Helping The Freelance Archaeologist

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 37, Post Number 907

-The Forgotten Deserts, 10:00 A.M.-

Wearing her new Desert Survival Armor over her usual green, white, and gold outfit with black bike shorts on underneath the skirt and wearing her Argent Gloves on her hands, Leona climbed off of Winged Lion, her boots crunching in the sand as her feet touched the ground. Once she was safely on the ground she dispelled the summon and checked her gear. She was carrying her Scout Laser Pistol in its holster on her right hip and Ses Revanche in her right boot. Leona was traveling lighter than normal because she was here on a job with some urgency and had not had the time to grab a lot of gear like she normally did.

The Wizard Saint was here to find Eleanor Crouch, the daughter of Crocus Magicka University doctor Edward Crouch, a man she had last worked with over two years ago. He had not heard from his daughter in a week and was growing concerned that the young woman might have run into trouble, so he had hired Leona to go find her and see how she was doing. The doctor had speculated that his daughter was running low on supplies and might be preparing to leave the Forgotten Deserts, so she might need an escort to the safety of Capital Crocus.

Leona had received the notice from Dr. Crouch this morning around 5:00 A.M. while sitting in the guild cafe drinking coffee and planning where to go on an actual vacation. The Wizard Saint had considered making a trip to Crescent Island but had not yet committed to that course of action when the job notice was delivered to her. Leona read the notice and decided to take the job despite it temporarily derailing her vacation plans because helping someone in need was the right thing to do. Another reason she had taken the job was that after successfully defeating a Viking raiding party that was attacking a village in the Western Grasslands of Bellum near Lake Kyrie during the latest round of conflict between Bellum and Pergrande she had returned to Silver Wolf Guild Hall and found a new special armor waiting on her in her office. Taking the job to find Eleanor Crouch was a chance to kill two birds with one stone... Leona get a chance to try out the Desert Survival Armor in familiar territory while helping someone in need.

Hours later Leona was in the Forgotten Deserts with her new armor plus a vague idea of where to find the young woman and what the latter's shelter looked like. All the man could tell her was to look for an olive green canvas tent somewhere in the middle of the desert. That was not the most precise set of instructions she had ever received, but Leona had no doubt that she could find the tent. It was not like olive green blended in with the tan sand, after all.

Taking a deep breath and feeling the wind blow her hair about for a moment, Leona began to walk forward into the arid desert. She hoped that Eleanor was doing all right and had just been too busy with an archaeological search to reply to her father. Leona would find out when she found the olive green canvas tent and made contact with the doctor's daughter.

-The Forgotten Deserts, one hour and ten minutes later-

Leona had been walking for a little over an hour and was not any closer to finding her client's daughter. The Wizard Saint hoped that the young woman had not changed her location since the last time the latter had spoken with her father. Leona hoped that Eleanor had stayed in place because finding the young woman was going to be difficult enough without the added challenge of trying to find a person who moved about.

In the meantime Leona felt the Desert Survival Armor's cooling system keeping her torso cool and was glad that she had chosen to wear the armor because the heat was starting to become noticeable. While Leona's arms and legs were more than a little warm thanks to her long sleeves and black bike shorts her torso was cool and comfortable, a fact which made the desert heat a little more bearable. She would need her armor to keep her cool because she likely had a lot of walking ahead of her before she located Eleanor.

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[Total Word Count: 740/5,000]

-The Forgotten Deserts, three hours later-

Leona had been walking through the desert for the past three hours and was nowhere close to finding Eleanor Crouch. Leona believed that she was walking through the center of the region, but without a compass or some other navigational aid there was no way for her to know for certain if she was traveling through the right area. At least she had received the clue to look for an olive green canvas tent. That would make life a little easier because olive green would stand out against the sand so much that missing a tent that color would be very difficult.

