To Magnostadt![Travel|Zadi]

It was early morning and a light mist lingered over Balbadd as an Imuchakk checked out of his inn and began making his way to the docks. There, Yakuroro was scheduled to catch a ship which would be sailing north towards the shores closest to Magnostadt and then going to the city the rest of the way by caravan. The captain that accepted the job was an old but experienced sailor with a crew of good and reliable fishermen. They'd see the young magician's that had hired them to their destination safely so long as they could help it.

Yakuroro arrived at the ship early and boarded without waiting for the trips benefactor. Zadi, a black magician Yakuroro met recently, should have been along any minute. They'd already paid the captain after all, Yaku didn't see the black mage as the type to waste money.

~145/400 Word Count~

Zadi had paid a rather old but experience captain of a rather nice ship to take him and Yakuroro, the new buddy that Zadi met at the Siren’s Beach, the day earlier as promised between the two magicians. All Zadi had to do was pack…well, never mind. There was nothing to pack. Zadi was living the bare minimum life style. Food, clothing, and shelter. Zadi only had one other kimono to wear, a dark blue on, and the pink one he usually wore…along with underwear and pants of course. But wait! There was his strange jacket…yeah, it would be important someday.
 
“I won’t miss this place…that’s for sure…goodbye Mom and Dad…I’ll be gone for a while…behave yourselves until then, hahaha!”
 
Zadi made his way to the ports after grabbing packing everything he needed in a small sack he recently found on a street all by itself. With his staff in hand, he set foot for the docks. Eventually, Zadi saw the docks in question, including the tall blue haired figure of Yakuroro waiting on the scheduled ship. Zadi boarded the ship, smelling the salt of the ocean and the wondrous smells the breeze wafted in.
 
“Ready for Magnostadt, Yaku? Mind if I call you that? Yaku?”

206/400 words - Balbadd ~ Magnostadt

When Yakuroro's companion arrived, he could be found leaning up against the mast of the ship. The northerner gave rose a hand to wave in greetings while a smile settled onto his face. While Yakuroro was being friendly, his only real interests were in Zadi's potential as a magician and what knowledge the Imuchakk would be able to learn by watching the black mage. The nick name proposed didn't bother Yakuroro much at all so he shrugged and replied, "I've been ready my whole life. I don't mind if you call me that, but more importantly, I want to know more about you. Where did you learn magic?"

Before Zadi could answer the captain of the ship approached to two magicians and spoke up in a gruffly voice, "Since you're both here, we're setting sail. We should arrive at Magnstadt in two days." The captain then bowed to his employers and turned to bark orders to his crew to start pulling up anchor and setting sail. With the distraction gone, Yaku turned his attention back to Zadi and once again volunteered to share information first. "Before you tell me your story, I'll tell you mine. I discovered my magic at a young age and the people who lived in my village didn't understand it at the time so they branded me a demon and exiled me." Despite how depressing the story was, Yakuroro had a cheery tone and a bright smile on his face. The Imuchakk stated a horrible and traumatic experience as if it were something normal everyone went through. "In exile I met an old water shaman that had suffered the same fate as I. He taught me the foundations of water magic for a few years before dying of old age. Then I returned to my village and educated them that magic was not demonic in nature. They accepted me back but I never really felt welcome there. I set out to travel a few years ago and haven't looked back since." Yakuroro looked out to the sea as he finished a brief overview of how he learned magic and how he got here. He then looked to Zadi expecting something similar in kind.

~400/400 Word Count Finished~

Yaku wanted to ask Zadi about his origins as a magician, but before Zadi could answer, the two magicians were interrupted by the captain of the ship they were traveling in, being told that they would be leaving immediately. Yaku then asked Zadi to hold in his response. In turn, Yaku started to tell his story of being an Imuchakk Magician. However, it wasn’t as awesome as Zadi thought it would be. Rather…it was depressing hearing that a lonely young giant…probably still huge back then…had to venture out into the world on his own with nothing but shame on his head. However, the story lightened up when Yaku told of a strange shaman that held the same fate as Yaku, helping the young giant find his way in the arts of Water Magic. Yaku returned with intellect and pride, though still slightly shunned by his fellow tribe’s men and women. Then Yaku became a wanderer so as to better understand things.
 
“Man, at first I was about to cry…ha, but then I felt happy about how things turned out…other than the inevitable shunning. Sorry to hear that. But hey, now you’re here and on your way to becoming a Grand Master of the Arts! I might as well try it, too. You know, the famous Academy.”

And then Zadi remembered that Yaku wanted to hear about Zadi's little tale~

"Oh right! MY turn now. Well, not much to it. My parents...traveled a lot...and left me in charge by myself. I had to do all these odd jobs to keep myself sustained and the house in my parent's ownership. I then came across a strange old man while doing this one job at the docks. He asked for shelter...and he ended up staying for free for three years, hahaha! In the mean time, he showed me what magic was and talked about Rukh and the flow of destiny. However, I had to learn by seeing, cause he would never let my try anything. Said it was too dangerous for a non-magician. However, being curious, I found a stick to play with and started seeing little white birds from time to time. The old man told me that I was gifted, but still wouldn't teach me anything. He left and I found this staff, the Gawking Heron as I call it now. Then I learned Strength Magic. It just seemed like the right kind of magic for me. By the way, sorry if my story was a little long. I'm not that great at summarizing, hahaha!"

400/400 words - Travel Complete!

"Not at all, not at all!" Yaku said as he held up his hands as he tried to deny how boringly normal Zadi's life sounded. But as much as he tried to insist he was interested, even he couldn't hide how his eyes just stared off into the distance in boredom after Zadi's tale had gone on for too long. Knowing he was caught in the act, Yaku tried to simply laugh things off before taking the conversation back to his own past. He felt like he needed to make up for lying by telling an exciting story. Throughout the day he told Zadi of how he hunted the Rampaging Unicorn for its horn when he was younger. The Imuchakk embellished the tale, but more or less told the truth about how he lured it to a glacier and used water magic to disturb the beasts vision. Yaku then narrowly dodged the Unicorn's enraged attack which led to its horn being stuck deep into the ice berg. By evening he reached the climax of the story where he dropped a giant boulder on the creature's horn breaking it off without killing the sea beast.

The second day of travel was Zadi's own turn to entertain Yaku with conversation until noon when they reached shore and moved to a wagon. The ox led cart then traveled across the great plains towards the large city in the distance. They had arrived in Magnostadt at last!

Zadi was having a good time being entertained with a story while on the ship. Eventually, it got to sound a little ridiculous compared to how simple the Imuchakk Yaku had explained his story of becoming a magician. Well, there was no reason NOT to believe him, hahaha! Zadi was a gullible person to begin with, so there wasn't anything he could do about believing Yaku. There were plenty of things for Yaku to talk about, specifically the thing about a Unicorn...but aren't they supposed to be mythological creatures or peace and happiness!? Well, this must have been a real species that...lived in the water? Well, that seemed totally unbelievable, but Yaku's staff was pretty tough.

On the second day, it was Zadi's turn to entertain Yaku. Zadi couldn't think of anything to talk about other than how Strength magic worked. All one had to do was convert the Rukh into pure force and then manipulate what the pure force does from there. Well, Zadi didn't make it sound easy...or interesting. Zadi explained for a LOOOONG time about side-stories such as the stick that he found to cast his first spell or the Gawking Heron staff that he waited a week for before he could officially use a full Strength Spell. In the end, even Zadi forgot what he was talking about...BUT they both made it to Magnostadt in the end~

[EXIT]