Fairy Stake Out (Job/Solo)

He stood before the job board looking over the various jobs there trying to pick out one that was suited to his skill level. As gold eyes scanned the various hunts and fights, the mercenary found himself wondering if in time he would be back out there fighting. Fighting things. Fighting himself. Was he even fit to take on those more aggressive jobs? Should he even test it out? He considered it as he eyed a particular hunt for a few seconds before shaking his head and glancing elsewhere.

No not today, he would think to himself as he continued to scan the jobs until something odd caught his eye. Reaching out, he would move some of the jobs out of the way until he unearth a notice about something called a Tooth Fairy. He would blink at this one. Tooth Fairy. He had heard about this so called creature, but never thought it was real. Still didn’t think it was real and yet here was a job requesting that the whereabouts of this creature be found.  

This was…a job too interesting pass up. Even if it did seem ridiculous, the mercenary was now interested in the hunt wanting to know if the Tooth Fair was actually real or if this was just someone’s idea of joke. There was no contact on the paper, just instructions on what needed to be done. Hmm. Well this certainly would be a challenge wouldn’t it?

Taking the paper from the board, the mercenary would look over it once more before folding it up and stashing it in his clothing. It was time to head out to the Rose Gardens and begin his hunt.

He arrived the Rose Gardens while the sun was still shining. Walking along the streets, he would go about hunting for more information on the requester of this rather strange job. He tried shops and groups of people. He tried asking creatures and even the animals, but no one seemed to know where the paper had come from or who would ask for such a thing. Even at one point some old man thought that he was the one that created the flyer just for attention! As if. He tried to avoid attention most of the time and his mind was far to logical to come up with a job this out there anyway.

In any case, it was about mid afternoon when the mercenary took a break from the hunt long enough to buy a bit of food and a drink. As he was wrapping up his lunch outside of the café, he would sigh inwardly as he thought of another place he could look within the city. If the main streets weren’t helping him then perhaps he needed to search in the more shadier parts of town for what he sought. Hmm. It was an option, but perhaps a last resort. He still had some more ground to cover right now anyway.

Crumpling up the can he had, he would dispose of it in a bin before turning his attention back to the streets with every intent of continuing his search; however, it would appear that before he could make a move to go forward something or rather someone would catch his eyes. It was a strangely dressed person waving at him from a side alley….

He contemplated ignoring this strange person. After all for all he knew they could be just trying to lure him into a trap to steal his stuff. It certainly did seem like a set up for such a thing, but on the other hand he had been thinking of going to the shadier part of town for clues so was this actually a bad thing? He would think for a bit and then sighing inwardly would give up and drift over to the other. As soon as he got close they would duck into the gloomy alley and beckon him in. Staying on his guard, he would follow the person deeper into the smelly alley.

When they were far away from crowds and the casual passbyers hearing rang, the strangely dressed man, woman? He wasn’t sure anymore. The point was this strangely dressed person would stop and turn to him with a grin of mostly missing teeth as its eyes narrowed at him. “I’ve heard you been looking for the Tooth Fairy, eh?” the person a woman by the sounds of the voice would say to him as she watched him with beady eyes.

“What’s it too you that I have been?” the mercenary would ask in a voice devoided of emotion as he looked at the other.

“It means a whole lot. I am the one that put up the flyer all around hoping someone would hear my call. You see my teeth and others have been stolen by that fairy, but I don’t want you to stop the creature. No, I want you capture it and bring it too me.”

“For what reason?” The mercenary would ask as he wondered what this woman wanted with such a fairy; however, it seemed the woman wasn't going to play nice as she gave him a sly smile.

“Do mercenaries need reasons to do jobs?”

Deshi would narrow his eyes getting a chuckle from the other. “Come on boy. I’ll give you some nice clothing if you do. Magical clothing from the fairy themselves. Come on. Won’t ya help?”

The mercenary would consider the words for a moment. He didn’t know the reason behind the person wanting the fairy, but in the end did it matter? He would get paid in the end and that was that. And if it did become a problem in the end, he could always do something about it, right?

Sealing off his conscious and becoming the mercenary he once was he would nod at that the other.
“Fair enough. I’ll bring you the fairy if I can find it that is.”

The woman would clap her dirt caked hands together at this as she gave that odd grin of hers and cackled.

“Wonderful! Wonderful! Then I’ll send you on your way with this: Fairies have the tendency to love flowers and the forest, but a fairy of teeth might actually be hiding somewhere under your nose. Keep a sharp eye out for it boy and remember to bring it to me alive.” The woman would say before making a hand signal to shoo him off.

