Being A Good Neighbor

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 38, Post Number 940

-Capital Crocus, 4:00 P.M.-

Wearing his usual outfit of white t-shirt, olive green cargo pants, and black boots, Leonidas exited his house and shut the door behind him, then immediately turned left and began to walk down the street with the job notice clutched in his left hand. He was looking for the house of a young woman named Samantha Halsey, a person who lived in his neighborhood and was looking for someone to walk with her through the city until she got to a friend's house. Leonidas thought himself up to the challenge, so he took the job. It was not the most action-packed job he could have taken, but it was going to be "real" work that involved a bit of travel and did not take him too far from home. He would look for a more action-packed job once he had finished this one.

Leonidas walked down the nearly empty street until he came to an apartment much like his own with a white exterior and the silver numbers 1420 on the brown wooden door. He immediately stopped and faced the door, then checked the job notice again. The numbers on the door matched the numbers on the paper, so he was in the right place.

Leonidas walked up to the door and saw a glowing green button on the right side of the doorframe that had to be the doorbell. He pressed it and the doorbell rang. Within moments the front door opened to show a well-dressed young blonde woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties. Perhaps she was a bit too formally dressed for a meeting with a friend, but that was just his opinion.

She wore a formal-looking blue outfit with a knee-length black skirt and black dress shoes with a white ascot around her neck and black gloves on her hands. She also wore a beret that was the same color as her outfit. Leonidas expected her to recoil when she made eye contact, but to his surprise she did not.

"Oh, hi there! You must be the person I hired to walk with me to my friend's house! I'm Samantha Halsey!" Samantha cheerfully greeted Leonidas.

"Yes. I'm Leonidas. Leonidas Jarnefeldt." Leonidas introduced himself to the young woman. She smiled widely.

"I'm so glad you're here, Leonidas! As you read in the job notice, I'm going to a friend's house across town and I'm worried that the local hoodlums might come out after dark! That's why I want someone with me!" Samantha explained why he had been hired.

"Are you expecting any trouble?" Leonidas asked her in case he needed to make a return trip to his house to grab his Silver Falchion. She shook her head.

"Oh, no! Not at all! A guy like you's intimidating enough that most of the local hoodlums won't come anywhere near us! You won't need a weapon!" Samantha assured him that she was not anticipating any serious trouble and that all he needed to do was look tough. In this case Leonidas decided to take the "intimidating" remark as a compliment.

"All right then, Samantha. I'm ready to go whenever you are." Leonidas said to her after being sure that he had gotten all the details he needed. She smiled at him again.

"Great! Just let me go grab my purse and I'll be ready to go!" Samantha said and ducked back into her house while Leonidas waited outside. He neatly folded up the job notice and placed it in his right cargo pocket, then closed the pocket and waited for his client to return. This was going to be his first "real" job since arriving in Fiore and he was eager to get going on it.

Samantha Halsey:

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-Capital Crocus, ten minutes later-

Ten minutes ago Samantha had found her purse and was walking alongside Leonidas. They had just left the neighborhood both of them lived in and were on the way to Samantha's friend's townhouse, which was located in an upscale part of the city called Crown Lane. Leonidas was content to listen to the sounds of the busy city as they walked, but Samantha had other plans. She faced him and made eye contact.

"You said that your name's Leonidas Jarnefeldt, right?" Samantha asked him as the pair walked towards the end of the street. Leonidas looked ahead for a moment to make sure that he was not going to walk into anything or anyone, then turned to face her and answered the question.

"Yes." Leonidas replied laconically. Samantha maintained eye contact with him.

"Are you related to Leona Jarnefeldt, the Wizard Saint of Courage?" The young blonde woman asked the fateful question. Leonidas nodded.

"Yes. I'm her older brother." Leonidas answered calmly and without sarcasm. Samantha smiled when she heard that.

"I can see a family resemblance between you two. The blond hair, the green eyes... it's slight, but the family resemblance is there." Samantha commented to Leonidas on the similarities the siblings shared before pointing right with her right index finger when they reached the end of the street. Leonidas wordlessly turned right and Samantha turned with him onto the sidewalk. Once they were walking on the sidewalk they resumed the conversation.

"I might be rude for asking this, but what brought you here? What brought you to Fiore?" Samantha asked Leonidas. The blond man did not take very long to give his answer.

