Chelvaric was walking through the streets of Crocus. It was the capital of Fiore. A really big city, at least a million people were inhabiting the city. The smell of the piss and poop being thrown out on the streets were filling his nose as he was walking through the slums of the big city. It was summer and the heat didn’t help make it any less smelly. He was quite annoyed already. He hoped he would arrive in the more better parts of the city soon. Not that he would stay long here. The city was too confining for his tastes. Not enough nature that could help him relax and roam around in. Harder to do his prayers too as he needed trees for that. He sighed softly and entered the more middle class neighborhood. The smell was a bit better here and the streets had at least a bit of green here and there.

He searched for a nearby inn and found the buzzing bee. It seemed a nice little place to sleep at. The windows were nice and tidy and had small curtains in front of them. flowers were also placed underneath the window. He opened the door and a small bell ringed through the building. It was for the rest really quiet so quiet that he was wondering if there was even people at home. Not much later an old woman entered the room and she greeted him. She offered him the suite as that was here only room left. He wondered if that was true tough with the little people that were in the building. But he didn’t mind and took the room.

After unpacking his things he and Scraggy went out of the building to start on their job. He had a meeting with a special person from the king. She needed something of him so he was on its way. Since it was such a delicate mission he had send word to Snowflake to come too but he wasn’t sure if she was already done in Magnolia. He hoped she was a she wanted to see her.

354/2400

A low, desert breeze hurriedly drew past, humming over her briskly, blowing sand into her face and horizon as she willed herself to stare past the particle-dusted wind. With her backpack carried behind, she trudged through the sand and beneath the linings of her worn soles was the sound of scattering, most notably tiny mounds of pebble and dirt that filtered through the spaces in her steps. Above her was a stretch of sky, and though the pale blue colour was inviting in its own right, leering into it echoed nothing but forlorn thoughts, lost in the transition of cloud to puff to nothingness over the short span of a few moments. Fleeting was the process of dispersing clouds, which Snowflake would easily compare to the fickleness of her identity and the deterioration of her memories, bit by bit, she continued to wonder.

In a distance, Snowflake could hear the sound of people, bustling crowds and most of all, the clamour of the market. Crocus greeted her with hot, blistering weather as the sun rays shone down upon the city. The sheen of sweat that lined her temple had become more pronounced, minute by minute, as the heat clung tightly to her thick clothes, mimicking how several strands of blonde stuck to the corners of her face in a grubby fashion. They tangled over her slowly reddening complexion insistently, framing her already irate features with the notion of exhaustion reaching her bones. She glanced down at Vysella who had been trailing along by her side the entire time and sure enough, her companion would be exhausted as well. Bending over, she picked Vysella up in her arms and carried her the rest of the way to Crocus.

Her face was slightly tanned from the heat as well as her body parts that were exposed to the sunlight, her lips dry and cracked from the lack of water. After getting through the gate of Crocus, the first thought that crossed her mind was to gulp down a bucket of water and just take a nap. It wasn’t until she realised that she couldn’t do so, for she had a meeting with Chelvaric, who is supposedly in the town as well. Snowflake rented a room for herself and her companion in the nearest inn as well as the cheapest possible and began to unpack quickly. She would clean her face a bit and chucked down bottles of water that were given to her as a gift from the owner of the inn. Being late on time, she wasn’t sure if she smelt or not but that was of her least concern at the moment.

”We must make haste.”

Chelvaric was feeling the heat of the sun on him. It was so hot he could barely move around in this weather. He hated it and he wanted to find some shade before he would move on to the job it was way too early to do anything else. So before he was going of the job he entered a small building and looked around at all the nice books that were standing along the wals of the job. In the middle of the room there were tables with the newest arrivals laying on it. The covers were shiny and brand new. He liked the smell of the books that were lingering in the room. Some were from old books but it was blended with the freshness of the new ones. It was so nice to smell and he loved it.

He went around the table and looked at the different books that were laying down. Some were romances about princes stealing young ladies away from there boring lives. Other books were about the lives of historical figures. But those kinds of books he wasn’t seeking for at the moment. He wanted something to educate him more about the nature in Fiore. Now that he was a druid he had to bring up to live as one mind with nature. So he took a book of the table titled, “The far and wide spread Trees of Oberon”. It seemed very interesting and it had lots of detailed pictures inside. He liked the drawings they were really precise and nice.

