Of Love and Lies

Spoiler:

Ah, the spring time of youth! A time in every person's life full of all sorts of mixed feelings, ideas, and emotions. Young men and women struggling to find their place in the world all while juggling dreams and love lives. A perfect breeding ground for new relationships and partnerships to sprout forth and grow! One such young woman was taken in by the flow of her youth resulting in a wonderful relationship blooming. Her name was Shara and just a month ago she had fallen deeply in love with a traveler who moved into town named Leox.

Leox claimed to be the son of a wealthy merchant from Reim and swooped Shara off her feet with his many riches and silver tongue. But as the spring moved to summer, the relationship had become unbearably stuffy. Leox had always been demanding, it was part of what originally attracted Shara to the man. But now he was aiming to control every aspect of her life from the food she ate to the clothes she wore and which friends she was allowed to spend time with.

In time, Shara came to understand why Leox was limiting which of her friends she could visit. One by one, those friends of hers were going missing. After doing some digging, Shara discovered that Leox was using her to attract her friend's attentions before snatching them away into a slave trade. Shara knew that it was only a matter of time before Leox ran out of use for her as her list of friends was quickly dwindling to a number that could be counted on one hand.

Fearful that going to the authorities would be too obvious of a move, Shara placed a posting on the job board noting a very vague request:

"In danger,

Despair has almost overwhelmed me and I have no where else to turn. Need help from talented fighters, but also smart ones who can be discrete. Solve the riddle to learn where to meet me.

~A flying dragon lands to rest on an old peach tree causing the leaves to fall into the pond below. When the dragon falls asleep, he tumbles into the water and spouts fire. The ponds waters turned pink and came to taste of peaches while the dragon flies away.~"

The posting was an odd one to say the least. Just the sort of quirky job the wandering blue magician, Yakuroro, would take an interest in. After reading the riddle, Yakuroro thought long and hard. It wasn't the best riddle in the world, clearly written by an amateur. After an hour of pondering, Yakuroro remembered the name of a tea shop he'd passed by a number of times since visiting the Zou capital, "The Peach Dragon" and figured that it was probably the meeting location mentioned on the job board.

With no other clear leads or possible answers, Yakuroro made his way to the tea shop and ducked his head inside to find the place dead empty. Perhaps the employer wasn't there yet? Or perhaps the entire job was just a prank. Hoping for the former rather than the latter, Yakuroro moved to take a seat and ordered a cup of peace tea, the house specialty, as he waited for someone to arrive.

~546/1500~

Cherilyn was in slumber for a long time she barely remembers what happened on the mission, she remembered Victoria becoming suddenly quiet... Yakuroro wiping out most of the slavers. "Mrmm... I wonder how long I was out..." She looked around, she couldn't find anyone near her, where was she? She felt so alone and abandoned right now, thing is she has no one to abandon her but why does she feel like it, maybe because of her dad. She got up and started walking, because there's no reason to cry over the past, what's done is done. She began to notice the birds seemed to be slowly flocking away from her, she gasped and whispered in a sad voice. "Why are they leaving? No animal has ever hated me or been scared of me." She looked around she didn't see any more animals those most have been the last in the area, sad how they leave places and don't come back... but, but maybe there was something wrong that they sensed and she didn't.

Cherilyn was so confused was all she knew, something could be wrong or endanger or she could just have lost her animal touch, she then noticed she was only about two miles from Zou's gate. She began to wonder again how long was she asleep, maybe the past few days she did overwork herself... she would admit that at the most. "Maybe my body can't take me overworking what I can do, in my state right now..." She whispered to herself. Then again she could've just be experiencing memory lost, yeah memory lost that could be it. "I hate being confused about things! I'm usually always one step ahead! Graaah!" She yelled in frustration, of confusion. She didn't like it one bit being confused but then she heard screaming below her feet, it startled her she looked around... yet saw no one.

Then her head started pounding, she looked ahead and felt weak and vomited on the ground, what Cherilyn didn't know was she was drugged by a slaver from behind and was left behind when a pack of wolves attacked them. She then fell to the side completely away from the vomit, the exhaustion from the past days was building up and the drugs too she fell to her side completely zoned out.

Word count:400/1500

"Gyao~ Gyao!~" The adorable growls of a baby Bonehead chimera sounded as Akatetsu jumped into the air before bonking Yakuroro on the head. The Imuchakk hardly budged when the creature's skull collided with his own, but it did get his attention, "Ara? Oh, sorry Tetsu. I've been ignoring you, haven't I?" The lizard-like beast was tearing up in his eyes as he looked up at Yaku. After being left with Yakuroro's Finalis friends for so long Akatetsu had almost begun to think he was abandoned by his father figure and even now that they were reunited Yaku was focusing on other things rather than making up for lost time. Seeing his "son's" distress, Yakuroro reached down and lifted the baby up and onto his lap where gentle pets would calm the chimera.

