Right she was getting more to terms with her thoughts. Maybe it had to do with the change. She had just finished her coffee, caught a conman and was on her way to find something to do as in shopping. She could use some suntan lotion, you know how red heads could get a sun burn within seconds and thus hers was almost empty, the bottle. She looked at her pale skin and she never did tan anyway. It was pale or red, no difference but pain. Ophelia was walking beside her, or she could of course buy a new book, since she had left most of her books every time she had to travel again. Maybe she needed... she shivered, maybe she needed to settle down and get a house. But she liked travelling apart from losing books and clothing and everything in a haste of packing. However she did plan to go back to Magnolia to pick up the diadem that was waiting for her at the smithy where she had bought this armour. Or well she wasn’t wearing it but her newest armour that she had worn during her coward portrait against Cell. She tried to let go of that again but every time she thought about it, a wave of guilt and cowardice hit her and made her feel nauseous and bad. She sighed as she looked at her reflection in the window of a particular shop. Ophelia was looking at the dress and other pieces of clothing that was hanging on the mannequins, Alice should look at well but she ushered Ophelia on to continue, she had enough clothing for now. It wasn’t as if she could carry a complete walking closet in her dimensional pocket and the more armours and helmets and weapons she wanted to buy, the more space she should save for that.

In the end she decided that they should go and eat something, which she hadn’t done after breakfast. Not that she felt like eating but she should definitely take care of herself. So she went to a supermarket. Not in the mood to go to a cafe and sit by herself. Which wasn’t completely true and

her eyes darted to Ophelia. She bought some fruit and onigiri for the two of them, where Ophelia took the fruit and she would eat the rice balls. They would find a bench near the quest board and simply stare at the people that were taking quests and ran off to find the owner of the quest or people that put quests on the board. There weren’t many people when Alice almost had finished her rice, she took the last crumbs of her cheek and picked the ones she had dropped from her lap to throw them away in case pigeons would try to get it. She had read somewhere that it was wrong for birds to eat rice but she wasn’t sure. That’s when she heard someone at the board and out of curiosity, and having nothing better to do, she turned around to look.

She had never met this young man but she knew who it was in an instance. Armin Bartolomew, a seated knight just like her and sort of famous. Well sort of was kind of out of the question. He was famous for all the work he did as well as the family he belonged to. Since he was alone she dared to talk to him, not even believing that the two of them were on the same line as seated knights but whatever. Bold people had the world. She stepped forward and looked at the quest he was putting on the board, ”Hi.” she simply said and he looked at her immediately, possibly very aware that there had been no one else, ”I’m Alice Baskerville. A seated Knight like you.”. His frown disappeared compeletely, ”Oh hello.” he said now smiling to her and that put her a little at ease. She pointed at the quest and asked out loud if she could help him, even though she couldn’t read the quest right now with his arm in front of it. He took the quest of the board and handed it to her explaining what happened. He couldn’t find his sword, good thing for having a personal dimensional pocket. Not having to carry a sword at your hip and not being able to lose it. ”Let me help. What’s the last place you remember carrying it?” and she guided him to the bench where Ophelia was still sitting. They talked and he couldn’t remember if he left it at the Crocus Gardens or at some client. So she suggested he would go look at the client’s house and around it and she would take the Gardens. Which seemed like a good idea and they would meet here in around an hour again since both places weren’t far off.

So she and Ophelia headed off towards the Gardens of Crocus and tried to not focus on the sightings. She had been here once before, a long time ago it felt. Perhaps around five months, since it was winter at that time. The flowers were more colourful now. She walked quickly through the gardens but there was no sign of a sword anywhere that she was staring to doubt it. She left Ophelia behind to walk faster and meet up with her companion later when she still had no luck. However when she came back to Ophelia, the Clefairy was cowering because of a dog that was.. holding a sword! It must have been the sword she was thinking about! She hunched down and immediately Ophelia hurried behind her, ”Here boy.” she said sweetly but the boy ran away and she quickly got up and ran after it, hoping she could trap it at some point, which made it easier and more difficult with the hedges he could go through and not her. So she would have to run around but there was finally a moment where the little beast couldn’t go through and she could grasp the sword.

The hour was almost over when she finally had it and she and Ophelia made their quick way out of the gardens. When she arrived at the Quest board Armin was already there and happy to see that

she brought the sword with her. ”You were right about the gardens.” she said with a smile as she handed it over and he paid her for the job.

Wordcount: 1086/1000