He walked over to the counter and looked at the young girl who was standing behind it with an apron on. She had a nice smile and her red hair was tied in a dot. He paid the jewels of the book and went outside back into the heat. With his book in his hands, he continued to the destination for the job. He wondered if Snow had arrived by now but well he would see. Once he finally arrived at the place he waited in front of the door. He was looking around if he could see her anywhere.

With Vysella in her arms, Snowflake weaved through the dense flow of people in the streets of Crocus. Her first day had been horrible so far, since the moment she entered the town she barely got time to do anything else. Heck, she couldn’t even have a quick snack because she was already running late to meet Chelvaric. Her stomach grumbled and she had no choice but to ignore the awkward sounds that her stomach was producing.

Along the way, she caught a glimpse of a store with cupcakes and pastries put on display. Immediately, she could feel her mouth water and her paced would slow down upon seeing her favourites inside the store. Sweets were her weakness and now that she was famished as well, she decided that she would just pop in and buy a couple for herself, assuming that it would only take a couple of minutes. Blue hues quickly scanned over the display decorated with cakes, macaroons and pastries as she took a brief moment to decide which one she would buy.

After exiting the store with a decent amount of pastries inside the plastic bag, she could hardly wait a second to devour the desserts. Opening up the thin cardboard box, her eyes would twinkle as she stared down at the cute cupcakes, pies and tarts located inside the box. She placed one inside her mouth and as her teeth sank into the soft texture of the cake, a low mumble would escape her lips, ’Mmmmm’, from the exquisite taste of these delicious desserts and the white haired girl would continue to finish the rest of the food over the course of the trip.

”…It should be around here.”

The coordinates of her destination was written inside the letter that her comrade had sent it to her but she was not sure where the exact location was. Her eyes darted around the area while she licked around the corner of her mouth where the sugar particles and dough remained stuck on her lips. It wasn’t until then she recognized a man coming out of a building of what she would assume, a bookstore. From his white long hair and his tall figure, it was no doubt that the man was Chelvaric. Snowflake wasn’t sure if he noticed her but she approached towards him and gave him a gentle pat on his shoulder.

”Hey.”

Chelvaric was still being bothered by the heat when he felt a sudden tap on his shoulder. He looked behind him as it surprised him hard and he looked at snow’s nice face. She looked so beautiful he didn’t know what to say at first just still surprised and not really realizing what was happening. It felt like being in a dream and he wondered why. He walked a bit backwards and gave a small cough before he regained himself and started talking to her.

“Damn Snow you scared me there nearly. Popping up randomly like that”, he said and he sighed slightly. He was making the impression of a lecturing father. God what was he a moron. Why would he react like that it was just a practical joke nothing more than that? “Sorry for that. I didn’t mean to lash out. This heat is just so bad on me”, he paused for a second before he continued speaking to her. “It’s good to see you again. Well we have a long job ahead of us let’s get going we can talk on the way”, he told her and they started walking toward the Mansion of the Advisor of the king. The mansion was huge and was standing right in the middle of the city. The only building that had a garden around it. Pillars were holding up the roof that was hanging over the entrance of the building. A path led from there all the way to the gate that was keeping the garden separate from the street. They walked up to the guards that were standing near the gate. Chelvaric showed the job paper and they let both of them inside the garden without any problem.

It was a great sight to see some nature again. Buxus plants were all around and they were cut in shapes mostly like humans and dogs. Chelvaric was quite impressed of the view. Somewhere between the plants there were small fountains spraying water over small water ponds. Along the trail to the door statues of marble were placed neatly. It took a while before they arrived at the house of the advisor. Chelvaric knocked on the door and waited.