By the time the client arrived, Yakuroro had already reconciled with Akatetsu by promising to buy him a sweet lemon cake that was served by the tea shop to help accent the peach flavor of their signature drink. The young Shara entered the shop and looked around to see the giant blue haired magician sitting at a table with the job posting laid out in front of him. After sitting down across from Yakuroro the girl appeared both nervous and afraid of the large man and the strange skull headed beast that was perched on his lap happily devouring a lemon cake. Shara wasn't speaking and looked to be extremely tense so Yaku gave her a gentle smile and brought a cup of tea to his lips before setting it down and introducing himself with a polite bow of the head. "Please forgive Akatetsu's poor table manners. My name is Yakuroro, might we assume you're the one who forged this riddle and posted this job?"

The next hour was spent listening to the poor girl talk about how she met Leox by chance on the street a few months ago and how quickly the couple had fallen for one another. But soon enough the love story took a tragic turn as Shara explained her fear that Leox was using her to target and enslave other girls. Once the tale had been told, Yakuroro leaned back in his seat and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Hmm...I see. Since you can't really prove Leox's guilt to the guards I understand why you were so discrete about posting the job request....What do you think Tetsu?" The Imuchakk looked down to the chimera who looked back up and spoke enthusiastically, "Gyao~ Gyao~!" It seemed like the little guy was eager to take the task on. "Well there you have it, Akatetsu and I shall accept this job. Now tell me, where did you suspect he was taking the girls again?"

As Yakuroro gathered more information and prepared to set out to rescue the enslaved girls, Cherilyn would find herself in quite a bit of trouble...

~1030/1500~

Cherilyn woke up but right when she was tied up she looked at the men around her and she saw two slavers she was furious. She tried to break free but when she tried one of them would kick her back, she'd scream and yell for them to stop, but it only made them chuckle at her as one bent down and kissed her cheek. "DISGUSTING! Stop!" She couldn't find her wand and saw it was in a bag, she tried to wiggle her way to it, but they picked it up and walked over to a tree and hung it from the spot, she thought how teasingly that was and how rude they were being. She found herself in a helpless situation as one of them smirked slyly and looked at her in her blue ocean eyes. "Hey babe, you won't escape this time." Escape this time? Was she kidnapped and she just forgot!?

She felt so embarrassed that she forgot such a event that occurred, who forgets being stolen and possibly seduced? When she promised them haung they smiled and nodded no, they then put her in a cage the size was big a fanalis or imuchakk could fit in it, she sat on her knees. She felt helpless she wanted out she saw them take her through a bush that actually hid a underground path. She yelled help as loud as she could screaming a high pitched note. The slavers threw a rock at her head making her pass out, they did it so she would shut up, so they don't get caught. She dreamed the usual nightmare her fathering denying her love, and her mother's sickness and dying, to be honest Cherilyn at this point didn't care it was old to her.


She woke up tied up with a bunch of women on the walls and a bunch of benches that could fit a huge crowd, it looked like a auction, the women were in their bikinis and panties Cherilyn's was frosted white with a artic light blue trim. They were soon going to sale them off into slavery, Cherilyn didn't want to work for some sexual perv! She began to pray that he would come and save her she felt helpless and defenseless, she then remember her staff was still hanging in the tree somewhere near this place. She struggled as three slavers walked towards the women with sly smiles they looked like suspicious, they grabbed a woman to the left of Cherilyn and grabbed the bra and began to act as if they were going to pull it off teasing her. "Stop it! You perv!" Cherilyn yelled she was really annoyed by these freaking psychos! She began to scream as they came closer to her and they grabbed the back of her bra and began to unzip it and re-zip it she was afraid they might full unzip it.

She screamed Yakuroro's name as loud as she could but the men used a rag to keep her mouth shut with a rag tied around her face.

Word count:922/1500

The only information on the whereabouts of the taken girls Yakuroro could learn from Shara was that it was probably east of the city. The girl had figured out this much because Leox would always depart through the eastern city gates for his "Business Trips" which were likely trips to go check up on his illegal slave trade. The blue magician and his chimeric companion set out from the city by way of flying carpet and ascended high into the air where they would hardly be indistinguishable from an oddly shaped bird. From this vantage point Yakuroro was able to see many miles worth of land and determined the only decent hiding place was a forest just a few miles from the gates of the Zouen Capital. Once he determined there were few other places the girls could have been taken in this direction Yakuroro descended down to the dirt roads until he was just outside the forest edge hovering mere inches off the dusty trail.

The Imuchakk leaned over the edge of his flying carpet and observed the road carefully looking for signs of travel. Since there wasn't much east of the capital few people would ever take this road. When the tracks of an oxen led wagon were discovered Yakuroro got off his carpet and began to follow them. His flying carpet would wrap itself back around his waist firmly holding his robes shut before heading on into the forest. It was unusually quiet as no birds or critters were making their typical songs and sounds leaving only the giant's foot steps to be audible as Yaku strolled down the road with Tetsu perched upon his shoulder.