Leona put one foot in front of the other as she continued to walk through the desert. She had been wearing her new Desert Survival Armor the entire time and she was glad that she had worn it for this job. It was keeping her torso cool and it was mostly comfortable to wear, but the backpack was a bit on the bulky side. It was a much heavier backpack than her normal cloth backpack and moving with the additional weight would take a bit of practice. However, the Desert Survival Armor's backpack had a big redeeming feature in its ability to draw moisture from the air and convert it into pure drinkable water stored in a convenient internal reservoir. That feature made bearing the weight a lot easier.

Leona would have to stop and try some of the water when she found the person she was looking for. Right now the Wizard Saint did not have time to stop for anything short of a life-threatening emergency, so she kept moving. She hoped that she would find Eleanor Crouch alive rather than dead.

-The Forgotten Deserts, three hours later-

Leona had walked for another three hours and had still not seen the olive green canvas tent anywhere. She might have gone off course somewhere earlier and  The Wizard Saint paused and looked around her for any sign of the distinctive tent. She looked and she looked until she found a tent roughly 150 meters ahead of her. Leona smiled and felt a burst of energy.

That had to be it!

Leona used her Zephyr Dash spell to cover 100 meters in a matter of seconds, then walked towards the tent with a spring in her step. Right now she was feeling so good that she was not concerned about how sweaty she was getting. As soon as she got to the tent she would take a break and drink some water.

Leona covered the last 50 meters in the space of a few minutes and was now standing outside the tent, which was made of olive green canvas. It was a large rectangular tent and the front flap was open. Inside was a young blonde woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties sitting on the edge of a cot located on the right side of the tent. Not wanting to enter without making her presence known, Leona called out to the young woman.

"Hello? Are you Eleanor Crouch?" Leona asked the young woman while standing outside the tent.

"Yes I am. How did you know my name?" The young woman answered Leona's question and posed one of her own to the Wizard Saint.

"Your father, Dr. Edward Crouch of Crocus Magicka University, sent me to check on you. He claimed he hasn't heard from you in a week or so." Leona told Eleanor exactly who had sent her. Leona stood in silence and waited for an answer.

"Oh, thank Ishgar you're here!" Eleanor exclaimed with happiness.

"Please, do come in! Your timing couldn't have been any better!" The young woman granted Leona permission to enter the tent. Leona obliged and walked into the structure.

-Inside the tent-

Leona walked into the tent and the young woman stood up from her seat on the edge of the cot. Eleanor Crouch was Leona's height and had shoulder length blonde hair and icy blue eyes. She wore black-rimmed glasses along with a sweat-stained white tank top, khaki cargo shorts, and brown hiking boots. The bespectacled blonde looked tired and sweaty but still put on a smile for the Wizard Saint.

"Hi there, Miss. I'm Eleanor Crouch, freelance archaeologist!" Eleanor introduced herself to Leona.

"I'm Leona Jarnefeldt, the Wizard Saint of Courage." Leona introduced herself to Eleanor. The bespectacled blonde went silent for a moment.

"I can't believe that my father sent a current Wizard Saint to check on me!" Eleanor commented on the status of her rescuer.

"Your father said that you were probably close to running out of supplies. What's the status of your supplies?" Leona asked the young woman. Eleanor sighed.

"He's absolutely right. I'm almost out of supplies. I've got enough food for two more days, but I ran out of water fifteen hours ago." The freelance archaeologist grimly reported on her the status of her supplies.

"Speaking of water, I really, really need some right now. Would you happen to be carrying any with you?" Eleanor asked Leona in a hopeful tone of voice.

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[Total Word Count: 1,594/5,000]

-Inside Eleanor Crouch's tent, ten minutes later-

Eleanor Crouch had consumed any and all water that had been poured into her canteen. Leona had emptied the contents of the water collection container at the bottom of her backpack and was beginning to tap into the meager contents of the internal reservoir. That was fine with the Wizard Saint, though. She had come out here to save Eleanor's life if it needed saving and she had fulfilled part of her task by providing safe drinking water when it was needed.

"Thanks for the water, Wizard Saint. I mean it." Eleanor thanked Leona for the gift of water.

"It's no problem, Eleanor. Your father sent me out here to check on you and to help you if you needed it." Leona replied. The bespectacled blonde took a deep breath.

