Sophie sat in the carriage next to Elleyh who held her hand idly chatting about random conversation topics, lightly stroking the back of it while looking out the window. Sophie watched the hand of the smaller woman brush over her own, over and over again as her mind sat emptily; her neutral look being a blank yet almost worried expression even though he had no cares in the world at the time. Sophie had often lived in the moment, not thinking of the future nor past, wanting only the best of what right now had to offer. There were times where she did not have this mindset but more often then not she did, her curse being the main source of her way of thinking. As a tradeoff to an inept mind, almost to the point of being a child, Sophie was given a nearly invulnerable body and immense strength as per Rymoris's desire at the time to have a servant to not think about the nuances and such about orders and simply followed them without question, her wish being brought to fruition from her power to create curses that gave much but took more.
Following her usual train of thought, Sophie had sat up, turning to look out the window closest to her. Outside the window the blurred silhouettes of trees passed them by, behind off the large cliffside was a view a large town, Andre Village, and up the large mountain range; The City of Ariese, Elleyh's home. While their destination was Ariese, Elleyh wanted to take Sophie on a morning outing; Let her get some fresh air.
As the carriage drew closer to the town, Elleyh spoke up to the larger woman.
"Hey Popo, wanna head out and find something fun to do? We've got a lot of time before Tyrian comes back; so we can have all the fun we want for now without that party pooper, sound good?" Finally looking up to Sophie, Elleyh smiled as her companion gave a quick nod, both the women's tails wagging slightly as their minds simultaneously thought of what they could do for the day. The coachman of their ride had overheard their conversation, expecting to be asked to take a turn into the town rather than continue onto the road to the Ingrel Estate in Ariese. After a few minutes of nothing, not even casual conversation. After turning around and knocking on the wall, he heard nothing. "My lady, you and your companion has gotten very quiet, are you alright?" Sliding the peephole to the side and taking a look inside, the older Caninefolk man let out a huff as his eyes drooped to a half lidded gaze, the carriage being empty with a wooden sign stuck into the floor that read "Please give Sophie's luggage to Mara, thank you!". Shaking his head, he mumbled to himself "I swear these kids give me headache after headache..." A slight smile turning on his face.
Elsewhere, the two women fell through the air, having jumped off the cliff side. Sophie was holding Elleyh like a duffle bag underarm, her long hair waving wildly through the air like a volcanic flame set the air ablaze, Elleyh wailing in laughter as her voice was carried away by the winds. As they neared the ground, Sophie shot her other arm out, plunging it elbow deep into the rock face, slowing their descent. With a couple more seconds, she pushed off the stony wall, launching herself and Elleyh towards the nearest building from the rock face, Elleyh taking charge in one swift motion, flicked her wand out of her sleeve and waved it, magic manifesting around it as a slide of ice formed along the wall, guiding Sophie's fall into a slide down to the ground and into an alley way, the ice quickly melting as they finished using it, evaporating into nothing.
The two women let out a small yip in excitement at their landing. "Come on Soph, let's get moving! I know a few places we can visit!" Sophie looked down at Elleyh, giving a little smile and a nod. "Okay." Her quiet, soft voice echoing through the alley way before the two walked off into another alley, moving through a small network of buildings before landing on a main road, many people walking around and doing their daily routines, going about their business. Elleyh and Sophie both stepped out, joining the stream of people moving about as they worked their way towards the market district. While the two walked, Sophie took high interest in the surrounding stores, namely the bakery shops that were littered around the area. Sophie always had an interest in baking and had always tried to get better at it. While her curse did not impede her learning new things, it did keep her from more advanced learning and growing her depth of knowledge of subjects; like being able to learn basic math like addition and multiplication but physically unable to learn geometry.
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Ding!
You are now Sophie Grant!
Looking around the different baking stores that had all the good stuff to use for sweets, I smelled around and let the scent lead me to what I wanted more than baking supplies; A Mango Bun. The soft, sweet and juicy goodness of a mango shredded up with the magic of cooking and stuffed into some cake-stuff, mixed up and bam! Out the oven comes the best food in the world! Looking down at Elleyh when I finished thinking; she was looking back up at me with a wide smirk, the kind she always gave Tyrian when she was up to no good.
"Thinking about Mango Buns hm Soph?" I nod my head superfast "I thought so, I smelled them too, let's go get some!" With my tail blasting air up from wagging side to side, I grabbed Elleyh's hand and started to speed walk, following the heavenly snack's scent!
