![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
The young pale blonde slayer shielded her deep green eyes from the bright sky. It was an overcast day in Crocus, but for someone reason, the overall sky seemed brighter to Arcadia than if the sun's rays were unimpeded from the clear blue. Those over bright clouds above held the threat of rain, but seemed content to simply block out the sun.
Arcadia shrugged, it matched her mood anyway. Crocus was a lovely city. As much progress as Arcadia had made lately in facing down strangers and crowds though, she was not feeling it this morning. She didn't understand why the Boomslang would send for her specifically. Arcadia was sure she won that dance night fair and square.
Then again, it couldn't be the dance night, because the letter had been for a job offer. Jewel was jewel though, and maybe she could keep an ear out for any other other upcoming dance nights. Pulling her iLac from her dress pocket, she pulled up the map app to look up possible back ways to the club.
Picking a more roundabout way through residential streets, Arcadia hoped that way would be less crowded than the main thoroughfare. She'd have to pick up the pace to make up the the time, so she concentrated magic power down in the soles of her feet. Each foot frosted over in a slick coat of ice, and Arcata skated off. She leaned into her momentum, swinging one arm at her side to keep rhythm. The other arm she tucked in against her back as she sped through the winding side streets. Occasionally, she glance at her iLac to make sure she stayed on route.
Before long she emerged on the main thoroughfare, and walked on around the next corner to the alley behind the club. She had instructed to not go in the front, but rather knock on the service door in back. Arcadia swept her green gaze up and down the alley once before knocking on the service entrance.
A thin, dark-haired man with a pencil-thin mustache opened the door. Arcadia recognized him as one of the judges from the dance night contest. He was not looking very happy, nor all that well-rested. The man was quite harried and stressed, and tact was not one of his strong suits. He greeted the young slayer gruffly, “There you are! We've been waiting!”
Arcadia pulled her iLac out, double checking the time. Her confusion only grew, because the time her iLac showed, confirmed she was even a few minutes early. She showed the time on her iLac to the man, ”I'm sorry, Sir. But I am actually a few minutes early. But it seems like this pretty urgent, so what do you need me to pick up?”
The man didn't enjoy being corrected, simply dismissing the girl's iLac, “Yes, indeed. It's urgent. Our usually delivery people have gone missing, but we still need someone to pick up our delivery of booze. Boomslang can't open tonight with half the reason people come here being completely out of stock. You don't look old enough to be licensed for a magic vehicle. That really would have been the most useful. Speed is of the most importance!”
The blonde slayer didn't really understand why the man as chewing her out, she hadn't even started yet. Biting her bottom lip, Arcadia narrowed her green gaze, ”I'm sorry, Sir. B-”
The man bluntly cut the young slayer off, continuing gruffly, “No time! No time! You'll find a wooden cart waiting at the opposite end of this alley. Take that to the warehouse at the warehouse in the docks district. It's the tall building at the end of Riverfront Street. Now get going! And let's hope those snazzy shadow magic powers of yours come in handy. They're why we called for you. If we're right, you should be able to use them to avoid any layabouts too lazy to come in here and pay for their drinks like everyone else. We have trouble with them even when our deliveries are running on time.”
Arcadia opened her mouth to respond, but he interrupted before sh even got a syllable out. “Go! You won't get one jewel if you don't get back here by the time the club is set to open!” The man stuffed the address of the warehouse into Arcadia's hand and ducked back inside. The service door slammed shut on its own.
The young slayer was wishing she had stayed in her hotel room bed this morning right about now. She should have guessed it be this kind of day when she stubbed her toes getting up or the water lacrima that filled her room's tub cracked and stopped working or the only thing the hotel had left for breakfast was heavily featured both olives and mushrooms. One little thing after the other that on its own was no big deal, kept reminding her this wasn't going to be Arcadia Fairchilde's day.
She went to the far end of the alley, fetching the wooden cart. It rocked and refused to budge, except if she pulled hard enough to drag it. The young girl sighed and growled, she really should known, she thought. Of course the cart had a busted wheel.
Going back and knocking on the service door was not an option in Arcadia's mind, so she put some of her frustration to use. She flipped the cart over with a mix dragon-gifted strength and the days frustrations. Arcadia carefully climbed on top to see if there was anything she could do to fix the wheel. It was busted beyond repair though. It would need to be replaced.
That sunnuva... that man would surely find some way to blame her for this with the day she was having. The delivery still had to be made though, so she surveyed the alley for anything she could use instead of the cart, or use to replace the wheel. As she expected, there wasn't one useful thing anywhere along the alley. Arcadia sat on top of the cart with a heavy heart. Looked like there was no choice, she was gonna have to go knock on the service door after all... unless...