"The timing of your arrival couldn't have been any better, Wizard Saint. I knew that I was gonna have to go back to Capital Crocus because my supplies were almost gone. I wasn't so sure what I was going to do about water, though." Eleanor said to Leona. Leona listened in silence as Eleanor continued to talk.

"Now that my immediate need for water's been satisfied you've bought me some time to think, Wizard Saint. I'll need it because we're gonna have to carry everything back to Capital Crocus, but I don't know how. I can't get in contact with the team that brought my belongings out here to begin with." Eleanor told the Wizard Saint about the difficulty of transporting everything out of The Forgotten Deserts. Leona put her hands on her hips and looked around the tent. There was a tent, a cot, a wooden table, and a wooden crate of supplies that all needed carrying.

"I've got a few summons that I can get to help us carry things. And I can carry something too." Leona offered both her assistance and that of her summons to help the bespectacled blonde with her transportation problems. Eleanor's face lit up.

"Great! I'll need all the help I can get!" Eleanor readily agreed to Leona's offer to help. The bespectacled blonde sat down on the edge of the cot.

"But first I really need to rest a bit. I don't think I'm up for a walk through the heat just yet." Eleanor requested a chance to rest before the pair started breaking camp. Leona had no problem with that. She needed time for the armor's backpack to absorb moisture from the air and gather some more water for their trip. Besides, after walking as long as she did to get here Leona needed a bit of a break herself.

"All right. Let me know when you're ready to take everything down and start going back to Capital Crocus." Leona consented to the break. She stretched her legs and looked for a place to sit but could not find one. That was only a mild inconvenience to the Wizard Saint, who sat on the sand and got off of her feet for a little while. She had sat on the sand several times when she was a child in Desierto, so doing so in the absence of a chair was nothing new to her.

-The Forgotten Deserts, five hours and ten minutes later-

The two blondes had rested in the tent for two hours, then had gotten to their feet and started preparing for the trip out of The Forgotten Deserts. A little over three hours after they had started their work the pair had taken down the tent and packed up everything. Winged Lion had a wooden table tied to his back with rope along with the broken-down tent while Sky Champion Rafale carried the folded-up cot in his hands. Leona carried the crate of supplies in her hands thanks to the increased lifting and carrying strength provided by the Argent Gloves while Sylvia and Sandy helped Winged Lion keep the tent steady on his back.

"All right, everyone. Everything's packed up and accounted for, so let's get out of this place!" Eleanor said to everyone. The bespectacled blonde led the way while Leona followed close behind her. Sky Champion Rafale walked to Leona's right to help her see while Winged Lion, Sylvia, and Sandy brought up the rear of the unusual moving crew. Hopefully they would be able to get out of The Forgotten Deserts before nightfall and without incident.

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[Total Word Count: 2,332/5,000]

-Capital Crocus, inside Eleanor Crouch's house, twelve hours later-

It had been a long walk with quite a few stops to take a break because of the unrelenting heat and the distance they had to travel, but after twelve hours the small group of freelance archaeologist, Wizard Saint, and summons bearing Eleanor's tent and belongings entered Capital Crocus after nightfall without incident. Now all of the belongings and supplies had been safely put away, all of the summons had been dispelled, and Leona and Eleanor were standing in the latter's living room. Leona had taken off her boots at the door and so had Eleanor.

"We made it, Leona!" Eleanor said to the Wizard Saint. Leona was glad to be out of The Forgotten Deserts and back in a cooler climate. She was also glad that Eleanor Crouch was out of danger.

"It was a long walk, but we made it." Leona replied. She looked around the living room and noted its features. It was a small space with a television in the center of the room on a stand, a brown cloth couch on the wall to the left of the living room entrance, and a small table with a single wooden chair underneath it on the right side of the room that was loaded down with papers and books. Beneath their feet was beige carpet.

