Sky High

I'm holding my breath for you

What kind of client would this be?
Astrid couldn't help but ponder the thought as she laid her back against the somewhat smooth bark of a tree, arms folded across her chest and eyes closed in thought. The job had been described fairly vaguely.

"Help me and my friend get to the other side of the Phoenix Mountains. No questions asked."

At least it's what she thought it said, having taken an hour or two to try and figure it out. A lot of it had been written so weirdly and many words were misspelled. On top of that it had been written in what seemed to be green crayon. Many would have declined a job that they could barely read, but the musician couldn't help but be amused by it. It had a certain child-like charm to it despite the confusing description. If no one else accepted it, she would have in a heart beat... So she did.
Plus, it was a nice change of pace. A seven day hike through these tough mountains would be fun, at least in theory. Hiking was always something that looked like fun to her. However her constant varying frailness as a child had led her to not being able to experience many things she would of liked to do.
They could make tents, settle down next to a campfire, talk, eat. There might be a few obstacles in the way, as these mountains were known for their dangerous creatures and unsteady roads, but the good times were sure to outweigh the bad by a mile. It's what she hoped for, no matter what their reasons were to go through with this journey.

"What are you spacing out for, you clod?"

1/20 posts

I'm holding my breath for you

Hearing the roughly mumbled question the girl slowly opened her deep blue eyes, head rising to gaze upon the person who was now a few feet away from her.
It was a child. Two children in fact. A boy and a girl.
The boy stood in front as the girl somewhat hid herself behind him, seemingly cowering, a single hand holding his.
Although Astrid's own expression was dazed the boy stared back at her with narrowed blue eyes, almost angry.
There was a few seconds of silence between the three, the only sounds being the birds chirping vigorously and their breathing. Why were there children on the mountain? They seemed to be only about ten, maybe younger. This was no place for the younger generation. She doubted they even had magic. Though even if she did there was no way they could protect themselves properly in such a dangerous place. Were they lost?

"Can i... Help you?" Astrid was the first to break the silence, head tilting to the side as she questioned the two. If need be she could leave some sort of note here to her client to tell them she would be back soon after helping these kids home. It was still early in the morning, they weren't going to loose too much light if she took some time off to run these kids back to town. She couldn't just leave them here after all.
Though the client should have been here by now... They were almost an hour late...
The boy didn't speak at first, but simply stared at her, almost like he was scanning her entire body.
His gaze stopped at her left hand. The place her guild mark resided.
He let in a loud breath through his nose, twitching it upwards.

"That's the Black Rose guild mark, right?"

Astrid nodded "yes, it is."

"Good you're on time at least. I'm the one who posted the job."

She paused, eyes widening slowly in realization. He was the one who posted the job? They were the ones who wanted to go through the mountains? Children?
She was baffled, and at the same time, confused. Why? Why were two children wanting to go on such a dangerous journey? Did their parents know? Did they know what they were getting into? Was this job for real?
"But why-" feeling as though she had to ask for certain confirmation the silver haired girl opened her mouth to ask, but was abruptly cut off by the small boy, waving his finger at her.

"No questions! I wrote that in the description of the job. You're a mage, right? That means you've gotta follow the orders of your client."

She bit back her tongue, head positioning itself back slightly. He was right, wasn't he? It was the mage who accepted the job's responsibility to make sure their client was happy, following the rules they put down. And from what she could remember from it, he had specifically asked for no questions. Though she was tempted to forget about it and bring these children back to town for their own safety she knew it would be the first time she had to decline something someone asked of her... That was something she couldn't do. Both of the children would be so disappointed. She couldn't have that.
Using her hands to push herself from the tree Astrid walked towards them, a small smile on her face to replace the frown that had placed itself there from her inner turmoil.
Wanting to match their height she bent down, causing the little girl behind him to move slightly more away from her. The violinist hesitated, seeing the boy stand his ground.
They were almost like wild animals protecting their young from an intruder.

Deciding against a hand shake she rolled her shoulders back, blinking softly.
"Can i at least get some names?" It would at least break the quickly forming icy tension in the air a bit if they knew each others names.
Another moment of silence. The boy stared at her, his gaze having not left her since she opened her eyes.

"... Jiwoo. And her name is Hyejung."

Jiwoo and Hyejung. Such pretty... And yet foreign names.

