The Embassy Quest

The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon, as I gazed out the window of my room. It had been a relatively uneventful night, both Erika and I returned to our rooms relatively early. Like usual, since I can't sleep, I spent the evening reading through a number of books.

I sat back and took in the city's scenery from my window. I had to admit this morning was incredibly peac-.

*SLAM*

"Morning, Mr. Arno!" Erika shouted loudly as she barged into my room.

"SHUT UP, IT'S THE CRACK OF DAWN!" A random guest from the room next door shouted from the other side of the wall.

"Someone's grumpy... Anyways, I have something to show you. I think I figured out that spell." Erika said, much quieter than before.

She pulled out the pen I gave her yesterday and held it up. Its color suddenly changed.

"I guess we can go buy that bonsy tree now." She said, with a slightly nervous look on her face.

I looked at her blankly.

"Did you honestly think I would fall for a cheap trip like that?"

All she did was change the pens color to try and get it to blend in with the wall she held it up against. Judging by the look on her face, she probably thought she was going to trick me, so I'd get off her back and she could goof around the rest of this trip.

"What do you mean? That seemed pretty invisible to me..."

She nervously shifted her eyes back and forth.

"Short cuts aren't going to get you anywhere, girl. Don't waste my time with cheap tricks." I scolded.

She huffed.

"Fine..."

*Grumble* *Grumble*

Erika put her hand over her stomach.

"Can we get something to eat, I'm starving."

"There's those animal crackers you packed in your bag. You can eat those. I want to get a start on our quest early before the city becomes too busy."

She pulled the box of animal crackers out from her backpack looking a bit disappointed. She was probably hoping to get something from one of the various stalls on our way to the embassy, but this was her punishment for trying to fool me.

I grabbed the large bag of letters and the two of us left the inn to begin our quest. The embassy was located somewhere in the general area, I just wasn't entirely sure where. That was the first thing we would have to figure out.

As we stood outside of the inn, I turned to Erika.

"This is a test. I want you to figure out the embassy's location."

*Chew* *Chew*

Erika had stuffed her mouth with her crackers. She spoke with her mouth full,

"Alright, but if I find this embassy thingy before this afternoon, can I pick any restaurant I want to eat at tonight?"

"Fine. If you can do that, you can eat where you want... as long as it's within our price range." I responded.

Her demands were starting to get annoying, but if something silly like food motivated her, then whatever.

She put her finger to her head as she thought for a moment.

"Hmmm, I guess I should ask for directions."

She walked over to a grimey old man sitting in a sideways wooden crate. His clothes were rags and despite not being able to smell, I could see flies and stink lines coming from him.

"Excuse me, do you know where the...uh...What's the building we're looking for called, Mr. Arno?"

"The West Kingdom's embassy."

"... that place. Do you know where that's at?"

The man looked as if he was staring off into space.

"Caaaw. Squaaaaaack. Haaaaaaaw."

He responded with a series of strange bird noises, then he lifted his Shakey boney hand and pointed down the road.

"Thanks, mister." Erika said.

I don't know why she would ask someone like that for directions, but I wasn't going to intervene in this test. If she didn't find the embassy by noon then she'd be eating animal crackers again for dinner tonight.

I followed her as she led the way. Eventually she stopped in the middle of an intersection.

"Hmmm... can you hand me a coin, Mr. Arno?"

"For what?"

"I have an idea."

I handed her the coin.

"Heads we go straight and tails we go right." She said.

*Klink*

She flicked the coin up in the air and it landed on... heads.

"Guess we're going straight." She said.

We continued onward. She continued using chance to decide the paths we took. Eventually we came to two plain looking compounds that were beside each other.

"Alright, heads the emby-thingy is the building on the left or tails it's the building on the right."

*Plink*

She flicked the coin up once again. It landed...

"Looks like it's the one on the right." She responded.

I looked at a small plaque on the gate outside the building and this was in fact the West Kingdom's embassy. I wasn't particularly surprised, but I had to admit this strategy was clever. She took advantage of her overpowered luck stat to use probably to find our destination. It never crossed my mind to use it this way. I would definitely take note of that for future reference.

