This World is Wild, But is Not the Forest

[Erza Scarlet]

Erza nodded emphatically. Short-notice lessons on subjects she didn't quite understand were the most fun to give, if only because embellishing on those aspects as of yet still unknown to her would most often go unnoticed by her pupils. She concentrated for a few minutes, much to the bemusement of several onlookers, as a bright flash of rainbow-flavoured Omnillium lit up the air behind her, forming into a classic wooden school chalkboard on stilts, complete with a rather confusing display of chalk-drawn yellow and white images filling up most of its free space.

"Alright then. Omni: A review!" Her face was tellingly serious, as though she were somewhere between completely uninterested and barely able to contain her laughter. With a flourish, her sword flew up to the top left corner of the board, where there was a childish depiction of a smiling white... fetus? Holding a yellow-and-pink-streaked orb. "Omni is an all-powerful being, probably, or something like that, who controls the state of the entire universe we are currently standing in. He's also completely white, and floaty, and apparently enjoys turning people into his personal action figures." Sometime between the appearance of the chalkboard and now, Erza had donned a pair of sleek black glasses, a touch that accentuated her eyes and reminisced of a schoolteacher, but starkly contrasted with the armor still claiming the rest of her figure.

"When he does so, we're brought here, and he tells us what's happening. Maybe you don't remember because you hit your head on whatever the... Centerpiece thingy... was at the time, but you should've gotten this speech too." Her sword swung dangerously close to Emerald as Erza pointed at her sole student. A sly grin finally perpetrated her harsh visage, and her chin turned up as would a lord's to his vessels. "You haven't been paying attention in class!" With that and a spin that caused her hair and skirt to swish almost as dangerously as her blade, she again turned to the chalkboard, this time nearly stabbing figure in the middle, a blushing shark struggling hopelessly as its teeth latched onto a spiral staircase, surrounded by 8 question marks in the compass directions.

"We're here, in the middle, and those -" (she swirled her sword in a circle to encompass the question marks) "- Those are the other sections of Omni's playmat. Any questions?" She left no time for questions. "No? Good, because I don't know either." A great majority of the mostly-unrecognizable drawings were left unmentioned and unexplained as the chalkboard was again returned to dust at Erza's hand.

"Oh, yeah, and we can make stuff, like that. Speaking of which, I have just the perfect vehicle in mind..." She again concentrated for a few minutes, this time more fiercely, as the object she had in mind was simply far more complicated than a mere chalkboard. Though, once the summoning was complete, she made sure to again dramatically wave her arms about in a gesture towards her creation. "Oooh yeah, it worked! How d'ya like it?"

In front of Emerald stood a black, four-wheeled vehicle, in make similar to a carriage but in dimensions more like an upright piano on the back of a raft with wheels. This carriage had no internal seating, instead condensing the back of the driver's seat into a 2-foot wall containing the magical mechanisms that powered the thing. The driver's seat was more of a bench, a plush red fabric affair, soft and poofy enough to remain comfortable for quite a long ride and wide enough for at least three passengers. Hanging off the rather meager railing in front of the sole seat was atttached not a set of reigns, but instead a single cord, a wrist strap hanging off the end for the driver. The cord continued from its hook on the front railing back to a hole in the side of the vehicle's body, where it disappeared into the mysterious inner mechanisms of the thing.

Her glasses now inexplicably missing, Erza jumped, flipping midair and landing square in the center of the bench. "Magical carriage! Runs on magic power, gives off nothing but movement." Reaching out for the wrist strap, she secured it tightly around her right forearm, her arm muscles rather obviously uncomfortably compressed by the device. It had never occurred to her to simply slide it down to the wrist, but having stubbornly done it like this from a young age, she was used to the mild discomfort of the device. It got better as she got to driving, anyway. She glanced back to Emerald, who was inexplicably still on the ground. "Well? What are you waiting for? Hop on in!"

It was only at this moment that Erza realized what a show she'd been putting on. Though, this was sort of how she approached most social situations. She brushed off the concern as meaningless. Surely, this Emerald wouldn't mind much - and even if she did, she at least looked fun to take on should things get hairy. Or, more likely, if they decided later on a sparring match, as her newly-found travel partner hadn't done or said much by way of antagonization. Speaking of which... "And I'm NOT smelly."