"I came here looking for adventure, Samantha. I've spent all my life in Desierto and now I want to travel the world." Leonidas answered candidly. Like Leona before him, Leonidas had grown tired of living in Desierto and wanted to see the world beyond the desert. However, in between being the village blacksmith after the previous blacksmith died in a bandit raid, training apprentice blacksmiths, and taking care of his mother, he had had no chance to leave the desert country and see the world. Up until a week or two ago the blond man was certain that he was going to spend his entire life in Desierto.

"You came all the way from Desierto?" Samantha asked him just before they walked into a crowd of pedestrians. They slowly and carefully worked their way through the crowd until they emerged on the other side and joined up again. Samantha pointed straight ahead of her to indicate which way to go and Leonidas silently followed that cue. Once they were away from the crowd they picked up where they left off.

"Yes, Samantha." Leonidas answered. Samantha looked him in the eyes for a few moments and was clearly thinking about what she wanted to say to him.

"It must be kinda hard adjusting to life here after living in Desierto for so long." Samantha opined. Leonidas walked in silence for a few moments before he could come up with a good reply.

"I'll admit that Fiore's a lot different from what I'm used to. For example, I had never seen an automobile until I got here." Leonidas confessed to her. Samantha smiled at him.

"I bet living here's going to take some getting used to, Leonidas." Samantha said.

"It'll definitely take some getting used to." Leonidas agreed with her. When they reached the seventh street from the one they had turned onto Samantha pointed right and both of them turned at the corner and stayed on the sidewalk. They walked for a minute or two before resuming the conversation.

"How do you like Capital Crocus so far, Leonidas?" Samantha asked Leonidas.

"I'm still learning how to get around here, but I have a favorable view of the city so far. There's a lot of things to do here and places I haven't seen yet. I heard talk that there's a large shopping mall here as well as a large movie theater." Leonidas replied to the question. Samantha smiled.

"You heard right, Leonidas. Capital Crocus Mall is pretty big and so is the movie theater. The mall has three floors of stores to shop in and the movie theater has twenty auditoriums to show movies in." Samantha reported. Leonidas would definitely have to pay a visit to those places some time... after he finally did a "real" job or two and had some spending money in his pocket.

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"I might have to go to this movie theater some day when I've got some money and some free time. I've never seen a movie before." Leonidas made another confession to Samantha. He was briefly concerned that she would laugh at him because between his earlier confession that he had never seen an automobile before coming to Fiore and his latest confession of having never seen a movie he sounded like a desert bumpkin, which in a lot of ways he was. Samantha did no such thing. Instead she smiled at him.

"You'll like the movie theater, Leonidas. There's plenty of seating in the auditoriums and the concession stand's got plenty of candy and popcorn for sale." Samantha assured him that a trip to the movie theater would be well worth his time and money. Leonidas would have to be the judge of that, but he was sure that there was substance to her words.

"I'm sure that it'll be great." Leonidas said to her. Samantha looked ahead of them and pointed left. When the pair reached the end of the sidewalk they both turned left and continued down another sidewalk. The blond man wondered how much longer they had to travel before they got to Crown Lane.

-Capital Crocus, Crown Lane, forty-five minutes later-

The two blond people had been walking for almost an hour now and had been working their way through dense pedestrian traffic almost every step of the way. The crowds were nothing that they could not handle, though. Walking in single file when necessary made movement a lot easier. After a lot of walking the two finally walked onto a street and when Samantha pointed right with the index finger of her right hand the pair turned right, then continued down the road.

"We're on Crown Lane now, Leonidas. We're almost to our destination!" Samantha informed him as they set foot on the road. Leonidas was pleased to hear that. After walking for so long he was glad to hear that they were very close to their destination.

"That's good news." Leonidas commented to Samantha as they walked down the road. Pedestrian traffic here was light and there was enough space for the pair to walk side-by-side instead of in single file. It looked like this was going to be an easy job for Leonidas, but then some skinny guy neither of them had ever seen before walked up from the left side of the street and got behind Samantha. He grabbed Samantha's left arm with his left hand and put a "guiding" hand on her right shoulder, then began trying to turn her around.

"Hey lady, why don't you come with me?" He "asked" her while trying to turn her around to go in the opposite direction. The man was a skinny fellow with blond hair that had clearly not been brushed, a white tank top, blue jeans stained in places with what looked to be motor oil, and dirty brown work boots.

