Scratching her head, Chie let out a groan as she surveyed the nearby garden. Today she was doing another quest for Armin, except this time she was looking for a lost sword rather than teaching a bunch of kids. Armin himself wasn’t sure how he lost his sword, and to be honest neither was Chie. Weren’t you always supposed to keep your weapon on you and know where it was at all times? She thought that was something you learned when you first became a rune knight.

Directing her attention towards her nearby companion, Chie opened her mouth to speak. “What do you think Prin-Prin? Where do you think he left his sword?” Picking herself up from the ground where she was investigating, Prin-Prin patted herself off before looking further in the distance. “Since he didn’t report it as stolen, I’m assuming he knew he had it previously but just misplaced it somewhere. It’s clearly not in an obvious spot or we would’ve found it already. We should probably start with searching the nearby bushes.”

With Prin-Prin by her side, Chie began scrounging through whatever bushes she could see, hoping to find the sword. Unfortunately all that she got from her efforts were scratched arms. The brambles on the bushes were surprisingly sharp, something she didn’t really consider when searching through them. The two continued their search for another hour before taking a break on one of the benches nearby. It was odd that even with the two of them, there had been no sign of the sword. Where could Armin have placed it?

As she muttered quietly to herself, Prin-Prin tilted her head to the east before darting off into the nearby brush. Following her companion into the greenery without hesitation, Chie burst into a clearing where a strange sight awaited her. Standing on a patch of grass was a dog. Normally she wouldn’t care, but inside of the dog’s mouth was the sword she was looking for. As the dog tensed its muscles, Chie nodded her head towards Prin-Prin before darting to the right as her companion flanked on the left. The chase was on!

Annoyingly enough, the dog was quite elusive. Able to dart through places that she had to loop around for. And while Prin-Prin was smaller and quicker, she still needed Chie to help flank. Catching this animal was a two person job, and she needed to go all out if she wanted to get this job done.

Letting out a ferocious battle cry, Chie tore through the brambles in front of her. Sure the thorns hurt, but she wasn’t going to catch this dog without going through a little pain first. And thanks to her brashness, she was able to narrow the distance to the dog and grab it. Seeing an opportunity, Prin-Prin grabbed the sword from the dog’s mouth before darting back quickly. As the dog whined in her grip, Chie patted its head before shooing it away. She didn’t know whose dog it was, and she didn’t really care either. It wasn’t her job to find out.

Returning the sword and getting her reward was an easy endeavor, compared to the suffering she went through earlier. Hopefully she’d have a less tedious quest to do next time.

[545 words]