Deshi would look at the woman for a moment before nodding and leaving the alley, happy to be out of that smelly area and back  into the fresh air. With all of his things still in tact, the mercenary would begin to walk mulling over the words the woman had said. A creature that might be right under his nose. What did that mean?

With the strange words stuck in his head, Deshi would begin his hunt once more moving his travels from the main streets out into the quieter parts of town where homes resided. He would ask the locals about a Tooth Fairy, but would get nothing but shrugs or rolls of eyes from the older population he came across. It wasn’t until he found a child crying that his job got more interesting. Not having a heart of complete ice, the mercenary would lean down to talk to the young boy that was crying. Upon asking him what was wrong, the boy would begin to cry harder as he explained that he just lost two teeth and like a good boy had put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy; however, instead of getting money or treat for doing such a deed, the fairy had left him with a dead frog and note calling him a loser that would never get entrance to Fairyland with his pathetic offering.

When Deshi asked the boy about the Fairyland, the tears dried up for a second as his eyes gleamed with hope. Fairyland was a magical place where all the children and adults that offered good teeth would go to live with the Tooth Fairy who had a large home full of dreams and happiness. Every year a new child or adult that truly believed in the fairy and had worthy teeth could go, but….and this is where the tears came back. This one child could not go because his small teeth weren’t good enough. While the mercenary did his best to console the child in the end he could nothing to help the child. When he could get no where else with the child, he would get to his feet again and begin to search in a different fashion for this so called Tooth Fairy.

Fairyland. What was it exactly and where did it exist? These were the sort of questions that plagued Deshi’s mind as he searched high and low for answers but ended up running into the same stories. Fairyland was a magical place where people with worthy teeth go, but outside of that. Nothing. So he moved his search from the streets to the gardens where he did find fairies, but none of the Tooth Fairy variety. When he asked about the Tooth Fairy most of the regular fairies would tilt there noses up in disgust and fly away apparently not wanting to discuss the matter.

The mercenary found the behavior strange but didn’t give up until he had no where else to pry or poke. Returning back to town, he would sigh as he leaned against a pole to rest. Was he really just chasing a none existent being? Had that woman just been off her hinges enough to make him think for a second that maybe it could possibly be real? He had to wondered as he mulled over how each and every area he had checked had brought him nothing, but rumors. Looking up at the sky he would ponder his issue a bit more before, a very excited couple caught his attention. As they walked passed, he could hear them mention being excited about being chosen to go to Fairyland. Snapping out of his thoughts, he would push himself from his spot as he moved to catch up with them.

When he was within talking range of the couple he would speak.

“Excuse me,” he would begin causing the couple to stop and turn to him. “I couldn’t help hearing you speak of Fairyland. I too need to get there, but I was given no instructions on how to get there. Can you assist me?”

The couple would tilt their heads at him in unison before the male spoke.

“Oh Fairyland is easy to find. You simply have to get to the center of the garden behind the dentist office,” he would say with a smile.

“The dentist office? I haven’t seen one since coming here.” Which he found truly odd considering he was paying a lot of attentions to what he passed and what were buildings were around. Surely if there was one for teeth, he would’ve noticed.

“The dentist office isn’t in town. It is actually on the edge of town and looks like a big house. If you want we can take to the office and Fairyland since we are on our way there now. We can all go together,” the woman would say as she flashed a perfect grin at him.

“That would be great. I think I will come along,” the mercenary would say with a smile and then join the chatting pair on their walk. They would walk through town passed the stores and homes there. They would move into a quieter part of town that had some gardens and more expensive homes that started off crowded, but then began to thin out until there was nothing, but open gardens all around.

The open gardens remained a thing as the mercenary trailed behind the couple before him. They started off as just well maintained shrubs and flowers where butterflies and other insects fluttered and hummed about happily. It was a peaceful sight that might’ve remained that way if the shape of the bushes didn’t start taking on the form of various teeth as they went further along. As the number of green teeth increased, the mercenary would take note that their path would go from smooth stone to something a bit rougher. Looking down, the mercenary would find the path was made out of something that looked like teeth embedded inside the cement there. Though that couldn’t be real teeth. There were just too many of them.

The scene only got stranger as at the end of all these teeth decoration they came upon a building surprisingly not in the shape of tooth. On top of the building was a sign that read Fairyland Dentist Office, but according to the couple the real Fairyland rested further inside of that gray building. Though whether he wanted to go into the building was another story.