"I don't want to go anywhere with you! I don't even know you!" Samantha protested and tried to pull away from the stranger as he turned her around and began to pull her down the road. He tightened his grip on her arm and that was when Leonidas stepped in. He strode up to the man and tapped him on the right shoulder.

"I believe that she made it pretty clear that she doesn't want to go anywhere with you." Leonidas addressed the stranger in a firm voice.

"Butt out, you loser! Nobody asked you!" He snapped at Leonidas and spun around to face the person speaking to him. When the skinny man made eye contact with Leonidas the former's face went pale.

"Care to repeat that for me?" Leonidas asked sarcastically and folded his arms across his chest. The intimidated man instantly backed away from Leonidas and from Samantha for six steps. He moved left for a few more steps, then turned left and began running down the street as fast as he could go. Once he was gone Samantha turned to face her rescuer.

"Thank you, Leonidas. That's the first time that's ever happened to me. I'm glad you were here to stop him from trying to take me away!" Samantha thanked Leonidas for his timely intervention while rubbing her left arm with her right hand.

"I'm glad that I could help." Leonidas said to her. Samantha was right about the hoodlums in this neighborhood... they were easily intimidated. Leonidas was not going to complain, though. He did not want to fight if he could avoid it.

"We'd better get going in case he comes back with some friends. I don't think he will, but never count that possibility out." Samantha suggested to Leonidas. The scar-faced man nodded his approval.

"Yes. Let's get going. Lead the way." Leonidas agreed with the young woman. She took the lead and began guiding them towards her friend's house. As long as Samantha got to safety in her friend's house Leonidas did not care how many friends that sketchy guy brought with him if he came looking for revenge.

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-Crown Lane, ten minutes later-

Ten minutes after the "confrontation" with the sketchy guy who tried to redirect Samantha to an unknown destination the pair arrived outside a two-story townhouse with a white exterior and the brass numbers 1244 hanging on the top of the doorframe. The door was made out of a dark brown wood and had a brass doorknob. Samantha stopped in front of the townhouse and pointed towards it.

"Here we are, Leonidas. My friend's house." Samantha told him. Leonidas stopped and watched her walk briskly towards the door, then watched her ring the doorbell mounted on the right side of the doorframe. Within a minute of the doorbell being rung the door opened to show a young woman with bright green eyes and waist-length black hair that hung freely. She wore a white t-shirt and blue jean short shorts.

"Hi Samantha! How's it going?" The young woman asked Samantha.

"It's going OK, Christina. You might wanna be careful while walking around the neighborhood, though. Some creep just tried to take me somewhere against my will." Samantha told her friend. Christina looked at Leonidas and recoiled.

"Is he one of the creeps you told me about?" Christina asked while pointing towards Leonidas. Samantha shook her head.

"No, Christina. He's from my neighborhood and he kept that creep from abducting me. His name is Leonidas and he's one of the good guys." Samantha defended Leonidas to her friend. Christina lightened up once she was told that bit of information.

"I'm glad you made it here OK, Samantha." Christina said to Samantha.

"Me too, Christina. If Leonidas hadn't been with me things could have ended a lot differently." Samantha replied. Christina made eye contact with Leonidas for a moment before turning back to the well-dressed blonde woman.

"Would you like to go inside?" The black-haired young woman asked Samantha. The blonde shook her head.

"Not just yet. I've got to tell him goodbye first." Samantha replied to her friend's question. Christina smiled slyly.

"From the way you're talking it sounds like he's your boyfriend now. I think you two would make a cute couple." Christina joked. Samantha blushed furiously.

"It's not like that at all! He's a good guy, but I'm not into him! We just met today!" Samantha protested. Christina laughed.

"OK, go and tell him goodbye. I'll wait for you." Christina assured her friend. The well-dressed young blonde woman walked towards Leonidas, who had been waiting a short distance away and thus could hear everything that was being said.

"Thank you for walking with me, Leonidas. I appreciated your company." Samantha thanked Leonidas for walking with her to her friend's house.

"It was no problem at all, Samantha. If you don't need me anymore I'll be heading home now." Leonidas told her. Samantha smiled at him.

"All right then, Leonidas. See you later!" Samantha said to him. She then turned around and walked towards her friend, then entered the house. The door was shut behind her. With his work here finished Leonidas turned left and started retracing his steps back to his neighborhood. Tomorrow he was going to look for a "real" job that took him outside of Capital Crocus for a change.

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