Runaway Gingerbread (Job, Solo)

Job Info:

It was that time again. The time of empty pockets, the time of not being able to buy weapons and basic comforts due to said empty pockets, the time that the Lord of Laziness needed to be destroyed once more! Basically, it was time to get back to work. Aliarey had been able to learn some more spells but since then she had gotten lazy and had not so much as looked at a job board for weeks. There just never seemed to be any motivation to work until the Jewel count was low.

Still, there she was, looking at a local job board for some quick income. Her blue eyes stared at the board but she was hardly focused on what she was reading. Nothing of interest seemed to catch her attention as she skimmed through all of the ads. After spending another five minutes reading through the ads, Aliarey sighed and turned away. "All of these jobs are lame," she whined to no one in particular. She hated being in situations that were fartoo risky but that didn't mean she didn't want some exciting jobs. The job board she had been looking at contained nothing but deliveries, babysitting ads, and for some reason requests involving dates.

Aliarey claimed an entire empty bench for herself and laid down on it, relaxing as her eyes gazed up at the sky. It could be another lazy day. Just as she was content with that decision, something small scurried past the bench. "The Muffin Man! The Muffin Man!" A high pitched voice, likely belonging to the small being that past by, shouted loudly. Aliarey found herself sitting up just to see what was going on. Her eyes quickly blinked as her mind processed just what she was seeing. Was that a man-shaped cookie running around? Well whatever. It was strange but she was more annoyed by all the noise it was making. "Hey! Shut up! I'm relaxing here!" Such a rude little cookie. Her back once again met the bench's wooden surface and she sighed to restart her moment of relaxation.

Unfortunately, her lazy time would once again be ruined just a moment later. A few men dressed in Magnolian Town Guard attire came running past and demanded the cookie to stop and surrender. Aliarey could feel her eye twitch. Seriously? Was this place so peaceful the most dangerous thing around was a running cookie that had a strange obsession with some muffin man? No wonder there weren't any interesting jobs around.

"Hey! You! You're a mage, right?"

Her attention switched over to one of the guards that had apparently stopped the cookie chase to question her. She wasn't sure what gave him that idea but he was right to suspect it. "Depends. You're not trying to hire me to catch that cookie, are you?" It was far too simple and about as exciting as the babysitting job. Surely a few guards could handle such a thing themselves which means the payout would be minimal.

"Well, uh...yeah," the guard replied but slumped his shoulders as the wandering mage continued to show her disinterest. "I guess no one would chase after that little monster for just one thousand jewels. I'm not sure why I am even doing it." The guard closed his eyes and sighed but was soon hit with a whiplash of air as the mage on the bench quickly got up from her position and took off in a sprint.

"Consider me hired!" One thousand just for catching a small cookie? Now that was a quality payout. She could see the gingerbread man in the distance and was slowly catching up. Still, that little thing was fast. Aliarey reached down and took hold of one of the pistols along her hips. A few magical projectiles fired from the weapon but it was clear they all had missed the evasive cookie. "Haha! You can't catch me! I am the gingerbread man!"

Another eye twitching moment for the blonde that was chasing down a walking pastry. That was it. She put away her normal pistol and was ready to bring out something stronger. "ReQuip!" A small flash of light shined within her hands as a pair of black and red revolvers formed within her grasp. That gingerbread man was going to burn. She aimed in the direction of the gingerbread man with both guns close together. The revolvers started to heat up with energy as their main attack ability had been activated. A fireball had formed in front of the barrels and once she pulled the trigger of both of the weapons the fireball split into eight mini fireballs and sailed towards the pastry. Some of them were bound to hit.

Aliarey grinned as she watched the gingerbread man get hit by a couple and seemed to have taken damage. She had still been running after it and had now caught up due to its momentary pause from the attack. Her assault continued as normal fire based shots were fired from the revolvers and before long the poor pastry was nothing more than a burnt baked good on the ground.

Kneeling down, the blonde picked up the gingerbread man and examined it. Was dead even a word that could be used for such a thing? Well, the job was to catch it and it had been caught. It was time for the payout for a job well done. The corpse of the gingerbread man? That was what garbage cans were for.

(Word Count: 919)