Unless she busted both of the cart's wheels clean off, and made a cart into a sled. Arcadia rose and started stomping on the the cart's busted wheel first. The slayer kicked harder each time, picturing the man's face on wheel. Five or six kicks later, it finally gave way. Turing to the remaining wheel, she vented even further, kicking and making the wooden axle creak each time. The young slayer may have gotten a tad carried away, being a little disappointed when the second wheel also finally broke free.
Arcadia carefully stood the broke off wheels against the club's outer wall. Breathing in deep, she unleashed an whirling torrent of freezing mist and glittering shards of ice. Her roar coated the bottom of the cart-turned-sled in ice. She hefted up one side of the cart-sled, slowly getting it back right side up. One thing that went right, she still felt the frosty touch of her skating spell in her feet.
Lifting the long handles at the front of the cart-sled, she skated off. She hauled the empty cart-sled behind her, heading on down to the warehouse district. The journey there was mercifully simple, except for a wrong turn that sent her to completely the wrong end of Riverfront Street. Arcadia turned her iced cart-sled right around, skating for her life back the way she came.
It felt like she couldn't hurry fast enough. Her ice would last forever on the bottom of the cart nor would she be able to skate all the way back, if it took too long to get the cart loaded. Pulling the cart-sled on up in front of the warehouse, she left it to go knock on the door.
A middle-aged man with a couple days with worth of beard scruff and well-worn coveralls opened the door. At first he didn't notice the shorter young girl standing in front as he looked around for who knocked. He was mildly surprised to find the pale, blonde barefoot girl standing at the front door. “What do ya want?”
Arcadia decided it would be simplest to hand the man the invoice she had been given with the warehouse's address. ”A shipment for Boomslang.”
The man disappeared back into the warehouse, and a few moments later, he and a few of his assistants began to carry out and loud up all the heavy crates onto the back of the cart-sled. The man began double checking the contents labeled to be in each crate, and Arcadia hear d some more lovely news, “Come on people. Read the invoice I give you! Don't just grab the first set of crates you find! These are the wrong crates! We're supposed to be loading the ones for Boomslang. Boomslang!” He shook his head and glanced over to Arcadia, “Sorry about this. We'll have it sorted out pretty quick.”
The young girl went and leaned her back to the wall of the warehouse, her mind already going over hat else could possibly go wrong on the way back. There were those vagrants the harried and sleep-deprived club official warned her about, or maybe the crates being too heavy for the cart to slide even with her ice on the bottom of it.
While she was still stewing over these various disastrous possibilities, the warehouse manager finally came over, offering an apologetic smile, “Aww, don't fret too much. We got all your crates loaded up. I don't know how you got that ice on that sled of yours, but you should be good to go with all the right cargo.”
She stood and smiled and wiped away tears, she hadn't even noticed until one rolled down her cheek. ”Thanks, Mister.”
She waved her farewells, and went back to her now heavily loaded cart-sled. She hefted up the handles and tried to skate forward, but it wouldn't budge. And the cart-sled was so heavily loaded it wouldn't be moving anywhere, she was going to need all the traction and all the dragon-gifted strength she could must to to get this thing moving. Arcadia grunted and put her back into hauling the carts-led behind her.
Progress was slow, but she was pulling away from the warehouse. It took a slight hill in the street to give Arcadia the minor blessing that she could skate and pull the fully-loaded sled with a little momentum on her side. She also had no plan to let any hungover vagrants slow her down along the way, so she refracted the light around herself and the cart-sled to render both invisible.
It was mighty physical struggle the whole way through the streets of Crocus. She had no time to worry about the hordes of people passing her by, except avoid them. Every muscle in her body was a burning by the time she had wrestled the shipment back to the alley. This time there was nothing better to see than that old metal service door. She dismissed her light-bending invisibility, and plodded up to the door. Out of breath and out of energy, she knocked on the door.
The slim,dark-haired man and his pencil-thin mustache answered, looked noticeably relieved to see Arcadia returned with the shipment. “Thank the gods! You made it just time time.. Thank you, mi-” Then he saw the cart was no wheeless. “How? Wha-?”
Arcadia took her turn to cut the man off, ”Don't ask. You don't wanna know.”
The club manager had more important things to worry about it seemed, because he didn't make a big deal about it now that the club had the drinks it needed for the night. “Yeah, doesn't matter. That thing was on its last legs anyway. Here you go, every last jewel we owe you for timely delivery.”
Arcadia happily took payment, and staggered back toward her hotel room, elated to put an end to a very, very, very... very long day.
