Ash stared at the sheet of paper before him, scanning the list of names, and each corresponding photo printed beside it. Seven of them to find, huh? He looked up at his client and stowed the sheet of paper in his coat pocket. "I'll make sure they return safely," he reassured the man who was holding back the waterworks, shivering quietly as he nodded. By now, Ash knew almost the entire layout of Magnolia town, so finding all these lost puppies shouldn't have been an issue.
And for such a simple job, the reward was quite handsome - 1000 jewels just for returning seven puppies. Mr. Fovois (he said it's pronounced 'Fov-wa', but Ash thought otherwise) was obviously incredibly worried about the puppies he would soon sell to some warm homes. With a grin, Ash retrieved the paper from his pocket and looked to the first name on the list - Snowy, a pure white dog with a deep black nose. Last seen wandering by the channel. He knew the perfect hiding spot that a pup could easily hide in.
Wandering back through the town, the same way he'd come, he arrived at the river of water surrounded by stone walls and shaded by bridges. He took a post at the edge of the wall and peered along the edge every time he came up to a bridge - under each one, the wall extended just slightly and led to a hollow spot between the wall and the bridge. Ash whistled quietly as he waltzed along, hoping maybe the pup would react to the sound. Eventually, a small yap echoed from the bridge before him, and he smiled softly, stopping and slinging his legs over the edge. He scooted along the wall on his bottom and held his hand out under the bridge. A gentle, wet nose pressed against his palm, and he carefully wrapped his hand around the puppy's body, carrying him out and in front of him. "Hey there, little buddy!" he cheered and the puppy yapped at him excitedly, its tail wagging rapidly. Grunting, Ash stood up and gently slipped the small dog into his coat pocket, where he'd be nice and cozy.
Opening the paper again, he looked down the list to the next target. Mist was a smoky grey puppy, and was the runt of the bunch. Apparently she had hid under a little stall in the marketplace and wouldn't come out, no matter what was tried. Even food wouldn't attract the little guy. With a sigh, Ash slipped the paper back into his pocket, making certain it was unoccupied by the puppy, and set off for the market. Scanning the various food stalls, his eyes locked onto a little girl sitting on her haunches, auburn hair cascading down her back in three pony tails, appearing to be beckoning into the darkness underneath the cart.
"Ay, scram, little punk!" the owner of the stall grumbled at the little girl, and, frightened, she took off in the other direction, just as a tiny, grey paw reached out from under the cart. It retreated just as quickly as it had reached out, and Ash scowled. He quickly followed after the little girl... well, quickly was an understatement. She was a fast little tyke and Ash didn't quite have the stamina to keep up to the same speed the whole way. Finally as she halted, Ash caught up and tapped on her shoulder. She squealed and cowered, turning to see him smiling tenderly at her and the lollipop in her hand stretched out in the other direction.
"Hey, hey, don't be a afraid. I would just like some help with something," Ash requested and turned to look at the stall. "The puppy under there, he almost came out, didn't he?" She nodded hesitantly in confirmation, sticking the lollipop in her mouth again. "I'll talk to the man, I'd like your help in getting him out. I'm on a job to get this guy's puppies, and she's one of them," he explained, and her expression loosened up.
"O-oh, okay mister..." she responded nervously, but with a gentle smile across her lips. Leading her back over to the stall, Ash stood at the window and confronted the owner.
"Sir, you're aware there is a puppy underneath your cart right?"
"Yes I'm bloody aware of that, sneaky beaks have been poking their noses under there for days now and it's driving me nuts!"
"Well, this little girl here almost solved your problem, and you scolded her. Don't you think that's a little mean?" Ash asked with one raised eyebrow, motioning to the girl beside him.
Scowling, the owner scoffed and turned away. "Whatever, make it quick," he grumbled, and Ash gave a thumbs up to his assistant. Getting down on her hands and knees, she called to the animal hiding under the cart.
"Come on little guy, Aria will take care of you. I won't hurt you, and neither will mister here, you're alright," she beckoned softly and kindly, her words coming from her heart. Finally, a little grey head popped out and cautiously sniffed around, before finally dragging its whole teensy tiny body out. It really was a runt, but it was a beautiful runt at that. Aria picked up the puppy and cuddled it against her chest for a moment, ignoring the dust and dirt that peppered the dog's fur. She passed it to Ash, and he very carefully dusted the poor thing off.
