[Job] Find Those Puppies!

Spoiler:

The notice Arthur received was frantic in nature. Like usual, Arthur was resting in a tavern when the commotion began. Sipping at ale, Arthur almost spit out his drink when the inn's door burst open in a cloud of dust. Instead of a big evil villain standing in the door, Arthur's eyes came to rest upon the silhouette of a young woman. She looked exasperated, desperate, catching the paladin's interest. His business was helping people, and so he'd do his best to aid her. First, though, before any of that, he'd have to find out what exactly was wrong in the first place. Her breath was heaving, obviously exhausted from her run into the bar.

To the barkeep, she shouted.

"Michael, help! Those puppies I was breeding for you escaped, and I have no sweet clue where they've gone. You've got mercenaries here, right? Please, I can't chase them all myself."

Yeah, this was definitely the kind of situation that he could help with. Nothing too difficult, catching puppies that is. Standing up from the bar stool, Arthur slipped a few extra jewels onto the counter as he stretched his legs. Thankfully, he wasn't too far into his mug of ale to help her. Completely sober, Arthur assured himself as he approached the woman. Smiling, he did his best to provide a friendly demeanor. Nothing to be gained from intimidating the poor woman, and he knew from experience that he could be a bit imposing.

"Ma'am, I could help you with that. Shouldn't be too hard now, right? Tell me where you lost them and where they could have gone."

The woman met his gaze but quickly averted her gaze after blushing. Arthur made a mental note of her being the shy type, or maybe just embarrassed about asking for help. Regardless, he was happy to help. The woman twiddled her thumbs for a moment before responding.

"Okay well the thing is, this actually happened like a few days ago, and from what I've heard most of the puppies are actually safe, just being taken care of by other people."

Yeah, there was always some sort of catch. It couldn't have been that easy, there was always something that went unsaid. Though, in all honesty, it could have been a lot worse, like demon puppies or something. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. The only problem would be trying to pry a bunch of puppies from people who were definitely too attached to them at this point.

The first puppy was easy to find. Max was resting in the park. Turner, the second, was sunbathing near a pond. Bella, the little rat, ran around the whole block fleeing his grasp. Tim, somehow, managed to climb up on top of a roof. Fido, Arthur's least favourite, did everything in his power to flee from his grasp. For some reason, that dog calmed instantly upon seeing his trainer. Liza, the seventh dog, was in the care of an orphanage. He didn't want to take her from them, but the gave her up with no qualms. The last dog, Chocolate, was in the care of a rich businessman. That one, in all honesty, was the worst, the man absolutely didn't want to give up the poor frightened thing.

Upon returning all of the dogs to her, she handed him a handful of jewels.

"Thank you so much for this, I won't forget this. And if you're ever around, feel free to stop by that bar, you can usually find me there."

More than one reward, then, for his efforts.

WC: 598