Thanks for all the welcomes! *sentimental sniff* I'm going to attempt to join the group, now. Forgive any story errors I may make, and, um tell me where they crop up in my post.


Charity Aspen: Rune Caster
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I stopped my trek through the forest to catch my breath and assess my situation. My clothes were torn from the branches, my slippers irrepairably muddy. I was hungry, hot, and extremely lost.

Maybe chasing after Leeca's group wasn't the best idea.

After they had left, I had to sit and think about what I really wanted to do. Yeah, I would love to be at home, sitting in front of the inn's fireplace with a hot bowl of soup, but I also wanted to stop the kidnappings. They really made no sense, it tore children away from their families and - I studied the scratches on my arms - no one else should have to go through this. And when I was caught between what I wanted to do and what I had to do, I almost always chose to do the right thing, though it may get me lost in a forest where every tree was the same as the next.

"Well," I said to myself, "I guess I'll have to resort to my powers." I dug around inside the pack that I always had around my waist, and was luckily still with me. The kidnappers must have decided it was worthless since all it had were writing utensils; the source of my power.

I only retrieved a pen and some ink from the pack. The paper inside was too precious to be used right now, so I instead pulled down some leaves from the trees. I studied the shape, aspen leaves. Perfect. I carefully applied the runes for 'tiny bird' to eight different leaves, then focused my power through each rune. The aspen leaves seemed to fold upon themselves until they formed what looked like a small green bird. They were still leaves, but now had the power of flight, and a small bit of intelligence born of magic.

"Little birds," I said to them. They lifted their heads up, attentive to my words. "Fly off in pairs in each of the cardinal directions and find my friends," Along with the words I gave mental pictures of the birds flying off, two by two as well as pictures of Leeca, Kuchina, and Hiro. The leaf birds flapped their wings and took off into the sky. I sat in the clearing, picking burrs out of my hair and clothes, waiting until at least one of them found my fellow Magi.
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Yay, so this would have been a short while after the group left. Charity had a connection to each of her Summoned Servants, so she knows if they are destroyed or if they find what they were sent to search for. And Charity is not the outdoorsy-type, if you hadn't noticed.