Ding!
You are no longer Sophie Grant!
You are now Lokor Beckins!
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"Shut your damn mouth you filthy Elf! Who the hell do you think you are selling this TRASH on my streets?!" Look at em, filthy Elf immigrant trying to make somethin' of er' self; HERE?! On MY turf?? I don't think so! I slam ma' dagger into the counter of this crappily made elven food cart, shootin' splinters all over the counter top as its basically ruined thanks to my awesome alpha masculine strength! This whore doesn't appear to be scared by I can see the sweat on her forehead, she's definitely afraid of me!
"Excuse me sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave, for the third time. I am trying to defuse the situation but this damage to my establi-" "YA YA YA YA YA, I AINT' HEARIN' ALL'AT!" I cut er' off, I never said she could speak! Raising the ol' Spine Chappa and wavin' it in er' face, I needed to remind her that I'm a REAL threat! Getting a hand on my shoulder, I turn n' see Guardboy Ol' Ohdar. "Leave her alone Lokor, We shouldn't be causing any trouble, especially with everything going on and the assembly, we've already got a very tight leash."
Psshh, same ol' Ohdar, paranoid as usual! He thinks that this is the time to lie low, but it's the opposite! It's the time to be bold! We ain't neva' gonna climb the ranks if we stand around doing nothing! We gotta show that we OWN these streets! Eh? Why is everything spinning? My shoulder hurts...
Ding!
You can no longer be Lokor Beckins.
Lokor Beckins is unconscious!
*********************************************************************
Ohdar watched in shock at his now knocked out coworker lay buried into the nearby sidewalk, his upper body planted into the rubble of the ground with such force it made a small crater about double the width of his torso in diameter. "No bothering Mama Mango." Sophie's soft voice spoke with a tinge of coldness at the now out cold canine. Her outstretched fist glowed with a faint purple color before going back to normal as she lowered it. Ohdar sighed with exasperation and walked towards his companion.
"Y'know Sophie, it would have been nice if you didn't resort to violence. I understand he had his dagger out however you know the rules are hard on assaulting a guardsman." He kneeled down and began casting a simple healing spell. "Even IF the guardsman in question is a crappy one." Sophie looked down and shrugged before turning towards 'Mama Mango' and walking up to the stand, her tail wagging rapidly, slapping Elleyh's torso repeatedly before she got annoyed and hit Sophie's tail, moving to her side to continue speaking with the same elven woman.
Mama Mango, as she went by during work hours, was a fairly pudgy elven woman with dirty blonde short hair and amber colored eyes. She had a long braid with a crystal at the end of it on the left side of her head that swung around to laze on her shoulder. She wore a plain and long orange, tan, and yellow corset dress that matched the hue of a peeled mango, a leather cache belt hooped around her waist with several cooking utensils hanging from it.
"Hi Mama Mango, I punched that Lokor for you." Sophie beamed with happiness, although she still had her usual neutral face, but her body language betrayed her unintentional stoicism. "Yes Little Sophie, thank you however do please try not to hurt others on a whim sweetie. And I assume you encouraged this Lady Elleyh?" While Mama prepped some buns to be baked, she gave a side-eye towards the noblewoman with an impish grin on her face who was looking away with her hands behind her head. "Why I have not the slightest clue what you may be speaking about, I would never send my darling's sister after one of my brothers guardsmen!".
Mama gave Elleyh a flat side glance as she paused what she was doing, looking at the younger woman as a mother would when she caught her child doing something they shouldn't. "Well Sophie, what'll it be this time? Do you want the usual Jumbo Puff Mango Bun?" She said, now completely ignoring Elleyh, the canine letting out a small scoff in response. Sophie on the other hand had enjoyed the attention, especially when it came to her most favorite food in her small little world. "Mhm, And can you fill it with the special berry sauce thingy? I really want some." Giving a smile and narrowing her eyes in concentration, Mama Mango filled a large ladle with a tannish-orange batter from a gargantuan stock pot the size of a door, two spell circles kept it aloft in the air as several cherry red colored crystals floated in a ring and rotated as they glowed brightly and flickered like a warm campfire; A stepladder next to the pot allowed the elf to reach inside to begin with.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
As she climbed back down, she sprinkled a small bit of pale dust in the ladle before slowly pouring its contents in a large pile, the first bit of batter quickly solidifying into a puffy par-baked pastry. Working her magic in baking, the two canines watched in awe. They've seen her work time and time again and never got tired of watching it with wonder and amazement. "What's Tyrian doing now? I assume he went out on another dungeon run?" "Yep!" Elleyh chirped happily. "Don't know how he keeps finding those." Mama said while poking a filler into the large basketball sized pastry, pumping a viscous burgundy jelly into it. After filling it, she rolled the bun around the huge griddle around three times before wrapping half of it in paper and handing it to Sophie. Elleyh began to reach into her "sleeve-o-holding", but before she can get her coin purse, Mama shook her head and spoke. "Uh-uh, on the house. First customer of the day is my favorite. It's all fine."
