Johanna waves goodbye to her friends in the guild and walks outside, the big wooden doors closing behind her. Her small backpack is slung over her shoulders and Johanna grabs the straps in her hands.
Here I go, Johanna thinks. My first job!
Johanna arrives at Magnolia's train station. She pays for a ticket and boards the train, her mind totally off somewhere else. She grabs a seat and lays down on it, using her backpack as a pillow. She lays there for a little bit, before eventually falling asleep to the sound of the train moving.
Johanna feels a gentle tap on her shoulder before she snaps awake, transitioning to a sitting position quickly. She looks to her right to see a little old lady with white hair and kind eyes.
"Sorry to wake you. The train has arrived at Crocus," the lady says. Johanna looks through the window on her left to see bustling streets full of flowers. Johanna rubs her eyes and yawn before grabbing her bag and standing up.
"Thank you," she tells the lady. The woman only smiles and nods before walking forward to exit the train. Johanna follow her and steps off the train. The last person to step off the train, actually. Johanna enters the city streets, being completely submerged in the crowd of people. She sees men, woman and children all shopping or running around. As she walks she occasionally sees a young child chasing a stray dog through the crowd. Johanna stops on the side of the street, taking her bag off of her bag and reaching inside it. She pulls out a piece of paper. The job request. Attached to it using a paper clip was a small note. The note was tinted yellow from old age and had small tears along the edges. Johanna looks away from the paper just in time to see a small, white dog run between her legs. The dog was followed by a small boy, his arms outstretched. The boy, unfortunately, was not as stealthy as the dog. The child ran directly into Johanna's legs, causing her to fall backwards, the boy on top of her. The child immediately got up, his hands in front of his chest and worry in his eyes.
"I-I'm so sorry, Miss!" the child said. Johanna rubbed the back of her head, which, thankfully, landed on her backpack instead of the stone ground. Johanna forces a smile despite her pain.
"Oh it's nothing to worry about," she says to the boy. Johanna stands up and brushes off her legs before reaching down to grab her backpack and the job request.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" the boy asks, taking a step closer to Johanna. Johanna looks down at the old note and then back at the boy.
"Actually, can you tell me where the Crocus library is?" The boy smiled with delight before pointing in the direction Johanna had already been walking.
"You're in luck!" the boy said. "The library is only six buildings down from the one that you're standing next to!" Johanna smiled and nodded.
"Thank you." With that, the boy ran off again, in search for the little dog. Johanna put the job request back in her bag and slung it back over her shoulders. She began walking forward again, counting until she got to six. She stopped in front of a large building. The library. Pushing open the doors, Johanna walked into a large room full of books. She had never seen a library this big before. Johanna scanned the room until she found a desk where an elderly woman sat. Her grey hair was up in a bun and she wore black eyeglasses. All Johanna could see of her clothing was her top which was a light blue knitted sweater. Johanna swiftly walked up to the woman's desk.
"Excuse me?" Johanna said. The woman looked up and smiled at her.
"What can I do for you?" the woman asked. Johanna pulled out the job request with the note. She set it on the desk and pointed to the fragile note.
"I need to translate this note." The woman looked at it carefully.
"Hmm.. I can't translate it for you... but I can tell that it's in Valan Runic!" the woman said looking back at Johanna. "We have a book on Valan Runic in the back. Would you like me to grab it for you?"
"Yes, please," Johanna said, nodding vigorously. After a few minutes, the librarian came back out with a large book in her hands. The book had a leather cover on it. The librarian handed the book to Johanna. With a smile, Johanna went and found a table to sit at. She set the note next to the book and began flipping through it. Eventually she figured out the first couple words.
Hare Meat?! Johanna thought, shock painted on her face. After flipping through the book, she found that the note's complete translation was:
Hare Meat, Cabbage, Potatoes and Ox Hooves
Disappointed, Johanna wrote the translation on a separate piece of paper and used the paper clip to attach it to the original note. Johanna walked the note and translation up to the desk and set them down.
"Please make sure that this gets to Luciel." Johanna said to the librarian. The woman obviously recognized the name.
"Of course," she said nodding. With that, Johanna grabbed her bag and left.