Gone Fishin'

"So this is my life now." Elvira muttered to herself. She was laying out on one of the more rarely used gangplanks leading from the Crystalli to the banks of the lake in which the massive city-ship floated. While the city itself was far too large to notice any kind of visible sway, the ramp was less stable --the gentle waves caused it to rock pleasantly beneath her.

She had been tasked with returning a suitable meal to the ship's captain lest the lake outside Hosenka become the city's permanent home. She was currently in the midst of taking the task extremely seriously, paying almost no attention to the string tied around her big toe as it lazily dipped down into the clear water below. Elvira was concentrating hard on deciding whether or not the cloud directly above her looked more like a lizard or a dog; so hard in fact that she was unaware of the giant shadow gliding through the lake just beneath her position.

"A dragon-dog? A dog-dragon? But what kind...sky seems a bit on the nose..." She whispered to herself as the fishing line slowly started to tense.

"Well, no sense trying to fix what isn't broken. Sky dragon-dog it is!" Her pleasure with this conclusion was short lived. The fishing line yanked downwards causing her to fly off the ramp and splash into the water with a high pitched scream --she struggled for a moment before disappearing below the waves.

"Mistakes have been made." She said to herself, trying to grasp what was happening: Several yards ahead she could make out the tail of bright red fish the size of her couch dragging her towards a watery grave --it was quickly dawning on her she was extremely ill-equipped to handle this situation. Elvira had thus far only collected two cards which cast aggressive spells: one was fire based and the other lightning, neither of which seemed like a particularly good idea. It had to be lightning...

"This...is gonna hurt."

As the fish lead her into the abyss she produced two cards, holding one in each hand. She'd have to rely on the fact that calling the Weeping Maiden typically took a second or two longer than the Courtesan.

She held one of the cards in her mouth and pressed the other to her stomach, summoning her healing magic before quickly shoving the first card into her bikini and aiming the second at the giant fish.

"I am about to die trying to feed a sword wielding cat-man named Bojangles." She thought. "How did it come to this?"
.

The lake suddenly flashed crimson, electricity crackling across it's surface for a split-second before the glassy surface was soothed the by the warm afternoon sun. A small fish, belly up, floated to the surface...then another...and another. Soon the entire eastern half of the lake was little more than a fish graveyard.

A short while later the door to the guild hall burst open to reveal a determined looking Elvira. Her bikini was largely melted, leaving barely enough material to cover the important parts while revealing the black scorch marks across her body. She stomped into the guild hall, somehow mustering the strength to drag the couch-sized red carp behind her. She drew quite a few strange glances as she muscled the deceased creature up the staircase to the second floor, kicking the rope barring access aside. Grunting, she walked around behind the fish and angrily pushed it up the second staircase until it was just in front of the forbidden door to the "bridge".

In a huff she walked back down and out of the guildhall, only to return several more times carrying buckets of fish which were dumped, unceremoniously, beside the lake monster. Once access to the bridge had been all but cut off by a bounty that would make the most seasoned sea captain jealous, she slumped against a wall. Unable to knock on the door she picked up several of the crispy lake-dwellers and simply threw them at the entryway in a pattern that mimicked a door knock.

Task concluded, she turned to take a step downstairs and promptly face planted, slowly and pathetically sliding down to the second floor, unconscious.