Atani tossed and turned in her sleep. They had started again: her dreams. The dreams she normally awoke from having only the ghost of a feeling that something had happened while fast asleep. Normally, she couldn’t even determine what that thing was supposed to be. Bad, good, dream, nightmare— it felt like neither. It was an oddly familiar feeling, though she had no memory of them happening before she left Athalran. Perhaps she did from time to time, but made no note of it due to the infrequency. Now that she was in mainland Fiore though, it seemed to be happening on a regular basis. At first she didn’t think much of it, assuming she was just getting used to her surroundings, but now... Atani still didn’t know.

When the girl awoke, she was left with the same mystifying feeling. It was as if a haze had fallen over her mind, one that she often cleared away with a cup of morning blend to start her day. Likewise, that’s what the elf began to brew upon getting out of bed. She started the water and uncapped the tin where she stored her tea leaves. A waft of herbal tones touched her nose, giving a pleasant scent of the earthiness the elf loved. She frowned, however, upon seeing that her supply was nearly depleted. She would have to go to the store at some point for that as well as pick up a couple other things she had been meaning to buy for a while now. With that in mind, Atani went to check the money she had set aside for groceries and pondered at the stack of jewels she had accrued. It would certainly sustain her for the trip, but... She shifted her gaze to her other jewels. Overall, her supply was thinner than what she would have liked.

WC: 309/2000

It wasn’t as if she was saving up for anything lavish. No, that was far from the elf’s goals. However, she did like the sense of security having strong finances gave her. If anything tragic or extreme were to happen, she would be prepared. In her line of work, that sort of thing was a rather large possibility. At the moment, she was admittedly rather sheltered. She was in Hargeon under the protection of Blue Pegasus where hardly anything seemed to be the matter. All the quests she had done thus far were rather tame compared to the incredible tales she heard of mages. She hadn’t even done so much as fight a bandit as of yet. Not even one.

Atani was able to use the fact that she wielded a non-combative healing magic as an excuse for hardly doing much, but it meant nothing. Not to her at least, and not to anyone who had knowledge of elves. She knew how to fight. Using a dagger and bow came as second nature to her just as it did most Wood Elves. The only problem was, she hadn’t yet gotten her hands on an appropriate weapon. She knew she could find a dagger or bow at any weapons shop, but she kept putting it off for silly reasons. Reasons that she knew were nothing more than excuses to get comfortable with her surroundings before delving into a life as a mage, which sounded like a valid reason in and of itself, but it felt selfish to Atani. So, she told herself she needed to practice her nature magic first, learn to grow some destructive vines. Study up on the history and culture of Fiore so she wouldn’t be lost. Take small quests to get to know her guild’s home town well... which sadly did not pay rather well.

WC: 309+308=617/2000

That, however, was entirely on her. If she really wanted to, she could change that. She was a mage after all. Even if she was among the weaker ones with little mastery of her spells, there was power flowing through her veins. She could feel it. She just needed to tap into it somehow. The only thing was, she was unsure of what that “somehow” would entail.

Atani tried to think it over as she brewed her morning blend of tea. She poured the earthly scented liquid into a mug and let the heat from it radiate into her hands— she always found that sensation helped her concentrate better. What the elves in Athalran taught her did not help much. It helped kickstart her abilities to use magic, but it hardly progressed further than that. She was taught control for the most part, not power. Power was to be learned later. Only, she left before they could teach her that. They were going far too slow for her liking, but now she was left clueless. A nature mage with no direction and hardly anyone to turn to for help. Perhaps Manzo... but no. He was a dragon slayer and was trying to get away from his old life. They were far too different in that regard.

Perhaps what she needed was something to kickstart her aptitude for magic. Yes, she sagely nodded to herself though no one was looking as she gently sipped on her morning tea. Maybe the true potential of her magic would be forced out if she was just put under the right circumstances. Yes, it was all coming together. Atani smiled to herself as more bits and pieces clicked together. The best part of it all was that if all went as planned, the best case scenario was that she would get the sort of results she wanted by the end of today. Her plan? To do something she wasn’t prepared for.

WC: 617+326=943/2000

Atani could feel herself tingling just at the thought of it, though perhaps that was due to excitement rather than magic. Whatever the case, she was anxious to get the start of her day over with. Atani Tathvir, nature mage of Blue Pegasus, would be taking the most rewarding quest she could find. Not rewarding in a moral sense necessarily, but in a monetary sense most definitely. Sadly, S-Rank quests were off the table for her at the moment. That was simply a power level she imagined she was years away from achieving. But still, there were quests that paid far better than the lowest options by a long shot. Those were often of the more dangerous nature, but that didn’t matter. Not today. If things went south, she was sure she could abandon ship. Figuratively speaking. Though with Hargeon being a port town and all, she imagined it would be possible to have to quite literally abandon ship, but what were the chances? All the quests she had done thus far kept her on dry land.

Finishing off her tea, Atani prepped herself for the quest she was soon to take. She tied her long blonde hair into a ponytail and started for the guild hall where she just knew there would be a quest waiting for her taking. Once she got there, it did not take long for the elf to decide which one was going to be her ultimate selection. Ironically, it happened to be dealing with pirates. Who knew. Atani found herself rather surprised though. In all this time in Hargeon, she had not thought to deal with the pirate problem. Not seriously at least. The quests like that just... never appealed to her. She had always thought it best to leave it to the more experienced mages, but what kind of mindset was that? She was confident in taking that very mission now despite her strength hardly increasing since first heard of the issue.

