Could it talk? Would it understand her? Would she be able to even communicate with it at all? With Maneki Nico at her side Ikanbi left the inn she was staying at in Port Astera with Tempris in tow. She had a map, of course, which she pulled out from her traveler's pouch, a nifty little gift from Collective Mind. A most useful thing, really, it had such potential for great and infinite storage. She rummaged around in it, sifting through her section of tedious paper works that she had allocated within a compartment inside it and withdrew the map as well as a few news clippings about the mysterious creature that the fishermen had been reporting. Ikanbi examined the map and cross referenced it with the data provided by the fishermen, and additionally showing this data and information to Tempris as they slowly walked through the streets of Astera. She took a pen from her pouch and made a spot on the map signifying where exactly they were headed, but didn't put the map away. Just because Ikanbi knew the general location of the creature's whereabouts didn't mean she knew exactly how to get there after all. She walked through the streets with Tempris and on occasion, she would make jumps to higher ground to see if she could find a shortcut for them. With the assistance of her Hermes god soul and her moon rabbit headband, this particular feat was of no trouble at all. She leaped effortlessly from the ground, as though it required no effort at all and cleared quite a bit of vertical distance with no trouble what so ever. From her new vantage point she found a quicker path, and decidedly told Tempris "Let's go this way." Before assisting them up and over to the top of the building. Together they traversed the rooftops and made their way through the city with ease. They traversed from rooftop to rooftop and eventually made their way down to the docks after a bit of travel time. They did not have much further to go now, as it turned out, but they would likely take a boat for the rest of the journey. Where they were going was just a little ways off the coast, the creature had been found to have made a home for itself on a little secluded cove not terribly far from the coast, but far enough that swimming to it would be all of a chore and not at all worth it in the slightest in any sort of capacity.
Still they persisted and as they made their way closer and closer to the docks Ikanbi could feel herself swelling with excitement to take another odd job. It was fun in a way, truly, taking odd bits of work that were not necessarily things quite in her skill set. It would truly open her mind to bigger and better things, make her think outside of the box and do things she otherwise never would have dreamed of doing. Ikanbi and her mentor found a boat captain willing to take them on the journey, he was eager to have a few mages deal with their little critter problem. They were eager too, well Ikanbi was for certain, she couldn't always quite tell exactly how Tempris felt about doing things that wasn't purging the world of the evil infidels. Still, she did at least seem happy. Ikanbi and Tempris got on the boat and made small talk with the crew, whom were just as eager and happy to have them on board as the captain had been. The creature in question had been causing issues for quite some time as it turned out and they were simply ecstatic to have Ikanbi and Tempris on board and even made wild promises to give them of the days catch as additional payment for their services. Ikanbi thanked them for their hospitality and in no time at all they had set sail for their destination.
The journey by boat went by with no trouble at all as it turned out. The crew of fishermen pointed out some of their prime fishing spots and showed Ikanbi and Tempris around the boat to pass the time. They had their own map aboard, of course, and lexicons and star charts and all sorts of navigational equipment that Ikanbi was fascinated by, being a bit of an artificer of sorts herself. She cross referenced some of their data with her own to get a better pinpoint on where exactly they were going and the crew confirmed they had seen the creature return to a specific cove several times when they had attempted to shoot it with a harpoon. As far as they could tell it was rather smart, but quite feral. Ikanbi wondered what exactly it was they were dealing with. The stories that the crew told her about it and how they had described its appearance was not quite in line with what she had expected based on her readings and findings when she was out on the town. Still, it didn't particularly matter she supposed. She would attempt to do the job to the best of her abilities either way. A smile crossed her face. She wasn't exactly sure how if she would wind up killing the creature or scaring it off. Would it be edible? It could be sentient and reasoned with hypothetically, she supposed. She doubted it though, or surely someone would already have attempted to do such with it. She considered their options carefully as they neared the cove where the creature was said to retreat to when attacked. Her and Tempris hopped off and started their search. If they were lucky, the creature would be found easily. If they were not lucky, they may have to wait quite some time for it to arrive and hope that the appearance of the boat didn't discourage it from coming to its home.
As it turned out, luck was on their side. They found the creature, a wild, crazy looking fish humanoid sort of thing. Ikanbi debated killing it in her head, and asked Tempris what they thought the two of them should realistically do with it, then sighed as she realized it probably wasn't for the best. "I wonder how sentient it is, if it can even understand us?" Ikanbi asked Tempris somewhat rhetorically, but loud enough for the creature to hear. "Actually I can understand you quite well," the creature had said aloud in response, which shocked Ikanbi to her core. Maneki Nico stepped towards the creature gingerly and hesitantly, but eventually made its way up towards it whilst sniffing at the air. "In that case, since you understand me, you should know that we have been sent here to kill you, but...I don't particularly want to kill you if you are intelligent enough for communication." Ikanbi had said aloud to the creature. "What is your name?" The creature nodded with what she said though had become quite visibly alarmed when Ikanbi mentioned killing them. "Iradel" Said the creature to Ikanbi.
"I see...Well, Iradel, you have been disrupting the fishermen. Your presence and feeding habits have been doing things to the ecosystem and the fisherman haven't been able to catch things. You scare away all the fish here." Ikanbi said to them.
"I only came here because there is a larger predator that hunts me where I used to live...I miss my old home, if you deal with them I will move back and leave your precious ecosystem alone."
"That sounds reasonable." Ikanbi said to Tempris, and after taking some direction from Iradel they were off on their boat again after explaining the situation to the crew. In no time they had found the lair of this larger predator that could not be reasoned with and dealt with it swiftly, and the crew of the boat took the body as a trophy of sorts before sailing them back to Iradel. "The job is done, Iradel." Said Ikanbi to the strange fish humanoid. "Thank you, kind human." Said Iradel to them and before long Ikanbi and Tempris were back on the boat and headed back to port after having finished the days work.
1587/1500 for a B-Rank (S Rank Valentine)