"It certainly was a long walk and I couldn't have made it without you. Now I'd better call my father and let him know we made it back to Capital Crocus safely. I bet he's worried about me. Please wait here until I get back!" Eleanor told Leona what she was going to do next and requested that the Wizard Saint wait in the living room for her to return. She then walked out of the living room and deeper into the house while Leona waited in the living room for her hostess to return. The Wizard Saint was glad to finally be able to relax after a very long day spent in the desert and on the move.

Leona took a quiet breath and looked around her. She saw little in the way of decoration except for a few framed diplomas and degrees... and a family picture of Eleanor and her father. Eleanor was standing next to her father at what looked like an archaeological dig site in a desert and was dressed largely the same as she had been dressed today with the addition of a khaki shirt over the white tank top. Her father was fully dressed in khaki with a khaki shirt and khaki pants with a hat on his head.

Leona looked away from the picture and looked at the wooden table on the right side of the room. It was loaded down with thick books and a lot of papers. The sight reminded the Wizard Saint of her visits to Dr. Anna's office in Hargeon Town, which had multiple desks and tables loaded down with books, notebooks, and papers that were loosely organized and "organized" was a generous description for the numerous and unruly stacks of papers and notebooks. It seemed that Eleanor Crouch had a slightly better grasp of organization. Leona thought about what she had just thought and laughed for a moment.

Leona had no room to throw rocks at anyone when it came to organizing things.

Her personal room in Silver Wolf Guild Hall was not very organized. She had books piled on her desk and had notebooks crammed in its drawers. She also needed to better organize the weapons in her personal armory and to get a weapons locker to put them in for safety purposes. She did not want just anyone to be able to grab one of her weapons whenever they felt like it.

Leona stretched her legs for a few moments and took a quiet breath as she began to relax a little. It was nice to be able to slow down after a long and busy day. Maybe she would be able to go to Silver Wolf Guild Hall soon and get some coffee. In the meantime Leona patiently waited for her hostess to return from calling her father.

-Eleanor Crouch's house, two hours later-

Leona had been standing in the living room for the past two hours and was starting to get more than a little bored. The fact that she was tired did not help matters either. Leona kept quiet and listened out for Eleanor's approach without complaint or sighing. She was rewarded when her hostess returned with a smile.

"Hi there Wizard Saint! Sorry it took so long, but I just got finished talking with my father! As you could tell it took a really long time!" Eleanor greeted Leona and apologized for leaving her to wait in the living room for so long. The Wizard Saint made eye contact with the bespectacled blonde.

"It's no problem." Leona assured Eleanor that the wait was no problem.

"Great! Listen, I've got something that I want to tell you!" Eleanor told Leona. That caught the Wizard Saint's attention.

"What do you want to tell me?" Leona asked Eleanor.

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"My father's very grateful for what you did for me today, Wizard Saint. He claimed that I would have died out in The Forgotten Deserts if you hadn't come along when you did." Eleanor told Leona. Leona was pleased to hear that Dr. Crouch was grateful for the work she did today, but she also recalled the unpleasant memories of him slinging insults at her a couple of years ago just like Dr. Harrison had slung insults at her over a month ago. She found it hard to believe that the very same man who had viciously ripped into her as a "tart" who got by on her sex appeal and who had called her lazy was now praising her for her work in saving his daughter from The Forgotten Deserts.

"I don't think you would have died out there, Eleanor. You seem to be a resourceful type. You would have made it out on your own even if I hadn't showed up." Leona downplayed the praise she had just received.

"I would have made it out eventually, but don't downplay your role, Wizard Saint. Your giving me water when I had run out helped a lot and your summons helped me carry all of my belongings out of the desert. Thanks to you I didn't have to leave any of my belongings behind." Eleanor insisted that Leona's help had played a greater part in her safe return than the Wizard Saint made it sound like. Not wanting to be accused of false modesty, Leona decided to go with it.

"I probably would have gotten out of The Forgotten Deserts eventually, but I would have been in much worse shape than I am now. As it stands I'm just really tired and more than a little sunburned, but I can recover from those problems in a few days or so. If it hadn't been for you giving me some water and lending me a helping hand who knows what condition I'd be right now. I can't thank you enough for your help, Wizard Saint." Eleanor stated that Leona's timely help was the reason she had made it out of The Forgotten Deserts in decent shape. Again Leona was not going to argue with the praise that was being given to her.