Word Count: 2019/1500
Spells Used
Ice Dragon Glacier Skate
Ice Dragon Roar
Refraction
Arcadia shrugged, it matched her mood anyway. Crocus was a lovely city. As much progress as Arcadia had made lately in facing down strangers and crowds though, she was not feeling it this morning. She didn't understand why the Boomslang would send for her specifically. Arcadia was sure she won that dance night fair and square.
Then again, it couldn't be the dance night, because the letter had been for a job offer. Jewel was jewel though, and maybe she could keep an ear out for any other other upcoming dance nights. Pulling her iLac from her dress pocket, she pulled up the map app to look up possible back ways to the club.
Picking a more roundabout way through residential streets, Arcadia hoped that way would be less crowded than the main thoroughfare. She'd have to pick up the pace to make up the the time, so she concentrated magic power down in the soles of her feet. Each foot frosted over in a slick coat of ice, and Arcata skated off. She leaned into her momentum, swinging one arm at her side to keep rhythm. The other arm she tucked in against her back as she sped through the winding side streets. Occasionally, she glance at her iLac to make sure she stayed on route.
Before long she emerged on the main thoroughfare, and walked on around the next corner to the alley behind the club. She had instructed to not go in the front, but rather knock on the service door in back. Arcadia swept her green gaze up and down the alley once before knocking on the service entrance.
A thin, dark-haired man with a pencil-thin mustache opened the door. Arcadia recognized him as one of the judges from the dance night contest. He was not looking very happy, nor all that well-rested. The man was quite harried and stressed, and tact was not one of his strong suits. He greeted the young slayer gruffly, “There you are! We've been waiting!”
Arcadia pulled her iLac out, double checking the time. Her confusion only grew, because the time her iLac showed, confirmed she was even a few minutes early. She showed the time on her iLac to the man, ”I'm sorry, Sir. But I am actually a few minutes early. But it seems like this pretty urgent, so what do you need me to pick up?”
The man didn't enjoy being corrected, simply dismissing the girl's iLac, “Yes, indeed. It's urgent. Our usually delivery people have gone missing, but we still need someone to pick up our delivery of booze. Boomslang can't open tonight with half the reason people come here being completely out of stock. You don't look old enough to be licensed for a magic vehicle. That really would have been the most useful. Speed is of the most importance!”
The blonde slayer didn't really understand why the man as chewing her out, she hadn't even started yet. Biting her bottom lip, Arcadia narrowed her green gaze, ”I'm sorry, Sir. B-”
The man bluntly cut the young slayer off, continuing gruffly, “No time! No time! You'll find a wooden cart waiting at the opposite end of this alley. Take that to the warehouse at the warehouse in the docks district. It's the tall building at the end of Riverfront Street. Now get going! And let's hope those snazzy shadow magic powers of yours come in handy. They're why we called for you. If we're right, you should be able to use them to avoid any layabouts too lazy to come in here and pay for their drinks like everyone else. We have trouble with them even when our deliveries are running on time.”
Arcadia opened her mouth to respond, but he interrupted before sh even got a syllable out. “Go! You won't get one jewel if you don't get back here by the time the club is set to open!” The man stuffed the address of the warehouse into Arcadia's hand and ducked back inside. The service door slammed shut on its own.
The young slayer was wishing she had stayed in her hotel room bed this morning right about now. She should have guessed it be this kind of day when she stubbed her toes getting up or the water lacrima that filled her room's tub cracked and stopped working or the only thing the hotel had left for breakfast was heavily featured both olives and mushrooms. One little thing after the other that on its own was no big deal, kept reminding her this wasn't going to be Arcadia Fairchilde's day.
She went to the far end of the alley, fetching the wooden cart. It rocked and refused to budge, except if she pulled hard enough to drag it. The young girl sighed and growled, she really should known, she thought. Of course the cart had a busted wheel.
Going back and knocking on the service door was not an option in Arcadia's mind, so she put some of her frustration to use. She flipped the cart over with a mix dragon-gifted strength and the days frustrations. Arcadia carefully climbed on top to see if there was anything she could do to fix the wheel. It was busted beyond repair though. It would need to be replaced.
That sunnuva... that man would surely find some way to blame her for this with the day she was having. The delivery still had to be made though, so she surveyed the alley for anything she could use instead of the cart, or use to replace the wheel. As she expected, there wasn't one useful thing anywhere along the alley. Arcadia sat on top of the cart with a heavy heart. Looked like there was no choice, she was gonna have to go knock on the service door after all... unless...
