Trouble can be anywhere

Noheme was not from Fiore, nor Minstrel. Yet, she was called onto this mission anyway. It really made her wonder why that was, as she wasn't even legal mage that would be part of a guild in Fiore. Was it her actions and recently finished jobs that actually made her somewhat famous? No, probably not. When it came to fame, the goddess no longer believed in herself or the fact that she would ever obtain it. A dream of becoming someone who people of Earthland would follow and worship was a long faded one by this point. But that was perhaps for the best anyway. None would like an arrogant god to be working with them. Instead, the girl became rather melancholy and tame there past few days. She felt... alone. Strange how presence of other living beings could bring about such human emotion to her. After all, she lived completely alone for thousands of years in the the world of nothingness, where there was no sun or even anything to touch at all.

Simply black all around, as far as eye could see. For all infinity. That was her life for the longest time. Yet, she did not feel alone in there, nor bored or anything else. Because she was not born with those emotions, so she could not possibly feel them. She obtained it all only when she created her Astral Realm mere century ago. And even more as she gained her own mortal vessel in order to exist in this world as well roughly two decades back. And in that short time, she learned just how pitiful could human existence truly be. What a shame it was, for if she remained in her divine world forever, she would never need to feel lonely. But alas, she could not take her actions back. She was stuck in the reality of present day, capable of only looking forward and hoping everything would get better.

Right now, she was on board of a flying ship, marvel of technology. Or at least for her it was, as you would not see something like this in the thick and unforgiving jungles of Joya. And while she was feeling the way she was, she was hardly alone here. Many other men and women were present as well as someone she recognized. A female human that approached her in a certain place, a ballroom where they celebrated the day of love. Back then, she felt exactly the same way as now. And because the four-faced goddess showed up with her lover, someone that Noheme's sister despised, she had to leave in hurry. Not even saying proper goodbye to this girl, the moon goddess was unsure if she should even approach her. So instead, she was merely standing in front of the railing and staring into the distance, watching the land beneath them slowly pass.

She should probably focus on her job more than something like this. A rescue mission, as someone from Fiore managed to take one of the nobles hostage. The fox girl hardly felt like rescuing some arrogant rich man right now, but as this was an urgent request, she didn't exactly have much of a choice, lest she wanted to become hated by the masses. After all, she was already on that delicate walking rope of not being aligned with any of the existing guilds. She was a loner who thought she would never fit in a community like that, so she avoided it all. A possibly cure for her feelings, thrown right into the trash by herself. With a sigh, she would check her equipment once more. A disk that served as a protective talisman hidden in her clothes. A moonlight bladed that was hanging in it's sheath by her hip. And most of all, her own magical power. There was probably no reason to be this armed on a job of this magnitude...

Word Count - 654 / 3750

An occasional look filled with intrigue and worry. She was indeed watching the young lady that was on the ship with her from time to time, though she was doing her best to make it look like she was just looking over the whole ship and the scenery that could be seen on the other side of it. Of course, even something like that was not the best disguise, as normally person would just walk over to the railing on the other side instead. With a sigh, the girl held her head in her hands for a moment, questioning what in the world she was doing. She came to the Valentine's event for obvious reasons. She wished to explore the concept of human love, as her whole journey was about discovering emotions and motivations in life that were unique to the dwellers of this dimension. Yet, it failed quite miserably despite that maiden's warm offer of a pleasant conversation.

Thoughts were swarming the goddess' mind, ones of the kind like "Maybe we could continue from where we left now." But alas, she did not wish to make the situation awkward for anyone. So she remained where she stood, completely silent and only with her ears twitching lightly from time to time. Looking over the land beneath her as they started slowly descending. That was probably all she could do. Once they land, three musketeers would be waiting for her, ready to explain in detail what was going on. Then, surely she would be able to get distracted by all of that. But was that really the correct course of action? Simply getting distracted and avoiding the problem would most likely come to haunt her in the future. It wasn't solving it. In fact, it was doing quite the opposite. It would remain lying in her head and then she could only forget.

Her expression appeared somewhat pained because of all these thoughts. But it was quickly interrupted by a voice that came from next to her. Normally, the fox girl's hearing would be definitely strong enough to hear anyone approaching her. Which made it perhaps the very first situation when she was far too distracted by herself to actually hear someone. With a sudden movement to shift her body towards the young lady before her, instinctively moving her left hand up in a waving gesture. Though she quickly realized that this was probably wrong to do. Her left hand was now missing it's entire pinky and most of ring finger, making it somewhat unpleasant to look at. Quickly moving the hand behind her back while trying to look as casual as she possibly could, she started finally talking.

"H..hey there! I'm afraid I don't really travel only for pleasure anymore, it's an emergency job that I was send on by the magic council. And you? Ah, and the name is... just call me Eris Sytry. I believe we were not given the pleasure of introductions when we met first." Well, that was a start. Hopefully she didn't sound too awkward or anything. Communicating with other people was still somewhat difficult for Noheme, considering her wounds, both flesh ones and mental ones, were still quite fresh. But perhaps this would be a start to something new, something good. Suddenly, the ship landed quite harshly, bells ringing to signal everyone that they should leave, finally have their feet touch the solid ground. "Seems like we don't have much time... would you maybe care to accompany me?" Obviously she had no idea what this silver haired maiden was up to. But maybe she had a little bit of free time to waste?