"Thank you, Aria. You've done a good thing for a good person today. Don't stop being a kind soul," he praised her as he gently slid the puppy into his pocket with her brother, and began to walk off until Aria called out.
"Wait, mister! What's your name?" she asked, and he grinned.
"My name's Ashtver, but please just call me Ash. I'll see you around, okay?" he whispered to her gently and gave her a brisk pat on the head. He looked up at the storekeep, and the memory of a smirk crossed his lip, before he nodded to him. Giving him a thumbs up as well, Ash headed off and regarded the paper again. The two pups were already fast asleep, cozy in his pocket together. The next two puppies had supposedly gotten stuck on a roof together. Ember and Kindle, two strawberry blond puppies, were inseparable and were never seen apart. That made Ash's job easier.
"Come on Phoenix powers, you can do it..." Ash sighed to himself and focused his magic into the middle of his back. This was his first time trying this, but since he was descended from a Phoenixborn, he had to have wings of some kind right? Lo and behold, blue flames erupted from his back in a magical, unveiling display like the curtain at a theater rolling up to the ceiling. Taking a moment to admire his newfound Phoenix wings, Ash flapped them gently by carefully manipulating the magic power within them. "Alright, here goes!" he cried out and gave one large flap towards the ground, sending him flying into the air at a blinding speed, leaving a trail of cold flames in his wake. His eyes remained shut the entire journey, and when he opened them, he was gazing at the Magnolia rooftops, bobbing up and down in the sky from his magical wings. "W-woah!" he exclaimed and scanned the horizon - it was gorgeous being up this high. The puppies in his pocket had startled, and were staring up at him in confusion. With a gentle smile, he petted the two of them and they slowly went back to sleep.
Leaning forward, Ash propelled himself quickly through the air, making sure to zip up his pocket before hand, leaving enough room for the puppies to get air. He stared at the rooftops in hopes of finding the puppies. A flicker of gold caught his eye and he halted, letting his wings drop him carefully towards the roof below him. Two puppies were playfighting each other, jumping on and rolling over each other along a wide gutter. At least they were mostly safe, playing there, as long as they didn't go near the drainpipe. Descending quietly, Ash positioned himself just above one of the puppies and scooped it up, holding it carefully with one hand. Its sibling yapped and growled savagely, as Ash had just taken its sibling away from them. Swooping down to try and reunite the dogs, the remaining sibling skittered away in fright, heading directly towards the drainpipe.
"God damnit!" Ash growled and quickly dashed after the puppy, getting ahead of it along the roof before swinging around in a tight arc and scooping the little dog up as its front paw reached over the maw of darkness at the end of the gutter. He carefully tucked the two pups together, yet they remained shivering in fear of him. "You two will be alright, lemme take y'all back to Fovois," he muttered, using his own annoying pronunciation of the man's name. He flapped his wings gently and carried all the puppies across the skies back to Fovois' place, and descended to the cobbles, landing softly and letting the flames dissipate into thin air.
The lean, bespectacled and pompous man stood out the front of his property with a basket beside him. "Got four of them for you sir, still looking for the other three," he explained and carefully placed Kindle and Ember into the basket on the blanket, before unzipping his pocket and removing a rather startled Mist and still-excited Snowy, laying them down in the basket too. "I'll be back with the other three, I promise!" he cried as, within seconds, he'd formed his wings and launched into the sky like a rocket once more. He took the paper out and read it again. Ash gulped at the name and description.
Titan, the biggest of the pups, was a rather rebellious brown dog. While a kind soul, he was quite cautious and defensive around anyone or anything he didn't know. He'd managed to climb up into a tree using a pile of boxes, which had fallen and shattered as he kicked them on the way up, and now he was stuck. And despite peoples' best efforts, he refused to come down and barked at anyone who tried to help him. The only thing he didn't bark at was food, as he needed a way to eat while he was stuck. The tree was supposedly near a café around the center of Magnolia, which Mr. Fovois' place was rather close to, thankfully. Quietly roaming the skies, Ash located the café the poster mentioned, and the tree beside it with a very large puppy barking at everyone who walked by.