WC: 943+329=1272/2000

What a foolish mindset it was as well. These pirates were a large problem, and as such dealing with them paid well. Of course that wasn’t the only reason to deal with them, but it was a rather nice incentive.

Atani ran into her first problem almost immediately: How was she going to board a ship out at sea. The good news, it was close enough to be spotted in Hargeon. The bad news was that it was still in the water and Atani didn’t exactly own so much as a row boat. Worst case scenario she could swim, but then if she was spotted she’d be a sitting duck, which was decidedly not what most people wanted to be in the water surrounded by pirates of all things. There was always the chance she could “borrow” a boat. Something small, of course, that likely would not be missed in the hour or so that she borrowed it. She was sure there were one or two laying around in Hargeon someplace.

It didn’t take her terribly long to find what she was looking for. A dingy rowboat rested abandoned on the beach. There was a house nearby that she would guess it belonged to, but hopefully they wouldn’t mind her borrowing it— this was an important mission after all for the betterment of Hargeon.

And so, with a rowboat she was praying would hold up against the waves, Atani set out to sea (which admittedly was an exaggeration for the elf who knew nothing more than the woods). The “sea,” of course, being no further out than where the ship was. She was still very much within Hargeon’s borders. After what felt like forever rowing by hand, the ship in question came into view. A black flag with a skull and crossbones was flown high, and from what Atani could tell, the ship remained still. The water was too deep to drop anchor, but there was no wind to blow their sails.

WC: 1272+332=1604/2000

Atani was at a safe enough distance where she likely would not be seen as an immediate threat to the pirates, especially with riding in the sad vessel she called a boat. It would stand no chance against even a single cannon fired from the pirates. Despite her low threat level, she dared not row significantly closer. It would become obvious what she was doing, and then disaster would be sure to follow. To play it safe, Atani judged she could make the swim. She was not too afraid of sea creatures at this point; Hargeon was not particularly known for its attacks. At least, not to Atani’s knowledge it was.

So, she took a gamble. She put the oars back in the boat so they wouldn’t fall off while she was gone. She slipped off her shoes and quietly slipped into the water. The closer she got to the ship, the more she could hear the pirates. At first, it was nothing but rhythmic yet unintelligible noise. But then, she was able to make out that they happened to be singing sea shanties. Rather than pillaging, it seemed that they were celebrating something— their latest acquisition no doubt. As terrible as it was to steal from someone, Atani supposed she was thankful they had something to celebrate. It provided a sufficient distraction for the elf to stealthily climb aboard the ship, which was done through climbing through one of the cannon windows that she had correctly assumed was unmanned due to both the celebration and lack of enemy ships in the vicinity.

Getting on the ship was the first problem she had to overcome that conveniently did not require the use of any magic. The second she figured would. She somehow needed to take care of the pirates and... steal back the treasure she knew would sink. And her boat was far away.

Idiot.

WC: 1604+315=1909/2000

That was an issue she'd solve later. For now, she was going to deal with these pirates. How she was going to do that, Atani had the feeling that growing some vines should do the trick, strong enough to bust the wood of the ship, clog their cannons, tear holes through the mast. Nothing deadly of course, lest they didn't know how to swim, but something to damage their ship beyond repair. Confident she could do at least that, Atani took a deep breath. She held out her hands and focused on generating powerful vines to break and destroy the pirate ship. A magic circle grew, and then promptly flickered out. She tried it again and again, each time her magic circle becoming dimmer and dimmer, lasting shorter and shorter as the elf grew more and more frustrated.

This was not going as planned.

"Okay Atani, think," she mumbled to herself. Magic clearly was not going to work. So, what could she do? The elf's eyes fell across some barrels near the cannons. Gunpowder. Oh this was a bad idea, but what other choice did she have?

Atani sneaked over to the barrels and quietly lifted the lid. The black powder was stored well. There was plenty of supply to cause a blast that would damage the ship. She just had to time it right. Chances were, the stolen loot was being held in the captain's quarters, so she had to be careful not to damage that as well. From the very limited knowledge the elf had on ships, she took a guess. She positioned the gunpowder under the spot she wanted blown and made a trail leading to it. With the matches used to light cannons, she set it ablaze and hid for cover. With a resounding boom, the wood snapped. Water seeped into the hull of the ship, and pirates came rushing down to see the damage. Amidst the chaos, Atani sneaked up the stairs to try and find the captain's quarters, only to meet some drunk pirates who hadn't gone down to see the damage. Having drunken rum, their movements were sluggish. She was able to knock them out with the fighting techniques she had learned in Athalran before breaking into the captain's quarters. There, she lugged the loot to a dinghy attached to the side of the ship. Before leaving, she rigged another barrel to explode.

Hopping on the dinghy, she dropped as quickly as she could into the water and rowed away, watching the flames creep higher and higher on the ship. The pirates wouldn't be causing any more trouble for a long time. With that accomplished, Atani set out to return the stolen loot and replace the rowboat she had borrowed with the one she acquired from the pirates.

WC: 1909+456=2365/2000