It's Just a Story...Right? (Job w/ Aura Sparks)

Job: Defeat SwollenMan




HP: 400
MP: 400

Aura sat in a chair near the guild board, as she read a story. She was beginning one of her favorite stories, "Little Red Riding Hood." She always loved the story, even when she was a child. It always showed her that even when she felt danger, she could always find safety in something that felt close to her. Although that wasn't usually the message people perceive from the story, it was what Aura thought about every single time she read the story. After all, even if she was in danger, she could always find comfort in the memories of her family. No matter how few they were, she could always look back on them and smile, whether in fear or depression.

She yawned as she read the part about Red meeting the big bad wolf for the first time. She smiled as the little wolf did what his kind always did, take advantage of their prey. Aura felt herself grow more tired, as an hour passed by. The storybook of hers never told only 1 story, it told all stories associated with the characters. It was kind of refreshing seeing all the takes on how Red was told throughout the ancient times that she went through. Aura could barely keep her eyes open before she even got to the good part. She felt herself doze off as her eyes completely closed, leaving Aura completely asleep.

As she was sleeping, she had a tiny dream. It was odd though, it felt more like some sort of memory than a mystical dream. Aura was in some sort of forest. She tried to feel around the area, but every time she tried to touch something, she phased right through it. It was as though she was just reaching through her storybook when she took out her golden keys. In mystery, she tried to commence the memory/dream forward but it wasn't working to well. It would seem like she would have to wait for something before it fully commenced. She pondered what it was, but she didn't have to wonder too long because right then and there she heard sticks and leaves crackling beneath the shoes of someone's feet. Aura tried looking towards it but the only thing she could see was a shadow, with blue hair. Almost like her...mother's. Aura looked in awe as the shadow came closer to her. It walked closer and closer, yelling, "Help! Help!" However, something was off about the voice. It didn't seem like the voice of her mother, but instead the voice of what seemed to be a raspy woman's voice.

Aura opened her eyes to what seemed like an old lady. She had a sense of worry on her face, that made her seem as though someone was about to kill her right then and there. Her face had a sense of pain, that made Aura feel sorrow because that was the same face she had felt the second she lost her family to that fire. Aura felt a pang of guilt as the lady stared at her, clearly needing the help of the mage. With a cry, the lady said to her, "Are you a mage of this guild?" Aura, still trying to fully wake up, looked towards the lady and opened her mouth saying, "Yes I am. A B rank mage at that as well. Why do you ask?" Aura saw the lady, as she had a flash of hope in her eyes. Aura felt as though she shouldn't have answered that. With a voice of glee, the lady cried out in hope, "Oh please please please, help me. I already sent another mage out, but I don't trust her too much. I need someone like you to make sure that everything will work out smoothly, or else my grandchild will be lost forever.

It had only taken a few minutes for the lady to tell Aura the predicament she was in, but Aura knew that she had to take the job. She had to make sure that no one else's family member would ever have to lose someone, like how Aura lost her family, again. So, she looked towards the lady righteously and said to her, "Okay, I'll do it. I swear I will not let your grandchild get hurt if it's the last thing I do." As she walked off to the teleporters, she wondered who her partner was. She crossed her fingers and hope she would not be paired up with that idiotic piece of trash, Vincent. That guy was a sore on her side, and she couldn't believe that she ever had to do a job with that man. As she shivered, she stepped onto the teleporter and closed her eyes to await the partner she was paired with.

wc:800
tc:800/7500

HP: 400
MP: 400

Aura had teleported straight to the village beside the forest. She was sure that she would find her guild partner if she stayed here since it was the only way to get into the forest. So, she decided to stay there for a while, and if her partner didn't show up when she would venture into the forest to go and look for her.

Aura decided to venture out and see what this town had to offer her. It seemed to be a rather depressing town, with people trying to farm ice while killing their backs. It was really saddening for Aura but she had no idea how to help them. It was like she was hopeless in this situation and it sort of made her saddened. She's met tons of great people on her journeys and she guessed these people were good as well. The fact that she couldn't help good people made her feel somewhat awful about herself. If she couldn't make a difference, then why was she even a guild mage in the first place. As she stared down at the ground, she frowned at the realization that she might not be so important after all. She truly wondered if she was actually important to the world as the mage she was now. It was sort of a time of reflection for her that started to make her into a deep dark hole of self-doubt. So, she decided to go to a cafe and maybe get a coffee and some food. She hoped she could think, or maybe even become happier there. She always loved trying foreign things, because it reminds her of the traveling she used to do and why saving the world was so important to her.

As she ate that food, she started to remember why she came to the world of guilds. She wanted to make sure that the people she's seen over the past years were safe. She wanted to know that she was able to defend them from what other villages weren't able to defend from alone. She remembered looking back to the first village she visited. It was an amazing village with amazing people, but years later, the village was burned down and corpses were spread across the fields. She didn't want that to happen to more people, or villages. She didn't want their cultures to be lost even if the only thing different from other cultures is their food. As she finished up the final crumbs of the iceberry pie she was eating, she sat back in her chair and dozed off from the fullness of her stomach.