Ash dropped through the sky quietly, drifting around to Titan's blind spot, and hovered for a moment, making sure he had the technique right, before quickly snatching Titan by the sides, lifting him up and out of the tree in one quick motion. The sudden and unexpected weight of the puppy caused Ash to drop down in the air for a moment, before he clutched the still barking dog under his left arm, careful not to drop him. As the cheers of the people down below echoed in Ash's ears, the dog began to settle down and slacken underneath his arm, becoming much less of a task to carry. No way could he pick up the other two pups while holding onto the big fella, so Ash ascended once more and headed back over to the Fovois household, swooping down carefully and gently dropping Titan into the basket in a blank spot from a safe distance, before taking off again.
Two more to go. Training his eyes on the second-to-last picture, Ash read on; Princess, a little fluffy white pup who seems to think that she's the queen of the castle, and has taken her place atop a structure of cement bricks. Every time someone has attempted to retrieve her, she has receded into a hole in her 'castle', and no one has attempted to remove any bricks in case it fell in on Princess. The only place Ash knew any loose bricks were was just outside the construction site for a new, swanky building with two main stories and a penthouse. Apparently some rich kid from far off was moving in there. His patience beginning to grow thin with the difficulty of these puppies, Ash grumbled as he let the air current carry his magical wings across the city, towards the large mass of land that was being dug out and built upon. He quickly dropped to the cobbles and stumbled a couple steps, halting just in front of the castle of bricks. Princess sat atop it and gazed at him blankly, her short tail wagging slowly behind her.
If he reached for her, she'd go into her little hiding spot, and probably not come out until the next day. So he had to block off her escape route. He kept his eyes on Princess's, hoping the eye contact would distract the dog enough. He focused his magic power into his foot, and a wave of blue flamed carefully licked across the ground, leaving a trail of frost on the stone. He navigated the flames into the holes in the bricks and carefully let them crawl up the structure. The flames will have frozen the gaps shut, and finally he saw the flames reach the hole behind Princess. Cautious not to let them touch her, Ash kept the flames as far back as he could while freezing up the cracks. The freezing done, he let the flames snuff out, and he reached for Princess. She attempted to back up into her hidey hole. Her backside bumped up against an unexpected obstacle, and she panicked. In that moment, Ash snatched her up gently, tucking the Queen of the Castle against his chest. "You're okay little girl, you're alright," he cooed as he pet her, and she stopped shivering in his palms.
Gently letting her slide into his empty pocket, Ash retrieved the poster and checked it for the last time. Shadow, a little black pup, was extremely sneaky and liked to pounce on his siblings from the shadows for fun. However, no location was attached to the picture and description. Fovois was uncertain as to the whereabouts of the puppy, since no one had actually seen him. "Grand... time to search the whole damn city..." he grumbled, and began a slow, airborne search of the city.
After a couple hours of wandering around the skies, he still found nothing. That meant there was one last place for him to check. He dropped out the front of a very worried Fovois' house, and he placed Princess in with her siblings. "Sir, may I come into your house?" he asked and Fovois raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, what for?" he questioned skeptically, and Ash followed him through the door as he carried his puppies in the basket.
"I did a full airborne search of the city and found no commotion about puppies, or anything that could have remotely been about Shadow," he explained and searched around the house, looking for anything black. Almost everything was a gentle shade of teal - the couch, the tablecloth, the curtains. But the one armchair in the loungeroom was purely black. "Sir, have you had the leg of the armchair up at any point over the past few days?"
"Yes, just a few days ago."
"Did you leave it unattended?"
Fovois opened his mouth to speak before catching himself. "Yes, actually, I got up to grab the cup of tea I'd left on the bench."
With a soft smile, Ash pulled up on the lever and the leg of the armchair swung up and out, and Ash peered in. A pair of sparkling, green-brown eyes peered at him from within. He reached in and carefully extracted Shadow from the depths of the armchair, handing him to Fovois. "In that short moment, Shadow had crawled into the chair, possibly proud he'd found a new hiding spot," Ash explained with a wide grin.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you very much!" he exclaimed with glee and tucked Shadow
under his arm gently. "Please, allow me to organize your payment now."
