The Cattle

Ryo smiled at Victoria as she arrived and bowed his head lightly “There is no need to apologize Victoria.” He said as he reached into one of his elements and began to search through them pulling out a card with a marking that says ‘blood’ on it. He floods his magic into it and it turns into a card shaped blot of blood. He takes it and begins to suck on it like it was a lollipop. He gestured to a set of three chairs made of wood “Take a seat over there. We were told by our employer to stay out of the way. I will tell you and our friend once we all get here.” He said as he finished sucking the blood off of the card leaving the card behind all on its own tucking it back into the Elemental deck box.

He then smiled to Imai as he arrived and nodded his head with a welcome “That’s great! Now then. Come along Imai and we can discuss the job in detail.” He said as soon as Imai arrived and led him to the trio of chairs sitting down in one of them facing the other two and nodded his head lightly “Well, good afternoon Imai, Victoria. I am glad that you were both able to join me. I hope that this job is able to bring us a very nice bounty. Now, we are to fetch a herd of red cattle away from the giant monster that is guarding them. There is a giant monster of some kind, and he has a monstrous guard dog. All in all, we have to be careful. I am sure that we could handle both sets of monsters. However, I don’t want you two to risk your lives without any kind of true reward. Now, if you both are sure that you still want to come along you can, if you’d rather not I understand and won’t hold it against either of you.”

He thought a moment and then said “This is the ship we are to load the cattle into. I have been told that this ship will hold the entire herd. As you both may have noticed however I wasn’t allowed to bring Gora on this mission. The cattle are afraid of wolves, but I am told the dog the monster has is something they are used to. Still, rustling the cattle shall be an easy enough affair. I am told the Monster lives on his own island and these ship hands know where we are going. Is there any other questions?”

Link to First thread: https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t35684-the-cattle#350045

434

Victoria was relieved that Ryo was not upset with her for being late. She obligingly sat down in one of the chairs and listened to the Guild Master brief the pair on the job. While in the middle of the conversation she thought about something that just now occurred to her.

This was the first time she had ever been with a Guild Master on a job. During her days in Black Rose she had never went on a job with Izayuki or any of the Aces. Well, there was the Sakuramori job that involved fighting the weird creatures with Seth and Itazura, so she had been on a job with an Ace before. The fact remained that this job was the first she had ever went on with a Guild Master.

Jumping back to the present, Victoria was moved to state her willingness to go on the job. She wanted the money. She also wanted to assure Ryo that her commitment to Sabertooth was genuine.

"I'm willing to do this job, Ryo. Just tell me what needs to be done." Victoria assured him. She was not afraid of a few monsters. She had fought zombies, skeletons, and other things that were alive that should not have been alive. She had even helped kill a necromancer in Haunted Guild.

"Well, there IS one question I have. Do we know what we're going up against? Do we have any kind of information, even rumors?" Victoria asked Ryo.

[Word Count: 246]

Imai managed to get on the boat in time. Yip, yip, hurray! And just in time to join up with the rest of the group for today’s mission; him, Victoria and Ryo. As the top hat man invited them to take a seat, the cosmic wizard did so in delight and planted his bum on a seat as he held his ears open for the briefing. A quick salute was sent when his name was greeted.

So the mission was explained following; bounty. Nice bounty, okay… they were going to fetch a herd of red cattle away from some giant ass monster guard. Actually, according to the Guildmaster, there were two monsters - the giant guardian had a monster dog to compliment its role as shepherd. And whenever you had to deal with monsters, you had to take a kind of mentality like that of a seasoned wizard; monsters were everywhere, and you really couldn’t avoid them. As of now, Imai still remember having to combat the likes of Lilith and that nightmarish creature from the Spooky Forest, so you couldn’t say that he was inexperienced despite his usually goofy attitude.

He would’ve been up for the test without hesitation or thought, but Victoria’s question made his head work. What kind of strength did this monster possess? Perhaps it was some kind of oni, or perhaps an earth monster which could rip up chunks of land and throw it at people. Perhaps it used that strength to lead its herd… anyway.

“You know me, Ryo,” he simply stated with a wink. He was willing to do this job too, confidently and assured of his capability to pull it off.

WC: 279

Ryo chuckled to Victoria nodding his head in agreement “I know your willing to do this job. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to convince me of that. I knew you would join us the moment that I asked you.” When she asked her questions, he held up two cards with intricate designs on them and he nodded his head lightly “Well, technically that was two questions. However, I shall indeed answer them both.” He nodded to Imai with a smile “I do know you. Now then.” He grew the two cards in his hands until they were the size of sandwich boards which he then propped up on the deck of the ship and gestured to the one on the right.

