Year 2062Q: Month 5 the 15th, 9:30 am:
Today was Monday on the Wondertalian Calendar. The four layers of clouds above the heads of many shined with the lights of all three suns together, dancing with a calming symphony of lights as they all rose at once.
And as the suns were just beginning to rise, a small caravan just opened up its doors to the people of Lumarity Forest, flipping a sign marked Closed to Open. Not the sign itself, the word Closed to Open, as if grabbing the bare letters of the sign itself and flipping it on itself.
The sky was nice and warm, as if the sun itself were rising with a smile to greet everyone in Wondertale to begin the day. All while a certain old man could be seen in the distance waving to two of three suns creating a smiley face with a grin from the clouds, only to wave his hand to allow the first to second layer of clouds to finally move.
All the while, a certain ghost is getting ready for her first day on the job.
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GIVE YOU A DISCOUNT FOR SOMETHING WE DONT EVEN SELL YOU MINI HAG?!" The voice of said ghost screams as the roof and walls of the neon colored and vine stitched caravan gave a rumble that a certain old man could feel at his feet.
With a sigh and a shrug, the old man lays his tin-made mug of home brewed coffee with beans of the Uflis-Tree that grows once every 200 days in the nether regions of Nation 5's border to the Treasure Side of Wondertale. He enjoyed these beans because they were the only type of coffee bean he could find that were just bitter yet sweet enough to brew a cup of coffee to just the correct color.
As the front door was opened, the dining room was far from destroyed, yet Arthur saw a certain sight that could threaten to bring the ceiling down. As down as a spatially expanded space such as this would allow anyway.
Verity stood near a woman about 3'4 with a hat almost twice the size of her body with a sort of makeup fit for a royal clown, although no one would really dare to say that out loud. At least, if they weren't Verity. The screaming continued as the short lady continued asking certain comments over and over again such as "I WANT A REFUND ON MY PIE" and "DO YOU KNOW WHO MY SON IS?!"
Screams reverberated throughout the shop as more and more customers began to rise out of their seats in a slight bit of excitement over the spectacle that was about three steps away from happening. After all, for as much as the short Lady Peretif, as she was called in some parts of the small region she was travelling from, could create a singular bolt of Mana that was said to kill a Hunting Beast with a level around 1-5, a feat of strength that most of the average Level 0, or even some Level 1 mages could only hope to achieve, she also had a hair triggered temper to match her short stature.
Unfortunately, due to the state of her mind upon her passing, Verity had even less patience than any of that.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOURE DOIN'?" Mary-Anne screams at the top of her lungs, walking out of the kitchen with a ladle in her hands still stained with the house made soup of the day
"She started it." Verity responds while pointing to the small woman taking a sip of tea as if the conversation never happened with a shrug that said that she was correct, Verity was about 10 seconds from taking it as another challenge.
"I DON'T CARE WHO STARTED IT!! You're gonna wait the next table, you're gonna ask what they want, get the order and be done with it."
"You're technically an adult though. How old are you?"
"Are you really going to talk to a new employee on their first day on the job like that?"
"Ladies, ladies. Please, let's not scare any more customers away." Arthur says standing in between the two as tempers begin to slightly fray, at the very least from Mary-Anne who apologizes profoundly before walking outside to catch a breather,
Verity not so much. Her letter opener was in her hands and she was ready to take anyone who challenged her at the time. As she raises it to the sky and her hair begins to rise with her anger, Arthur grabs the makeshift knife and shakes his head 'No' and all but forces the ghost to leave it there.
"Here's your ginger foam special, sir." Stella said with a slight smile.
"Thank you."
Stella couldn't help but smile at a small bit as the man drank the brown ginger flavored liquid in his mug.
This table being served was only one out of the five that this small shop could muster today. That's not to say the shop itself was in bad condition, far from it. The walls were neatly chiseled, the floors nicely smoothed out to where shoes would make a nice clicking sound when they take a step, but only five customers nonetheless. None asked for a contract, just a few locals who needed something to eat.
All three, Verity, Mary-Anne and Arthur, look to Stella's performance of serving the ginger ale to the tall burly, almost gorilla faced man with a kind smile on his face like he would never hurt a fly, the gorilla faced man who commuted to Lumarity Forrest's everyday chores with a smile on his face.
They call her over and Stella immediately is lifted up into Mary-Anne's arms as a look of concern washes over her face.
"Arthur, I know ya love your shop and I'm all for it, but you know you haven't been on another hunt in a month?"
"Golly gee, Mom, it feels more like four weeks." Stella says with a confused "thinking face".
"Thank you, sweetheart."
Stella gave a big smile at being correct in her mother's arms, showing Verity her missing tooth in the process.
This only angers the ghost and her arms begin to flail as she tries to move the conversation along before anyone tries to say anything else.
"Will you stop trying to be kind about this? Alright? These quests pay big, right? Well what's the point now? A hunt won't just walk through the door, you know."
The front door to the shop opens up with a look of desperation fed onto the face of a cloaked bald man who all but barges in as they look around frantically for anyone who could be of assistance to a certain cause.
"Oh, a small party of adventurers I see. Well, welcome to Anamdead's Contracts and Such, how may I be of service, gentlemen?" Arthur says with a smile on his face as he walks up to the cloaked man in a bit of kindness that almost made Verity sick to her stomach.
"A tidal wave of gold pieces don't just flood through the door, you know." Verity said with a small bit of desperation
Mary-Anne taps her on the shoulder with a slight bit of contempt and a head shake to say "Stop trying, it's alright."
As Verity slumps over in another fit of rage, Arthur sits down with the messenger at a small table, usually meant for a party of four goblins after a raid down in the Pollen Mines, but it made for an effective table of negotiations for the time being.
The two sit, and the short, slightly balding messenger, pleads with as much desperation as the situation would allow. Even before Verity could see Arthur ask "what is the matter", the messenger is already shaking in every single piece of clothing he is in just to shout why he is here.
"You must understand, the princess in black has been kidnapped!!"
A comment like this immediately catches Stella's and Mary-Anne's attention. The young demonic girl in a puffy dress and a pair of rounded spectacles was always a fan of fairy tales where the reluctant hero saves a princess and an entire kingdom in return that Mary-Anne and Arthur would read to her to help her sleep.
"A princess being kidnapped? Sounds like a task we would be delighted to perform, which kingdom is this princess the heiress too?" Arthur says with a slight bit of concern in his voice.
"I'm here from the Kingdom of Loguemalt. It's a smaller kingdom near one of the borders of Nation 9. We tried to distinguish it via its bustling flower fields, even if she prefers to wear pitch black and hardly leave the castle…"
"Princess in black, huh?" Verity said with a sense of interest
"Yes, one of the 7 dragon kings has awakened again and is on the prowl."
"Could you describe the appearance of one of these 7 dragon kings?" Arthur asks with the tilt of his head in pure curiosity.
"Sir?"
"I mean not to offend, but why, of all times, is it that the 7 dragon kings, one of the Kings of the Treasure Side's Beasts, would awaken NOW out of 386,000 years, just to kidnap a princess."
"What's your point, sir?" screamed the messenger with a bit more anger at this moment than true desperation, (well, desperation for something else entirely maybe), slamming the table, almost to the point of a crack developing.
This geezer ain't right. Thought Verity to herself as the messenger keeps going on and on about the missing princess, only to notice a few details being off. Not in a contradiction/lying sort of way, simply "off".
He goes off on both boss and me for a quest that HE is asking us to do, but why is he sayin' it now with more gusto than anger? Something don't add up.
"My point is just that, this could be a case of a Point."