Word Count - 1263 / 3750

Karin Sørensen

---

The huntress gave a small shrug at the suggestion of accompanying the fox on a job; although she had no idea how long it might take, she pondered the thought a bit while she carried on the conversation. "Karin," was all she said in reply to the introduction, before looking back out to the land laying before them. It was quite a sight, being up in the air...on a ship; it was odd and a bit unnerving being so high up without restraints or a cockpit, but the view more than made up for it.

She hummed to herself as she continued to think about the prospect of going on that job. In truth, she had been hoping for more of an uninterrupted and freewheeling schedule of events for her trip into Minstrel; finding some work out of the blue fit the bill, but she wasn't entirely sure what it would entail. Would it be something boring and mundane, or would it actually be something worth sticking around for? She certainly didn't want any part of it if it was the former ... although, the latter would need to be enticing enough to get her to put aside her plans to go hunting in Minstrel's forests. "What would this job be, hm?"

She looked over briefly and caught a glimpse at the mangled hand that had been waved as a greeting, but made no visible expressions; either she didn't particularly care, or it hadn't fazed her....it was impossible to tell which. With how quickly it had been hidden from view, she could only guess that it had been a recent injury--or one that the fox-girl had no interest in talking about. It would be entirely understandable if she had no desire to talk about missing fingers, deformities gained on-the-job or otherwise; Karin herself had a set of scars she said little about, mostly the invisible, emotional sort. Even though part of her wished to know what had happened, between their brief meeting at the Valentine's event and now, that had caused the fox to lose most of one finger and the entirety of another, it was entirely likely that such an inquiry could be seen as prying--especially if it was still a fresh memory; another time, perhaps.

1012/3750 words

"It is a pleasure to meet you then, Karin."

Short and simple. It was beyond clear that this gal was not exactly the talkative. At least when it came to strangers anyway. Even if they met before and now knew each other's name, it would still be a long journey before they could be called friends. And who knew what the universe had planned for them. Maybe they would be best of friends one day, or maybe they would end up going their own, completely separate ways. It was impossible to tell just yet. So the moon goddess merely sighed gently and moved to face the view from the ship, her damaged hand once more coming into view as she leaned onto the railing. Gentle wind was blowing and making her long green locks dance along as her equally emerald colored optics wandered across the landscape below them. Like a constantly moving paining, the view would never cease to amaze her. This whole world, it was so beautiful that she often failed to find words that would do it all justice. The talk shifted to the job that the fox girl was supposed to be on here, making her chuckle to herself.

"A certain dark mage managed to escape from Fiore and is now terrorizing the area we'll be landing in. Seems like he managed to take some people hostage. And since neither side is doing anything for a while now, I'm to join and finally end the problem for good."

It probably did not sound like the most exciting job ever, true. But it had to be done. Honestly, the goddess felt like she was in no rush. The dark mage knew very well that it would be the end of him if he did anything to the innocent people he had under control, but the musketeers also did not want to push him too much. The situation would most likely escalate no further until she joins the fray. Well, that was pretty much the summary of what she was to do in Minstrel.

"I won't fault you if that sounds way too boring for you."

Word Count - 1620 / 3750

Karin Sørensen

---

That Karin was a quiet soul should have been obvious, even during that brief meeting at the Valentine's dance months ago. Her lack of talk was not meant to be rude or anti-social, but it was better for her to say nothing if she had nothing to comment on. She lowered her hood so that the other woman would be able to see her face and make conversation a bit easier, but didn't comment on the offer at first.

A dark mage fled to Minstrel and took a noble family hostage? Truth be told, it sounded cliche to the huntress, but the thought was nevertheless humorous. Considering the fox woman's confidence in the matter, it seemed as though the whole affair would be done in an afternoon even without the huntress' assistance. However, even if the whole affair turned out to be boring, it would give her the chance to have some target practice before she went hunting. She tapped her fingers on the railing as she tried to make a decision, quietly considering the possibilities of what might transpire over the course of the afternoon.

"Since it sounds like you've got it handled, I suppose there's no real reason for me to tag along," she said, "Unless you'd enjoy the company, of course."

The young woman gave a warm smile--polite, distant, but nonetheless genuine. She tried to pick her conversations and who she spent time with carefully to make the most use of her mental energies; and, in this instance, she felt as though she was choosing wisely.

1271/3750 words

The first part of the girl's answer was a bit saddening and disappointing to say the least. However, she quickly followed up on it and here they were, in a state where everything should work out just fine. It actually made Noheme chuckle quite a bit as she eyed the huntress for few moments before nodding. "Well, I'm not someone to refuse the company of such a beautiful lady under any circumstances." And with that, the airship was finally in place, landing on it's designated platform. Was about time too, it felt like they were in the air for all of eternity at this point. While the view from up there was always stunning, it was often good to remind yourself just how firmly your feet could stand on the proper ground down below.

And from the looks of it, it also appeared that there were other characters. Some female musketeers outside of the ship, seemingly on the lookout for someone. Of course that someone was actually Noheme, as she was here to help them with that dark mage of theirs. Today seemed like a rather lucky day, being surrounded by not only one, but four beautiful ladies just like that. Was the goddess dream actually somehow seeping into the reality? Was this the unexplored power she always had, but never knew about? Nah, probably just a really lucky day that would not last all that long. Not long enough. "Shall we get going then, dear?"

The question was accompanied by a genuine smile as the goddess moved away from the railing, taking few steps towards the stairs that were extended from one of the ship's sides, connecting the wooden construct with the cut stone pier. If only this was how every single assignment of hers went, then she would have no problems suffering as a mage, ever.

Word Count - 1928 / 3750