The one on the right; held the terrifying image of a two headed dog that was very bizarre looking one head blasting a bolt of lightning the other breathing a cloud of fire. He nodded his head to it “This is one of many images of an ‘Orthrus’ and I am to understand it is a hound from the underworld. It is capable of using two very different elemental breath attacks though I vaguely come to understand they are different in some kind of fashion. I am not sure, the literature I’ve been able to find is vague. However, being that I once was closely familiar with the guardian of the Underworld known as ‘Cerberus’ I can only warn you that these hell hounds are never anything to take lightly. Be very careful, and don’t underestimate the deadliness of this foe. If it can breathe fire that’ll leave you both to handle it. My….” Clearing his throat, he said “Condition, makes me highly susceptible to fire attacks. I will help the best I can, but you need to be aware.”

He gestured to the card on his left and it held an even more bizarre foe. “This is Geryon. His is also called “The Great Cattleman” apparently in the world of monsters he is famous for these cows. I have had some conversations with those who know more than me that he is tough. As you can see, he has three heads, four arms, six legs, and stands at around 15 meters tall. What this photo also shows you is his weapons that were from his last eyewitness who spotted him. He is armored, and wields big round shields of brass, two swords made of stone, and two stone-tipped spears. Do not get hit with these, as I am sure it will be a resounding beating. He is tough, and I will be able to help you two greatly in this fight.” He left the cards up as he continued “Now, I am sure there will be all manner of local fauna that will seek to get between us and our rendezvous with the cattle. We can’t let any of these cattle die, or our job will pay us nothing. Apparently, our strange employer has what he has told me is a fool proof count of the herd’s numbers. I don’t know how, but let’s move on the side of caution. That is all I know of our job, and now you know what I know.” He looked to the bow of the ship smiling “It seems we are nearing our location.”

555

Ryo laid it out for them plain and simple. They were to rescue the cattle from "Geryon" and make sure that none of them died for any reason. If a single one of them died, none of the Sabertooth mages would be getting paid. Victoria did not like the thought of that. She wanted to get paid for sailing out into the middle of nowhere and risking injury or death.

"Geryon" had a pet named "Orthus" who was a two-headed dog that could also breathe fire. Ryo expressly warned Victoria and Imai that fire was particularly dangerous to him because of a "condition", so he would have to be careful when dealing with the two-headed dog. When fighting the giant Ryo did not have to worry as much because the dog's master did not have any fire-breathing tricks. That was good. Victoria liked jobs where unforeseen complications were kept to a minimum.

When Ryo looked to the bow of the ship, Victoria followed suit. The Guild Master had spotted their destination. The brunette was happy to hear that because things were getting a little... boring. Seeing nothing but water in every direction without any landmarks to break up the monotony was not something she wanted to experience with any regularity. The words of Captain Kooh came to mind.

Life on sea was dangerous when it was not monotonous. However, life on land tended to follow the same pattern. When not fighting raiders or exploring new and unknown locales, life tended to be monotonous. Wake up, get dressed, eat, hang around the guild hall, sleep. That pattern was why Victoria liked to keep busy with jobs... she also like the Jewels that came with completing jobs.

"What kind of flora and fauna are we talking about? Wild animals?" Victoria asked.

[Word Count: 300]
[Total Word Count: 546]

Hmh… oh! Oh! Orthrus! Imai knew about that creature… or well, he wished that he did. It sounded outlandish, clearly, and its name related to that of many creatures from his Astrology studies. Oh man, he wanted to see it now; it was a splendid choice of his to join Ryo and Victoria on this quest, now! If he used his knowledge of mythological beings and their names - the way that most of those names ended with ‘us’ like Pegasus, Orpheus, Odysseus, Medus… oh well, technically Medusa, but she needed a shout-out too. Uh… Minotaurus, too; Imai had ‘personal’ experience with those giant lads. Cetus, too; the giant fish… and yeah, uh, that was where his memory hit the wall.

A hound from the Underworld… that could make it a relative to the Cerberus - oh wait, another name there! Yes, Cerberus; the guard hound of Hades, the giant, three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to the Underworld and all that. Did that mean that, maybe, it had multiple heads too? As in, more than shown in the card? It was a blurred discussion whether if Cerberus itself had two, three or a thousand heads - just a thought.

Huh… oh, that’s right, Ryo hated fire. To be frankly, Imai had no detailed knowledge of Ryo’s fire issue, but if the Guildmaster truly stated so, then his Ace had a duty to carry. If any fire attacks were used, then he and Victoria would make sure to extinguish them with… oh wait, he didn’t have Water Magic. Crap. He hoped that Victoria had.

Watching the next card held up, the crazy, ogre-looking, three-headed, four-armed, six-legged, tall as hell bastard made an impression on Imai. His armory consisted of two brass shields, two stone swords and two spears. Each hand was busy.

“…” Looking over the bow, he too spotted land nearby. That must’ve been their destination. “If there’s a three-headed, six-legged saber cat too, then I’m seriously dipping on taking one of those with me…”

WC: 336
TWC: 615

Final section

https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t35961-the-cattle#351957