Another successful mission, Ash praised himself inwardly and breathed a sigh of relief that it was over.
WC: 2746/2250 COMPLETED
And for such a simple job, the reward was quite handsome - 1000 jewels just for returning seven puppies. Mr. Fovois (he said it's pronounced 'Fov-wa', but Ash thought otherwise) was obviously incredibly worried about the puppies he would soon sell to some warm homes. With a grin, Ash retrieved the paper from his pocket and looked to the first name on the list - Snowy, a pure white dog with a deep black nose. Last seen wandering by the channel. He knew the perfect hiding spot that a pup could easily hide in.
Wandering back through the town, the same way he'd come, he arrived at the river of water surrounded by stone walls and shaded by bridges. He took a post at the edge of the wall and peered along the edge every time he came up to a bridge - under each one, the wall extended just slightly and led to a hollow spot between the wall and the bridge. Ash whistled quietly as he waltzed along, hoping maybe the pup would react to the sound. Eventually, a small yap echoed from the bridge before him, and he smiled softly, stopping and slinging his legs over the edge. He scooted along the wall on his bottom and held his hand out under the bridge. A gentle, wet nose pressed against his palm, and he carefully wrapped his hand around the puppy's body, carrying him out and in front of him. "Hey there, little buddy!" he cheered and the puppy yapped at him excitedly, its tail wagging rapidly. Grunting, Ash stood up and gently slipped the small dog into his coat pocket, where he'd be nice and cozy.
Opening the paper again, he looked down the list to the next target. Mist was a smoky grey puppy, and was the runt of the bunch. Apparently she had hid under a little stall in the marketplace and wouldn't come out, no matter what was tried. Even food wouldn't attract the little guy. With a sigh, Ash slipped the paper back into his pocket, making certain it was unoccupied by the puppy, and set off for the market. Scanning the various food stalls, his eyes locked onto a little girl sitting on her haunches, auburn hair cascading down her back in three pony tails, appearing to be beckoning into the darkness underneath the cart.
"Ay, scram, little punk!" the owner of the stall grumbled at the little girl, and, frightened, she took off in the other direction, just as a tiny, grey paw reached out from under the cart. It retreated just as quickly as it had reached out, and Ash scowled. He quickly followed after the little girl... well, quickly was an understatement. She was a fast little tyke and Ash didn't quite have the stamina to keep up to the same speed the whole way. Finally as she halted, Ash caught up and tapped on her shoulder. She squealed and cowered, turning to see him smiling tenderly at her and the lollipop in her hand stretched out in the other direction.
"Hey, hey, don't be a afraid. I would just like some help with something," Ash requested and turned to look at the stall. "The puppy under there, he almost came out, didn't he?" She nodded hesitantly in confirmation, sticking the lollipop in her mouth again. "I'll talk to the man, I'd like your help in getting him out. I'm on a job to get this guy's puppies, and she's one of them," he explained, and her expression loosened up.
"O-oh, okay mister..." she responded nervously, but with a gentle smile across her lips. Leading her back over to the stall, Ash stood at the window and confronted the owner.
"Sir, you're aware there is a puppy underneath your cart right?"
"Yes I'm bloody aware of that, sneaky beaks have been poking their noses under there for days now and it's driving me nuts!"
"Well, this little girl here almost solved your problem, and you scolded her. Don't you think that's a little mean?" Ash asked with one raised eyebrow, motioning to the girl beside him.
Scowling, the owner scoffed and turned away. "Whatever, make it quick," he grumbled, and Ash gave a thumbs up to his assistant. Getting down on her hands and knees, she called to the animal hiding under the cart.
"Come on little guy, Aria will take care of you. I won't hurt you, and neither will mister here, you're alright," she beckoned softly and kindly, her words coming from her heart. Finally, a little grey head popped out and cautiously sniffed around, before finally dragging its whole teensy tiny body out. It really was a runt, but it was a beautiful runt at that. Aria picked up the puppy and cuddled it against her chest for a moment, ignoring the dust and dirt that peppered the dog's fur. She passed it to Ash, and he very carefully dusted the poor thing off.
