she sent in his direction. Apparently, he didn't care if he'd given Sia a near heart-attack by suddenly appearing next to her.

"It's stupid," Oren grumbled.

Evergreen, having been musing over the idea since Bixlow brought it up, offered a faint smile in response to the sour words. At some point in the conversation she'd drawn closer to their group, proven by how she suddenly dropped a hand on Oren's head, drawing a curse from the boy.

"If we're splitting," she commented. "I claim this one."

Sia sighed as Oren fell into a predictable fit of curse-filled protests. If anything, however, it only served to further amuse Evergreen. Laxus, to his credit, ignored the scene as his eyes met Gideon's. After all, Gideon happened to be one of the only two of the group that had yet to give him a bad-impression (the other being Sia, as she'd yet to actually say or do something of notable stupidity).

"It's up to you," Gideon offered, his tone neutral.

"Hmph," the blond grumbled in response, his arms crossing over his chest as his eyes swept over the group. "... just keep that one away from me. There's little time left before dark, if you plan on joining us, we should get moving."

That said, he started around the group. Sia didn't hesitate to take off after him, as if he wasn't going to be on a team with Cross, that most likely meant that Bixlow would be on the other side as well. Taking that as an agreement to the impromptu partnership, Gideon turned his eyes to Oren- revealing the rather amusing sight of Evergreen dragging the individual in question- protests aside- over to where Bixlow was laughing at the glowering expression Fried was gifting him. Cross- predictably- was already with the group, having taken up a position just about an arm length behind his current victim of choice.

"... Ilias?" Gideon questioned, glancing at him.

"They're going to get themselves killed," came the sullen response.

"Perhaps," was Gideon's calm reply. "With the other two, then?"

Illias nodded and within seconds they'd started off as to catch up with the duo that was already half-way down the road. Sia snuck them a grateful look as they joined her; the pinkette had already begun to regret her decision to tail behind Laxus. He'd shot her an expression that she wasn't quite sure how to interpret, meaning she wasn't sure if she was welcome or not. Most likely it was the latter- as she got the feeling he'd already reached the judgement that most held about their guild.

When Gideon had said that they weren't in the media as often as Fairytail, he hadn't been lying. Starry Rose rarely did things that landed the in the magazine- Hawthorne's hated stance as one of the males on the "Top Ten Mages You'd Want as Your Boyfriend" excluded. When they were in the magazine- however- it was usually due to the... strange natures their guild members tended to display. As a result, it had widely become to be regarded as a guild of freaks. The example that instantly came to mind was when Kain, Keir's twin brother, had blown up an entire field because Waverly sneezed and blamed it on the flower's pollen. The villagers had been far from pleased about the matter- Varya had spent a rather large amount of magic revitalizing the area to make up for it.

They still hadn't been invited back to that area.

"Do... you have a spot in mind?" Sia ventured after a long period of silence.

After all, the man hadn't paused once since abandoning the other group behind him. Rather, he'd kept to his quick paced, long strides; they'd already reached the edge of town as a result.

"I spotted several tracks on our way into town," Laxus muttered after a moment. "We'll go there."

"Oh."

An awkward silence filled the air once again; although, to be be completely honest, none of her companions seemed to mind it. Gideon had never been the type to speak if it wasn't needed, he felt no need to fill a silence. Ilias was the same, if only because she doubted he had the courage to speak up in most occasions. So, that left her as the only one shifting her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

"...have you been to this area before?" she asked eventually.

The expression she received as a result questioned why she felt the need to talk. She almost backed down, biting the inside of her cheek to keep her expression from showing the feeling.

"I have."

"Oh."

Mentally, Sia slapped her head into her hand. Was that all she could say?

"... to fight the lizardmen?" she ventured after several minutes of tense silence. "It's a regular job request of ours, I didn't think other guilds were usually called in."

"No," he answered dismissively. "Not the lizardmen. Even if we were, these creatures aren't on my level. It's like asking a tiger to kill a bug."

She frowned, the arrogant edge to his words rubbing her wrong. It was as if he was- without using the direct words- commenting about the strength of their guild in comparison to Fairy Tail that the job was so commonly accepted by their members.

"Then why are you here now?" she challenged, causing Gideon's lips to twitch upwards. The girl's expression was similar to that of an irritated kitten. "If it's so below you, that is."

Laxus cocked a brow in Sia's direction, his expression almost bordering amused.

"What was your name again?" he questioned. "Mia? Tia?"

She pursed her lips.

"... Sia."

"Sia. Strange."

"I didn't ask about my name," Sia pointed out, uncharacteristically sour. "I asked why you're here."

"To kill lizardmen, obviously."

Sia opened her mouth to respond, then clamped it shut with a frown that was bordering on a scowl. As soon as she realized she was wearing such an expression, she smoothed it out; a faint memory of being told that a lady shouldn't show such faces flickered through the back of her mind. As it was, at the sight of the smug smile that flashed across Laxus's face, she barely kept herself from scowling once again.

Instead, she pointedly looked away.