It was only about an hour or so before she woke up and yet there was no one around. As she looked up, she realized that the sun had moved quite a bit since the last time she was awake. In panic, she stood up and put money on the table as she ran out of the room. She hoped that her partner wasn't too far away as she ran directly into the forest with fear in her eyes. Hopefully, her little mistake didn't kill the person she was supposed to look after.

wc: 532
tc: 1332/7500

HP: 400
MP: 400

The dark forest she was in made Aura feel very intimidated. It was as though there was a mysterious and scary creature lurking everywhere inside of it. She swore she even felt someone breathe down her back, but when she looked back...nothing. Aura did not know why she decided to ever do this job, EVER! She remembered those scary horror books she used to read as a child, and know the knowledge of those books were going to haunt her. She remembered this one story her and her father always used to read together.

It was a story about a monster that used to stalk people where ever they went. No matter what, he would always be watching. However, he would never be able to be seen because as soon as you looked his way...he would disappear. Aura felt the same thing happening to her, but it felt even more real, now that she was in the moment. As she became paranoid, she looked around sporadically hoping that she might see those creep bright blue eyes somewhere, like the ones described in that book. As she kept looking, she saw nothing and even more nothing. It was too quiet and too eerie for there to not be something scary happening. She tried singing that song she heard during that job with Theo, as she hummed it silently. It began to calm her down as she felt all the tension go out of her body. She began to breathe in and out deeply as she started to become more relaxed. Once she opened her eyes, she looked up to see the forest in a less creepy manner than what she had seen before. As she looked around, she stumbled upon what looked like a creepy camp. She wondered if this was the same camp in those stories about this forest.

The story apparently was, was that this camp was closed down because a child had died. There was a child that the murdered child tried to drown, but something happened within the kid that was almost drowned. Their magic was activated as this happened, so they became berserk and drowned that kid instead. That was the day the kid became a murderer, and the day he became known as the SwollenMan. The child that drowned wasn't even found until someone found a bone in the water. Some sort of cultists had believed like he was some mystical being that had extreme power over others. They thought he was a god that needed to be fed, like most cultists believed. That was probably why kids were beginning to disappear. The cultists had been gone for a bit, but now they were back and probably trying to get sacrifices. Whether that was true or not didn't matter, because either way it still closed down. After all, she only read it in a book she found when she was on a job. She wondered what actually happened here as she sat down on a bench near what looked like a worn out fireplace. The area seemed like it actually used to be a nice and fun place for kids to go to over the summer. It warmed Aura's heart that at least a few kids could have fun before the tragedy happened.

After that thought, she began to walk around more to see playgrounds, games, and even cabins. As she walked by a cabin with the number 5 at the top, she heard a noise. It was odd, as though there was somebody...or something inside it. As she opened the door, the moonlight shined upon the area as she saw what looked like an adult girl's body on the bed. Aura wasn't sure if she was dead or sleeping, but all she could do was scream.

wc: 633
tc: 1965/7500

HP: 400/400
MP: 400/400

Aura felt the darkness clear, as she began to become more susceptible to it. As the ringing from the scream stopped, she realized that it was a girl. It wasn't any creepy or spooky ghost, but instead a regular girl. Looking at her now, Aura seemed to realize that the girl was from the guild. That was especially clear when she asked Aura about if she was in the guild. Suddenly that anxiousness turned to laughter. With a few giggles, she said to the girl, "Yea, I'm Aura Sparks, member of Crystal Swan or whatever. That lady who probably employed you thought that you weren't fit enough to go on the job alone. So, she decided to recruit me too. I thought you died or something, because I guess my tiredness got the best of me. A few hours of napping, and I realized I might've missed you. So, I went into the forest to where I am now. The only reason I came in here, was because I heard some sort of noise. It was probably you, but the thump did sound a bit louder than normal. I'm guessing that all you did was bump your head or body into something while moving around. I guess we should get-" All of a sudden, two frantic children ran out of a dark corner of the cabin as they dashed towards Elvira and Aura. With a gasp, she saw as one of the children lunged towards Aura, while the other Elvira.

With a sudden duck, the child jumped over her and towards the wall. Aura didn't want to hurt these children at all. All she really wanted to do was help these children. Then, it hit her, she knew exactly what she had to do. As she watched the child recover from hitting the wall, she called to her aid the key of the turkey. As she raised it into the air, a turkey formed in front of Aura. Before it was too late, Aura asked the bird if it could create 2 roast turkeys for her. With taht, the turkey did its task in almost an instance. Aura picked up one of them and threw it to Elvira, asking her, "Give it to that child. I think it will be able to stop them without hurting them. Do it before they do something, like bite you!" As she turned around, the kid tackled her down. She saw as the kid tried to bite her, but she pushed on the boy's chest to make sure he doesn't get close enough to bite her. Then, with a fluent motion with her other hand, she took the turkey on the ground and shoved it into the kid's mouth. He began to chew it quickly as he calmed down more and more. Aura sighed as he calmed himself down, which let her look to see what happened with Elvira and that child.