Snowflake wanted to scare her partner slightly and it seemed that her plan worked although, she noticed how he was staring at her briefly before he started to panic and then, apologized her for some reason. The girl tilted her head at a slight angle, questioning herself why he was doing so. ”Mhm, I extremely dislike the heat as well.” The girl sighed, fanning herself with her free hand in an attempt to cool herself down from the summer heat. Clothes clung onto her body like a child to its mother as the harsh gales blew across the vicinity of Crocus. Silently, the white haired maiden wished to herself, hoping that summer would be over soon and soon, the rains of autumn would come. A few weeks later the first snows of winter would follow, and she could hardly wait for that moment since winter had always been her favourite season.

With Chelvaric leading the way, Snowflake would follow until they ceased their tracks in front of a large mansion. It was one of the largest building that she has ever seen, though the castle of Marigold takes up the first place. As expected of the royal family, the thought crossed her mind as she gazed up at the structure in front of her in awe. Thoughts of wanting something more than just an apartment had never crossed her mind and it was mostly because she was always content with what she had, never too greedy or never to unsatisfied. She realized that these things were not important to her and would not be able to bring happiness but the little things instead, such as courtesy, knowledge, food, her close friends and so on.

Their arrival at the mansion was greeted by a woman, the owner of the building itself and who Snowflake would assume, the king’s advisor. At first glance, the woman appeared too fancy to be a witch. She had thought witches or sorceress would lay low to prevent themselves from getting attention, but in this case, it was very different. The lady was dressed in fine clothing that encased her lean body, displaying her curves and her ample assets and Snowflake couldn’t help but think that this woman was really attractive, not that she was drawn towards women. The sorceress would introduce herself as Lady Merlin, inviting them inside the building which was nothing but grand.

After they were seated on those expensive couches, Lady Merlin would get to the point straight away and began explaining of how she had concerns regarding the package that was supposed to be arriving at her place. According to her information, the caravan that is responsible for the delivery is not known for their delicacy or handling of valuable items and thus, the two Blue Pegasus mages were requested to guide the caravan through the safest path.

After they were greeted by a stern woman they went inside the building. When they came inside the building he was baffled by they nice interior. The walls and the floor were made of marble and the chairs and the table were made of oak. Chelvaric liked oak it was a nice hard and beautiful wood. He walked through the halls and they entered the room where they were asked to sit down on really fancy and nice chairs. Apparently the transporters of the goods weren’t that known to handle goods with care and she was really worried about it. They said to her that they would take care of it and not much later they were walking through the streets of crocus. The heat was stil blasting through the sky. Not that it mattered much for this job. They arrived at the gate and told the guard they would take the caravan of goods with them.

A while passed and in the mean time he shared some cookies with snow to pass time. The cookies were quite sweet and were savory. He should go back to that backery he bought the from a few days ago. Not that it mattered much at te moment they were stil working in the middle of the job. The caravan arrived and Chelvaric and snow started to guide them trough the streets of Crocus. Lots of goods were carefully stockpiled on the wagons but the handlers were a bit rough and you could see it on the crates. He said to them to handle with cre while they were slowly making there way into the streets of crocus. Sometimes they would nag in why tey were taking the detour and they had explain that they were trying to keep the goods safe witch was a annoying task to do

1387/2400

The two mages exited the mansion after accepting Lady Merlin’s request and began proceeding towards their next destination, the gates of Crocus. It would have been better if their client could have just delivered them a message regarding about the quest, then they wouldn’t have walk through the streets back and forth underneath the blaring heat. Beads of sweat glistened on her face and everyone else’s, and many faces turned red due to the sweltering heat. The ends of her silver hair remained relentlessly stuck onto the back of her neck and her back was drenched with sweat while clothes clung onto her body. She felt so uncomfortable in this unbearable heat and all she wanted to do was to take a nice cold shower and relax for the rest of the day.

Upon reaching the gates of Crocus, Snowflake would inform the ones who were responsible at the area that the Blue Pegasus mages have taken up the offer of directing the caravan along the way. Soon enough, the caravan arrived and once again, Snowflake had to explain it to the employees. The only response she received from the employees was a disapproving look and a grumble. ”Psht, what a crap load of unnecessary work. This extra work is just a waste of time.” One of the men complained, loud enough for her to hear and of course, Snowflake was not one who would just stand by and listen to their irritating complaints, since the weather had already put her in one of her worst moods possible.

