Saffie knew Trafalgar Square like the back of her hand. One of London’s most popular tourist hotspots, it was a large open space outside the National Gallery art museum, and was just as famous for the iconic statue Nelson’s Column and its base of four giant bronze lions as it was for the amount of pigeons that gathered there. It was also home to two wide-spanning, identical pools with multiple fountains, and as usual, the whole area was heaving with busloads of sightseers.
Saffie peered into the crowd from the Square’s southernmost entrance, but it was so dense and chaotic she couldn’t see the yip-yaps at all. It didn’t help that she’d never seen one before and was only going on the vague picture she had formed in her own mind from Keith’s description of them being devilish and demonic.
She decided that this would be a good time to put something she had learned with Ashmi to the test.
“Overworld Locator,” she said, pressing her palms together in front of her, then expanding them outwards. As she did so, her vision turned dark grey, a wave shot out across the square, and several things flashed blue, including Acorn, who was just a few yards in front of her, standing on his hind legs. For a brief moment the spell had separated Overworld from the real world, pinpointing everything in-game, and that brief moment had been enough for Saffie to notice a little imp shape dancing close to the base of Nelson’s Column.
Saffie pushed through the crowd as politely as she could, and with a crane of her neck she spotted it. It was like a small goblin of sorts, its entire body a red colour, with flappy, hole-filled ears, a lot of missing teeth aside from one that looked rotten and another that was bright gold, and a gnarly, wooden nose ring. It was currently spitting at one of the lion statues, between howls of manic laughter.
“Gotcha,” said Saffie, creeping up behind it. She took aim, then shouted “Placate!”
A burst of peach coloured magic shot from her palm, but the yip-yap squealed and scarpered out of the way, leaving the magic sizzling into the lion’s bronze buttock. The creature was faster than she had expected it to be.
As Saffie scanned the area to see where it had run off to, she felt something hit the back of her head. She spun around to see a different yip-yap standing on the edge of the west pool, throwing guilder coins at her. Saffie ducked and dodged a few of them before the creature burst out laughing and teased her with a “Nah, nah, nee nah, nah!” in a horrible, cackling tone. She was beginning to see why Keith disliked the creatures so much.
“Placate!” she shouted, throwing her arm out in front of her as fast as she could. This time the blast almost connected, and the little demon scuttled away rapidly, cradling its tail. Acorn pounced after it, but came trotting back to Saffie sadly after losing it between moving feet.
Saffie bent down to see if she could see where the yip-yap had ended up, but as she did so she felt something hit the top of her head. Assuming it was another coin, she instinctively touched her hair, but pulled her hand away quickly when she felt a warm sludge.
It was no coin. It was pigeon poop.
Saffie heaved and got back to her feet. With nothing to wipe it out, she tried to ignore it and concentrate on the errand, but it was off to a terrible start. She had lost sight of all of the yip-yaps, and had wasted a good chunk of her limited mana on missed spells. She briefly considered performing another Overworld Locator, but she was concerned that it wouldn’t leave her enough mana for all of the Placate spells she was going to need, even with the couple of mana replenishing potions she had strapped to her belt.
“What do I do, Acorn?” she said, and Acorn tapped his paw against his chin before pressing it on the hem of Saffie’s robe, causing it to become taut. Saffie was confused for a moment until she cottoned onto what he was trying to convey to her.
“I need to tether them first!” She said excitedly. “You’re right! The Placate spell is firing too slowly. I should cast something faster-firing to keep them in place, then placate them when they can’t get away!”
She knew just the spell for the job - Restrain. It was another she had learned during her training with Ashmi; one that briefly shackled its target to any nearby holding with a short length of rope.
Before she could thank Acorn, Saffie spotted one of the yip-yaps using one of the smaller fountains in the eastern pool as a shower, kicking digital water in all directions. The fountain was in the shape of a mermaid holding out a dolphin, with the water spraying out of the dolphin’s mouth. If Saffie was accurate enough, she’d be able to secure the yip-yap to the dolphin’s nose.
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She began creeping towards it, and as she approached, it turned its backside to her and shook it.
It was the small window of opportunity Saffie needed.
“Restrain!” she shouted, and the rope shot out of her palm. The yip-yap tried to dive out of the running water, but the rope wrapped itself around its bloated belly and secured it to the dolphin’s nose just like she’d hoped.
“Yes!” Saffie celebrated as the yip-yap scrambled on the spot.