"Thank you, Aria. You've done a good thing for a good person today. Don't stop being a kind soul," he praised her as he gently slid the puppy into his pocket with her brother, and began to walk off until Aria called out.
"Wait, mister! What's your name?" she asked, and he grinned.
"My name's Ashtver, but please just call me Ash. I'll see you around, okay?" he whispered to her gently and gave her a brisk pat on the head. He looked up at the storekeep, and the memory of a smirk crossed his lip, before he nodded to him. Giving him a thumbs up as well, Ash headed off and regarded the paper again. The two pups were already fast asleep, cozy in his pocket together. The next two puppies had supposedly gotten stuck on a roof together. Ember and Kindle, two strawberry blond puppies, were inseparable and were never seen apart. That made Ash's job easier.
"Come on Phoenix powers, you can do it..." Ash sighed to himself and focused his magic into the middle of his back. This was his first time trying this, but since he was descended from a Phoenixborn, he had to have wings of some kind right? Lo and behold, blue flames erupted from his back in a magical, unveiling display like the curtain at a theater rolling up to the ceiling. Taking a moment to admire his newfound Phoenix wings, Ash flapped them gently by carefully manipulating the magic power within them. "Alright, here goes!" he cried out and gave one large flap towards the ground, sending him flying into the air at a blinding speed, leaving a trail of cold flames in his wake. His eyes remained shut the entire journey, and when he opened them, he was gazing at the Magnolia rooftops, bobbing up and down in the sky from his magical wings. "W-woah!" he exclaimed and scanned the horizon - it was gorgeous being up this high. The puppies in his pocket had startled, and were staring up at him in confusion. With a gentle smile, he petted the two of them and they slowly went back to sleep.
Leaning forward, Ash propelled himself quickly through the air, making sure to zip up his pocket before hand, leaving enough room for the puppies to get air. He stared at the rooftops in hopes of finding the puppies. A flicker of gold caught his eye and he halted, letting his wings drop him carefully towards the roof below him. Two puppies were playfighting each other, jumping on and rolling over each other along a wide gutter. At least they were mostly safe, playing there, as long as they didn't go near the drainpipe. Descending quietly, Ash positioned himself just above one of the puppies and scooped it up, holding it carefully with one hand. Its sibling yapped and growled savagely, as Ash had just taken its sibling away from them. Swooping down to try and reunite the dogs, the remaining sibling skittered away in fright, heading directly towards the drainpipe.
"God damnit!" Ash growled and quickly dashed after the puppy, getting ahead of it along the roof before swinging around in a tight arc and scooping the little dog up as its front paw reached over the maw of darkness at the end of the gutter. He carefully tucked the two pups together, yet they remained shivering in fear of him. "You two will be alright, lemme take y'all back to Fovois," he muttered, using his own annoying pronunciation of the man's name. He flapped his wings gently and carried all the puppies across the skies back to Fovois' place, and descended to the cobbles, landing softly and letting the flames dissipate into thin air.
The lean, bespectacled and pompous man stood out the front of his property with a basket beside him. "Got four of them for you sir, still looking for the other three," he explained and carefully placed Kindle and Ember into the basket on the blanket, before unzipping his pocket and removing a rather startled Mist and still-excited Snowy, laying them down in the basket too. "I'll be back with the other three, I promise!" he cried as, within seconds, he'd formed his wings and launched into the sky like a rocket once more. He took the paper out and read it again. Ash gulped at the name and description.
Titan, the biggest of the pups, was a rather rebellious brown dog. While a kind soul, he was quite cautious and defensive around anyone or anything he didn't know. He'd managed to climb up into a tree using a pile of boxes, which had fallen and shattered as he kicked them on the way up, and now he was stuck. And despite peoples' best efforts, he refused to come down and barked at anyone who tried to help him. The only thing he didn't bark at was food, as he needed a way to eat while he was stuck. The tree was supposedly near a café around the center of Magnolia, which Mr. Fovois' place was rather close to, thankfully. Quietly roaming the skies, Ash located the café the poster mentioned, and the tree beside it with a very large puppy barking at everyone who walked by.