”Mind you, if the quality of the product is ruined because of your careless attitude, I assume you would be the one at fault.”

That seemed to have shut the men up as they let out a discreet cough and went back to lead the caravan through the streets. Before the ride would begin, she climbed onto the vehicle, hoping to rest over the course of the trip since she couldn’t bear the heat much longer. Heat was one of her weakness and having a mechanical body does not entirely help either. Just as the metal gets cold extremely fast, it conducts heat well too. As they rode into the main streets, the youth would order the men to stop and suggested them to take the outer roads of the town instead since the main streets was mainly known for pickpocketing – not to mention, crowds of people filling the roads as well.

Chelvaric was standing on the side of the caravan as it arrived through the gates. He wanted to explain the job to them but Snow was faster and she informed them about what was going to happen. She was quite quick on things. The faces of the care takers were quite going downwards in the mood. It seemed they weren’t too happy about it and they complained. Chelvaric thought to himself that that wasn’t a good idea as Snow didn’t seem to be in a good mood with the weather around. He had noticed her getting annoyed when they were complaining. She gave a retort back and the whole place got quiet.

Everyone went back to work in silence and not much later they were starting to move. Chelvaric hopped on the caravan wagon above snow to have a nice view of everything. She ordered the people to go through the outer roads. They didn’t want to be pickpocketed on their way of course. The outer roads were way safer so that was good. The ride was good at first but they did have to take lots of turns and the workers were quite annoyed by it. They were grumbling on every turn.

After a while of driving the road started to have holes and breaks in it. Everyone was cursing as it was bad for the wagons. When they moved a bit further a road worker suddenly stopped the wagon and called them out. “Don’t go further along this way. We’re working the whole way nearly. Road improvements ordered by the king. You better turn around”, he Yelled to them over the sounds of the working. “We have to deliver this where are we supposed to go now!”, one of the caravan caretakers said out loud. He was clearly even more annoyed by everything. Chelvaric pointed at the alleyway on the side of the road. “Let’s go through the alleys. We can fit in but be careful with the turns”, he said to them calmly. He got responded with more grunting though.

The outer roads mainly consisted of barren land and plenty of unfinished construction sites and railway work. Through the window of the caravan, Snowflake witnessed the sight of numerous workers doing harsh labour, mostly carrying rocks, items and materials for the rest of their peers to continue the construction work. It was a very rough ride since the roads were still unfinished and the caravan would often sway side to side, encountered large bumps and so on. Despite how she wished to rest inside the vehicle, the journey insisted otherwise. Soon, they were confronted with even more bumps, which were much larger and frequent than the path they were on before and expedition was so rough that they had no choice but to cease the vehicle in its tracks.

Not exactly knowing where she was either, the white haired girl peeked out of the window once again and observed her surroundings. It was an unfamiliar location to her but then, most places were still new since she hadn’t visited the entire town yet, much less the outskirts of the city. Chelvaric pointed to the nearest alleyway and suggested that they should travel there instead, although the trip would take more time than necessary. Clearly, the employees were disappointed of it, since they considered it as a waste of time but the mages’ responsibility was to look after the property of the client.

Shortly after, Snowflake heard sounds of men and frequent clash of metals. The vehicle would come to a stop and the youth peeked out of the window only to see a couple of Rune Knights ordering every incoming vehicle to stop before they would check what was inside. There was a long queue, waiting their loads to be reviewed by the Rune Knights. Since they couldn’t risk the chance of wasting even more time, Snowflake decided that they should take a different route to avoid queuing up in a long line as much as possible. As the employees were about to proceed straight towards the Rune Knights, Snowflake would immediately bring them to a stop.

”There’s a long queue ahead. Take a different route.”

It wasn’t as if they didn’t want the item to be checked but instead, they didn’t want to waste an entire afternoon waiting in a long line until they get the approval from the Rune Knights. The caravan would adjust its route and it was pretty obvious that the employees were irritated from constant switching of routes, long roads and turns, from the frustrated expressions on their faces.