Elleyh blinked and tilted her head whilst looking confused. "I thought you were going to say something sappy like 'I'll take his broken jaw as repayment' or something like that." Mama Mango threw her hands up and dropped her professional persona in a frantic yell. "Fuck no! I'm not going to encourage Sophie to run around dropping people who bothers her like sacks of rocks! If she wasn't with you, I'm pretty sure she would be arrested! It helps that Ohdar was here and not another guard that has strong opinions of Non-Beastfolk that may live on Laidel, if it were someone else, more than likely she'd get herself a hefty fine if not just locked up for assaulting a guard!" Sophie slightly bowed her head, looking towards Ohdar who was kneeling down next to his now awake and pissed companion. Lokor stared at Sophie with indignation, gripping his dagger with whitened knuckles.
Lokor and Ohdar were both Caninefolk with Lokor being around 6'9 and Ohdar standing a little shorter at 6'6. Lokor resembled Bull Terrier with grayish brown short fur and Ohdar a Basenji with black, white and brown fur, cut short like his coworker. They both wore standard issue Laidelan Lower Guardsmen uniform with a chest plate and helmet, all colored in the Ariese Domain colors of black, lapis blue and cyan. The uniform consisted of padded leather vest with a steel chest plate fastened a more leather armor underneath. Thick leather grieves and bracers protected their forelimbs. They wore gloves, padded tunics, and trousers with steel toed boots to complete the look. Ohdar wore the helmet, not showing his face while Lokor did not, opting for a orange head scarf, the accessory clashing with the overall color scheme of the outfit.
Ohdar stood up and shook his head in disappointment. He looked towards Elleyh and gave a small bow before standing upright again. "Lady Elleyh, I would ask that you please keep Miss Grant from taking actions that will end up having unwanted consequences in the future, just because You told her it's ok does not automatically make it fine to do." Ohdar tilted his head downward to look at the young noblewoman as he admonished her, not so much in a condescending manner rather as someone who cared and expected better from her. "I understand you and your brother are not on the best of terms politically or in any term in general, however it would be best if you took a page from Sophie and Tyrian's book. They do not always see eye to eye, but it would be wise to make a better effort to have cordial if not good relations with him." After his rant, Ohdar noticed everyone present was looking at him. He shrugged and hooked his arm into Lokar's, pulling the man up before letting go. "But what do I know, I'm just an old man."
Elleyh looked away, acknowledgment in her eyes as she nodded her head. Lokar stood with Ohdar's help, looking at his partner, he screwed his face as he dusted himself off. "Yeh! A fokin' Ol'man with a buncha life lessons to drawl on an' on about!" Pointing his attention at Elleyh, he jabbed his finger at her. "Oi! Ya onleh gettin' off easeh because Ohdar is keepin me from punchin' ya face in! And YOU!" He said turning to Sophie, who by now had almost fully finished demolishing her enormous mango bun and had been ordering another one. She turned towards him whilst licking some jelly filling off of her face. "Me?" She asked, pointing to herself. "YEH, YOU!" He stormed over to her, getting close to her face as she was hunched over enough for him to do so. "Ya EVER lay ya fockin' ands' on me again and I'll fockin chop em' off, teach ya to never fock with the Guardsmen, le'alone one higher level than ya!"
Sophie only stared at the older canine, blinking before using her ⟪Identify⟫ and assessing him.
Lokor Jez Beckins
Alias(s): Ghost Runner
Age: 31
Race: Caninefolk
Level: 22
Stats:
Physical: Str: 17 Dex: 22(+3=25) Con: 15
Mental: Int: 14 Wis: 10 Cha: 10
Spiritual: Will: 31 Rui: N/A Ma: 22
Class:
Fighter (Blitzer Variant)
No further information can be gathered.