The remainder of the quest was pretty straight forward. We delivered the sack of letters and collected our gold.

Erika turned to me as we left the embassy grounds.

"What time is it?" She asked.

Judging from the sarcastic grin on her face I could tell she already knew the answer.

"It's about half past ten o' clock... and I already know what you're getting at." I responded.

She chuckled.

"Guess we'll be eating out tonight, huh, Mr. Arno."

"Yes, whatever... don't get too overconfident. There may come a time when you can't rely on your special abi-."

She completely ignored me, as she wandered over to a window and stared through it.

"What are those roll thingies they're serving at this place?"

"This is a sushi restaurant. That's raw fish." I said.

"Ew, people actually eat that kind of stuff!?"

"Yes, sushi is actually a pretty popular dish in this country."

She looked back at the restaurant intrigued.

"I think this is where I want to eat tonight. I'm curious about this sushi stuff."

✨✨✨

Later that night we returned to the sushi restaurant. Erika excitedly entered the establishment.

"Good evening everyone. I'm here to try your finest raw fish!" She said somewhat loudly.

The chef behind the sushi bar just rolled his eyes, as he sighed,

"More tourists."

We took our seats at the counter.

"One of everything." Erika said.

Luckily this was a cheap place, so it wasn't that big of a deal. They spread out a number of platters in front of her. She picked up a pair of chopsticks and curiously looked at them.

"Excuse me, could I get a fork?"

"We don't have forks here." The chef responded.

"You use them like this." I said, demonstrating to her how to use them.

"Huh, interesting."

She grabbed a piece of tuna and inspected it. She slowly brought it up to her mouth.

*Chew* *chew*

"Wow, I never thought raw fish would taste so good."

She began scarfing down one piece of sushi after another. I made sure to order a bowl of rice, which I pretended to eat, so I wouldn’t look suspicious. Once she was finished, I paid the bill and we left.

As we exited the sushi place, Erika noticed two girls about the same age as her walk past us.

"Those are really pretty outfits. Where do you think their going dressed like that, Mr. Arno?" Erika asked.

The girls wore elegant floral pattern yukatas. One was purple, the other was pink.

"I believe there's a festival tonight."

Her face lit up.

"Ooo, a festival! Can we go too?

"No." I said bluntly.

"Wha-... why not!?"

She looked quite disappointed.

"Because tomorrow we're getting up at the crack of dawn and trekking up a mountain to a shrine just outside of the city. I want you to observe the sorcerer monks and their training routines."

"Woah, they have sorcerer monkeys here!"

I shook my head.

"No, to put it simply, monks are a group of highly disciplined and dedicated men who live at a shrine. They all typically have shaved heads and wear orange robes."

"Oh... as fun as spending all day tomorrow watching bald old guys train... I think I'd rather go to the festival." She responded.

"That's not happening. This is a great opportun-."

She completely ignored me as she pointed over at an alley and interrupted me.

"You see that over there?"

She abruptly started walking over to it. I followed after her into a dark and relatively secluded alleyway.

I spoke,

"What this abou-?"

Suddenly I felt my body go completely paralyzed. I instantly went limp and fell to the ground. As I looked up, I saw Erika standing above me with the seal on her hand glowing.

"I'm sorry Mr. Arno. I didn't want to have to use the seal again, but you've been a real square this whole trip so far. I think you need a bit of a time out."

I was not amused.

"Undo this now, girl! I wouldn't have to do what I've been doing if you'd just act like an adult and actually listen to me.

She opened up the dumpster beside us, then proceeded to shove me in it.

"You should be safe inside here. I'm just going to go to that festival for a little bit and then I'll come back to get you... oh and I'll probably need this."

Before closing the dumpster she made sure to reach into my pocket and take our bag of gold. She had temporarily abandoned me and left me on top of a series of ripped up trash bags with some sort of green sludge leaking out of them.

*Rustle* *Rustle*

A rat popped out of one of the bags. It curiously crawled up on to me and sat on my chest. It sniffed me.

*Hiss*

I wasn't sure how this night could possibly get any worse for me.