"I'm glad that I could help, Eleanor." Leona accepted the praise without reservations. Eleanor smiled at Leona.

"I know that you're probably tired and want to go home yourself. I won't hold you up any longer, Wizard Saint. Know that my father and I are very grateful for what you did for me today." Eleanor said to Leona. The Wizard Saint was indeed tired and really wanted to go home, but before she left she would say goodbye first.

"I'll be going back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall. See you later, Eleanor." Leona bade the bespectacled blonde farewell. Eleanor smiled at the Wizard Saint one last time.

"See you later, Wizard Saint! And thanks again!" Eleanor bade Leona farewell. With that Leona exited the living room, reclaimed her boots from the mat to the left of the front door, put them on, and then left the house. She shut the door behind her and listened for it to be locked. When she heard it lock she started the walk towards the outskirts of Capital Crocus, where she would summon Winged Lion for the flight back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall.

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, the guild cafe, six hours later-

Having arrived back at the guild hall two hours ago, Leona had taken off her Desert Survival Armor, taken a shower, and changed into her blue tank top and blue, white, and gold skirt with matching boots so that she looked somewhat presentable in case she had to leave the guild hall on another job or if anyone came to visit the guild hall. Leona was now sitting in the guild cafe at her usual table sipping on a cup of coffee. She likely had a lot of guild paperwork to do, so she had better make this coffee break quick. As Leona drank from her cup of coffee she took a quiet breath between sips of the hot beverage and prepared herself for the challenging task ahead.

Leona was not really feeling up to confronting the mountain of paperwork that was waiting on her in her office, but she had to take care of it now before the pile got even bigger. Like it or not administrative tasks were part of her job as Guild Mistress. She would go to her office and handle the current mountain of paperwork, then call it a day.

Leona quickly finished her cup of coffee, then stood up from her table. She pushed the chair in and walked over to the trash receptacles, then threw her empty cup into the proper one. Leona then left the guild cafe and began to make her way towards her office to fulfill her administrative responsibilities.

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[Total Word Count: 4,022/5,000]

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, 11:15 A.M., Leona's Room-

Having gotten up around 7:00 A.M. to take care of any administrative work early, Leona had spent the past three hours doing the mound of paperwork waiting for her on her desk in her office, then spent an hour checking each and every page to make sure that everything was accurate before she set the entire stack in the COMPLETE box on her desk. Now she was back in her room and was going to take a few moments to plan out the rest of her day.

She did not have any big adventures lined up for today, so she could get back to planning her vacation... or so she thought. While her back was turned a paper or some other paper object was slipped under her door and she heard the rustle of the paper sliding on the wooden floor. Leona turned around and spotted the object lying on the floor... it was a white paper envelope.

Leona walked over to it, picked it up, then walked over to her desk. She rummaged through the badly disorganized drawers until she found a letter opener, then used the letter opener to carefully open the envelope. Once it was open she set the opener aside and carefully fished out the envelope's contents, which were written on a neatly folded piece of plain white paper. Leona opened the paper and read the neat handwriting within to learn that it was a message from Eleanor Crouch.

"Hi Wizard Saint! It's me, Eleanor Crouch! I'm writing this to tell you that my father would like to meet you in person in Capital Crocus! He's really busy right now, but in the future he wants to talk to you. He won't tell me what he wants to talk about, though... I also don't know when he wants to meet with you, so you'll have to keep en eye out for a message from him!

In the meantime, I'd like to thank you again for helping me get out of The Forgotten Deserts yesterday. The timing of your arrival was impeccable and your generosity with your water supply was greatly appreciated. I can't stress enough how helpful you were to me. Well, I've gotta go now, so I won't hold you up by writing an overly lengthy letter that takes all day to read. I'll talk to you later!

Eleanor Crouch"

Leona set the message down on her desk and crossed her arms over her chest. She wondered what in Ishgar Dr. Crouch wanted to talk to her about. She also wondered why he wanted to talk to her in person instead of communicating by message. Leona uncrossed her arms and shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea what the man wanted to talk to her about, but whatever it was, she was willing to hear him out.