She looked at the man's stats while finishing off her bun. While she didn't know what most of them meant, she knew STR was Strength, and she absolutely dwarfed him in that, hers being 57 thanks to what Rymoris did to her. She fully turned to the man and began to rear back her fist, igniting it in a bright flame before having her arm pulled down with a hand made of stone, Ohdar's eyes glowing orange in the dark of his helmet. "Sophie, be on your way, no more fighting. Lokor, do not threaten people, you are a protector, not an aggressor. Keep your personal bias away form your duty. And Elleyh, I am going to have to report this as you are aware."
Elleyh Looked toward Ohdar while rolling her eyes in annoyance at the whole situation, no longer finding it amusing. "Do you have tooooo?" She whined, putting up her best attempt at puppy dog eyes. Once more, Ohdar shook his head. "Yes, I apologize Milady, but I will not shirk on my duties, not even for you. Grab your treats and be on your way please, I think this has been more than an eventful morning for all of us; Mama Mango, I apologize for Lokors behavior, though I do believe he would be happy to stand guard for your stand for the next three days to pay off the damages your cart." Lokor's gaze shot over to Ohdar with an expression of shock. "HEY, YA CANT JU-UUGH! FINE!" Stomping off without waiting for Ohdar, Lokor left the area with a huff of anger, off to look for something more calming to do while on patrol.
Mama Mango finished up the second order of Mango Buns, making one for Sophie, Elleyh, and now Ohdar who accepted it graciously. He thanked her, and waved them all goodbye as he walked in the same direction Lokor ran off. With a bit of anger in her face, Elleyh looked at her bun and stared for a second or two before sighing, holding it off to her left and upward, Sophie's maw clamping down on it. "Don't get mad, actions have consequences Milady, you aren't above them, if anything, your consequences are usually going to be worse than the average Joe's." Mama worked on more buns as other shoppers started to come and go by now, Elleyh and Sophie standing to the side and out of the way of paying customers. A few gave entertained glances at Elleyh who moped, hanging off the side of the counter, very familiar with the ruling Lord's youngest daughter and her antics in the domain.
As a few minutes turned to thirty then an hour, Mama finally had enough of having the mopey canine on her cart counter, lightly pushing her off, Elleyh falling down but began to float before hitting the ground; her magic keeping her aloft. "Milady, I think it's about time you head home now, look, Sophie began wandering around." Pointing at a nearby store, the two can see Sophie in a general home goods store, examining a jar almost the size of a person and attempting to climb inside it. "Fiiiiine, I'll leave my safe heaven that is your amazing, wonderful beautifully crafted-" "Begone Elleyh." Mama said cutting her off. Walking towards where Sophie was located, Elleyh pulled on Sophie's large bushy tail, alerting her to her presence. "Come on Soph, let's get moving, we still have the whole day ahead of us and I wanna have some more fun before I get yelled at later for what happened." Sophie soon fully climbed the jar, the owner of the store stood looking towards Elleyh with a questioning gaze before walking away. "As long as she doesn't break it, no problems right?" The owner looked back at her and shrugged. "She already paid for it. If she breaks it, that's on her to clean up." Elleyh nodded, her annoyance coming back as she waited for Sophie to do her thing.
After a few seconds, the large jar dissipated into a cloud of purple energy before being absorbed into Sophie's body. Elleyh looked at her, then down to where the jar once stood, then back up at Sophie. "Got it packed away and everything?" She asked. Sophie nodded with enthusiasm before happily marching out of the store. As the two walked down the street, they looked left and right at more stores, picking up more goods and random baubles that they found cute, useful, entertaining or a mixture of all three. While they walked, Sophie and Elleyh quickly came to a stop, their heads snapping to stare in a random direction. Nearly at the exact same time, many of the streets shoppers and such did the same, those that did where seemingly adventurers or something of the like. All of their magical senses picked up the same thing before it was visible to all. Seconds later, a massive explosion of neon green, yellow and purple appeared far off in the distance. Not long after, a beam of white light shot up into the sky, splitting the clouds and causing the sky around the area to darken, the blending of morning and night along the horizon causing unease in the normal folk around who could see it.
Sophie took hold of Elleyh's hand then picked her up, bolting as fast as she could towards a manor that Ingrel Family members would stay in while Elleyh or her family was in town rather than in Ariese. "What's up Soph? What the fuck going o-" "Brother just died and is being brought back. I'm going to leave you at the house and run to him!"