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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 21:45:15 GMT -6
Quest 31: First Completion Antony had been bugging her to get out of the house for a while now. Since the Vulticus had the unique ability to talk, he had the physical ability to tell her that he was bored and she needed to get more. Deciding to comply with his wishes, Leafy ambled her way over to the quest board, feeling tired but not really in the mood to go to the mines or any of the other exploration areas. She knew what was coming next. "Yes, let's get a quest done!" Vulticus exclaimed as Leafy scrolled through the list, looking at her choices. She didn't quite know what she was looking for, but she felt her energy surge when she read an unusual request. "Hey Antony, looks like the shopkeeper of Herbologist's Delight has something strange happening in her garden and she's looking for help investigating. Are you interested?" she asked him, giving him the final say. (Antony 19 1/5, 37 1/5) 1
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 21:53:22 GMT -6
"It sounds a lot better than hanging out around the house. Let's go and see what she needs help with," the Vulticus decided. "I have a feeling that at the very least, this strange thing should turn out to be interesting."
Leafy nodded, thinking it sounded exciting enough. The two of them headed off to the shop, Leafy knowing the city like the back of her hand at this point. She quickly found the shop and decided that it was probably okay for Antony to join her inside. After all, he was sapient, and it would be rather rude to turn him away. They were quickly filled in about the task at hand and turned over to the back garden, the area they were meant to investigate. Leafy shouldn't have been surprised at the size of the garden, but somehow, she still managed to be. It was certainly grander than her own garden.
(Antony 19 2/5, 37 2/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 21:58:04 GMT -6
"Well maybe if you took better care of you garden, it would look just as nice as this one," Antony remarked.
Leafy stuck her tongue out at him in turn. "Well, I can't say I've ever needed to hire someone to try and solve the strange monsters lurking about in my garden," she responded.
"Touché," the Vulticus remarked. Though Leafy had a feeling that he was only teasing her.
Leafy began searching through the garden, looking for any sign of the strange occurrences the owner of the place was talking about. It didn't take too long for her to find something unusual. The plants seemed to have a lot of bite marks in them, and there were no animals around to speak of. In fact, there was a lot of plant matter strewn across the garden, some of it chewed, and some of it not.
“Surely this would be considered strange?”
(Antony 19 3/5, 37 3/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:24:37 GMT -6
For some reason, Antony wasn't so easily convinced. "Lots of garden creatures eat plants, it would be stranger for everything to be completely untouched. Alura raises many types of plant creatures after all."
Leafy shrugged, not feeling as easily reassured as he was. She could sense something else going on here, though she didn't have any evidence yet.
"You know, you could be a little bit more helpful," she remarked. "What do you think we're looking for anyway? I could do with some theories."
"If you want my opinion, it's probably some kind of monster that is a little more difficult for an older woman to deal with," Antony explained.
"Like a monster that ate these plants?" Leafy questioned.
Antony didn't dignify her with a response, instead opting to sniff the ground, trying to pick up the scent of a creature that didn't belong. He tilted his head towards the right.
(Antony 19 4/5, 37 4/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:28:14 GMT -6
"I think we should head that way," he decided. Leafy noticed that he had decided on the direction where there were even more devoured plants. Feeling a bit smug, she decided to follow the Vulticus as he moved on before she gave a verbal response.
"Whatever you say," she agreed, following him into the thicket. The pair followed a trail of ruined plants until they finally arrived at a clearing, the grass trampled and chewed. Still, there didn't appear to be anything truly out of place.
"Oh, there appears to be a few garden creatures here!" Leafy called out excitedly. She had her own variety of garden pets, but Alura had a greater selection than she did herself. There were a bunch of Dragon Oak in colours that she had never seen before. She wondered if they would give any indication that they had seen anything out of the ordinary.
(Antony 20, 39)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:32:10 GMT -6
She approached one slowly, trying not to scare it away. These Dragon Oak were quite friendly, however and didn't mind much that she had approached them. She scanned their leaves, trying to see if any of them had chunks taken out of them, but a little disappointingly, all of them appeared to be in good condition.
"I think we should keep going. All of these guys seem like they haven't encountered anything dangerous," she told Antony.
The Vulticus agreed with her and sniffed the ground again, trying to catch a different scent trail. He began to walk forward, his nose still pressed to the ground as he walked.
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" she questioned him. Antony huffed in response. "I think we should head this way. There seems to be a higher creature count in this direction."
Leafy couldn't argue with that. Her best bet was that they were searching for some kind of creature.
(Antony 20 1/5, 39 1/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:35:52 GMT -6
Antony led her through into a clearing and Leafy was a bit relieved to be out of the thicket. Her clothes had snagged against brambles and she took a moment to pick out thorns from the fabric. "Alright, do you see anything strange?"
This time, they had come across a group of Leaf Scatters. Antony approached one and sniffed at it in greeting. These ones were friendly as well, and they didn't appear alarmed by the presence of the Vulticus. "All of these ones have intact leaves as well," Leafy remarked. It was probably a good thing that none of the Leaf Scatters had been harmed, but it didn't give them any proper leads to work with. But soon, Antony called out to get her attention.
"This one smells strange," he remarked as he ushered at one of the Leaf Scatters that was curled up taking a nap in the sun.
(Antony 20 2/5, 39 2/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:39:57 GMT -6
"Strange? What do you mean by strange? That's about as helpful as the quest note was and that wasn't helpful at all!" Leafy scoffed.
If Antony could, she figured he would have crossed his arms and given her a stern look like a professor might have given to a misbehaving student. Leafy shrugged not quite sure what he expected from her. "Well, isn't me saying that it smelled strange link to the fact that we are looking for something strange?" Antony questioned her.