It was only a short time after that, that they came across the tracks Laxus had mentioned. Sia shuddered slightly at the sight, as the creature that such prints belonged to surely had to be an interesting sight. The earth had caught the print perfectly- leaving behind five smooth cuts into the soft dirt where their clawed feet had dug in. Even as she studied the print, however, the sight of the others stirred something in the back of her mind.

"... are these prints supposed to be different than one other?" she questioned slowly.

Laxus, who had already abandoned the tracks to start in the direction they pointed the group, paused. Gideon- closer to her than the big blond, frowned as he kneeled down next to the two sets she'd pointed out. His brow knitted together thoughtfully as the Fairy Tail member joined him, Ilias standing quietly at Sia's side. He'd specifically put himself slightly behind her, Sia acting as a tiny, human shield between him and the intimidating Laxus.

"Those don't belong to the typical lizardmen that the village hires us for," Gideon supplied after a moment, looking up from the tracks to meet the others eyes. "There are a few dozen species in this valley, but the others live further in. They seldom migrate this close to the mouth."

It was then that the name "lizardmen" clicked in Sia's mind. There had been a season similar to the current one when she was younger. The lizards had rarely come as far as her home town, but they had that year. A few "brave" teenagers thought they'd challenge each other to a dare and see how close they could get to the things without startling them. She'd rarely left the neighborhood she belonged to and hadn't personally been involved... but she could still remember the pale bodies being escorted from the town's doctor a few days later.

The information had remained locked in the back of her mind- unneeded- until that point. Seasons like these. brought out the more... vicious creatures that the valley contained.

When she looked around their group, however, she caught the even expression that Laxus wore. He didn't look all that surprised by the information, rather he turned his eyes to the sky as if to measure the minutes of daylight left to them.

"We should be able to reach this pack before nightfall," he commented.

"That's why you're here," Sia muttered. "You guessed it might be like this."

He shrugged in response, starting off once again once Gideon was on his feet. Gideon, to his credit, put out a hand to keep his teammates from taking off right away. His lips were turned downwards, gaze thoughtful.

"The other species in this valley are venomous," he warned them. "Be careful."

Sia didn't bother to say that she'd already known the information, rather simply nodded as if this was her first time hearing it. Satisfied to have gotten the warning across, he dropped his arm and soon they'd caught up with Laxus. Very little time passed before the blond was proven right- the distant shapes of the scaled, humanoid like creatures coming into view. The real product was no more pleasant than their foot-prints had promised; the two different species looking far too.. creepy for Sia's tastes.

They were bipedal; both species covered in the aforementioned scales and sporting nasty looking, clawed digits. They were tall, towering perhaps two feet more than her as an average, but held little bulk. At the same time, as they watched the creatures- having miraculously ended up downwind of the pack- she could see the strong muscles flexing with every move they made. The main difference between them that she could see as that two out of the eight creature pack were brightly colored- a stark contrast to the dark greens and blues of the others. One of them was a stark orange, the other yellow. Then there was how beneath their chins there was a layer of skin much smoother than the scales. It fanned around the entire head, the top of it touching the creature's foreheads.

Those were the ones that weren't supposed to be there- of that Sia was certain.

Seconds after they'd arrived, Laxus had stepped ahead of the others. He cracked his knuckles, leaning his head from one side to the other until a crack resulted from that motion as well.

"Step-back," he ordered.

She frowned, but being rather curious about the magic the famed mage wielded, she did as requested. It was then she realized that at some point Gideon had lifted his violin into place, his bow readied to draw across the strings on a moment's notice. Ilias- predictably- was standing at least a dozen feet further back, his fingers twisted around a familiar key. As she watched, he swept it through the air, shaking hands easily cutting through the boundary of the human and celestial worlds.

"Gate of Aquila."

Sia's lips twitched, the vast difference between the magnificent magic he'd displayed and the boy's quiet words striking a chord somewhere within her. Within seconds a woman with sharp onyx eyes had appeared in the open space before him. Her limbs were thin, large wings extending from her body. She glanced back at her contractor, raising a taloned hand and opening her mouth to speak.

Then, she disappeared.

Sia was left staring at Ilias, who was in turn staring at the spot the spirit had occupied in surprise.

"Uh... Ilias..."

"I don't know..."

Deciding to leave this question for later, she turned just in time to catch the reason that Laxus had asked them to step back.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!"

Sia slowly blinked, rather awed, as a magic seal appeared in the air above Laxus's mouth. He'd tilted his head back, puffed out cheeks facing the sky. Within seconds, he'd snapped his head forward and a surge of lightning encompassed the entire field before them.

Needless to say, when the light had faded and they could see the field again, there were eight prone forms, two star-struck mages, and one rather impressed Gideon.

"That was a bit of an... overkill, wouldn't you say?" Sia muttered after a moment, staring at the now scorched earth.

Laxus simply shrugged, flexing his limbs as he turned back to face the Starry Rose mages.

"Let's move on. We don't have much longer before nightfall."