wc: 488
tc: 2453/7500

health: 400
mp: 400

Aura saw as Elvira had the child that attacked her subdued with the turkey leg. The two children were gnawing on it as though they haven't had a meal in months. That was probably true, since they looked like they haven't even seen a living person in that amount of time. Aura wondered what they were doing her, but she didn't want to question them just yet. For now, they needed to somehow get the kids to not bite them. After all, the two of them couldn't hurt children...right? Aura looked at them with pity in her eyes and frowned as she imagined what must've happened to them in these woods. She felt sadness feel her face as she walked over to them and began to comfort them. They didn't seem to want her comfort, but they took it anyways. As Aura patted them on the back, she asked them, "What's your names?" With a tiny squeek from the girl, she said, "I'm Ari, and this is my brother Tiam." In reply, Aura said, "Nice to meet you both! Now then, how did you get here in the first place?"

"We...uhm...were captured by...a-a ev-vil man," She cried out. Then, she began to continue her sentence and said, "He said he wa-was going to eat us." Then, she completely went out into tears as her brother ran to her aid. He tried to cheer her up, but Aura thought that she couldn't let them go off that easily. She knew that they were probably the only chance the two had for them to reach the Swollenman. So, Aura asked the children, "Do you think you could lead me back there? I know it might be hard, and scary, but me and my partner here will defend you. I swear, we won't let you be eaten by that man if its the last thing we do." With a confident smile, she reached out her arms towards the children, and picked them back up onto their feet. As the little girl stood up, she wiped her tears off of her face and began to lead Elvira and Aura out of the building.

wc:359
tc:2812/7500

Aura heard as Elvira said her opinion on the topic, but Aura tried to reassure her by saying, "Don't worry, they will be safe with us. I know they will be, because we are guild mages. If we aren't able to help them, then no one can. Also, this might be our only chance to find other children like this, and they deserve to be free like these two over here." Aura knew that what they were doing was right. She was sure of it, especially since she knew that she would be able to defeat the man behind all of this. As she clenched her hands into a fist, she stood up confidently and continued what she was saying earlier, "We are strong, and these kids need strong. Also, we can't leave these kids here to fend for themselves. If we are to save the other kids, we need to save them too. They will never have complete closure if we were to just send them back and let the people behind the kidnappings go free." She saw as the little girl opened her mouth in awe at the speech Aura made. Aura smiled down to her and said, "I know we will protect you. I swear by it."

As Aura, the kids, and Elvira were walking down the forest, Aura noticed something. She seemed to be watching Elvira go a tiny bit insane. She seemed more paranoid than she should be, which was odd. Aura wondered what was happening in her mind, because as Elvira kept looking over at multiple areas, Aura would follow her gazes and see nothing. She wondered how sane Elvira was right now. Aura was like this earlier, but something was different about this set of reactions. It was as though she could actually see something...then there was a yell. Elvira pointed towards a direction, where nothing was there. In confusion, Aura rushed up to Elvira and began to comfort her. As she walked over to Elvira, Aura said to Elvira, "Don't worry, nothing is there...nothing is there." Aura looked up and hoped that she wasn't wrong, because if she was, that meant there was something wrong going on her, a lot more wrong than before. Aura just gulped and tried to pick up Elvira to keep moving. As she did, the girl said to Aura, "We're close..."

wc:395
tc:3207/7500

Aura had no clue what to do about the situation. Both her and Elvira were paranoid. However, Elvira was probably way more paranoid than she would ever be. So, Aura asked her with a gentle tone in her voice, and asked, "Do you need to leave this job? I see that look of fear in your eyes, and I just want to make sure that you are good with doing this. If needed, I can do this on my own, but I need to be completely sure that you're okay. You don't need to answer me now, but once it comes time, and you need to go, tell me." Aura really didn't want to downplay the willpower of her partner, but she did not want to die, especially not when these kids were depending on her.

As Ari pointed to the area in front of them, Aura heard 4 voices. They were quiet, but still there. As Aura looked around, she began to back up all of them into a bush. With question in her voice, the little girl asked Aura, "Why are we hiding in the bushes?" With fear in her voice, Aura said back to her, "I hear 4 voices. I'm almost certain they're cultist." As Aura looked back through the bushes they were in, she checked each area, trying to see where the voices were coming from. As she listened, she heard footsteps come into the area. Aura said with an alerting tone, "They're close." She averted her gaze back towards the sounds of the combined footsteps and voices. From the darkness came 4 people. They didn't seem to be cultist like Aura had thought, but yet they still seemed to be people that worshiped the "god". They held weapons, and what looked like symbols worshiping some sort of god on their shirts. Aura looked over to Elvira and asked her, "What she we do with these guys. If we let them go free, they could find us again, or warn others. If we defeat them, we might make a lot of noise. Either way, we have to decide one or the other...now." Aura looked ahead with worry as she looked back towards Elvira for the answer.

wc:370
tc:3577