Tori entered garden area of Crocus and was immediately taken aback by its overwhelming beauty. Practically every flower she had ever seen was in these beds and all blooming together. It was truly a site to behold. But, she was on the job and she could admire the floral patterns another time. She was here to find a sword. Armin Bartholomew was a well known Seated Knight and was the last of his family. He couldn't give an exact location, but he remembered losing it while in the paradise of Crocus Gardens. No doubt, he got lost in the beauty of the flowers and simply lost track of it, and Tori could completely understand why if that was the case. Looking around, Tori could see there were pathways on top of pathways, making this place a veritable maze of plant life. Going down one pathway led Tori to a couple and what seemed to be their young daughter admiring the flowers.

Tori approached them as she cleared her throat to make her presence known. "Excuse me, my name is Tori Lancaster and I'm doing a favor for one of the Seated Knights. You haven't, by chance, stumbled on a sword lying around have you? He seems to have lost it." she expained, as the couple simply looked at each other in confusion before the husband spoke up. "No, we sure haven't, but we'll be sure to alert one of the guards if we do." Tori nodded, thanking the couple for his help before feeling a slight tug on her pant leg. "Well, hello there. Aren't you pretty." she said, kneeling down to get closer to the child's eye level. She couldn't have been older than 6 or 7 with long, flowing, blonde hair that even made Tori a little jealous. She girl blushed as Tori asked her name. "My name is Daisy." she said, excited that a grown up was noticing her. "Well, that's appropriate. Here," she said, picking a small flower off a nearby bush and placing it in the child's golden hair. "A daisy for Daisy." she giggled, which made the child giggle, which made her parents giggle. "Do you like puppies?!" the girl asked, barely able to contain the excitement of having made a new friend. "Well, duh! Who doesn't like puppies?!" she answered, matching the young girl's enthusiasm in her voice. "There is a puppy around that corner if you wanna go pet it. My mommy said it's not safe to pet strange animals, but I'm sure it would be ok for a grown up." Tori couldn't help but laugh. "Well, you're mommy is absolutely right. You don't know if the animal is mean or not. But I'll definitely go tell him hello for you." Tori assured, making the child jump up and down, squealing with excitement.

The little girl jumped and gave Tori a hug before she stood up, making Tori giggle. She stood and thanked the three of them for their time and let them be on their way. Following the corner, the ice mage found a tail sticking out of the bushes. Assuming this was the dog that she was told about, Tori tried sneaking up on it before the tail disappeared into the bushes. she shrugged before she heard the unmistakable sound of scraping metal, so she stuck her head through the bush and sure enough, saw the dog running down the path with a sword in its mouth. Why the dog would want a sword, she had no idea. But she had no doubt that was Sir Bartholomew's sword, so she withdrew her head and went around the bush before she realized that she lost track of it. Turning the corner was another Rune Knight, who was scratching his head confused. "Excuse me, did you see a dog running around with a sword in its mouth?" she asked hurriedly, knowing the more time she took, the more distance the dog would get before she lost it completely. "Yea, right around that bend there." Tori thanked the knight before heading in that direction. She saw the dog's tail disappear around another corner, which she in turn followed. This happened again and again, but this was a maze. Sooner or later, the dog would find himself trapped in a corner, and sure enough that was this turn right here. She found the dog in the corner of a stone wall, unable to escape. It looked at Tori scared, and dropped the sword in submission, whining all the while. Poor thing must be scared to death. She reached her hand out, showing she was not aggressive and the dog immediately jumped up and let her pet him. "Well, aren't you friendly?" she said to the dog, receiving only a small bark in return, its tail wagging a mile a minute. Upon further inspection, she saw the dog had no tags or identification, leading her to believe it was a stray. She thought for a minute and had an idea of a place in town to take him.

The dog knew the "heel" command surprisingly, which allowed Tori to keep him following her, the sword over her shoulder. As she made her way to the entrance of the gardens, she ran into the same family that she had talked to before, the girl yelling at Tori upon seeing her, which scared the dog behind her. She reached down to comfort the dog as she glanced back to the little girl with a look of unbridled love in her eyes. It was right then she had an idea to help everyone. "Ya know. I found he is very friendly, if you're parents are willing to let you pet him." she suggested, shifting her attention to the parents and assuring them it was safe. The man nodded and his daughter rushed towards the dog, which scared him again. Tori showed her how to hold her hand to show the dog she was no threat and the dog responded in kind by positioning himself to be pet. "Can I keep him? Please?" the girl begged, as her parents looked at each other, then to the dog and noticed that he was a stray. Tori informed them he knew the command to follow, which the girl gave to her new best friend. Tori watched them walk out of Crocus Gardens with an additional member of the family, something I'm sure none expected that morning.

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