The entrance was designed like a gaping mouth the red carpet that was rolled out like a tongue. While the couple went in giddy and all, the mercenary entered with an air of cautious as he looked around at all the pictures on the wall of children men and women, all supposedly residents of Fairyland. They all seemed so happy, but he had to wonder how happy they really were. After all there was something about this place that made his skin crawl and the creature within him searching for blood. What was this place really? And what sort of lie had been fed to people to get them to willing to come to this place?

He didn’t know the answer, but he was going to find out by sticking close to the couple, who were already signing the papers needed to become residents of Fairyland. Look they were even kind enough to put him down as a guest of theirs even if they did not know his name.

Once the paper work was done, the trio was told to wait a bit before being called back to a door that lead into a hallway. A hallway that made the hairs on Deshi’s arms stand on end. While there was nothing out of place in the white halls, there was something in the air that made him feel uncomfortable. The feeling didn’t get any better the further they went. Small lights would appear above and a glitter would begin to fall down. As the glitter began to fall, the couple begin to get more giddy beginning to spin and dance in glee; however, the mercenary was only getting sleepy and confused. He wasn’t understanding why this was happening, but he figured it was the glitter rain. Swaying, he would take the first turn he could to get out of the glitter and to wake himself up. It took a while, but he eventually was able to get his senses about him.

Once he had himself back, he would look around finding himself in a dimly lit hall lined with doors on either side. Curious as to what he had found, he would approach one of the doors finding that there was a small barred window in it. Peeking into it the man would find a strange sight. He would find, a person there smiling as they stared up at the ceiling a good chunk of their teeth missing as they babbled on about how wonderful Fairyland was.

Frowning he would move to another door and find the same scene though the amount of teeth missing was different. As he observed this he would find that this Fairyland wasn’t real at all, but rather something that people believed in because they were brainwashed and then when arriving drugged up to keep them in that Lala Land as their teeth were taken from them. It was a terrible lie just to get teeth, but the mercenary didn’t let his justice side take over him as he instead began to formulate a plan to get to the no doubt the Tooth Fairy without having to go through the hall of sleep.

It would take a moment of careful searching, but the mercenary would eventually find a small door that opened into a crawl space. Checking the crawl space out and finding he could fit, he would get inside of it before carefully sneaking through the narrow space pausing at gaps to check where they lead. Most gaps lead to dead ends, but in time he would find one that ran along the hallway of sleep. He would follow it until he ran into one of the small creatures – a pixie – that was throwing around that sleeping glitter. Unlike the other ones this one seemed to be hiding out to take a nap, so being careful Deshi would stay in his spot as his hand went to his side to pull an empty cloth pouch off his belt. With the pouch in hand, he would quietly get close to the pixie before quickly tossing the bag over the creature. The startled creature tried to react, but it was too late. Deshi snatched the bag up and sealed it up before the little creature could get away.

With that taken care of he would keep going following the path until the sound of machinery caught his attention. Following the sound, he would come to another vent that looked into a room where a chair holding an unconscious person resided. Hovering over the body with various tools at its disposal was a winged person chuckling to itself as it carefully removed teeth from the person that was out cold as a malicious air rolled off of it. This must’ve been what he was looking for – The Tooth Fairy.

With his target in sight, he quietly undid the vent as the creature went to work noisily on the person it had. Sliding out of it, he would quietly cross the room to get behind the creature and then –

“Hm?” the fairy turned just as he made a lunge for it. With a drill in hand, the creature tried to swing it around to hit him, but the mercenary would catch the thin wrist and with a twist cause the creature to drop the item. Following this was a struggle as man and fairy fought to dominate the other. There was a lot of biting and scratching, but in the end the mercenary was able to whack the creature in a pressure point along the neck that caused it to go limp on the ground. With that taken care of the mercenary would work on finding a way to carry the creature back to the alley without looking to
suspicious.

Some time later, the mercenary would arrive in the alley where he delivered the fairy to the strange woman who was all to happy with the prize. And why was that? Well that was because the thing he captured and brought back was a copy of the Tooth Fairy and the real one was the one that had requested the capture in the first place.

Finding the mercenary, interesting enough to trust. The fairy would give the clothing it promised to him and even let him keep the pixie he had captured before with a cackle it would disappear from sight with its clone.

Walking out of the ally with a sack that held the clothing in it, the mercenary would pause to let the pixie out. While at first she was grumpy and did give him an earful for stuffing her in a bag, the pixie did go her own way in the end leaving the mercenary to wander back to the guild alone.