Following the wagon tracks would take Yakuroro several meters into the forest before they suddenly turned off the road and...into the bushes? Further inspection would reveal that the bushes were just props with wooden bases which could be picked up and moved. They were hiding a side trail of sorts which seemed to lead deeper into the woods. As Yakuroro discovered this hidden trail he heard something. His own name of all things being screamed by a female voice he did not yet recognize. The scream concerned the Imuchakk leading him to hurry into a sprint. He was almost there, Cherilyn and the other girls just needed to hold on a little longer.

~1425/1500~

((After talking to Cherilyn, she won't be able to post any time soon so I'm just going to continue on and defeat the bad guys to complete the mission as if she were never there.))

Yakuroro's haste would carry him through the forest with Akatetsu in tow perched upon his shoulder. The Imuchakk's heavy footsteps would signal his arrival causing the various slavers to turn and look for the source. At first it would seem as though some large beast were stomping its way through the woods but in time, Yaku would emerge from the treeline into the clearing where the slave auction was being set up revealing that it was just a giant person. A giant blue haired magician to be more exact. The slavers turned to face the blue mage and drew their staffs as one of them shouted, "Just who the hell are you!?" Yakuroro looked around and saw all he needed to deem the men as guilty. Poor girls stripped of any decent clothing were on display for the lewd pleasure of any buyers whom might be present.

~1500+/1500~

Yaku didn't even give the men a reply as he raised his staff and shouted, "Deep Blue! Water then began to condense and form from the atmosphere as the slaver magician's released their own spells. Firebolts were sent flying through the air towards Yakuroro but the red magic would simply fizzle out uselessly against the gathering water. One of the fire blasts managed to reach Yakuroro, however his superior borg would activate forming a barrier for the flames to crash against before dissipating into residual heat. It would be too late for the magician's to send off another volley of flames as Yakuroro's sphere of water completed its formation and smashed into the crowd of buyers and slavers alike. The women were caught in the massive spell as well, however they were chained to trees and would not be picked up by the watery prison unlike the men whom had bound them there. The giant orb of water now full of guilty men then rose into the air carrying them al 30m upwards into the sky where they would suffer the fate of a slow drowning. There was only one slaver left standing, a man whom had drawn a katana and stabbed it into a nearby tree to act as an anchor preventing Yakuroro's magic from taking him. Leox, the leader of this band of human trafficers, coughed up water as he pulled his blade from the trunk and then pointed it at Yakuroro. "You'll pay for this!"

Spoiler:

160/200 Magoi

Leox brandished his katana in one hand and readied a staff in the other before pointing both aimed squarely at Yakuroro. The Blue magician readied himself for whatever might come next as he squinted his eyes to be aware of the ruhk's movement around the man. Black colored strength magic manifested around the slavers staff only to be accompanied by purple rukh which merged to form earth magic. Seeing the commands as they formed, Yakuroro knew an attack had to be coming from the earth around him so he performed an evasive movement by grabbing the green flying carpet around his waist. The magical carpet unfurled and carried Yakuroro into the air just in time as a large dragon's head made of earth and stone burst from the ground before chomping down violently where the Imuchakk had just been standing a moment prior.

Yakuroro's counter spell was already in motion as he shouted, "Deep Freeze!" and pointed his staff at Leox. More water gathered from the atmosphere and formed a large sphere of water which flew towards Leox and crashed into him before he could cast another spell. The water then centered on the slaver and flash froze into an icy tomb.

110/200 Magoi

Spoiler:

"Tetsu, go free the girls." Yaku said to his chimera companion whom jumped off his shoulder and went to work freeing the captured women from their binding. With Leox sealed in frozen bondage, defeating him was as easy as flying over to his frozen body and smashing into it with two well placed Imuchakk fists. Each would deal bone crushing damage shattering the ice and Leox's body along with it. "Oh right, the others will die soon if I don't end my spell..." Yakuroro said aloud to himself as he willed the ball of water in the air to drop down to just 5m from the ground before cutting off the magoi supply. The water then fell splashing to the ground bringing several unconscious men crashing into the earth along with it. A sigh escaped Yaku's lips as he looked around before nodding to himself, "Alright, looks like my job here is done. You done yet Tetsu?"

The lizard-like bonehead finished breaking the chains on the last girl before making his way over to Yaku, "Gyao!" With his companion in tow, Yakuroro mounted his flying carpet and took off into the sky without even speaking to the freed women. They would be fine getting back home on their own. For now, Yakuroro needed to hurry back to Zou so he could inform guards of the slavers location and collect a reward for their capture.

90/200 Magoi