Unless she busted both of the cart's wheels clean off, and made a cart into a sled. Arcadia rose and started stomping on the the cart's busted wheel first. The slayer kicked harder each time, picturing the man's face on wheel. Five or six kicks later, it finally gave way. Turing to the remaining wheel, she vented even further, kicking and making the wooden axle creak each time. The young slayer may have gotten a tad carried away, being a little disappointed when the second wheel also finally broke free.
Arcadia carefully stood the broke off wheels against the club's outer wall. Breathing in deep, she unleashed an whirling torrent of freezing mist and glittering shards of ice. Her roar coated the bottom of the cart-turned-sled in ice. She hefted up one side of the cart-sled, slowly getting it back right side up. One thing that went right, she still felt the frosty touch of her skating spell in her feet.
Lifting the long handles at the front of the cart-sled, she skated off. She hauled the empty cart-sled behind her, heading on down to the warehouse district. The journey there was mercifully simple, except for a wrong turn that sent her to completely the wrong end of Riverfront Street. Arcadia turned her iced cart-sled right around, skating for her life back the way she came.
It felt like she couldn't hurry fast enough. Her ice would last forever on the bottom of the cart nor would she be able to skate all the way back, if it took too long to get the cart loaded. Pulling the cart-sled on up in front of the warehouse, she left it to go knock on the door.
A middle-aged man with a couple days with worth of beard scruff and well-worn coveralls opened the door. At first he didn't notice the shorter young girl standing in front as he looked around for who knocked. He was mildly surprised to find the pale, blonde barefoot girl standing at the front door. “What do ya want?”
Arcadia decided it would be simplest to hand the man the invoice she had been given with the warehouse's address. ”A shipment for Boomslang.”
The man disappeared back into the warehouse, and a few moments later, he and a few of his assistants began to carry out and loud up all the heavy crates onto the back of the cart-sled. The man began double checking the contents labeled to be in each crate, and Arcadia hear d some more lovely news, “Come on people. Read the invoice I give you! Don't just grab the first set of crates you find! These are the wrong crates! We're supposed to be loading the ones for Boomslang. Boomslang!” He shook his head and glanced over to Arcadia, “Sorry about this. We'll have it sorted out pretty quick.”
The young girl went and leaned her back to the wall of the warehouse, her mind already going over hat else could possibly go wrong on the way back. There were those vagrants the harried and sleep-deprived club official warned her about, or maybe the crates being too heavy for the cart to slide even with her ice on the bottom of it.
While she was still stewing over these various disastrous possibilities, the warehouse manager finally came over, offering an apologetic smile, “Aww, don't fret too much. We got all your crates loaded up. I don't know how you got that ice on that sled of yours, but you should be good to go with all the right cargo.”
She stood and smiled and wiped away tears, she hadn't even noticed until one rolled down her cheek. ”Thanks, Mister.”
She waved her farewells, and went back to her now heavily loaded cart-sled. She hefted up the handles and tried to skate forward, but it wouldn't budge. And the cart-sled was so heavily loaded it wouldn't be moving anywhere, she was going to need all the traction and all the dragon-gifted strength she could must to to get this thing moving. Arcadia grunted and put her back into hauling the carts-led behind her.
Progress was slow, but she was pulling away from the warehouse. It took a slight hill in the street to give Arcadia the minor blessing that she could skate and pull the fully-loaded sled with a little momentum on her side. She also had no plan to let any hungover vagrants slow her down along the way, so she refracted the light around herself and the cart-sled to render both invisible.
It was mighty physical struggle the whole way through the streets of Crocus. She had no time to worry about the hordes of people passing her by, except avoid them. Every muscle in her body was a burning by the time she had wrestled the shipment back to the alley. This time there was nothing better to see than that old metal service door. She dismissed her light-bending invisibility, and plodded up to the door. Out of breath and out of energy, she knocked on the door.
The slim,dark-haired man and his pencil-thin mustache answered, looked noticeably relieved to see Arcadia returned with the shipment. “Thank the gods! You made it just time time.. Thank you, mi-” Then he saw the cart was no wheeless. “How? Wha-?”
Arcadia took her turn to cut the man off, ”Don't ask. You don't wanna know.”
The club manager had more important things to worry about it seemed, because he didn't make a big deal about it now that the club had the drinks it needed for the night. “Yeah, doesn't matter. That thing was on its last legs anyway. Here you go, every last jewel we owe you for timely delivery.”
Arcadia happily took payment, and staggered back toward her hotel room, elated to put an end to a very, very, very... very long day.
Word Count: 2019/1500
Spells Used
Ice Dragon Glacier Skate
Ice Dragon Roar
Refraction