He had a point. But Leafy wasn't about to tell him that. "Do you think you could follow the scent?" she asked him.
After a few moments of consideration, Antony decided to test out his tracking skills. He raised his head and sniffed at the air, trying to catch smell of the same scent. Before long, he had managed to pick up something that they could follow.
(Antony 20 3/5, 39 3/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:43:49 GMT -6
"This way," he told her. Leafy grumbled as he led her in the direction of more brambles. It was more difficult to travel through them and even Antony wasn't pleased to have thorns tug at his fur. After a bit of walking and even more cursing, they managed to make their way free of the brambles.
"Okay, which way now?" she gave Antony a questioning look.
He scanned the area, searching for visual clues as well as scent based ones. "It looks like there's more creatures over there. We should see if any of them can lead us to this 'strange occurrence'," he remarked. Leafy nodded and decided to take the lead this time. From this distance, it appeared that there was a group of Whiptail Vinesnatchers. She had multitudes of experience with that species of pet. Though most of her experience revolved around her Bionic Whiptail Vinesnatcher and he acted more robot than plant.
(Antony 20 4/5, 39 4/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:47:21 GMT -6
"I don't think Whiptail Vinesnatchers are going to be much help. They aren't very smart creatures. In fact, the only smart ones are ones that have been transformed into robots," she told him with a sudden, strong conviction in her voice.
"We don't need them to tell us anything, but they might have some different smells or some might even be injured," he told her, trying to convince her not to disregard the potential lead.
Sighing, Leafy decided it was worthwhile to check out. She and Antony drew closer and surprisingly, the Whiptail Vinesnatchers didn't even try to attack them. "Is Cork an anomaly? He'd definitely have tried to eat me by now," she remarked.
"Maybe you should try training him some more," Antony responded.
Leafy wasn't too pleased with the criticism, and instead chose to ignore him. A quick scan of the Whiptail Vinesnatchers didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary.
(Antony 21, 41)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:50:36 GMT -6
"Can you find that scent again? We might be getting closer to whatever creature it is," Leafy said.
Antony took a moment to smell the air, he focused on one Whiptail Vinesnatcher and he drew closer in order to get a whiff of it. The plant creature was not pleased with the sudden invasion of its personal space and it snapped in response. Antony growled at it, but affirmed that he had indeed caught the odour once again. With the new lead, Leafy and Antony headed down a new trail. They entered into a grove of trees. One that was evidently quite popular with Nyssa. Leafy was surprised to see them, but suddenly she remembered that Herbologist's Delight also sold certain species of them. Alura might have also raised some for personal pets as well. Antony sat down and wagged his tail. He seemed confident that this was the place they needed to be.
(Antony 21 1/5, 41 1/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:53:38 GMT -6
"Alright buddy, which of these, if any, are eaten? Surely if this creature eats plants, one of them must be eaten." Nyssa were a bit more difficult to check. In this area, there were Nyssa of all different lifestages. Leafy decided that she would start by checking over the fully grown Nyssa. Antony decided that he would take the adults. The two split up and got to work.
"Hello there Mr. Nyssa, don't crush me since I'm not a bug," Leafy told the first one as she approached him. The Nyssa was quite a remarkable specimen, but its leaves looked untarnished and she didn't think it had any funny smells. Deciding to leave it alone, she went over to the next one in order to check them as well. The few old Nyssa that she approached seemed more interested in eating the leaves off of the trees rather than concerning themselves with her.
(Antony 21 2/5, 41 2/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:56:20 GMT -6
Except, in order to get to the leaves, it was tearing off the branches with a brute strength that Leafy didn't know Nyssa possessed. She hadn't raised one before, but she did have a baby in her kennel. Perhaps it would be beneficial to try and actually spending some time with him. Deciding that the old Nyssa weren't worth her time, Leafy stepped over towards Antony to check and see if he had any better luck.
"Have you seen anything?" she asked him quickly.
He shook his head. "I have been catching whiffs of a strange smell. I haven't been able to pinpoint where it's coming from exactly though," he told her.
Leafy decided that it would be best to try and track down the smell, letting Antony lead the way. Before long, they found themselves face to face with a group of juvenile and baby Nyssa. They were rather cute.
(Antony 21 3/5, 41 3/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:59:03 GMT -6
"Hey why are they all bunched up like that? Are they trying to hide from predators?" Leafy asked Antony. The Vulticus observed them for a moment, but he was just as baffled as she was.
"Maybe they're playing a game? I can't think that anyone would attack them when there are so many giant adults around," Antony remarked.
Leafy scanned the crowd, trying to see if there were any that were out of place. But it was still difficult with all of the Nyssa covering up each other. She couldn't pinpoint which one's leaves were which. "Can you smell anything?" She asked Antony. The Vulticus paused, sniffing the air with vigor. He wasn't about to admit that he was just as baffled as she was.
"The scents all mix together," he told her. "I think the strange one is still here though," he told her. "We just have to figure out which it is."
(Antony 21 4/5, 41 4/5)
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Post by Leafy on Aug 14, 2023 22:59:56 GMT -6
Leafy decided to take matters into her own hands and began to search each Nyssa for clues. She started with one of the smaller ones, a baby by the looks of it. It thrashed in her arms as she picked it up and she quickly discarded it in order to check the others. Instead of using brute methods, "Antony decided to try and figure out which was the outlier by scent.
He stood in the middle of the group, pushing his way in order to be at the center before he raised his head and sniffed. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually managed to pinpoint which one didn't belong.
"I think that one is the mystery Nyssa that we were meant to find." On closer examination, Leafy could see that it did indeed look different from the others. Deciding to drag it along with them, she and Antony began to herd it back to Alura.
(Antony 22, 43)
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