"Astrid. Astrid Foss. Nice to meet you two. And from now until we get to your destination, i'll be your guide."

2/20 - 3/20 posts

I'm holding my breath for you

It had been a while since they had finally gotten introductions out of the way and started their journey, though she wasn't sure exactly how long. A couple hours maybe judging by the overhead position of the sun.
Nothing bad had happened other than stopping a few times to catch their breath and making sure they weren't going around in circles. She didn't know these mountains at all, and on top of that she had no map or compass to help guide their way. But it apparently didn't matter to the two children. They didn't care where they ended up. They only stated "they needed to get away from that village" when Astrid questioned their destination. After that the boy's fiery personality had seemed to cool down a bit, keeping quiet and refusing to talk to her every time she tried to start a friendly conversation. And if the girl wasn't quiet enough already she had gotten even more quiet, no longer seeming to even make noises whenever she tripped over her own feet on the uneven path. The trio had been walking in awkward silence for a while now.
It made the mage sad. She had hoped for a good time with her clients. Talking, sharing jokes and stories. She wanted the full hiking experience. Though a bit disappointed she wouldn't let their reserved natures get to her. She had to keep on a smile and calm aura otherwise they would all be miserable, and she didn't know about them but if she wanted a guide she'd want one who would make her comfortable even in the worst situations.

Rumble...

A low growling sound caught Astrid's attention, snapping her out of her own thoughts.

"Hey, Ass-girl. Hyejung's hungry."

'Ass-girl'?
The violinist stopped her walking, turning in place to face the two. Jiwoo held onto Hyejung with one arm as she leaned against him, holding her stomach.
Ah, so that's what the growling was. She had almost thought it was some monster sneaking up on them, apparent as her natural instinct had led her to instinctively flinch her hand down to her violin case, ready to fight.
Blinking once at them both she slowly made her way to them, looking down to the children.

"N-No, it's okay. I can wait until we stop again..." Hyejung spoke for the first time since they met, weakly and cracking her words in a few places.
The boy shook his head, holding onto her even more tightly as if to hold her up like she was too weak to do it on her own.

"Then we can make our stop here. Ass-girl wont mind."

"Astrid" the musician corrected him instantly, the tone and reaction time equaling to a snap. She didn't appreciate him butchering her name like that, and it irked her.

The boy shrugged, rolling his eyes. "Asstrid, Ass-girl, same thing." He drew out the 's' on both names, butchering her name once again.
A flash of red swirled in Astrid's blue eyes, narrowing smokey eyebrows at the boy and lips pouting outward with frustration.
She didn't understand why he was being this way, purposely annoying her. She had done nothing wrong to him and yet he was acting like she was some sort of evil villain. She would be more understand if she knew why he did this, but out of context it just seemed he was against the entire world.
Drooping her shoulders forward Astrid sighed, placing a hand against her forehead as she calmed her breathing. No. She couldn't get angry, especially not with kids. She was aware of her anger issues and the bad things that came with it. She couldn't control herself if she reached to a certain anger point, and that would just scare the kids off. The famously named 'Black Astrid' wouldn't come out on her watch.
Letting out a single, deep breath as she could feel her breathing normalizing she once again squatted down to the children's height, throwing the backpack she had been carrying over her shoulders and throwing it upon the ground, grabbing the zipper and opening it.

"I'll see i have anything in here."

"..."

"..."

"..."

A single, yellow moth flew out from the green backpack. Nothing.
As the three peered into the empty abyss of the bag with equally annoyed expressions Astrid felt a ping of painful regret.
She had forgotten everything. The things she thought she had put in were probably all still neatly placed out on her bed from this morning...
Reaching into the bag Jiwoo fumbled his hand around it before bringing out one single thing. A roll of duct tape.

"Duct tape?! That's all you brought!? What use is duct tape going to be out here in the wilderness?!!" He held up the roll, shoving it into the mage's face.

"Duct tape is a savior. It can do anything." She retorted with a blank stare. It was true. Duct tape was knowing for being able to do fix anything. They could do a lot with it. At least she remembered to bring that.

"Can it fix your brain?! Because it seems like yours is almost nonexistent, Ass-girl!" Jiwoo threw the tape onto the ground, slamming his foot and shouting.

Astrid narrowed her deep blue optics at the boy, teeth clenching together as she once again heard the boy's nickname for her. "It's Astrid!"

"Hungry..."

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