Chelvaric was still sitting in the heat of the sun on top of the wagon. He atleast wasn’t wearing too much of clothes or they would have been sticking all to them. he wondered how much longer this trip would take. Driving through crocus was such a pain. The roads were small and crowded there were many turns and corners. It took so long to just travel a mile. Well it was the capital of fiore. The back alley’s weren’t that clean either. People threw there toilet waste on the street here so it was better not to set a foot down on the ground. The smell of piss and feces were flowing in the air. They would turn into another alley and then be greeted by a big line of carts coming all the way down to here. It was a damn traffic jam. So annoying to have to just stand and wait it was one of the things he hated doing the most. He wondered what was happening and saw some rune knights dressed in there usual attire in front of the first cart. He heard snow shouting they had to move another way and they started to move around and took a smaller road on the side. The workers were foaming of madness as they couldn’t stand it any longer. On top of that the road was so small that the cart was scraping against the walls. Pieces of wood were flying off. Once they got trough the road the men stopped the cards and started grumbling under each other. Chelvaric could hear a lot of bad words coming there way so he jumped down and went to the foreman.

“What Seems to be the problem sir. Why are we stopped again?”, he would ask the foreman and looked at him. Chelvaric was trying to take him in. he seemed super angery as he faced towards Chelvaric with his face red as a tomato. His eyebrows were nudging down. “You kids keep pushing us around like were a bunch of slaves! No more you hear!”, The man shouted and pushed his finger against Chelvaric. The other men would shout in harmony with the foreman. Lots of nods went out. “look I know it’s been a long day but we all are just doing our own jobs. There is a heavy reward waiting for you on deliverance ”, he was trying to negotiate a peaceful way out of it. But the man wouldn’t take it and they suddenly grabbed something from a cart and threw at Chelvaric. “This is the delivery do the rest yourself stupid cat ”, the man said and they walked off onwards to the nearest road.

It took them at least three times, perhaps more, to adjust their route just to avoid long queues, Rune Knights and busy streets. Shortly after, the caravan came to a stop and Snowflake wondered what their next obstacle would be. The doors of the caravan flew open, revealing two angry men glaring at her. Snowflake tugged at her silver hair gently, wondering why on earth they came to open the doors for her when they still had to continue for the rest of the journey.

”Uh, do you need help?”

Nonchantly, the youth asked the question, only to get even more frustrated looks from the two men. She was dragged out of the caravan and when she exchanged glances with Chelvaric, he appeared confused by the entire situation as well. Apparently, the employees were so furious that the two Blue Pegasus were commanding them around as well as wasting their time, that they ended up getting kicked out of the caravan by them. As the men departed, the item was thrusted into the hands of Chelvaric and the two were left stranded in the middle of the road with Snowflake blinking with feigned innocence.

”It seems like they were very…pissed.”

The girl paused for a moment, trying to search for the right word as she gazed after the caravan that slowly drifted away, the sounds of the horse hoofs echoing through the silence that reigned supreme within the area. Sapphire eyes glanced around the area, taking in everything that enters her view. It was an unfamiliar place and she had no idea where she was. Perhaps, it was the Crocus streets. Dusk was breaking and there were barely any people left in the streets anymore, which was why the area looks so strange to her.

Chelvaric looked at snow when she came out of the cart and she looked really surprised aswell. The angery men went away rather fast and not much later they were alone again. Snow said they looked quite pissed and Chelvaric agreed with her. It seemed they were in a unfamiliar place. He asked her to wait for a second and climbed up a roof to see where they were. He looked over the countless roofs that were littered over crocus. Here and there smoke came from a chimney. This was a beautiful view, like it came straight out of a artbook. He wished he could stay longer here but Snow waited so he climbed down again. He told her the location of the mansion and they went off to deliver the crystal orb. The walk took a while but it didn’t matter he liked to walk with Snow. Even if she was quite. If she didn’t say anything he would just stare at her beautiful face or the scenery. They finaly arrived at the mansion of the advisor and they went inside to give the reward. After talking a bit she compensated there trouble with the reward for the caretakers. Chelvaric thanked her and they left the mansion. When they were outside he turned to Snow to ask her something important. It had been on his mind for a while now. “Snow would you like to go on a date with me tonight?”, he asked her nervously and looked away from her nervously. He normaly wouldn’t act like this but she was very special to him.

--end job--.