Ash dropped through the sky quietly, drifting around to Titan's blind spot, and hovered for a moment, making sure he had the technique right, before quickly snatching Titan by the sides, lifting him up and out of the tree in one quick motion. The sudden and unexpected weight of the puppy caused Ash to drop down in the air for a moment, before he clutched the still barking dog under his left arm, careful not to drop him. As the cheers of the people down below echoed in Ash's ears, the dog began to settle down and slacken underneath his arm, becoming much less of a task to carry. No way could he pick up the other two pups while holding onto the big fella, so Ash ascended once more and headed back over to the Fovois household, swooping down carefully and gently dropping Titan into the basket in a blank spot from a safe distance, before taking off again.
Two more to go. Training his eyes on the second-to-last picture, Ash read on; Princess, a little fluffy white pup who seems to think that she's the queen of the castle, and has taken her place atop a structure of cement bricks. Every time someone has attempted to retrieve her, she has receded into a hole in her 'castle', and no one has attempted to remove any bricks in case it fell in on Princess. The only place Ash knew any loose bricks were was just outside the construction site for a new, swanky building with two main stories and a penthouse. Apparently some rich kid from far off was moving in there. His patience beginning to grow thin with the difficulty of these puppies, Ash grumbled as he let the air current carry his magical wings across the city, towards the large mass of land that was being dug out and built upon. He quickly dropped to the cobbles and stumbled a couple steps, halting just in front of the castle of bricks. Princess sat atop it and gazed at him blankly, her short tail wagging slowly behind her.
If he reached for her, she'd go into her little hiding spot, and probably not come out until the next day. So he had to block off her escape route. He kept his eyes on Princess's, hoping the eye contact would distract the dog enough. He focused his magic power into his foot, and a wave of blue flamed carefully licked across the ground, leaving a trail of frost on the stone. He navigated the flames into the holes in the bricks and carefully let them crawl up the structure. The flames will have frozen the gaps shut, and finally he saw the flames reach the hole behind Princess. Cautious not to let them touch her, Ash kept the flames as far back as he could while freezing up the cracks. The freezing done, he let the flames snuff out, and he reached for Princess. She attempted to back up into her hidey hole. Her backside bumped up against an unexpected obstacle, and she panicked. In that moment, Ash snatched her up gently, tucking the Queen of the Castle against his chest. "You're okay little girl, you're alright," he cooed as he pet her, and she stopped shivering in his palms.
Gently letting her slide into his empty pocket, Ash retrieved the poster and checked it for the last time. Shadow, a little black pup, was extremely sneaky and liked to pounce on his siblings from the shadows for fun. However, no location was attached to the picture and description. Fovois was uncertain as to the whereabouts of the puppy, since no one had actually seen him. "Grand... time to search the whole damn city..." he grumbled, and began a slow, airborne search of the city.
After a couple hours of wandering around the skies, he still found nothing. That meant there was one last place for him to check. He dropped out the front of a very worried Fovois' house, and he placed Princess in with her siblings. "Sir, may I come into your house?" he asked and Fovois raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, what for?" he questioned skeptically, and Ash followed him through the door as he carried his puppies in the basket.
"I did a full airborne search of the city and found no commotion about puppies, or anything that could have remotely been about Shadow," he explained and searched around the house, looking for anything black. Almost everything was a gentle shade of teal - the couch, the tablecloth, the curtains. But the one armchair in the loungeroom was purely black. "Sir, have you had the leg of the armchair up at any point over the past few days?"
"Yes, just a few days ago."
"Did you leave it unattended?"
Fovois opened his mouth to speak before catching himself. "Yes, actually, I got up to grab the cup of tea I'd left on the bench."
With a soft smile, Ash pulled up on the lever and the leg of the armchair swung up and out, and Ash peered in. A pair of sparkling, green-brown eyes peered at him from within. He reached in and carefully extracted Shadow from the depths of the armchair, handing him to Fovois. "In that short moment, Shadow had crawled into the chair, possibly proud he'd found a new hiding spot," Ash explained with a wide grin.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you very much!" he exclaimed with glee and tucked Shadow
under his arm gently. "Please, allow me to organize your payment now."
Another successful mission, Ash praised himself inwardly and breathed a sigh of relief that it was over.
WC: 2746/2250 COMPLETED