The letter had been read and Leona had been notified to watch for a message from Dr. Crouch, so now she was going to move on to planning her vacation. When she had started planning her very first thought had been to book a trip to Crescent Island. She had more than enough money to rent a luxury hotel suite and stay on Crescent Island in style, but Leona was not sure if she wanted to do that just yet.

Leona's second thought was to head back to the space station using her Infinite Improbability Chronometer. It had the advantage of being essentially a free vacation. Another attractive part of that plan was that she would not have to pay anything for lodging since she had her own luxury suite on board the space station available whenever she wanted it. All she would have to do to claim it was to go to Station Administrator Eliza and ask for the keycard. Again Leona was not sure if she wanted to commit to that option yet.

A third option was to book a cruise on a cruise ship. That option had the benefit of being a brand-new experience, so Leona would have no idea what to expect when boarding the cruise ship. That kind of surprise could go either very well or very poorly, which was one reason she had refrained from booking a cruise for the time being. Besides, Leona had plenty of time in which to choose a vacation option and money was not much of a factor in making her decision, so she was not going to rush things.

In the meantime Leona would go to the guild cafe and get some coffee. That action would buy her some time to give the matter a little more thought.

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[Total Word Count: 4,802/5,000]

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, in the guild cafe, 11:25 A.M.-

Sitting at her usual table in the guild cafe, Leona was drinking from a styrofoam cup of coffee while trying to decide where she wanted to go on vacation. She was long overdue for a vacation and wanted to do something special, but she was not sure what exactly she wanted to do. So far she had narrowed down her options to a trip to Crescent Island, a trip to the space station that her Infinite Improbability Chronometer took her to, or a cruise.

Leona took a sip of coffee and mentally reviewed the pros and cons of her options.

Crescent Island was always a good choice.

There was quite a bit to do on Crescent Island and she was familiar with the place, which made her more comfortable going there since she knew the area. The climate was pleasant and the water was beautiful. The hotel rooms were also clean and comfortable to stay in. Crescent Island was a strong contender for her choice as a vacation destination. However, she did not want to go there without considering her other options.

Then there was the space station.

The biggest draw to that vacation option was that it was essentially free. Having a luxury suite of her own whenever she wanted it was a big plus since she did not have to pay anything for lodging. A second benefit was that she would not have to pay for entertainment options since she could either watch holographic movies in the personal holographic theater in her luxury suite or walk around on any floor of the station as long as she did not go into restricted areas accessible only to station personnel and station administrators. The only major problem was the question of what she would eat while there... she had forgotten to inquire into the food options available to her on board the space station because in the past she had made only short visits, not multi-day visits.

She would need to go there soon and learn what food options were available before committing to a long stay.

Leona took another sip of coffee as she pondered the third possibility she had considered.

That possibility was booking a cruise.

That option was the least attractive to Leona because once the ship disembarked Leona would be stuck on it for the duration of the cruise. If she had second thoughts about going on a cruise or got so bored that nothing the ship offered could entertain her there was nothing she could do but do her best to endure the cruise. That was an option Leona would pursue only when there were no other options left to her.

Speaking of options, she needed to look for some alternatives before she chose between a trip to Crescent Island and a trip to the space station.

Leona took another sip of her coffee and while sitting in the cafe watched a guild staff member go by with an armload of papers. They were heading in the direction of her office. Leona knew that there would be another round of paperwork waiting on her when she got to her office. Leona finished her coffee, then took a quiet breath.

The Wizard Saint got up from the table, pushed her chair in, and walked over to the trash receptacles. She threw the empty styrofoam cup into the proper trash receptacle, then set out for her office. Since she did not have any big adventures planned for today Leona would do the responsible thing and go to her office to handle the paperwork that would be waiting for her there. Hopefully she would not have to spend all day confronting mountains of papers.

[Post Word Count: 626]
[Total Word Count: 5,428/5,000]