She raised her arm again to cast the Placate spell, but the yip-yap suddenly stopped scrambling and began using one of its sharp fingernails to cut the rope.
It was going to get away.
Saffie reacted on pure instinct.
She desperately climbed up onto the rim of the pool and launched herself at the creature with her arms outstretched, but the rope snapped and the yip-yap dived out of the way, leaving Saffie to belly flop into the shallow basin and send a large slap of very real water over a group of tourists who had, up until this point, been enjoying ice creams at the water’s edge.
“I’m… really sorry,” she said meekly, as one of the tourists’ drenched balls of mint choc-chip slipped off its cone and landed onto his lap. She clambered out of the pool, soaking from head to toe, and through her dripping wet hair, she saw the yip-yap trot towards the steps that led up to the National Gallery.
Saffie had had enough. With watery pigeon poop dribbling down her face, she stomped towards the yip-yap, throwing spell after spell, each of them missing it by less than an inch as it hopped up the steps. Before she knew it, her mana was all but depleted.
Saffie paused, panting, and the yip-yap turned and stuck its tongue out at her.
Judging by the look of her mana bar, she only had enough left to perform the cheapest and weakest spell she had access to - Ice Shot, which fired a small icicle that probably only dealt around 1 point of damage. She reached for a Manaphilter potion on her belt, but stopped herself as she noticed that the severed Restrain rope was still tied around the yip-yap’s stomach, with the loose end dangling on the step below it.
She could only try.
“Ice Shot!” she yelled, and fired the icicle directly at the hanging rope, which it pierced, nailing the yip-yap in place. The game’s weakest spell had just become Saffie’s most valuable.
Saffie didn’t allow herself to celebrate this time. She wasn’t going to let the yip-yap cut itself free again. Instead, she popped open the Manaphilter and downed it as she ran to the stuck creature, then shouted “Placate!” as it tried to yank itself free.
The peachy magic swarmed over the yip-yap, and it instantly stopped tugging on the rope, before plonking its bum on the step like a well-behaved toddler. In the top left corner of Saffie’s vision, a small bit of text appeared.
Yip-yaps placated - 1/3
With the confidence of knowing it was actually possible, Saffie had relatively little trouble with the second of the lot. It took a bit of chasing around the square, but when she was within firing distance, she managed to catch it mid-air with a Freeze spell as it was leaping over a young woman’s afro. In its frozen state it landed with a clank on the concrete floor, and with a simple Placate, it became unfrozen, yawned, and put its little hands behind its head before falling asleep.
Saffie had just one more yip-yap to go and she’d have completed her very first Overworld errand.
She glanced around, trying to ignore the many faces that were now staring at her with fear and trepidation, but she couldn’t see it. Then Acorn suddenly pounced away to her left, and she spotted the yip-yap trotting through the crowd, snarling at pigeons and blowing raspberries at people.
Saffie headed in its direction and the crowd parted for her, watching the crazy girl with sodden hair storm through them like a lunatic. She wanted to tell them that she was perfectly normal and there was nothing to worry about, but she forced herself to keep her eyes locked on the yip-yap, which paused as it reached the busy road at the southernmost exit out of the square. As she caught up to it, she extended her arm.
“Freeze!” she yelled, sending a gust of frosty ice wind toward the creature, but its reaction speed was a little faster than the second one - it jumped, and the spell only caught its right leg. As it landed on the curb, it chuckled and blew on the frozen section with a breath that was made of fiery flame, and the ice melted immediately.
It was free.
With a kick of its heel, the yip-yap pelted eastward, fleeing Trafalgar Square. Saffie raced after it with all the speed she could muster, dodging and weaving through confused pedestrians, but it was twice as fast as her.
As it reached the end of the pavement, the yip-yap stopped to look back, and Saffie hoped that it had given up, but with an evil grin and a wave, it turned back to the road and pounced onto the roof of a red car.
Saffie skidded to a halt. There was no way she’d be able to keep up with a moving vehicle.
There was only one thing for it.
“TAXI!” she screamed, waving her arms manically and flagging down a nearby black cab.
Saffie ripped open the door to the back seats, dived in with Acorn clinging onto her shoulder for dear life, and shouted, “Follow that red car!”
“Love, you’re soaking wet!” the driver said, turning to gawp at her. “My seats are gonna be drench-”
“Just drive!” Saffie ordered, and the cabbie put his foot on the pedal.